of their son. we re going to talk to evan gershkovich s freshman year college roommate in just a few minutes. we ll talk about the person he calls a, quote, exceptional friend and journalist. plus, we have breaking news to share. the man accused of shooting and killing 23 people at an el paso, texas, walmart in 2019 has just been sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences on federal charges and that is just his first round of sentencing. we re going to have the very latest for you any moment when we get our nbc news reporter who s there on site for us. we begin this hour at the site where republican primary race begins, that being iowa. right now former president donald trump is hitting the campaign trail in council bluffs as he continues to campaign and fund-raise. the republican leader writing in a lengthy statement last night that the doj is going after him and claiming that special counsel jack smith, quote, purposefully omitted the presidential records act. are quote,
russia is targeting the u.s. while strengthening ties with china. lead u.s. hostage negotiator is here to weigh in coming up. sandra: we begin, however, with the breaking details in the historic indictment of the former president. hello and welcome, everyone. sandra smith in new york. john, a good friday to you. john: and you as well. the news never quits, does it? i m john roberts in washington. this is america reports. a manhattan grand jury sending shock waves through the country. sandra: after they voted to indict former president trump relating to the alleged hush money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 election. marks the first time a former president has ever faced criminal charges. john: a source saying fox is expected to be arraigned next tuesday at 2:15 in the afternoon. he will not be placed in handcuffs after an agreement struck between alvin bragg and trump attorneys. sandra: bryan is live outside the courthouse here in lower manhattan. how is l
dramatically reduces redness in one minute. look at the difference, eyes brighter and whiter eight hours. it was love at first sight with efi. see for yourself. good afternoon. i m erica hill. thanks for joining us in the cnn newsroom and i m bianna golodryga, a major display today of democratic solidarity in china is watching it all right now in the outskirts of los angeles, taiwan s president, sighing wind is meeting with house speaker kevin mccarthy and other bipartisan leaders. it comes as taipei s relations with china steadily crumble and us chinese tensions continually rise over aggressive spying in beijing support for russia. but the u. s. does remain steadfast in its support for the tiny island nation next hour. we do expect, speaker mccarthy and president said to deliver joint statements from the reagan presidential library, and we will bring those to you live, joining us now. cnn s senior international correspondent, will ripley, who was in taipei and cnn chief whit
What do we know about gershkovich, what he s doing right now and the status of these talks for his release? hey, alex, the only pertinent information we have is from the consular visits he got from lynn tracy, the u.s. ambassador to russia. ambassador tracy met him only for the second time earlier this month at the notorious prison in moscow. let s make no mistake, the circumstances of languishing in a russian prison would test the metal of the strongest people. it s got to be a very difficult, very lonely, isolated and incredibly unpredictable place to be. as for the status of this possible release, prisoner swap, even those very early days, there seems to be a glimmer of hope. one question we were all asking ourselves is the u.s. holding any high profile russians that might be part of a swap, and nothing obvious popped out. now a name is being bandied
Know, that was good news at the same time. you know, in the first place, you should not be in jail so that s where we are at the moment, and it looks like it any day. now the u. s state department will declare him wrongfully detained. the wall street journal evans employer has an in depth piece about lawford s of a prison, a notorious prison in moscow, where famous dissidents and political prisoners high level prisoners, including americans, you have trevor reid spent time there. paul whelan spent time there and this is how they describe it. it s described as a sterile facility engineered to keep inmates. um, ever seeing one another and isolation that makes lefortovo hard to endure. i want to play sound from one of the most famous dissidents, former prisoners there at 1/4 of a baton sharansky, who was held there, the jewish refugee who now is in israel. he was held there in the 19 seventies. here s what he said about the prison. i had this experience when years ago. and the photo