Capitol hill. There is a new bipartisan idea that seems to be gaining momentum as senate democrats are privately talking about going it on their own with infrastructure with a massive package. President biden turning the focus to his domestic agenda as a new bipartisan infrastructure pitch is gaining steam. Our focus is on a bipartisan proposal that focuses on true infrastructure and doesn t raise taxes. Reporter: spearheaded by senator romney and others, it calls for $2 trillion in total spending on roads, bridges and other physical infrastructure with roughly $579 billion in new spending. 21 senators, including 11 republicans are on board. Aides briefed president biden on the proposal today after he struck an optimistic tone in switzerland. I m still hoping we can put together the two bookends. Reporter: liberal democrats are already dismissing the plan as inadequate. If they really want this bipartisan deal so that they can go out and champion that, then we re going to have to talk
formidable adversary. president biden s hope is to open the lines of communication with russia. he wants to stop any further deterioration in the relationship which he admits has reached a new low point. there s a lot on the agenda from nuclear arms and climate change to recent cyber attacks and a potential prisoner swap for americans detained in russia. there will be no, repeat, no typical joint news conference afterward. instead each lead letter hold his own press briefing. the white house is determined to avoid the kind of embarrassing spectacle we witnessed back in 2018 in helsinki when then president trump took the stage with putin and said he believed the russian leader over his own, his own u.s. intelligence agencies. the long awaited biden/putin summit takes place next hour at the historic villa la grange. our team is here covering every monumental level and the stakes are enormous. let s begin with natasha. who will be there? how will it be structured? yeah, wolf.
Shelters as alerts came in and sirens were blaring. The iron dome intercepted some of the rockets. We know that according to the israeli chief of staff, 500 targets were selected by israel and already hit today in response to the rocket fire that started yesterday. To give you a sense though of where all of this is headed, we heard just in the past 20 minutes from israel s prime minister and the defense minister, benny gantz, they made it clear that israel will act decisively against hamas who is the sole organization behind the rocket fire. Israel holds hamas responsible. They say this is just the beginning of what is turning into a very large round of conflict in the region. More than 500 rockets fired in to southern israel. We have updated numbers from the palestinian health ministry who say that 30 people have been killed in israeli retaliation strikes. Inside israel, three people are dead from rocket fire. Lots of injuries. Really israel is bracing for what the night will bring. T
editor, joins us now from northern israel. what more can you tell us? well, the iranians have confirmed this general has been killed in this attack, that it hit the consulate, which is next to the embassy of iran in damascus, in an area that i know quite well, a sort of middle class embassy district. right at the heart, if you like, of the power dynamics that link up the syrian regime, hezbollah in lebanon, not very farfrom here, and their regime, hezbollah in lebanon, not very far from here, and their patron in iran. now, he was the senior general of iran, the irg c, which is the iranian revolutionary guard corps in lebanon and syria. syria is a big bang, and i think this can only be seen as a serious escalation. i think the israelis are testing the resolve of the iranians and their allies hezbollah, who have been fighting already, if you like, a war that hasn t had a great deal of attention because of gaza internationally, but it has steadily been going on here in northern
at least five people are reported to have died in the strike which has raised fears of an escalation of fighting in the middle east. israel has declined to comment. our international editor, jeremy bowen has the lastest. a few minutes after the attack, the building in iran s diplomatic compound in a well off central area of damascus seems to be on fire. the israeli strike destroyed the iranian consulate. it was a precision attack against a senior commander who will have worked hard to keep his movements secret. despite that, israeli intelligence must have tracked general mohamed reza zahedi to the meeting he was having in damascus. he was the senior iranian general in syria and lebanon two countries iran regards as critical parts in what it says is its system of forward defence, the so called axis of resistance. in damascus the syrian foreign minister said the general and others who died were killed by israel. translation: we strongly condemn this criminal act l carried o