Remember, these prosecutors not only have a trove of tax documents and other records. They ve also extensively interviewed trump s former personal attorney michael cohen over the past two years, as jim said, since he flipped. Remember, cohen turned on trump after pleading guilty to making hush money payments on the former president s behalf and lying under oath. It comes as no surprise that former president trump blasted the investigation as a witch hunt. So how significant is this? where does it go from here? let s begin with our senior legal affairs correspondent paula reid. Good morning. Tell us what exactly convening this grand jury. It s going to last a long time. What does this mean? maybe even longer than six months. There are ways to actually extend it. This is not good news for the former president that after two years, this investigation is entering this advanced stage, but it does not mean that he or anyone else will definitely be charged. At the heart of this case are quest
to the emergency takeover of the swiss bank credit suisse, but are the fears now easing. turning powder into bear. a german brewery comes up with a new product that could change the whole alcohol market and be good for the planet. president xi of china is on a state visit to russia where he s been warmly greeted by president putin. the summit has been the focus of a good deal of speculation following the publication of china s plan to settle the acute crisis in ukraine . mr putin said that moscow was always open to negotiation. but the americans have already warned that the chinese peace plan could be a just a delaying tactic. the visit comes just days after the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for president putin in relation to alleged war crimes. from moscow, our russia editor steve rosenberg reports. just three days ago, vladimir putin was named as a war crime suspect by the international criminal court, but that didn t stop china s president from f
for a rematch. and we begin this hour with tropical storm ian, and that s churning in the caribbean and getting stronger as it heads north towards cuba. now, ian, is expected to reach hurricane status monday before hitting western cuba. officials say they re expecting strong winds, heavy rain, and dangerous storm surges. now, ian then expected to turn into a major hurricane tuesday and forecast to hit the florida coast some time later this week. now, people in florida as you can imagine already preparing for ian. florida s governor has activated 2,500 national guard troops. tampa residents, meantime, are filling sandbags you see them there to try and prevent that flooding. and emergency management officials preparing for storm surges. we are loading and by the day we would have loaded 360 trailers and more than 2 million meals and more than 1 million gallons of water ready to be sent into impacted areas. you need to be prepared for sheltering in place. you may lose po
putin s plan to mobilize thousands more troops for his war in ukraine. and a historic election in italy where the most far-right ruling coalition since mussolini looks set to tak e power. and we begin this hour with tropical storm ian that s churning in the caribbean and gaining strengthen as it moves towards cuba. now it s expected to rapidly intensify before hitting western cuba with strong winds and dangerous storm surges. now, ian is expected to turn into a major hurricane tuesday and forecast to hit florida midweek. people in florida are already preparing for the storm, filling sandbags trying to prevent flooding. here s more now from the mayor. of course there s a high degree of worry whenever we have a named storm that we are in the trajectory or in the path of that storm. but we are preparing. you know, we like to rehearse and practice for these, but we certainly don t want it be on the main stage of ian. now, floridians are stocking up on emergency essentials
premiums all up. the cost of food consumed at home rose nearly 12%, food away from home, 7.4%. the gasoline index has increased 48.7%. the average national price of a gallon of gas this week, is at $5, highest in california at $6.42. trying to stem inflation, the fed said it will raise interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point, the biggest hike since 1994. new projections show interest rates may hit 3.4% by the end of the year, but because inflation is rising far faster than any of those rates, any money in savings is still being eroded. there s also a spade of layoffs adding to investor fears. cnn reports two u.s. real estate companies that had flourished in the pandemic announced layoffs of 8 and 10%. coin base laid off 18% of its staff. spotify plans to reduce hiring by 25%. elon musk, who already said he wants to lay off 10% of the tesla staff, is now intimating that if he acquires twitter, job cuts could follow. meanwhile, meanwhile, you ve got the january 6