Have Tuned NOW with Gadi Schwartz – Jan. 11 | NBC Records NOW

good evening I'm Ellison barber in forgotti Schwarz we start with breaking news tonight from the Middle East the US and the UK have launched strikes against Targets in houthi controlled areas of Yemen that's according to two US officials who say it is with support from Australia Bahrain Canada and the.

Netherlands the Count's used fighter jets and tomahawks fired from Navy ships to hit their targets moments ago President Biden said the operation was in response to the growing violence in the Red Sea where houthi militants have attacked at least 27 commercial shipping vessels in the last few months Biden concluded by saying he will not hesitate.

To do more if necessary houthi militants confirmed that the capital city of sonan was hit it is the first time the US has struck landbased targets since tensions began escalating in the red SE the Iranian back militant group has already responded to the attacks vowing that the US will pay and doubling down on rhetoric saying that they the houthis.

Are maintaining a position in the Red Sea to support Gaza in the Israel Hamas War NBC News Pentagon correspondent Courtney QB joins us now with more Courtney what can you tell us about these strikes should we expect to see more in the coming days and even hours so we shouldn't rule out that there will be more especially if the houthis.

Continue with these attacks now we've seen at least 27 attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and into the the Babel MB which is that narrow waterway down in the southern Red Sea and why that is so critical is it is impacting shipping major companies are announcing that they are going to avoid the area which is adding cost it's adding time.

And ultimately that could start impacting consumers now we know to date since these attacks began on November 19th there have been at least 27 of them but there have been more than 80 projectiles launched by houthis in the that part of Yemen that includes ballistic missiles anti-ship cruise missiles and a a lot of one-way attack.

Drones the majority of them have either been shot down or simply have landed in the water there but several have impacted some of these commercial ships that led the US to join this defensive Maritime Coalition they call it um operation Prosperity Guardian it started on December 18th and that is sort of patrolling those waterways trying to.

Defend against these attacks but they have continued there was one even today Ellison the US also came to together with a coalition of 14 Nations last week putting out a statement condemning the houi actions and threatening exactly what we saw here tonight which was retaliatory strikes now we don't have a whole lot of specific information about.

What they hit in Yemen tonight beyond the fact that they went after some warehouses or storage facilities some launchers and maybe some other locations we're still waiting to get what the military calls the battle damage assessment we should get more as the hours go on but again the US using and the British military using fighter jets.

And the US launching tomahawk missiles from US Navy ships at a number of Targets in the Hy controlled area of Yemen tonight Alis Ellison Courtney when we're talking about Yemen and the Red Sea there are layers to the issue when it comes to the United States's involvement here right in terms of Yemen and the Civil War and the fights that.

Have been going on there for decades in a lot of ways those fights have been seen as sort of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran for who has more control within the region the United States in the past has supported Saudi Arabia in those fights but then if I'm not mistaken in 2021 President Biden kind of had a reversal where he said the.

United States would no longer support Saudi Le coalition's offensive actions in Yemen at the same time when we're talking about the Red Sea we're talking about an incredibly important global trade route that has been called by some the I95 of the planet so when we're looking at this and all these different factors from the US military standpoint.

What is at stake here yeah somewhere in the neighborhood of about 15% of the world's global trade flows through that that area and you're absolutely right about the the extremely complex um and dynamic issues in that region now remember the houthi rebels are trained supported backed and supplied by Iran why that's really important to point out.

And you know this from your time in Israel Ellison uh when there were times where the uh the the uh Israelis and the Palestinians or and Hamas really when the Israelis in Hamas when they agreed to a a ceasefire a temporary ceasefire some of the other proxy groups that are backed by Iran stopped their activities in Iraq in Syria we stopped seeing.

Attacks against the bases with Americans during that time but interestingly enough the houthis continued even though they are also again backed by Iran what's important to point out here is that the US the UK and these additional Nations that help support these missions tonight none of this happened in a vacuum you can guarantee that before.

They decided to take these these specific strikes tonight they considered the potential repercussions here they considered how potentially Iran May react to this not just the houthis what we'll be watching for in the coming hours and days frankly is to see how the houthis react how Iran reacts to this if they put out a statement if they condemn.

It and see if the attacks in the ship the the Red Sea against Maritime in the area continues but I got to say Ellison I would not rule out that there that if in fact these houi attacks continue and maybe even accelerate I would not rule out continuing strikes by this Coalition all right Courtney CU at the Pentagon thank you so much let's turn now to NBC.

News foreign correspondent rap Sanchez he joins us now from Tel Aviv rap you have spent so much time reporting in this region through throughout your career talk to us about what you're hearing from sources and what you make of this tonight was this operation a surprise to any Global Security Experts or people in that sphere was it a.

Surprise to the houth it was not a surprise Ellison to the houthis to anyone who's been watching this the US the UK have been really telegraphing over the last couple of days that these strikes were coming we have seen American and British warships moving into position in the Red Sea we've seen phone calls between the.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and his British Australian counterparts Secretary of State Anthony blinkin has been here in the region over the last week his focus on the war in Gaza but also about preventing that conflict from spreading into a wider War across the region and he was very very clear that there would be consequences if these.

Houy attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea continued I would say Allison what has been surprising is the houth Defiance that the US its allies have been edging closer and closer to these strikes they have been giving the houthis a chance to deescalate and instead yesterday according to the British and American militaries we saw.

The largest most complex attack on commercial shipping in the Red Sea involving 18 drones and evolving missiles and that is a sign that the houthi is not backing down tonight they are defiant once again they say that their operations will continue remember these uh missile attacks they say are in response to Israeli strikes in Gaza they.

Say this is all an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people and they say that they will respond and the question now Ellison is where and when and does this lead to further escalation raap if you can remind us who the houthis are I mean they really first emerged as this sort of resistance group in the 1990s right but then at some point in their.

Shiite Muslims they were arguably radicalized and became very anti-america anti- us interests during the Iraq War how do they sort of exist today in the last decade and in terms of their influence in the region as well as their military or just weapon strength how big of a deal are they so yeah as you said they've been around.

For decades but they really surged the global prominence in 2015 when they swept into the capital of Yemen s they took it over they control much of Western Yemen uh they won it in the civil war against the internationally backed government of Yemen and Saudi Arabia as you were saying earlier when you were talking with Courtney swung.

Into action it sent its fairly Advanced American am armed military to fight what looked like a kind of rag tag yemeni Rebel group uh their aesthetic Ellison if you will is houthi leaders tend to appear on TV with a sword a small sword tucked into their belts they look like something from the 19th century but they proved to be a very very resilient.

Fighting group and they basically fought the Saudis to a standstill over the course of nine years of conflict and during the Civil War they have advanced and developed their Weapons Systems their missiles their drones a lot of it with help from Iran from other members of the so-called axis of resistance these Irani and backed militant groups.

Across the region in Iraq he bua in southern Lebanon and it is those fairly Advanced missiles that we are seeing being fired at the ships in the Red Sea some of them have been fired towards Israel none of them have actually made it that far but they are a force to be reckoned with and it is not at all clear that these strikes will cause them to.

Back down Ela yeah that was going to be my next question Raph I mean at this point do we know if the strikes that have been carried out this evening by the US and the UK if they actually hit anything significant if it was so well known it seems that these strikes were imminent one would think houthi Rebels would have acted and moved their most.

Valuable things out of the way yeah I think that's a really good point the the have had time to move their missiles to move their drones if they wanted to and it may very well be that if the US is not looking for escalation they deliberately telegraphed this so the houthis could get their people get their most significant.

Material out of the way the us could be seen to be carrying out strikes but the strikes potentially more symbolic than they would be actually material as you said we just don't know at this point we are seeing on social media these very large explosions in saana in the port city of Hoda we don't know exactly what was hit uh but we do know.

That the houthis certainly have not lost the will to fight whether they have lost the capability we'll see when the sun comes up when the dust clears and we'll see if they start shooting at ships in the Red Sea American bases in the region oil facilities in Saudi Arabia they have a lot of targets Ela NBC foreign correspondent Raph Sanchez on the ground.

In the Middle East thank you now let's turn to NBC's senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez he joins us now from the North Lawn of the White House so Gabe more than two dozen strikes on commercial ships commercial vessels uh roughly 20% of global trade has been disrupted throughout all of this is the US and the UK just saying.

Enough is enough here what are you hearing from sources inside the White House tonight could we see more of these strikes moving forward well Allison we expect to find out more information from in the White House hopefully in just a short time but the president as you mentioned tonight is out with that forceful statement talking about how.

These strikes are in direct response to those unprecedented houthi attacks as the president describes it and let's uh put a part of that statement and you see right there and I want to draw your attention Ellison to the last part of the statement because it speaks to what courney was talking about earlier these targeted strikes are a clear message.

That the us and our partners will not tolerate a taxs on our Personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes I will not hesitate the President says to direct further measures to protect our people and free the flow of international Commerce as necessary you see right.

There Ellison the president essentially teasing further measures a warning a repeated warning to the houthis to stop these attacks you know Gabe the US historically has had such an involvement in what happened in Yemen uh particularly following the Civil War as Raph was talking about in 2014 2015 when we saw houthi Rebels really start to.

Take control of key areas of Northern Yemen but then in February of 2021 Biden did sort of back off on the US's involvement in supporting the Saudi Le Coalition as they were engaging in this fight with houthi Rebels there are some people who are probably watching all of this tonight and just from a gut reaction level saying oh my goodness are.

We about to see Iraq another Afghanistan is the United States going to be fully back boots on the ground in the Middle East when you're speaking with sources at the White House are they ruling out further more extensive military operations Beyond just strikes from the air or uh is that something that seems to still be on the table here well.

Allison the White House officials are not ruling out anything at this point they have said however it is their intent there there are no plans to have any American boots on the ground at this point point but you bring up a very good point there in the sense that the challenge here is to prevent this from U head from turning into a wider war and.

We're just seeing uh that apparent new video from Yemen of one of those air strikes but Allison this is very a very difficult fine line that the White House is trying to to walk how to deter the houthis from further attacks without provoking them and Iran from escalating this conflict now there are the Stakes are very high for this region you spoke.

About how critical the Red Sea is for commercial ships around the world the president in his statement tonight mentioning that more than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea and more than 50 Nations have been affected in 27 attacks so far as Courtney mentioned so Allison it will be very interesting to.

See the response really from the region we've already heard a houy response tonight how will Iran respond to this still a lot of questions as the White House moves forward absolutely Gabe Gutierrez at the White House thank you so we've been talking a lot about this as we're looking at the context of this breaking news and the United States.

Along with the UK carrying out strikes inside of Yemen they say strikes on targets related to houthi Rebels it begs the question we were starting to talk about with all of our reporters a minute ago exactly who are the houthis it's a name you have probably heard a lot in Rec weeks since the war between Israel and Hamas really kicked off but our team.

They have spoken to top leaders of the group one who is pointing the finger at Israel for the growing conflicts and tensions in the region watch this report from NBC News Chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and learn more about the houthis well-armed and undeterred by American and international.

Threats yemeni militants known as the houthis have have disrupted traffic in the Red Sea sent cargo prices skyrocketing and could trigger a regional War this week the militants launched their biggest attack yet firing more than 20 drones and missiles at commercial ships in the southern Red Sea.

All shot down by us and British warships deployed to protect the vital shipping Lane Secretary of State Anthony blinkin warning the hou's actions would not be tolerated all I can tell you is that as we made clear and many other countries made clear there'll be consequences for the houth actions but who are the houthis they call themselves ansar La.

Arabic for followers of God a rebel group backed by Iran the militants took over Northern Yemen in early 2015 including the capital saana long at war with Saudi Arabia which supports the old Yemen government the militants overthrew the houthis burst onto the international stage after hamas's October 7th attacks in Israel.

And Israel's devastating war of reprisal in Gaza the once little known militant group quickly began launching missiles and drones at Israel in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza they released highly produced videos of their raids on commercial ships while other Arab states have.

Condemned Israel but not acted the houthis have seen their popularity sore in the Middle East the group even opened one ship it captured to the public as a kind of Museum companies including mskk have already diverted all marine traffic from the Red Sea the houthis say they will stop their.

Attacks as soon as Israel ends its war in Gaza but has the group overplayed its hand we spoke with Muhammad Al boii one of the top houthi leaders by video l from the Yen Capital do you really want a war with the United States and other countries right now Phil do you coordinate with Hamas hezb.

Iraqi groups other let's call them groups that are supported by Iran by taking on the United States do you think maybe you've taken on more than you can chew uh a fight that is too big for your capacity pressure is mounting on the United.

States to take military action against the houthis but that comes with the risk of further expanding war in the Middle East during one of the Region's most volatile times in years Richard Engel thank you don't go anywhere because we are just getting started tonight after the break Hunter Biden is back in court this time in.

California his pleas to felony tax charges in the potential jail time he's facing plus round three or is it 4 who can keep track what to expect from another winter storm making its way from coast to coast and a lesson in art history and the law the decades a long Court battle over a painting stolen by the Nazis why it won't be returning to.

Its original owner's family that's all ahead so stay tuned welcome back here are some of the other headlines we're watching tonight today the Pentagon Inspector General said that they will review how the department handled defense secretary Lloyd Austin's recent hospitalization the hospitalization due to a prostate.

Cancer diagnosis was not known by the White House and other top officials for days the review will examine the dod's policies and procedures about timely and appropriate notifications as well as the transition of authorities when someone may have health issues or is otherwise unavailable New York City officials have issued a vacate order for an illegally.

Constructed underground tunnel connected to a synagogue complex where earlier this week chaos erupted and nine people were arrested an investigation revealed that the 60-ft tunnel was made without the approval of the Department of buildings who now say the buildings above the tunnel need to be stabilized a Texas man was arrested outside of singer.

Shakira's home in Miami Beach this week authorities say the 56-year-old made several social media posts about the store and sent packages to her home here's what he told the judge in court this week my wife I speak to her all the time no sir no sir she is not your wife she is not your wife after hearing that the.

Judge doubled his bond to $100,000 he was also ordered to stop sending packages and to stop trying to contact Shakira prices for things like food and gas Rose more than expected in December according to a new report from the labor department Department the Consumer Price Index increased. 3% for the month and 3.4% from a year ago much of the increas.

Is because of rising shelter costs and today Microsoft dethroned Apple as the world's most valuable company briefly the two have been trading places for years now but at Market close Apple returned to the top spot Microsoft's shares have risen sharply since last year due to the early lead the company has taken in artificial.

Intelligence now La where hours ago Hunter Biden appeared in court pleading not guilty to all nine tax charges he's facing including multiple felonies Federal prosecutors say Biden failed to pay more than a million dollars in taxes between 2016 and 2019 instead of paying taxes he's accused of using that money to pay for a lavish lifestyle today's.

Court appearance comes just one day after the younger Biden made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill House Republicans were meeting to recommend contempt charges against Biden for defying a congressional subpoena NBC News correspondent David Nora joins me now from Los Angeles with more so David walk us through what happened in that La.

Courtroom today hey Ellison so the alleged failure to pay taxes charged in this case stems from a period of time during which Hunter Biden by his own admission was in the depths of his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine now he and his legal team point out that he has since paid that tax debt in full and gotten sober.

This is one of the reasons they say that this prosecution should not be happening in the first place they say it's selective and politically motivated that was what was behind their uh plea of not guilty that that Biden entered in this uh Federal Courthouse behind me today now as far as what happened in court today it was a relatively.

Straightforward hearing of about 30 minutes the judge reminded Biden that he is being released on conditions that include regular testing for drugs and alcohol and that if he fails to meet those conditions there will be a warrant put out for his arrest probably the most important piece of news that came out of the hearing today is that the judge set.

A trial date of June 20th so what a lot of us are looking at now is how exactly will this trial it's hard to know exactly how long it will last but how will or won't it intersect with election season this fall Ellison so what comes next and how does this case fit into all the other investigations lawsuits subpoenas happenings on Capitol Hill as.

It relates to Hunter Biden so Hunter Biden currently faces two criminal Federal criminal cases this one in California and one in Delaware related to his alleged lying on a on a Federal Form applying for a firearm now that is separate from the uh investigation by House Republicans into what they allege as Hunter Biden's.

Corrupt business foreign business dealings it's as part of uh that investigation that House Republicans are moving forward withum trying to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of congress that you know if the Full House of Representatives does in fact hold him in contempt of congress that might lead to further criminal charges against Hunter.

Biden but it's not guaranteed to now all of that is on top of a number of civil lawsuits that Biden is currently embroiled in in some of them he's a uh defendant but in many of them he's a plaintiff this is part of a shift in his and his team's legal and PR strategy in recent months they went from kind of lying low and trying not to bring.

Attention to his troubles to taking a more aggressive approach that includes suing a number of the people that he says has gone after him people like for example Rudy Giuliani he has also sued uh the IRS his father's IRS for what he says was their failure to keep his tax data private Alison all right David Nora thank you for breaking all of that down.

We appreciate it just hours ago closing arguments wrapped in the New York civil fraud case against Donald Trump the former president and his business the Trump organization are accused of inflating the value of their properties and assets for years old to secure more favorable loans Trump faces a $370 million penalty.

And a lifetime ban on operating his real estate business in the state he's repeatedly denied any wrongdoing including outside of the courtroom earlier today they have one piece of paper what we've run is a great company and that's been proven very highly successful company this was a political witch on for election interference but.

Also for getting somebody elected because you wanted to get the publicity it's a disgrace and they should pay me damages NBC's rahima Ellis joins us now so rahima walk us through what we heard from both sides in court today well Ellison they were doing what they've done for the three months of this trial drilling down on their.

Arguments that we've heard before but let me give you a sense of what the state was saying the state as you pointed out was pointing out that they alleged that the Trump Administration their financial statements for a decade from 2021 to 2021 were false statements and they alleged that favorable loans for the Trump organizations were.

Presented under these false pretenses as for the team of the Trump team they counter that by saying no Wht Witnesses ever testified to any harm and that it was a victimless crime but part of what the court is saying is that there does not have to be evidence of harm in order for laws to be broken and now it's going to be up to the judge to make a decision.

About those things including conspiracy and making false statements as to whether or not this court will do what the prosecution is asking as you point out they want the Trump Administration to pay something not the administration but the organization pay something like 370 million dollars in fines and be banned from life for doing real estate.

Business in New York Allison so the former president actually asked to speak during closing arguments the judge originally said no but then we saw Trump speak anyways how did that happen then what did he say it was a dramatic reversal of his decision which had been a a solid decision yesterday where he said that.

The Trump uh team had not complied in a timely manner with whether or not they would stick to the guidelines for Trump making a statement and that is you can't make disparaging remarks about the clerk and the judge and you can't use it as a platform for campaigning well the judge changed his mind this morning but told him do it within 5 minutes in that five.

Minutes Trump in a very risk uh rushed way said the very things that the judge had asked him not to do including saying that the legal Scholars looking at this case find it's disgraceful this is a fraud and he talked about the attorney general he said the person in the room right now hates Trump as for the judge he went after he said I know this is.

Boring to you I know you have your own agenda they should pay me meaning Trump for what we've gone through of in terms of reputation and else so exactly what he was asked not to do he did at one point the judge said to Trump's attorneys control your client after that Trump left the stand and the defense portion of this ended Ellison wow uh and.

Judge he also had some sort of bomb threat this morning at his house is that right yeah it was and it almost set the tone if you will for the drama and the upset that occurred in this court today there was a bomb threat allegedly according to authorities at the home of the judge they did not find any evidence of a bomb we don't know for sure if the.

Judge was at his home or not we know however that it did have an impact on what happened here because the court was delayed for a while this morning before it could get started because authorities wanted to check and make certain that everything here would be safe Ellison Rahim Ellis thank you for more on all of this NBC News.

Legal analyst Danny savalos joins us now so Danny let's start with what raho was just talking about what do you make of former president Trump's remarks today what do I make of them I mean they never should have been made in the first place that's the part that astonishes me is that uh former president Trump was even given the opportunity to speak I.

Mean I understand this is a high-profile trial I understand the judge is under a lot of pressure and but that's what happens going back to the OJ case high-profile cases make judges do things they wouldn't ordinarily do and give concessions to parties usually defendants they wouldn't dream of doing within just a regular run-of-the-mill.

Defendant that nobody's ever heard of that's in and out of the courthouse a thousand times a day in other words if I had made a motion for my represented client to make give a speech in my own closing argument that motion would have been denied 100% of the time so procedurally I'm not even entirely sure what happened here and in a sense the.

Court and everybody learned exactly why we don't let uh PL or clients uh get up and speak during proceedings because of exactly what happened here things can go off the r that's why we have lawyers to keep everything on the rails and you know this is exactly what would have happened if you let Trump speak I just I don't.

Know who was surprised here the judge couldn't have been surprised at what Donald Trump said and did I guess that gets us to our next question I mean why would his legal team allow this it sounds very clearly to me like you were saying this did not help them or their case moving forward why would they even put him in a position to be able to.

Speak do they just not have control of their client which is kind of what the judge seemed to imply well the answer to my first question was based on the judge and what made him decide to do that but you're exactly right it also raises the question of why did the defense team want to do this and I think you answered.

Your question within your question I think if you're signing on to be part of Trump's legal team baked into the deal is that the client's going to do what the client wants to do and in fact that's kind of baked into the deal with most lawyers but you can choose to decline to represent a client I think lawyers who decide to represent Trump.

Know that to some degree he's going to be making requests like this now in in terms of risk aversion I have to imagine his lawyers warned him hey this is probably not a good idea we had a couple experts we had you know we had the Deutsche Bank folks they did pretty well on the stand maybe it's not a great idea for you to irritate the judge and leave.

The last thing in his mind uh being how annoying you were and how much you annoyed the judge on the front end of the trial I mean that was months ago Ellison we'd almost forgotten how Donald Trump had been such an irritant in that courtroom and then he gets up there and for five minutes he effectively undo all the good his attorneys may have done for.

Him and totally gets the judge remembering what a pain this party was from the beginning of the case so then talk to us about what you see in terms of the overall case here because this is a case that involves the Trump organization you have the case against Donald Trump there's also the cases against his sons Eric and Donald Trump.

Jr um how do you think everything is shaking out when you look at the totality of these cases this is the rare case where we've gotten a preview because of two very unusual factors number one summary judgment was granted and that's not that unusual but it was granted in favor of the plan if and most summary judgment.

Motions are not granted so that means the judge has already taken away half of this case deciding it in favor of the AG and the other very unusual factor is that this was a judge only trial so in other words you have that rare instance where you get a sneak peek at what the judge thinks and then the judge is the one who decides the rest of the case.

Ordinarily that's the jury that decides what's remaining for trial after a summary judgment decision is issued so uh and that even further uh raises the question of why in the world would you call Trump at the end of your case when you're pitching it to a FactFinder and that same person that you've gotten into something of a bickering match within.

Court is the one that's going to go back into his Chambers and now write an opinion deciding your fate a lot of things don't make a lot of sense here all right NBC News legal analyst Danny savalos thank you we appreciate it coming up end of an era Bill bich calling it a career with the New England Patriots why the six-time Super Bowl.

Winning head coach might not be ready to put his Playbook away just yet but first you got to see this all aboard the Elvis Express Sydney's Central Station in Australia was filled with a lot of Blue Suede Shoes and yes sideburns the Elvis impersonators took the train to a small farming town for an annual 5-day festival for the king of rock and roll.

There will be impersonation competitions and of course musical tributes they look like they are having a blast that train ride to graceand is going to be a long one we will be right back welcome back here are some of the stories happening out west that we're following in California the pal A's.

Tahoe ski resort reopened on high alert today yesterday an avalanche killed one person and injured three others it was the first Avalanche fatality of this winter season in the United States in Japan the Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher shoh Otani visited the US Embassy he met with Ambassador Rah Emanuel who presented the baseball.

Player with a supersized Visa for his dog last month Otani the two-time American League MVP signed with the LA team based uh time the LA based team for a 10-year $700 million contract the city doesn't really matter I mean it's just a lot of money some of California's most famous diplomats could be on their way back home to the Golden State I'm.

Talking of course about these giant pandas who were on loan at the San Diego Zoo for decades but were returned to China a few years ago recently China expressed an openness to send them back to California but San Francisco's mayor has now made it clear San Diego can't get them back without a yet another major winter storm is.

Brewing tonight bringing with it more snow rain and wind across the Midwest to the Northeast this storm is expected to be so intense it will reach levels of a bomb Cyclone which is a storm that intensifies very rapidly blizzard conditions are expected and some areas could see as much as 12 to 18 Ines of snow through Saturday for the Northeast.

This means even more rain and risks of flooding States like New Jersey are still trying to recover from storms early earlier this week that brought destructive flooding to homes and businesses and the south is also facing severe weather alerts tomorrow with risks of more high winds hail and tornadoes NBC News meteorologist Bill.

Karens joins us now with more hey Bill oh good evening to you Ellison and here we go again this huge storm is beginning to intensify and just like the last one we're going to have blizzard conditions we're going to have severe weather maybe even tornadoes flooding damaging winds the storm has it all and behind this one brutal cold too so let's.

Get into it storm is beginning to break out you can see the blue on the map is where the snow's starting here in areas of Nebraska and Kansas will eventually start to get some thunderstorms pushing through Texas that'll be during the overnight hours if we get any severe storms likely after midnight and look at this colorful map with all the areas.

That are winter alerts you so the white is advisories watches are in blue blizzard warnings are in purple so those are the ones that catch my attention and we go straight here into Iowa only days before the Iowa caucus and most of the state is under a blizzard warning winter storm warnings from Green Bay to Milwaukee to Chicago also including.

Omaha and so we're expecting a very high impact event throughout this region in the next 24 hours with howling winds snowfall totals they're not going to be Blockbuster not record-breaking but we will see the possibility of a foot of snow somewhere in Northern Illinois the southern half of Wisconsin and also Northern portions of Michigan much of.

Iowa will be somewhere around a half a foot maybe as much as 10 in then the severe weather side so this is late tonight mostly going to be damaging winds that are possible I think Dallas and Oklahoma City you should be okay but east Texas into Louisiana Little Rock You probably hear the storms going through during the overnight hours early.

Tomorrow morning we continue this threat through Mississippi and then we push it right through the entire South these are the same areas that got hit with the last storm with the severe weather this time though it looks like a lower chance of strong tornadoes we'll still get a couple tornadoes but we shouldn't hopefully have any big ones fingers.

Crossed you never know but this is the area of concern so it's pretty much all of the southeast we're not really including much of the peninsula of Florida in this and then this storm doesn't have the 2 to four inches of rain like the last one this is more like 1 inch maybe at worst case up to an inch and a half to 2 in the ground is.

Saturated the rivers are already flooding everywhere you see the red polygons that's where we have current rivers that are flooding so we're going to add this to that situation and that's why we have flood watches that are up now the entire I95 Corridor that's going to be Friday afternoon in the midatlantic Friday evening heading up.

Into the Northeast and then clearing out by pretty early Saturday morning and behind the storm it's already brutally I mean the temperatures are ridiculous right now in Montana and that's what's going to push all the way down to Texas by the time we get to the tail end of the weekend so we do have windchill warnings in place that's where it's.

Dangerous to have Exposed Skin for even for a short amount of time here's the current windchill oh Great Falls Nega 42 that's one of the coldest windchills we've seen all winter long and this cold air is heading south already -10 and North Plat so you get air this cold on the back side of this blizzard the snow is going to be blowing all over the.

Place so here's the wind chill forecast as we head through the upcoming weekend Denver -16 9 Kansas city- 17 we got a football game being played in Kansas City Saturday night negative 17 wind chills and even Dallas by the time we get to Sunday and of course Allison with what happened in Texas a couple Winters back everyone's going to be watching.

Closely how that power grid does when the C air arrives this weekend Bill Karen thank you turning now to a stunning decision by a California court that has roots back to World War II Lily Casher was a Jewish woman who lived in Berlin in 1939 the same year most of the world declared war on Germany in a last ditch effort to get out of the city Lily.

Surrendered a Camille pesario painting to the Nazis for an exit visa after a few decades that painting found its way to a museum in Spain where it's lived for the last8 years a federal appeals court ruled the museum can keep the painting despite the Cashers family family's efforts to get it back but Lily's great-grandson David says they're.

Not giving up just yet NBC News correspondent Dana Griffin joins us now with more so Dana walk us through all of this this trial and why the court ultimately decided that this Museum in Spain has the right to keep this painting yeah so Ellison this Nazi art theft case began in 2005 and reached the Supreme Court just two years ago so the.

Two sides have disputed whether this is whether this US federal law or Spanish law applies to this case but on Tuesday a three judge panel ruled in favor of the tissan borisa museum to keep the peace now under Spanish law if the museum had known the art was stolen by the Nazis at the time of purchase they would have to return it but the museum.

Foundation says they couldn't have known well the family argues that the museum had to have known and they say they have evidence showing a sanded off sticker on the back of the frame which denotes that it belonged to the cier family in Berlin Ellison so Dana how did this family actually track this painting down and learn the entire story behind.

It yeah so the grandson of Lily cir said his father had been looking for it after seeing it in a family photo showing that painting hanging over his grandmother's sofa he shared the photo with a friend who later discovered that painting in the mudrid museum and this kicked off this nearly two decades long legal fight to get it back and if you're wondering.

What the family would do with it well the painting isn't being sought for sentimental reasons but to help others listen what would that mean for you and your family to get this painting back it would allow us to help others which my parents were very involved with their whole lives and they would expect me to do the.

Same I'm almost 70 and I haven't got that much time left so um I would like to have a legacy where I'm helping others this painting needs to be sold for that purpose it needs to be sold so the pro for the highest bidder in an auction or something similar in order to get everything we can for it in order to establish this Foundation that I.

Promised to my father so we could help other people they also want to prevent Spain from in the family's words from becoming a breeding ground for stolen art Ellison Dana Griffin thank you the end of an era in the NFL and a generation of fans in New England so appreciative of the fans for.

All the support they've given me uh my family uh in this football team and uh it's with um just so many fond memories and and thoughts that I you know think about the Patriots and and always be a patriot I look forward to coming back here uh but at this time uh you know we're going to we're going to move on with just four wins coach Bill bich.

Leaves Foxboro state Stadium after suffering through the worst season of his career but he leaves behind an all-time great record 24 seasons as the head coach of the Patriots 296 total wins and six Super Bowl titles more than any other coach much of that success came with one quarterback Tom Brady the former MVP writing to his former coach.

On Instagram quote I could never have been the player I was Without You NBC Sports host Cory Robinson joins me now with more okay Cory I mean that was kind of nice that was nice I'm actually like I'm a little surprised because they had a bit of tension there at the end which we can get into all of this but were you surprised to see this happen and let's.

Just talk sort of about the immediate why and do we think he like actually ends up with another team yeah I mean you missed the playoffs three out of four years that's not going to that's not the the Patriot standard we've seen that this team has no sentiment like they have no um what's the word emotional feelings towards past Legends.

And they've like let everyone they've been so cold in calculating so you kind of understand why would Bill bich be any different I think the difference though is what happened with Tom Brady they let him walk away right and like let him go where he wanted to go same thing with Bill bich he had one year left on his contract reportedly they didn't trade.

They say you know we're not going to like put him on the trading block and get something back you know you've done enough for our organization just walk away and and I thought that was really nice what is the reaction among Patriot fans I have to ask because my best friend of all time is a Patriots fan and I always say like she is the best best.

Human best friend only Flawless she's a Patriots fan yeah look I I think right now it's an interesting thing like I said when you've won that much the past couple years have been basically intolerable 13 losses in a season I mean they win so much so the thing about this team right now is okay obviously they need to make a change um and Bel Che was.

The change now from my perspective it's interesting where does Bill go for you know so does he end up going to the Falcons right now I just checked the Falcons head coach tracker his name is not on there people have been linking him potentially he goes over there I personally I watched that 2019 NFL top 100 of all time he was like on set with.

Rich Eisen and Chris Collinsworth cracking jokes with Lawrence Taylor and talking with Roger starback I thought TV might be interesting for him because I mean we saw Tom Brady signed that 10-year contract made more money than he ever did playing football just immediately like guaranteed money with Fox I think that bill belic is an.

Encyclopedia for for football knowledge if he decides to come back and Coach though he'll his 50th season in the NFL which is just it's mind-blowing to think about 50 Seasons working as a coach in the NFL so who could possibly be the new Patriots head coach is there any name out there there's a name Jared Mayo so so he's already on staff right now and.

He turned down head coaching interviews last year which was kind of like a tip of the Hat you know you think okay why would you do that I mean it's everyone's dream he's a late 30-year Old Coach a black man who has an opportunity to go be a head coach this doesn't make sense and now it's starting to make sense right I think a lot of people are.

Thinking okay he's the head coach in waiting for the for the New England Patriots which is exciting like you said new it's a new time New Era but I think it's the biggest story though once again is what's Bill gonna do you know I I think the Patriots have a lot of work you know are they going to stick with M Jones like all these questions so I.

Think that there's not like a you just give Mayo the job and then they're going to be great again there there's a lot of work that needs to happen in Inland you do think so whether it's something outside of football TV realm or coaching Bill bel's not just going to disappear as I mean I think Tom was interesting Tom.

Brady said it in his Instagram post where he's like whatever you decide to do next and I think that kind of opens it up because a lot of people think okay Bill bich he's goingon to keep coaching but I I do think there's a couple different routes so if you're a legend like him you can go Pete Carroll's route which know coach Coach K did this in.

Basketball you do all your time and then you go be an assistant or a special advisor I don't think that's the route for Bill you know I think the TV route we saw Shawn pyton do that and then go back to coaching so we'll find out what he does but I think TV is the one all right personally to be ter and Cory Robinson thank you so much for being.

Here we appreciate it before we go it is time for the future of everything using AI to get out of a jam traffic jams more precisely how California is looking to use the technology to improve flow on the roads and make them safer too that's straight ahead so stay tuned now we want to bring you the future of everything California is of.

Course known for bad traffic the state estimates 4,000 people are killed in traffic related incidents there every single year but California is hoping to get that number all the way down to Zero by 2050 and make roads more efficient with the help of AI Public Safety and and safety in general for the for Californians is a.

High priority for this Administration it's our top priority at calr and so AI has this opportunity of looking at different types of solutions looking at millions of points of data quickly analyzing those those data points and helping our professionals make better decisions and hopefully getting to that point where we have Zero.

Fatalities this month Cal Trans the State's Department of Transportation is accepting proposals from tech companies looking for innovative ideas to use generative AI on the road in some places like Seattle Google is already piloting a project using AI to improve traffic flow while reducing car emissions joining me now is NBC Tech correspondent.

Jake Ward Jake how do they hope to implement this and what could AI improving traffic actually look like for drivers well Ellison as you mentioned this is something of a contest this is the state of California the Department of Transportation basically reaching out to the landscape of AI companies and saying who's got the best idea please.

Bring it to us generative AI the kinds of systems that we've used through something like chat gbt or Google's Bard can be trained on more or less any data set and become you know conversational in a sense in that kind of data in this case Department of Transportation officials are hoping that they can essentially train AI on the enormous.

Amounts of data that traffic lights and traffic monitors might feed into it and and create a system that might be able to brainstorm up some better ideas for getting traffic to move better in big cities like LA and all the way down to midsize cities like San Francisco where I am but the big thing here of course Ellison is traffic fatalities about.

4,000 people a year die on California roads and the Department of Transportation is very focused on the idea that AI might be able to cut into that number here's how they think about it have a listen but one thing that gener generative AI can do for us is look at all the modes of transportation analyze.

The travel times in real time and provide that information to the consumer or the user of the network to allow them to make the best choice possible for their commute so it it can analyze transit times rail times vehicle times congestion times all of that and then the user can determine today I'm going to take the train today I'm going to.

Take my car whatever might be best for them so all of this of course you know being a system for looking at what would for you and I be an impossible amount of data right the general chaos of traffic looks like an unsolvable problem to the human brain but you know when you feed it into a pattern recognition system The Hope here is that it could create some.

New kinds of order that would make all of us get around better and more safely Elis and Jake whenever we talk about AI there are always some naysayers some critics if you will sometimes it's because they just don't understand the issue as well as say Someone Like You other times there are people who understand the issues very well that.

Raise alarm bells are there any concerns as it relates to this situation the idea of using AI by a state in this manner well there are basically two big categories of concerns that you hear when it comes to something like this the first is we don't know if it'll work right and it could be that over the course of the kind of experimentation.

That you would have to do to see if AI can make a dent in something like this it might make some very bad decisions we've all seen the ways in which generative AI you know makes things up over time and it could be that it tries to compress you know a group of cars into the wrong uh sized street at the wrong time of day right it could make.

Traffic worse if anything in the experimental phase but then the other one of course is the fact that you would in fact be tracking traffic in a broader sense there's the privacy concerns about feeding all of the movements of Californians into a central system and how that might be misused now the Department of Transportation says they.

Are not going to misuse it that it's going to be very carefully siloed off from any other let's say a law enforcement agency or anything else um but those two categories of concern always come up when a new AI project like this gets off the ground Ellison Jake Ward thank you we appreciate it that does it for us tonight I'm Ellison.

Barber we will see you tomorrow but until then stay tuned now thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow follow us on social media

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