this is cnn breaking news. >> a very good thursday morning to you. it is a busy news morning. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm bianna golodryga. we begin this hour with breaking news. the leader of isis is dead. this following an overnight counterterrorism raid conducted by u.s. special forces in northwest syria. the syrian civil defense group says at least 13 people were killed, including 6 children and 4 women. >> it was the largest such operation the u.s. has conducted since the previous isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi was killed in 2019. these are dangerous operations. at this point we're told all u.s. personnel involved returned safely. president biden is expected to

address the nation in just moments. we're going to bring you those comments as they begin. >> we have a team of reporters and experts covering this from all angles. let's begin with barbara starr at the pentagon. and, barbara, we're now hearing that it was the target himself who detonated a bomb that killed members of his own family. what more are you hearing on this front? >> well, several sources, administration officials are telling cnn that the initial assessment they have from the ground is in fact the leader of isis al qurayshi blew himself up as u.s. troops were approaching or entering the building where they thought he was. and that these 13 people were killed, including 6 children, when that happened. of course, the military will look at this and review it as part of the standard after action review. there are always concerns about civilian casualties. that said, this mission was one of the most dangerous the u.s. military can undertake, special

operations forces went in, by helicopter, and it is our understanding from additional sources that these were members of the joint special operations command. that is the most elite. they conduct the most dangerous missions that can include the army's delta force, navy s.e.a.l. team six. we don't know what troops were on the ground, but we know this was a very difficult mission for them. in these kind of operations, they go in very quick, they go in very hot, they want to spend the minimum amount of time on the ground, to minimize their own risk and get out safely. they would have also kept eyes on this target. once they got the intelligence that the person they were looking for was there, there would have been continuous intelligence, monitoring the area to make sure the person hadn't moved, hadn't left, to make sure they had as good an understanding they could of where civilians might be in the target area. very complex, very dangerous, we

expect to hear more in literally the coming minutes from the white house, from president biden, on how all of this unfolded. >> and it requires an enormous amount of intelligence prior to make sure you know where those targets are. just quickly before we go to barbara, it is our understanding at this point that no u.s. personnel killed or wounded in this operation. >> that's right. we have asked repeatedly to make sure everybody apparently -- everybody did come back safely. >> okay. that's good news. these are dangerous operations. arwa, just across the border there in turkey, this war against isis in syria has continued, somewhat, out of the spotlight. but with some real fire fights, most recently isis fighters took over a major prison in syria. how has that fight been going and in your view how significant an operation is this one? >> well, first of all, we have been seeing isis carrying out

small small scale operations in syria and across border in iraq. the attack on the prison in northeastern syria most certainly their most significant operation to date. and there have been growing concerns that many analysts and experts on the ground and on the global stage have been warning about that isis does still maintain this capability to regroup, resurge, re-emerge and that the u.s. needs to be keeping a bit more skin in the game when it comes to that. but one thing that the u.s. has learned in the battles against isis is that the vast majority of the time when they do go after these isis targets there are civilians in the area, and quite often there are civilians in the very same building. eyewitnesses to the raid that took place -- took out isis' leader say there were helicopter gun ships overhead for hours,

firing, explosions were heard. if you look at the footage from the scene, you see it is not just the main target house or what is allegedly the main target house that was damaged. a number of other buildings, structures in the area also had what seems to be damage from explosives or from bullets. so the u.s. is going to have to answer a lot of questions if enough pressure is put on them, on the administration and the u.s. militaries to why they went in with such a level of lethal force. and if this isis leader was under such surveillance, did they not know that he was living inside a building that also had families and was the calculus made it was okay to put those women and children, no matter who they may be related to, at risk. when you talk to people on the ground in syria, they say it was a terrifying experience for them. and they also want to know why, why was the u.s. so willing to

go after a target like this, and so unwilling to take any sort of concrete action when it came to stopping syria's civil war. >> no doubt, a huge risk undertaken by this administration. natasha, just 24 hours ago that we were covering a pentagon briefing following the announcement that several thousand u.s. troops would be sent to eastern europe. at the time, was there any indication that this separate operation was also in the works? >> there wasn't, bianna. it is interesting, obviously, because this is a president who has wanted to end the -- wanted to bring troops home. we saw that in afghanistan. he wanted to end that war. he's wanted to end for the most part these kind of combat operations overseas. but syria has been a major exception to that. i think a lot of americans would be surprised to even know that the u.s. still has troops on the ground there that have been helping for the most part the syrian democratic forces fight isis over the last six, seven years there. those operations have continued

and despite efforts by the trump administration to pull out u.s. involvement in syria, that is continuing and that is something that the biden administration has said will continue because they see it as a very important mission there to kind of stymie the islamic state in syria. a couple of weeks ago we saw -- more recent than that, we saw that isis took over a compound in northeastern syria and u.s. troops had to be brought in to kind of help syrian democratic forces get out of that situation. so a lot is still happening in syria, i think a lot of people might be surprised to know that. but this is not a mission, i think the biden administration is going to be changing anytime soon, especially since they seem to have gotten this very high value target. >> well, it is a much smaller footprint. several hundred u.s. forces as opposed to thousands or tens of thousands in iraq and afghanistan, helping to butress local forces.

with groups like isis or al qaeda, you kill a leader, they name a new leader. this leader who was killed just in this operation, abu ibrahim al hashimi al qurayshi, we will hear an announcement of a new leader, no question, is this a blow to an organization like this, a significant blow or one they can recover from? >> yeah, this is a significant blow. what you're looking at is basically cutting off the head of the snake. but it is like the old greek myth mythology with the hydra there are many ways they can regenerate their leadership. they will have a counsel meeting where they will discuss who will be the next leader and that will happen probably fairly quickly based on what happened after al baghdadi was killed. with the death of al hashimi al

qurayshi, they will meet virtually or in person to select a new leader and will in all likelihood announce that leader as a means of declaring that they're still here, that they're still relevant, and that they're still able to carry out their missions and their terrorist acts. >> barbara, talk about the threat that isis still poses on the u.s. and our interests around the world, reminder to our viewers it was isis who was responsible for the murder of 13 u.s. marines and during the hasty evacuation back last summer from afghanistan. >> well, i think that actually underscores what the challenge is with isis right now, by all accounts, they have morphed into various organizations in various locations in afghanistan, in parts of africa. whether they still really have the centralized command structure that they did under baghdadi may remain an open question because these

affiliated groups around the world certainly have shown an ability to pick up operations. and that is a challenge for the u.s. to figure out how to get the best intelligence, and where, how and when to go after them. in the kind of raid that we saw overnight, now, we're still trying to get the absolute details. i want to say that. these are first reports. typically what u.s. forces will do in these raids to protect civilians is they at least will try and call out and say, send out women, children and civilians, and many times these terrorist targets, of course, simply won't do that. so, again, we're going to have to see what bears out on exactly how these civilians were killed. the military well knows that there is a good deal of skepticism about their efforts to protect civilian casualties. and even just several days ago defense secretary lloyd austin

issued a new policy, trying to at least to bring more attention to it and get to make sure this is accounted for in these operations. it is a very tough problem. we'll have to see how it all sorts out. >> wel remember, look at the bin laden raid, some members of his family did survive that late raid, were later captured in that. cedric layton, describe the intelligence here, tracking down an isis leader who i'm sure went through enormous effort to try to hide his location here. what goes in to the advance work to an operation like this? >> jim, the advance work from an intelligence perspective is extremely extensive. what you end up doing is you end up getting as much detailed knowledge as you can about the target and i think it is a high value target, this is a -- one of the critical elements that was developed in great detail after 9/11, but we had

antecedents before that with the drug war in places like colombia where we started to go after targets like pablo escobar. those kinds of things that you needed to get into were very, very detailed. so the intelligence preparation of the battle space as it is called, the jargon of the intelligence community, really involves knowing things like which way the door handles go in a specific building, you have to find out where the person is and how long they're going to be there, are there women and children in that building, who are they related to, you know, do they know that this person is wanted by the u.s., do they understand this, are they fellow travelers from an ideological perspective, family members? all of those things become part of it. they also want to know things like the escape routes, where is this target going to go, and they also establish before they

actually create the target package, they decide what the pattern of life of that individual actually is. and that's really the key thing. it is a pattern of life assessment, and it is really an effort to get very detailed look at how -- who that person is, how they live, and whether or not it is worth taking them out. >> and even the layout of the place, if you look at the bin laden raid, they built a scale model of the bin laden compound and trained in that scaled model. we don't know if they took or were able to have the preparations for this kind of raid, but those are the kinds of things that go in to a raid like this beforehand. >> yeah, really meticulous detail and planning going into this, especially when you have commandos on the ground there. as barbara alluded to, we're likely to learn more information in the coming minutes and hours. everyone in the meantime, thank you so much. we're expecting to hear from president biden as he's expected to speak about this raid just moments from now. stay with us for a live coverage of that. we're also watching some dangerous winter weather that

stretches from texas to maine. the snow and ice making many highways impassable. look at that. more than 40% of flights have already been canceled at a dozen major airports. also ahead, the ex-chicago cop convicted of murder in the shooting of laquan mcdonald is expected to walk out of state prison today. this after serving less than half of his sentence. now the naacp is calling for federal charges. do your eyes bother you? my eyes feel like a combo of stressed, dry and sandpaper. strypaper? luckily, there's biotrue hydration boost eye drops. biotrue uses naturally inspired ingredients. and no preservatives. try biotrue! with unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans, you can take advantage of free eye exams and free designer eyewear. - wow. - uh-huh. free yearly eye exams, designer frames and prescription lenses. take advantage now. wow! new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do.

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jeremy diamond and crime and justice correspondent shimon prokupecz is with us. the numbers have been disturbing, in many cities around the country. the administration knows the political implications of this as well. what is their plan? >> yeah, you framed that exactly right, jim. there are political implications to this certainly and the white house has taken notice of those rising crime numbers in certain cities and particularly as it relates to gun violence and that is where the white house believes it can and should focus its efforts as it relates it crimes, specifically on gun violence. the president today will announce a series of new initiatives being led by the justice department to expand some of those crime prevention initiatives that he announced over the summer, particularly one of those is targeting ghost guns, which is something that this administration has laid out a focus on pviously. that will be done through training prosecutors and law enforcement officials additionally on prosecuting crimes s as it relates to ghost guns, cracking down on the iron

pipeline, and the series of other initiatives. also pushing, of course, congress to continue to move forward with trying to pass some common sense gun reforms which we know is difficult if not impossible, particularly during a midterm year. but, really this comes in the context of those midterms that are fast approaching, republicans have sought to paint president biden as soft on crime, and this is an opportunity for him to unite with the like minded democrat in eric adams, mayor of new york city, who they will be touring together new york police department headquarters as well as the public school in queens to talk about community policing measures, making very clear this president and the mayor of new york city are very much not in a defund the police camp, but want to take additional steps to fund law enforcement activities and, again, specifically as it relates to gun violence in major cities in the u.s. >> yeah, and shimon, i mean, mayor adams said this is what he was mandated to do by voters when he was elected mayor. he made address crime pillar of

his first few days and weeks in office. how is he combatting the issue? we have seen two very emotional speeches at funerals for two fallen police officers, what more concrete measures are we seeing from him? >> right. right. and one of the things that the mayor hopes by the president visiting here at police headquarters, look, they could have done this meeting in washington, d.c., they could have done this meeting at city hall, but instead the mayor is choosing to do this at police headquarters, following the death of those two officers. he hopes this serves as a morale booster, but also what police officers all across the country and especially here in new york city have been saying is this they need the politicians to support them. they need that for politicians, elected officials to have their back. and this is what some of what eric adams has been talking about, this morning he talked about the help that he needs from washington, d.c. take a listen. >> we're saying to washington, d.c. sos, we need your help.

we have to stop the flow of illegal guns in our city. 6,000 guns removed off the street last year. close to 400 since i've been in office, yet they keep coming from gun dealers throughout this entire country. >> and one of the things that the president is going to be here -- people he'll be meeting with, executives here at police plaza, part of this task force that was set up between local police officers and state police and investigators, and d.a.s and also the federal authorities. such as the atf and the dea and the u.s. attorneys. they're trying to use stricter measures, tougher punishment to try and get guns off the street. and also one of the issues, of course, is bail reform. this is something that the mayor has been saying, that legislators need to change some of the bail reform, some of the way people who are getting arrested are getting released, they're coming in, and within hours they're being released. so this is something that we are going to hear from the mayor

certainly. but what they really want they need the federal assistance because they need more help. they need more resources and they need tougher measures which they can possibly get from the federal authorities. >> and new york cops talk about that iron pipeline, right? guns coming into the city from states with lax gun laws. shimon prokupecz in new york, jeremy diamond at the white house, thanks so much. turning now to a dangerous winter storm that is slamming parts of the u.s., experts warn a triple whammy of heavy snow, ice and sleet that is making travel just miserable in parts of the country, leaving many without power. the dallas-ft. worth airport shut down completely moments ago. that's a big hub. across the country, 4,000 flights have now been canceled. >> we're covering the storm from all angles. meteorologist derek van dam is in indianapolis, and cnn's pete muntean is at reagan international airport. and chad myers is in the cnn weather center. derek, first to you what are you seeing there now?

>> downtown indianapolis here at monument circle, we have vicious winds and blowing snow drifting over this area. the snow is hitting my exposed skin on my face, feeling like the pellets almost exfoliating your face in a sense. last night we drove in from south bend, a couple of hours to our north on a good day, but it took double that time just to get to indianapolis and we watched that transition from snow to freezing rain to rain as we entered into the city. that precipitation, that was all liquid last night, as these temperatures plummet and we go below freezing has now frozen on the surface. i want you to see this, this is an indication of how bad and how slick the roads actually are. you can see how i'm sliding across the sheen of ice on monument circle. that's what the roads are like. and the ice here is on the surface, now we have snow piling up on top of it. if you think this is bad, think about what is taking place in the ohio valley, the mississippi

valley. a full fledged ice storm taking shape near that battleground where our cold front is just slowly sagging south. we have cold air from the north, and warm air from the south interacting and that's creating just chaos in terms of precipitation. schools are closed here in indianapolis. people have been warned to stay off the roads. and that is the general idea here, that's what people are listening to authorities as this winter storm, this second part of this winter storm barrels in. it is nasty here in indianapolis. i also know it is difficult going at -- in d.c., we'll send it to pete at reagan international airport. >> you know, derek, just rain here at washington international airport. not so gooacross so many parts of the country. this is the worst day for flight cancellations we have seen in the last year. the numbers according to flight aware just keep going up. 4100 flights canceled now nationwide. this is the biggest number we

have seen since that big ice storm that hit texas around this time last year. and in this case, dozens of major airports impacted, including some of the biggest hubs for the airlines. look at the breakdown here, dallas love field, the headquarters for southwest airlines, about 85% of all departures there canceled. austin, about three-quarters of all departured canceled. dfw, the biggest hub for american airlines, about half of all departures canceled. a quarter canceled at chicago o'hare. the list goes on, cincinnati, columbus, st. louis, where southwest suspended operations just yesterday, a bit of good news here, though. airlines are proactively canceling these flights getting the word to passengers before they show up to airports and that causes more and more frustration. they have also issued travel wavers so that folks who want to change their flight and are impacted by this storm can free of charge, but we know chad myers in the weather center,

this storm hardly over just yet. >> you know, pete, you may be sitting in phoenix and saying, what's all this fuss about? it is just the midwest. if your plane was coming from one of the hubs, it is not going to get to phoenix. that's why these numbers just keep going up. nice job there. we will see the sleet continue, changes from rain to freezing rain and sleet and then to snow. as derek had, we had the layer of ice under the snow covering up the ice so you can't see it when you're driving. and you will feel it when you're shoveling. the snow still continues here across indianapolis. indianapolis, you won't get above freezing until sunday. this isn't going to melt by itself. little rock, you're in the middle of an ice storm, memphis, louisville, just to the south of cincinnati. northern kentucky, independence there, getting heavy, heavy rainfall and temperatures are in the upper 20s. those two things don't go very well together. the snow is to the north. the rain is to the south. this entire line as we move you into friday morning continues to slide to the east. there could be some ice in the tristate around new york city

and connecticut and new jersey. but mainly to the boston area tomorrow morning, that's whe your ice is going to be the heaviest. i suspect mass turnpike, all those areas will get big slowdowns tomorrow. high impact event across a lot of the u.s. >> yeah. boston just got hit by snow a few days ago. chad myers, derrek van dam, pet muntean, thank you. coming up, i'll speak live with a congressman who just returned from a trip to ukraine, what he makes of the order to send more u.s. forces to eastern europe. and we're just moments away from the opening bell on wall street. stock futures are down this morning, particularly the nasdaq after some very disappointing news from facebook's parent com company meta. investors watching the weekly

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today, members of the biden administration will brief congress about the decision to deploy 3,000 u.s. troops to eastern europe amid the threat of a russian invasion of ukraine. a kremlin spokesman told cnn that russia is worried by the move, it accuses the u.s. of stirring up the tension. joining me now to discuss the situation there in new jersey, congressman tom malinowski, he visited ukraine last week as part of a bipartisan delegation of u.s. lawmakers. thank you for taking the time this morning. >> thank you. >> congressman, i know you've been watching the situation very closely in addition to your visit there, briefed on the latest intelligence and watching the words coming from the kremlin. where do you stand today on the likelihood of further russian military invasion of ukraine? i say further because they already invaded ukraine as you know in 2014, but further military action, a fait accompli

at this point or no? >> i don't think it is. we were in ukraine last week. we found a government and population that is ready for anything, that is bracing for impact, but at the same time i think the biden administration has done a thoroughly excellent job in mobilizing our allies to try to prevent putin from going in through sanctions, through these deployments, which i totally support, and yesterday putin actually came out and said some things publicly for the first time which made me more cautiously optimistic than i've been since the start of this crisis. he said that he thinks that the united states is somehow trying to goad him into invading ukraine, so that we have an excuse to destroy his economy. that sounded to me like a leader who might be looking for a way out of this crisis. >> you -- you know putin's -- first of all, he has a history

of invadinge ing countries, he'e it in ukraine, in georgia, re-establishing a circle of influence, a sphere of influence around russia here. he's got a lot of pride. he fancies himself a strong man, what do you envision then as the credible off ramp here? >> well, we can't get putin what he has publicly demanded. we're not going to pull our troops out of europe. we're not going to say that countries like ukraine, sovereign independent countries n't get to choose their alliances that they have to be subjugated by russia. my hope is that continuing diplomacy, being -- showing russia that we're willing to talk, that we're willing to negotiate arms control, threat reduction, greater transparency around military deployments, and exercises in that region might

be enough to pull back from this. obviously really do it because he's afraid of the devastating sanctions that we would impose here. he's seeing that, you know, that his threats are causing nato to move exactly in the direction that he doesn't want. but i'm, you know, we don't know what's going to happen. i'm a little -- today than i was a few days ago. >> the deployment of new u.s. forces to eastern europe, specifically 82nd airborne brigade combat team, a combat unit with all the capabilities. now, this is not going to ukraine, this is to shore up eastern european allies. do you think that was the right move and a deterrent move for putin? >> absolutely. so just to be clear, when we were in ukraine, the first thing the president of ukraine said to us was we're not asking you guys to fight for us. we're not asking you to send troops to ukraine.

but we have a treaty obligation to defend our nato allies. poland and lithuania, hungary, romania. we want to send a signal to putin that our commitment to nato is absolutely solid. and we want to show him that if he continues these threats, he is going to see the opposite of what he wants. he's going to see more u.s. military deployments in that region than before. so i do think it is a signal, it is a warning and a deterrent, and i hope that putin is getting the message. >> i want to ask you about another topic today, because this is in our breaking news, that is this operation overnight, u.s. special forces operation which the u.s. says killed the current leader of isis, difficult operation, thankfully we learn all u.s. personnel returned safely. what impact do you believe this has on isis in the past, of course, for instance, baghdadi was killed, they named someone else the head and continued on their way. do you think this is a blow to

the group? >> i think so. look, isis controls no territory now. but they're still a threat. they launched a number of deadly attacks in just the last few weeks in iraq and syria. they're very present in afghanistan with our withdrawal. they have an opportunity there to reconstitute themselves. so i'm glad the administration is staying on the offensive. i don't think we can solve this just with special forces raids, but i do think this is a blow. >> as bianna noted earlier in the hour, isis-k carried out the deadly operation at the baghdad airport during the evacuation. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. well, he was convicted of murdering a chicago teen. now a former officer will soon be a free man. up next, the decision behind jason van dyke's early prison release.

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former police officer jason van dyke is expected to walk out of prison early today after serving less than half of his original seven-year sentence for the murder of 17-year-old laquan mcdonald. >> cnn's omar jimenez joins us live from chicago. omar, i know the mcdonald family is not happy. how are they responding? >> reporter: yeah, jim and bianna, the responses have been mixed. some are calling for federal charges and further prosecution of former officer jason van dyke, while others say, well, this is now done, let's focus our energy elsewhere. they all agree on they feel this state sentence was too short. if you remember, back in 2019, former officer jason van dyke sentenced to nearly seven years for murdering laquan mcdonald, shooting him 16 times. and based on illinois' good behavior statutes, always largely expected that he would serve roughly half of that time,

and bottom line, now that we're at this moment, his family is reminded they feel the punishment doesn't fit the crime. take a listen. >> they reduced this boy to a second class citizen. by saying that no matter what happened to him and how he suffered, we're not going to take his suffering into consideration. that is not how the justice system in this country was designed to be. if you are wrong, you should pay for what you've done. >> reporter: the mayor released a statement this morpning -- he was the first officer in more than half a century to be convicted of a crime committed purportedly in the line of duty. that's something the lead prosecutor in this case told me as well. now, as for when he will actually be released today, that's being kept underwraps by the illinois department of

corrections. we do expect that to happen at some point today. remember back in 2015, a lot of the protests centered on what was deemed a cover-up, police initially said laquan mcdonald was lunging at them with a knife, video showed something completely different. we expect protests today for pushes to instate federal charges against van dyke to happen outside the federal courthouse here in downtown chicago. the justice department has acknowledged they have seen some of these requests and heard them, but that they're reviewing information. >> video played such a decisive role in this case, look at the george floyd case, the ahmaud arbery case as well. omar jimenez, thank you so much. we're a day away from the official start of the 2022 olympic games. the road to the olympics includes navigating a pandemic. up next, a look at beijing's zero covid policy. what it means if an athlete tests positive. get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .0505% retinol ththat's also gentle on skin. for wrwrinkles results in one week.

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athletes from around the world are in beijing where tomorrow, the opening ceremony will kick off the 2022 winter olympics. this is a live look at where the olympic plane will soon light up the night there. >> but covid concerns still surround these games. as of yesterday, the beijing olympic committee said it has identified 55 new cases related to the games. that includes 26 people in the close looped system. coy wire documented his journey to beijing and all the covid rules he and his team now have to follow. >> reporter: beijing 2022,

athletes going to china to chase dreams. our journey from the united states started with an approval process that took weeks. be fully vaccinated, two negative pcr tests, a qr code, not like the u.s. where some places have hardly any covid protocols. one of the most locked down places on the planet. team usa chartered flights for its athletes for the first time ever. >> i know i've done everything in my power to not get covid and done everything right. >> been so strict lately. definitely makes things like going to the olympics not as enjoyable. >> reporter: packed with olympians from france, brazil, netherlands, monaco. this is my neighbor, bronze medal skier at the last winter gapes. he said these are crazy times. no family allowed and one positive test could squash his dream of a second olympic medal. seeing a flight attendant doing random temperature checks on

sleeping olympians made it more real. being greeted by people in hazmat suits is like a pandemic paradigm shift. the covid test on arrival called the brain scraper and let's just say, it's thorough. china's zero covid strategy is a harsh contrast to the screaming maskless fans and other countries. no tickets sold to fans here. athletes asked to mask up and not even cheer for teammates out loud. it's unsettling. while here, you could get a knock on your door at any time with a hazmat messenger to tell you to go to an undesignated facility for a length of time and one of the olympians already tested positive. they're very serious about covid here. it's a process we have to respect. these beijing games are a lot different than the tokyo games

just six months ago. daily covid testing. being confined to a well defined closed loop system. in the closed look, you coul say fenced in. if any doubt how strict chinese authorities are in regard to spreading the virus, these chain linked walls say it all. >> jim, biana, the stress for the athletes does not stop when they arrive. four time olympian alana myers taylor one of the flag bearers of tomorrow's opening ceremony, she's one of the athletes who tested positive. she's been in isolation facility for almost a week but good news, she texted me just a little bit ago. she finally had her first negati test. if she has a second consecutive one, after a 24 hour period, she'll be released. first olympics as a mom. one of the most inspiring athletes i've met and one of those rooting for. >> as you mentioned, very serious about the protocol but

bigger questions how sustainable this zero covid policy is for the long-term in china. >> no question. do you trust all the numbers coming out of there, that china has fudged them before. coy wire in beijing, thanks very much. still ahead, president biden saying u.s. military forces have killed the leader of isis in syria. what we're learning about that overnight raid up next. mployees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. yeah i should've just led with that. with at&t business. you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smart phone. this valentine's day, find the gift that touches their heart. ♪ ♪ this... is... how... love... shines...

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>> this is cnn breaking news. good morning, everybody. i'm bianna golodryga. >> i'm jim sciutto. the breaking n