captions by vitac www.vitac.com hello again, everyone. thank you so much for joining me this sunday. i m fredricka whitfield. and we re following several big stories at this hour overseas and right here in the u.s. u.s. secretary of state tony blinken continues his high takes meetings in the middle east. today he made an unannounced visit to iraq, as he tries to bridge the divide with america s arab partners in the region over the israel-hamas war. it comes as israel is resisting u.s. pressure for humanitarian pauses in the war and defending its air strikes against hamas and gaza, despite the mounting casualties. and all of this happening as former president donald trump prepares to take the stand tomorrow in his civil fraud trial that threatens his business empire in new york. and new polling numbers are also giving us a snapshot into a hypothetical matchup between trump and president biden, exactly one year before the 2024 presidential election. cnn s priscilla al