northeast, accusing them of, quote, playing politics with human beings. they white house today the president is expected to personally meet for the first time with the families of brittney griner and paul whelan. the biden administration repeatedly saying securing their release from russian custody is top priority for him. let s begin this hour with our colleague katelyn polantz on the appointment of the special master to review the documents. it is a miracle as many pointed out that they agreed on someone, judge deary. i think the treat contentious issue that will lead to this appeal is what doj can and can t do as the special master goes through the stuff, right? right. and there is what this judge is able to do, whether she can or cannot do the things she s already done in this case. so the criminal investigation is paused, that s one thing judge aileen cannon did. the other thing is she has appointed special master judge raymond deary, he is a senior judge, very exp
Israel. Israel Defense Forces now say iran and their proxy forces in iraq, yemen, and lebanon launched around 350 rockets and missiles into israel overnight. Most of them shot down before they could do any he damage. But these attacks are threatening to escalate and already volatile, very dangerous situation in the middle east today, israels war cabinet met to go over options for response to iran unprecedented firstever direct attack. On israel from iran cabinet member benny gantz said vowing israel will exact a price from iran, doesnt abide meeting with other g7 leaders to virtually looking for a diplomatic path forward cnn has are correspondence around the globe covering all these late breaking developments for us, its a rapidly developing situation that unfolding right now in the middle east. And i want to start with Jeremy Diamond. Hes joining us from jerusalem right now. Jeremy, what are you hearing from officials there about todays war Cabinet Meeting . Well welfare, israels war
issue of mental health care which president biden includes as part of his unity agenda during the previous state of the union address. and it s certainly something that the president hopes will appeal to americans across the country and he hopes addresses a serious and much needed problem right now, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, when we see mental health care issues rising across the country. goodness, gun violence, drug abuse, a whole host, even kids social media use it s so front and center. s jeremy diamond at the white house. boris. coming up, hunter biden is set to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors, why they re sending a letter to the presiding judge. later, history made in the pool, superstar katie ledecky just tied onone of michael phel recordrds. we ll have the details in just a few minutes.
of paul whelan and evan gershkovich, two still held by the russians. we re still awaiting trevor reed s condition and we re told he s in germany receiving medical care. natasha, thank you so much. jim. happening right now, president biden is rolling out new steps to gain access to mental health care. it would close a loophole and require insurance providers to provide medical benefits that mirror the physical health benefits in their plans. jeremy diamond is at the white house. jeremy, that sounds significant because everyone s dealt with insurance companies who sometimes make it difficult to make claims for certain things. you can explain exactly how this would work and when it would take effect? reporter: the bottom line, jim, the administration says insurance companies don t cover by and large mental health care the same way they cover health care. people are more than likely to have to go out of network as one
joining us jeremy diamond and kylie atwood. jeremy, let s begin with you at the white house. these meetings are notable here. has the white house given any indication as to why they re meeting with them now? is it a sign of hope? reporter: yeah, well, listen, that would be the hope is that there could be some kind of progress here announced during these meetings, but the white house says that that is not the case. that people should not hold their breath for any kind of major breakthrough or an announcement today that the biden administration has secured the release of paul whelan or brittany greener. instead what the white house is saying is that this is meant as a gesture on the part of the president to show and to demonstrate to these two families that their case right side front of mind for him. the president i m told gets updated every single day on the progress and the status of these negotiations during his daily intelligence briefing, but and he has spoken on the phone with