Hallie Jackson NOW – Feb. 22 | NBC News NOW

we are coming on the air with the big mystery everybody wants answers to including the White House why did it take so long for tens of thousands of us to be able to make a call or send a text today AT&T says service is back online now but no word on what happened we're live with the questions on.

Accountability and the risk for emergency services after that stunning outage also knew tonight huge numbers on Wall Street with one Tech stop driving a record high what it all has to do with the AI Revolution then the shocking diagnosis for Wendy Williams is we're learning she has the same form of dementia as Bruce Willis by her family.

Says they're sharing this now to clear up the hurtful rumors about her health plus Vermin in Vegas bed bugs apparently on the strip with the bigname hotels are saying tonight and a groundbreaking moment in college sports for the first time ever players getting paid not for what they do in the game but for what they do for gamers one top QB telling.

Our team The Thrill is bigger than any check he can get we'll explain a little bit later on in the show hey there I'm hiy and tonight some major questions about this mystery that probably affected you or somebody you know how did tens of thousands of people wake up today not able to make a phone call or send a text with cell service shut down.

For tens of thousands of AT&T customers it happened all over the country look at the cities hit the hardest here New York Atlanta Chicago couple of cities in Texas you see it on the chart here some of these big spikes throughout the day it was really mostly in the morning you see from like 400 amm to noon just about people self-reporting these outages now.

Keep in mind that's all we can confirm these self-reports those probably don't capture the whole picture considering AT&T is the nation's biggest service provider 241 million phones on its Network millions of people may have lost service ultimately good news however as of right now as of tonight AT&T says service is back for everybody and.

They're saying sorry to the customers affected they say they're trying to take some steps to make sure this doesn't happen again but this goes beyond AT&T T-Mobile and Verizon customers also had some problems because they couldn't call people who have AT&T and we're still not getting the answer to the big question here how did this even happen in the.

First place even the White House wants to know the bottom line is we we don't have all the answers to that I mean this just happened uh earlier today and so we're we're working uh very hard to see if we can get to the to ground truth of exactly what what happened Brian Chong is covering this one for us tonight and listen Brian these days self service is.

Almost up there with like water and electricity in terms of infrastructure that people need you had major issues throughout the day especially when it came to emergency officials scrambling to try to calm folks down right yeah I mean this is a critical utility that went down for a lot of Americans this morning as you just mentioned AT&T a.

Major provider of Wireless services around this country and this morning AT&T users just simply weren't able to make calls on it and that's the reason why there's so much broad scrutiny into what happened today you just heard from John Kirby uh and we did get a statement also from the federal uh the Federal Communications Commission uh which noted.

Quote we are aware of the reported Wireless outages and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating we are in touch with AT&T and Public Safety authorities including firstnet as well as other providers firstnet by the way the first responder Network that AT&T runs that also had issues today uh and this is going even.

Beyond the FCC the cyber security and infrastructure uh Security Agency also taking a look into what happened today they haven't specified a reason but they said that they're aware of the reports and that they stand ready to offer any assistance needed as they try to work with AT&T to see what happened here but this was a very serious issue yes people.

Couldn't make phone calls small businesses were disrupted but in some cases Emergency Services were also affected as well there were a number of authorities around the country because this wasn't localized this is a nation wide issue in Dallas in Prince William County Virginia Charlotte meinberg I mean these are just a few of the public.

Agencies that said look 911 still works you had some agency saying if you couldn't access it through an AT&T mobile set you would have to use a landline and in one case actually in uh Boston the fire department was saying you don't even need to use a phone maybe you should use one of the 1,200 fireb boxes around the city to access.

Emergency Services if you need it so it's a really serious issue again AT&T says that it's back online the whole network is back online but it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people who got that SOS in the corner of their iPhone they were really confused about what happened and quite frankly in some cases I'm sure a little bit scared if.

They were in an emergency situation as well it's also mindblowing to think you have this sort of Emergency Services saying hey use this 150 year old technology these fire boxes on the street if you need it none of this though gets to the accountability Factor here because the bottom line is we still don't know what happened there's a lot.

Of pressure on AT&T to get some answers here what are experts saying on this like we know it's likely based on the reporting here not some sort of malicious incident is it just somebody hit the wrong button yeah well NBC News tried to speak with some experts to see okay well in the absence of AT&T offering any sort of explanation which.

They haven't by the way what could have caused this and one expert from Syracuse University LC Knight told us that it is possible but far less likely that it's an intentional malicious hack of AT&T's uh Network he said that it's more likely some sort of cloud misconfiguration which is basically a fancy term for saying a human error that may have.

Explained why for example it was only impacting AT&T yes downdetector.com which you mentioned there are some nuances to the way they calculate those numbers it did reflect Verizon and T-Mobile having issues as well but that's probably because AT&T customers were on the other end or the receiving the receiving or calling end of of of.

The issues this morning so uh a this speaks to the fact that we still don't have an explanation for what happened here but B I think it also cast a lot of light on just how there's really only a few players in the Telecom space so many people use AT&T so much so that it disrupted even people who don't have AT&T's ability to communicate with their.

Loved ones with their family with their co-workers uh this morning and what was a very chaotic uh Thursday morning hie Brian Chong thank you so much chaotic to say the least thank you more to come on this one tonight out west now we're seeing the dramatic and chaotic moments after a deadly shooting on the set of the movie rust with prosecutors playing.

Those clips in court today why the okay right there right there okay relax so in that first clip you heard the movie's director yelling in pain he also was shot that day afterwards you see Hannah Gutierrez Reed sobbing trying to tell police what happened this her in.

Court here she was the armorer on set she loaded the gun that went off in Alec Baldwin's hand in October 21 all of this events that led to the death of helina Hutchins the movie cinematographer prosecutors arguing it all happened because Gutierrez Reed was unprofessional they say and sloppy on the job here's how they wrapped up their.

Opening arguments today this is a statement that Miss Gus made uh when she was being interviewed on the day of the shooting she says at the end I just I don't know I wish I would have checked it more and so do we I wish I would have checked it more that statement there now.

Gutierrez Reed's lawyer says the state is basically making her a scapegoat they're saying they're they're pointing to her as the least powerful person on set trying to make an example of her she faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence she's pleading not guilty Baldwin is also facing a charge of involuntary.

Manslaughter he has pleaded not guilty and will'll go to trial later this year Dana Griffin is following it all live for us from Santa Fe tonight and let's start with the prosecution here because there's a couple of key questions that they want to be answering for the jury talk us through it exactly and they plan to do that hlee.

By a series of testimony evidence and other things that they plan to present during this twoe trial two of those questions they want to answer are what are the events that happened on set that led to the death of helina Hutchin also how did live ammunition end up on the set of the film and prosecutors believe it was the negligent Act of the.

Defendant Hannah Gutierrez Reed that led to one of the cinematographers death and also led to the ammo ending up on that set they also say that live that live rounds were found on the set days before days before the the shooting and they showed some pictures one shows a box of the rounds and they say that there's a silver.

Primer on that box that shows that that was a live round they say dummy rounds have brass primers they also showed Gutierrez Reed with what they say is a live round sitting in her lap on the set and they say that two of the cast members also held live rounds in their uh belt hie so that's sort of the prosecution.

Piece of this what about the defense side of it we said in the introduction that they are essentially trying to put more of the blame on Alec Baldwin who as we said goes to trial later on this year talk us through that piece of it exactly so they are pointing the finger at Alec Baldwin they say he is the man that pulled the trigger and he.

Didn't need the gun in his hand during that particular time of the scene because they were doing what is called blocking and they said he could have used anything else but had that gun in his hand listen to what the defense said Miss gueras Reed you're not going to hear anything about her being in that church or firing that weapon that was.

Alec Bal one rule number one never point a firearm at somebody unless you intend to shoot him and that rule was broken they said that rule was broken so they plan to point the blame on him they also say there was another person on set one of the crew members who after the shooting disposed of the rounds that.

Were inside that prop gun they say investigators hie never found those rounds so that'll be a key point if they can prove that during this trial I also want to point out some other key key points that they mentioned during this uh during their opening statements they say that OSHA completed this report and found numerous faults with production.

Not the defendant and they also said that again those dummy rounds not all of them have silver have brass primers so hopefully we'll hear from some hear from some experts who can cooperate that hie Dana Griffin live for us there outside Court in Santa Fe Dana thank you so much in just the last few hours we've seen President Biden sitting down with the.

Wife and daughter of Alexi naali who was up until his sudden death last week in a Russian Arctic prison the top opposition leader fighting Vladimir Putin you are seeing some of the photos here that the White House has released of the president and the family watch and it's amazing how his wife and daughter are emulating.

That navali it's tough to hear what the President says but he talks about now how naval's wife and daughter are emulating his work remember that's after Julia naly said just a few days ago she would try to continue the life's work of her husband and get to the bottom of his mysterious death world leaders blaming Putin for his death although Russia says.

That navali collapsed and died suddenly while on a walk while in prisoned the meeting comes as the president's getting ready to roll out what the White House says will be a new and major set of sanctions against Putin and Russia in response to what happened to Nel I want to get to Mike memoy who's with the president in San Francisco and here we.

Have I think it was unexpected right this meeting between the leader of the Free World right the commander-in-chief Joe Biden and the wife and daughter of Alexi naly it is a very clear and very direct message to Russia yeah absolutely h i mean we talk about the president over the last few weeks really speaking in very strong.

Terms about the need for the United States to continue to support Ukraine uh in their battle against Russia the need uh to support at a time when his likely presidential opponent this year Donald Trump has been casting doubt upon the NATO alliance but there's the power of the words there's the power of the actions that the president will begin.

Rolling out tomorrow in of new sanctions but then there's the power of this symbolism as you see it the president literally embracing nal's Widow here in what was a very unexpected development this was a trip to the West Coast which as they often are for democratic presidents about fundraising primarily the president only had a couple.

Fundraises on the schedule here in San Francisco it was just moments after our colleague Andrea Mitchell reported first broke the news about this meeting potentially taking place that the White House revealed that it had actually happened already and so in addition to these images that were we're seeing of the president sitting down with uh Julia.

Na davala as well as Dasha their daughter who live actually go attends Stanford University here in the Bay Area we got a readout of of that meeting in which the president does speak to uh the courage of Alexi novaly and the way in which you played that sound from the president that he was that his extraordinary courage and his legacy of.

Fighting corruption and the ways in which Julia Nala has now picked up on that so now we look ahead to that symbolism translating into what is the president going to be announcing tomorrow he interestingly in those brief comments to the pool here in San Francisco talked about sanctioning Putin uh directly which would be notable we.

Don't know if he was speaking just generally about sanctioning Russia or Putin if if that's going to be part of the sanctions all we've heard really so far from Jake Sullivan the National Security advisor and others is that these sanctions will be powerful which will take action against Russia's defense industrial base and the ways in.

Which it has been able to continue to generate income to fund its War machine as Jake suven pulled it earlier this week and so hi I have to say in these fundraisers as the president has been holding them here uh on the west coast we often get much more candid insight into his thinking and it has been very clear that in his re-election year.

Foreign policy continues to be very front of mine this is something that he has been bringing up over and over again even last night at a fundraiser which was supposed to be focused on in our environmental issues and so the president who has spent decades engaged in foreign policy uh continuing to keep that front and center here in his.

Re-election fight as well yeah clearly feeling comfortable with that territory Mike m live for us traveling with the president outwest me thank you to Wall Street now and big news with the markets electrified tonight records being shattered all over the place look at this the Dow passing 39,000 for the first time ever the SNP closing at.

Another record high the NASDAQ up almost 3% why what's happening this is mostly driven by that Gang Busters earnings report from a company called Nvidia I told you about it last night nid came out after the closing bell and said its Revenue nearly tripled from last year it's all driven by this booming AI business from Nvidia Caleb silver is.

Joining us now like people who care about business are looking at Nvidia go holy smokes and the markets are reacting here yeah investors are so bullish and they're so bullish on AI and AI related stocks Nvidia the poster child of that of course growing revenue tripling revenue and really bringing home a huge profit but these big stocks like nid.

Like meta like Amazon and Microsoft driving the market to new highs after new highs we've had 12 so far this year H we're on Pace to shatter the 2021 record of 70 if we keep going like this explain the sort of Fallout from this right because we all know that the market is not the economy that's what we say a lot but the market can be an.

Indicator of how the economy is doing is there any real world impact for like an average Joe who like doesn't hold Nvidia stock but maybe does have a 401k yeah well I think most people do own Nvidia stock through their 401ks it's one of the most popular most widely held stocks on the planet along with Microsoft Apple and meta and others and.

It's these stocks that continue to drive the market to new highs now 60% of us uh American Americans have investments in the stock market a lot of people have 401k so there's a wealth effect to the stock market making new all-time highs day after day which is what we've seen really over the last several weeks people feel that they feel better.

Looking at their 401ks but there's also the better wealth effect where companies now feel healthier wealthier May hire more people may expand more so it does have a ripple effect throughout the economy but the stock market always way ahead of the economy too Caleb silver appreciate that breakdown we're watching obviously what the Market's going to do.

Tomorrow too we got to get to some breaking news just into us in the last couple of minutes the FBI informant charged with lying about President Biden and his son Hunter has just been rearrested arrested a second time we're talking about Alexander smrnov this comes just days after his first first court appearance in Las Vegas Tom winter.

Is joining us now why Tom why did this happen why was he rearrested that's a good question it's one his attorneys apparently want to know hie earlier today at his Law Offices the law office of of his attorneys I should say in Las Vegas Nevada uh apparently agents showed up with a valid arrest warrant out of the Central District of California and.

Took him into custody but according to his attorneys it was for the same exact indictment and the same exact charges that he had been previously hit with I am checking literally as I'm speaking to you hitting the buttons on my tablet and there is no filing in the California case you might remember H that prosecutors uh once they were denied the.

Motion to keep him detained uh pending trial went to the judge the trial judge who will ultimately oversee this the district judge in California saying hey we'd really love it if you could reconsider this and overrule the Magistrate Judge and keep him held uh behind bars or in custody of pending his case before your court and they provided.

All sorts of uh pieces of evidence that they had previously rep uh gave to the judge in Nevada uh now as attorneys we didn't get this notification from prosecutors or the FBI but his attorneys say he was arrested there this morning and is now in federal custody and they would like to know why and there is no indication on the docket uh that the.

Judge has uh has granted some sort of emergency uh motion to to remand him basically to pull him off the streets because he's violated his agreement so a bit of a mystery at this point hiy but what we do know at least according to his own attorneys that Alexander smaroff is back in federal custody Tom winter lots to follow on that one keep us post.

So we'll come back to you for any updates as you get them appreciate it it's a national Fallout tonight from that unprecedented and controversial Court ruling in Alabama that says Frozen embryos should be considered children with President Biden late today speaking out against it saying make no mistake this is a direct result of the.

Overturning of Row versus Wade you see that statement from the president there so the confusion and concern now what this means for IVF patients not just in Alabama where multiple Healthcare facilities have put IVF procedures on pause but beyond Alabama's borders look at Florida there's a bill working its way through the state house there that.

Would let parents sue for the wrongful death of an unborn child with critics raising some similar questions about what that means for clinics who do invitro fertilization and those kinds of procedures very broadly supported by almost everybody by 85% of all registered voters by nearly 80% of Voters who describe themselves as.

Pro-life by more than 80% of evangelicals this is according to an October survey from a group that does polls for the healthcare industry you can see it here right support for IVF cuts across political lines which is why this whole Alabama situation has become politically perilous for some Republicans but Democrats including vice.

President Harris today pointing that out on the one hand the proponents are saying that an individual doesn't have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy and on the other hand the individual does not have a right to start a family Laura Jarrett is joining us now so it is politically thorny it is legally thorny for patients they have a.

Lot of questions here as we're now seeing today a second clinic in Alabama say wait a second time out we're going to pause IVF procedures too some are still operating so not just in Alabama but across the country how are people supposed to be thinking about this and what comes next it's sort of this bizarre Patchwork if you will hi at this.

Point I spoke um to two women today who going into this week weren't really sure what was going to happen obviously hoping for the best but now receiving the news of the worst which is their clinics are going to shut down all IVF one in one case the woman has been on multiple rounds of hormone injections for weeks now she is packing her bags.

Tonight hi jumping on a plane to Texas going to another state because she's saying look I've been at this for so long so much time and it's not worth it trying to restart and just waiting for the uncertainty another woman in Alabama hi telling me she can't even get her Frozen embryos out of the state she can't even pick up and take them to New.

York California Chicago she can't do that because Alabama is saying we are shutting down everything we're not going to even allow you to take your Frozen embryos which the state has now said are your children out of the state and that is because these healthc care facilities right it's not the state that's saying that it's these facilities that are.

Looking at this new ruling now saying wait a second we don't want to get sued it seems like conc is L about geted more about facing huge civil penalties here but explain that right because who would have standing to file such a lawsuit if not the patient who is seeking the IVF in the first place it's a great question because remember how this starts it's a.

Couple that's going through IVF and is devastated because their embryos were destroyed in the lab and so they sued for wrongful death trying to get money damages and the state said you can do that the Alabama Supreme Court said you have standing as the parents of those embryos and so the parents are the ones who only have standing it's not just.

Anybody off the street not just anybody can sue the parents are the only ones who would be able to sue for wrongful death but the clinics are saying we don't want to get sued because what if there's another accident what if somebody slips and Falls as the you know embryo is about to be implanted and so they're so worried what if there's a a.

Disaster with a thaw there's too many different possibilities which has put them on the hook legally now because of this decision hlee is it appealable in other words is it possible we could see the Supreme Court take something like this up no this is this is a state court the highest state court looking at state law you could try to ask them to.

Reconsider it but it seems unlikely that they would change the ruling really the only thing right now is new legislation in that state um and there's certainly a fair amount of pressure on lawmakers now especially from the women I've heard from who are just really devastated um again doing multiple rounds of this for years multiple rounds of expense um.

Liter left with no answers and cannot get their embryos out of the state but it's that exact issue Laura that that brings us to the sort of area that I cover which is the political Nexus to this and there is one right we've heard now we've heard from a number of top Republicans for example who are being asked about this who are being pressed.

About this including obviously Nikki Haley as we talked about yesterday who says she believes embryos are children but also seems to be walking back a little bit her support for this Alabama Court case I think about Mike Pence a couple of years ago coming out and talking about this saying he supported protections under the law for fertility.

Treatment let me play that I fully support fertility treatments and I think they deserve the protection of the law so you have this moment now where the state of Alabama is to the right of Mike Pence when it comes to this issue as it is exploding onto the national stage in a big way just months before the presidential election yeah to.

Have this happen in the middle of an election year when people are already sort of mobilized and riled up about abortion and this is different than abortion this is people who want to be pregnant desperately and who are very angry at lawmakers for taking that away from them I mean this is this crosses all of the political aisles as the polls.

That you showed people are overwhelmingly in favor of invitro fertilization other fertility treatments and again the laws that say life begins at the moment of fertilization that's sort of where the rubber meets the road then because if life begins at the moment of fertilization a fertiliz embryo even if it's only been sort of.

Dividing for 5 days has the same rights as the baby Laura Jared uh we're glad to have you covering this story there is a lot uh to follow here thanks for doing it appreciate also tonight a new court rolling on a case over whether a black student can be denied his schooling because of how he wears his hair with.

The judge ruling down in Texas that a high school there is within its right for suspending Daryl George over the length of his dreadlocks the decision is a huge development in this ongoing fight between George you see him there an 18-year-old Junior at Barbers Hill High School between him and his school district he's been on in school sus.

Supension or else at an offside disciplinary program for most of the whole school year already since school officials said the way he wears his hair violates their rules George and his family have said we are not cutting his hair here he is outside court has put a lot of emotions on me you know anger.

Sadness um you know disappointment just makes me feel angry very angry that you know throughout all these years throughout all the all the fighting for the black history that we that we've already done you still have to do this again and again and again remember this all has to do with the crown act which bans race-based hair.

Discrimination at offices schools other places in Texas I want to get to Morgan chesky who is live for us in Texas this is a ruling that a lot of people were watching because of the implications about what happens right the student not able to go to school because of the way that he wears his hair and the judge is ruling now for the district.

Why yeah hi I want to show you share you with you exactly what that judge said in this ruling that took place just a few hours ago saying in part that this District policy does not prohibit nor does it discriminate against male students who wear braids locks or twists those are the words of the state district judge chap III uh and hie this.

Policy that had been in place by the school in the student handbook stated that the hair could not come past a student's earlobes or their eyebrows and an important distinction here here is that the family of George says that the way he wears his hair those locks those braids it's always up he never lets them down the district's essentially saying.

That that doesn't matter if he were to let it down the hair would then be in violation of their code of conduct in the student handbook and that is why for the last several months he has been in an alternative school of sorts unable to sit with fellow students his mother saying that his grades have been slipping as a result of that and that.

He's felt lonely the remarks that we heard from that 18-year-old High School junior were actually given before this ruling after both he and his mother to emotionally distraught to even address cameras hiy what does this mean for the future of this Crown act which again was put in place to ban essentially race based discrimination based on.

Hair right Texas enacted this back in September 20123 we know that at least 20 other states have similar policies on the books we had a chance to actually hear from one of the authors of the Texas Crown act and here's what he had to say following this judge's ruling today take a listen it's a pattern and a practice.

That is continued uh and we thought in good faith we truly believe that we passed the Texas Crown act that it was stopped and it continued so it showed that they really were hellbent on just continuing the Discrimination so where do things go from here well the George family has.

Said through their attorney that they do plan to appeal this in court we'll be watching to see when the next court date is there meanwhile uh the authors of the Texas Crown act say that they might go back to the drawing board hiy and have a more explicit version of this go into place so that hair length is specifically covered so that a cases.

Like George doesn't end up in a courtroom as it is right now hie Morgan chesky Live for us there in Texas with that big story in your state Morgan thank you we got a lot more to get to here on the show including in just about an hour from now a moon landing that could make history we'll talk about why it's so significant and how it could set.

The groundwork for an even bigger Mission we're going to have that live in a little bit plus is Panda diplomacy back pandemonium at the zoo stay with us so in just about 1 hour from now in outer space we're expecting to see a moon landing that could make history with the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years.

Since the Apollo era in 1972 I want to show you NASA TV this is a live look this is like their pregame coverage if you will their big tea up to the big moment in 60 minutes from now when they're going to put something on the moon's South Pole a lunar lander part of a bigger mission to try to send astronauts to the moon in the next.

Couple years and to set up basically a gas station for Rockets kind of for them to refuel as the US looks to build up its presence on the moon Marissa par is live for us outside as we are looking and waiting for this big moment Marissa it explain why it's so significant here especially as we're starting to see a sort of new space race between the US.

And China yes and there's a lot of elements to this space race um in terms of why this is important first you mentioned the historic nature of it uh this would be the first US moonlanding of any kind in over 50 years you mentioned Apollo 17 that was also the last time we had astronauts on the moon but this is also.

If successful this would be the first time a private company lands on the moon and it's worth noting this is a totally different company than the one that attempted this exact same kind of lunar Landing about a month ago that was a crash and burn scenario Ed up crashing and burning here back here on Earth so this is called odyss it's about 14et.

Tall it was built by a company called intuitive machines it's part of $18 million contract with NASA they have really powerful uh cameras that are on board and so one of those cameras is actually going to be recording The Landing that's supposed to happen it's also going to of course provide some really key crucial images but one of the.

Most important parts of this hi you just mentioned this idea of a gas station so the lunar Landing Zone where it's supposed to land is the most important part of this so it's aiming for the South Pole and this is a key area of interest because this is where there's ice water that is completely untapped in those deep craters there and this is a.

Key area of interest between scientists astronauts because the idea is there's a thought and a hope that that ice water can be tapped into and somehow refined and able to be used and turned into Rocket Fuel so this would allow um missions to sort of use it as a gas station as you mentioned and get to other places within our solar system.

Like Mars so when we talk about the space race this is not only of course the race to the moon we're trying to bring humans back to the Moon sometime in the next few years they're aiming for the end if next year we'll see because that keeps getting pushed back but also the race to Mar so hie we'll see how this page of the Journey of the Space.

Race ends we'll see within the next hour and luckily for us you have a two-hour show so we'll be right back here in about an hour to let you know how that goes girlfriend do not go anywhere we're going to need you uh as we watch this potentially historic moment happen Marissa far thank you so much appreciate it let's get you over to the five things.

Our team thinks you should know about tonight number one a new round of tensions in and around the Red Sea today with Iranian backed houthi rebels in Yemen saying they shed a cargo ship on fire the ship was still able to sail but it comes as the US military says it shot down six houthi drones this morning the houthi say what they're doing is part of.

A bigger campaign to try to end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza number two Yale is bringing back standardized testing requirements for students who are applying a test optional policy originally related to co was in place for four years but now you're applying for the fall 2025 semester so this coming semester you've got to submit.

Either an SAT or an ACT score or AP or IB scores the school's ad missions Dean says the scores give them a better sense of whether students are ready for Yale's academic rigor but again Yale now just adding to the list of schools doing a 180 on standardized tests number three some of the richest people in the country are evading more than $150.

Billion dollar a year in taxes according to the head of the IRS so if you're getting your taxes ready paying a bill just think about that and an exclus inclusive interview with CNBC the agency Chief said a lack of funds so not enough money or resources made it harder to audit filings that are more complex but with a round of new funding they plan to.

Crack down regardless of how much somebody's supposed to pay number four it's time to play ball spring training style Major League Baseball's preseason games are now happening in Arizona the LA Dodgers facing the San Diego Padres in the first matchup baseball's back all 30 teams going to be in action this weekend LA and San Diego are also going.

To open up regular season play in April to that's in less than a month in South Korea number five Guinness world records has officially stripped Boby of his title as the world's oldest dog the pup from Portugal was reported to be 31 years old when he died in October but a bunch of vets and some other experts started getting suspicious after an.

Investigation Guinness found no conclusive evidence to prove Bob's real age but you know what he is still a record holder in his owner's heart how about that speaking of animals Panda diplomacy maybe back in a big way because we're just learning late today that China's planning to send a new pair of giant pandas to a zoo in San Diego.

Sometime this year remember that's only a few months after some of the last pandas in the country the ones at the National Zoo in DC were sent back to China in that very depressing video that you're watching here and there are some real geopolitical implications to this because remember the relationship between the US and China is at a low.

Point over trade and Technology the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine let's bring in Ali Rafa who is posted up near the White House okay fine at least a couple of pandas coming back and we're hearing there may be more talks to get the pandas back at the National Zoo here in Washington it's not just about people loving going out and.

Seeing the pandas chomping on their bamboo and like rolling through the snow there are diplomatic pieces to this puzzle too right absolutely this move is really representative of something much bigger because we know that this is a major reversal after we saw China late last year pull their more than 50-year-old.

Program of loaning pandas to the United States amid a deterioration of ties between the US and China and you think of how low relations between the two countries have been over the last few years over uh disagreements over uh the shooting down of the Chinese spy balloon last year disagreements over taiwan's right to Independence remember the.

United States has committed to defend and protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression China says that Taiwan is its territory you think of uh the uh us disagreements with China over buying Iranian oil supporting Russia and providing uh trade to Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine uh and so all of those disagreements were really the.

Backdrop for what we saw become a a major high stake Summit between President Biden and Chinese president shei last November in California where officials really tamped down expectations they said this wasn't this was going to be the first time these two leaders had spoken in over a year we shouldn't expect any major developments.

To come out of this meeting but one piece of news that really shocked the world was when Chinese president XI uh actually said he'd be open to potentially restarting this Panda uh diplomacy program a senior Administration official at the time calling it a Goodwill gesture because we know when this began in 1972 with the.

First pair of pandas going to the National Zoo in DC uh it was really a symbol a symbolism of friendship and relations between the two countries China loaning those pair of pandas around a million dollars per pair per year and that has helped to take these pandas off of the endangered species list according to experts uh so China as.

We know as you mentioned has now reached agreements to provide these pandas to zoos in not only San Diego but also Madrid and we know those talks are continuing to potentially provide pandas to the National Zoo again here in Washington DC as well as a zoo in Vienna conversations though on the timing of one we could potentially see that.

Decision made still unclear we still haven't uh even heard us officials respond to this news but there's certainly hopes that this could lead to a a benefit or a Resurgence of relations between the US and China better than what we have now hie yeah at least in some small way Ali Rafa thank you so much for that reporting appreciate it.

And we come back a major moment for college sports tonight players getting paid but not for what they do on the field we'll explain next plus how dozens of firefighters in La got a horse out of a sinkhole EA Sports wants college football players to get in the game the.

Video game that is offering what would be the biggest payout ever to col College athlet since the NCAA started letting players get paid by sponsors here's how it'll work EA will give 600 bucks plus a copy of the game which is worth like $70 to every top tier college football player it's like 11,000 athletes in exchange those players would.

Give the okay to EA to use their face and name in the game meaning when you're playing the game you don't see like a little generic person you're going to see the actual player it's a big deal in fact it is a watershed moment EA used to have really popular college sports games but they got shut down a decade ago after a big Anti-Trust case against the.

NCAA so now you've got players they are psyched like they are hyped including Kansas quarterback Jaylen Daniels who our team spoke with in just the last couple of hours listen I just remember as a kid being able to you know stay up with those late nights on the Xbox 360 playing NCAA it means a lot to me because I've always.

Wanted to be able to play as myself in the game George sise is live for us in Philly and now he might be able to when this game comes comes out right explain the significance of that and how the ath athletes would actually get paid by EA Sports here and what we've said is this sort of big deal.

Moment yeah that's right hi and come to think of it wouldn't it be cool to have little avatars of ourselves in all kinds of media that we could actually play and just sort of like experience like that virtual life these players of of course these guys have to opt in to have that opportunity to do that as part of this big deal here with the NCAA and EA.

Sports they're going to get paid annually at 600 bucks they have to opt in that deadline quickly approaching it is April 30th so they need to do it sooner rather than later that's going to follow them the duration of their career even if they change schools they'll still get that compensation as long as they are on an active roster what about.

Those that choose not to opt in as you know some Service uh Navy Army Air Force well they of course cannot be compensated so they're going to have like generic Avatar so they'll still be a part of it all but necessarily their likenesses won't be there so you'll get paid through a app through this company called learfield it's called Compass.

Basically they specialize in the nil business and then beyond that again it's a big deal because again there hasn't been a game like this in more than 11 years because of these lawsuits over players not being compensated some might remember the Ed oanon Case former UCLA player who basically took this to court saying look I don't want these games to.

Stop necessarily I just want to make sure that players are fairly compensated and so that Landmark decision there was some agre ments there were some disagreements ultimately groups settled and the bottom line is these games sto being produced up until now but again you have 11,000 or so players that will have to be incorporated into these games.

So again not everybody's face is being scanned per se but a lot of those details that really identify the players which is again huge are now part of this upcoming game that is set to be released very soon hie Co so can I just be $600 that's a I'm not saying no to 600 bucks no that's decent money it it's not Powerball money it's not the.

$33,000 that the NFL players union negotiated for NFL players to get when they're in a video game when they're in a game with EA to be fair it's fewer players EA is worth $38 billion you know any sense the players are going to try to push back a little try to get a little bit more money for themselves or they just going to.

Agree you know it's I think it's really telling and we're going to see once that deadline approaches that April 30th bench how many of these players opt in but for a lot of these guys this is bigger than the the ball game right I mean this is an opportunity to be part of something that's going to fall them throughout their collegiate career and.

Keep in mind for a lot of these guys 600 bucks yeah not that big of a deal when you're considering some of these players are worth millions of dollars to some of those sponsorships right 4.7 million 2.8 2.3 million 1.9 certainly not a a figure to to scoff at but as you mentioned we spoke with Jaylen Daniels QB for Kansas who really really put it into some.

Pretty good terms what it means for players like this to be a part of this franchise I feel like the connection that I have with the game since being a child is that's what matters to me most we're in a new age of college football and I'm ready to be able to see how it is playing with it yeah and he will definitely get that.

Opportunity as you mentioned and yeah maybe one day we'll be lucky enough hie to get some avatars made for us in any kind of game I'd like to see it well uh we would do it for free George soise thank you so much appreciate it NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day and because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all our Bureau teams.

Have done it for you this is what they tell us is going down in their regions in a segment we call the local out of our Northeast Bureau the leader of a New York City suburb has banned trans athletes from competing in sports facilities owned by the county the order by the Nasa County Executive requires sports leagues to designate teams as.

Male female or co-ed based on assigned sex at Birth Long Island lgbtq plus groups quickly condemned this move calling it discriminatory out of our Western Bureau more than 40 La firefighters helped rescue a horse after it fell into a sinkhole the horse ironically it name is lucky obviously not lucky in that moment was just.

Trotting around the backyard when suddenly the Earth opened up and swallowed it Rescuers used a pulley system to lift this 1200lb guy to safety doing okay though eating carrots not bad in ad Northeast buau a huge piece of a 19th century wooden ship washed up on a Massachusetts Beach more than 100 years after it sank look at that the adk Damon.

R ground in in 1909 during a storm it was buried apparently pretty intact in the sand locals say that as the sea levels started to rise as the weather started to change the wreck started to break apart which has brought some new discoveries to the surface coming up here on the show people visiting Vegas may have left with more than they came.

For not gifts but we'll tell you what has invaded at least a few popular hotels next guests at at least four Vegas hotels apparently had some bad luck during recent stay when they discovered bed bugs in their rooms reports dug up by our affiliate there show State.

Inspectors found bed bugs on multiple occasions up and down the strip over the last 5 months turning up at some of the bigger name hotels there like the Venetian The Mirage morea Barrett is following this one for us Mora um it's like let's not overstate the issue here the hotels are basically saying hey this is this is minimal it's not like.

Everybody's going home with bed bugs here but talk us through it well hi apparently what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay there because bed bugs as we all know can travel with you so the problem is is hotels are often uh sections where where bed bugs can be popular because guests are in and out they're so transient but if you take.

A look at this map here you can see the proximity of some of these hotels The Encore the V The Mirage and the Excalibur all right there on the strip and this is some this this is a place where people come in and out very frequently the Super Bowl just there are hundreds of thousands of people coming through that City but the.

The resorts Association is was quick to kind of downplay this they released a statement uh saying that this only happened in four different rooms over a 5-month period generated millions of room nights um they show that they showcase that it's extremely rare and an isolated occurrence unfortunately these pests can be transported anywhere.

Unwittingly and lugage and clothing I think it's important to note though when you think about it you have an issue with a hotel you often deal with it directly with the hotel these reports that the resorts Association is talking about are the reports that got got sent over to the local health department and so there's a chance there could be more.

But this is what we know exactly so it's maybe not an entirely huge deal I should note though in my research for the story I found that Las Vegas was recently added to the list uh of of cities that where bed bugs are concerned they're number five on the list so not incredibly High number one I found is actually right here in Chicago so as if.

My skin wasn't already crawling all day doing this story that was a new uh bit of research I found right behind it is New York and Philadelphia hie lucky you Mora Barrett glad to have you with us on that one thank you so much appreciate it we got a lot more to get through here on the show including some stunning news tonight around the health of one big.

Celebrity Wendy Williams why her family says they're forced to share her recent di recent diagnosis to clear up what they describe as for full rumors that's next we are coming on the air with the big mystery everybody wants answers to including the White House why did it take so long for tens of thousands of us.

To be able to make a call or send a text AT&T says Service as of tonight is back online but no word on what happened we're live with the questions on accountability and the risk for emergency services after that stunning outage also new tonight dramatic video kicking off the rust manslaughter trial showing the seconds right after the.

Shooting death of the movie's cinematographer why prosecutors accuse the film's armorer of being sloppy in their opening statements and what the defense has to say about Alec Baldwin then more on that news we broke last hour the FBI informant accused of lying about the bidens rearrested on the same charges our teams diging in to find out.

Why plus an NBC News exclusive on the babies of Gaza we'll show you the terrifying mission to evacuate them from hospitals under attack plus right now the NASA administrator in just the last couple of minutes says it is White Knuckle time with potential problems with the US spacecraft set to land on the moon any minute we're going to get.

Into these issues with the first black woman ever to go to space that's coming up a little bit later on in the show as we're watching that hey there I'm hie and tonight major questions about this mystery that probably affected you or somebody you know how did tens of thousands of people wake up today not able to make a phone call or send a text.

With cell service shut down for tens of thousands of AT&T customers it's happening all over the country or it did look at some of the Cities hit hardest New York Atlanta Chicago bunch of cities in Texas you see it on the chart here the big spikes of outages throughout the day mostly in the morning kind of tapered off by about 3 p.m. these are.

People self-reporting outages by the way that's all we can confirm the reports that probably doesn't capture the whole picture considering AT&T is the country's biggest service provider 241 million phones on its Network millions of people may have lost service potentially there is some good news as of right now six o'clock Eastern AT&T.

Says they've restored service to everybody they're saying sorry they're saying they're taking some steps to make sure this doesn't happen again but this goes beyond AT&T T-Mobile and Verizon customers also had problems because they couldn't call people who have AT&T and and there's still no answer to the big question here how did this happen even.

The White House wants to know the bottom line is we we don't have all the answers to that I mean this just happened uh earlier today and so we're we're working uh very hard to see if we can get to the to ground truth of exactly what what happened Liz C is covering this one she is joining us now live from LA and Liz I.

Understand you just finished speaking with one of the top cyber security experts in the country the former sahad a guy named Chris Krebs talk to us about what he's telling you about the potential answer to this question how did something this big go this wrong yeah Holly that literally is the question I asked him like people are.

Wondering how does this happen and he said you know he pointed out we don't know a cause AT&T has not said anything yet about what led to this it's not believed to have been a cyber security attack but he admitted that that's the first thing and that's where his mind went when he first heard about this he said big picture though it's just a.

Reminder of our Reliance on these cell phones these complex communication systems this technology and the vulnerabilities that exists then because of that here's what he said think back even just a few years ago you had other means of going about your day whether it was a landline or other sorts of uh Communications as well.

As you know other aspects of your life but now it seems virtually everything we do is connected to the internet and has some sort of digitization attached to it and you know he also said this comes uh really as s cell phone companies hie are phasing out landlines and really that's driven by consumers that aren't using landlines anymore but it just.

Shows the need for us to think about alternative modes of communication and I think what's also interesting is he pointed out the psychological effect of this he said what if something like this happened on Election Day and people didn't have their ways of communicating with each other so there's some broader implications we could definitely think.

About here man that thought experiment really starts to freak you out pretty quickly there's also the piece of this that relates to the emergency services right to like people who might be in a moment of Crisis needing to get in touch with First Responders here that was part of the scramble today too it it was and we saw from a lot of.

Uh agencies offices of Emergency Management agencies going out and putting out alerts to their communities saying please don't call 911 because for instance in Boston there was a situation where people started flooding um the the agency there because they were trying to see if their SOS system works which should allow you to call 911 even.

Without cell signals people were using it to test their phones and it was flooding um their their system and they were saying with the recent cell phone outages they were telling people if you have an emergency and you need assistance pull one of our 1,200 fireboxes over this technology has been operational since 1852 so we're.

Resorting to um services that are more than a hundred years old when we don't have our cell phones but we heard from a lot of people today that were impacted by this I was in an Uber this morning and she was saying is La rush hour and she was showing me her phone and there were like hardly any requests and she said I've never ever seen this and her.

Thought is that it might be a lot of people who just couldn't request rides because their phones are out hie Liz C uh so at least the service is back on the answers though still elusive I know we're following this one thank you Liz appreciate it tonight we're seeing the dramatic and chaotic moments after a deadly shooting on the set of the movie.

Rust with prosecutors playing that in court today watch the got okay right there right there okay relax so in that first clip you heard the movies director yelling in pain he was also shot that day afterwards you saw Hannah Gutierrez Reed sobbing trying.

To tell police what happened and there she is in court she was the armorer on set and loaded the gun that went off in Alec Baldwin's hand in October of 2021 events that led to the death of the movie's cinematographer helina Hutchins you see her there prosecutors are making the case they say that it all happened because Gutierrez Reed was in their.

Words unprofessional and sloppy on the job here's how they wrapped up their opening statement not too long ago this is a statement that Miss gueras made uh when she was was being interviewed on the day of the shooting she says at the end I just I don't know I wish I would have checked it.

More and so do we but Gutierrez reads lawyer says the state is making her a scapegoat essentially as she faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence she's pleading not guilty Baldwin is also pleading not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter he's going to go to trial later on this year.

Dana Griffin is joining us now from Santa Fe so prosecution says gutier re is sloppy the defense is saying she was actually doing everything she could on set today that she was overworked and that she is essentially a scapegoat as the least powerful person who was on that set explain some of the cases that each side are making.

Here yeah essentially hie there the defense is saying that Hannah Gutierrez Reed had to email her own production manager to say hey I need more days as an armorer because she was working two different jobs on this film set they said that production cost that production was cutting costs and that she even wrote in her email something to.

The effect of when I'm not able to focus on those duties mistakes happen and and obviously the shooting was accidental but investigators say it was her negligence that led to the death of helina Hutchin and she is the one who brought those live rounds onto the set even days prior to they even showed some images during court showing those live.

Rounds were mixed in with dummy rounds in a styrofoam styrofoam container that even some of the cast members belts had live rounds inserted in them and also that she even held one in her lap while on set before the latest round of dummy rounds were sent to the set so that's why they believe she brought those rounds onto the set now the defense says.

That just because you see well let me go back so part of what the prosecution is laying out here is that dummy rounds have a brass primer they showed one photo that has a silver one well the defense says not all primers are brass for dummy rounds so they are hoping to introduce that to try to you know poke holes in the prosecution's case hie what.

Do we know about what's to come in this particular trial we know the Baldwin's trial is set to start later on this year how long do we think this one will take who do we expect to hear from so this trial is going to take about two weeks we're going to hear from law enforcement officers uh crime scene texts Witnesses including actors the.

Director that was also shot on that film set and they're going to provide a narrative of what it was like working on on this production now the defense is going to try to point to a shoddy investigation by investigators to try to poke holes into this case so that they can try to get their their client acquitted but if she is found guilty on.

All charges how she could face up to 3 years in prison Dana Griffin live for us there in Santa Fe following all of it tonight Dana lots to follow thanks we got to get to some breaking news now because the FBI informant charged with lying about the bidens has just been arrested a second time talking about a guy named Alexander smirnov And if his.

Name sounds familiar it's because we just talked about his court appearance in Vegas earlier this week Tom winter is joining us now new statement now from this guy's attorneys what are they saying about why he's been arrested again what happened that's right H if you see me looking off camera it's because I'm waiting to see if we're.

Going to get some new information here from federal prosecutors on the record and with the docket we know that this arrest according to multiple uh people who familiar with the matter to myself and my colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick that the arrest was at 11:00 a.m. local time um apparently according to Mr smirnof and his attorneys they say smaroff was.

Rearrested on arrest warrant from the same court that he was planning on voluntary voluntarily appearing at when required he said he was inside the law office at the time of his arrest preparing his defense and they're seeking remedies to get him out again hi the key details are here as to why he was rearrested and if it's on the same.

Charges and the same indictment that's highly unusual so something and I think we're going to hear about it shortly something happened here where prosecutors felt the need to go to the court to get him back into handcuffs but the exact why of that is something that's obviously still very much up in the air I don't I don't want to put you.

In a position where you're saying something to get out over your skis but I will just ask it this way one of the things that came up initially was the concern he was arrested I think right as he was about to get on an international flight is the concern of being a Flight Risk I think that his attorney said said wait a second he's got ties to the Vegas.

Area right I think a girlfriend in the area could that have anything to do with why we're seeing him get rearrested or is my head in the wrong direction here well I'll take it a step further they called him a quote serious Flight Risk he is on a 24-hour a day GPS monitoring uh those are not foolproof uh there is obviously lives in Las Vegas he could.

Walk from his residence to McCarron airport U it's a situation and he's also an Israeli citizen so any appearance at an Israeli Embassy he could get a new passport he had to surrender his passports but look all of this to your point hie is right now speculation because we're still waiting to hear from federal prosecutors as to why this.

Arrest was made but yes a whole host of reasons as to why it could be it is an unusual Circumstance the way this went down and has certainly Peak my interest Tom winter if it's peing your interest it's peing ours as well thank you for bringing it to us tonight appreciate it got it so listen in just the last few hours tonight we're getting a look.

Inside what may have been an emotional meeting between President Biden and the wife and daughter of Alexi naal you're seeing some of these pictures here released handed out by the White House we should note of the three of them at one point you're seeing the president hugging naval's Widow in a San Francisco hotel room nval of course was up until.

His sudden death last week in a Russian penal colony the top opposition leader fighting Vladimir Putin here's what we heard from the president after the meeting he was a man of incredible courage and it's amazing how his wife and daughter are are emulating that ulia the Widow of Naval saying just.

A few days ago that she would in her words continue the life's work of her husband fighting against Putin and try to get to the bottom of his mysterious death the meeting comes as President Biden gets ready to roll out with the white house calls a new major set of sanctions against Putin and Russia in response to naval's death I want to get.

To NBC's Mike memy who's traving with the president in San Francisco so here we are at this really critical moment here a couple days away from the sort of commemoration of the second year of Putin's invasion of Ukraine couple of hours potentially away from the roll out of tough sanctions against Russia for the death of navali and now you have.

These very sort of public pictures being released by The White House of naval's Widow hugging President Biden it feels like a very clear message yeah it certainly is hie it's an important message at this moment especially when you think about the importance of these anniversaries right this is on Saturday the second.

Anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine think about how President Biden marked the first anniversary last year with that surprise trip to Ukraine something that was secret until we saw those striking images of the president work walking with President zalinski through uh the main Square there in keev what a powerful demonstration of the US.

Support for Ukraine up till that point the president would talk talk often about the fact that one of the proudest things uh one of the things he was proudest of as president so far was his ability to keep our allies together to support Ukraine but where are we now approaching the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine the.

President's struggling to get Congress to support that $60 billion in essential support for Ukraine to sustain this effort and so the the White House had been really struggling with how to mark this second anniversary in light of that the president just wrapping up uh the fourth fundraiser he's held here on the West Coast.

Raising his voice according to the Pooler in the room as he said the world looks to us to lead the Free World God darn it the president was quoted as saying and what was at stake in this election and so having this opportunity today to have that emotional meeting with uh Yulia n navala was important as the symbolism that has now come together.

Fairly late for the president to be able to to tomorrow roll out these aggressive new sanctions targeting Russia's ability to continue to make war against Ukraine so that the president could go into a meeting that's scheduled on Saturday with the other G7 leaders and talk about what the US is continuing to try to do but there's no doubt that there are now.

Questions among our allies about the US role in the world heading into this election year is very much on top of mind for the president as he's especially giving more candid assessments of that s so as he called President Putin in a fundraiser last night of trump and his support for him uh and so it's an important moment for.

The president to be able to do more to demonstrate the US commitment here Aly and Mike memoy many more threads to pull right on the Russia piece of this in the days and in the hours to come me traveling with the president out west tonight thank you back East to Wall Street and big news because the markets seem electrified tonight records getting.

Shattered all over the place look at this the Dow passing 39,000 for the first time ever the SNP closing at a record high the NASDAQ up almost 3% what's up with this why what's driving this the company you see here called Nvidia we told you about it last night they released their earnings after the closing bell and boy today we saw those.

Earnings drive a spike in the markets Nvidia is a big AI company and so there is a lot of excitement about the fact that their revenue apparently tripled that's maybe good news for the markets but the news for consumers today a little bit more mixed because it's now more expensive than ever to carry a balance on your credit card that's.

Because the interest the companies are charging people is at a record high leading to$ 25 billion dollars in revenue for those big credit card companies Kate Rooney is joining us now so the credit card money the credit card companies are making some money obviously people are paying more right is there any regulation on.

This yeah so fascinatingly there is actually not any regulation or cap on the amount that credit card companies can charge hie but there is something we should talk about called the APR you bear with me for a second we'll nerd out on the annual nerd out but in a very PL I know you're going to do it for us Kate if anybody can do it it's you so thank.

You we we'll boil it down but you've seen this before H it's the APR it's what the credit card companies are charging you it's the yearly cost of borrowing money that's essentially what a bank or any of these card issuers are going to charge the consumer beyond what they call the prime rate so it covers their basic cost those are really at an.

Alltime High the average card rate is now about 22.8% it's essentially double what it was a decade ago so it's not just the rate though the profit margins these credit card companies are making the amount that they are making on the back end is surging all that is according to this new cfpb report but the reason this.

Is key the reason rates are going up across the board is because what the Federal Reserve is doing their target interest rate that has gone up so the cost of borrowing anything has gone up mortgage rates have gone up the cost of servicing debt for the government has gone up so it's not a coincidence the credit card rates are also going up but.

It really has to do with what the FED is doing all of this though means record profit profits of the banks the card issuers and credit cards as a business are a lot more profitable for banks than other type of loans so good thing for the card companies but it it's fascinating I was looking into some of the caps on credit cards I was actually.

Shocked I had thought there was but it's there's no cap and you get these credit card aprs that are above 30% but there is a bill out there that's looking to put a cap at 18% which seems kind of reasonable if it passes we'll see Kate Rooney covering all of it all things credit card related for us tonight Kate thank you so much appreciate it thank.

You want to take you now to a live look at NASA TV this is it this is the control room it is Mission Control as the team is trying to pull off this historic landing on the moon that could happen literally any minute now historic as it would be the first US spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years we haven't seen something like.

This since the Apollo era in 1972 and here's the thing it has not been without some drama in the last few minutes we just heard the NASA administrator Bill Nelson warn that right now is White Knuckle time because there were some issues something having to do with lasers and the way that this moonlander figures out where to actually go.

Tonight's potential landing on the moon South Pole would be part of a bigger mission to send astronauts there in the next couple years and even set up what would basically be a gas station for Rockets to refuel as the US tries to beef up its lunar presence I want to get to Marisa par Who's Live For Us in Atlanta and so some sketchy moments.

There was some drama Bill Nelson was like oh no it's happening it looks like maybe there's some good news the lasers are working what's up well there there's always drama when it comes to trying to get either humans or machines to space alley so um I've been on this beat for just long enough to know that expect the unexpected so.

Just so you know for your awareness I am listening simultaneously to what is being said on Nas's live broadcast the mission control trying to listen for anything Key to report to you as we talk about what we've been hearing over the last hour um so it was just after I left off with you that we heard those comments from NASA administrator Bill.

Nelson um essentially saying and you mentioned this is a critical time we are about 3 minutes away from this slotted this is already um changed the time that this lunar lander was supposed to be making its Landing this has changed many times we're 3 minutes away from this time that it's supposed to land at 6:24 Bill Nelson called it White Knuckle time.

He said that there was an issue with the flight radar system so our understanding is the laser in question that helps measure the precise distance from the the moon um was not working so they're going to use NASA's onboard system onboard laser instead and that is really one of the biggest challenges here because hie we've talked about um how.

They're landing on a part of the Moon that is untapped that has not been landed on before there's so many levels to this that are historic but quickly as we're entering the around what we're supposed to see we're getting close here um but I want to mention the South Pole of the moon is the part that has not been explored.

Before this is a part that has icy waters that could provide Rocket Fuel you mentioned a gas station of sorts so it would allow them to um refuel if you will on the moon and I'm listening really quickly because I just want to make sure everything is on track here hi um but the on the South Pole is totally.

Different okay sounds good let me see if we can uh listen in if our control room can take this full live cuz we're now within just about a minute now from Landing a minute 20 seconds so as Marissa was saying this is aitch over like this is it are things going to go okay or not I want to listen just for a second here confirms pitch over this.

Starts the HDA process that's Hazard detection avoidance throughout this show you've heard Gary and I talking about the problem that was attempted to be solved in lunar orbit making the decision to not only postpone the show ndl indicates altitude of 1,000 M 1,000 M call out from ndl that is coming from flight management this is a.

System right now ndl was not intended to be the primary Landing system on this instead we're using two laser beams from ndl and feeding that into that Hazard detection and avoidance system that you see on your screen right now with the Lander making autonomous decisions about where it wants to land that is generally less than one minute.

Remaining to touchdown less than one minute remaining for touchdown and again that's the time of touchdown it may take some time to actually confirm the status of the Lander and in this process we do have a deployment of eagle cam attempting to take the third person images of Nova SE going down to the lunar surface we are inside of one.

Minute Gary so you have been listening here to the Mission Control Center essentially of NASA looking to make history here by putting the first American spacecraft on the moon since the Apollo era in the 1970s we are within just about 30 seconds from this thing making Landing now what you're seeing here on screen.

This is a simulation this is obviously the big picture on the left that is obviously not the real deal the pictures will come back to us a little bit later they're going to take a minute to confirm that this actually has landed especially after all those issues with some of the laser systems used to get this Lander on the moon's surface let's.

Listen back in because we're super close heard it from theion Direct Dr Tim crane a moment of silence here as they're waiting to try to confirm that this Lander has actually made it onto the surface of the Moon and one minute has elapsed from the notes that we have Gary of that origal burn.

Starting a PDI you have carrier lock that's MD asking if we are getting the ground stations locked on to Nova SE that carrier lock call Gary we expect that to come from ground net or Cal that conversation possibly not happening on our public channel that we have access to just standing by to hear that uh come through the channels as we approached.

Almost 2 minutes since we estimated The Landing time we did get a few call outs on the side folks coming into the room saying there was about a two-minute forgiveness in our timetables we were checking our antenna reception checking antenna reception so here's what this all means that in the course of the last maybe 90.

Seconds or so there is this window where they expected this Lander to hit the surface of the Moon remember the essentially South Pole of the Moon and what would be this historic moment for NASA and for the US Space Program essentially as we're in the midst of this kind of space race with China right now this Mission critical to the.

Missions that are set to come in the years to come so the deal now they got to make sure that this thing has actually made it onto the surface of the Moon didn't crash didn't have an issue they don't know that for sure yet right they think that between 624 Eastern as we're watching now and 626 627 the time that it is right now this thing has has.

Made it but they've got to confirm it Marissa par is watching this for us watching this with us I should say as it's happening Marissa you said it yourself it is always dramatic when any person or machine piece of Machinery lands on the moon let's listen and that's the mission director Gary these are our notes Here of what we believed.

We talked about the calm outages with the Lander making autonomous decisions this is the process of going through the last bit of data that came into Nova control and working to verify okay this this is the last bit of data where was this was the Lander possibly going how do we look for it and establish those Communications Novac uses four antennas.

Placed at the top of the Lander that are designed to capture these communications but we did expect this we talked about it that this is a Communications challenge in it of itself and right now we're standing by to hear that Communications call up just a little more than three minutes from the time of the when the clock.

Reached zero for Nova SE landing on the moon I think Marissa is with us now and Marissa as we are waiting for that essentially confirmation of this historic moment it is it is there is some tension right there is some drama here as they're looking to make sure especially after some of those technical issues that this Lander has made it to.

Where it's intended to go always some drama hie and I think it's worth reminding everyone who hasn't been following this this comes about a month after another company a different company attempted a lunar landing and was unsuccessful it was a crash and burn back here on Earth and so there's a lot of eyes a lot of people I've just been.

Checking Twitter and a lot of people who are tuning in to see the fate of odys rooting for a US waiting to see um if we're going to hear confirmation um that this was successful and so it's worth reminding everyone one of the many challenges here as we're waiting to hear from mission control and I'm listening really quickly they're.

Staying on this that's what they're saying um The Challenge here is that they're landing on a part of a moon that they have not before that we haven't explored before this is the South Pole they have lots of craters that have icy waters and those craters are probably also a key part of this because it's so important to have really precise.

Distance measurement from the surface of the Moon you got to be able to make sure that that vehicle is landing in an upright position on an even surface um those icy waters are a big part of what they're trying to explore and tap into specifically hi that is why they're exploring the South Pole um but it's different from the equator and it does.

Pose a lot of challenges and so that's one of the things that I think has a lot of people holding their breath right now because we've known just how tricky this was going to be Bill Nelson said it earlier we heard him calling this critical time a White Knuckle moment um and so it wouldn't be the first time that it was unsuccessful but I think of.

Course a lot of hopes writing on this because this is the closest we have seen a private company again we don't have confirmation on whether they made it successfully or not but this is the closest anyone has come at the moment well they are talking about possible Communications challenges here right so it's been about 5 minutes since they.

Think this Lander made it to the surface of the Moon the comm's issues becoming a problem here we're going to keep an eye on mer I'm going to ask you to stand by continue to listen in we going to come back to this the second we have any news but we're going to try to sneak in a super quick break on the other side more from NASA and more from Indonesia too.

After a tornado ripped apart parts of that country we'll be right back let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight number one gymnist Gabby Douglas remember when she came on our show and announced she was going to try to get back into the Olympics start.

Competing turns out she cannot compete this weekend in Kentucky because she tested positive for Co which is such a bummer because this is it the moment when Gabby Douglas made her comeback official with us right here on NBC news now she hadn't competed for eight years this was a huge deal for her this weekend in that Instagram post we just.

Showed you Douglas says I'm crushed but I'll see you guys soon her hopes our hopes they are staying alive tonight go Gabby get well soon number two Yale is bringing back its standardized testing requirement for new applicants it's interesting because it's a 180 they used to have a test optional policy up until really this year it was related to covid.

Initially it was in place now the L is going to make students applicants give them test scores starting in the fall of 2025 they are going to broaden out which kinds of tests the school says that's the best predictor of a student's academic performance Dartmouth just made a similar move number three major league soccer is kicking off this season with.

Replacement refs after some protests the pro referee organization locked out Union employees basically a denial of employment after the two groups didn't come to a contract agreement the whole thing also means the league is going to delay putting in place the new rules it planned on adding this season the MLS commissioner says the league is prepared.

To deal with the lockout number four getness world records has officially stripped Bobby of his title as the world's oldest dog the pup from Portugal was reported to be 31 years old when he died in October 31 in people years but a bunch of Chet said they were skeptical about that some other experts said they found no conclusive evidence to prove.

Bob's real age but obviously he is still a world record owner in his in his owner's Hearts number five some exciting news in the Panda World China set to send one male and one female Panda to the San Diego Zoo this year in kind of this Panda diplomacy moment this is just a few months after the pandas at the National Zoo here in Washington were.

Sent back to China officials said the pandas could come as early as the end of summer some may end up back in DC at the National Zoo as well who doesn't love looking looking at a little pandemonium there coming up we're going to check back in on that expected moon landing any minute plus wildfires flaring up again in Australia the new warnings as.

Crews race to get them under control that's just ahead in the global but first life under attack inside the mission to evacuate babies from a hospital in Gaza an in-depth look with our own Aon mclin coming up coming in now I want to take you back live to NASA headquarters where look.

Let's listen in oh silence we just saw the clapping and the cheering however that's the news out of this because Mission Control says they can confirm without a doubt that their equipment is on the moon which means they may have just made history by putting a that call Gary that was.

Something else a faint signal now it's time to work on finding that signal but Dr Tim crane our mission director today making the call odys has a new home it shows the disciplines of the flight controll smiles from NASA there you see as the US is set to basically make history if there is firm and final confirmation which will come hours from.

Now that odys has in fact that lunarlander made it to the South Pole of the Moon a big deal because this is the first US spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years ever since the Apollo era Marissa para is with us along with and we're lucky to have her Dr May jemson former astronaut and of course the first W of color to go to space.

Wherea let me quickly start with you and then Dr Json will'll get to you but Marissa set the scene for us a big moment for NASA yeah and it's been a dramatic uh actually it's been just a dramatic day in general following this but of course um the last 10 or so minutes I mean this was supposed to land at 624 and there.

Was radio silence essentially coming from odyss and so collectively everyone has been holding their breath you heard though um they confirmed that the equipment is on the surface of the Moon that's what they said um but in terms of the communication that's the part that is still lacking and uh that is the part that they said that they're continuing.

To reboot the system that they're they're planning on rebooting the system in order to continue to make contact with this lunar lander um and we'll talk about the historic nature in just a moment but it's really important to point out it's the location that was a big part and factor in why this was so tricky the South Pole of the moon is a.

Part of a moon that is undiscovered unexplored there's these icy waters that scientists astronauts hope can be used to potentially provide rocket fuel for Missions to other parts of our solar system including Mars so when we talk about the space race hie of course we have the Space Race we have the race to the moon to bring humans back to the.

Moon if this is 100% confirmed this is the first private mission to the Moon to to have a a lunar landing on the moon from you know a vehicle Landing but then we also have humans aiming to be back on the moon end of next year but then of course the race to Mars this would be a huge part if they can tap into those icy waters this would be a huge part of that.

But of course it doesn't come without its challenges hi remember just one month after a crash and burn an unsuccessful attempt to do exactly this Marissa par thank you so much Dr gemson to you we're so glad to have you with us at this major moment for NASA talk about what's going through your head what's going through your mind as you're.

Watching this all unfold and the the cheers and the smiles now from your former colleagues there well the cheers and the smiles are because they were able to take an um a number of different Technologies and really do some ingenious work with connecting things through and sort of saving the day and I think what particularly I'm feeling.

Right now is that that ability to build upon so much that we've done before is pushing us forward now I know we talk about the the race to the moon the race to Mars but I think that we should really think of this as humans progressing that we as a species as a planet are leaving our home but we want to leave it in a way that's sustainable.

And I don't me leaving it in that oh we're going away from Earth and we're not coming back but rather that we're able to expand and we're able to progress and so those are the things that are going through my mind but let's be clear there have been a number of missions to the moon this is one in a series what marks is differently is it.

That it's a commercial it was a tabbed as a commercial Mission and and what's also important here you talk about this being part of a series there there is more to come right I mean there are significant next steps that NASA hopes to take as we as you so eloquently put it talk about the way that humans are progressing Beyond simply our planet.

Right and and all of those steps are really I for me they not only have us going further away from our home here on Earth but at the same time they give us a better vantage point in which to explore our planet to see things about the universe to understand the universe so I think it's uh we really need to put it into a larger context not just one.

That wow they did this and that's the end of it but it's a series of things that we're going to be doing that we're going to be able to evaluate and even the technology advances that we have now really influence what we can do here on Earth right the Ingenuity with the communications all of those things are very.

Beneficial Dr Jimerson we're seeing on the left side of the screen a few pictures of you from from not too long ago and your and your moments making history how would you say in your view how would you compare the current St of space exploration to when you were sort of actively engaged in this how do you think about.

That wow it's you know what I really almost want to think more about less than when I was in in going into space we have a progression so we see that we have more players involved it's not just the United States and the Soviet Union former Soviet Union that are having humans in space we have India um has landed people um not people landed on.

The moon uh China there's a much more Japan there is much more breath in space exploration now so I that's a part that's particularly interesting to me but I would even say that I would compare it to growing up when I was in the 1960s and that is that people we have some hope that we can do things that are.

Bigger and better the we also have a lot of Discord and I what my hope and desire is that space can help to see each other more as part of this greater world and that we can move forward my fear is that as we talk about commercial expiration we forget that we have to share the moon right whose Birthright is it is it just the people who land there.

Right is it just the companies we really need to figure out a lot of things about what this means to go to other planets what it means to share what's on on this planet and I think it brings all of those things into Focus you so much for being with us at this critical moment here we're so grateful to you for joining us thank you.

And as we had to break much more to come on the other side including uh our original tonight but first that key moment when that lunar lander made it we'll play that for you the US has landed on the moon once again overseas now to a new but faint glimmer of hope tonight for some kind of.

Truce in Gaza Israel now saying it's trying to promote a new outline for a deal although keep in mind International leaders have tried for months to get another ceasefire a pause in the fighting in exchange for hostages released but nothing's come of it we're now learning today a top White House official is in the region to try and.

Shake something loose here and there's an urgency to it with Israel holding on to its threat to invade Rafa during Ramadan just a few weeks away if Hamas doesn't agree to a hostage deal before then an invasion of Rafa could threaten more civilian lives in a part of Gaza where desperate people are packed into whatever refugee camps or schools or.

Hospitals they can find and it's been hospitals under attack in this war like alifa the IDF says Hamas used it as a command center with the fighting putting some of gaza's most vulnerable at risk that includes you'll remember these newborn babies evacuated from alifa in a high stakes mission in the first weeks of this war and tonight our Aaron.

Mclaughin has an in-depth look as part of her new NBC News digital documentary into the harrowing journeys of these babies even younger than this war trying to survive baby anas's parents rushed to Al Amara.

Hospital hoping their son was among the rescued infants they scanned the list of names and there he was I'm us many of the alifa babies were suffering from dehydration sepsis and hypothermia with gaza's healthc care system overwhelmed it was decided they would go to Egypt for.

Treatment Ward and Jalal were faced with an impossible Choice keep baby be on us with them in a war zone or send him to Egypt where he'd be safer because only mothers were allowed to accompany the babies across the border they chose to stay together at this point they were.

Sheltering at a school in hanun most of the alifa the babies were sent to Egypt for care two of those babies are nor albana's twin daughters they were born premature.

Before the war now they're alifa survivors nor is a new mom the baby in the incubator is her daughter lean nor has never touched her daughter until now lean's twin sister Leanne is being.

Treated in another part of the hospital Leanne is strong enough for her mother to hold her did you think this moment would be possible nor is the only mother here when you see this row of babies without moms what goes through your.

Mind Ain mclin is joining us now Ain it is such a gut punch um to to see this and to hear these stories and to think about the parents having to make this unimaginable choice between you know separating from their child or leaving them in a war zone here um can you talk.

Us through now this is a documentary that you and our team have worked on for I know a very long time part of a bigger series what's the update for some of these babies yeah well it was a harrowing decision for the state family and it's a decision the decision to keep on us in Gaza that anas's father Jalal says he now regrets it's important to.

Keep in mind at the time they have been separated from anas for more than 40 days they fear that anas was dead they had no way to reach the doctors at alifa hospital they had no updates they were surrounded by rumor so when they saw anas's name on that list it was a rare point of relief and celebration you saw it there them reuniting with anas inside.

Of that encampment in Han yunes but they had no way of knowing what was about to come next and what came next is what they had to relocate to an encampment in Rafa and now anas is sick he's in badly need of a surgery he suffers from a hernia he's not sleeping he's not eating and now the family has no idea what to do hie it's incredibly difficult Aon.

We're glad that you are shining a light on some of those stories thank you I urge folks to look for more of Aaron and her team's reporting in the NBC News digital doc babies of alifa that is on nbcnews.com you can scan to watch now NBC News covers hundreds of other International stories every day and because it can be tough to read or watch.

Or listen to them all our International Teams have done it for you here are some of what they're watching in a segment we call the global out of Indonesia officials say more than 30 people have been hurt after a tornado ripped across part of the country dozens of buildings damaged look you can see some of the damage here officials say storms of this.

Scale are pretty rare out of Australia emergency officials are asking thousands of people to evacuate because of a bush fire burning out of control in the South about a thousand firefighters are there already but they need even more because they think this thing is going to get even bigger out of Greece beekeepers stacking dozens of empty beehives look.

At that in front of the country's Parliament today they're protesting high production costs and competition from imported honey Farmers have been demonstrating in Athens for weeks now blocking roads and border crossings as their unions negotiate with the government for some Financial relief thanks for watching stay updated about.

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