>> tomorrow, "new york magazine," willie's going to cover the '80s and the '90s of the greatest new york magazine. >> did you do that on your own? >> we're coming back. nuclear freeze, as president obama sits down for a nuclear summit in europe. retro cold war tension with russia over ukraine casts a giant shadow. we'll talk to senator mark warner about what's at stake. also this morning, the latest on those deadly mudslides in washington state. a chicago commuter train jumps the tracks and sends dozens to the hospital to start this monday. plus, a political education that we will learn today from hillary clinton. highlighting jeb bush's school summit, and why does a common core clash worry both parties? good morning from washington. it's monday, march 24th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." i'm luke russert in for the

great chuck todd. chuck will be here in just a minute live from the netherlands on the first stop of president obama's trip to europe and saudi arabia. however, we begin with developing news on day 17 of the search for that missing malaysian passenger jet. australia says search crews have found two objects in the primary search area. one is circular. the other looks rectangular. the crew of this chinese plane also spotted several other objects overnight in that same search area. no one's confirming the objects are part of flight 370, but one of the australian flight crew members says he's flown over the area three times, and this is the first time he spotted anything. >> an australian naval ship is

checking on the debris. reports as we speak. nbc's tom costello has the latest on the search for the plane that was carrying 239 people. tom, what do we know at this time this morning? >> that's the royal ship, the royal hms ship. it's headed into this area right here. because those objects spotted by the australians was within the search zone. one of them is groeen. the other one is orange, we're told. those objects spotted by the chinese were outside of the search zone, so they've now actually asked for the chinese ice breaker ship to move into that area and check out any signs that it can spot the debris. but so far, no reporting back. by the way, an american p8 aircraft went into the region immediately after that chinese allusion aircraft thought it spotted something and the p8 didn't see anything. but let's put this whole thing in perspective. because the indian ocean is awash -- this is the indian ocean here, the indian ocean,

and south into the southern ocean. this is awash in debris. every year, more than a dozen ships sink worldwide, but many, if not most of them, are sinking in the indian ocean. and every year, at least a thousand -- and by some counts 10,000 cargo containers fall off ships. and so the ocean is littered with debris, and the challenge, therefore, is to try to figure out what is debris from just regular trash floating in the area. and what might be something that is relevant. let's quickly take a look at the other satellite images. we've talked about this a lot over the last couple of days. this is the chinese image that was picked up several days ago. 72 feet is what we're told. and then we have -- this is the australian image from about a week ago. 79 feet is what we're told. how does that compare to a 777? this is the malaysian air 777. if you're trying to figure out where could the debris come from, the wingspan on a 777 is about 200 feet. and from tail to nose, or nose to tail, 205 feet.

so the thinking is a big chunk might come from the middle of the plane, but those objects are very unusually shaped, which makes a lot of people suspicious that these objects really are from the plane. we'll have to see. luke, back to you. >> tom costello, thank you so much. president obama is in the netherlands this morning. the event has been billed as a nuclear security summit, but it's being overshadowed by concerns about russia and the crisis in ukraine. >> europe and america are united in our support of the ukrainian government and the ukrainian people. we're united in imposing a cost on russia for its actions so far. >> this afternoon, the president will join other leaders at the g7 now to discuss those consequences, but first, president obama is meeting with the president of china. mr. obama promised to work on "shared interests" despite friction over issues like ukraine, meeting with the leaders of japan and south korea are set for tomorrow.

our own chuck todd is traveling with the president and he joins me from the netherlands. chuck, it's now the g7, no longer the g8. obviously the crisis if ukraine is at the top of the list of things that will be discussed in the hague. >> absolutely, back to the future, if you will. it's already been a busy first day, and this is probably going to be the most consequential day and that is this g7 meeting. it's on the sidelines. it's a meeting the president called for. it's the old original g7 before they invited russia in after the fall of the soviet union. and the entire discussion is going to see if the united states and the europeans can get on the same page when it comes to what type of punishment will there be economically for russia, particularly if it keeps moving in on ukraine, if it goes beyond what it's done with crimea, and that's been sort of the central challenge here for the europeans. the european economy is very much intertwined with the

russian economy. there's been a lot more hesitance at doing some of these sanctions that the united states is saying they want to do. if you recall last week when president obama announced the new executive order, one of the things he said in there is that he wanted to start targeting sectors of the russian economy, but he held off, he really only targeted one specific bank and he held off because he doesn't want to make any moves that the europeans won't also do in coordination, and so what kind of strong statements come out of here? merkel is obviously -- the german chancellor angela merkel is key here. she has, of all the key european leader, probably the best personal relationship left with putin and even that is not a very good relationship. but it's certainly better than the one president obama has. so that's going to be the sign to look for. after the g7 meeting, not only are they all on the same page, they're going to pretend they're on the same page whether they are or not. but how tough is sanction? how tough is the talk? what kind of threat can they make here? but there is a lot of other moving parts to this visit. today you brought up the nuclear

security summit. there's already a bunch of deliverables that the white house is out thing this morning, including the idea that the u.s. is going to be in charge of disposing all of the highly enriched uranium that japan had stockpiled. they're now the 13th nation to agree to do this since president obama started this nuclear summit back in 2010. so a pretty significant accomplishment there, but i have to close with this, luke. today at the nuclear security summit, the netherlands is the host country, they've decided to do a war game scenario with all the world leaders in the room and only the world leaders that will involve a loose nuke that goes off at a european port. and sort of how to respond. it's all intended to try to create a sense of urgency. but i have to tell you, it has a feel of "24" or war games, shall we play a game, as an interesting side nugget. but in all honesty, the big news is going to come out of the g7 meeting and that's later this

afternoon. >> yeah, that has to probably cause a little bit of worry amongst those leaders. chuck, real quick, this is the beginning of what is a pretty important visit for president obama in 2014. also going to saudi arabia, but also meeting with pope francis in rome for the first time. >> it is symbolically that first meeting, and the president has already name-dropped the pope quite a bit when it's come to his pet issue, income inequality. so it is a chance for the president to dabble a little bit into some domestic politics that he would like to do. the trip to saudi arabia, the white house will never describe it this way, but probably the best way to describe it is the "i'm sorry" type of visit. saudi arabia, the king there doesn't believe president obama pays him enough deference. doesn't believe that this administration consults enough with the saudis when it comes to whether it's middle east peace, whether it's what to do in syria, and so this visit in many ways is simply an attempt to try to repair some of this

relationship, which really is more of a personal issue than it is a professional issue. the united states-saudi relationship is still very tight. it's more just president obama and the king not being very tight. >> chuck todd from the netherlands. thank you so much, sir. we just learned that the malaysian prime minister will hold a press conference at 10:00 a.m. on new developments on the missing plane. we'll be sure to bring you that. and we'll be keeping our eyes on that summit as it gets under way. world leaders are beginning to arrive and we're expecting the president to arrive in just a few minutes. and ahead, we'll go live to the scene of that deadly mud slide in washington where west view teams are hoping to get back to work shortly to find those 18 people who are still missing. and as you can see on today's politics planner, governor jeb bush's education summit is about to get under way. we're going to be there live next. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire?

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in first read this morning, two political powerhouses will appear together this morning in suburban dallas. former secretary of state hillary clinton is speaking at a conference on global higher education organized by former florida governor jeb bush. bush-clinton, bush-clinton. it's not the first time the two have shared a stage this year. bush joked about a match-up with clinton in september. >> we do agree on the wisdom of the american people. especially those in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina. >> clinton has remained coy about her future plans, even while ramping up her public schedule. she dodged the 2016 question again over the weekend during a clinton global initiative

student conference at arizona state. >> if you don't represent women in politics in america as future president, who will? >> look, i am -- [ laughter ] i am very much concerned about the direction of our country. give me your name and number. i'm obviously thinking about all kinds of decisions. >> with the 2016 republican field influx, bush is taking a second look at a presidential bid and says he'll decide by the end of the year. but are voters ready for the return of either political dynasty? on friday, jeb bush laughed off the criticism of one reluctant voter, his own mother, who famously told matt lauer last year, "we've had enough bushes." >> if, conditional, you were to

run for president, would you get your mother's vote? [ laughter ] >> so, yes, i will. >> education is an issue bush has long been focused on since his time as governor, and he has aggressively defended common core reading in math standards that are unpopular with many conservatives. 45 states and the district of columbia have adopted those standards and this week students in 36 of those states began taking field tests of the assessments based on the standards. the actual tests won't be given for another year. >> i didn't realize that high, lofty expectations and high standards would be so controversial. but trust me, it is very controversial. this will be a truth serum for our communities to wake up and realize that we've languished. >> joining me now, former democratic governor jim hunt of north carolina, who is co-chairing today's conference with governor bush. governor hunt, thank you so much for being on the program.

>> good morning, luke. >> so what do you hope to accomplish today at the conference? obviously common core has been an issue that has gotten very political. folks on both sides seem to have certain problems with it. but also taking a lot of criticism from the right. you have senators rand paul and ted cruz that have begun so far to oppose legislation that would bar federal funding for any common core standard. how can you push this initiative forward facing such strong political headwinds? >> well, luke, in conference is not about k-12 education. common core is setting higher standards for high schools and for k-12 education. this is about higher education. this is about extending more higher education around the world. you know, the united states has the gold standard in great colleges and universities. now with online education, many

more students are getting college degrees, and this conference is nonpolitical. it's totally about a college education. higher education. the globalization of higher education. and governor bush and i are co-chairing this. we have representatives from around the world where the great american colleges and yufrs could be extending their courses, helping people get degrees around the world, get the kind of benefits from innovation and creativity that comes from higher education.get innovation and creativity that comes from higher education. this is totally about extending the great american higher education around the world and i think it could do great things for people around the world, but also for america's relationships and our economy. >> all right, let's tie that in to a global conversation. because one thing that we have seen over the last few years, especially k-12, that the united states is falling behind countries such as china and india and some very important,

shall we say, marks that can determine the future growth of our own country. what can be done to slow the u.s. falling behind these countries, and is enough being done in the k-12 standard and does common core fix that? >> well, we do need higher standards. and common core was developed by the governors. these are called common core state standards, luke. developed by the governors and the chief state school officers. we do need higher education, and the people who say that most strongly are the u.s. chamber of commerce, the business round table, business groups in every state around america. so that's very important. but the key thing here is we need to learn more in k-12 education, graduating more students who know the things they need to know. but then we need to take them into higher education. go to the colleges and universities, be on the campus, or take courses online. and it's that online technology

now that gives us an opportunity to extend the gold standard higher education of america to countries around the world. that's an exciting idea. our colleges can partner with colleges in other countries. this conference, for example, is being co-sponsored by academic partnerships, a group here in america, and queens college in cambridge, in england. so this is a wonderful opportunity, and i'm very proud that governor bush and i are co-caring this, and we, of course, are delighted to have former secretary of state hillary clinton as one of our main speakers. >> do you think more needs to be done in a bipartisan manner to keep these folks, especially foreign students who are educated in the u.s., here? there have been some initiatives this congress to keep these folks especially that have highly educated degrees within the borders of the united states. should more be done on a

bipartisan basis to eliminate the brain drain we've seen? >> absolutely, luke. if there's anything in america that we ought to do on a bipartisan basis, it is education. and we do a lot of that at the state level. the governors have led that, by the way. i served as governor of north carolina for 16 years. four terms. and i worked with the republicans in my state. we raised teacher pay by a third over my last four years. these are the kinds of things we ought to be doing. and by the way, i think -- you know, we talk about all the conflict and people not working together in washington. this is an area where we could work together a lot more. and the american people would really like to see it. >> governor, thank you so much for being on the show and thanks to the folks there at the summit for setting up that camera for us. very kind of you. and for more now, i want to bring in nbc news senior political editor mark murray. mark, thank you so much for

being on the show. >> hey, good morning. >> so jeb bush has run into some problems with the tea party over the common core standards. that's an issue that's gotten very political, which a lot of folks did not think -- i mean, it was supported by guys like scott walker, bobby jindal. reading the tea leaves for jeb bush's response -- for how he operates here within the common core standards and the criticism he's going to get from that, what can that tell us for 2016 if he vehemently defends these standards and is ready to move on? does that show something that perhaps he's more establishment heading in? >> if he does run for presidency in 2016, i'm not sure we're going to really know. i think a lot of people are almost 50/50 on that. he would have to defend his common core. he'd have to defend his pro-immigration reform. and he'd also actually have to defend his brother's presidency. and as we've seen the republican party more and more as every year goes by has broken away from bush's presidency. just see rand paul's criticism of the nsa program, the nsa surveillance program was created

during the bush administration. so he'd have to go through that. but in some ways, doing it now, defending this stuff, saying this is what i believe in does get that a little bit out of the way. but again, what we've seen from jeb bush, we shouldn't read too much into 2016 in what he's doing. speaking at an education conference is stuff he's done well before, him going on and helping out republican candidates, he's done that before. him hobnobbing with republican groups and big donors like sheldon addleson, he's done that before. but this all takes on more scrutiny, because with a lot of people thinking chris christie might not run with all of his problems, everything that jeb bush does -- >> he's the natural heir to the establishment. it's like nothing more to see him do it. >> they want one of these guys, chris christie or jeb bush. >> real quick, hillary clinton, she seems to be doing everything but say yes, sharing the stage with jeb bush is very significant. she tweeted out a selfie of the family with jimmy kimmel, so showing that she's hip to modern times, if you will.

how much longer are we going to be dragged through this? probably looking at fall of '14 or early '15? >> she doesn't have to make an official announcement until about a year from now. that's the point you need to raise close to the billion dollars that an eventual winner is going to need to compete. now she can have this little dance. the biggest key to me is that, you know, she's not saying that she wants to disappear from the public stage. a busy schedule from her, her husband. and the fact that the clintons want to be part of the public stage i think gives a lot of their supporters, like this is what she's going to do in 2016. we don't know for sure. we can't read too much into any little individual event. but they're not going away any time. >> a lot of time in the public eye. we just learned that malaysia's prime minister will hold a press conference at 10:00 a.m. on new developments on the missing plane. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. but first, which became a state first, north dakota or south dakota? be the first person to tweet the

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[ moderator ] how would you deal with them? umm... ninjas. [ male announcer ] no need for ninjas. reduce up to 95% of inanimate allergens becoming airborne from fabrics with new, dermatologist tested, febreze allergen reducer. i was on the fifth or sixth car of the train, and i heard a boom. when i got off the train, the train was all the way up the escalator. >> developing now. authorities are on the scene of a train derailment at chicago's o'hare airport, investigating what caused the train to jump the tracks earlier this morning. more than 30 people were injured when the train shot past the end of the platform and hit an escalator that leads up to the airport terminals. most of the injuries, thankfully, are minor. the train appeared to be going faster than normal when it entered the station. we'll bring you any developments on this story as we get them.

turning now to a tragedy in washington state, as rescue crews con continued a search for survivors after a massive mud slide wiped out an entire neighborhood. at least eight people are confirmed dead and firefighters fear 18 more are missing. the washington state patrol released this helicopter footage showing the sheer scope of the disaster. the mud slide covered nearly an entire square mile. the county posted this picture on facebook showing the muck and the debris. the before-and-after pictures show just how the ground gave away late saturday night. miguel, what do we know today? >> reporter: luke, good morning. we know that search teams will begin their third down on the ground looking for survivors. at least eight have been confirmed dead. another 18 have been reported missing, although that number may also climb later on today.

the debris slide zone is about the size of some 500 football fields. that that mud and debris has been like quicksand over the last several days, so it's very difficult for them to search that area. but at sunrise, they do expect to re-enter that area, go into location where is they can. some 30 homes have been destroyed. they will go into that area to look specifically for any possible survivors. but certainly they say as more time passes here, they are still in a search mode, but that search mode may turn to a recovery soon. luke? >> our top west coast correspondent miguel almaguer, thanks so much. today, tdr-50 rolls into the land of sitting bull, bismarck. north and south dakota. the two states share more than a part of their name. they share history, interest, and near each other politically. the two states used to be one big territory back in the late 1800s. the capital was yankton, but

after gold was discovered and the region began to fill up, some northerners wanted a capital closer to them and chose bismarck. instead of settling the dispute, members of the opposing groups went the congress and asked them to split the area in two, which they did. north and south dakota were admitted to the union as the 39th and 40th states on the same day in 1989, twins. although the two states are divided along the 46th parallel, they're pretty united in terms of their politics. both states have voted republican in every presidential election except lbj's landslide in '64. both states have republicans in charge of the governor's office and state legislatures. however, they're not averse to electing a democrat. each state has a democrat in the u.s. senate. so why should you care about what's going on in the northern plains? after all, their population combined is just about the size

of the city of philadelphia. but both states are growing, and growing fast. look at north dakota. its population was essentially unchanged from 1960 to 2003. but from 2003 to 2013, it jumped by nearly 100,000 people. that's a 14% jump in just ten years. in south dakota, the population was relatively stable for most of the 1900s, but it jumped more than a quarter million people in 2003. then added another 11% in the last decade. why is this happening? because the economies of both states have exploded. in north dakota, the oil boom that struck six years ago has created a flood of new jobs. the state has leapfrogged alaska and california, and now only trails texas when it comes to the largest oil producing states in the u.s. according to forbes, north dakota is on the verge of churning out a million barrels of crude oil per day. and so far, only a fraction of the oil available in north

dakota shale formations has been recovered. that's helped push the state's unemployment rate down to just 2.6%, which is in fact the lowest in the country. south dakota's unemployment rate is nearly as low, just 3.6%. part of the reason is that the state has created one of the most business friendly atmospheres in the country. in 2013, our colleagues at cnbc named it "the top state for business", citing its low tax burden, utility rates, wages and commercial rate cost. however, for all the economic successes you have in both states, there's still a massive poverty problem. particularly among the native american population. across the northern plains, the jobless rate among native americans is more than 15%. triple the rate of white residents. one of the most stark examples -- and i've seen this myself -- is that the pine ridge reservation in south dakota. it's the second largest reservation in the nation. 80% -- 80% of its 30,000 to

40,000 residents are unemployed, while nearly half live below the poverty line. that's just one of the issues we'll be examining more closely as our tbr-50 spends the weekend focused on north and south dakota. before we break, here's a monday data bank digit for you. seven. that's the number of days left for people to sign up for health insurance under the affordable care act before the open enrollment period ends. as of last week, the white house still needed over a million more sign-ups to hit their adjusted enrollment target of six million. and even though no one will win buffett's billion-dollar bracket, i came so close, we've got our own tdr style march madness happening this year. it's your chance to pick history's top white house contender who never made it to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. the full bracket is on our website, so you can start making your picks. voting starts tomorrow. so make sure you go to rundown.msnbc.com to move your

picks to the next round. bryant, i'm betting big on you, buddy. [ coughs, sneezes ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is.

now back to the new clues in the search for that missing malaysian passenger jet. malaysia's prime minister plans to hold a press conference about 20 minutes from now at 10:00 a.m. eastern. nbc's keir simmons joins us on the phone with reaction from the families in kuala lumpur. keir, what do we know? >> reporter: hey, luke. well, we just got news in the last -- over the last hour that the prime minister of malaysia would make a statement at around 10:00 p.m. local time, which is 10:00 a.m. eastern, so we are waiting for that. it may happen earlier. it may happen at 9:45, quarter of the hour. and we don't know what he's going to say. we're actually on our way now to the hotel where the families are

staying to be with them when the announcement is made. we think, we're speculating, that it will be something of a major announcement since the last time the prime minister stood up and gave a press conference like this, and he's done it only once during the search for flight 370, he announced that they believed that the plane had been deliberately diverted. it was a key change in their assessment, a key moment in the investigation into what happened to the plane. so it may not be as dramatic as that, but they do appear to be bringing the prime minister out to make a statement at 10:00 in the evening, and that will be quite a statement in and of itself before we enknow what they're going to say. i'm being handed a note to say with the media waiting have been told that the prime minister will make a statement. no questions will be taken. and it will be an update on the situation. so we wait to hear what the

malaysian prime minister has to say. >> nbc's keir simmons, thank you so much. we just want to reiterate that. the prime minister of malaysia expected to hold a press conference around 10:00 a.m. today with new information about that missing airline jet. and this is only the second time he's ever had a press conference, so we expect the news to be significant. thank you so much, keir. now to the growing concern that russia is not finished with ukraine. nato's top commander is warning that president putin has placed a very sizable contingent of troops along ukraine's eastern border, raising red flags at the white house. >> it's deeply concerning to see the russian troop buildup along the border. it creates the potential for incidents, for instability. it's likely that what they're trying to do is intimidate the ukrainians. it's possible that they're preparing to move in. >> they have seized three military bases. ukrainian officials say they're getting ready for an all-out

war. >> we are ready to respond, and as you know, a ukrainian government is trying to use all their peaceful means and diplomatic means to stop russians. but people are also ready to defend their homeland. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel has more from eastern ukraine. >> reporter: russia doesn't only have to invade to undermine the sovereignty of the new government in kiev. it's already taken crimea. it has the forces on the border. but it has other tools to try and weaken the government, luke. one of those tools are the pro-russian militias in cities like this one, in eastern ukraine. we are in donetsk. and they have been holding rallies here almost every day, particularly on the weekends, to denounce the government in kiev. there is also the question of oil and gas supplies. this country is dependent, completely dependent on natural gas coming from russia. that natural gas has long been

sold at a subsidized price, and today gas prom, the state oil and gas producer in russia said that it would raise prices on its natural gas sold to ukraine. it's just one more tool that russia is using the try and undermine the sovereignty of the ukrainian government. luke? >> richard engel, thanks. joining me now, mark warner who is a member of the intelligence committee in the senate. thanks so much for being on the show. >> thanks for having me, luke. >> the first question i have to ask you, is americans waking up this morning reading in the paper that thousands upon thousands of russian troops are amassing on the ukrainian border. there's a fear that they could move further west into the country. what do we know at this time about a possible russian invasion of eastern ukraine? >> well, i think not only are we but our nato allies as well are monitoring the situation as was mentioned. it's a very volatile time.

this is clearly going to be at the top of the president's agenda as he meets with our eu partners. we earlier last week, myself and the senator from north dakota john hovan said one of the ways we can weaken mr. putin is if america takes a more aggressive position vis-a-vis energy security, as was mentioned here. europe depends upon russia for gas and oil. we said to the administration go ahead and expedite and pass the number of permits that are being before the administration now, so that more american natural gas can be actually -- could be exported to europe. that's not going to change things overnight, but that would be a step forward. make sure that this eu summit includes energy security. there's even possibilities of reversing the flow of some of these pipelines, where some european gas could actually go back towards ukraine. that's been suggested. we said in the aid package going to ukraine that part of that aid

package ought to be geared towards energy efficiency, energy productivity because ukraine has been so dependent upon cheap oil and gas. they've not been very good about being very energy efficient. you could actually decrease ukraine's energy usage by some estimates of up to 20% virtually overnight with some american businesses coming in and help there. so these are some actions that we've called for, vis-a-vis energy security. what we're also calling, though, in terms of this package, the senate this week is going to be looking at an aid package to ukraine. i think we will pass that to show support for this new regime that is more pro-western. but when we pass that, we also want to say to ukraine you've got to help us more in terms of the number of cyber criminals that are active in ukraine. the previous ukrainian regime under president yanukovych basically turned a blind eye to the number of cyber activists there. i think many of us remember the target breach that took place

right before christmas. that was perpetrated by cyber criminals out of ukraine. if we're going to help ukraine, ukraine needs to step up and work with our law enforcement officials to go after these cyber criminals. >> i want to go to the issue of energy exports. because the biggest cheerleader of that has been speaker john boehner calling for the u.s. to tap its natural gas reserves and send it over there to try and alleviate the dependency that a lot of european countries have on russian oil and natural gas. germany is very much dependent upon them and france and others. why do you think the administration is dragging their heels on this and would you join with john boehner to try and move this forward? >> i absolutely would join with the speaker or anyone else. senator hovan and i called on the administration last week to expedite these permits. i'm not sure the administration has been necessarily dragging their feet. they have approved six of these permits. there's about another 20 pending. we'd like to know, they ought to

go ahead and approve them or tell us why. we called within 60 to 90 days, let us know why. we think this will send a strong message to the europeans and to those countries in eastern europe that they won't have to be dependent on russian gas going forward. now, let's be clear, approving this permit and then building the facility and making all the transitions that are necessary isn't going to turn this around right away. we're talking about a multi-year process before some of this american gas can get to europe. but i think it would send the signal that the west or europeans' long-term dependence on russian oil and gas would start to come to an end. and we think this question of energy security ought to be tops on the agenda with this summit that the president is holding right now with our european allies. >> and real quick, one thing that's been holding up an aid package to ukraine has been this difference between the house and senate about whether or not funding for the imf should be in a bill. it was included in the original

senate package. it was not included in the house panga package. a lot of house democrats say they shouldn't get involved in that. should the imf language be in a senate bill? >> on that piece, i'm not sure where the state of the negotiations lie. i do know there was some sense before we broke that that imf issue would be resolved. member of the foreign relations committee are coming back this week. we'll get that resolved. i believe we will get this package out. i guess the two things i want to stress is we've got to look at energy security. we've got to go ahead and expedite these natural gas exporting that would decrease the dependence upon russian gas. but at the same time, as we do this package, and this may seem unrelated, but if we're concerned as we should be about cyber security, we all remember how many folks tho s had to losr credit cards, we need to say to ukraine we're going to stand up for you, but you the no longer turn a blind eye to the cyber

criminals that are doing these activities in ukraine. >> senator mark warner of virginia, thank you so much for being on the show. >> thank you. we're waiting for that 10:00 a.m. eastern news conference from the malaysian prime minister. we're told there will be no questions and families of the passengers are meeting with malaysian officials ahead of that meeting. it's only the second time the prime minister has briefed the press. so we expect it to be significant. before a quick break, our tdr 50 soup today is teddy's bison chili. that's what they're serving up at carver's cafe at mount rushmore. the bison is a leaner meat, it's one that i like a lot. it's good for heart health. eat it. we'll be right back. rible" your. you wanna get that genius? not mine. on the passenger seat, there is a collection of charles barkley highlight dvds. must be a big fan. and the license plate reads "sir charles." i'm gonna get some drinks with my capital one venture card. be right back. earn unlimited double miles with no blackout dates from the capital one venture card.

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has been lost and none of those onboard have survived. we must now accept all evidence that suggests the plane went down in the southern indian ocean. we are following the latest developments in this search right now. i want to go to nbc's ian williams with the latest. ian, absolutely horrific news that they believe that, in fact, the flight is beyond a reasonable doubt lost. >> reporter: this will come as a devastating blow to those families who have hoped and hung on to a desperate hope that perhaps their loved ones are still alive, that perhaps this aircraft would turn up somewhere, perhaps hijacked, but it does now seem that the news that's going to be delivered to these families will confirm their absolute worst fears. what we don't know is precisely what the prime minister of

malaysia is going to say in just a few minutes from now. we have seen today some pretty significant developments out at see with two sightings of debris, of objects in the ocean, but no confirmation yet as to whether they are related to flight 370. two objects were seen by a chinese aircraft, the first time it had been out there, they were described as two square-shaped objects, white, and also a large number of smaller white objects scattered over several square miles. an american aircraft that went to check that out couldn't find any evidence of it, but the chinese did take photographs, and those photographs were being analyzed this evening. separately, an australian aircraft also came across objects at sea, which it described two significant objects, one was circular,

gray/green, the other a rectangular orange color. this impressed them to the extent they've now sent an australian warship into the area to try and pick up these items, although as of now, we believe that ship has not yet arrived in that area, so two quite significant developments today, but no confirmation that either has anything to do with 370. but this devastating news for families, does that have anything to do with what we're going to hear in a few minutes' time from the prime minister? we shall see, but clearly, this is an important statement. it is late in the night, late in the evening in malaysia, and we'll be listening to what he has to say. >> let's reset it for our viewers, it's 10:00 p.m. at night in malaysia and you're looking at live pictures where we expect the prime minister of malaysia to make a major

announcement about that missing malaysian airlines flight. what we can tell you from our producer in beijing, the malaysian airlines company informed the families they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that unfortunately that flight has, indeed, been lost at sea. that's what we hear from the airlines company. in that room we're told that security is quite tight, and this is also only the second time that the prime minister of malaysia has, in fact, done a briefing about that missing flight. the first time he did it was to report they had believed the plane was, in fact, intentionally diverted, so we can speculate that when the prime minister himself gets before that podium, it will, in fact, be a significant piece of news. and that, paired with the fact that malaysia airlines has, in fact, told the families they believe the plane to be officially lost at sea, unfortunately, confirms the worst for those families of the

239 onboard, who we assume are being briefed now about this situation. ian, i want to bring you in, is it fair to assume that these new pieces that were spotted over the last few hours, this circular object, this rectangular object, if the prime minister is coming out, that they, in fact, probably believe this to be a part of the aircraft if they are going to go for it and make this announcement to the families, effectively killing off any hope they had of their loved ones could have survived? >> reporter: i think it's too early to say that definitively. they haven't yet found these objects, which was spotted today, although clearly they have, in the chinese case, they have photographs, but i think they would not want to make a definitive statement until they were absolutely sure what they were looking at, particularly as we have heard on many occasions that this area of the sea is

littered with so much trash, containers, other objects that have left over from ships down there. i suspect that they might have concluded in malaysia there is just so much accumulated evidence now of where this plane was flying, both from radar and other circumstantial evidence, that they believe there is no hope that it's landed somewhere safely, and those onboard are still alive. i think what will be interesting to see whether the prime minister has any evidence, whether he has heard anything that we haven't so far from the chinese government or possibly from photographic evidence that the australians have, because they would want this to come out from the malaysians first. whether he has any evidence, any hard evidence that this debris is from the ship or whether he's just concluded after this long search that there is really no

hope of this -- these people being found alive. really needs to say this to the families. >> nbc's ian williams, thank you so much. we hand off live coverage now. o i'm luke russert, thank you so much for watching. >> all right, good morning, everyone. we begin with breaking news, a news conference is about to get under way in malaysia. we're waiting for these officials to start speaking. the families of those on that flight 370 have gathered for this press conference. actually, let's take a listen as he's started speaking. >> this evening, i was briefed by representatives from the uk investigation branch or aaiv,

they informed me that the uk company that provided the satellite data, which indicate ed northern and southern corridors has been performing further calculations on the data. using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort, they have been able to shed more light on mh 370's flight path. based on their new analysis, they and the aaiv have concluded that mh 370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle

of the indian ocean, west of perth. this is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. it is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that according to this new data, flight mh 370 ended in a sudden indian ocean. we will be holding a press conference tomorrow with further details. in the meantime, we wanted to inform you of this new development at the earliest

opportunity. we share this information out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families, two principles which have guided this investigation. malaysian airlines have already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew to inform them of this development. for them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. i know this news must be harder still. i urge the media to respect their privacy and allow them the space they need at this very difficult time.