this is cnn breaking news. >> we are following significant breaking news this morning. sources tell cnn a hostage deal between israel and hamas could be announced as soon as today. here are some of the details. we are told the potential deal calls for the release of 50 women and children. in exchange, a four to five day pause in fighting and three palestinian prisoners swopd for each civilian hostage released, 150 being held. sources say israel and hamas are still working on the names of those who would be released. >> officials are hoping that one of the first will be 3-year-old abigail here. she is the youngest american hostage. her parents were killed by hamas. we spoke with her great aunt a short time ago after this news broke. she is cautiously optimistic here is more of what she told us. >> we can't get our hopes up in a way that just believes it's going to happen right if in the next couple of hours. when i think about that on friday is abigail's fourth birthday and she should be home with her family and sister and brother and she isn't right now, it's just -- it's like you get your emotions -- you have to keep them in check. >> at the white house with the breaking news. tell us what we need to know this morning. >> reporter: yeah, sources tell us this morning that a deal is on the cusp of being announced, it could come as early as today, hamas initially releasing a group of 50 women and children hostages in exchange for four to five days of pause in fighting and also three palestinian prisoners for every hostage that is released. we are told that the hostages are of various nationalities and as you just laid out u.s. officials are hopeful one of those hostages will be 3-year-old abigail. she is the youngest american known hostage whose parents were killed by hamas. it is unclear at this point whether any other americans may be in that mix. and importantly, during this pause we are told hamas would agree to stop flying surveillance drones over northern gaza for at least six hours a day, and also the idea is that hamas would use this period of time of the four to five days that there is a pause in fighting to gather up additional hostages. women and children. and if that were to be successful, then the pause in fighting could be extended for an additional several days. now, hamas, as we know, has also been demanding hundreds of trucks carrying aid, including fuel. this has been a very contentious point of the negotiations given what folks know. fuel is used by hamas so shore up its military operation, ventilating its underground tunnels. we will see where things end up when the deal is, hopefully, announced. but we have seen over the last several days, particularly u.s. officials really intensifying their efforts to try to get this negotiation across the finish line. cia director bill burns has been very closely involved. the white house middle east coordinator hopscotching the region. president biden himself has made many phone calls to global leaders. again right now parties involved have a lot of optimism that a deal will be announced and it could come in a matter of days. >> all right. stay with us. we want to bring in axios brock -- you also have this reporting. so if you could also weigh in on what m.j. just said and also what you report hear is a potential second phase if this deal goes through and is successful. >> yes, good morning. first just to add one interesting detail. a senior u.s. official just told me a minute ago that we are the closest we have ever been to a hostage deal in gaza. much closer than we have been over the weekend and i think the white house expects some sort of an announcement in the next few hours. yes, and this deal will be two phased because phase one will be over something like four days of ceasefire and every day of those four days we will see israeli hostages being released by hamas and palestinian prisoners being released by israel in the ratio of three to one. for every israeli hostage, three palestinian prisoners will be released. then there will be phase two. and phase two is yet to be determined, meaning israel said we are ready to extend the ceasefire four more days. we can do another two days. but if hamas wants another two days, it needs to release more hostages. and even though hamas says they will use four dawes i of ceasefire to look for hirmgs,locate them, be prepared to release more, i think we should wait and see if hamas can deliver on more hostages than those 50. >> start with one group first. you bring up an interesting point about whether hamas can locate the hostages. that may come as a surprise to folks. it's not clear where they are. hamas we learned before there were other organizations involved they are not all held by hamas. talk to us about how delicate that is, that part of the operation, just figuring out where people are and then being able to get them to a place where they can, hopefully, be brought back. >> yeah. so we're talking about like 240 hostages, right? the majority of them, something like 107, 180 are in the hands of hamas. there are 40 or 50 in the hands of the palestinian islamic jihad which is another palestinian faction in gaza. and there are another sort of unknown number ten, 20, 30, depends who you ask, who are held in houses of this organization, this criminal organization called the -- who, you know, most of its people sit in the southern sit in gaza strip. they are like mobsters, gangsters, and they are holding several dozen hostages. this is a complicated thing. i think mthere is one thing. when hamas says it needs to locate hostages, i think that's sort of a spin because most of the people i spoke to say that hamas knows exactly where most of em are and it's just a matter of whether it is willing to release them or not. >> back to m.j. lee at the white house, we heard barak's reporting this could happen in the next couple of hours. fo that is something we had not heard before. do you have any reporting to that record? also, what would had mean in terms of how it would logistically happen? >> look, what we can say right now is that the parties involved are more optimistic than they ever have been and that a teal could be announced as early as to. i think it is really, really worth underscoring here and i think we have been doing this the last several weeks, there have been other points when the deal has come close to being announced, but there not been serious breakthroughs. deals have fallen through. and i think even this morning it is worth emphasizing that caveat, at point a deal would break down, and that is because we are dealing with hamas, which u.s. officials that i have been speaking to for weeks have really been emphatic. this is not something regular negotiating partner or actor that you are talking about as we reported in the last several days. even recently, hamas went through a period of simply just going dark in the negotiations. they stopped negotiating for a little bit because they had a number of concerns in the negotiations, including israel's raid of al shifa hospital. i mean, this just goes to show you the immense challenges that all of the officials involved have had in trying to even communicate with hamas. it has really been touch and go. and i think that's why even right now, even as we're reporting that there is a lot of optimism, the caveat still stands that a deal isn't a deal until it is announced and until the hostages are physically out of gaza. >> barak, a point you brought up yesterday, this six-hour pause for drone surveillance. still unclear if that would include u.s. drones as well. that was something that hamas was really pushing for? >> yeah. at the beginning they were pushing for a broader pause on aerial surveillance. they wanted for the entire time that the ceasefire is happening there will be no israeli air surveillance. they got something like six hours. but i think it's -- it's a matter that we will have to see how this is implemented because i find that i have to say i find it hard to believe that, you know, israel will stop flying drones above gaza. let's see that this is really implemented. >> what about finally the reporting you have, barak, on what israel will allow in terms of aid trucks into gaza from egypt? >> yeah. so i think that this is something that israel wanted to do anyway. so now we are looking at 300 trucks a day during the ceasefire p but also after the ceasefire, meaning it's not like after those four days they will go back to getting 100 trucks in. that's the number of trucks that will have to go into gaza from now on. and it's something i think israel wanted to do in the first place, but what it will have to do, i think, is to find a solution for the rafah crossing because the rafah crossing from egypt to gaza cannot process at the moment 300 trucks, which means that israel might have to open a crossing between israel and gaza. and if that's the case, it will be the first time it's doing it since the war started. >> barak, thank you. m.j. lee at the white house, appreciate your reporting on this. >> thank you. >> obviously, we will stay on top of of this significant breaking news. also your travel for the holiday. millions of americans potentially in bad weather. what does it mean for your travel ahead. the presidential debate schedule has been set. will they show up? we will take a look at the dates. and who may or may not be there. . we have a date. the first presidential debate and general selection 300 days away. the commission on presidential debates announcing the dates and locations for three presidential debates next year. it's not always set in stone. likely the nominees will they agree to show up. in junior donald trump made it seem like he will if it's against biden. >> what does it mean -- the question is -- >> for the white house -- you and president biden take the debate stage. we have to debate. he and i definitely have to debate. that's what i love. >> with us now on this and much more cnn political director, david, good morning to you. talk about the location, the dates, and by the way, don't they have to agree? >> yeah, we are a long ways off from this actually being a debate because you're right. there will be negotiations over the summer if indeed as is seems most likely now this will be a trump/biden rematch. the debates will be if the candidates agree. take a look at the commission on praibs presidential debates has been hosting them since 1988 put forth here. september 16, texas state university. that's as early as the debates start as i can remember. i'll explain in a moment. virginia state university october 1 and the university of utah october 9. those are the three presidential debates. a vice presidential debate will take place in pennsylvania. one of the critiques that republicans have had of the commission on presidential debates in public letters from the rnc to the commission is the debates don't start early enough to catch people before early voting begins in earnest and more americans are voting that way. so this calendar affairs to accommodate that. and virginia state university, this is the first time ever that an hbcus, historically black colleges and universities, would play host to a presidential debate. >> yeah, key moment there. let's hope we have them, right? we will see. a lot could happen in the next 300 days, as we know. there has been a lot of focus over the last 24 hours, i would say, on new polling and specifically the reaction to how president biden is handling the conflict and the war in israel, between israel and hamas. i want to play this response. >> what i'll be clear about is we are not going to govern by polls here. we are going to -- or poll numbers. we are going to focus on delivering for the american people. that's going to be our phobia. >> not govern by the polls. we talked with john a short time ago. makes sense. a perfect boilerplate response and what you would expect. the real question is, how is that figuring? in what are the discussions especially young people? >> i would argue the polls numbers are against where the president is at the moment as it relates to the israel/hamas war. overall in the recent nbc poll, a majority of americans disapprove, 56% of the way biden's handling the war. 34% approve prove. among seniors 65 and older, majority support for president biden on his handling of the israel/hamas war. 41% disapprove. seniors are a strong category as relates to this issue. you are night to note the young voters, part of joe biden's successful 2020 coalition. 18 to 34-year-olds 70% disapprove of way he is handling the war. >> the president pardoned some turkeys at the white house and he really cares and this administration really cares how the economy looks to voters come election day. what are we looking at if terms of the economy inflation numbers around thanksgiving? >> let's start here with the price of gas as people hit the road to head to their thanksgiving holiday celebration. what you see here today $3.31 a gallon, an average, gas prices national average here. last month 3.56. last year at this time 3.67. that's moving in the right direction. and then take a look at these green arrows. we talked about gas, down 5 by 3% from a year ago. used cars and trucks. car and truck rental. errol fares. toys. everything is going in the direction the biden administration would want to see, which is that prices have decreased from a year ago even the all-important measure of your thanksgiving meal is less expensive this year than it was last year. it's down 4.5%. it's much higher from what it was four years ago. but that all being the case, it's not settling in with the public. 59%dy approve of biden's handling of the economy. 38% approve. that's why you are going to continue to hear the administration to sell the success points in hopes of breaking through the next year and having people feel a bit better about the economy than they seem to now. >> not like anyone is going to talk about this or politics at the thanksgiving table, david. thank you very much. >> thanks, guys. sources tell cnn a hostage deal between israel and hamas could be announced as soon as today. this as new questions loom about congressional support to the war in israel and also the war in ukraine. former defefense secretary mark esper is with us ahead. bold. daring. expressive. contra costa college allows me to be whoever and whatever i want to be, providing the stage, the canvas, the tools to use my voice and write my story. find your passion and create your future at contra costa college. start today at contracosta.edu the breaking news this morning. sources tell cnn a hostage deal between israel and hamas is potential and could be announced as soon as today if it happens, it would call for the release of 50 women and children that are held hostage right now by hamas in exchange for a four to five day pause in fighting and the exchange of three palestinian prisoners for each civilian hostage released. had breaking news as prospects for a combined israel and ukraine aid package from the u.s. are looking pretty grim in congress right now. sharp divides are emerging in the house and the senate over any additional cash infusion for kyiv. last week's agreement to keep the government open, each day that goes by after that deal last week, seems less and less likely, at least now. >> yeah, and you had the complication now, poppy, of the pact that republicans on capitol hill are insisting that any additional funding for ukraine come with changes to border policy. if you'll remember, when the administration sent up its supplemental request, a total of $105 billion, it had planned to invest more money on the southern border, but republicans are arguing that more money isn't enough. they want to make sure that there are robust policy changes and we have been talking with members of that immigration working group to find out whether or not they were making much progress, and while negotiators insist that they are having productive conversations, the reality is the two sides are still really far apart. and that is leading some republicans and democrats on capitol hill to wonder if there is going to be a deal at all. here is one senator john kennedy. >> but it may be that the border issue holds up everything else. the aid to ukraine, the aid to taiwan, the aid to israel, it may be that those all reqgo dow because of the border issue. >> another complication here is even if senate negotiators, republicans and democrats, can come to some kind of consensus on the immigration question and what kind of policy changes they would be willing to take at the border, it becomes a question of whether or not conservatives in the house would be willing to accept that deal. you already have republicans like chip roy warning if speaker mike johnson puts something on the floor of the house of the representatives that doesn't come close to the deal he wanted to see on immigration, that wouldn't come close. that complicating the prospects for getting aid to israel, ukraine, and taiwan. >> lauren fox, great reporting. thank you. joining us now former defense secretary under president trump mark esper. picking up on, you know, lauren's reporting there, we had secretary austin in kyiv yesterday saying the u.s. will stand with ukraine. but stopping short, notably, of talking about the money or promising any future influx, right, because of these budget issues. what is your sense of where this stands this morning? what could ultimately happen? >> good morning. this is really troubling. it undermines our foreign policy. it undermines the united states military because, of course, the pentagon has been on a continuing resolution for several months, and every months that gby billions of lost spending ability are gone. of course, really impacts ukraine, israel, our friends in taiwan, and the security. none of the underlying dynamics have been resolved in the house gop with regard to the latest avoidance of a government shutdown. and we are going to face all these problems against in january and february. on top of that, what many may have forgotten the budget deal this past spring, once jan first h 2024, automatic cuts across the budget to include defense and return us to a lower level of spending. tens of billions of dollars lost. this is bad shape. when you look at what it means strategically with regard to russia and china, it doesn't bode well for our positions. >> >> what about iran? look at all the proxy attacks we have seen in the region since october 7th. what message does that send to iran if we don't see an increase in, you know, more aid for -- israel. >> 60 attacks in the last few weeks, 150 under the last three years under the biden administration and in the last few weeks alone americans over 60 have been injured, shrapnel wounds, tbi, and it affects our ability to deter this. i have been arguing we are not responding forcefully enough to these attacks. the political signal out of washington is we are not serious, at least as serious as we should be with regard to all of these issues. >> we also want to get your take on what we're hearing could be a deal, could be imminent, could perhaps be announced as soon as today for the release of as many as 50 hostages initially, israeli hostages, in exchange for as many as 150 palestinian prisoners. there would be a four to five day pause here. what do you make of the details that have come out of this deal and are you hopeful that it is, in fact, something we could see? >> i think so. i think, look, first of all, at a humanitarian level it's great. these people should have never been held hostage in the first place. let's be clear about one thing. this is not a humanitarian gesture by hamas. my view is going back to october 7th. this is what they planned, to take innocent i