airstrikes at a town near the capital. it s hundreds of mile as way from the front lines, and it is an away by putin to instill fear by an army that has been failing on the battlefield. we have graphic new images from today which show the remains of what was a russian caravan near the city of lyman. car after car destroyed. the body of a russian soldier on the ground, russian belongings strewn across the road. it just bears testimony to what we are seeing. russia s retreat and ukraine s advances are both fast and furious. but today putin speaking out, saying that these regions of ukraine where we re seeing all of this are now fully part of russia. he told a conference of teachers that the vote in the sham referendums in those regions of ukraine were well, here s his words. the results of the referendums, frankly speaking, not only pleased me but also surprised me. i think the election observers know this as well. there was no desire to correct something, clean something up,
for help investigating the mysterious illness. what they are asking for in a cnn exclusive. they are democrats, republicans, business leaders and moms. the historic year for women on the ballot in 2022. hello and welcome to the lead. i m casey hunt in for jake tapper. we begin with president biden getting a firsthand look at the damage caused by hurricane ian in florida. he made it clear the federal government is committed to helping the state, which he predicts will take years to recover. earlier in his visit, he met with ron desantis who briefed him on the destruction. the two men on opposites ends of the political spectrum. biden s visit comes as the u.s. death toll from hurricane ian rises again to at least 110 people killed. search and rescue teams are working nonstop to find survivors. for first time, residents and businessowners from sanibel island are allowed to return. only to survey the damage. they can t stay. local officials warn that conditions on the islan
democrat candidates out raised republicans across house and senate races. democrats literally have more candidates for the house right now. there are only four house districts in the country where there is no democratic canndidae running. there are nearly 40 where there s no republican candidate running either. we have noted how diverse the candidates have been. 2018 has become the year of the woman. the women nominees have 14 nominees for governor, 21 for senate, 226 for the house. by the way, our friend david wasserman notes that in house districts that don t have incumbents in them, democrats nominated women in 50% of the races while republicans nominated women in 18% of the races. what does it mean for november? obviously there s been a lot of talk about a blue wave and it is still too early to make that prediction, but the numbers show from cook that the battlefield is heavily tilted towards the democrats, particularly in the house.
indications of where enthusiasm lies, for instance, in fund-raisi fund-raising. the democrats have outfund raised the republicans and they have more candidates for the house right now. only four house districts in the country where there s no democratic candidate running. there are nearly 40 districts where there s no republican candidate running either. we have noted how diverse this year s pool of candidates has been. 2018 has become the year of the woman. the number of women nominees set new records this year. 14 nominees for governor. 21 nominees for senate, 226 for the house. by the way our friend david wasserman over at the cook political report notes in house districts that don t have any incumbents in them, democrats have nominated women in 50% of those raises. republicans have nominated women in just 18% of those races. so what does all of this mean for november? well, obviously there s been a lot of talk about a blue wave and it s still too early to make that prediction but t