azovstal steel plant is supposed to begin today but there s already a snag. officials reporting that russian troops are blocking part of the complex. this is a site that has become something of a last line of defense for ukraine in that city. officials say that it was hit by 50 air strikes here in the last 24 hours and the situation is critical. in just a few moments we will hear from a ukrainian army commander who is inside of that plant and we re told that there are hundreds of people there, including dozens of children. the youngest of whom is just 4 months old. also breaking overnight, more signs of ukrainian counter strikes in areas controlled by russia or inside russia itself. a fuel depot attacked and set on fire in part of the donetsk region controlled by russian-backed forces. ukraine is not commenting on that. and the russians also claim a checkpoint in a village in kursk was hit by mortar fire. kursk is in russia near the border with ukraine. new images into
your d.v.r. and watch later today. john: hunter biden s long time business partner visited the white house at least eight times in 2016 alone, meeting with then vice president biden s chief of staff. combined with additional reporting from the new york post, a total of 27 white house meetings by biden business partner between the obama years of 2009 and 2016. that s a lot of meetings. john roberts in washington, sandra, good to have you back. sandra: developing story and we are watching it. sandra smith in new york. our new reporting comes as newly surfaced emails suggest joe biden paid for hunter s legal fees. part of a mega deal with a chinese company and even got a 10% cut. remember, president biden said many times he s never discussed foreign business dealings with his son. john: on capitol hill yesterday, attorney general garland refusing to give senators an update on the investigation into hunter biden as he faces more pressure to appoint a special counsel. mark m
but his administration is pushing forward with a plan that would punish home buyers who have good credit scores. sandra: force those with good credit scores to pay more for their mortgages in order to subsidize high risk borrowers. former president obama s top housing adviser that he brought on board during the financial crisis, david stevens, he is calling the move unprecedented and says the industry is in shock. he s here for an exclusive interview to explain why, and larry kudlow how it could depress the housing market even further. whistleblower allegations a game changer. you know, this is somebody in the irs at a high level who apparently is willing to come forward to tell congress during the investigation of hunter biden there was obstruction. it s another example the irs is a mess. the whistleblower ought to be heard. obstruction of justice and certainly will be pursued in congress. john: begin with the white house set to take questions as an irs special age
healthcare, prescription drugs and more. we need to show democrats across this country that the democratic party can actually get stuff done when we have 50 democrats in the senate, and i think that s where we are right now. so i m all about forward looking, brianna and hello, joe manchin. happy to have you. a new effort to form a viable third party, names from the right, left and center say they will succeed where others failed. soon we ll hear from the president of the united states live at the white house. he ll tout big progress on his agenda, a senate agreement that includes new climate and new health care investments. a package, the president will say in a way that will also take a big bite out of inflation. it is a smaller, but still significant piece of the giant goals the president and has party had back in the beginning of his term. the white house event is a presidential push to get this new senate deal to the finish line and, make no mistake, it is a president
house speaker nancy pelosi is in taipei. china is lashing out. nearly two dozen war planes crossing into taiwan s air defense zone. just after 7 a.m. local time in taipei as i m speaking. speaker pelosi is getting ready to meet with taiwan s president and to visit taiwan s parliament in just these next hours. as we await the meetings and await to see the speaker leave her hotel, chinese president xi has placed them on high alert and launched military exercises around taiwan. the red boxes that are going to pop up, each indicate a place where chinese exercises are now taking place. tonight the biden administration is warning china. there s no reason, as i said yesterday, for beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with longstanding u.s. policy, into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretexts to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the taiwan strait now or beyond her trip. now the biden team has been struggling to separate biden from pelosi. f