it's wireless that does it all and saves a lot. like a lot, a lot. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the servicenow platform will make it just, flow. whether it's finding new ways to help you serve your customers, orchestrating a safe return to the office... wait. an office? what's an office? ...or solving a workplace challenge that's yet to come. wherever the new world of work takes your business, the world works with servicenow. good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart. this morning, we are learning new details about the crisis between ukraine and russia. the border there continues very problematic, as ukrainian

president zelensky is warning his nation to remain calm. we'll get a live report from kyiv with the latest. meanwhile, here in the u.s., the latest covid surge is stretching health care centers to the brim. we'll hear from workers on the front lines about how they are grappling with this wave of new patients. out west, new mexico's governor is asking state workers and national guard members to become licensed substitute teachers and child care workers amid a growing staffing shortage. in washington, house speaker nancy pelosi says she's running for another term in congress. but will she seek the leadership again? we'll get an update from capitol hill. and south of the border, a journalist who feared for her life was found dead in her car on sunday in mexico. now the deadliest country for

journalists. >> and we begin with the latest on the escalate tensions between russia and ukraine. four senior administration officials tell nbc news president biden is considering giving a speech on the u.s. response to russian aggression against ukraine, and how it could effect this country. this comes one day after he once again warned of enormous consequences if russia attacked ukraine, including potential sanctions on vladimir putin himself. the president also says that u.s. forces will not head to ukraine, but he could soon deploy some of the 8,500 u.s. troops put on heightened alert to help defend nato allies. >> i may be moving some of those troops in the near-term, just because it takes time. and again, it's not provocative, but in eastern europe, there's reason for concern. but along the russian border, the belarus border. >> the president spoke as another shipment of u.s. military aide arrived in ukraine. and as joint chiefs of staff,

chairman general mark milley talked with his ukrainian counterpart about de-escalation efforts. ukraine's president spoke to the nation yesterday, urging people to remain calm and not panic, even though an estimated 100,000 russian troops are masked along russia's border with ukraine and in belarus. now, the biden administration is looking for ways to bolster oil and gas supplies in europe, in the event of a conflict, as europe gets at least a third of its oil and gas from russia. with me now to talk about this, nbc news foreign correspondent, matt bradley, he is in kyiv, ukraine. tom nichols, contributing writer for "the atlantic," and peter baker, "new york times" chief correspondent and an msnbc political, and also author of "kremlin rising: vladimir putin's russia and the end of revolution." peter, does the fact that president biden may give a speech to the nation on this crisis suggest that the white house is worried it's not clearly going well in russia and

ukraine. >> well, i think president biden wants to outline more clearly than he has in the past the consequences if russia does, in fact, invade or otherwise intervene in ukraine. his message last week at the press conference was a little muddled when he said that a limited incursion, a minor incursion, was the phrase that he used, might not trigger the same kind of retaliation as a full-scale invasion. that was seen, rightly or wrongly, in eastern europe as -- and by some, as a green light to putin to take some actions, short of a full invasion. that's not what the president said, but he obviously would like to make clearer, i think, how seriously the west takes this. it's a moment when the united states and europe are struggling to come up with a single unified coherent message. some of the european allies have not been onboard with some of the language that president biden would like to use. he had a call with him the other day, which he said was very, very good, to try to get him on the same page. what biden wants to do is show

the alliance is standing firm together against any aggression in ukraine. >> thomas, as you write in your latest piece for "the atlantic," american options are limited, you wrote, for several reasons, perhaps most important, no one really knows why putin is doing this or whether he really intends to do it at all. it is unlikely that his own inner circle, even, has a good read on his boss. so, what can the u.s. and its allies do to counteract putin if people around him don't even know what he's planning to do. >> one of the things we can do is make life difficult for those people around him. putin is a mafia boss. he relies on a network of people under bosses, coppos, people under him who don't have his resources. they don't have his money, his political protection, and the west through sanctions and other kinds of pressure about things like travel and movement, they can make life hard on that inner circle and perhaps they can

prevail on him to hold back somewhat, but he's doing this for his own reasons, and i think even people within the kremlin aren't quite sure what he's doing or why. >> what do you think those reasons are? >> one is that putin is very much a product of the soviet system. he has a tremendous nostalgia for the soviet era. not for communism, but the era of the kremlin sitting atop a great empire. and he has a fundamental hostility to nato. peter baker's point about trying to split the alliance is really important because putin really wants to show that nato doesn't matter and that these newly independent, newly in 30 years independent countries aren't countries at all. putin even said to a former president george w. bush, ukraine's not a real country. putin wants to decide who gets to be a country, what alliances they join, and what direction europe goes in. and that's part of doing this.

but also, he has to whip up nationalism. that's how bosses stay in power in a place like russia. >> so, peter, kremlin rising, vladimir putin's russia and the end of revolution, what do you see as putin's end game here? >> well, i think that's the real trick. i don't think we know. as tom says, even his own people may not know at this point. the americans are guessing, biden is guessing, the germans and british and french are all guessing. one thing we do know, as tom just said, he wants to destabilize ukraine as a neighbor, at the very least, make it less willing to align itself with the west. he wants to obviously drive a wedge within nato. but what -- you know, what kind of off-ramp there could be to avoid some sort of a military incursion here is kind of a mystery. the biden administration offered him a couple -- they suggested that they have some agreement about provocative military exercises. but they're not going to go along with the central demand that biden -- that putin has

made, which is that nato foreswear any future expansion and rule out ever admitting ukraine. even though they're not planning to admit ukraine anytime soon, that's not on the table. that's sort of a made-up claim by putin to some extent, they don't want to allow russia to determine other countries' ability to decide who they align with. and that's a red line for biden and the west. so what it is that would be good enough for putin without compromising principles on the part of the american's and the european's is still anybody's guess at this point. >> matt, meanwhile, in kyiv, we're not seeing the same sense of urgency and panic in ukraine that we're seeing from the u.s., but there has to be some growing unease in ukraine about the potential invasion. i mean, especially with 100 or 150,000 or so troops masked on three sides of the country. >> yeah, exactly, jose. it's one of the more baffling aspects of this, is the ukrainian government's really, almost cavalier, blase position in all of this.

they just don't seem that worried. again, you walk around in the streets here in kyiv, we were at a dinner last night, there were people who were singing in the restaurant. it was all very nice, very normal. you can imagine, in america, if there was an enormous army marshaled around three borders of the u.s., i just don't think that the american public would be that cool and relaxed about it. now, there's a couple of reasons why. for one thing, from the american perspective, it seems, they believe that the ukrainians are privately, quietly preparing for a massive invasion, but it's very quiet. it's no real, obviously sight of this. another thing is the economy. now, the ukrainians are really worried nah they start scaring people, if they start participating in this panic, first of all, they're they'll play into russia's hands and they think that part of russia's goal, part of putin's goal might be to scare them and force out concessions. by not panicking, they're showing a resolve that could help them at the negotiating table.

and it also means that they're worried about the economy, they're worried about investors pulling out their money. that's already started to happen. and a lot of ukrainians are really very annoyed by the america and europe stance on this, because they think that it means that they're actually quite literally paying for the price for a war that hasn't even happened yet. because investors are leaving. they're having to boost up their currency. the other reason is because if they start moving troops, if they start making a lot of very obvious actions, they're worried that this will play into russia's playbook. and russia, typically, as we've seen in the past, before it invades a country, they typically need some sort of pretext in order to go in. so if we started to see large-scale ukrainian troop movements in anticipation of an attack, then russia could use that as their pretext to launch an attack. they've been saying for months and months now that it's the

west who are the aggressors, and if they start to see a sign that the ukrainians are panicking, they could say that that is the aggression, the aggression they need to invade. jose? >> there are so many forms of warfare. matt bradley, tom nichols, and peter baker, thank you all very much for being with me this morning. now with me is ambassador william taylor, now vice president for russia and europe at the united states' institute of peace. ambassador, great to see you, as always. president biden just threatened to impose sanctions on putin himself if russian troops go into ukraine, but could that potentially make a -- make something of importance to putin? i mean, is this something that he could say, if you're going to start hitting at me, i won't do it? >> that's, of course, the goal, jose. i mean, the goal is to make it clear to president putin that he has a lot to lose if he makes this horrific decision to invade

ukraine. he knows he's got a lot to lose of from all of the conversations that he's had with president biden. president biden has outlined the sanctions that could -- that could be levied on russia, international sanctions, personal sanctions on people around president putin, but now we have the possibility, president biden talked about this yesterday, of actually sanctioning president putin. this should get his attention. and the idea is not to punish. these sanctions are not meant to be punitive, they're meant to deter. they're meant to deter. they will be punitive if they're imposed, but that's a decision we're hoping to avoid. we were hoping to deter that decision by mr. putin. >> do you think the president should speak to the nation on this issue soon? >> it's always a good idea for the united states people, the people to understand what the

issues are. i think the opportunity that president biden will take to have this conversation is a good one. again, as your reporters have indicated, there is a line to be drawn between panic on the one side, which we don't want, and the ukrainians don't want and president biden doesn't want, and on the other side, preparations. so preparations militarily to move forces, to demonstrate again to mr. putin that we're serious, that we're ready to fight, if this is necessary, if he were to attack all the way into nato, we're ready to reinforce our nato allies. we're also ready to provide additional forces, even more to additional weapons and equipment, even more than we have so far to the ukrainians. this is, again, a deterrent. the message here is, you should not invade. if you do, it will be very, very

painful. and president biden has an opportunity to explain that. >> and ambassador, the biden administration says the u.s. and its allies are all on the same page, but "the new york times" reports today on how germany's allies are wondering what it is willing to do to deter russia. as "the times" wrote in its piece, germany's evident hesitation to take forceful measures has fueled doubts about its reliability as an ally, reversing the dynamic with the united states in recent years, and added to concerns in moscow that could use german wavering as a wedge to divide a united european response to any russian aggression. germany vladimir putin's secret weapon when it comes to dividing the u.s. and its allies? >> jose, i don't think so. i think what we've heard, from the german -- the new german leadership is that they also strongly support the ukraiianuk. they support independence,

territorial independence, and sovereignty of ukraine. and they've taken steps within their laws to help out the ukrainians. now, they have overdependence on russian natural gas and they're about, if they make a bad decision to put into effect, to put into operation this pipeline from russia to germany, they will be even more dependent. so they do have that problem, of that dependence on energy. europe in general has this problem, as your reporters have indicated. that's an issue that is being addressed and we heard yesterday that there are attempts to find other sources of natural gas to take the place of any constraints on gas flows that the russians may put on. but i think in general, europeans are united and i think specifically, the germans are going to be there, in particular if president putin makes this

bad decision to go to war. >> ambassador william taylor, thank you very much for being with me. it's always a pleasure to see you. still ahead, covid deaths in the u.s. have reached the highest level since early last year. plus, who's being called in for reinforcements to help understaffed schools and day cares overwhelmed by covid? you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. d you're watching "jose you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. the journey is why they ride. when the road is all you need, there is no destination. uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom. nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in. >> vo: my car is my after-work decompression zone. voiceover: 'cause♪ music ♪biker... >> vo: so when my windshield broke...

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20 past the hour. while health officials are optimistic that omicron cases are declining in the northeast, it's still having a massive impact on health care centers across the nation. the senior vice president of life span, a rhode island health system, said the combination of staffing shortages and the latest wave created, quote, a dumpster fire. she told bloomberg, quote, it's a pandemic wrapped in a labor crisis. omicron is the accelerant on the dumpster fire.

joining me now is yasmin vassoughian, also with us, one of the teams where medical teams were sent to help with the surge of patients. how are they doing? >> you know, jose, i have been reporting from outside this hospital over the last two years to the beginning of this pandemic to when they first received the first doses of this vaccine to this surge now. if you take a look at the graph of the hospitalizations across the state of rhode island, they're on the other side of this thing. it's peaked, and at this point it's coming down. across the state, the numbers are still fairly high. as of two weeks ago, you had over 500 individuals hospitalized in the state of rhode island. that number has now come down a bit, to just under 500. but you compare that to numbers in november, when you just had over 100 people hospitalized. those numbers are still fairly

high. the bad news, jose, is the burnout, and what you alluded to. there is a massive amount of burnout when it comes to staffing shortages. nurses and doctors are exhausted, both physically and psychologically. you have nurses, hand over hand, beginning to retire, that are at retirement age, saying, we just can't do it anymore. having to make critical decisions as to who's going to be able to get into the icu. so based off of the announcement made by the president just two weeks or so ago, military personnel deployed across the country, to hospitals like this one, rhode island hospital. they received 20 personnel, 14 nurses, 2 ventilating respiratory specialists and four doctors on top of that help with those staffing shortages to leave some pressure. here's dr. mitchell levy, here's what he had to say. >> well, people feel -- first of all, they feel that the government is supporting them, which is really important. they also feel that these are

skilled nurses, so they feel they have new comrades. and they feel a real sense of relief. there are more beds. they don't have to work as hard covering the small number of patients. and that's a big relief for them. >> reporter: jose, it really helps with the psychological relief for so many of these individuals working here to see that the government is coming in, is stepping up, to help. i will say, i asked dr. levy about whether or not he would predict that we would be in this position now that we are, that we find ourselves in. because i was here when he got his first vaccine, just over a year ago now. and he said, no, when we spoke then, i asked him, is this the beginning of the end. and at that point, we all thought it was. and now nobody is willing to say that, because as we continue to deal with this surge, the question is, when is the next surge coming? when will we begin this position yet again? but for now, this hospital in a

better position than it was just two weeks ago at this time. >> but a very real crisis that is going to have long-term implications. doctor, now, stealth sub-variant omicron has been detected in california. you know, that's what we needed. what do we know about it? >> reporter: good morning, jose. well, like a lot of times when we receive news about a new variant, you know, the news bite is that for the moment, we don't exactly know how significant this is going to be, in terms of how much it varies from the original omicron and whether or not that translates into more transmissibility, more ability to evade vaccines. it has a number of mutations in that critical spike protein, the area that the virus uses to anchor itself to the human host. it's being called stealth,

because while the pcr test can pick it up and it will pick up this ba2 variant, it doesn't necessarily distinguish it from the delta variant. so that's why it's being called stealth. not because a virus or an infection won't be detected on a pcr, it will. so that should put some folks at ease. we're waiting for the world health organization to perhaps more streamline its designation as a variant of concern. as of now, it has not. which is why it has not earned its own greek letter for the moment. it's still just considered a derivative of omicron, which it is. and i should point out, omicron is not a derivative of delta. it has a real number of novel mutations that really indicated that it was of a complete different lineage than the delta strain was. >> so doctor, you said, it's picked up on pcr. what about antigens? >> yeah, at this point, it should be able to be picked up on an antigen test. there's no indication not. it's really more about the

genetic sequencing that the pcr test enables providers and scientists to do. that's the only distinction right now at the moment. >> and doctor, i just want your thoughts on what yasmin was talking about, about really the crisis that we're seeing in our health care system and hospitals and nurses. how real is that? >> well, it's real for -- it's real for us as health care workers, and it's very, very real for americans, all americans, vaccinated or unvaccinated. you know, we talk a lot about, you know, hospital bed capacity, icu capacity in particular, is one really, really important metric to follow, in terms of the impact that a surge is going to have on our, you know, on our well-being. let's say, or our health. and i point out, too, that little things that we may not even consider for us, you know, elek ty procedures, mastectomies for cancer, things like that are

postponed. one could argue, you know, the semantics of whether or not that's really considered an elective procedures, but these are the kind of things, jose, the consequences, the downstream effects that we see when hospital systems overrun. we have to really be very thoughtful and careful about the communication and messaging around omicron and variants, when they are apparently less virulent, as omicron is, you're less likely end to up in the hospital. but because of the sheer number of people infected, we're still seeing a massive number of hospitalizations, and as predicted, we're seeing a significant number of deaths accompanying those hospitalizations a few weeks later and we'll see that number regress, as well, in the next few weeks. >> dr. azar and yasmin vassoughian, thank you both for being with me this morning. time now to look at headlines out west. the omicron surge creating extreme staffing shortages in new mexico schools, as well. the governor calling on state workers and the national guard

to become licensed substitute teachers and child care workers, even signing herself up to teach. joining us now, nbc's jesse kirsch. good morning. how does this new initiative work? >> good morning, jose. this is an all-volunteer assignment. it's designed to ease those staffing shortages we've seen at schools all over the country, due to the surging covid infections. the governor's office says everyone signing up will go through a background check and the same training that all institute teachers and child care workers have to complete there. the goal is to keep schools open for in-person learning. the governor's office says since the holiday break, dozens of schools have had to go remote with 75 child care centers, also having to at least partially shut down, because of staffing issues since the start of the year. >> and meanwhile, jesse, a los angeles police officer is being hailed as a hero after saving a toddler's life. >> reporter: yeah, jose, thankfully we're told this little girl has already been released from the hospital.

but from the lapd sergeant's body cam, you can see this was a scary situation last week. a father flags down the officer, shouting for help. the little girl apparently lifeless. the officer then flips her over, clearing her airway before a moment of relief. >> okay, mami. it's okay, my love. what does she have? what does she have? >> something came out. something came out. >> i mean, a really tense, scary moment, jose. it's tough to watch. you can only imagine what those parents must have been feeling. the officer clearly in the right place at the right time. and thankfully, jose, that little girl is okay this morning. >> that's great news. jesse kirsch, thank you very much. well, boston red sox hero david ortiz is weigh up a hall of famer today. >> i'm calling you from cooperstown, new york, to let you know the baseball ryders have elected you to the national baseball hall of fame. >> yes! >> papi was the only player

elected to the 2022 baseball hall of fame this year, getting more than 77% of the vote. ortiz has three world series titles with the red sox and is a world series mvp. in an emotional news conference, he remembered his mother. >> big papi. ortiz will be inducted into the hall in cooperstown, new york, on the 24th of july. still ahead, two major parts of president biden's agenda, voting rights and build back better seem dead in the water, but one democrat says, wait, not so fast. we'll explain.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ got my hair ♪ ♪ got my head ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ got my brains ♪ ♪ got my ears ♪ ♪ got my heart ♪ ♪ got my soul ♪ ♪ got my mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪ on capitol hill, house

leaders expressing optimism over two key parts of president biden's agenda. house majority leader steny hoyer told politico that he believes democrats will be able to pass voting rights legislation and the build back better act. but he didn't say how that could happen. this as house speaker nancy pelosi says she will run for re-election, ending speculation that she would retire. with me now is ana palmer, it's always great seeing you. steny hoyer says he's kmisk about passing voting rights and build back better. is there a path forward for either one of those? >> optimism is one thing, being realistic is another thing. certainly in the senate, we're starting to see that bipartisan group form that smaller, more narrow voting rights legislation. i spoke with senator young, republican of indiana, who's part of that group yesterday, and he told me that they are now at that pen-to-paper phase, so he seemed very optimistic that the group would be able to come together, but that's very

different than the larger voting rights package that democrats had hoped to put into law. and certainly, when it comes to the bbb, it's really on life support right now, jose. >> let's talk about bbb. a group of democratic senators sent a letter to vice president harris and president biden asking them to make the child tax credit an extension of the build back better act. senator manchin has been very clear about that. >> it really underscores to me how important, how this issue, the child tax credit has become to a lot of members of congress. that was expanded earlier with some covid relief, the american rescue plan. so democrats are trying to push on this issue. but senator manchin has been very firm. it's hard to see that the ctt would be a part of it. it's very expensive, despite a lot of democrats believing that this is something that families need and that is something that should continue at its current

funding level. >> so meanwhile, ana, speaker pelosi says she is running for re-election. didn't officially say she would remain in leadership, but she said in the past that she would be a transitional figure. is she ready to transition just yet, as far as leadership? >> i think nancy pelosi will decide when nancy pelosi is done. if there's anything that i have learned over the past decade of covering her, you make speculations about her at your own peril. but certainly, 29 democrats in the house have said that they are going to retire and she has said, no, i'm going to run again. does she want to continue in leadership? it's going to be a brutal midterm election for democrats by all accounts. it's in the house. and so i think there'll be an assessment period probably that have. >> few have been more effective at leadership than nancy pelosi. i mean, in the history of our country. she has a slim majority in the house right now. we've seen a number of

disagreements between progress ives and moderates. but while pelosi is one of the most effective leaders in history, could the recent fractures play a role in whether she stays or goes? >> probably more so, whether or not democrats remain in the majority, right? it's one thing to be speaker. you have a lot of power. she has the feet of being speaker, minority leader, and coming back as speaker again. so i think that's going to be a real question, as well as the soul searching of the democratic party, is it time for some new leadership. they have all octogenarians leading the house right now, and there's definitely been pressure, and i think also, just want a desire for generational change. so that's something that we watch really closely to see how she either continues to maintain her power, or if she decides, she's giving it a go and it might be time to be done. but nancy pelosi is the only person who's going to decide that. >> that we can all agree on. ana palmer, thank you so much for being with me. it's great to see you. coming up, julio vacedo

joins me with a report out of the deadliest country for journalists. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. j. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

42 past the hour. time now for a check at the headlines beyond our borders. and we go to the united kingdom, where there is a political crisis, of sorts. prime minister boris johnson right now is really feeling the heat over comments and parties that he went to that were right smack in the middle of the prohibition in the united kingdom of people being able to get together. keir simmons is with us in london. keir, what's the latest? >> jose, dramatic scenes in the house of parliament behind me there, for what we hear call prime minister's questions. that's that weekly gathering, where the leader of the opposition can ask questions of the british prime minister and it was a rowdy prime minister's

questions with the leader of the opposition calling for boris johnson's resignation. one member in fact house calling him a liar. not very gentlemenly language in the house of commons. you're not supposed to call people a liar in the house of commons. so it is political intrigue, political buzz, but also very, very serious, jose, because we now know that the police are investigating whether the law was broken in downing street. of course, the prime minister is responsible for making the law with his government. so extraordinary to hear the prime minister at times in the past few months say that he didn't know that the rules might be broken. jose, 16 parties are being alleged -- a birthday party, a christmas party, even a party the night before prince philip's

funeral. the prime minister having to apologize to the queen for that. now his job is on the line. we're waiting for a report into what happened. the big question is whether boris johnson's party think this is just too embarrassing, too distracting, and decide that he should go. >> keir simmons in london, thank you very much. and turning now to mexico, where jed there were massive protests and vigils after another journalist was killed this week, the third to die this year. she actually made a plea directly to mexico's president last year, during a press briefing. she feared for her life then amid a labor dispute with her former employer. the news anchor for telemundo is we this morning. julio, it's a privilege to have you with me this morning. talk to me about what's going on in mexico. this is the third journalist assassinated just this year and

we're towards the end of january. >> that's right, jose. thank you very much for having me. so the mexican government is sending a team to tijuana to find out exactly what's behind this murder of loris mueller, and also, another was killed a few days ago, and pressure is building up for the government to take action. as you said, there were protests last night demanding justice and demanding safety for journalists in mexico. because when we look at this murders -- and we look at the bigger picture, these homicides, only confirm what we already know. and that's mexico's -- the most dangerous country to be a journalist in the whole world. i mean, as you said, three murders in less than a month, according to reporters without borders. seven journalists were killed last year. the government reports that since 2010, there have been 138 homicides of journalists. so mexico is definitely not a safe place to be a journalist.

>> julio, you add the issue of impunity. how justice doesn't come for me. and it's not just journalists. in mexico, if you are a victim of a crime, if your daughter is killed, odds are, you won't get any justice. >> that's right. i mean, the judicial system in mexico is very inefficient. but -- and that's impunity, and then you have corruption. and the control of criminal groups -- the control they have of regional governments. in specific areas in the country. they control governments, officials, police departments, so if you are a local reporter, speaking up and talking about crime in your city, in your town, i mean, the chances are you're running a very big risk. >> you're on your own. >> that's right. >> julio, what about el chapo guzman. there was some news recently on that front. >> yes, the u.s. appeals court just upheld his previous conviction in 2019. he was sentenced to a life in prison and plus 30 years and he also was ordered to pay $12.6

billion. and so, basically, the court disagreed with the defense, who argued that he was treated unfairly during the trial. and he will just have to pay the sentence. >> and julio, you know that you've been working nonstop on what we're going to see tonight on telemundo "nightly news". >> that's right. we have a lot on what's happening in mexico, a lot what's going on the whole continent. and of course, omicron and the new evaporate. >> julio, it's always a pleasure to see you. >> thank you so much, jose. >> thanks so much. straight ahead, federal reserve is about to take some steps to curb inflation as the price of food, cars, housing continues to climb. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. for colon cancer. yep. the american cancer society recommends screening starting at age 45, instead of 50, since colon cancer is increasing in younger adults. i'm cologuard®.

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now. we're up right now just over 150 points, but look at the graph there on the left, top left. i mean, it's up, then down are then up, then down. we've been seeing that all week. earlier this week it took a tumble, more than a thousand points and came up 1,200. it's now up at 140. it all comes as we're still dealing with the pandemic and supply chain issues. nancy pelosi bc's tom costello has more. good morning. >> good day. we're entering the third year of dealing with covid and it appears the fed is prepared to pull back some of its pandemic relief policies with several interest rate hikes to come. stocks have been on a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of weeks as we are still paying more for good and often waiting longer to get them. in the stock market it's been a week of whiplash and wild swings with wall street at the intersection of concern about covid inflation, a beleaguered

and stretched supply chain and potential invasion of ukraine. the federal reserve preparing to tame inflation likely by rolling out a series of interest rate hikes, as many as three or four this year. >> hopefully what will happen is the combination of getting past this latest wave of the virus, getting people back to work and reducing the supply bottle necks along with somewhat tighter federal reserve interest rate policy should bring inflation down over time. >> the price of food, clothing housing continues to climb. disruptions at every level of the supply chain from chinese manufacturing plants to grid locked ports to u.s. store shelves. >> whether it's the air transportation to bring goods in, the cost of ocean freight carriers or truck drivers or distribution center workers, everything is costing more.

>> reporter: along with higher prices, longer wait lines. at pish posh baby in new jersey, they've tried to adapt. >> we've completely rehauled our web site, added features that will help when we're out of stock. that customer can be notified when the item comes back in stop. >> reporter: while at juvenile shop in california, new moms are having to plan early. >> usually we would tell them to come in in their second trimester and now we need to tell them you need to be becoming in in your 12st, 15th week of pregnancy. >> just a little extra stress in what can already be a very stressful time. back to the stock market. while we have seen these big dips and swings over the last few weeks, context here is important. the last couple of weeks are just a schapp ♪. stocks are there 30% higher than

they were at the high point before the pandemic began. >> back to you. >> that what happens up the our for me. the jose diaz-balart. if you can, follow the show online at jdbalart @msnbc. jdbal. . c there's so much new in the new chicken & bacon ranch, but the clock is ticking, so we gotta hurry. there's new rotisserie-style chicken, new peppercorn ranch, new hickory-smoked bacon, new... (whistle blowing) did you just spike the footlong?

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and a good wednesday morning to you. craig melvin here. we are following a number of fast-moving stories this hour. right now once again all eyes are on ukraine. richard engel reporting that russia is now bringing in the infrastructure it needs for a potential military operation. we are going to talk to richard in a few moments. earlier advisers from ukraine, france, germany and russia all met for talks in paris. and the u.s. embassy just dialed up its calls for u.s. citizens to consider leaving ukraine and gave advice on how to do it. and now we have some new reporting that president biden is considering a speech or interview as soon as next week to outline his administration's ukraine strategy. plus, in just a few hours the president will put the economy

front and