a good sunday evening to you. i m jim sciutto, and this is cnn s special live coverage of the extraordinary events this weekend out of russia. moscow s red square blocked off again today after the brief but stunning insurrection that s gripped the world, could perhaps weaken vladimir putin s grip on his country. we should note it s far too soon to know. so much we don t know about what led wagner mercenary group leader yevgeny prigozhin to launch a march on moscow and what convinced him to abruptly call it off. and then, it s said, go into exile. u.s. secretary of state tony blinken today called the whole series of events extraordinary, believes it indicates that cracks are emerging in putin s rule. the very latest now from cnn s sam kiley live from london. sam, we re watching russia closely, ukraine, also events in belarus. any developments to indicate to us what s actually happening right now? reporter: well, jim, i think the most stunning development so far is an absence
prigozhin mercenary forces have pretty much taken over that every strategic town of rostov-on-don. i that s a very strategic part of this war. the russian mercenary groups have been launching offensive strikes in ukraine from there, so they ve been key to this battle. prigozhin says they have now taken that town completely. they are now firing eight shots, and what we re hearing now is that he s mercenary forces are moving north. possibly towards moscow, which is an incredibly significant development in what s happening in the last 24 hours, and the most curious challenge to the russian state in recent memory, now, prigozhin was saying that this wasn t a crew he was trying to get rid of the defense minister, shoigu, and the head of the armed forces, but this is a direct challenge to putin s authority when you re trying to remove his top military brass during a conflict with ukraine. what key right now, jonathan, is what happens over the coming hours. the loyalty of the rus
the whatsapp messages date back to 2017. what they show is hunter biden writing to a chinese energy official saying i can make $5 million in salary from any law firm in america. if you think it s about money, it s not. the bidens are the best at doing exactly what the chairman wants from this partnership. dana: republicans say the chairman is a chinese oil tycoon and that guy has since gone missing. meanwhile the i.r.s. agent who blew the whistle on the hunter biden tax investigation is talking. he said investigators gave hunter special treatment. bill: the agent is trying to expose corruption. because every taxpayer deserves to be treated fairly and it was my oath of office to make sure that happens. bill: new york post reporter john levine is here but first david spunt at the justice department. good morning. good morning to you both. several key points in this new interview between bret baier and gary shapley, the i.r.s. supervisor special agent who is the whis
to say that russia is now significantly weaker militarily. he hasjust, like, repeated the joke which is popular in ukraine for six months regarding the second strongest army but not in the world, but in ukraine. when we look now at what terrible shape the russian army is in by now, it is absolutely different army compared to 14 months ago. russia has destroyed, like, the most precious equipment, like, the most modern equipment in the first months. the best officers of the russian army have been killed within the first months. russia has not managed to, like, conscript new, skilled soldiers. theyjust grabbed whoever they can. they try to, like, use these private military companies, which were even worse in the quality of soldiers. like, theyjust conscripted inmates who were mostly ill, who were mostly absolutely incapable for the military service, and theyjust sent them as meat waves into attacks, like it was in bakhmut, where the russians have lost several dozens of thousan