news headquarters, thank you before being us. good night from new york. tropical storm cindy is closing in on the gulf coast. this morning millions of people are bracing for potential flash floods. >> senate republicans are expected to unveil their health care bill. attacks at a michigan airport is being investigated as an act of terrorism. what we're learning about the man who reportedly stabbed an officer. while tropical storm cindy is expected to make landfall early this morning, bringing more heavy rain and strong winds

to the gulf coast. in fact, people there are bracing for potentially life-threatening floods as rising water levels have washed out many roads. up to a foot of rain is expected and predicted to fall on parts of louisiana coastline. already it is proving deadly in alabama where a 10-year-old boy was struck and killed by debris blown ashore by the storm surge. joining us now from new orleans is nbc's jay gray. jay, good to have you with us this morning. a lot of people there concerned. the storm is expected to make landfall in louisiana soon. what are you seeing there in terms of the preparations? >> not just here in new orleans but all along the central gulf coast. a lot of people making sure they have enough food and water to stay inside if necessary, and we have seen a lot of people taking the storm very seriously. especially in this area where they've already seen some local flooding if areas that take on too much water too quickly. that's going to continue. the rain is going to continue.

this thing starts to move inland. heavy, heavy waves out on the gulf, and that driving rain that's causing so many problems, and according to forecasters, will continue to cause problems. you talked about it earlier. the storm has turned deadly. a 10-year-old boy on the beach in alabama, he was struck by debris as one of those huge waves crashed into the shoreline there. it's an unfortunate example of what authorities have been saying over the last couple of days here. thaw need to take this thing seriously and stay out of harm's way, and that includes people on the roadways. there is a lot of concern about people driving through what's expected to be very high water. we'll keep watching it. for now, though, that's the latest live from new orleans. back to you. >> all right, jay gray live in new orleans for us. thank you for that. >> let's get the storm -- let's get the path of tropical storm cindy, bringing in nbc meteorologist bill karins, what do you have? >> we did get landfall over the last hour or two. right along a texas-louisiana

border. usually landfall is a big deal. usually you get a tropical system, and that's when you get the highest wind. the wind is at 45 miles per hour. it didn't really do any damage whatsoever. we're not concerned. down to a tropical depression by this afternoon. the winds are really not an issue. as far as the advisories go, 13 million people at risk of flooding during the day. we only have these flood warnings right now, but as you mentioned, the path that we deal with today, in a texas-louisiana border, guys, that's when the worst chances of flooding would be this afternoon. >> updates from that storm throughout the hour. thanks, bill. we're hours away from seeing the senate republicans draft of a health care bill. many are still waiting for details themselves, and yet, majority leader mitch mcconnell will seek a vote before the end

of next week. a discussion draft of the bill is reported to include deep cuts to federal medicaid funding. a repeal of all aca taxes, except on my cost cadillac plans, and it eliminates all funding for planned parenthood. a difference from the house bill is it ties federal insurance subsidies to income, not to age. it provides more gradual cuts than the house bill while offering deeper long-term medicaid cuts, and unlike the house, it will let federally subsidized health plans cover abortions. last night at a rally packed with thousands of people in see cedar rapids, iowa, president trump said he urged them to craft a more expansive bill than the one passed by the house. take a listen. >> i think and i hope they guarantee anything, but i hope we'll surprise you with a really good plan. i have been talking about a plan with heart. i said add some money to it. a plan with heart. obama care is dead. >> as of tuesday, the white

house could not say how much the president knew about the contents of the health care bill. according to the washington post, a discussion draft circulated yesterday among aides and lobbyists. republican senators, they will receive the legislation in a meeting at 9:30 this morning, which lindsey graham commented on just yesterday. >> no, i'll see it and we'll know if it's a boy or girl along about 9:30. >> support among the republican caucus appears to be waivering. the "wall street journal" finds opposition coming from both conservatives and centrist senators, many of whom feel they are left in the dark by the process. after hearing details, in the senate gop lunch -- everything i hear sounds like obama care lite. paul is joined by three other senators, including mike lee, tom cotton, and ted cruz in demanding no more concessions from conservatives on the bill. shelly moore capito and rob

portman from ohio, both from states that expanded medicaid under obama care, along with susan collins of maine, a state that will vote later this year on expansion, have expressed concerns about the roll-back. portman and capito have been looking for a fund to treat and prevent opioid addiction, which was in the draft circulated yesterday. then there are complaints about the process. in fact, senator ron johnson said that in addition to reading the bill, "i'll also want to get full input from constituencies in wisconsin." adding, "i find it hard to believe that we'll have enough time to pass the bill this month." 13 senators were involved in the working group to draft the bill. you see them there on your screen. though several say they were not part of the final process. even among those who were, several of those senators have complaints about how obama care was drafted back in 2009 as these clips compiled by the 11th hour show. >> americans are asking the democrats to put party loyalty

aside tonight, to put the interests of small business owners, taxpayers, and seniors first. >> we want to make sure they pass it before the american people find out what's in it because the american people by nearly two to one according to the cnn poll, don't like what they've heard about the health care bill. >> i want to make sure my health care is not going to be made worse by what's going to happen in the senate between now and the end of the year. >> when americans voted to change washington last year, they didn't think it would be politics as usual here, but, unfortunately, it's sunk to a whole new level. >> only one party and especially one person gains from this so-called health care reform bill. the president will be able to show how he was able to accomplish something against all odds. >> after weeks of closed-door clandestine negotiations, senator reed finally emerged with a 383 page crystals list. this bill is a dark example of everything that is wrong with

washington today. >> they want to push through here. they want to finish it before the christmas holiday. they want to get this in the rearview mirror before the american people have an opportunity to see what's in it. >> all right. joining us now reporter for axio, sarah fisher. sarah, good morning to you. last night you heard the president talk about how narrow he thinks the republicans' pass to passing this legislation is. take a listen. >> we have a very slim 52-48. that means we basically can't lose anybody. >> but is talk of opposition just bargaining by some republican senators you think? left out of the process? or could they really upend this bill like the freedom caucus did for a time earlier in the house? >> it's absolutely possible that they could up end the bill because there are, as the presses mentioned, such slim margins here. the republicans really can't afford to lose not one person when it comes to this vote, but it's looking like they're definitely losing support. as you mentioned on screen just before, there's a bunch of different factions in the

republican party that are looking at this from different angles. you have the folks who are really keen on making sure those medicare subsidies don't leave those states. folks, like as you mentioned senator capito. then you have folks that want to aim to fix obama care. they don't really want this to be obama care light. it's going to be a very tough rally, and we're looking forward to seeing what comes out this morning at 9:30 a.m. since april up 14 points to 30%, which is pretty surprising among republicans. you think if they're able to have these delays go on, how likely is it the republicans can keep the momentum going to pass this bill this summer? >> momentum is the keyword there, yasmin. they know they need to get this passed very quickly. you heard a senator saying

earlier before that the reason mitch mcconnell, they think, is trying to push this through so rushed, is so that the details won't come out for constituents to really evaluate before they get it through. it's important that if they do want to get this passed, they try to get it done relatively quickly so that that momentum against the bill doesn't continue to build. >> all right, sara fisher for us. thank you. >> thank you. both the house and senate intelligence committees are pressing ahead with their investigation into russia's meddling in the 2016 election. former homeland security secretary jay johnson was on capitol hill yesterday to testify in front of the house intel committee. he told members there is no doubt that russia was behind efforts to interfere in the election. >> in 2016 the russian government at the direction of vladimir putin himself, orchestrated cyber attacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election. that is a fact, plain and

simple. >> my question for you, sir, just to be abundantly clear, will the russians be back? >> i think we have to assume for all the reasons that have been discussed here, that the russians will be back and possibly other state actors and possibly other bad cyber actors. >> on the senate side, intel committee members heard from security experts who said a number of states were the target of the russian cyber attacks. >> as of right now we have evidence of 21 states election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted. >> but in no case were actual vote tallies altered in any way, shape, or form? it. >> that is correct. >> experts would not say which states were targeted. members met with robert mueller yesterday as the two sides both carry out probes on russia's role in last year's election. mueller has been meeting with lawmakers over the last week to

make sure his investigation is not bumping into others. speaking before his meeting with mueller. senate judiciary committee chair chuck grassley talked about what, if anything, is off the table. >> there is some areas that i won't go into that i think are very definitely that he can interfere with. probably some he will tell us that there is some that we can't interfere with. >> is obstruction one of those areas, possibly the president obstructing justice? >> i think that everything is on the table. >> all right. still ahead, we're following the latest on a michigan airport attack that authorities are now investigating as a possible terrorist act. plus, softball brings lawmakers together, and the capital officer injured threw out the first pitch. a check on those stories and weather when we come back.

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. a michigan airport officer is recovering this morning after being stabbed in the neck by a man in what officials are calling a possible terror attack. according to authorities, a man from canada stabbed a man with a large knife yesterday outside a tsa area at bishop international airport in flint, michigan. they say that he allegedly shouted "god is great" in arabic and blamed the united states for deaths in syria, iraq, and afghanistan before the attack. multiple senior law enforcement officials telling nbc news that the suspect who first entered the u.s. last friday was not in any fbi databases prior to the incident. officials are saying that they believe the attack was an isolated incident. he is charged with violates at an international airport and other charges could follow. let's turn now to the weather once again. tropical storm cindy barrelling towards the gulf coast. let's get another check of the weather with bill karins. >> we found out that cindy had weakened to 40 miles per hour. it's barely a tropical storm. uneventful landfall over the last hour or two right along the texas-louisiana border. the only concern is how much

rain are we going to still get from the storm and are we going to have flash flooding? yesterday we had some, but it wasn't historic. very isolated. the storm path will bring us more rain. we have feeder bands to mississippi, alabama. this is an area in the flood watch. that's for the heavy rain as the storm moves to the north, and even memphis is under a flash flood watch. here's our rainfall forecast. when you get up to the red, that's four to five inches. that's enough to cause flash flooding, and this is going to be during the day today. northern louisiana, right along the texas-louisiana border. then from areas of memphis right through northern tennessee and the nashville area too. even far from the center, even though it's a weak system. it's still bringing the threat of heavy rainfall. this will even go through the day on friday. right through kentucky and even into the mountainous areas of west virginia, which historically any time they get heavy rains in the mountain areas, there's always a problem there. we'll continue to watch that. the other thing is isolated tornadoes. yesterday we had two or three tornadoes. one in fort walton boech.

anywhere from alexandria to jackson, tup low, to birmingham, montgomery to mobile. isolated with the bands today. the storms from gh to the quad cities to chicago and milwaukee. that's where the cold front is dropping down from the south. that's wind damage with those. also from denver to garden city, amarillo, wind damage, and how about the heat? some areas will go a week straight with excessive heat warnings. that's a rare event. 20 million people under heat advisories or heat warnings from redding to sacramento, san jose, all the way back down to the desert southwest. more record highs are likely today. it's endless. it's hard to imagine that we're ever going to return back to normal. fresno, 109. winslow, 105. this even goes into the weekend. poor phoenix goes from 112 back up to 117. you do get a little relief in california. it's just the heat wave is -- this is going to be one of those for the record books. the duration. >> have to make sure your air conditioning continues to work. >> have to lose that in weather

like that? >> not a good situation. all right, bill. democrats and republicans joined together in the nation's capital. at least for a night as the female members of congress took on the women of the washington press corps and the congressional women's softball game yesterday. perhaps the most emotional moment of the night came when capitol police officer crystal breiner threw out the first pitch. she was shot while protecting congressmen. steve scalise is now listed in fair condition as he remains in the hospital after being shot in the hip during last week's attack. scalise even received well wishes from musician bono who was on capitol hill yesterday signing get well soon cards. bono also pauses tuesday night concert to honor the injured congressman. >> still ahead, phillip johnson confirmed some serious trade rumors. plus, the game-winning grand slam that came after an unlikely assist. we'll tell you about those in sports.

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this level, but as much as we love this guy, you know, we have to do what's good for our club. >> what would be good for the club? why would you do that? >> future. you know, what it brings. does it bring us two stars and a draft pick or, you know, something that's even beyond that is something that we have to look at as far as us going down the road. you know what he is. he is a unicorn, and he is special. turning now to the nhl where hockey's newest expansion team, the vegas golden knights is taking shape. the knights pick 30 players from each existing nhl team in yesterday's expansion draft and highlighting that new roster is veteran pittsburgh goalie mark andre fleury. the three-time stanley cup champion received an ovation from the las vegas crowd when results were announced at last night's nhl awards. the home opener is october 10 against the canadiens. in atlanta the braves tie with the giants in the bottom of the 11th. matt kemp at the plait plate

with a runner on first. >> retreat. the brafz in the 1 1th. >> that one is gone. kemp's two-run shot is good for a 5-3 walk-off win. in miami the marlins break up after a comeback. it allows a.j. ellis on to reach first base safely. an error at first base allows another runner on. found by a hit batter that loads the bases there and then sherzer throws a wild pitch that scores the tying run from miami. the disastrous inning would come to an end, but not before john carlos stands rbi single and puts the marlins ahead by a run. they hang on to beat washington 2-1. and in kansas city the royal salvador perez went 3 for 3, including an eighth inning go ahead grand slam in yesterday's 6-4 win over the red sox.

perez did it using a bat gifted to his teammate by slugger miguel cabrera. perez said after hitting his first career grand slam, he will have to ask cabrera to send him more bats. it moves them to within a game of 500. lewis, you know new york knicks fans are not going to be happy about the news. >> not at all. still ahead, another check on tropical storm cindy. we'll get a live report from louisiana coming up next. >> plus, president trump calls for a new immigration legislation and senate republicans get ready to unveil their health care plan. those stories and more coming up next. >> why are my constituents not allowed to see the details about

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welcome back. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. federal and local authorities in michigan are investigating the stabbing of an airport worker as a possible terror attack. according to authorities, a man from canada stabbed jeff neville with a large knife outside bishop international airport. he shouted "god is great" in arabic, and blamed the united states for deaths in syria, iraq, and afghanistan before the attack. former homeland security secretary jay johnson says that there is no doubt that russia was behind efforts to meddle in last year's election. johnson testified yesterday before the house intel committee while officials told lawmakers they do not know if russian hacking affected the election vote tallies where, they warn that cyber attacks are going to get worse before they get better. we're tracking tropical storm cindy which just made landfall near the louisiana shoreline a short time ago.

the storm expected to bring in flash flooding. heavy rainfall expected to produce up to a foot of rain in parts of the gulf coast with winds gusting from anywhere between 40 and 50 miles an hour. nbc's jay gray is live with us once again this morning in new orleans with a closer look at the weather down there. what are you seeing there? >> hey there, yasmin. well, luckily, this thing comes through in waves. we've seen that through early yesterday. not just here in new orleans, but all along the central gulf coast. we have seen some flooding here in new orleans, and, again, along that strike zone here. it's going to continue as you talk about some of the hardest hit areas, and we'll see a foot of rain or more. we've seen tornadoes spawned as a result of this storm. unfortunately, we've seen one death as a result. a 10-year-old on vacation with his family. he was struck by debris that was pulled into the shoreline by one of the huge waves generated by

this storm. an unfortunate reminder of what so many are saying right now. this storm may have made landfall. the aefts of it far from over. the possibility of tornadoes as well as that flooding rain continue as it makes its trek on inland. that's the latest here in new orleans where, again, thankfully we're dry right now, but no more rain is on the way. >> we'll be tracking that storm, of course, throughout the day. >> let's switch gears and talk about politics. right now the president was back where he seemingly feels more comfortable. on the road in iowa. he held twin events. one at a college where he praised america's farming community and another. a campaign style rally where he derided washington culture, relived his victory back in november, and touted his achievements in office so far. >> it is great to be back in the incredible, beautiful great

state of iowa. [ cheering ] >> it's always terrific to be able to leave that washington swamp and spend time with the truly hard-working people. we call them american patriots. if we set aside the cynics and the credit i objeitics, we chance, and it's a great chance. it lies before us to do extraordinary things for our country in the years ahead. history is written by the dreamers, want the doubters. fighting for your hopes because your hopes are my hopes. i've had a great time in this country. i've had a great run, and it was time to do something. we all saw what was happening.

it was time to do something. your dreams are my dreams, and your future is what i'm focused on each and every day. we're going to make america great again, believe me. we're going to make america great again. >> the truth is people love us, all of us. they love us. they don't get it. they haven't figured it out yet. you know, they're still trying to figure where all of those voters came from. those voters came out of the hills. they came -- these are hard-working -- we have the hardest working, the smartest people, the toughest people. they're very lucky that our people don't protest, believe me. believe me. >> the president also had a design concept for his signature border wall. >> the time has come for new

immigration rules which say that those seeking admission into our country must be able to support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years. and we'll be putting in legislation to that effect very shortly. i'll give you an idea that nobody has heard about yet. i'm a builder where, that's what i love to do. that's what i probably do best. i'm a builder. we're thinking of something that's unique. we're talking about the southern border. lots of sun. lots of heat. we're thinking about building the wall as a solar wall so it creates energy and pays for itself. and this way mexico will have to pay much less money, and that's

good. right? is that good? you're the first group i've told that to. solar wall. makes sense. let's see. we're working it out. we'll see. solar wall panels, beautiful. i mean, actually think of it. the higher it goes, the more valuable it is. it's like -- pretty good imagination, right? good? my idea. >> good for clean energy at least. the president first floated the wall two weeks ago to legislative leaders. in april the associated press reported that gleason partners llc of las vegas pitched a design for a solar wall that could generate electricity that could be sold to mexico or potentially pay for itself. >> all right. turning now to democrats. house minority leader nancy pelosi is facing a backlash after the democrats' loss in the special election on tuesday with a number of democrats calling for the party's long-time house leader to step aside. representative cathleen rice of new york said, "it is time for

nancy pelosi to go and the entire leadership team as well. . representative -- i think you would be an idiot to think we could win the house with pell oes why i at the top, and tim ryan of ohio who gave pelosi a run for her leadership post last year said walk up the street and ask ten people what the democrats stand for. you'll get ten different answers. that's no way to build a national party. he also added, "our brand is worse than trump." massachusetts representative seth molten simply stated "think it's time for a new generation of leadership in the party. even unelected candidates jumped into the fray. mark sanford tweeted "if elected, i will not vote for nancy pelosi for speaker." time to move forward and win again. a source tells nbc news that inside a closed door caucus meeting with colleagues yesterday, there was no challenge to the democratic leadership or any signs of disent within the party. in a letter to democratic -- pelosi cautioned her members to

not overreact to the results of the georgia race. we'll have much more on the minority leader's future when both tim ryan and cathleen rice join morning joe next hour. sarah fisher, good to have you with us. obviously a lot of questions in the wake of not just the georgia but the last four replacement or special elections that they've lost. democrats do seem to be united on one thing, though. opposition to the republican health care bill. president trump talked abouting it last night. take a listen. >> if we went and got the single greatest health care plan in the history of the world, we would not get one democrat vote because they're obstructionists. they're obstructionists. if we came to you and said here's your plan, you are going to have the greatest plan in history, and you are going to pay nothing, they would vote against it, folks. >> but ironically there's been

actually some concern from within his own party. not just among democrats. what are you hearing from senate republicans about their concerns and oppositions to what emerges later today? >> within the republican party there are a bunch of factions about how you're going to go about introducing this bill. first you have sort of the hardliners, the folks that really don't want this to be obama care light. what they're looking to see is that a sweeping provision looks very different from what we saw before. the problem with that, however, is when you make these changes, let's say you're lowering premiums, you are going to have to get rid of some of the things in obama care that constituents tend to overwhelmingly like. i think about things like preexisting conditions, that we don't want to see, you know, topple this bill. there's a lot of confusion. the other thing that's getting to a lot of republicans is medicaid spending. you rook at some of the folks, like you were discussing before,

senator shelly moore capito. they don't want to have to go back to constituents and say we have no medicaid funding at this point. there's a lot of policy problems within the republican caucus right now that we're going to see play out after this bill gets introduced at 9:30. former homeland security secretary jaw johnson was on capitol hill talking about russian cyber attack in 206 o 2016 elections. in watching that testimony, did he reveal any new information? >> i mean, what was most interesting is that he said russian president vladimir putin had directsly ordered meddle saysing within the u.s. elections, but what was really interesting to watch there was how much democrats really came down hard on the former dhs secretary. especially because, quite frankly, as you mentioned, known of this was within his jurisdiction. jay johnson had been lobbying to

put electrics within critical infrastructure underneath the dhs for a long time, but that's not currently how it is jurisdicted within the united states. he was in a lose-lose situation. we heard 21 states had been penetrated or had been surveyed by the russians. we had heard even higher numbers from other sources earlier this year. we didn't know regarding the exact states that had been meddled with. we know that number coming from law enforcement officials there. >> sara fisher for us. thank you for joining us this hour. >> thank you. let's go back to iowa. the president touted his administration's claim of 33,000 new coal jobs while slamming renewable energy. take a listen. >> we ended the war on clean beautiful coal, and we're putting our miners back to work. >> we use wind. we use solar. we use coal.

we use natural gas. we will use nuclear if the right opportunity presents itself. we're going to be strong for the future. we're going to be strong for the future. i don't want to just hope the wind blows to light up your homes and your factories. as the birds fall to the ground. >> according to "the des moines register" iowa leads the nation in its use of wind power and last year drew 37% of its energy from wind turbines. now, it's not without controversy. some people don't like them because they think they're unsightly and loud and often get tax credits, but also as you just heard, they can kill birds and bats. >> still ahead, pretty startling this morning. steven hawking bumps up mankind's deadline to vacate planet earth. >> the time frame he is offering for humans to find a new home. >> plus, bill karins will have

the latest on tropical storm cindy as the storm makes landfall. where's jack? he's on holiday. what do you need? i need the temperature for pipe five. ask the new guy. the new guy? jack trained him. jack's guidance would be to maintain the temperature at negative 160 degrees celsius. that doesn't sound like jack. actually, jack would say, hey mate, just cool it to minus 160 and we're set. good on ya. oh yeah. that's jack.

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yeah. chase. so you can. we're following the latest story for you about tropical storm cindy, which has made landfall, as we mentioned a short while ago. we're also talking about the impact it is having on the gulf coast. >> it is expected to bring the potential for life-threatening flash flooding, heavy rainfall, expected to produce up to a foot of rain in parts of the gulf coast. >> let's get a quick update on that and much more with nbc meteorologist bill karins. let's talk to us about the path of the storm. what's it looking like out there today? >> tropical storms become tropical depressions as they weaken. they can still have a ton of rain with them, even as though go into a weakened state. that's the case with this one. the actual landfall is somewhere near lake charles, louisiana. look at these two huge feeder bands. one on the mississippi-alabama border, and the other one up to montgomery, alabama, and right through portions of western florida. it's these feeder bands that will worry about tornados.

they can do some significant damage. here's the forecast updated path. along this path is where we'll deal with the heavy rain as we go right there you friday. do expect it to be a little rainy. especially mid-atlantic as we go through the first half of the saturday morning. here's the advisories. 13 million people are under flood watches. these are the warnings that we still have out from the heavy rain overnight. if we get new flooding, most likely northern louisiana and right along from memphis to greeneville. that area will get heavy rain this afternoon. there's the area i was talking about. this pink shading, that's up to five inches of rain today. that's a lot of rain. tonight in the memphis area, watch out. nashville, as we go throughout your friday, then as we head to saturday morning through the mountains of west virginia, we could even have heavy rain. the cold front combining with the storm, heavy rains, indianapolis to columbus, that will mostly be throughout your friday. this is isolated tornado risks, and this is wind damage.

a little bit of everything out there as we head through the day today. there is some great weather. i might as well tell you, it's going to be beautiful in new england and enjoy that. definitely a banner type early summer. perfection. >> we'll take the nice weather in the northeast. thanks, bill. >> let's turn to business when the exodus of top executives at uber continues. investor bill girly is in talks to leave the company's board of directors. gemma, girly was reportedly instrumental in the resignation of ceo travis kalinik earlier this week, and now he is exiting as well. >> it looks like it, doesn't it? >> he is known for being very frank, and he was set indeed to be instigators of the resigning of kalinik. people are saying that mike kohler will actually take his board seat. this v.c. has been invested in uber since 2011 when he invested around $11 million at a time

when uber was only worth $60 million. remembering, of course, the ride sharing app is valued at closer to $70 billion. let's turn to japan where takata is set to file for bankruptcy production on monday. the auto parts manufacturer is looking at around billions and billions of dollars worth of liabilities due to the recall of 40 airbag inflaters, which are being blamed for the death of around 16 people globally and 150 injuries. now, takata's problems relate to the biggest automotive recall in history. while sales may be in decline globally, there was huge dlooe demand for one watch at a christie's auction. it sold for nearly $400,000. it was a wristwatch given to jackie kennedy back in 1963 and was sold off in conjunction with a painting she gave as a reciprocal thank you present in return. lewis.

>> all right. gemma live from london. thanks so much. turning now to some cosmic news. astro physicist steven hawking just moved up humanity's deadline for leaving earth speaking at a festival in leav earth. he argued that because of climate change and overpopulation, we should prepare for "cosmic exodus" to take place in the next 200 to 500 years. that's scary. hawking's plan is ambitious, suggesting countries come together to build a moon colony in the next 30 years and mars later. nasa's long-term plans include sending humans to mars by 2030. we have the latest in cosmic news. >> a daily segment. >> all right, still ahead, a new twist in the souring relations between the u.s. and russian. why a previously scheduled meeting between the two countries is now a no go. and plus, white house senior adviser jared kushner enters into the long list for american diplomats and statements trying to push for peace in the middle east. the tempered outlook given following kushner's sitdowns with israelis and palestinian

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welcome back. in the latest example evolving relations, russia has canceled tomorrow's diplomatic meeting with u.s. officials in response to sanctions imposed by the treasury department earlier this week on 38 russian individuals and firms relating to the invasion and annexation of crimea. the plan talks headed by russia's deputy foreign minister and u.s. undersecretary of state tom shannon which were to take place in st. petersburg were meant to discuss those sanctions

and to try to put an initial band-aid on u.s./russia relations. however, in announcing the move, russia's foreign minister also criticized the u.s. for "not offering anything specific" to discuss. state department's spokesperson heather nower criticized the decision, saying "the sanctions didn't come out of anywhere and if they want to criticize them, they should withdraw from ukraine." >> jared kushner met with benjamin netanyahu in jerusalem and mahmoud abbas in the west bank. in mirror readouts, the white house says the meetings were productive and they discussed next steps in forging lasting peace. however, all sides agreed it will take time. turning now to iraq and isis has blown up a historic mosque in mosul. according to the iraqi military and u.s. military officials, the terror group has destroyed the al nuri mosque which stood since 1172. it's also where the terrorist

leader who may or may not still be alive declared an islamic caliphate three years ago. isis claims an american air strike destroyed the mosque, although u.s. coalition forces say they did not conduct any planned or deliberate strikes in the area. isis has a history of destroying historic sites in cities they are being driven out of. last weekend, iraqi forces began entering the old city thought to be the terrorist group's last stronghold in mosul. >> i've been to that mosque and you think of the civilizations being destroyed in syria and iraq, it's heartbreaking. coming up, senate republicans prepared to reveal their health care bill. senator ron johnson weighs in along with senator claire mccaskill. >> and house minority leader nancy pelosi is feeling the heat following the democratic loss in the special election in georgia. representative tim ryan says pelosi is toxic in some parts of the country and weighs in along

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welcome back, everybody. before we toss over to "morning joe," let's get a check on the stories you'll be hearing about in the day ahead. the american college student who died just days after being released from north korea in a coma will be laid to rest today. funeral services for otto warmbier will be held in wyoming, ohio, this morning. meanwhile, senate republicans are set to release a draft of their health care bill. party members will get a look during an all-republican member closed-door meeting this morning before it's disclosed to the public. and the health care bill will likely dominate the conversation. president trump hosts a white house picnic this evening, an annual event used for the president to mingle with lawmakers and hash out major legislative issues. >> that's it for us this morning. "morning joe" starts right now. it is interesting how they say donald trump is not producing health care, not producing. so, we've produced so much legislation. i don't think any president --

it could be somebody. i have to be a little careful, because they'll say, he lied. so, few presidents, few -- just have to be a little careful, because they'll say, headline, donald trump lies to the people of iowa! i don't want -- [ laughter ] but very few have done what we've done. >> that's true. [ laughter ] that's true. he is right about one thing, the headline this morning is that president donald trump lied to the people of iowa. the president was back where he seemingly feels most comfortable, on the road. the fifth campaign event he's held since becoming president, all in states that he won. last night, he derided washington culture, relived his november victory, touted what he says are his achievements in office, all with a heavy dose of exaggeration and some