more than 20,000 20,000 lives lost since monday s horrific earthquake. the lead starts right now. screams of joy amid the horror a mother and daughter found alive. coming up the miracle rescues. cnn is on the ground as crews climb through earthquake rubble in syria and turkey. and president biden takes his state of the union road show to rival rich florida and challenges a republican senator on his clear proposal to sunset all programs including social security and medicare. but first new images from the fbi as investigators begin to analyze that downed chinese spy balloon recovered from the atlantic ocean. and lawmakers begin to learn just how sophisticated the surveillance equipment onboard was. welcome to the lead i m jake tapper. and we start with the world lead and new information about the chinese spy balloon shot done. it started analyzing the first pieces of its balloon, and senior officials say those parts could be used as evidence in a future possible crimin
why he s taking the risk talking to cnn s christiane amanpour in an interview be behind bars. new details about mitch mcconnell, treated for a concussion in a d.c. hospital now after a fall. i m jake tapper. we begin with putin s brutal war on kroukraine. strikes reaching nearly every corner from kyiv to lviv, the worst russian barrage since january, punctuated by a variety of russian missiles, including six rare hyper sonic missiles, eluding air defenses. officials say in total, 84 missiles were launched. at least 11 people in ukraine were killed. russia claims the strike was retaliation for what it calls terrorist actions by ukraine in a western russian town last week. cnn cannot independently verify russia s claims or confirm evidence of such an attack. for the sixth time, renewed fears of a nuclear catastrophe. europe s largest nuclear power plant in zaporizhzhia shelled, forced to run on backup power. cnn s ivan watson is on the ground in ukraine s capital for us, wher
professional repudiation. even charges of racism from the supposed experts so now what? white house correspondent jacqui heinrich starts us off live tonight from the north lawn. good evening, jacqui. good evening, bret. the department of energy overseas national labs and now reportedly concludes a lab leak in china most likely caused the pandemic albeit that conclusion with low confidence. but, this theory became a political lightning rod after former president donald trump embraced it and top scientists shot it down. now, team biden is holding back of talk about lessons learned and also, responding to china s denials. china has repeatedly blocked the world health organization s covid origins probe and now is swiftly rebuking the reported findings from the u.s. department of energy. china s foreign minister saying in part a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely is a science-based authoritative conclusion reached certain parties should s
extraordinary effort to reassure americans that the u.s. banking system is safe plus, poland is set to become the first country to send fighter jets to ukraine. it comes amid new reporting that china s leader will visit russia next week. those new developments are also straight ahead. and donald trump goes off on a frenzied defense amid a series of investigations. we will have the latest on the probes involving the former president. good morning and welcome to way too early on this friday, march 17th happy st. patrick s day. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. in the words of cnbc, wall street rides to the rescue 11 of the country s largest banks are depositing a total of $30 billion to first republic bank to avoid a third collapse of the u.s. bank in less than a week first republic serves a similar clientele as silicon valley bank and signature bank, both of which failed in recent days. those banks had a high number of uninsured deposits as d
following a train derailment 12 days ago in ohio. hazardous chemicals contaminating air and water. some people are getting sick and some animals are dying. welcome to a new hour of america s newsroom i m dana perino. bill is off today. good morning, john. john: i m john roberts. complex environmental disaster and many questions still unanswered. folks have been allowed to return to their homes. serious safety fears remain despite assurances the air is safe to breathe and concerns are spreading about the potential impact on the water supply as a plume of pollution spilled into the ohio river flows toward the mississippi. i think the residents have every reason to be concerned. we ll continue to dig. that s the importance of these testings, testing the water, testing the air. i know hundreds of tests have been conducted but still residents are reporting things that have to be answered. dana: we re covering this story from all angles. emily lives nearby and felt the effe