suffering, and our desperation for his political gain. president biden s first-ever face-to-face meetings with the families of brittney griner and paul whelan since they were detained in russia. i would have done it sooner. still need to deal with the families and explain there are limited things that you can do when you have this kind of a situation going on. i m pamela brown in washington. you are in the cnn newsroom. a kingdom celebrates the life of its queen. a family mourns the loss of its matriarch. the queen s eight grandchildren came together to hold vigil as she lies in state. outside westminster hall, tens of thousands of mourners gather to pay their respects. the line stretching for miles, and the wait at times surpassing an astonishing 24 hours. president biden and the first lady arrived in london not long ago. they will be among heads of state from around the world to attend the queen s funeral on monday. and a short time ago, we learned that the queen
stand vigil by her coffin. we re seeing world leaders beginning their journeys to pay respects to queen elizabeth. president joe biden and the first lady departing the u.s. this morning to attend the queen s funeral, which is scheduled for monday. earlier today, canadian prime minister justin trudeau and his wife paying their respects to the queen as she lies in state at westminster hall. arlette saenz, max foster covering the story. the royal grandchildren holding vigil a short time from now. what will that be like? reporter: i think it will be very powerful. prince edward s children are particularly young. they ll gather around the coffin. this is something they wanted to do. they ll include princes william and harry. i don t expect to see the spouses there, the princess of wales or the duchess of sussex, but it will be a powerful moment seeing those children come in. the queen was dedicated to her grandchildren. they all had different relationships with her, different
and as the queen s grandchildren stood together in tribute, so does the public. the line, you have to take a look at these pictures, they are incredible. the line to see queen elizabeth lying in state is extraordinary, it stretches for miles. and this has been going on for hours day and night. the wait reaching longer than 24 hours at times. but some people in line got a memorable surprise as king charles iii and prince william came to greet them earlier today. the new king saying his mother would have been so touched. anna stewart has been spending all day speaking to people waiting in the epic queue to see the queen lying in state. anna, how is everybody holding up? sounds like this is almost so much reverence going on, but a bit fof atmosphere. reporter: yes, and right now looking at the tracker, it says 13 1/2 hours and tonight s weather will be cold. and i can attest to that, it is pretty nippy here in the uk since the sun has gone in. you can see though the queue is
for his political gain. it s hard to believe that a human being could treat other human beings like this. they re killing women and children in ukraine. there is clear evidence of torture, humiliating treatment of people. the world must react to all of this. i m pamela brown in washington. you are in the cnn newsroom. a kingdom celebrates the life of its queen and a family mourns the loss of its matriarch. the queen s eight grandchildren came together to hold vigil as she lies in state outside westminster hall. tens of thousands of mourners wait to pay their respects. as you can see, the line stretches for miles. the wait at times has surpassed 24 hours. right now the wait is around 17 hours. president biden and the first lady arrived in london last hour. they will be among the heads of state from around the world to attend the queen s funeral scheduled for monday. cnn s max foster has more. reporter: a steady tide of mourners pouring into the ancient westminster
the country has tried to stay neutral, and the war on ukraine has changed fin land s views of the kremlin, and their president said putin has himself to blame. take a listen. well, if that would be the case that we choose, my response would be that you caused this. look at the mirror. and neighboring sweden is also close to deciding whether it will also pursue nato membership cnn s nick robinson, good to see you nick, we spoke about people in the country questioning why it s happening so quickly and saying there was nothing to suggest russia would invade fin land, what is the leadership of the country saying about the speed of this decision and some of the criticism. the statement, along with the prime minister, is going to make a statement right around about this time. they are joining nato, it not the definitive joining. it will be in a key time in the parliament next week. it s going to set the direction and tone for the country. they have kept their thoughts and vie