month, secretary of state antony blinken was able to hold a phone call with paul whelan, he told him to keep the faith, he said it remain as u.s. priority to get him out. but as you mentioned, the u.s. says it that for months now had a proposal on the table to get whelan out of prison but has heard nothing back from russian authorities.proposal on the tab whelan out of prison but has heard nothing back from russian authorities. and he is not the only american that the u.s. considers wrongfully detained. you also have reporter evan gershovich, he is also being held in a russian prison, someone that the u.s. is also trying to get out. so right now you can imagine that in d.c. there is a diplomatic scramble as they try to interpret what this means. >> salma abdelaziz, thanks for being on top of it all. if you are just waking up, we are following breaking news. what was tropical storm idalia just reached hurricane strength. we'll get a new update from the cnn "weather center" in just minutes. plus a rescue helicopter on