as pleasure mounts for a cease-fire, secretary of state antony blinken says far too many civilians have been killed in gaza. in the meantime, a mass exodus of palestinians trying to escape the violence. we're live from israel with the latest ahead. and after the u.s. downed a spy balloon and encountered several dangerous military jet maneuvers over the south china sea, president biden and president xi jinping of china will meet face to face for the first time in over a year, all in hopes of breaking the ice between the two world powers. but will it move the needle? and new york appointing its first ambassador to loneliness. we'll explain why. we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to "cnn news central." it has been another bloody and violent day across gaza as israel's war on hamas intensifies. and a warning -- some of what you're about to see is graphic, you may find it disturbing. stunning new video showing the aftermath of israeli air strikes on thursday. people buried under collapsed buildings. scores of other people trying desperately to pull survivors from the rubble, trying to pull them to safety. but as one u.n. official put it today, nowhere in gaza is safe. case in point, take a look at this -- this is gunfire sending palestinian civilians near one hospital in northern gaza scrambling, and this comes amid reports israeli air strikes damaged several hospitals. the idf has maintained that it exclusively targets areas with ties to hamas, and that any civilian losses are unintended. but the head of al nassar hospital says israeli tanks have completely surrounded his facilities, cutting off patients and doctors without power, water, and critical medical supplies. in the meantime, thousands of other gazaans fled south. opening a corridor with the promise of more pauses in the future. we have jeremy diamond in tel aviv. what more is happening on the ground there today? >> reporter: well, the israeli military now says that hundreds of thousands of palestinian civilians have been able to take advantage of those evacuation routes going from northern gaza and fleeing to the south which the israeli military says it safer, but clearly they are still operating in parts of the south, carrying out air strikes there, as well. but nonetheless, today the significant development on this evacuation route run is the fact that it is not only the road which is one of the main arteries going north/south, but also the coastal road, along the mediterranean, which was also open today for the first time for palestinian civilians to flee to the south. now the united states is trying to take some credit for what they are calling humanitarian pauses. the israelis are referring to as evacuation corridors. either way, the united states saying that they have seen some progress from israel in terms of addressing civilian needs in gaza and the humanitarian crisis unfolding there. at the same time, the u.s. secretary of state making very clear that much more still need to be done. >> much more need to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them. far too many palestinians have been killed, far too many have suffered these past weeks. >> reporter: and israeli forces are continuing to advance deeper and deeper inside gaza city. in fact, the israeli military, we have heard them in recent weeks as they have made clear that they believe that hamas is operating inside and underneath some of the major hospitals in gaza city. we have not been able to independently verify some of the evidence that they have put forward. but they have made clear that these hospitals could potentially be targets should hamas militants continue to use them for their operations. and overnight we watched as several of these hospitals, israeli forces operating very close to them, engaging in gun battles with palestinian militants very near to those hospitals. at least one of the hospitals, al nassar and a pediatric hospital, the director of the hospital telling cnn that israeli forces had surrounded it. we also saw as strikes, unclear if they were from the israeli military or from palestinian militants, landed in the compound of al shifa hospital, as well, and there were tens of injured and wounded palestinians over there. so the israeli military advancing on these hospitals. calls for international assistance to evacuate patients from these hospitals now. a very, very precarious situation with palestinian civilians caught in the middle. >> all right. jeremy diamond, thank you for that report. boris? president biden and chinese president xi jinping are set for a highly anticipated meeting wednesday in the san francisco bay area. it's a positive sign as relations between the two countries have spiraled downward in recent years. cnn's david culver joins us with the details. david, bring us the context of this meeting. what does it signal? >> reporter: let's first say fundamentally nothing has changed between the u.s. and china. it's still a very fraught relationship, still we're looking at a couple of places where we could maybe see some agreements. one of them being climate, the other being enhanced communication effortsyies' mili that's could prevent conflict. this will be xi jinping's first visit is since 2017. since that time, u.s.-china relation vs. -- relations have been in a free fall compounded by the pandemic, and amidst the war in ukraine, tengsds tension south china city, concerns over taiwan and the u.s. national security. that suspected chinese spy balloon that was shot down earlier this year, that only made things worse. this is a test to see if the two leaders can stop that downward spiral. china needs this, too. its economy is suffering. they've got a housing market that's in crisis, youth unemployment at record highs, so much so they have stopped releasing official figures, and for the first time in 24 years, a deficit in foreign direct investment. international companies are now uneasy about putting their money into china. so these are major concerns for an authoritarian leader whose communist party's unofficial agreement with his people is financial opportunity, prosperity, in exchange for social stability. >> yeah. xi jinping feeling that economic strain in china. notably there were multiple missed opportunities for a previous meeting between the two leaders. they haven't met again in more than a year. what did it take for this to come together now? >> reporter: yeah, the fact that president xi is traveling here to u.s. soil, to california, that is significant. it's taken months to pull off. while the summit is slated to happen on the sidelines of apec in san francisco next week, there have been multiple sub national visits and meetings to make this happen. biden's cabinet secretaries from state, from treasury, from commerce, have traveled to beijing in recent months. china's foreign minister coming to the u.s., was in d.c. last month, and even california's governor, gavin newsom, he was in beijing a few weeks ago. and he had a one-on-one meeting with president xi. so no way will all of this settle the many issues between the u.s. and china, but this is happening at a time when the world is in desperate need of stability, particularly between the two global superpowers. you saw jeremy diamond's report there, no doubt one of the big topics that's going to be in discussion between the two leaders is going to be the israel-gaza issues. >> yeah. dialogue, hopefully the first step in ironing this out. david culver, thank you so much for the reporting. let's bring in cnn global affairs analyst kim dozier to talk about this meeting. kim, what's the importance of this biden-xi meeting? do you expect to see any significant thawing, some even little progress in this relationship between u.s. and china, and how important is it that there is some? >> for both sides having the leaders even agree to meet is a huge signal that they're willing to meet face to face. and with biden those face-to-face meetings often do lead to better united nations. but you have to remember that both sides are firmly entrenched in their positions when it comes to the issue of taiwan. while the u.s. publicly says that it supports the one-china policy, it continues to arm taiwan in various different ways as china has continued to step up patrols around the island, harassing taiwanese jets, harassing taiwanese ships. and that kind of behavior also has continued throughout the south china sea wherever china has decided, yes, this might be labeled an international waterway according to international law. but we consider it part of our territory, and we are going to patrol it accordingly. that's the kind of thorny issue that biden is going to have to bring up. >> how critical is it to managing this frosty relationship as the war in ukraine continues, you know, and the u.s. is countering russia. and now you have the israel-hamas war threatening to balloon into a broader conflict in the middle east? >> well, in some senses the u.s. comes to this conversation a bit wounded by having to support israel on the international stage. despite the horrendous action of october 7th, what has dominated at the u.n. and -- and media channels across the world are the pictures of palestinians on the receiving end of israeli air strikes. and so when biden tries to get china to stop supporting russia, for instance, in the war on ukraine, they can come back with the -- the israelis cut off various food, water, electricity, and now you're asking us to censure russia for doing the same and prosecuting its war? so in a sense the u.s. comes at this without the same moral high ground that it usually has, and you can see in the international community especially among the global south, there are no members of the global south at last check who have sanctioned russia over the war in ukraine. in a sense, china's ally, russia, is winning in the global population stakes. so it's all the more important that each of the two capitals find a way to keep talking to each other while they have this global rivalry shaping up. >> as we turn to israel, we heard from secretary of state blinken this morning. what was really one of the most direct condemn nations of the civilian death toll in gaza which now is in the thousands upon thousands. this comes as cnn has obtained a diplomatic cable from american diplomats in the arab world warning the biden administration that its strong support for israel's military campaign in gaza, quote, is losing us arab publics for a generation. how are you looking at this moment and the long-term ramifications as the biden administration will have to tteal -- to deal with them? >> we know that in private the biden administration, lincoln directly, has been cautioning the israelis against indiscriminate air strikes. we also know that within the state department there have been complaints and slowly one by one some of the top u.s. allies have lined up in favor of calling for a cease-fire, not just humanitarian pauses or tactical pauses on the ground. so blinken does have to be seen as understanding this anguish and pain, especially in light of his own diplomats reporting back to him that there is this anti-americanism rising. but note he very carefully didn't blame a particular side for all of the deaths. the u.s. officials have also been very careful in all their briefings with us to say that they blame hamas for putting its armed facilities, its hqs, its headquarters, its weaponry inside civilian areas, specifically next to or under schools, hospitals, et cetera. while cnn hasn't been able to confirm that independently, it is what we keep hearing as reporters from both u.s. and israeli officials. >> i mean, these deaths may be unintended, as we hear the israelis saying, but they are highly predictable and astronomical at this point as we are watching this unfold. kim dozier, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. ahead, with just one week left, house republicans say they still don't know speaker mike johnson's plan to prevent a government shutdown. we're live from capitol hill on that. plus, a new court order in donald trump's classified documents case means his trial could happen before the 2024 election. and women dominating this year's grammy nominations with taylor swift writing her name in the history books. we'll have more on that ahead. here we are again just a week away from a potential government shutdown, and with deep divisions on capitol hill there is still no clear path on how to avoid it. new speaker mike johnson running into the same spending battles that plagued his spresdor and ultimately -- predecessor and ultimately cost him the gavel. a source telling cnn house republicans could release the text for a potential bill tomorrow which would set up a potential floor vote as early as tuesday. with the clock ticking, though, the house went home for a three-day weekend. yes. a senior gop congressman giving this blunt assessment of the situation saying, quote, the house is a mess. cnn with more from capitol hill. that is a pretty succinct exact description. >> safe and accurate, i would say. as of now, there is still no plan to avoid a government shutdown, just seven days away if congress doesn't act. speaker mike johnson is aiming to release things by tomorrow to put things on the floor by tuesday. as of now we are told that bill text is not finalized, with even some top republicans in the dark about what mike johnson plans to do and some lawmakers growing anxious for him to reveal his hand. some are warning that the honeymoon period for mike johnson, the new speaker, might already be coming to an end. let's listen. >> i think there's a honeymoon period here, i'm not sure how long it lasts, maybe 30 days. the honeymoon might be shorter than we thought. and every time the cr expires, the speaker's putting his head in the lion's mouth. >> reporter: now speaker mike johnson has been wrestling with this decisionmaking. he knows this is likely the most consequential decision he will make as speaker so far. but the problem for him is that his conference is divided. on one hand you have moderates and appropriators pushing for a straightforward clean stopgap bill, but then conservative hard-liners are pushing to extend funding for government agencies in two separate batches. essentially setting up multiple fiscal cliffs the rest of this year into next year. that is something that would be a non-starter in the senate. that is is why johnson has been torn over which direction to take. the white house says the office of management and budget already taking formal steps to prepare for a potential shutdown. a lot on the line for the new speaker. not a lot of time to figure it out, and all while critical issues are hanging in the balance. >> there you are, mel. i see you working, i see the tour guide behind you working as people are taking tours of the rotunda. i'm working. congress, not just like us today for sure. melanie live for us on capitol hill. thank you. as new house speaker mike johnson becomes the point person for passing trillions of dollars in government spending, he's also facing questions about his personal finances. his most recent financial disclosures show that he has no savings account, may not have a retirement account. in fact, he reports no assets at all beyond his house. cnn has the details. >> reporter: freshly minted speaker of the house mike johnson facing questions over how he keeps his own financial house in order. >> look, i'm a man of modest means. >> reporter: cnn's review of johnson's personal financial disclosures and campaign financial documents since coming to congress in 2017 reveal that the new speaker appears to be living paycheck to paycheck. financial records show that johnson, like many americans, does not appear to have much of a safety net. for past two years, he has not reported any assets and has never even reported a checking account on financial disclosure forms. the speaker's office says he has a personal bank account which is exempt from house reporting rules because it is noninterest bearing. meaning he does not have to disclose this type of account under house rules. while it's unknown how much is in that account, a source with knowledge of his financial situation tells cnn that account is not big enough to be leaving large sums of money in interest on the table. all this as johnson's liabilities are plenty. a mortgage for his family home valued between $250,000 and $500,000. a personal loan from 2016 between $15,000 and $50,000, and a home equity line of credit taken in 2019 for less than $50,000. as a congressman, johnson was making $174,000 a year. his salary will now jump to $223,500 as speaker. and he has made over $100,000 teaching online courses at liberty university since 2018. last year alone, johnson collected nearly $30,000 from the college. [ chants ] on capitol hill, to save money on steep d.c. rent, johnson is one of the many members of congress that sleep in their offices. a source with knowledge says the speaker will continue sleeping in his office for now, but did not know if that will always be the plan going forward. >> there are a lot of things on the minds of the american people -- >> reporter: johnson's financial standing in stark contrast to many of his colleagues on capitol hill. with the median net worth of his colleagues in 2018 at just over $1 million. some former speakers have done well. nancy pelosi is worth more than $110 million. ♪ before coming to congress in 2017, johnson was a lawyer. in 2016 he reported making over $200,000. >> i was a lawyer, but i did constitutional law. most of my career i spent in the nonprofit sector. >> reporter: and has said that much of his money goes to taking care of his large family. >> we have four kids, five now that they're very active and -- i have kids in graduate school, law school, undergraduate. we have a lot of expenses. >> reporter: that financial reality not unlike most american families. >> i didn't grow up with great means. i think that helps us be a better alleader because we can relate to every american family. that's who we are. that helps govern my decisions and how i lead. >> reporter: we don't know much about johnson's wife and her financial picture but she has income coming from a few places. a christian counseling company, her work with the louisiana right-to-life educational committee, as well as a general listing on this disclosure form for various clients. now lawmakers, they are not required to reveal the amount of money their spouses are earning, but johnson actually does in some of the earliest disclosure forms. he reveals she's made $45,000 to $50,000 a year, but he's not declared her salary since 2021. again, all this a very limited snapshot into her side of the earning for the family. cnn on capitol hill. >> thanks. coming up, cnn exclusive reporting on the staff at mar-a-lago that may be called to testify in donald trump's classified documents case, and it's not just those from the former president's inner circle. stay with cnn. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ dear moms and dads, what you have achieved here today is going to help us and our futures. it is why we're coming up on stage to collect your diplomas. mom, love you always. vo: when you graduate, they graduate. visit finishyourdiploma.org to find free and supportive adult education ce