programs that aren't solve ept and going insolvent, i can't explain that. it doesn't make sense to me. i want to work with everyone as long as we can start paying for things. that's all. i can't put this burden on my grandchildren. i've got ten grandchildren, and i'd be -- i just can't do it. >> no paid family medical leave for his grandchildren. it's a big deal. it provides new parents with paid time off with newborns. it helps families cope with financial security without losing their job. it keeps them productive. in the middle of a health crisis, in the middle of a worker shortage, many economists thought that passing paid leave was a simple morality and intelligence test for congress. this morning president biden delaying his flight to the g20 summit in roam. he is expected to meet with house democrats hoping to convince progressives to still back his bill even without the cornerstone of the democratic agenda, paid family leave. daniela diaz is live on capitol hill. daniela, this means the u.s. is one of only eight countries, one of eight countries in the world, the richest nation on earth, will not pay for family medical leave. it's really, really a blow to working families and obviously progressives. >> reporter: that's exactly right, christine. it really shows the power that one democratic senator has in all of these negotiations. democrats have the majority in the house, senate and president joe biden is a democrat. really it's down to one democratic senator joe manchin who gets to really decide what is included in this economic package that progressives really, really want to pass. and that's part of the reason why president joe biden is visiting the capitol later this morning. i want to be -- i want to emphasize this is his second visit to the capitol this month for the same reason. house progressives will not pass the separate bipartisan infrastructure bill that's already passed the senate, has republican support and only needs to pass the house before it goes to president joe biden's desk because they want their priorities in a separate economic bill and they want to see the legislative text for this bill. and without that, they are not going to support this separate bipartisan infrastructure package, which is why president joe biden is visiting the capitol today in an effort to try to convince them and unite the party behind both of these bills. you know, i spoke to many house progressives yesterday that emphasized that they want a bill -- a vote, excuse me, on both of these bills on the same day. bull there are still so many sticking points that need to be resolved on this separate economic bill that you were just talking about, christine, especially the price tag for this bill. it was originally $3.5 trillion. again, senator joe manchin is bringing that price tag down, and how it will be paid for. it's really unclear right now how democrats are going to pay for the plan, and whether a proposed tax on billionaires is going to be included. again, after senator joe manchin said he objected to including that as a pay-for for this package. manchin expressed concern over the expansion ever medicare to cover hearing, dental and will vision benefits which was another key priority for progressives. but this really shows how president joe biden needs all democrats united behind these bills because they want to pass this using a process called budget reconciliation. so every single democrat needs to get behind this. so that's the bottom line here for why president joe biden is visiting the capitol today in an effort to try to unite his party behind both of these bills, namely, try to get house progressives behind the bipartisan infrastructure bill. christine? >> daniela, thank you. it's time for three questions in three minutes. let's bring in cnn's political analyst and political reporter for the "washington post." wow, wrow, wow, this is big tha paid leave is out. labor economists who have said for years in the world's largest economy, this is the simplest, simplest way to retain your labor market and keep your work force, you know, healthy. also in terms of equity for women in the workplace, when you work at a big company, you see men also taking time off for their partners and spouses. it levels the playing field, and it's out because senator joe manchin is worried about his grand kids having to pay for it. it's paid for by taxes for the rich. there was a plan for this and it's falling apart. >> reporter: that's exactly right. it is falling apart. progressives are angry this popular part of this package is being tossed to the side because of one senator who has really led these negotiations in a major way because his objections to a number of things that progressives have wanted, everything from free community college to some of the climate provisions, are being tossed out of the package one after the other, in large part because of senator manchin's objections. this is one that house progressives and even some moderates thought would be one of the microsoft popular parts of this bill that they could go into the midterms and campaign on saying that the democrats were able to give americans paid family leave, something that is popular across the country. but it seems like it is being tossed out of this bill because of the impact on the debt. >> it's not just popular among progressives. it's not a progressive priority. i mean, companies in many cases already do this. some have said it would be great to have a federal standard so that it wasn't a patchwork of different companies with different kinds of policies. again, i'll say this. labor economists have said it's a morality and intelligence test that the largest economy in the world doesn't have paid leave, and now it's off the table. you mentioned clean energy or clean electric, tuition-free community colleges, other things being pulled from the bill. the president is on his way to europe. how is he supposed to pitch strength and unity to the world when they're literally one vote away from their entire agenda crumbling? >> yeah, that's ea very importat point. it is enough that biden is delaying his trip to rome by a few hours to try to meet with some of the house democrats to try to see if he can get more than what he currently has in terms of a deal. he wanted to go to europe with a deal in hand and say america is back, america is able to legislate, push back against some of the authoritarian voices that are cropping up in europe by saying, democracy works. er we can legislate and figure out our differences and lead on the world stage both on the climate front and on the social programs. but now it seems like he's going to have to go to europe and say, i'm still working on it. give me a little bit more time. democracy is messy, but i hope to get a plan done. it is a less strong message than what he wanted, but that's what he has at this point going into these meetings that he's going to be having in europe. >> so paying for everything seems to be the sticking point here, influx. for months and months it was higher tax on corporations and the very rich to fund, you know, more programs for working people, to finally give working families the tax cuts that companies usually get. now that has been scuttled and there is criticism, the democrats don't have a way to fund it. they had a way to fund it, but they scuttled how to do it. how do you see this playing out, the how to pay for it part of it? >> as i said, it is a major question the democrats have. they said they are going do repeal much of the trump tax cuts that just happened about three years ago. but it does appear they are not quite ready to go that far and raising corporate tax rates and raising tax rates on the wealthy, this was a linchpin of the democratic agenda going into the campaign. and now it seems like at least a few of the democrats, enough to make it hard for the party to pull through on its campaign promises are starting to get cold feet on the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy. it seemed like it was a linchpin of the democratic policy, but it does appear they are going to have trouble making it happened. >> scrambling to figure out if they can tax billionaires and somehow tax the wealth of billionaires. i mean, let's be honest. the top half dozen billionaires in the u.s. have wealth that is the size of the g20, right? i mean, it's a lot of money, but it may not be constitutional. we'll see if they continue down that path. nice to see you. thank you. >> thank you. president biden is set to leave for the first in-person g20 summit since the pandemic began. let's go to ben wedeman in rome. what is the expectation of joe biden's trip? >> reporter: it is low given the leaders of china, russia and mexico will not be attending this summit. now, they are going to be talking about a wide variety of things. obviously because it's coming just before the cop-26 climate summit in glasgow, a big focus is going to be on climate change. and what we've seen as the members of the g20 and that group comprises 80% of the producers or rather, the producers of 80% of the world's carbon emissions, they've done a lot of talk about fighting climate change, or as greta thunberg would say, "blah, blah, blah." but the amount of action they've taken is relatively small. so they're going to have to convert all the talk into action. and as i said, nobody is holding their breath that they're going to be able to do that. they are also going to be focusing on the covid pandemic. this is one of the first major international meetings taking place in the period where the pandemic is beginning to recede. last year, of course, it was held virtually, hosted by saudi arabia. but even when it comes to covid, the situation isn't as clear as they would like. for instance, the g20 countries per capita have received 15 times the number of vaccines as sub-saharan africa. so it's going to be a question of turning all this "blah, blah, blah" into concrete action. christine? >> we know that you'll be translating it all for us. thank you so much, ben wedeman in rome. as president biden's economic agenda hangs in the balance, an economic reality check in a couple hours. the first reading of third quarter gdp from the delta variant and supply chain chaos to these worker shortages. serious challenges for the recovery. economists predict the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.7%. you can see that is the slowest pace since the recovery began and a downshift from the 6.7% in the spring. the economy largely depends on consumers, how confident they are to go out in public, how confident they are to spend their money in the middle of a pandemic. we know consumers were less confident at the end of the third quarter. rising prices and concerns about the delta variant dragged down optimism and kept the labor market in check. all right. authorities say a suspected live round was in that gun fired by alec baldwin on the set of his movie "rust." did anyone check the weapon before handing it to him? that's next. cientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. paul loves food. but his diabetes made food a mystery. everything felt like a "no". but then paul went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows how food affects his glucose. and he knows when to make different choices. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us the new sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair has the science to show that the toothpaste goes deep inside the exposed dentin to help repair sensitive teeth. my patients are able to have that quality of life back. i recommend sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair. age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. authorities in new mexico say that gun discharged by alec baldwin on the set of the movie "rust" fired a suspected live round. >> right now we can't determine exactly how that live bullet got into the firearm. that's going to be the basis for further investigation. we need more interviews and that's going to be the million dollar question, is how a live round ended up in the revolver that mr. baldwin fired. >> investigators combing the scene, they collected the shell casings in the case. josh campbell is in santa fe for us. >> reporter: christine, we are learning new details about the circumstances surrounding that fatal shooting of cinematographer halyna hutchins here in santa fe. the sheriff announcing on wednesday it was a suspected live round of ammunition fired from a gun by actor alec baldwin that ultimately took her life. now, there are many questions that still remain. i asked the sheriff how is it possible that a live round of ammunition made its way onto a film set. he said that that very much remains under investigation at this hour. now, authorities also seized several items, including three firearms, over 500 rounds of ammunition. we are told that that ammo has been sent to the fbi's laboratory in quantico, virginia, to try to determine how much of that ammo is the normal type that you would see on a set, the dummy rounds, and how much of it might be live ammunition. i also sat down wednesday with the district attorney. she said that she was shocked to learn about the circumstances surrounding this case. she also gave us new insight into her calculus, and her ultimate decision to possibly bring charges. and so as of this point, would you say that there is any particular time line on making that decision about charges? >> it's, it's -- no, there is not a time line at this point. i would say weeks to months. i was sort of taught you treat a live firearm like a snake. it's a terrible tragedy. we don't know how those live rounds got there and i think that will probably end up being kind of the linchpin for whether a decision is made about charges. >> reporter: now, we also learned from authorities on wednesday that there were two people that handled that firearm before it was handed to actor alec baldwin. they include the set's armerer, the person responsible for ensuring safety on the set as well as the assistant director. the officials tell us thus far, all the witnesses have been cooperative, but nevertheless their investigation continues. christine? >> all right, josh in santa fe, thank you so much for that. attorney general merrick garland taking fire from senate republicans for a justice department memo addressing threats against school board members. now, the goal of this memo was to lower the temperature at the school board meetings where mask mandates and vaccines have become a dangerous flash point. after some of these meetings, angry parents threatened and harassed school board members. here's how some republicans chose to interpret this memo. >> this is a memo to the federal bureau of investigations saying, go investigate parents as domestic terrorists. >> it's wrong. it is unprecedented to my knowledge in the history of this country, and i call on you to resign. >> thank god you are not on the supreme court. you should resign in disgrace, judge. >> cnn's evan perez has more from washington. >> reporter: christine, attorney general merrick garland defended a memo he issued respondling to threats aimed at school officials pushing back at criticism from republicans at a senate hearing. the october 4th memo orders the fbi and prosecutors to coordinate with state and local authorities on how to deal with threats and violence directed at school officials. school board meetings around the united states in recent months have been the focus of political conflict, particularly over covid restrictions such as masks. republicans have tried to portray the garland memo as a declaration of war on parents and the issue has become a part of the gubernatorial race in virginia. but garland is standing by his memo. >> when we get reports of violence and threats of violence, we need to act very swiftly. i would have hated to have gotten this letter and then acts of violence occurred in the interim before we were able to act. >> okay, judge -- >> the only act here is assessing the circumstances. that's all there is here, and we can't wait until somebody dies. that is why we did this. >> reporter: at wednesday's hearing, garland was asked about the fbi's mishandling of a sexual assault investigation of former usa gymnastics doctor larry nassar. the justice department is looking at new information that could lead to charges against former agents who handled the case. christine? >> all right, thank you so much for that, evan perez. all right, the houston astros showing the world exactly why they've been to three world series in five years. bleacher report is next. ruck. but it's not like that's my only interest. i also love cooking with heheart-healthy, idaho potatoe. always look for the grown in idaho seal. ♪ we believe everyone deserves to live better. and just being sustainable isn't enough. our future depends on regeneration. that's why we're working to not only protect our planet, but restore, renew, and replenish it. so we can all live better tomorrow. ♪ so, should all our it move to the cloud? the cloud would give us more flexibility, but we lose control. ♪ ♪ ♪ should i stay or should i go? ♪ and we need insights across our data silos, but how? ♪ if i go there will be trouble ♪ ♪ ♪ wait, we can stay and go. hpe greenlake is the platform that brings the cloud to us. ♪ should i stay or should i go now? ♪ ♪ ♪ up to one million dollars. that's how much university of phoenix is committing to create 400 scholarships this month alone. if you're committed to earning your degree, we're committed to making it accessible. because we believe everybody deserves a chance. and sometimes one chance is all it takes to change everything. see what scholarship opportunities you may qualify for at phoenix.edu this halloween, xfinity rewards is offering up some spooky-good perks. like the chance to win a universal parks & resorts trip to hollywood or orlando to attend halloween horror nights. or xfinity rewards members, get the inside scoop on halloween kills. just say "watch with" into your voice remote for an exclusive live stream with jamie lee curtis. a q&a with me! join for free on the xfinity app. our thanks your rewards. the houston astros bounce back in a big way to even the world series. coy wire has the bleacher report. good morning. >> good morning. you get the feeling houston fans were nervous heading into a crucial game with the braves last night. this team has championship pedigree from dusty baker on down. they showed it last nigh. astros martin maldonado with a single to left, one run scores. there's no braves player there to catch it, not good. jose siri scores. it gave houston a 5-1 lead. hey, siri, how do you run the base path? like a jack rabbit to a hot date. in the 7th it was jose altuve's time. one of the best hitter of all time. one of his last two 26 at bats. this marked his 22nd postseason homer, tying him for second on the all-time list. astros cruise 7-2 even in the series at a game apiece. >> we must win today. we didn't want to go to atlanta. down by two, so we left everything we had in there tonight. obviously very important win to tie the series and to keep going from there. >> game three is friday night in atlanta where the braves will look for their first world series home win since 1995. former president trump will be at truest park for game 4 on saturday. he attended game 5 of the nationals series back in 2019. the former hockey player at the center of the sexual assault investigation within the chicago blackhawks organization is speaking out for the first time. kyle beach says he was sexually assaulted by former video coach brad aldridge in 2010 when the team won the stanley cup. results of an independent investigation tuesday found that nothing was done by senior leaders and blackhawk's coaching and management after beach reporter the abuse. in an interview the 31-year-old shared an emotional message to victims of sexual abuse. >> i've been a survivor -- i am a survivor, and i know i'm not alone. i know i'm not the only one, male or female. and i buried this for ten years, 11 years. and it's destroyed me from the inside out. and i want everybody to know in the sports world and in the world that you're not alone. >> the nhl fined the blackhawks $2 million for what the league calls the organization's in add i can't tell internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response. jen manager stan bowman resigned on tuesday, and senior director of hockey operations al mcisaac was ousted. there aren't any members of the 2010 still with the team. they said, in part, quote, we would like to commend kyle beach's courage coming forward. no game is more important than protecting our players from predatory behavior, unquote. aldridge said the sexual encounter he had with beach was consensual and denies any wrongdoing. he was given a choice by the blackhawks to resign or face investigation into the incident. aldridge chose to resieng. three years later he was convicted of sexual assault of a hockey player in michigan and served jail time. >> wow, that is quite a story. all right, coy wire, thank you so much for that. 20 minutes past the hour. concerned about getting your child vaccinated? 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♪ for the best audio entertainment and storytelling. audible. ♪ ♪ peerless design, cutting-edge tech, and a world-class interior. the exhilarating mercedes-benz glc. extraordinary runs in the family. all right. good thursday morning. this is "early start." i'm christine romans. 34 minutes past the hour. we are 30 days away from shots in little arms. parents are worried about vaccinating young children against covid. the fda and cdc could grant emergency use authorization for the pfizer vaccine for children age 5 to 11 by next week. look at this. research from the kaiser family foundation finds concerns about possible side effects may be holding some parents back. a cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is here with more on the findings. i would say parents are divided here on what they're going to do. they're a little bit worried about side effects? >> they really are very much divided. and the question is are these worries going to keep them from vaccinating their children. it's so important that children get vaccinated. first of all, to protect them. covid does kill children. it does put children in the hospital and you never know if it's going to be your child or not, so you don't want to roll the dice with your child. also, christine, you know this as a mom. children are great at spreading germs. even if your child were to get covid and even be asymptomatic, they could get somebody else sick. a grandma, a parent, someone who is immune compromised. so let's take a look at what this kaiser family foundation poll showed when they talked to parents just a few weeks ago. what they found is only 27% of parents of children ages 5 to 11 said that they would vaccinated their children right away. 33% said they would wait and see. 30% said definitely no and 5% said if required. that 33%, that's where the public health communications really has to come in. that's who needs to be talked to. that's who need -- that group needs to get the information. interestingly, what this poll showed is that a major concern of parents is about fertility. it's about the chance that the shot could cause some fertility problem, which is, i'm just going to say it, ridiculous. there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to think these shots could cause infertility issues. this is a facebook sort of silliness that got invented, but it's going to be tough to unring that bell. christine? >> what we know is 745 children have died of covid. we know that that is the fact, and kids can really spread disease. you called them disease vectors, you and your husband. i call mine little petri dishes. this is true. 28 million kids who could help end or at least beat back coronavirus if we have vaccination numbers. you know, elizabeth, thank you so much. nice to see you this morning. it's time for three questions in three minutes. let's bring in pediatric airways surgeon at columbia medical surgery center. it is completely fair to ask questions. tell us why people shouldn't hesitate to give kids this shoet. >> well, christine, first of all, everyone needs to remember that kids really are at risk in this pandemic. right now 25% of our cases -- over 8,000 kids have been hospitalized and we're approaching 800 deaths from this virus in children. the problem is impacting our children. but we have a vaccine that works. the pfizer data that they submitted for fda authorization showed that the vaccine, pfizer vaccine was about 91% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in our kids. so we have a vaccine that is effective, and i just don't see how we are going to get out of this pandemic without protecting our pediatric population which is about 22% of our overall population in the u.s. vaccines are going to be incredibly important for this pediatric population. >> here's what dr. fauci told my colleague don lemon last night about getting kids vaccinated. take a listen. >> i do feel it is important to vaccinate children. all you need to do is go to the pediatric hospitals around the country and you see particularly with the delta variant which has a much greater chance of transmitting that more kids are getting infected. >> you know better than anyone. what have you seen on your pediatric floor? >> yeah, well, throughout the pandemic we've really seen a whole pspectrum of disease. the most common scenario is kids who are testing positive or have a relatively mild illness. but, boy, i've taken care of kids in the hospital up in the i.c.u. and kids have gotten severely ill with this disease in our hospital. so the whole spectrum of disease is happening. >> yeah, i know dr. sanjay gupta, his big concern has been especially when teenagers and young people i six months after they've had mild or moderate case of coronavirus, still have these lingering symptoms, you know, still are very tired. it kind of holds back their development. that's something parents should be concerned about. it can be so tricky for kids to understand what's going on here. if you're a parent and you've decided you want to vaccinate your child, how should you talk to them about the vaccine that they are receiving? >> that is such a great question. i think really being honest and up front about why you're going to the doctor or the clinic, telling them they're going to get a vaccine, letting them ask questions. kids have really smart questions, too. and so asking or allowing children, rather, to ask questions and giving them information is so important. i think also explaining to them that they're protecting themselves, explaining to them that other kids are getting sick and they want to protect children around them is really helpful. and then coming up with a plan so they have a little control over the experience. maybe allow them to pick something comfortable to wear or to bring a game or a stuffed animal or something that will help keep them comforted and rewarding them in the end for being brave and for facing their fears potentially of getting a shot. all those things are really helpful. >> our deal at my house is a bag of gummy bears when it's all over. that's the bribery i'm using. that's all they need. thanks so much, dr. suzanne a hill. nice to citi you this morning. thanks. >> you bet. the potential rollout of vaccines for young children has public health groups concerned about protests exaand threats t their public safety. they are asking the justice department to help keep local health department workers safe. experts say some of the people making these threats against public health officers are members of far-right extremist groups. cnn's jacqueline howard has more. >> reporter: public health groups at this point are very concerned about threats and harassment escalating. now, this is an ongoing problem stemming back to the start of the pandemic. but i spoke with the head of the national association of county and city health officials, and she says that public health officers tend to face harassment with any new covid-19 mitigation measure that's introduced to the public. and in this case, that new measure is vaccines for kids. have a listen. >> the rollout of the pediatric vaccine is another critical turning point, and we anticipate that there will be people who may, again, target public health officials in the messaging related to the rollout of this latest mitigation measure. we are so concerned that as time goes on, as this pandemic goes on, that these threats, intimidation, harassment and really are vaadvancing in some cases and becoming more dangerous. >> reporter: now, as far as the threats becoming more dangerous, the southern poverty law center says some of this harassment might be coming from members of extremist groups. the center tells cnn, quote, in tracking political violence in recent months and the anti-government militia movement for decades, we find this trend of increased threats and intimidation directed at local public health officials as well as other local officials very concerning. our research indicated that some of the threats have come from individuals with known affiliation with far-right organizations that have been advocating and participating in violence, end quote. and these types of threats are coming at the same time that there has been an exodus of public health officials resigning. so that's another concern that harassment is driving away possibly public health officers at a time when we need them the most. christine? >> thank you so much for that. across the market, demand on fire, it is still red hot in real estate. no one seems concerned about a housing bubble. just like last time actually, the housing bubble inflated, of course, from 2004 to early 2007 before prices crashed and d dragged the economy into the great recession. today it is shadowed by other drags. supply chain nightmare, and of course we're in the middle of a pandemic. home prices have been soaring, soaring for months. look at that. year over year price increases almost 20%. the median home price a record high $352,800. and prices are not showing any signs of slowing down. earlier this month goldman sachs predicted prices would rise by another 16% by the end of next year. so far the belief is prices won't crash this time around. chief economist at moody's analytics said he's worried the market is in for a hard landing. he doesn't expect the market and the economy to crumble like last time. we'll talk more about the housing market madness at cnn business. joining us for a foreseeable event, shark tank star barbara corcoran. we'll be streaming live today at noon eastern time. head to cnn business.com to sign up. we'll be right back. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive to dairy. so anyone who says lactaid isn't real milk is also saying mabel here isn't a real cow. and she really hates that. hello, for the last few years, i've been a little obsessed with chasing the big idaho potato truck. but it's not like that's my only interest. i also love cooking with heart-healthy, idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal. ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us it's another day. and anything could happen. it could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. or it could be the day there's a cyberthreat. only comcast business' secure network solutions give you the power of sd-wan and advanced security integrated on our activecore platform so you can control your network from anywhere, anytime. it's network management redefined. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. comcast business powering possibilities. welcome back. in her first international tv interview in close to two years, taiwan's president stalks to cn exclusively. rising tensions between taiwan ask beijing brings the most challenging time for the people of taiwan. it comes as beijing steps up its military pressure just off the eastern coast. will ripley is in taipei. he joins us with the exclusive interview with what she stayed. what did she tell you? >> reporter: a lot of people have been wanting to hear from her, christine. taiwan is at the moment the flash point between china tensions. the tensions have been ratcheting up. we talked about china flying the war planes, 150 in five days earlier this month. i asked the president about that, about the relationship across the taiwan strait. she said that she is open to having a dialogue with chinese president xi jinping. i asked her specifically about her relationship with the united states, meaning the island of taiwan's relationship with the united states, and whether she feels confident that taiwan would come -- that taiwan would be assisted if china were to invade by the u.s. remember at the cnn town hall last week, president biden said the u.s. has a commitment to defend taiwan, and the white house walked it back. they are supposed to be strategically ambiguous and not let china know what they would do. here is the president's response. >> people have different interpretation of what president biden has said. >> reporter: do you have faith that the united states would defend taiwan if the mainland were to try to move on taiwan? >> i do have faith, and given the long-term relationship that we have with the u.s. >> reporter: the president also confirmed something no leader has publicly confirmed, t taiwanese president has confirmed. u.s. troops are on the island helping to train taiwanese troops. small numbers, but still, that has never been confirmed by the president of taiwan until this interview, christine. that is something we have to watch for, reaction from beijing. even though it's been an open secret, they view any troop presence as an act of aggression. >> certainly a challenge for taiwan. also potential foreign policy, complication for the united states. we're so glad you're there in taipei for us following it all. thanks, will. all right. to the u.s. now, the northeast is bracing for another soaking heading into the weekend. it could compound flooding and impact the clean-up from the nor'easter earlier this week. it has 366,000 customers in new england in the dark. here is meteorologist pedram javaheri. >> good morning, christine. we are finally watching this nor'easter move away from the coast line. unfortunately another system right on the heels of it producing severe weather along portions of the southeast today and tomorrow it could get interesting around the northeast. of course, we're just wrapping up this 90-plus mile per hour wind event observed across massachusetts and areas of new england as well. we had wind gusts that are equivalent to a category 1 high-end category 1 hurricane. of course, that left behind almost 400,000 customers without power mainly across massachusetts at this hour, but notice, the strong storm departs, a weaker storm on approach here. but still 50, maybe 60 mile per hour gusts possible once we get to the height of this comfrey night into saturday. additional rainfall, yeah, certainly want to see that as well. we think as much as a half an inch to inch widespread. you'll notice pockets of 1 to 3 inches possible. that's around boston and points north to areas of eastern say maine and eastern areas of new hampshire. so this is certainly going to be another round of heavy rainfall in the forecast going again from friday into saturday around the northeast. christine? >> thank you so much for that. let's get a check on cnn business this morning, look at markets around the world. declines in asian shares, and a mixed start to european markets. on wall street a little bit higher here for stock index futures this morning. they finished wednesday mostly lower, slipping from record highs. the s&p fell slightly. really close to record highs, and there's a bunch of things for investors to consider today. first bracing for a lackluster third quarter gdp report, estimated 2.7% growth. obviously normal times in the last ten years or so that would be fine. you can see where it comes from. it comes from a pretty strong spring. big oil c.e.o.s will testify at a congressional hearing 10:00 a.m. eastern about their role in spreading climate disinformation. facebook will likely unveil its rebrand effort even as it deals with the fallout from the damage being document. watch facebook shares. and earnings reports from amazon, apple and starbucks. the war for talent rages on. costco raised its minimum wage for the second time this year. a parade of companies has hiked pay to lure in and keep workers in a tight labor market. the new minimum wage costco is 17 bucks an hour, $2 above target and amazon, $5 above walmart. health concerns in this pandemic has kept millions of workers home taking care of family or looking for better jobs before they come out in the pandemic jobs market. companies are offering higher pay, sign up bonuses and sweeter offers to attract talent. exploding over the buzz light year story. ♪ the disney pixar adventure follows the real space major who inspired the story from the "toy story" franchise. buzz actor chris evans. due to hit theaters in june 2022. while the fda advisory panel voted to recommend the covid vaccine to children 5 to 11, snl had jabs of its own. >> one doctor did not vote yet. this doctor steven y usaid the vaccine is poppy and dumb dumb. >> you'll see bouncers outside chuck e. cheese checking vaccine cards. not today, timmy. sorry. kids can get the shot as soon as next week. great timing after they go door to door on halloween. >> hey, kids, guess who gets to go to the doctor twice in the space of three weeks. and don't worry, he will stab you. >> he will stab you. very funny. thanks for joining us, everybody. i'm christine romans. 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