what was it? let s go out front. good evening, i am erin burnett. out front tonight, a false pretext for war. the pentagon says it has evidence russia is plotting to produce a video that would fake an attack on russian troops. propaganda that would create a pretext for russia to invade ukraine. um, fake attack we believe that russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, um, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations and as well as military equipment at the hands of ukraine or the west. i mean, that s incredible, right? video that would include corpses, actors depicting mourners. that is a production, and it is all, of course, out of the mind of putin. and nothing has stopped right now the intelligence u.s. officials, they want it out there. they want people to know about this video because they hope that putting out that they figured it out would deter the russian president from doing it. we are p
good friday morning, i m jim sciutto. and i m bianna golodryga. opening ceremonies wrapped up kicking off the 2022 winter olympics in beijing. the zero covid policy forces a much scaled down version. a notable absence of diplomats from the u.s. and western allies all boycotting the games because of china s human rights record. in a show of solidarity between america s two rivals, vladimir putin met with china s xi jinping before the opening ceremonies, issuing a joint statement calling for interestingly a halt to nato expansion. of course that s one of russia s top security demands as it continues to threaten ukraine. and the breaking news we re following this hour, the u.s. economy added nearly half a million new jobs in january. that s a much stronger report than expected. cnn s chief business correspondent christine romans with more. and i got to tell you, i was talking to the white house yesterday, they were concerned about a negative report and this surprise is on
without power and thousands of flights canceled. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin with the death of the brettal leader of isis, targeted during a dramatic raid in syria overnight. the biden administration said the operation dealt a catastrophic blow to the terrorist group. oren leibermann has more from the pentagon. a u.s. raid shattering the overnight hours in northwest syria. special courses going after the leader of isis. last night s operation took a major terrorist leader off of the battlefield. and sent a strong message to terrorists around the world we will come after you and find you. reporter: president joe biden watched from the white house as special forces closed in on their target. the helicopters approached the three-story compound in the middle of the night, according to senior administration officials. once on the ground, special forces warned civilian
a tragic end after a mother s trip to mexico with friends to get a medical procedure. now two in the group are dead. two others found alive. how the group got lost and ended up in the hands of armed criminals. plus i m taking over this plane. taking over this plane, he says. terrifying moments on a cross-country flight when a man threatens to hijack the plane. the video as freaked out p passengers tried to react. plus, cnn s upclose look at how the chinese will go to control its country s messaging. welcome to the lead. and we start today with our world lead and new details in tin vest game into those four americans kidnapped in mexico last week. local officials say one person has been detained after two of the u.s. citizens were found d dead. the two others are thankfully alive, though one is severely injured, according to a u.s. official, and those two have returned to the united states for medical treatment and observation. family members say that the four were
now. new reporting from the white house this hour ready to go. those are the words of a biden adviser tonight about a 2024 run. and we re going to tell you what else is going on behind the scenes tonight. all new reporting from our phil mattingly at the top of the hour. plus, ron desantis new target is a small liberal arts college. his goal is to turn it into a conservative school and the man desantis putting in charge making double his predecessor. space race, inside china s spy balloon-making operation. famed astrophysicist kneel degrasse tyson is out front. let s go out front. good evening. welcome to this special edition of out front. i m erin burnett. tonight, ready to go. that s an exact quote. those are the words of a biden adviser tonight telling our phil mattingly about the president s plans to announce he s running for re-election. up until last week president biden publicly said he s not ready to make a decision on 2024. he kept using that words, i