washington. glad to have you. here right now in south carolina, there are major developments in alex murdaugh s double murder trial. the prosecution now respond ing after the defense presented its closing arguments yesterday. defense attorney jim griffin made an emotional plea when wrapping up his presentation. there are two words that justice demands this thises case and those two words are not guilty. the oath you have taken in this case it requires a verdict not dwlt. on behalf of alex, of buster, on behalf of maggie and on behalf of my friend paul, i respectfully request that you do not compound a family tragedy with another thank you. just before closing arguments began, the judge remove d a jurr for discussing the case outside of the trial. diane gallagher is outside of the court in south carolina. diane, what more did the defense say today as they were presenting to the jury in these final hours of this trial? reporter: jim griffin spoke for about 2 hours and 15
good morning. breathe it in deep. the weekend is here. and welcome to cnn this morning. i m boris sanchez. is and i m paula reid. boris, it s great to be with you. we appreciate you getting up bright and early. amara is skiing somewhere in europe. here s a look at what we re watching this morning. overall we created more jobs in two years than any administration created in the first four years. president biden taking a victory lap following a strong jobs report. where we re seeing those jobs. plus a stunning free falls that led to the second largest bank collapse in u.s. history. and testing the waters. presidential hopefuls sworm iowa this week as the gop race heats up. we have new reporting about when ron desantis might announce that he s running. i looked on the ground and it was flooded. he seems to be in a smiling mood for a natural disaster. california soaked by the another round of storms. those atmospheric rivers washing out roads, collapsing bridges and
and cnn this morning continues right now. good morning, everyone. we are following breaking news this hour out of greece. a train full of passengers colliding head on with a freight train. so far at least 36 people have been confirmed dead. we are hearing harrowing stories from survivors who say that the train cars quickly filled with smoke and with flames. worried that the death toll could go up. one of america s prominent mayors, lori lightfoot, defeated. and the price of insulin, that is just moments away. we begin with that devastating train crash that we were talking about in greece. it has killed more than 36 people and injured dozens of others. you can see the images here of the aftermath. it s a passenger train. it was carrying about 350 people at least. it collided head on with a freight train. multiple cars derailed and several caught fire north of athens where this happened. it it left carriages and heaps of debris in the wake. both were traveling on th
congress. merrick garland answered questions about everything from gun violence to tech giants to child labor and much more. he gave an early sign that he would not go into detail about some of the justice department s most politically fraught investigations. that includes the classified dork found at the home of current and former president it requires as much as possible we speak to our work and our filings in court so we do not jeopardize the viability of our investigations and the civil liberties of our citizens. as expected, the attorney general received his toughest questions from republicans. texas senator ted cruz slammed garland for failing to arrest any protester opposed to the overturning of roe v. wade who demonstrated outside the homes of some supreme court justices. in my judgment, the department of justice has been politicized to the greatest extent i ve ever seen. i vigorously disagree. i believe the men and women of the department pursue their wor
every day the heartbreak. we hate to start you off with the heartbreak. but this is at least a good moment. that was a moment a babe qui was saved after 65 hours under rubble in turkey. so we re glad to have you. sorry we have to report on such sad things. we ll take you live to turkey in just moments. john fetterman suffered a stroke on the campaign trail. he is in the hospital right now. details on what happened and his condition at this hour. also, not flagged as urgent when a new time line just revealed about what u.s. intelligence knew before that chinese spy balloon entered usair space. today, president biden is headed to florida to tout his agenda as rick scott is going on offense over his social security and medicare plan. we ll speak to the florida senator live in a few moments. we ll begin with this news in overnight. john fetterman rushed to a hospital. doctors are making sure he didn t suffer another stroke. let s bring in now our congressional correspondent