hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you re watching cnn newsroom, and i m rosemary church. just ahead, hollywood writers heading to the picket line. thousands set to go on strike, a move that will bring productions to a updated on anying halt and send shockwaves through the industry. a dire warning from america s treasury secretary, saying the country only has about a month to pay its bills or risk an economic catastrophe. plus, we ll take you to a small island that s part of taiwan, but just four miles from china s border and almost totally defenseless against china s navy. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with rosemary church. good to have you with us. and we begin in hollywood, where television and film writers are going on strike, a move that will very likely shut down most tv and film productions in the u.s. for the foreseeable future. the strike was announced hours ago after the writers gu
on monday ranked among the top ten of all time. residents were prepared, packing sandbags since last week. thinking time around, we knew ahead of time what to do. so i don t know. i just kind of take charge. bobby let me take charge. and i took all the volunteers who weren t sure what to do and organized them into, you know. team. a team, thank you. team work. yeah, i probably lead about 90% of these by hand. but it worked. flood warnings have been posted along the mississippi river from st. paul, minnesota to just north of st. louis, missouri. but forecasters say they don t expect major flooding for areas farther south. it s a smallll island in a tough spot. cocoming up, we will take you ta part of taiwan that s veryry close, perhaps too close to
three, refers only to the wind. this area is already waterlogged all along the mid-atlantic an east coast. even if a tropical storm comes had here in parts they are in for a world of trouble and governor mccauliffe here is telling people to prepare. they re packing sandbags here, not only here, but other states in the mid-atlantic, trying to prepare for what comes. even if joaquin heads west, they still have a rough time on their hands. they certainly do, victor. thanks very much. tensions are escalating between the u.s. and russia, officials in moscow claim their air strikes in syria are targeting isis positions but the white house is questioning that claim. and that has president obama and his middle east strategy coming under fire. let s bring in cnn s senior correspondent jim acosta. the u.s. and russia plans to continue talks with the military plans on syria after both
water. our son is 6 and he doesn t understand. he asked to go home the other day, and so that was sort of hard because i had to try to explain to him, you know, we can t go home because the floodwater s so bad. reporter: up and down the river, residents are pulling together, packing sandbags and piling them up, hoping they ll hold off the water. the flooding has forced road closures in at least three states. once the mississippi crests, the high water is expected to linger for days. jim ryan, abc news, memphis. and our flood coverage does not end here. we ll have much more coming up today on america this morning and then on good morning america and diane sawyer will be in memphis later on and she ll be anchoring tonight s world news from the flood zone. overseas now and the increasing pressure on pakistan. the u.s. now wants access to bin laden s three widows and also any material taken in last week s raped. there are still questions over how bin laden managed to live for