towards justice in policing and race relations. today his family will mark the first anniversary of his death in washington, d.c., meeting first with house speaker nancy pelosi and some senators, and then with president biden and vice president harris at the white house this afternoon. i want to bring in nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander. shaquille brewster is in minneapolis and garrett haake on capitol hill. peter, the floyd family would like to see a bill that helps save lives and curbs bad policing. they're not going to get that, at least not today. what will they get? >> they'll certainly have a meeting here with the president the first time they've been face to face with mr. biden since he was there for them during the funeral last year. earlier in the day, as you noted, they will visit with house speaker nancy pelosi later this afternoon with the u.s. senators. and the senators said president biden wants them to hear and listen to perspectives on this issue. and i spoke with ben crump, the family attorney. he will be here including his

7-year-old daughter gianna. she's notable, of course, you heard from the president saying her words really touched him saying at the time that daddy changed the world. he said, among other things, this was really an opportunity to pay proper respect to george floyd with a president who has had constant, continuous communication with the family. he said the goal today was really keep momentum going and in another interview, he said of this moment, let's not squander it. let's not act now. the real desire is to push forward on this. obviously there's real concern among those who wanted to see something happen sooner. you will remember the president sort of circled today on the calendar, urging congress to get something passed. by this point it was a campaign pledge that he would pass the george floyd justice in policing act. he remains committed to it. white house officials say. but broadly it will be a hands-off approach and progress on capitol hill can continue and get done soon.

>> members of congress are saying things are looking good and we're getting closer to a deal on police reform. do you believe them? >> this is probably the bipartisan negotiation happening on the hill in which i'm most bullish. part of the reason are those public comments which we heard again yesterday from senators returning to washington about the discussions they were having over the weekend. here's cory booker and tim scott with the state of play. >> we made a lot of progress over the weekend. we still have a lot of work to do. but the great thing about this bill is that everybody wants to get something really meaningful done, and i was grateful for the amount of work done. >> we had good progress over the weekend i thought, and i think we can see the end of the tunnel. >> really? >> i think so. i mean, not before the end of today but we're starting to see a frame.

>> that talk is not unusual in these discussions but what is unusual is joint statements from negotiators from both parties saying the same kind of thing. they knew we would not meet this deadline today and continue to work towards this bipartisan bill. this has been a leak-free process, much to my frustration when they say they're working on issue x, hung up on y, talking about this dollar amount. negotiators have really kept this at close hold, even pushing back the white house to a degree saying, let us handle this. this seems like the kind of thing that might actually continue to generate progress on capitol hill, unlike some of the other discussions on infrastructure, which have stumbled in recent days. >> let's talk about the city you're in, minneapolis. over the last year, that town has lived and breathed this story. what is it like there today, shaq? >> stephanie, today you will see both official celebrations and also somber reflection as people think back to what happened in this city a year ago this evening. i will tell you later today

behind me, you will see the celebrations. this is an official celebration of george floyd's life hosted by the george floyd memorial foundation. you will see musical performances. there's a bounce house up said up for kids brought here. and the entire state, people around the state, will go and reflect on george floyd's life and this evening on george floyd's square, the exact intersection where he was killed a year ago today, you will see that candlelight vigil take place in the exact hour in which he was murdered. stephanie, i'll tell you, big picture, talking to people here, one thing that you continue to hear is that we shouldn't know george floyd's name. this should not be something that we have to commemorate. i want you to listen to some of the -- one of the protesters i spoke to earlier this week. you had people looking ahead to where do they take this lost of life. >> these are baby steps, baby steps, so we can get to the

bigger steps. >> do you feel change is happening here? >> definitely. >> are you satisfied? >> to a certain extent, because it has encouraged conversations. >> you hear the acknowledgment of the change, but still, the calls for more change. the family continues to talk about what they will be in d.c. talking about, that george floyd justice in policing act. >> i wanted to ask you about your experience, george floyd started getting attention the day after the protests began. and that is the same city you're standing in right now. how has it changed in the last year for you? >> there's a lot of things, stephanie. you can tell from the protesters, and protesters who come out, there are people more

aware, more engaged, people who understand they may never understand what they're going through but do what they can to try. i also see frustration in the pace. people want things to move quickly. people want an acknowledgment there needs to be more systemic change to policing and more systemic change to culture in society. i think as we reflect on this day, that's something you will continue to hear both in understanding there has been change since a year ago when george floyd was murdered but that desperation that people want to see more and what more can happen in these next couple of months and years. >> gentlemen, thank you. i want to go deeper on where we do go from here and bring in south carolina democratic congressman james clyburn. he's house majority whip. congressman, did you for being here this morning. you heard that sense of optimism for senators booker and scott. do you share their optimism something will get done on police reform? >> yes, i do. thank you very much for having me. i keep talking with karen bass,

and she's assured me progress is being made, and i trust her explicitly. i'm not in the room but i'm very satisfied things are moving along very well. >> then i want to ask you specifically about your republican colleague, tim scott from south carolina. he's moving the negotiations on the republican side. are you confident if he cuts a deal, the rest of the republic caucus will follow? >> i think so. i think that tim is negotiating on behalf of the republican senators. i suspect that he is in constant communication with the leadership of the senate. mitch mcconnell specifically. and i would suspect that whatever he decides to agree to, it will be done in concert with the leadership of the senate, and i think it will -- well, be

compromised upon. >> the issue of whether to end qualified immunity for police officers seems to be this sort of key sticking point. is that what it takes to get this bill through the senate? would you be okay with leaving that debate aside for another day? while it may not get done in the senate, we're actually seeing a lot of states address it already. >> let me repeat what i said some weeks ago and seem to have been misunderstood. i do believe a half loaf is better than no loaf at all. what we sent to the senate is what i consider to be the whole he loaf on qualified immunity. that is to say, get rid of it. now, not to get rid of it would be with no loaf at all. so a half loaf is somewhat in between. i would hope they would find some compromise on that. i have consulted black law dictionary, a dictionary you're very familiar with, and according to black's law

dictionary, qualified means limited. that's the first word. so we seem to be interpreting qualified as being absolute. it doesn't mean absolute. so what i would hope these negotiations will come up with a very good definition for what qualified immunity is, and we can agree to something that both sides will be relatively satisfied with. you never get all that you want, but i would hope we will get something between no loaf and the full loaf. >> let's talk about a half loaf in terms of infrastructure. a week ago things were looking better. it sounded like discussions between democrats and republicans are going well. that seems to be slipping away. where do you stand on infrastructure at this point, half loaf, no loaf? >> well, i suspect that the $2.2 trillion bill that was first advanced by president biden

would be where i would love to see us. this $600 billion bill that the senators first came up with, that's a nonstarter. i see the president's come back with like $1.7 and they've come up somewhere around $600, $700 billion. i think we ought to get off the numbers and start looking at the need. we know from our recent experiences that covid-19 has exposed some real shortcomings in our infrastructure. number one amongst them is broadband. broadband is not a traditional infrastructure issue. and republicans cannot see that we need to have broadband in our schools if our kids are going to get adequately educated. we need to have broadband in our hospitals and medical facilities so we could have telehealth and telemedicine. that is not a traditional broadband issue. to me it would be sinful for us

not to include the big broadband program in infrastructure. so when you start talking about numbers, i'm not there. let's talk about what the needs are and then apply the numbers, because a cost of not doing anything is tremendous, it's catastrophic. it is what will leave our children out of school for a second, maybe even a third year and we cannot afford that. >> i know you're not tied to numbers but if democrats decide to go with this alone because republicans won't play ball, would you sign on to the bill that president biden has put forthright now, the $1.7 trillion one, all that's in there, do you back that? >> absolutely not because of the number, but because for what i know is in it. one of the things that is in that is affordable, accessible broadband for all. that's what we need to do and i think we ought to go at it

alone. if the republicans don't come on board, i woo hope joe manchin and others will face the realities of what is happening here in south carolina, rural south carolina, rural west virginia. i know a little bit about west virginia. i know full well that broadband is needed in west virginia, even more so than we need it here in south carolina. so i think that the roads and bridges, great, airports, rails, fantastic. let's do what we need to do for them but let's not leave the human element out of the infrastructure we need. our schools are crumbling and we need infrastructure for our school buildings. we need infrastructure for housing. housing, we've lost so much housing. back in 2008/2009, we know what happened to black wealth. we need to now put in the infrastructure that allows affordable housing to take place, and if you know -- if you

look at the tax bill, they keep talking about you didn't do anything with the tax bill, the tax bill, if it were dropped to -- when it was dropped to 21%, it destroyed affordable housing. we need to increase to 28% on the tax structure. i think we ought to do something about elevating the taxes on people making more than $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 a year. >> you have not mentioned free prxt-k and free community college. are those two things you think can wait for another day? >> no, no. i think the president is right with that. our children need to be starting children earlier and need to be staying in school longer. i'm a great believer that we ought not be preparing people just for a liberal arts education. i think if someone wants to be

an electrician, someone wants to be a plumber and that's what they feel their life's vocations ought to be, we ought to help them get there. so this whole notion that you've got to be a doctor, a lawyer or schoolteacher like i was in order to be successful, not. we cannot have school buildings without electricity, without plumbing, without competence. we need the skills of everybody and need to put in the infrastructure so everybody can be successful. >> congressman, thank you very much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. now we have breaking news in the middle east. secretary of state tony blinken meeting with palestinian authority president abbas at any moment. we mentioned at the top of the show he met with netanyahu in jerusalem, kicking off the start of his middle east tour aimed at shoring up this very stressful

cease-fire. now it is in its fifth day. secretary blinken outlined key goals for the entire region. >> to demonstrate the commitment to the united states of israel's security, to start to work towards greater stability and reduce tensions in the west bank and jerusalem. to support urgent humanitarian reconstruction assistance for gaza, to benefit the palestinian people and continue to rebuild our relationship with the palestinian people and the palestinian authority. >> let's go live to coley koeb yir in real. >> that meeting started about an hour and a half ago. they called for ironclad support of israel and israel's right to defend itself, saying the u.s.

would help israel replenish the iron dome defense system, that israel credits for stopping some 90% of hamas rockets from reaching israel. netanyahu said he appreciated the support, very thankful for the support from the united states, but also said if hamas breaks the cease-fire, the response will be, quote, very powerful and he also brought up the iran nuclear deal. took the opportunity in this statement, public statement, to say that israel opposes rejoining that deal. stephanie? >> and that abbas meeting with tony blinken is going to start any minute now. what can we expect? >> look, you can't understate the importance of this meeting. remember the trump administration was boycotted by the palestinian authority back in 2017 after president trump recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel. this is a show of support, first of all, for the palestinian people. and it will also be a discussion

about that reconstruction. antony blinken expected to announce a major contribution towards that reconstruction in gaza, but the question is, how do the u.s. and their partners work with mahmoud abbas, palestinian president, in getting that aid to the people and not into the hands of hamas militants? it is tricky, to say the least, steph, because abbas, his party, are not popular with the palestinian people, not in the west bank. and they have no power in gaza. stephanie? >> a complicated situation to say the least. kelly koeb yir, thank you, and stay safe where you are. coming up -- it used to be part of a conspiracy theory but now new reporting this morning could show that the coronavirus actually did start in a lab in china. and today marks one year since george floyd was killed in minneapolis, minnesota. lawmakers now signaling they could be close to a deal on police reform. but what would that actually look like in your community?

this is the kitchen where the new boyfriend will unofficially become family. what happens when we welcome change? we can transform our workforce overnight out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware. welcome change. to make my vision a reality my varilux progressive lenses provide seamlessly transition from near to far. with every detail in sharp focus.

that's seeing no limits. varilux lenses by essilor.

covid pandemic, and new questions about how it began. for most of the last year and a half, the idea that it may have leaked from a chinese lab was seen as unfounded conspiracy theory. but that may be changing. a source tells nbc news u.s. intelligence has now identified three lab workers from wuhan, china, who got sick with covid-like symptoms way back in the fall of 2019. that was before china had identified its first official case. nbc's ken dilanian has this new reporting. also with us, nbc's sam brock in miami and dr. peter hotez, who is with the texas children's hospital and baylor college of medicine. ken, i'm always amazed we can even find something like this out, three lab workers in wuhan china had symptoms in the fall of 2019. what do you know? >> good morning, stephanie. back in january the trump state department on its way out the door put out a fact sheet where they said the u.s. had determined several researchers at this wuhan institute of

virology became sick with covid-like symptoms. but that was dismissed at the time because it was the trump administration but it was, in fact, u.s. intelligence. and this intelligence report specifically identified three researchers who sought treatment in the hospital in november 2019 before the pandemic exploded in wuhan. we don't believe the u.s. knows if they were sick with covid, and we may never know. what this does do, stephanie, is contradicts the scientists running that lab who said flatly none of her workers got sick. and it's part of a pattern of what u.s. officials say is obfuscation and looking at another part of this picture, that it could be an accidental release from a lab. after years of searching, they have not found a animal-to-human vector, a natural occurrence of

this virus going from animal to human. so both considerations are being considered. and one doctor has changed their rhetoric on this. one is dr. anthony fauci. let's change what he said to say recently about this. >> are you still confident it developed naturally? >> no, that's the point that i said. certainly the people that investigated it said it's likely the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out. >> so he's part of a growing number of scientists who are calling for more investigations, stephanie. >> dr. hotez, what do you think? at this stage in the game is finding out its origin more of a political issue or science and medical issue? >> clearly a science and medical issue. we have to know about the origins because this is the second major sars-coronavirus to

emerge out of china. the first one in 2002/2003. so if there's a pattern of naturally occurring serious sars pandemic coming out of vine, we need to understand why, or otherwise we're going to see covid-26 and covid-32. i'm a little overconcerned maybe we're overturnting the three lab workers even if it's true. remember, "the south china morning post" a year or so ago claimed to identified patient ground zero from hubei province on november 17th, who was the first patient identified with covid. so that's out there in the public domain. if you look at john bronstein's group at harvard medical school, the biomedical and fer naticks group, they're seeing an upscale in the disease in wuhan hospital since the start of that year.

i think there are more questions than answers. would i not rush to say it's of lab origin. we know natural origin sars-coronavirus can occur out of china and it may well be this began in late summer 2019. >> let's talk about this summer. we are hearing a lot of good signs about where we are and where the country is headed. we just got word of a major milestone. as of today, half of all u.s. adults are expected to be fully vaccinated today. that's extraordinary. tell us what the situation is where you are. >> look, it's extraordinary and it's great news in terms of just bearing the fruits of all of those vaccinations. what we are seeing right now, stephanie, big-picture metrics, cases of covid-19 down 35% in the last couple weeks. cdc rolling now with a tick under 23,000 cases a day. steph, that is the lowest that figure has been since june. so as a result of these numbers

improving, we are seeing things opening up. i'm in florida, which as you know has been a little bit different when it comes to the country when it comes to reopening. schools have largely had in-person instruction available since last august. but on a national scale some other parts of the u.s. that were a little slower, new york and los angeles, first and second largest school district in the country, they will be returning to full in-person instruction five days a week starting this fall. in new york, there's not going to be a remote learning option. in los angeles there will be. mayor bill de blasio in new york city saying, look, it's time to get together and do this the way it was meant to be done. he feels like he has the protections in place already to help those roughly million students in new york city return to class and the many families breathing a sigh of relief as a result of that. >> let's stay on that. kids and school children, doctor hotez, we just got word that moderna's vaccine is showing promise for kids between ages of 12 to 17. thus far kids in that age range

are only getting pfizer. how big of a deal will it be if moderna gets approved as well? >> now we'll have both moderna and pfizer vaccine for adolescents. they were both 100% protective. it's a small sampling compared to the earlier phase 3 trial. so the 100% will probably not hold up but it's still very, very high. high levels of protections and antibodies, at least for the pfizer vaccine, so it's a good vaccine. what that means is if we can get a significant percentage of both adults and adolescents immunized by the fall, middle schools and high schools will be safe and elementary schools will be safe because we can lower transmission, provided we fix the awful pocket we have in the u.s. where people aren't getting vaccinated. >> want to have a good summer? want to get back to normal this fall? get vaccinated. ken, sam, dr. hotez, thank you all so much. coming up -- the majority of republicans believe the lie, big

lie the election was stolen, which it wasn't. how can we expect democrats to get anything done with republicans' help? our new reporting on what that can mean for the january 6th commission and on infrastructure. tructure u need t. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk

for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'll do it. good plan. try one a day 50+ multivitamin gummies. with vitamins c, d & zinc for immunity support. i'll do it. plus 8 b-vitamins for brain support. one a day and done. [ echoing ] some of us were born for this. to protect people. to help them save. with a home and auto bundle from progressive. ahh. i was born for this. and now it's prime time. cut. jamie, what are you doing? you're not even in this one. i thought it was thursday. sorry. -it is. -i thought -- i thought it was last thursday. -it is. -i thought -- (vo) nobody builds 5g like verizon builds 5g.

thousands of engineers taking peak performance to a new level. that's why in parts of many major cities where people can use massive capacity we added verizon 5g ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world. nice. it isn't just a step forward, it's a leap forward. because the more you do with 5g, the more your network matters. it's us pushing us. it's verizon vs. verizon. and who wins? you.

it has been one year since george floyd's murder and this morning we're grappling what it means for police. derek chauvin was convicted for his murder only one month ago but he's still just a part of a bigger system. we told you about police reform on capitol hill, and that's great. but until it's passed, where should cops go from there? let's dig deeper and bring in tracy kesey, the co-founder and senior vice president for the center for policing equity. she's also a 25-year veteran of the denver police department. tracy, always good to have you here. we obviously have not seen anything happen in terms of police reform on a federal level, but we've actually seen a lot happen on a state level over the course of the last year. what's your take? >> we have. policing is local, stephanie, we've always said that. you've seen a lot of work and a lot of movement on the state and local level. it looks different as you look

across the country. some folks ban choke holds, others have gone to different extremes to do different things. one thing that is missing is this feel for a lot of folks there's a coordinated effort and i think that's where a little bit the federal legislation comes in. but for the most part, a lot of what we are seeing is happening state and local. >> coordination and communication, and unfortunately we're living in a time with a whole lot of miscommunication. in the last year we saw several big cities see a spike in homicides. are you worried this rising crime and confusion about what defund the police actually means might have actually helped us systemic change? >> so what we're very concerned about is the rise about any kind of violent crime, especially homicides. typically it's hitting those areas that are, again, really calling for reform. what we don't really have is a conversation around what causes what. what is really connected to those rises in crime. there's a lot of underlying issues that were exposed during covid, homelessness, lack of

jobs, unemployment, all of those things. one of the things you have to be careful is not confound the two. i think for some it makes sense to draw those parallels but there were issues long before this. so again even post mr. floyd's homicide, this is not new. we're not in new territory at all. >> we know that law enforcement is hugely important and we want good people to pursue those careers. given how charged everything has been for the last year, at this point are you concerned about police recruiting? why would someone even want to go into a police force at this point? >> that's a great question and it's a question an individual will have to ask themselves, right? recruiting has been an issue in policing for quite some time. so when you talk about how do you recruit people, you also have to recruit people for the job you want them to do. probably one of the larger conversations we're having right now is what is the role of police. you have thousands of options across this country who do the right thing daily. what we don't really have a

conversation around is what are we asking them to do? are we asking them to do too much? most communities will tell you, yes, they're in places they should not be. we hear this a lot with mental health. we hear it with a lot of other low-lying offenses as well. and especially when you're trying to diversify your apartment. we know it's always been from a historical standpoint levels of women that stop around 14%, 15%. hiring black and brown officers has also been difficult historically and continue to be. does it make it harder? absolutely, it does. but it doesn't make it insurmountable. a lot of questions around what do you want police to do have to be answered so folks can receptor themselves and figure out whether or not this is the career for them. >> thank you so much. you always make us smarter. very busy day on capitol hill after majority leader chuck schumer said the senate will vote on a commission to investigate the january 6th

insurrection very soon. but it might go nowhere at all, with at least half senate republicans saying they're against the plan. meanwhile, infrastructure talks are near collapse. president biden and republicans cannot even agree on the definition of infrastructure, or anything that you see on the screen right now. what does that center in? how we pay for it. nbc's leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill. president biden set a memorial day deadline for these infrastructure talks. doesn't feel like there's a whole lot of movement and last i checked, we will kick off memorial day weekend in just a few days. >> we sure are, stephanie. there's definitely not going to be any sort of agreement before then. talks are mostly stalled at this point but we're at this critical juncture, the six republicans who are in charge of negotiating with the white house are meeting again this morning to talk about how to respond to the white

house's $1.7 trillion infrastructure plan. of course, the white house's counteroffer. and republicans at this point are not pleased, to say the least, with that offer. senator roy blunt last night, one of the six members, said something really interesting. he said his interpretation after his meeting with the president a couple of weeks ago is the president's team was going to present a smaller infrastructure package on the ideas that republicans can agree on. this traditional infrastructure. and so when the president's cabinet met on friday and presented this $1.7 trillion plan that included some human infrastructure component of it, they were mystified and didn't know where the disconnect was. i met with debbie stabenow from the democratic leadership, and i asked her why the white house presented the bigger plan rather than a smaller package just for

republicans and move alone with just democrats on the rest of the things republicans don't support, she said, well, we still have a lot of work to do among the democrats to get them on board. seeing there's a lot of questions that are still happening and we don't know where this is going to go, but we could have more insight later today. >> john, to that very point, i spoke to jim clyburn a few minutes ago and he said he would vote to go it alone on biden's full package. but how divided are democrats within their own party? it was easier for them to get together on covid relief. we know how much pain people across the country from facing. but when it comes to this package, are democrats all on the same page? >> no, they're not. there's a lot of support inside the democratic caucus and house democratic caucus but it's not unanimous. in the senate they need every

vote. it's a 50/50 senate. and to pass something, you need all 50. john manchin of west virginia, christian krysten sinema of arizona raised concerns about increasing corporate taxes or rejecting taxes on the wealthy. jon tester of montana. they're not there. what we reported today is they're so far divided, they may push this off into the fall. so we can see this drag on for a while. and if they have to go democrats only, they're going to have to go one step at a time. it's going to have to go very slow and very deliberate. like you said, this is not covid relief, this is something completely different. >> people have been scratching their heads for days saying why on earth won't more republicans get on board with a commission to investigate the january 6th insurrection, but polls show nearly two-thirds of republicans believe the election was stolen from trump, and probably more importantly and more ridiculous,

more than half of those still think that trump is the current real president. given that reality, do you believe that's what's driving so many republican members of congress to say they don't support this commission, because their voters are so far removed from reality, even if they know what's really happening? they being members of congress, know what happened on the 6th? >> yes, that's a huge part of it, you're right. they're afraid of the base. they're afraid of getting alienated from the base. trump can't tweet anymore and he's not on social media but he's still got a lot of juice and he went after the 35 house republicans voted for this commission on the house side and trump went after them publicly. so this is where the base is. the republicans will tell you privately, oh, god, what happened january 6th was terrible. leigh ann knows it, and it was,

because we were here. but in public -- >> but they lived it. why wouldn't they do a town hall? why wouldn't they tell their constituents, here's what happened, here's how all of us were threatened. let's address it. then they have a whole host of other things they can go after joe biden on. why would they continue a big lie that they know isn't the truth? >> they want to stay in office. that's the first things to incumbent senators and members. stay in office. if you want to be incumbent, stay in office. that way you can't -- most of the time now unfortunately, especially in the house, it's one party controls a district. once you win the primary, you win the general election. that is the reality of what happened. in a lot of the red states, trump -- the trump forces control the state party, they control the base, and you can't

get cross wired with it. like you said, everybody knows what happened january 6th. everybody knows trump cemented the attack on the capitol, insurrection. but investigating it and officially saying it from the congress, we're a long way from that happening yet. >> your house is going to blow down if you do not have a strong foundation. john, leigh ann, thank you both so much. coming up -- as summer nears, i can't wait for it, colleges. planning how they will bring students back in the fall. one school kept 90% of its kids on campus last year. i'll talk to purdue's president about how they did it next. are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food.

the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription.

ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is the only medication of its kind also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

magenta? tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. magenta! (crying) magenta! (announcer) the epson ecotank. no more cartridges. just lots of ink. print whatever makes you happy. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. it is graduation season for students across the country, after a year drastically altered by the coronavirus. this morning universities are already preparing for summer school and, of course, for the fall. with more than 400 now saying they will require students to provide proof of vaccination if

they want to be on their college campus. that's according to the chronicle of higher education. lindsey reiser is at the university of california berkeley and nick daniels, the president of purdue university and former republican governor of indiana, joins us now. lindsey, i want to start with you. how is this going to work for students? >> the uc campus system is huge, stephanie. there are more than a million students, 33 campuses. they will require vaccines for the fall but only once one of the companies gets upgraded from emergency authorizations. full approval from the fda. across the bay at stanford, they will require vaccines for all incoming students in the fall and they just lifted their outdoor mask mandate. schools are still trying to figure out how to navigate this. one school across the country in new jersey is offering tuition incentives in addition to the vaccine requirement. like you mentioned, a chronicle of higher education shows 412 college campuses will be requiring these vaccines by the fall and also according to their analysis, it appears mostly

political. it doesn't appear like any flagship universities and any typically red leaning states will be requiring this. also stephanie, we are seeing protests pop up across the country, organized by large conservative groups and one epidemiologist i spoke to yesterday, he did say these vaccine requirements are important, the vaccine is the next step towards the new normal, and he has a college-aged daughter. he will want her to go to a school requiring vaccines, stephanie. >> governor, you're not requiring vaccines through your students. you're strongly encouraging it. why is that? >> we believe in freedom of choice here and we think we can get to the same objective by applying those principles. we have -- we're going to encourage it, enable and facilitate it. we have 37,000 vaccinations here this spring on our campus. but we've told our students if you should choose not to do that, then you will have to

undergo regular testing of the kind that we all did this last year. either way, we're determined to maintain the safest possible environment for our students. but we thought this might be a better, more practical way to get there. >> you were also determined in the last year to keep in-person learning on your campus. i spoke to a number of purdue students who are very happy you did that. when you look back on the last year and big risk that you took, do you think it was the right move? >> we feel that it was. we felt it was the only move consistent with our duty really to do everything we could to enable our students to pursue their education without interruption or without diminution of quality. it took everybody here, starting with our students to whom i give the primary credit. they were sensational in their compliance and their acceptance of inconvenience and impositions. but it took a very, very large

effort. we're very glad, and we consider ourselves fortunate that it succeeded as it did. really, not a single serious medical incident. >> it also cost you millions and millions of dollars. has that impaired your school's financial situation at this point? >> no. it was worth every penny of it. and just to mention, stephanie, we've not raised tuition at purdue university in nine years. in fact, it's less expensive because of fee reductions to go here in nominal dollars than it was in 2012. we're in strong financial shape. this fall, and by the way, we believe it's related to our navigation of the covid situation, we were having record enrollment on this campus. our first 10,000-person freshman class in history, biggest class in the big ten apparently. so that helps, of course, to defray the costs that we incurred. >> i have to ask you quickly then, how are you keeping tuition low? how are you keeping your campus

open, and so many other schools have done the opposite? what are they missing that you're getting? >> maybe they don't feel the same obligation we do to affordability and accessibility. we're a land grant school, and for 150 years our assignment ha democratize our education. and the teaching and the researching for new knowledge, and we have frankly gone further than i might have imagined when we embarked on this, but part of the essence is that lower tuitions, high quality value for the dollars spent attracted record numbers of students, and a strong top line, of course. helps as well as expense control. >> low tuition, high quality

education, seems like a winning combination. coming up, backlash growing after a dictator is accused of hijacking a commercial plane to arrest a top critic, a journalist. what was going down inside of the cockpit? you don't want to miss it, stay here. want to miss it, stay here you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ centrum multigummies aren't just great tasting... they're power-packed vitamins... that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. think of what peanuts have given humanity! fuel for vast migrations! sustenance for mountaineering expeditions and long journeys across the world! but most importantly? they give us something to eat when we drink beer. planters. a nut above.

before discovering nexium 24hr they gi to treat herng to eat frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. now no fruit is forbidden. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? how am i doing? some say this is my greatest challenge ever. governments in record debt; inflation rising and currencies falling. but i've seen centuries of rises and falls. i had a love affair with tulips once. lived through the crash of '29 and early dot-com hype. watched mortgages play the villain beside a true greek tragedy. and now here i am, with one companion that's been with me for millennia; hedging the risks you choose and those that choose you. the physical seam of a digital world, traded with a touch.

my strongest ally and my closest asset. the gold standard, so to speak ;) people call my future uncertain. but there's one thing i am sure of... breaking overnight, air france and singapore airlines become the first carriers to avoid belarus government. journalist in custody facing more than a decade in priso, but the video also appears to be coerced. molly hunter is all over this story. this sounds like the plot of a

movie but this is unfortunately someone's real life. >> that's right it is terrifying and straight out of a movie. the jet was taking off on sunday morning. it was going to lithuania. to get to those two european capitals you fly through belarus air space. once they cross they're made aware of a bomb threat. that flight banks right, goes to belarus, and it is escorted by a soviet era fighter jet. they get there and he is on board. he knows this is happening. he is trying to unpack his belongings on board. ryan air has not given us that many details. they call this a state hijacking. the nato chief used similar

words. take a season. >> this is a state hijacking and it is an attack on basic democratic rights. it tracks down on expression and independent media. >> now european leaders are furious. they met all last night and they're meeting today to figure out what tough sanctions they can apply. what happened in the last hour is the authorities released what they say is a transcript of the conversation between the pilots and the minsk atc. we put this to authorities in greece at the athens airport. we asked exactly what happened when their flight entered the air space. >> molly hunter, thank you. we have more breaking news. our first pictures just in our

tony blinken with palestinian leader abbas. we'll have more on that when we come back. and today at 11:00 a.m., a look at what changed one year since george floyd was killed. thank you for watching. killed. thank you for watching like heart disease, risk s diabetes and raised triglycerides,... ...vascepa can give you something to celebrate. ♪ vascepa, when added to your statin,... ...is clinically proven to provide 25% lower risk from heart attack and stroke. vascepa is clearly different. first and only fda approved. celebrate less risk. even for those with family history. ♪ don't take vascepa if you are... ...or become allergic to icosapent ethyl or any inactive ingredient in vascepa. serious side effects may occur like heart rhythm problems and bleeding. heart rhythm problems may occur in more people... ...with persistent cardiovascular risk or who have had them in the past.

tell your doctor if you experience an irregular heartbeat or other heart rhythm problems. possible side effects include muscle and joint pain. celebrate less risk. added cardio protection. talk to your doctor about adding protection with vascepa. if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ ♪ otezla. show more of you.

♪ ♪ kevin bacon here. you know me from six degrees of well... me. but it's time to expand. see, visible is wireless with no surprise fees, legit unlimited data, powered by verizon for as little as $25 a month. but when you bring a friend every month, you get every month for $5. so i'm bringing everyone within 12 degrees of me. bam, 12 months of $5 wireless. visible. as little as $25 a month. or $5 a month when you bring a friend. powered by verizon. wireless that gets better with friends. so as we come on the air

right now we're expecting to hear from tony blinken and also leader abbas. blinken on a mission to shore up a cease fire. we're on the ground and we're live on minneapolis and on capitol hill. it is one year since joorge floyd ignited movements across the country. congress failing to meet the president's goal of having a police reform bill on his desk today, but this morning our team has new reporting on signs of optimism in the last 12 hours or so. we have more to get to. i'm hallie jackson along with gabe gutierrez, leann caldwell, and britney