hello, everyone, and good morning. welcome to cnn this morning. it is sunday, february 26. i m amara walker. good morning. i m boris sanchez. we are so grateful that you are spending your morning us with, starting your week with us. i am pumped to be alongside amara. how are you doing? same here. good to be with you. it s our friday. i am doing great. plenty to get to this morning. here is what we are watching. one thing that has been made clear to me is that everyone wants this contamination gone from the community. the epa stopping the removal of all contaminated material from that toxic train derailment in ohio as a battle now looms over how and where it should be moved. there is an outcry from neighboring states and the white house is responding, too. the war in ukraine is now in its second year and marked by fierce fighting in the east. our alex marquardt is there with troops from around the world who joined the front lines to fight russia s invasion. see
the country, specifically, gender roles. today in tennessee the republican governor billy see signed two controversial new laws. one bans gender affirming care for minors and the other restricts drag shows in the state. let s bring in former democratic congressman ron derrick jones and patrick is here and doug high. guys, let s start with the decision to ban any sort of doctors medical care for anyone under 18 who is looking who believes they are trans and is looking for any sort of medical treatment be it pharmaceutical, consultation or anything like that. doug, i believe you are comfortable with this new law in tennessee. yeah, i think one we have to treat people with dignity and respect and certainly what we ve learned over not just the past three or four years but 20 years, people that feel this way, are this way and have gone through this process quite often go through a very painful life and process. we don t want that. but there are differences between people who a
his attempt to be speaker of this house. this historic fight now surpassing the last time it went to multiple ballots. the prolonged 1923 ballot which was decided on the ninth ballot. this one will not be decided on the ninth ballot. it looks. yet for first time this week, there are some positive signs for the republican leader. they re drawing a line in the sand whether they go to the holdouts. it s not clear a deal will even net kevin mccarthy the total of 218 votes he needs to be speaker. republicans, they say they are firmly in the never kevin mccarthy camp. never. they just have one more house republican continues to join those four, he can only afford to lose four. kevin mccarthy will never wield the speaker s gavel. that is without help from democrats or changing the rules in some way. let s go straight to cnn chief correspondent who is live on capitol hill. we keep hearing progress is being made. progress is being made. kevin mccarthy is well on his way to breaking re
dozen states in the middle of legal battles over a abortion bans. and now some states are bracing for an influx of patients across state lines. live from cnn center. this is cnn newsroom. with michael holmes. we begin in ukraine where a u.s. supply advance weapon is reportedly starting to gain traction on the battlefield. the senior u.s. defense official says ukraine has used the high rocket launchers to take out russian command posts and other targets. at least four of those systems are already in ukraine. four more on the way. meanwhile, president zelenskyy accusing russia of terrorism following friday s missile strikes on a residential area near odesa. at least 21 people were killed. 40 others wounded. zelenskyy also says no one should buy russia s usual spin on attacks like this one. three missiles hit an ordinary residential building. a nine story building in which no one hid weapons, military equipment or ammunition. as russian propaganda and officials always te