defending mr. biden s controversial decision to send cluster munitions to ukraine. the hard but necessary choice amounted to this. if we didn t do it, if we don t do it, then they will run out of ammunition. if they run outof ammunition, they will be defenseless. every ally said they understand why we re doing this, when we re doing it. my conversation this morning with nato s secretary-general, one day after he successfully worked with turkey and sweden s leader to alleviate concerns and pave the way for sweden to join nato. sweden will become a member of the alliance. that s good for sweden. it s good for turkey. it s good for whole of nato. with both in the alliance, the whole task of protecting the baltic area becomes so much easier for this alliance. this is important for the whole nato, but in particular this region. good day. i m andrea mitchell in lithuania. we begin with the scene moments ago. president zelenskyy at a concert here at nato just hours after he
flights are stopped there also. bill: air quality alerts for tens of millions of americans. the hardest hit areas as of this hour on your screen. a lot in southeastern pennsylvania. we mentioned philadelphia. they grounded flights there and in new york as well where air quality is down right bad. times square yesterday engulfed in an orange haze. amazing pictures from gotham city. new york seeing its worst air quality in recorded history, wow. dana: here is the current air quality forecast. detroit, pittsburgh, boston, washington in the thick of it. philadelphia declaring a code red. the smoke engulfing cities. bill: yesterday new york city they go from hazy to dispopeian in a matter of hours. we watched it happen. pollution catching even seasoned new yorkers a bit off guard. it seems apocalyptic. could see it rolling from the office window. we were on the 80th floor of our building. you couldn t see anything. i thought the world was burning and i thought someth
currently serving an unrelated murder sentence for 28 years. he arrived yesterday at the airport in birmingham. you can see several f.b.i. agents escorting him from the plane. he was held at hoover city jail overnight. new video shows him arriving at the federal courthouse earlier this morning. van der sloot allegedly tried to sell natalee s mom false information on the location of her daughter s body in exchange for a quarter million dollars. beth holloway s attorney says emotions are law. she is basically overwhelmed by whole situation. she had a whole spectrum of emotions. on the one hand she was ecstatic that van der sloot was on u.s. soil, u.s. authorities, u.s. justice system. but it is still like pulling a scab off an old wound. always pain there and it s a painful reminder of what she has been through. julie: jonathan serrie joins us with the latest. i remember that you were part of that early team that went down to aruba. when i first arrived on the island in 2
of strikes aimed at southern lebanon and gaza. and we re learning this morning that the idea has mobilized its reserve forces, the latest on this fluid situation. cnn is on the ground important new jobs numbers just in moments ago, 236,000 jobs added, but that is below expectations. the unemployment rate is down to a low, low low 3.5% there are signs that things might be cooling off. expelled in an extraordinary move. tennessee house republicans vote to remove two young black democratic members for protesting on the capitol floor backlash and how republicans are defending it. we are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news, central . major retaliatory strike in the middle east is really forces firing rockets overnight hitting palestinian targets in lebanon and gaza. and the i, d f is now ordering the mobilization of reserve forces. israel strikes are in response to the dozens of rockets fired from southern lebanon into northe
warships. alexandria hoff has more. alex. alexandria: the reaction is more muted than the visit from nancy pelosi last summer. this dynamic does shift day-by-day and yesterday an aircraft along with three vessels were spotted near taiwan. china foreign ministry told reporters the u.s. was coniving with taiwan and the ministry said china will take firm and forceful measure to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. these are threats chalked up to china simply deploying intimidation tactics. republican congressman michael mccaul, who led the delegation, said this overnight. working together and this is why we are here today, sir, in person, to tell you we are friends of taiwan. we support taiwan. and united we will protect taiwan from the communist chinese party. alexandria: once again the taiwanese president will meet with the delegation tomorrow, following the wednesday meeting in california that sparked the chinese warnings, the group of lawmakers is to