Hallie Jackson NOW – Feb. 27 | NBC News NOW

tonight the real risk for Dangerous maybe even deadly weather for Millions across the country a dozen feet Yes feet of snow projected for one area with tornadoes and hail maybe heading for another our team is live on the ground and watching the maps we're going to get to that in just a second we'll also take.

You to Michigan where polls are about to close in the next couple hours the protest vote over the war in Gaza that could signal trouble ahead for President Biden and what voters are saying about where this goes come November and Wendy's wants to treat its food like their Ubers why that Frosty might cost you more just because of when you.

Ordered it plus a drug war ripping through Ecuador now under a state of emergency our reporter with rare exclusive access embedding with the Ecuadorian police as they try to fight back then to Scotland and what may have been a pint-sized fire festival with parents describing this immersive candy experience as less willly Wonka more.

Billy Bonkers why AI was apparently the golden ticket to duping a whole bunch of excited kids we've got that weird one later on in the show hey there I'm hie and right now we are on high alert for intense weather all across the Midwest with more than 40 million people at risk all part of this Whiplash weather we've been telling you about in Texas late.

Today some mandatory evacuations look at this you can see the haze in the air with fires burning through hundreds of thousands of Acres as we were coming into the studio the governor is issuing a disaster declaration for dozens of counties in New York people are waking up to hazy Skies from Wildfire smoke down south there was a delay at.

LaGuardia Airport because of it you see it there out west what could be the Sierra's biggest snowstorm of the Season we're talking 12 feet of snow in some spots and now in the midwest the possibility of hail a lot of wind maybe even tornadoes and the timing for that is is especially dangerous since we're getting closer to those nighttime hours.

When Twisters turn deadlier and let's be clear this weather is not normal for February this far north in the country in February Illinois and in Indiana have only ever recorded a couple dozen tornadoes versus in the south in Mississippi and Alabama a couple hundred but you know it's to blame something else that is not normal for this time of.

Year temperatures that feel more like summer than winter look at this highs in a lot of places probably where you are clocking in 5 to 30° above average more than 100 records set in the last 24 hours in Kansas people are literally out buying flowers for their Gardens but do not put the jackets away too quickly come tomorrow morning it's that Whiplash.

We're talking about a dramatic drop in temperatures by 20 to 50 degrees we've got meteorologist Bill Karen covering the latest but I want to start with Adrien brus who's live for us just outside Chicago this warm weather to cold weather Whiplash comes at a pretty high price a big concern concern about the severe weather that that kind of.

Uncertainty in the system prompts right talk us through it ell you are exactly right and that severe weather is affecting nearly 41 million people across the Midwest what's going to happen we could see temperatures dip 50 to 60° over the next 24 hours now that is according to our friends at the National Weather Service.

Chicago and with that brings a lot of challenges the three they're looking at hail the size potentially of golf balls those tornadoes you talked about happening overnight so keep your phones close by so you hear those warnings if they happen to go off and then after all of this once the temperatures have dipped the cities and cities across the.

Midwest people living there will have to deal with icy roads and Slick Bridges H talk about these crazy temperatures where you are Adrian so it's Chicago normally when I'm standing outside this time of year I have on gloves hat coat none of that today and earlier we were at Lake Michigan ahead of the dip in.

Temperatures people are taking a dip in the water the high for today 77° here's what some folks told us definitely not the weather we would expect in February um it's usually super snowy freezing you know ice everywhere it's perfect that's why I'm here I came to swim anything can happen in Chicago and she was not kidding we were.

There when she was swimming in Lake Michigan tomorrow the high is predicted to be 27° in on Friday 50 you called it weather Whiplash I call it an emotional roller coaster when it comes to the temperatures hiy yeah emotional roller coaster a physical roller coaster Adrien brus thanks so much meeter I'll just bill Karen's doesn't often see a lady in.

A bikini in Chicago in February bill but that's the reality of where we are the problem is right this system is going to trigger some of that really intense weather maybe in the next hour or two yeah we're worried about the dangerous stuff we're worried if we get the tornadoes during the overnight hours if it hits a town or houses or businesses.

That will be the concern tonight we also could get some really huge hail that could put some dents and cars smash from few windshields tonight too it doesn't look like much on radar right now the polar air is back here this is where all the warm air as ahead of it the Storm Prediction Center just issued their first tornado watch what a tornado watch.

Means is that the ingredients are there favorable for tornadoes as we go throughout the next couple hours you notice Chicago is included in that Milwaukee you are not decar you are not also it's the northern pretty much half of Illinois a little sliver of Indiana and a small small little portion there of Wisconsin that goes till 10:00 this.

Evening I do think we'll have additional tornado watches issued later tonight and from about 10: p.m. to about 4:00 a.m. we'll be concerned with this area along the Ohio River that's this enhanced Reg region in here you see we just talked about this area of concern tornadoes large hail later tonight along the Ohio River these storms will be rolling.

Through and maybe not just a tornado the possibility of a strong nocturnal nighttime tornado tornado and there's nothing scarier than that so anyone that lives in this region from Cape dardo Paduka Evansville up to Louisville Cincinnati area make sure that you have the ability to get warnings for tornadoes as you go throughout the night.

If you don't hear the siren in your town uh make sure you have it on your device or your weather radio or a media Source possible because it is a dangerous evening and we're talking about some of the incredible records we set yesterday we've done a couple more today Rochester and Detroit both with the warmest February temperature they've ever.

Recorded St Louis 85 degrees today that broke your record by about six so things are going to get cooled off and with this big change comes incredible winds we have 112 million people that's one in three Americans is under either a wind warning or a wind advisory all the way from the west coast to the Northeast and all the way down to areas of Louisiana.

You get these big temperature changes that means the air masses are changing quickly and you're going to get some pretty incredible wind gusts with it so 55 tomorrow in Buffalo 45 in Boston this isn't enough for widespread power adges but they will be isolated and as you mentioned that temperature plunge with these Gusty winds will cause it to drop.

About 50 hi I've been watching this all day long to see what the difference is Devil's Lake North Dakota isga 19 feels like if you go outside right now St Louis is 85 it's 104 degree temperature difference if you walk outdoors from North Dakota to St Louis I mean that's a shock to the system I'm telling you it's it's tough to even wrap your head around.

It Bill Karen thank you very much we're gonna be checking back in with you to see if we do get any of those tornado alerts tornado watches in the next hour so appreciate it we are now just a few hours away from polls closing in Michigan where we'll get our first preview of how voters are feeling in what could be the key swing state come.

November you've got President Biden there facing down this protest vote with some Democrats pretty upset over how he's handled the Israel Hamas War listen to how some have framed their decision to to vote uncommitted we voted uncommitted today uh again to put that pressure on the current Administration um to uh call for.

A ceasefire so that um we can see peace I'm hoping that it will tell the Democratic party that they are making terrible decisions our policy should be shifted 100% so you heard from Democrats there on the Republican side former president Trump's trying to keep up his winning streak against winless Haley but both.

Candidates not even bothering to travel to Michigan for primary night with Mr Trump expected to cruise to yet another easy Victory there I want to get into it with NBC's Shaquille Brewster who's on the ground force in Grand Rapids of Michigan the interesting part of tonight really is on the Democratic side not the Republican side so let me start there.

Right and this threat to the to team Biden of potentially thousands of people maybe tens of thousands of people voting uncommitted this is a messaging vote to be clear right there's no real risk that Joe Biden loses the primary there but it is a message as it relates to party unification as they head into November here talk us through it and about.

Interestingly some of the expectation setting that's happening here yeah let's start with that listen to Michigan group the group that's organizing to get people to vote uncommitted in this primary they're saying that they want their goal is to have 10,000 people do that uh when you talk to officials with that group they.

Say they're trying to send the message very clearly that there are people members of Joe Biden's base who helped him win and helped him flip this state back in 2020 who are no longer with him and the number that they put on that is 10,000 now you can tell that the Biden campaign at least has been watching and at least paying attention to this.

Because there's some counter messaging coming from the Biden campaign they're saying that when you put this in full context that goal of 10,000 is not as high and is not as significant as uh it it might appear on first blush look at at the numbers and look at the comparison to what we've seen in the past the past three Cycles they point.

Out have had about 20,000 voters vote uncommitted there's an exception there when you look at 2008 there are a whole bunch of party dynamics that get in the way there but they're saying even that goal of 10,000 even if it does happen that is not as impressive as it may appear on the surface and then hie when you look at the polling of those people.

Who say that they are going to be voting uncommitted in today's primary when they're asked who would they support in November if it comes down to Donald Trump and Joe Biden you have a majority of them saying that they would go and back Joe Biden some of them a good chunk of them saying that they'll support Donald Trump and then there's still many.

Of them who are undecided so they're trying to set off warning flags say we're not happy with your current policy and that you should be focused on getting our support back Ali so that's going to be sort of the interesting thing to watch tonight what is that number of uncommitted what do they hit right is it 10,000 is it 20 is it more.

And what is the response from the Biden campaign on the Republican side there is sort of an interesting expectation setting game a foot as well specifically as it relates to Nikki Haley who is promising to fight on at least through super Tuesday in early March here and her campaign is suggesting that perhaps even 10% of the Republican vote for.

Nikki Haley could be a significant win help us understand that because on a lot of planets that's not a win that's a pretty uh handy defeat if it were to come to be right and you add into the factor that in the GOP Primary uh the rules benefit significantly the person the candidate who gets more than 50% they get the.

Largest share of votes now the rules here in Michigan or delegates as to say the rules here in Michigan get a little bit more complicated but there is definitely a messaging battle going on as well Nikki Haley for example is not in the state today as you mentioned she instead is going ahead and looking forward to those super Tuesday States as.

She starts this nday or nine State swing into Super Tuesday I want you to listen to some of the voters that I've been talking to because Nikki Haley was here just yesterday and some of that messaging that she's been uh articulating has been seeping down to those casting their ballots listen here I think she represents a more.

Reasoned voice uh just tired of all of the uh nastiness having two solid candidates in the I I think it is is much better than than having um someone facing the criminal charges that last gentleman said he would support Joe Biden in the general election but he voted for Nikki Haley in the primary as a way to stop Trump's.

Momentum hle sha Brewster watching all of it there live for us in Grand Rapids Michigan we'll be checking back in with you sha thank you to Washington now and a word tonight we don't hear a lot of these days when it comes to Congress getting stuff done optimism yeah optimism but that is the word for now with President Biden.

Alongside the top four leaders in Congress for what one calls an intense meeting and they all seem to agree nobody wants this partial government shutdown that could start at midnight Friday shut down would damage the economy significantly and I think we all agree to that and we need to bipar of solution okay so what happens if there.

Were to be this partial government shutdown this weekend it hits first the Departments of energy Transportation the VA HUD March 8th next week you see then it hits defense department State Department Etc so their workers and thousands of others would be furloughed they wouldn't get paid but some of them would still have to come to.

Work the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also says things got in his words feisty when money for Ukraine came up with house Speaker Mike Johnson the meeting on um Ukraine was one of the most intense I have ever encountered in my many meetings in the Oval Office and listen that guy's had a lot of meetings in the Oval Office NBC's.

Monica Alba has posted up near the White House for us let's start with shutdown Monica if at the end of the day nobody in that room says they want a shutdown help help people understand what the holdup is to prevent a shutdown then well hiy and then if it feels like deja vu that's because it is this is the third time we've been having this.

Conversation in the last couple of months where we have been on the brink of a potential government shut down and in some of those cases it was narrowly avoided at the last minute and so that is why the White House wanted to call the Congressional leaders here to have this conversation to hopefully avoid this and to make sure that this doesn't.

Happen but there is sometimes very little agreement on how exactly to get from point A to point B even if everybody agrees we want to get to point B and we want to make sure there is no shutdown and the White House in terms of their readout of how this meeting went they said simply that it would be unacceptable to have any kind of a.

Government shutdown because of the ramifications that you were laying out there in this two-tiered process since it would be partial on Friday at midnight if it happens but then it would be full a week later in the middle of all of that is the president's State of the Union and there's a very big topic that is looming over a lot of this that.

We're also going to see a lot of attention on this week and that is funding for the southern border we know that President Biden is going to be traveling there we know that this is something that the house Speaker Mike Johnson raised repeatedly being connected to some of these priorities and other funding deadlines that they're.

Trying to juggle so everybody has their agenda for what they want to accomplish they say they have a shared goal we'll see if they can get there in the end the Optics of this aside Monaco because we've been showing some of that video and it is interesting here right to see how speaker Johnson in the room there with the president the vice.

President the other leaders and you heard uh the top Senate Democrat come out and say yeah it was intense when it came to funding for ukra Ukraine additional money from the US to Ukraine Johnson has essentially made that a non-issue but do we know anything else about why things got so intense if there were fireworks what that was about we.

Have a little bit of a window into it and that's partially because the CIA director Bill Burns was actually in the meeting and he gave a presentation basically on the implications here which long story short means if Ukraine doesn't get this proper funding they will lose this war that was the bottom line that's why Senator Schumer said.

That this is something is so dire and needs to happen we're talking in a matter of weeks otherwise the consequences could really be dire hie Monica Alba live for us there outside the White House tonight thanks to Georgia tonight and dramatic tense new testimony on a key question related to that election interference case against.

Former president Trump when did The Fulton County DA start dating the special prosecutor she picked to help lead this case you've got the judge calling Terrence Bradley back to the stand trying to get some clarity here he he's the ex divorce lawyer for that special prosecutor Nathan Wade who by the way was in the courtroom the lawyer.

From one of Mr Trump's Cod defendants asking repeated questions this went on for hours to try to fill in this timeline here right when did these two start dating but the attorney Bradley says he just can't say watch there wasn't a specific date there wasn't a football game there wasn't something that I can attribute to him.

Telling me whatever at this time I am telling you that I do not have the date okay remember why this matters the judge here could kick the Fulton County DA fonnie Willis off this case over these allegations from the Trump team that she may have benefited financially and inappropriately from this Romance.

The Trump team says it's all about the timeline Willis and Wade say they started dating in early 2022 after she hired him but one of Willis's former friends says no no the relationship started way back in 2019 Katie Fang is joining us now and Katie what we are still not getting here right what we haven't seen touched is any direct.

Evidence that the Fulton County DA financially benefited from this relationship which is the Crux of this allegation against her Fair yes that's not only fair but I'm so glad that you're bringing it up because that really should be the reason why a disqualification should happen if there's an actual conflict of interest.

Because fonnie Willis intentionally put Nathan Wade in this job who was her then boyfriend because they're not dating anymore so it's not like she's getting any continuing Financial benefit but if she did it so that she could get this personal financial benefit then that would make sense right you shouldn't have a prosecutor who's trying to derive.

This kind of money grab because her boyfriend has this job and yet this evidential hearing has veered off course now and is entered into the sideshow about when whis and Wade began dating but I'm not going to be flippant about it hie I will say this it is relevant whether perjury has been been committed did Wade and Willis lie about when that.

Relationship began because then that does speak to the defense's theory that Willis may have had some motivation to be able to put her boyfriend into some type of cush job but remember Terrence Bradley was supposed to be the star witness for the defense when he first took the stand about two weeks ago he offered a limited testimony but today.

Was supposed to be some huge Blockbuster event but take a really quick listen right now asked us specifically what he had to say about why he shared any information about his former client with the lawyer for Michael Roman no one told me I was speculating no one told you that no one told me that was this speculation when you told me.

That was that based on things that had been told to you and things that you had witnessed I never witnessed anything speculation I never witnessed anything hie that is not evidence and in the absence of evidence judge McAfee may not have enough to be able to disqualify fonny Willis we have to remember this has been I mean we have seen some real.

Intense moments through the course of this whole discussion this you know these questions about this relationship Etc fonny Willis remember when she took the stand a couple weeks ago let me remind people what that moment was like these people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020 I'm not on trial no matter how hard you try.

To put me on trial that's what you're really asking about this is the salaciousness of all of this right let me tell you which one you lied in right here I think you lied right here no no no no this is the truth judge it is a liot I mean finny will has fired up about this and part of this and she she laid it out here are the stakes of.

What is at play this election interference case against former president Trump so just big picture at Katie here for people that are watching that aren't like tuned into the ins and- outs here is what's happening right now related to this relationship that she had could that derail georg's whole case against former president Trump yes.

Because in the state of Georgia if a prosecutor is qualif disqualified the entire office of the that prosecutor is disqualified and then the case gets kicked over to a special Prosecuting Council that decides what new office is going to take it but when that new office gets that case whenever that happens because it could take a long.

Time that new office could decide not to pursue all of the charges that Sonnie Willis has currently obtained from a grand jury and so who knows what could happen to that huge Rico count that not only former president Donald Trump is facing but all of the other remaining defendants any timeline and when we know anything about this Katie when the judge.

May make this decision quickly summations are on Friday at 1:00 we should probably get a written order within the next maybe s to 10 days wow Katie Fang lots to watch uh over the course of this month thank you very much appreciate you being with us let's take you overseas because Hamas and Israel tonight are both pouring cold water on.

Those surprise comments from President Biden suggesting a ceasefire could happen as soon as Monday remember when he said that we he was at the ice cream shop with Seth Meers we brought it to as breaking news last night on the show but just 24 hours later now it doesn't seem like Israel's on the same page the Israelis say they didn't even know.

President Biden was going to say that in the first place Hamas is giving the same message here too let's bring in RF Sanchez live for us in Tel Aviv so what's up with this Whiplash right because the president came out you know in this very casual setting saying yeah maybe this weekend by next Monday I'm hopeful then you come overseas both.

Sides both Israel and Hamas were pretty dismissive pretty quickly so where do things stand hi Israel and Hamas don't agree on very much but they seem to be on the same page P this Monday deadline that the president mentioned in that ice cream shop in New York City is news to them Israeli officials are saying they.

Were surprised they did not get any heads up from the White House that this was a deadline a goal an aspiration that President Biden was going to be setting we did hear a statement from prime minister Netanyahu earlier on tonight he made absolutely no mention of a deal and instead he said he believes he has enough American Support.

To continue his military campaign inside of Gaza From hamas's perspective they have been scathing about President Biden personally calling him a political hypocrite for saying that he wants to see a ceasefire at the same time as supplying more weapons to Israel and they are saying basically at this point any talk of a deal is premature what we.

Know is that the negotiations at this point are focused on a proposal laid out by CIA director Bill Burns it involves a pause in the fighting for up to 6 weeks under this deal Hamas would release around 40 hostages including women who were supposed to come out in the last deal back in November in return Israel expected to release hundreds of.

Palestinian prisoners potentially including some who were serving long jail sentences for murder for terrorism for other serious offenses but both sides are saying there are major gaps still outstanding one of the big questions what exactly is the ratio of prisoners to hostages the other question is will Israeli forces withdraw from.

Palestinian cities inside of Gaza during any ceasefire Hamas says they want them out of the strip all together Israel is saying that's a nonstarter hie Raph Sanchez live for us tonight in Tel Aviv Raph thank you coming up why Prince William suddenly pulled out of a service for his Godfather and what the palace is saying about all those Kate Middleton.

Health rumors plus Google's plan to bring back its AI picture generator after it finishes some workshopping coming after criticism the tool is to woke we'll get into that next late today a new bill has begun working its way through Alabama that would protect IVF in that state just 10.

Days after that controversial Court ruling there saying Frozen embryos should be considered people if it seems like things have been happening at lightning speed in Alabama it's because they have this issue wasn't even on the State House radar a week ago look at this that Court ruling that came down happened February 16th The Dominoes.

Started to fall pretty quickly with the first Clinic suspending IVF treatment on February 21st two more followed last Friday Democrats in the State House introduced a bill to protect IVF over the weekend that explosive detonated at the AG's office he says Alabama Law Enforcement is investigating that and today two bills were introduced in the.

Senate both by Republicans all of it happening as the Biden administration's top health official is meeting today with families and doctors in Alabama who say their lives and practices have been thrown into chaos by this Court ruling all of it highlighting the significance of the issue of Reproductive Rights in a presidential election.

Year we're trying to figure out at the F Federal level what we can continue to do to try to be supportive of people who want to access their health care rights when and roow went down and and took away Health Care rights and access it did it to more than just abortion care Kathy Park is joining us now for more on this and Kathy this visit by the.

Secretary shows the way that this has become such a big deal not just in Alabama but nationally as well I know you've been talking with families today walk us through what you're hearing hey there H that's absolutely right I think uh it's been a roller coaster of emotions for them as they've been dealing with their infertility.

Journey uh tackling IVF and then a potential Embryo transfer um and then they tell me it really has been a gut punch when this ruling came down just a couple of weeks ago but as you mentioned the ripple effect has been uh pretty quick and the backlash has been quick here in Alabama we saw some movement today as you mentioned uh to Republican.

Uh Republicans have actually introduced legislation to preserve IVF and last week we also had a similar bill that was introduced by um the Democratic House minority leader Anthony Daniels but really hiy um IVF I was told uh time and time again it's timing is everything um and having to deal with this on top of everything else has been extremely.

Challenging um you mentioned Javier Basera the nation's top health official was in town here in Birmingham essentially having a a round table with IVF patients and providers um going through their stories their struggles um and just a few minutes ago actually just a moment ago we we spoke with Hannah miles and she is also um an IVF patient.

And has an embryo transfer happening in the next couple of weeks but she says everything is still kind of up in the air at this point take a listen we more than anyone know that an embryo does not equal a child because if it did I'd be pregnant the embryo that be so wanted desperately to be a.

Child it never will be and hiy to add to that conversation that I just had with Hannah um she said the financial toll has been great she spend so already $440,000 out of pocket and this Embry transfer that is coming up she doesn't know if it's going to move forward and if it does she doesn't know if that Embry will stick so it's.

Just a gamble that she is taking she is one of thousands of women here in the state dealing with the same thing and tomorrow we're going to be hearing their Collective voices at the state capital in Montgomery Alabama there's there's supposed to be a rally tomorrow morning around 9 o'cl um they plan on sending a message to the lawmakers that something.

Has to change they've been held hostage through the IVF process and they're saying that this ruling is doing the same thing Alie Kathy Park live for us there in Birmingham Kathy thank you for being there and for bringing us that reporting appreciate apprciate it let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight.

Number one two men now convicted in the murder convicted of murder rather of Jam Master J from Run DMC prosecutors say they killed him in a drug deal back in 2002 they could end up with life in prison number two some big business headlines today Sony says it's laying off about 900 people as it restructures Macy's says it's closing.

150 stores over the next few years including its Flagship in San Francisco according to CNBC the company says it'll instead focus on its other brands like blooming Dales and blue Mercury number three four eye ointments sold to places like Walmart and CVS are getting recalled remember this is after those ey drop recalls that made so many headlines.

For making some people blind now it's some ointments too the FDA says it's worried about how sterile things are at the facility in India where they're made they say people could end up with eye infections although the company behind the ointments hasn't heard of any problems so far number number four Prince William has pulled out of the.

Memorial service for his Godfather Greece's King Constantine why Kensington Palace says it's because of a personal matter they didn't say much else about what that personal matter was they do say that Princess Kate is still doing well as she recovers from abdominal surgery after some rumors about her potentially being in a coma the palace.

Has pushed back on that calling it ludicrous number five a sealed box of cards for hockey players went for do you want to know how much $3.7 million at auction it has 48 packs of hockey cards from the 1979 1980 season potentially Wayne Gretzky's rookie card is there we don't know for sure because the box was never opened and we may never find out.

Company spokesperson says he doesn't think the winner will open the boxes because the box is actually more rare than the cards how about this one Flex pricing for a frosty oh yeah could be the reality headed to your local Wendy's surge pricing just like uber except at the drive-thru in 2025 Wendy says it's.

Going to be changing how much they charge for certain things based on how in demand they are what time it is even the weather could play a part in this and yes Wendy says it's going to use AI to help them figure out how much your food will cost at any given moment Caleb silver is joining us now for more on this Wendy's is calling this experiment.

With AI suggestive selling I don't know what that means do you I think it means they're going to upsell whenever they can and consumers are very used to this from Ticket Master or Uber surge pricing in times of high demand for products that are in high demand in fast food though there are other choices but Wendy's is just following suit with.

Other Industries and other companies within the fast food space that are trying to figure out when they can upsell items raise the price on things and actually lower prices on some things that aren't selling well that's suggestive selling we're pretty used to it with other Industries we're going to have to get used to it in the fast food.

Industry because this is an experiment they intend to bring out in 2025 but if it works you can expect others to follow suit okay do can we because I I wonder about potential um Shopper backlash to this right it's not as though Wendy's has a lock on the fast food market folks have a lot of choices they do have a lot of choices but if you're a Baconator fan.

Or a frosties fan you're going to stick with it depending on how much they raise the prices but one thing to consider hie is that Wendy's like a lot of other fast food chains relies on its franchises it's got about 6,800 restaurants here in the US about 80 plus percent of those are owned by small businesses franchises they're going to have to follow suit so.

They could face the consumer backlash as well food prices in general have been very high dining out especially F food chains that's gone up about 20% since pre pandemic so higher prices is going to anger consumers and you're right they have choices and in the fast food industry those choices are about 20 to 30 feet away at another restaurant but.

So when you talk about the difference in the pricing here if a burger is 369 let's say whatever are we saying it could go like that's the average price for a burger french fries a buck 79 Frosty 250 would we see a $7 Frosty or a 10cent frosty like how much is the the swing do we think in The Surge pricing what does it actually mean for like the.

Dollars and cents that I'm spending yeah it depends on the time of day at a lunchtime uh with a lunchtime crowd you could see prices surge for that single or for that Dave's double to a dollar$ dollars more they haven't been very specific about it but the whole point of this is to use AI to use these digital menus to see where the demand is this is.

Very common already with companies like McDonald's but Wendy's is trying to get into this as well so they can manage their inventory better upsell the things that aren't selling well and charge more for the things that are and for consumers this is not going to feel too good because folks that are shopping and eating at Wendy's they're on a budget.

Caleb silver thank you very much for that we'll see tonight Google says it's going to relaunch its Gemini AI picture generator in a few weeks after they pulled it because of criticism it was too woke look at this this is how it answered requests people putting in prompts for pictures of founding fathers with the images showing them as people.

Of color like this it's been kind of blowing up online you're looking at Gemini's responses to The Prompt who has done more harm Libertarians or Stalin Gemini responded it is difficult to say definitively which ideology has done more harm H Google has already apologized saying they missed the mark on this cnbc's Kate Rooney is joining us.

Now so they're going to relaunch it talk about what this has cost Google this controversy yeah hie so these were all these images image responses to certain prompts on Google's new AI tools so they went viral pretty quickly on social media kind of spiraled into this political debate online Elon Musk among those chiming in he called Gemini super.

Racist and sexist he said others you know are accusing Google of being too woke out there representing some of the deeper political bias people have argued in Silicon Valley you had VC ramas Swami the former presidential candidate among those taking issue with the way that this AI was trained by Google he says it reflects some of the biases of its.

Creators and then certain ideologies he made the point that the AI model by Google is reflecting what he called the the cultural Orthodoxy that pervades Silicon Valley so a lot of politics in this but it is costing Google billions H so the stock tanked them at all of this yesterday it was down 4% it might not sound like a lot if you think of Google.

It's worth you know a couple almost trillion dollars but in dollars for that 4% drop it's about 60 billion in value just wiped off of the company's stock Banas still worth yeah it's a big number but it's been a tough week for this company well and they're finding themselves in a place that that a lot of businesses potentially uncomfortable and.

We've seen this in the past and that is in the crosshairs of the culture wars more broadly absolutely absolutely and especially for Silicon Valley I think there's a lot of Google employees and AI Engineers that don't want to get caught up in that discussion and that political debate and AI talent and Engineering.

Talent is so hard to come by right now and that's one of the potential implications going forward for Google are they going to have trouble recruiting people if they're seen as biased in some way politically they did disable the image generation tool they're saying we missed the Mark it's inaccurate but it does call into.

Question how this happened the CEO is now Under Fire and it's a bungled launch but a time when they're really trying to be competing as a leader here they've been seen up until now as on The Cutting Edge so it could make it harder in the long run but absolutely a tough week here for Google hiy Kate Rooney thanks for bringing us this one appreciate it.

Tonight a rare ride along with police fighting the ramped up war on drug gangs in Ecuador with the country under a state of emergency from an explosion of violence that has included a gang Leader's escape from prison and of course that group of armed men you remember this attacking a news station on live TV remember we covered this last.

Month very dramatic at one point putting what looked like a stick of dynamite in the Anchor's pocket Sky News as steuart Ramsey has this rare exclusive access from Ecuador police sweep through neighborhoods where drug gangs have ruled with impunity Ecuador's never seen anything.

Like this the police never came here before not anymore the drug gangs have been recategorized as terrorists so the security forces have pretty much C blanch to do what they like they swarm into apartment blocks forcing their way.

inside for some it is clearly terrifying a man and his children cow on the floor as officers storm in telling them to stay where they are they've done nothing wrong indeed nobody was arrested in this.

Sweep got a poli are going house to house da door going into Apartments but people are very unhappy about what they obviously an invasion of their privacy but the police say that they're going to look for drugs and they're going to look for gang members wherever they want to to say people outside are unhappy and then people here are un happy.

Too outside young men are held with their hands above their heads while they're searched and questioned their families start objecting it's tense and the police are uncompromising we all have mothers they my children they have family all of them we're not into bad things no one here is we all.

Good hardworking people all of us here work we're good people there's nothing here the commanding officer is absolutely Resolute in his belief that these operations are bringing about change local objections he says are just part of the process to Stamp Out gang power Stuart Ramsey Sky News gu Hill Ecuador 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 Southern Bureau Disney World facing a new lawsuit claiming a woman died of an allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant at.

The park her husband claims the restaurant Raglin Road was negligent and aware of his wife's very serious food allergies according to the autopsy report she died hours later from an aaxis Disney parks and Resort did not immediately respond to NBC's request for comment out of our Northeast Bureau Police in Philly are looking for.

Somebody who escaped after getting treated at a hospital apparently in handcuffs when he ran off he was in custody for stealing a car police say they're investigating they want anybody who sees him to call 911 and out of our Southern Bureau former NFL MVP Cam Newton getting into some kind of a I don't know fight altercation whatever.

You want to call it at a youth football tournament in Atlanta he's here in this shot wearing a tall hat you see him there it looks like he gets shoved by a few people before police broke this thing up like 30 seconds later we don't know yet what caused it up here on the show why some agents want NFL prospects to skip one of the tests they use to.

Check him out for the NFL draft and the big star they're pointing to as an example of why it's not worth it the Mind Games coming up so we know the Super Bowl just happened but already the next season is basically in swing by now why because of the NFL.

Combine that's when the guys who want to get drafted at the end of April show off their skills for teams but there's one tool some agents don't want their players graded on their mind the two bigname agents telling players do not take the League's cognitive test a big reason lack of trust after Houston Texans quarterback CJ stad had his score.

Leak last year the core performance on that test led to teams reportedly debating even doubting his intelligence of course didn't stop him from winning the League's award for top offensive rookie leading his team to the playoffs becoming maybe the biggest young star in the league guad Vegas is live for us in Atlanta and guad the NFL has done this.

Intelligence test this test for years but there are some accusations now that they have a racial bias these tests is this new one supposed to cut that out um because here we now have again a black athlete with whispers about how smart he is hiy well experts have have said a lot of things about these tests right the old.

Test that existed is one that is used widely not just for football players but also for companies to try to evaluate the cognitive ability this is a test that had been used for a very long time so the new test that's being discussed the S2 test looks at different things that are more specific perhaps when you think of what football players have to.

Do on the field it's going to test the processing speed the reaction time how they react under stress and these things are different right so that's why they they've been replacing uh the test with the S2 test the old one's not really being used by the NFL uh so there two different things that are being looked at um and and how they do the test the.

First test is a test that takes 12 minutes uh it's a series of questions that have to be answered it looked at math and vocabulary that's the old one the new one it actually uses technology uh for players to keep track of objects and for example with a quarterback it can test the ability that the quarterback can look at an object or a.

Few different objects which is something that they do when they're on the field right you look at a quarterback has to be looking at different players the players coming against them and also the players that he's throwing a ball to so these are the arguments that have been made uh by those that created the test and that's also why half the teams in.

The NFL are using that test to evaluate the quarterbacks remember these are teams highy that invest a lot of money when they make a decision and they draft a player so that's why they brought in the second test the S2 and that's why it's become so popular okay but so you're talking about the rational to use it for quarterbacks right you've got um.

Others like for example some of the agencies at least one agency saying it's not right for a player's aptitude or mental processing to be subject to public discussion and ridicule saying like no other job interview carries that same kind of scrutiny here seems like I think to the average person go well wait a second what if my test scores leaked.

Like how would I feel about that and stout obviously still good he was still number two in last year's draft still a great player correct hiy so athletes first the agency that is advising uh its athletes not to take the test brought this up so when you look at the quarterbacks uh what happened when last year or two.

Years ago CJ strout took this test and now one of the problems with his test was that the information was leaked this is supposed to be private information the company does the test and that information is delivered to the teams but the information was leaked and then that of course affected the player uh but for now we have these agents that.

Are advising the players not to take those cognitive tests but then you look at the other side there's been other quarterbacks hi like Brock py Patrick Mahomes Joe burrow some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL that tested very well in the test now here's what's difficult because this is something that's private we can't go on a sherber.

And see how everyone has scored but some information has been leaked where we know which quarterbacks did well and some that didn't so there's an argument for those that tested very well who are now doing very well in the league I think what we should look at right here is that moving forward hie this is a test that has worked for some teams but.

The CJ Stroud incident will also help team teams understand that if somebody doesn't test well they can still have a very good year like he did he clearly did guad Venegas thank you very much appreciate that still to come in just last couple of minutes one of the biggest cities in the country formally apologizing for racist laws why some.

People say reparations should be next so in just the last couple of minutes tonight the San Francisco border supervisors has now voted to formally apologize to its black residents and their descendants for decades of racist laws and policies by the city listen colleagues see no other names on.

The roster this resolution is approved same house same call the resolution is adopted unanimously San Francisco is now one of the first big cities to do this as they're also considering providing reparations and while some say this is a major step others argue an apology alone is simply not enough our Mo Barrett has.

Been following this story she's joining us now talk us through the significance of this apology some of the criticisms and what comes next well this apology is the first step that's actually come to fruition after more than a hundred proposals uh in San Francisco and across the state of California and so this is something that people are celebrating as.

A great first step uh but there is a lot of push back from the black community in San Francisco that represents about 46,000 people uh in that population but first I want you to hear some of the reaction from one of the supervisors as the vote just passed we have much more work to do but this apology most certainly is an.

Important step in one of the over 100 recommendations made by the African-American reparations and advisory committee so San Francisco is apologizing and also making a promise and a commitment to never repeat those types of racist laws again while also working towards uh solving and improving systemic racism within the city though.

The criticism is coming from some in the black community saying that this is quote cotton candy rhetoric uh and they actually have already proposed and had over the last year proposed alternate reparations uh the advisory committee proposed every eligible black adult to receive a $5 million lump sum cash pay payment and a guaranteed income of about.

$100,000 a year to remedy San Francisco's quote deep racial wealth Gap now there's been push back from the mayor of San Francisco who herself is black and she believes that reparation should be handled at a national level and her office actually because of a budget crunch uh just cut about $4 million in their reparations advisory.

Budget that they had put together now in terms of next steps this vote just happened so we'll see uh more reaction coming in but broadly the California state legislation has the lawm have introduced another reparations bill that would kind of tackle um some property issues and so this is something that we'll definitely be continuing to follow.

Who sure will morera thank you very much for that reporting that does it for us for this hour we've got more coverage picking up right now tonight our real risk for Dangerous maybe even deadly weather for Millions across the country a dozen feet of snow projected for one area with tornadoes.

And hail maybe heading for another our team is live on the ground and watching all the maps we're going to get to that in just a second we'll also take you to Michigan where polls are set to close in the next couple of hours more on the protest vote over the war in Gaza that could signal trouble ahead for President Biden and what voters are saying about.

Where this goes come November then more dramatic testimony in Georgia trying to fill in the timeline of when the Fulton County DA started dating the prosecutor she picked to help lead the case against former president Trump what a key witness is now saying in court plus why Israel and Hamas are pumping the brakes to President Biden's comments that a.

Ceasefire could come in less than a week and some workshopping for Google's new AI image generator after critics said it was too woke what Google's trying to fix and when it may be ready to use again it's later on in the show hey there I'm hiy and right now we are on high alert for intense weather across the Midwest with parts of several States under an.

Active tornado watch as we speak this is new this is just coming into us in the last 60 minutes it's all part of this weather Whiplash we've been telling you about look at the scene in Texas you can see the smoke in the sky that's from fires burning through hundreds of thousands of Acres it is not at all contained there's now a state of.

Emergency there with a disaster declaration in dozens of counties issued by the governor late tonight in New York these were the hazy Skies today from Wildfire smoke down south it's that scene look at that barely any visibility that caused a ground stop a ground delay at LaGuardia out west what could be the biggest snowstorm of the season for the.

Sieras we're talking 12 feet of snow forecast for some spots and now in the Midwest for more than 40 million people the potential of hail a ton of wind maybe even tornadoes and the timing for that is especially dangerous since we're getting close to those nighttime hours when we know Twisters are deadlier let's be clear this weather is not normal for.

This time of year this far north in the country look Alabama Miss Mississippi they get hundreds not the case for Illinois and Indiana that's why we're keeping an eye on this so closely here and you know what's to blame what's behind this something else that is not normal for this time of year temperatures that feel more like summer.

Than winter look at this highs in a lot of places 5 to 30 degrees above average it was probably warmer where you live too more than a 100 records have been set in the last 24 hours in Kansas people were literally out shopping for flowers for their Gardens but do not put the jackets away too quickly come tomorrow morning it's that Whiplash with.

A dramatic drop in temperatures by maybe 20 to 50° meteorologist Bill Ken is covering all of that but I want to start with Adrian brought us who's live for us in Chicago and the potential now for this severe weather Adrien to ramp up really any minute now because it's been so warm now the temperatures are going to drop that's going to create a lot of.

Uncertainty Alie we talked to you an hour ago and already since then we can tell the wind here in the Chicago area is picking up the big concern in these early evening hours hail that's according to the meteorologist at the National Weather Center we're talking about hail that could be the size of a golf ball not only are they worried.

About this heavy hail this potential system that's coming through we could see the temperatures drop from 50 to 60° and that is over a 24-hour period so not only do you have the threat of hail this plummeting temperatures and with that when that cold front moves in that's when you see the creation of possible tornadoes happening overnight.

And as you said hiy the element of danger increases there hours earlier in the day we saw people out walking along uh the streets here and downtown Chicago we even saw people swimming at the lake they were taking it all in but they know change is coming soon hiy clearly I can see that wind picking up even where you are Adrien brought us thank you so much.

Live for us there in Chicago let's bring in meteorologist Bill Karen around the Chicago area we're seeing this tornado watch What's the timing on that uh the peak time for Chicago will be roughly about 700 p.m. to about 10 p.m. local time in Chicago after that the threat will diminish so the areas of concern we have the one pocket here Chicago and its.

Suburbs and then along the Ohio River as we go throughout the overnight hour so let's first focus on the area to the North and the Storm Prediction Center just issued these hatch lines for this region and that means they now think there's at least a chance not just a tornado but a strong tornado that would be south of Chicago in this area and.

Then tonight you have that huge area with at least a chance of a strong tornado Why do we care more about that well strong tornadoes typically are more deadly instead of just knocking a roof off a house they destroy a house that's why you know we're trying to specify what areas have the chance of seeing that type of weather so when you go to.

Bed tonight you know what to prepare for so here's the first tornado watch the one that includes the Chicago area just south of Milwaukee we'll probably have others issued in the next couple hours along the Ohio river and if you notice here in the corner all of a sudden you're start to see a lot of these little red dots popping up right around.

The Quad Cities these are rapidly developing thunderstorms no warnings with these yet but just the sign of how Prime the atmosphere is is how quickly they've really popped up and these will propagate head towards Rockford eventually here towards Wan and the Chicago area over the next couple hours that's where the dangerous storms will.

Come from as far as the Ohio river area goes as we take the clock and we go throughout the night I'm going to pause this at 3:00 a.m. notice Cincinnati all the bright red here along the Ohio River into Western Kentucky near Dua these are all potentially strong thunderstorms and if we get any supercell thunderstorms those are the ones that typically.

Produce the largest hail and also tornadoes it would be along that line during the middle of the night by the time we get to about 8:00 a.m. the severe weather threat diminishes but then just a lot of soaking rain through the region including Washington DC Philadelphia and on and off in New York along with it Gusty winds so tomorrow is.

A really difficult travel day for the roads and at the airports and then by 6 PM that Squall line right over the top of I 95 from New York to Philly to DC all the way down approaching Raleigh expect a very slow evening rush hour and if you have any flights tomorrow afternoon evening on the East Coast a lot of delays you mentioned all those.

Record highs let us point out a couple Rochester was 73 today that's the warmest you've ever been in February St Louis had 85 Degrees Chicago ended up just shy of your record at 73 and you did show some of those pictures of those fires and the two biggest ones that we have here's Amarillo this is Interstate 40 this is North Texas this is Lake.

Meredith in here that's one of the bigger blazes that's burning right now and this this is why we have uh fire weather warnings for those uh blazes as they continue to blow through so again very dangerous next 24 hours Ali and hopefully we'll get lucky in any tornadoes that do form will be misses and not hit yeah fingers crossed for.

That Bill thank you very much and keeping an eye on all of it appreciate it let take you to Michigan because we're now just a couple hours away from polls closing there where we'll get our first preview of how voters are feeling and what could be the key swing state come November you've got President Biden facing down a protest vote with some.

Democrats feeling upset over how he's handled the Israel Hamas War listen to how some are framing their decision to vote uncommitted we voted uncommitted today uh again to put that pressure on the current Administration um to uh call for a ceasefire so that um we can see peace I'm hoping that it will tell the.

Democratic party that they are making terrible decisions our policy should be shifted 100% so that's the on the Democratic side this question over how many voters will in fact pick uncommitted instead of President Biden on the Republican side you've got former president Trump trying to keep up his winning streak against.

Winless Nikki Haley but neither of them are even bothering to travel to Michigan for primary night Mr Trump's expected to cruise to yet another easy Victory there I want to get into it with NBC sha Brewster who's live for us in Grand Rapids Michigan and listen let's start on the Democratic side because that is as we said where some of the suspense is.

Tonight not going to have an impact necess necessarily no expectation on the outcome of this primary right Joe Biden's expected to win but how concerned is team Biden about this issue right because it signals a message about displeasure with his handling of the war in Gaza How concerned are they about this being a problem down the road in.

The general yeah hie this could be a source of embarrassment for President Biden and that's because when you talk to the groups that are trying to organize people to vote uncommitted they say they're trying to get to about 10,000 people uh 10,000 voters to vote uncommitted.

Instead of voting for Joe Biden these are voters who many of them said they supported Joe Biden back in 2020 and you ask about how concerned team Biden is well they're already counter messaging a little bit and they have been since the beginning of the week and they've been pointing to some context which is important here 10,000 that goal that.

You're hearing from these groups is far short it's about half of what and how many people voted uncommitted in previous election Cycles at least the past three election Cycles uh there's an exception when you go to 2008 but back in those Cycles you had people about 20,000 voters uh selecting uncommitted and that was without any big organized.

Effort so they're definitely paying attention to this but you have members of that group saying that they're trying to send a clear message that people who are part of his base are no longer with him and they want to see a change in policy from the president there's also some news just coming into us tonight um some clarity finally on those ring.

Conventions on the Republican side set for Saturday in Michigan and just to remind people if you didn't watch last night we explained this whole like Bizarro drama with the goop most of their delegates will get assigned Saturday when there there's a convention there's actually two conventions because there was a question of who really runs.

The Republican party in Michigan tonight we may have an answer right that judge saying that it is not the previous uh committee chair Republican party chair Christina Camaro who has been trying to cling on to power despite the fact that she was voted out uh last month the judge is saying that she's going to have to essentially.

Relinquish control over the GOP website here she was planning to host a convention this weekend a dueling convention the judge saying you can't do that that there is one chair it's the chair that was elected last month so the effect of this is that what happens tonight with primary that will uh depend that will determine what happens to.

About 16 of fif of Michigan's 55 delegates the rest of the delegates will be allocated at that convention that will take place this weekend instead of having those dueling conventions there will be one convention it's with the uh what the judge is saying the rightfully appointed chair and that'll be taking place here in Grand Rapids Aly sha.

Brewster lots to follow there uh in the state of Michigan thank you for being out there for us appreciate it here in Washington tonight A word we don't hear a lot of these days when it comes to Congress getting stuff done optimism how about that that's that's the word for now with President Biden look at this alongside the top four.

Leaders in Congress and the VP for what one of those leaders calls an intense meeting and they all seem to agree nobody really wants this partial government shutdown that could start at midnight on Friday shut down would damage the economy significantly and I think we all agree to that and we need to buy part of.

The solution okay so what happens if the government does shut down on you know Saturday essentially after the stroke of midnight there hit first the department of energy Transportation the VA HUD the real pain would potentially come after March eth if there's a shutdown then that's when defense State Justice Etc.

Gets hit their workers and thousands of others for a partial shutdown will get furloughed they all won't get paid but some may still have to come to work the top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer says things got in his words feisty too in this meeting when money for Ukraine came up with house Speaker M Mike Johnson the meeting on um Ukraine was one of the.

Most intense I have ever encountered in my many meetings in the Oval Office intense he says we're going to get into that in just a second with NBC's Monica Alba who's posted up near the White House she's been following all of this reporting it out and man let's start with this shutdown here because I'm old enough to remember a time maybe not old.

Enough to remember a time but there was a time when government shutdowns were bad politics right when that was a real concern for leaders who were in office we are now entering this era where we've seen a bunch of government shutdowns over the course of the last couple of administrations here talk us through the thinking from the White House on this.

Because ultimately it's an act to Congress Congress has to do it it's really not up to to President Biden here exactly H we've gotten way too used to this will we or won't we actually have a government shutdown and even though everybody is projecting this optimism the agencies that are responsible for what would happen have to prepare for.

This actually taking place and they sent out all their guidance last week giving them a heads up saying hey this actually might happen and so you need to be ready in case some of those employees are going to be Furlow and here's what our plan would be and we know that some of the key agencies that would be affected in the initial round of the partial.

Shutdown at the end of this week really do have real world implications for people in terms of different kinds of things like the Housing Authority in terms of a lapse in housing subsidies for lowincome Americans you also when you talk about the Department of Transportation something we've covered a ton of on your show there could be.

Possible travel disruptions because there could be unpaid air traffic controllers as a result of this government shutdown there are also serious implications for things like Veterans Affairs and for the Department of Agriculture and again that is just round one that's part one of this and if there isn't an agreement beyond that.

There could be a full government shutdown and we do remember those really have a lot of pain points because it's millions of people who are affected by that H yeah that that's when it starts to where the rubber starts to hit the road there totally separately Monica right on Ukraine that also came up in this meeting it sounds like and what's.

Interesting here are the very Divergent opinions that people inside that room inside the Oval Office have as it relates to whether or not the US should send more money over to Ukraine to help after Russia invaded two years ago so why did things get so quote unquote intense as Chuck Schumer put it yeah and this is something where for a long time.

There had been bipartisan support of sending more military aid to Ukraine and this was something that the president thought hey if I lump this together with some other National Security priorities in what's known as a supplemental AKA another Government funding request this should be able to get across the finish line and ultimately there has been such.

Now a deep division within the Republican Party about how to proceed on this for some of those who are involved including house Speaker Mike Johnson that this has been a real real issue where the administration essentially brought in experts like the CIA director to pointedly tell these Congressional leaders if you do not provide this.

Additional funding to Ukraine it will lose the war against Russia and they put it in those plain terms of there are certain air defense capabilities artillery ammo is running so low that this is a battlefield concern where we're talking about weeks here and not months of what could happen so the urgency according to everybody who was.

In that meeting was clearly there and they're hoping they have to get over this government shutdown hurdle first and set that aside to be able to ideally deal with that request maybe as early as next week all of it of course happening in a presidential election year which is just another Dynamic on top of everything else Monica Alba thank you so.

Much glad to have you there to Georgia now and dramatic and tense new testimony on a key question related to that election interference case against Donald Trump when exactly did the Fulton County DA start dating the special prosecutor she picked to help lead this case hoping for some answers the judge is.

Calling back Terrence Bradley to the stand he is the ex divorce attorney for that special prosecutor Nathan Nathan Wade who by the way was in the courtroom so the lawyer for one of Mr Trump's codefendants was asking repeatedly questions for hours and hours to try to fill in the timeline here when did they start dating Bradley the attorney says.

You just can't say there wasn't a specific date there wasn't a football game there wasn't something that I can attribute to him telling me whatever at this time I am telling you that I do not have the date so remember why this matters the judge here could kick the Fulton County.

DA fonny Willis off this case over these allegations from the Trump team that she may have had a conflict of interest by benefiting financially and inappropriately from this romance that's the allegation the Trump team says it is all about the time timeline Willis and Wade say they started dating in early 22 2022 right so that's after she hired him.

One of Willis's former friends says oh no no the relationship started years before back in 2019 um Katie Fang is joining us now and Katie the reason why this is a big deal is because of this question of conflict of interest right and whether or not fonny Willis could get kicked off this case which means essentially the case.

Could fall apart where does that stand in other words what would the judge need to hear to sort of trigger a ruling one way or the other so in Georgia the law in order to disqualify a prosecutor is that there has to be the existence of an actual conflict of interest and that's been defined in case law as a prosecutor having a financial interest in the.

Conviction of a defendant and so if you were to keep kind of within the guard rails of that case law you would say well so far we haven't heard any evidence that fonny Willis has derived any personal Financial benefit from the appointment of her then boyfriend Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor because you know what's uncontroverted so far H hi.

Is the fact that the two of them broke up in June of 2023 last year so it's not like she's still dating him and and he's still earning money on this case to which she's receiving some benefit but at some point in time this case took a detour into the land of is their perjury being committed on the part of fonnie Willis and Nathan Wade have they lied to.

The court when they said that their relationship began after Nathan Way was appointed special prosecutor and so in order to further explore that the judge in this case allowed the former divorce lawyer this guy Terrence Bradley that you just talked about the judge allowed this former divorce lawyer to take the stand for the second time in order to.

Testify as to his basis of knowledge as to that personal relationship between Nathan Wade his former client and fonny Willis but remarkably today we weren't sure if we were going to hear some huge kind of Perry Mason moment something yeah yeah right didn't exist instead what Mr Bradley had to say was I have no personal knowledge everything.

That I shared with a lawyer from one of the defendants was pure speculation on my part and so the way that I've interpreted hie he shared idle gossip it was chatter in the community and yet he has no evidence as to when that relationship started uh uh Katy Fang it's a lot to watch when do we think like timeline wise when are we going to.

Know one way or the other like is there still more to be done on this when is the judge going to make a ruling what do we think yeah so this coming Friday in just two days maybe three days we're going to have the closing arguments that are going to be made by both sides to convince the court and then probably within seven to 10 days seven to 10 days.

Excuse me we should have a written order from the judge in this case and just to be clear it's only up to the judge there's no jury it's just this judge just this judge just for this disqualification hearing if the case does get disqualified from da fonny Willis the entire office is off this case and so another DA's office would be.

Appointed and that's really the big open-end question would that new DA's office actually continued to pursue all of the charges that fonny Willis got an indictment for against former president Trump of course Katy Fang thank you so much for being there and breaking that all down really appreciate it late today a new bill has begun working its way.

Through the Alabama legislature that would protect IVF in that state just 10 days after that controversial Court ruling there saying Frozen embryos are people if it seems like things have been happening at lightning speed it's because they have been this issue wasn't even on the State House radar like a week ago look at this that Court ruling.

Was on February 16th and The Dominoes started to fall very fast with the first Clinic suspending IVF treatment February 21st two more followed last Friday Democrats in the State House introduced a bill to protect IVF over the weekend the Alabama AG says an explosive detonated at his office Alabama Law Enforcement is investigating that and.

Today two bills were introduced in the state senate both by Republicans all of it happening as the Biden administration's top health official is meeting today with families and doctors in Alabama who say their lives and practices have been thrown into chaos by this Court ruling and highlighting the significance of the issue of.

Reproductive Rights in a presidential election here we're trying to figure out at the F Federal level what we can continue to do to try to be supportive of people who want to access their health care rights when row went down and and took away Health Care rights and access it did it to more than just abortion.

Care I want to bring in Kathy Park who's live for us in Birmingham and joining us now what do we know about what is happening in the state legislature here right because there has been intense push back after that Court ruling including from Republicans on the national level even former president Trump who said hey we got to do.

Something to protect IVF so what does the landscape look like in Alabama for these bills to try to do just that yeah hie just uh you kind of tick through everything there there certainly has been a lot of movement and today uh is no exception uh Alabama Republicans actually presented two pieces of legislation and essentially.

Preserves IVF and uh protects patients and providers if they decide to move forward with the treatment and protects them from any sort of civil or criminal penalties and last week Alabama Democrats presented a similar piece of legislation and the governor of Alabama seems to suggest that she will get a bill relatively soon um there are.

Reports of potentially then the next two weeks we could see a change but obviously we'll be watching that closely uh me but in the meantime hie obviously things are still very much in limbo for the patients these IVF patients and you heard uh the HHS secretary there um he was here at at Birmingham a few hours ago and essentially had a round table.

With IVF patients as well as their providers and heard some really compelling stories some uh gut-wrenching stories heartbreaking stories of the challenges of going through IVF and then on top of that dealing with this IVF ruling that came down on February 16th um just a moment ago we actually spoke with Hannah miles and she was telling us.

How difficult the IVF process has been for her take a listen we more than anyone know that an embryo does not equal a child because if it did I'd be pregnant the embryo that be so wanted desperately to be a child it never will be and hie the Fallout has been Swift.

Here in the state of Alabama you have at least three fertility clinics that have paused treatments and then you have at least two embryo shipping companies that have paused business here in the state of Alabama so still a lot of questions uh that are being raised Hannah along with hundreds of other IVF patients um and their families will be at the state.

Capital tomorrow in Montgomery Alabama they'll be holding a rally they say it's going to be a day of advocacy and in the words of of Hannah miles as you just heard there she says don't mess with Alabama IVF patient so it should be an interesting day tomorrow where we'll likely see some fireworks uh among these patients yeah no kidding uh I'm glad.

You're going to be there at Kathy park for more reporting on that in the hours and in the days to come thanks overseas now with Hamas and Israel tonight both pouring cold water on those surprised comments from President Biden that a ceasefire could happen as soon as Monday remember that when the president said holding an ice cream cone with Seth.

Meyers in New York last night we brought it to you as breaking news but now 24 hours later doesn't seem like Israel's on the same page because the Israelis say they didn't know the president was going to say that in the first place Hamas giving that same message here too let's bring in Raph Sanchez in Tel Aviv so what's up with this Whiplash.

Right because the president came out you know in this very casual setting saying yeah maybe this weekend by next Monday I'm hopeful then you come overseas both sides both isra is and Hamas were pretty dismissive pretty quickly so where do things stand hi Israel and Hamas don't agree on very much but they seem to be on the.

Same page this Monday deadline that the president mentioned in that ice cream shop in New York City is news to them Israeli officials are saying they were surprised they did not get any heads up from the White House that this was a deadline a goal an aspiration that President Biden was going to be setting we did hear a statement from prime.

Minister Netanyahu earlier on tonight he made absolutely no mention of a deal and instead he said he believes he has enough American Support to continue his military campaign inside of Gaza From hamas's perspective they have been scathing about President Biden personally calling him a political hypocrite for saying that he wants to.

See a ceasefire at the same time as supplying more weapons to Israel and they are saying basically at this Point any talk of a deal is premature what we know is that the negotiations at this point are focused on a proposal laid out by CIA director Bill Burns it involves a pause in the fighting for up to six weeks under this deal Hamas would.

Release around 40 hostages including women who were supposed to come out in the last deal back in November in return Israel expected to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners potentially including some who were serving long jail sentences for murder for terrorism for other serious offenses but both sides are saying there are major gaps.

Still outstanding one of the big questions what exactly is the ratio of prisoners to hostages the other question is will Israeli forces withdraw from Palestinian cities inside of Gaza during any ceasefire Hamas says they want them out of the strip Al together Israel is saying that's a nonstarter hie rap Sanchez live for us tonight in Tel Aviv.

Raph thank you lots more to get to here on the show including Apple reportedly abandoning a decade long project what it could mean if you're in the market for an EV plus even more music is disappearing from Tik Tok tonight we'll explain Flex pricing for a Frosty get ready could be the reality headed to.

Your local Wendy's surge pricing just like uber accepted the drive-thru in 2025 Wendy says it's going to change up how much they charge for certain stuff based on things like how in demand they are what time it is even the weather could play a part in this and Wendy says it's going to use AI to help them figure out how much your food will cost at any.

Given moment Caleb silver is joining us now Wendy's is calling this experiment with AI suggest of selling I don't know what that means do you I think it means they're going to upsell whenever they can and consumers are very used to this from Ticket Master or Uber surge pricing in times of high demand for products that are in high demand in fast food.

Though there are other choices but Wendy's is just following suit with other Industries and other companies within the fast food space that are trying to figure out when they can upsell items raise the price on things and actually lower prices on some things that aren't selling well that suggestive selling we're pretty used to it with.

Other Industries we're going to have to get used to it in the fast food industry because this is an experiment they intend to bring out in 2025 but if it works you can expect others to follow suit okay do can we because I I wonder about potential um Shopper backlash to this right it's not as though Wendy's has a lock on the fast food market folks.

Have a lot of choices they do have a lot of choices but if you're a Baconator fan or a frosties fan you're going to stick with it depending on how much they raise the prices but one thing to consider hie is that Wendy's like a lot of other fast food chains relies on its franchises it's got about 6,800 restaurants here in the US about 80 plus% of those are owned.

By small businesses franchises they're going to have to follow suit so they could face the consumer backlash as well food prices in general have been very high dining out especially fast food chains that's gone up about 20% since pre- pandemic so higher prices is going to anger consumers and you're right they have choices and in the fast food.

Industry those choices are about 20 to 30 feet away at another restaurant but so when you talk about the difference in the pricing here if a burger is 369 let's say whatever are we saying it could go like that's the average price for a burger french fries a bu 79 Frosty 250 would we see a $7 Frosty or a 10cent frosty like how much is the swing do we.

Think in this surge pricing what does it actually mean for like the dollars and cents that I'm spending yeah it depends on the time of day at a lunchtime with a lunchtime crowd you could see prices surge for that single or for that Dave's double to a dollar $2 more they haven't been very specific about it but the whole point of this is to use AI to use.

These digital menus to see where the demand is this is very common already with companies like McDonald's but Wendy's is trying to get into this as well so they can manage their inventory better upsell the things that aren't selling well and charge more for the things that are and for consumers this is not going to feel too good because.

Folks that are shopping and eating at Wendy's they're on a budget Caleb silver thank you very much for that we'll see tonight Google says it's going to relaunch its AI image generator in few weeks after it pulled it because of criticism that Gemini as it's called was too woke look at this here's how it answered prompts for picks of founding.

Fathers you see these images showing them as people of color and there's this that's been blowing up online Gemini's responses to the prompt who has done more harm Libertarians or Stalin Gemini responded it is difficult to say definitively which ideology has done more harm H Google's already apologizing saying they missed the mark on this.

Cnbc's Kate Rooney is joining us now so they're going to relaunch it talk about what this has cost Google this controversy yeah H so these were all these images image responses to certain prompts on Google's new AI tools so they went viral pretty quickly on social media kind of spiraled into this political debate online Elon Musk among.

Those chiming in he called Gemini super racist and sexist he said others you are accusing Google of being too woke out there representing some of the deeper political bias people have argued in Valley you had VC ramaswami the former presidential candidate among those taking issue with the way that this AI was trained by Google he says it.

Reflects some of the biases of its creators and then certain ideologies he made the point that the AI model by Google is reflecting what he called the cultural Orthodoxy that pervades Silicon Valley so a lot of politics in this but it is costing Google billions H so the stock tanked amid all of this yesterday it was down 4% it might not sound like a.

Lot if you think of Google it's worth you know a couple almost trillion dollars but in dollars for that 4% drop it's about 60 billion in value just wiped off of the company's stock still worth yeah it's a big number but it's been a tough week for this company well and they're finding themselves in a place that that a lot of businesses.

Potentially find uncomfortable and we've seen this in the past and that is in the crosshairs of the culture wars more broadly absolutely absolutely and especially for Silicon Valley I think there's a lot of Google employees and AI Engineers that don't want to get caught up in that discussion and that political debate an AI talent and Engineering.

Talent is so hard to come by right now and that's one of the potential implications going forward for Google are they're going to have trouble recruiting people if they're seen as bias in some way politically they did disable the image generation tool they're saying we missed the Mark it's inaccurate but it does call into.

Question how this happened the CEO is now Under Fire and it's a bungled launch at a time when they really trying to be competing as a leader here they've been seen up until now as on The Cutting Edge so it could make it hard harder in the long run but absolutely a tough week here for Google Kate Rooney thanks for bringing us this one appreciate it let's.

Get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight number one in just the last few hours a jury has convicted two men of Murder in the death of Hip Hop icon J Master J from Run DMC prosecutors say they killed him out of Revenge for a drug deal back in 2002 they could get life in prison a third defendant has pleaded not guilty.

And will have a separate trial number two apple is scrapping its project to make an electric car according to Bloomberg it's something Apple's worked on for like a decade now a lot of people who worked on this EV are reportedly going to move to generative AI Apple did not respond to our request for comment on this number three the Army is.

Downsizing cutting 24,000 jobs sounds like a lot but it's only about 5% and most of those positions are already empty anyway the arm's restructuring to get ready they say for the next big war moving away from counterterrorism and focusing more on things like air defense number four Tik Tock today says it's removing more songs after no new.

Licensing agreement with universal music group remember umg reps artists like Taylor Swift Ariana Grande umg says it wants more money Tik Tok says umg is being greedy number five a sealed box of hockey player cards is going today for listen to this $3.7 million at auction that's the cost of 48 packs of cards from the 1979 1980.

Season way Gretzky's rookie card may be in that box that would be a huge deal but we don't know for sure and we may never know for sure because a spokesperson for the company says he doesn't think the winner will open the box because it's rarer than the cards super interesting tonight a rare ride along.

With police fighting the ramped up war on drug gangs in Ecuador with the country under a state of emergency from an explosion of violence that included a gang Leader's escape from prison and of course that group of armed men remember this attacking a news station on live TV we told you about it last month at one point they put a stick of dynamite in.

The Anchor's pocket you see that there Sky News is Stuart Ramsey got this rare exclusive access reporting tonight from Ecuador police sweep through neighborhoods where drug gangs have ruled with impunity Ecuador's never seen anything like this the police never came here before not.

Anymore oh the drug gangs have been recategorized as terrorists so the security forces have pretty much C blanch to do what they like they swarm into apartment blocks forcing their way.

inside for some it is clearly terrifying a man and his children cowl on the floor as officers storm in telling them to stay where they are they've done nothing wrong indeed nobody was arrested in this sweep got a PL going house to house door.

To door going into Apartments but people are very unhappy about uh what they say Obviously an invasion of their privacy but the police say they're going to look for drugs and they're going to look for gang members whever they want to to say people outside are unhappy and then people here are unhappy too outside young men are held with.

Their hands above their heads while they're searched and questioned their families start objecting it's tense and the police are uncompromised we all have mothers they my children they have family all of them we're not into bad things no one here is we all good hardworking people all of us here work we're good people there's.

Nothing here the commanding officer is absolutely Resolute in his belief that these operations are bringing about change local objections he says are just part of the process to Stamp Out gang power Stuart Ramsey Sky News gu Hill Ecuador our thanks to Stuart for that reporting 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 teams around the world have done it for you here's a look at what they're watching in a segment we call the global out of Australia police say they found the bodies of a couple shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend officials say the shooter.

Was also a police officer that he admitted to killing them and hiding their bodies under rocks and debris the crime has shocked the country but the Sydney gay and lesbian martig grow organizers asking police not to March at their annual parade this weekend out of Italy a family is back in Rome tonight after being held captive in mly for.

Something like 2 years Italian officials say they were initially living there as part of a community of Jehovah's Witnesses when a military group affiliated with Al-Qaeda kidnapped them Italy's foreign minister says the family is in good condition and out of New Zealand the country says it is officially scrapping what would have.

Been the toughest tobacco law in the world it was supposed to go into effect in July it would have stopped people born in 2009 or later from buying tobacco products so why the change well country's got a new government now it says it's still committed to reducing smoking but plans to take a different kind of.

Approach coming up why some agents want NFL prospects to skip one of the tests they're graded on for the draft we'll explain in just a minute so we know the Super Bowl just happened but already the next season is basically in swing by now why because of the NFL combine that's when the guys who want to get drafted at the end of April.

Show off their skills for teams but there's one tool some agents don't want their players graded on their mind the two bigname agents telling players do not take the League's cognitive test a big reason lack of trust after Houston Texans quarterback CJ strad had his score leak last year the poor performance on that test led to teams.

Reportedly debating even doubting his intelligence of course didn't stop him from winning the leagues award for top offensive rookie leading his team to the playoffs becoming maybe the biggest young star in the league guad Vegas is live for us in Atlanta and gu the NFL has done this intelligence test this test for years but there are some.

Accusations now that they have a racial bias these tests is this new one supposed to cut that out um because here we now have again a black athlete with whispers about how smart he is hiy well experts have have said a lot of things about these tests right the old test that existed is one that is used widely not just for football.

Players but also for companies to try to evaluate the cognitive ability this is a test that had been used for a very long time so the new test that's being discussed the S2 test looks at different things that are more specific perhaps when you think of what football players have to do on the field it's going to test the processing speed the reaction.

Time how they react under stress and these things are different right so that's why they been replacing uh the test with the S2 test the old one's not really being used by the NFL uh so there two different things that are being looked at um and and how they do the test the first test is a test that takes 12 minutes uh it's a series of questions.

That have to be answered it looked at math and vocabulary that's the old one the new one it actually uses technology uh for players to keep track of objects and for example with a quarterback it can test the ability uh that the quarterback can look at an object or a few different objects which is something that they do when they're on the field.

Right you look at a quarterback has to be looking at different players the players coming against them and also the players that he's throwing a ball to so these are the arguments that have been made uh by those that created the test and that's also why half the teams in the NFL are using that test to evaluate the quarterbacks remember these are.

Teams highy that invest a lot of money when they make a decision and they draft a player uh so that's why they brought in the second test the S2 and that's why it's become so popular okay but so you're talking about the rationality use it for quarterbacks right you've got um others like for example some of the agencies at least one agency saying it's.

Not right for a player's aptitude or mental processing to be subject to public discussion and ridicule saying like no other job interview carries that same kind of scrutiny here seems like I think to the average person go wait a second what if my test scores leads like how would I feel about that and stout obviously still good he was still number.

Two in last year's draft still a great player correct hi so athletes first the agency that is advising uh its athletes not to take the test brought this up so when you look at the quarterbacks uh what happened when last year or two years ago CJ strout took this test and now one of the problems with his test was that the.

Information was leaked this is supposed to be private information the company does the test and that information is delivered to the teams but the information was leaked and then that of course affected the player uh but for now we have these agents that are advising the players not to take those cognitive tests but then you look at the.

Other side there's been other quarterbacks H like Brock pie Patrick Mahomes Joe burrow some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL that tested very well in the test now here's what's difficult because this is something that's private we can't go on a sherber and see how everyone has scored but some information has been leaked where we.

Know which quarterbacks did well and some that didn't so there's an argument for those that tested very well who are now doing very well in the league I think what we should look at right here is that moving forward hiy this is a test that has worked for some teams but the CJ Stroud incident will also help team teams understand that if somebody.

Doesn't test well they can still have a very good year like he did he clearly did guad Venegas thank you very much appreciate that still to come in just the last couple of minutes one of the biggest cities in the country formally apologizing for racist laws why some people say reparations should be next so in just the last couple of.

Minutes tonight the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has now voted to formally apologize to its black residents and their descendants for decades of racist laws and policies by the city listen colleagues see no other names on the roster this resolution is approved same house same call the resolution is adopted.

Unanimously San Francisco is now one of the first big cities to do this as they're also considering providing reparations and while some say this is a major step others argue an apology alone is simply not enough our MOA Barrett has been following this story she's joining us now talk us through the significance of this apology some of the criticisms.

And what comes next well this apology is the first step that's actually come to fruition after more than a hundred proposals uh in San Francisco and across the state of California and so this is something that people are celebrating as a great First Step uh but there is a lot of push back from the black community in San Francisco that represents about.

46,000 people uh in that population but first I want you to hear some of the reaction from one of the supervisors as the vote just passed we have much more work to do but this apology most certainly is an important step in one of the over 100 recommendations made by the African-American reparations and.

Advisory committee so San Francisco is apologizing and also making a promise at a commitment to never repeat those types of races laws again while also working towards uh solving and improving systemic racism within the city though the criticism is coming from some in the black community saying that this is quote cotton candy rhetoric and they.

Actually have already proposed and had over the last year proposed alternate reparations uh the advisory committee proposed every eligible black adult to receive a $5 million lump sum cash payment and a guaranteed income of about $100,000 a year to remedy San Francisco's quote deep racial wealth Gap now there's been push back from the.

Mayor of San Francisco who herself is black and she believes that reparation should be handled at a national level and her office actually because of a budget crunch uh just cut about $4 million in their reparations advisory budget that they had put together now in terms of next steps this vote just happened so we'll see uh more reaction.

Coming in but broadly the California state legislation has the lawmakers have introduced another reparations bill that would kind of tackle um some property issues and so this is something that we'll definitely be continuing to follow who sure will Mora Bara thank you very much for that reporting that does it for us for this hour we've got more coverage.

Picking up right now thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media

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