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a very good day to all of us from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to "alex witt reports." new reporting from nbc news suggesting u.s. intelligence has learned that russian military officials have been given an order to go ahead with an invasion of ukraine. a u.s. official and another person with knowledge of the matter tells nbc news that this is what informed president biden's assertion that president

putin has decided to invade ukraine. vice president kamala harris telling reporters earlier today the u.s. has been very open about sharing intelligence with its nato partners. >> as the president has said, we believe that putin's made his decision. period. i can tell you that there has been direct communication about the intelligence. so, nothing's being held back. >> russia's ambassador to the u.s. today denying any decision has been made to invade and reasserting russia's position this is have been withdrawing troops. >> we withdrawal a lot of troops and nobody said thank you. at the same time, we see five ways of extension of nato. nato has started exploration, military technical exploration of ukraine now.

it's not forcible for us. there is no space for us to retreat. >> well, tensions along the ukraine border escalated even further today with military officials in belarus saying that planned war drills with russian forces scheduled to end today will go on indefinitely. joining us now, nbc's josh lederman, and hadley gamble joins us from munich. right now the president is sitting down with his national security team. what can you tell us about the nature of this meeting? >> reporter: a whole host of top cabinet members we've seen arriving in the last few hours for this meeting, alex, including secretary of defense lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken, boat of whom just got back from traveling in europe, where they were attempting last-minute diplomacy to try to avert a war. this rare sunday meeting of the national security council is an opportunity for president biden to get briefed by those aides about what took place in munich

where vice president harris met directly with president zelensky as well as to try to regroup and come up with their strategy for this coming week, where secretary of state blinken is scheduled to meet on thursday in europe with his russian counter part, foreign minister sergey lavrov, to see if there is some agreement that can be avert of this invasion that the u.s. has said is all but inevitable. blinken on "meet the press" indicating why it's so clear for the u.s. to really know what putin will do next. take a look. >> one of the challenges we have, chuck, i think is we all put our own frame of logic on what president putin is doing that may not be the same frame he has. it's hard to put yourself in someone else's mind, but he has decades of builtup grievances. that's exactly why we are all standing up and standing firmly against what russia is doing.

coming together not only in support of ukraine but also to bolster nato and to make it clear that there will be massive consequences for russia if it continues down this course. >> reporter: this weekend the white house has been saying that russia could still attack at any moment. we are learning new information as you alluded to, alex, about why president biden was so confident on friday, going on television and saying putin has made a decision to invade. two sources now telling courtney and myself, the u.s. received intelligence showing russian military troops and units had been given the order to proceed with an invasion. and the u.s. then saw on the ground russian military officials taking steps to actually put that plan into action. that corroborated the growing belief in the u.s. intelligence community that putin had decided he was going to go in. at this point, what the u.s. is

trying to do is get him to reverse course, change his mind and pull back troops before a real explosion of violence could potentially take place. >> i've got to tell you, i really like the sound bite you played there of our secretary of state, that sense he made, it was spot on. thank you for sharing that as well. let's go to erin mclaughlin in kyiv. the tension certainly escalating there, russian occupied sections of ukraine. bring us up to date on the latest from there. what are you seeing? >> reporter: hey, alex. today french president emmanuel macron called russian president vladimir putin. the two spoke on the phone for an hour and 45 minutes in what's described as a last-ditch effort to avert war. on the front lines ukrainian soldiers under fire. they say they've been ordered to exercise restraint to avoid provoking the enemy.

part of an escalation that shows no signs of stopping, killing two ukrainian soldiers and injuring four, but cease-fire violations more than doubling over the last few days. inside russian-backed separatist controlled areas, a call to arms. >> translator: i call on all men in the republic able to hold a weapon in their hands to stand up to protect your families, he says, as thousands of women and children evacuate donbas, in hastily established tents in russia. allegations moscow denies. meanwhile in belarus, russian president vladimir putin flexing his country's nuclear muscles, launching ballistic and cruise missiles. while in munich, russia could try to block his return, you kran yan president.

>>. >> zelensky to do it it now. he also called for security guarantees while ukraine works towards nato membership. >> for ukraine, we view nato as the only option for us to have that peace of mind. >> reporter: that peace of mind also a red line for president putin. and this morning the defense ministry in belarus announced an extension of those joint military exercises with russia, those exercises taking place just hours from where i am in kyiv. it's being seen as yet another ominous sign that the situation is deteriorating. alex? >> i bet. a lot of frayed nerves in those areas. thank you so much, erin mclaughlin from kyiv. let's go to hadley gamble, joining us from munich once again. i know you've been covering the munich security conference that just ended. i want to remind our viewers

that you interviewed president putin in moscow last october and you got some insight into nato. did you get some insight over the past few days about what world leaders really think about vladimir putin? >> reporter: well, i had some fascinating conversations over the last few days. i spoke with the president of the european commission, who used to be the defense minister of germany. i spoke to ukrainian delegation off record. i got the sense while they're all on the same page with the intelligence shared by the united states, and when i talk about that intelligence, i mean what they've been giving to the press and the idea the satellite images show massive troop buildup on the ukrainian border, at the same time, particularly on the ukrainian side, there's still a lot of questions about whether or not president putin will take that decision to invade. frankly, economically speaking, it doesn't make that much sense. the oil and gas economy for russia essentially allows that

economy to survive. they're not that big when you compare them to other global economies. we're talking about an economy that is smaller than the state of california. they exist off the revenues for their oil and gas sectors. 40% of u.s. oil and gas is made up by supplies from russia. if they were to lose that market as a result of western sanctions, even that 4,000-kilometer pipeline that takes gas from russia to china would not be enough to make up for the shortfalls of revenues they would lose as a result of sanctions. to give you a bit of perspective about how tough this would be on his economy. he has 630,000 in reserves he's been building up as a direct buffer to any particular western sanctions that might be imposed. not just the ones imposed in 2014 but the idea there could be future sanctions as well. he's buffered his economy but it wouldn't last that long. when we talk about what happened over the weekend, the conversations with western leaders, when i was speaking to vladimir putin in october, i asked him, do you have a trust

deficit with nato members, with the west? he said, absolutely we do. we believe nato countries are encroaching on our sovereignty. it worries us about what's happening in crimea and ukraine. i asked the new chancellor of germany if he can trust vladimir putin. listen in to what he had to say. >> first, one can -- he can trust us. nato is not aggressive. the european union is not -- we are not willing to threaten russia. he can be absolutely safe that nothing is harming him if the only thing we have to convince him is he is not doing this military aggression. what we are working for is that we get agreements. he's asking for agreements. and when we have them, we should trust that all parties are sticking to them. >> so you believe you can trust vladimir putin? >> we have to work with the

world and the countries that are really existing. >> reporter: that's real politics, olaf scholz saying, when i asked him twice, request you trust vladimir putin? he said at the end of the day we have to trust the people we work with. not only do we talk about gas supplies to europe, we talk about the prices, the prices at home. the question is, do people in europe really care about the sovereignty of ukraine when it isn't even a nato member and their oil and gas prices are going up and up, just like they are in the united states. olaf scholz saying this is the real politic of the situation. there are a lot of questions, frankly, alex, about what's going to happen next and how this will impact economies in broader europe. >> i could listen to you go on. you know this stuff so well, hadley gamble.

thank you for sharing that. i know my viewers do, too. will he or won't he as the world waits for putin to make his next move as top military agencies are working overtime, searching for telling clues. >> you are convinced that president putin is going to invade ukraine? is that what you said -- >> yes, be i do. >> so, is diplomacy off the table then? >> no. it's all in until he does, diplomacy is always a possibility. >> what reason do you have to believe he's considering that option at all? >> we have a significant intelligence capability. thank you. >> well, joining me now, mark, retired from the cia, senior intelligence service after serving for 26 years. mark is an expert in counterterrorism, covert actions and human intelligence collection and has overseen operation in europe and russia and also author of the book "clarity in crisis."

big welcome to you. i'm going to ask you, did this exchange surprise you? and what do you make of our new reporting that u.s. intelligence shows russian military has been given the green light, the go ahead with an invasion? >> well, first of all, thanks for having me on here today. look, there's what we call intelligence soak going on over the ukraine. that's human intelligence sources, signals intelligence communications as well as, you know, what we call isr, eyes in the sky, reconnaissance. we'll know quickly when the military units moved. it looks like we picked up a nugget that orders were given to go. we've known this for a while. the russian plan that included softening ukraine with cyber attacks, disinformation in terms of trying for provocations, you know, this has been going on for days now. that last piece of intelligence, which seems to have convinced the administration, is important, but make no mistake,

this has been building. >> marc, as i look at our assessment of that intelligence, and it says that the military officials in russia have been given an order to go ahead with an invasion. if this intelligence is correct, it's a good 48 hours old, if this is the stuff to which president biden responded with his off-the-cuff answer. so, what's happened in the last 48 hours? if you're given a green light for an invasion, don't you go? >> we don't know the exact -- you know, the exact time of that piece of intelligence. ultimately, it takes some -- it takes some moves. you know, whether units are starting to roll towards the border. it looks like we picked up information they've been given the green light, but, you know, you make a good point. if this doesn't happen in the next week or ten days, then you have to question it, but it looks like the order has been given. hopefully, we can do enough to deter putin to reverse that. i don't think that's likely. clearly, that's what's in the

mind of the administration when they start releasing information like this. >> tell me about your thoughts on releasing plans. is this a tactic from the past? . >> no, this is one for the history books. i think it's a good idea. you know, several weeks ago a colleague of mine at the atlanta council wrote a piece on how to counteract russian hyperwar fire, timely attribution, exposing russian malfeasance and disinformation. it's done for two ez reasons. one is, perhaps, to deter putin to get in his own decision-making loop and it's bolstered our nato allies and ukrainians as well. i think it's a good thing. it's also revolutionary in that we had a team at the white house and the administration where you had director of national intelligence, who i think deserves a lot of credit for

this as well as bill burns, and jake sullivan, all work the together before they trust each other. they've gone forward on this path of authorized disclosures. i think it's something we'll see in the future. in is operationalizing intelligence all for the good of the united states. >> so, we've seen the escalations in eastern ukraine over the last 48 hours or so. how do we know when it changes from cross-border skirmishes to an official new russia invasion or incursion? >> we're going to see units move. you know, again, there's such a soak of intelligence. we will see with -- if not within seconds, within minutes either russian land forces move, missile strikes or russian air power. we'll get that. i go back to the idea of, i think the intelligence community has done a really good job of, you know, painting the right picture, of providing situational awareness for the administration. intelligence is never predictive. it shouldn't be. we've given our policymakers the

picture on how to make policy. ultimately, you know, when they go, whether it's tomorrow, three days from now, five days from now, i think the intelligence community really has performed quite admirably because our policymakers are ready. >> do you worry at all when the white house releases this type of intelligence information that it can burn or jeopardize sources or methods? >> you know, alex, of course. that's the biggest concern, whether it's a human source, whether it's signals, collection capabilities, or, you know, imagery capabilities. ultimately you have smart people making decisions on this. so, ultimately there's a cost benefit to it. there's no doubt. now, at the same time, it can also sow a lot of dissent within, you know, the russian security state. because president putin certainly understands that, you know, we're in his inner circle. we're reading his mail, we're seeing what his advisers are thinking. if that causes kind of a witch hunt within, you know, the

russian government, you know, maybe that's a side part of this that's not a bad thing. >> marc, i'm going to definitely have you back again. learned a lot from this conversation. thank you so much. >> thank you. we're also learning about the prognosis of queen elizabeth after she tested positive for covid. we'll get the latest from buckingham palace next. e latest ckingham palace next what happens when we welcome change? we can make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster.

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buckingham palace saying queen elizabeth has tested positive for coronavirus. molly hunter is standing outside buckingham palace. thank you for being here with us. this queen is 95 years old. how is she doing and how surprising is this announcement? >> reporter: that's right. she is 95 years old. we also know she is incredibly resilient. this is the news we hoped to avoid over the last 2 1/2 years. we got a statement early today, uk time, saying she tested

positive today, alex, saying she's having mild, cold-like symptoms. good news is she's feeling well enough to continue to be at her desk. it says she'll continue with light duties at windsor and continue to get medical care. let me back you up about two weeks because she's not the first royal we have heard test positive for covid over the last couple of weeks. her son, prince charles, almost two weeks ago on february 10th, tested positive. that's his second bout with the virus, we should note. we asked the palace at that point, had the queen seen her son? she said she had seen him recently. fast forward four days and camilla tests positive. we asked the palace whether the queen had seen camilla recently? she said there's no further update on her health. last week on wednesday, on the 16th of this month, we saw the queen have a meeting, having an event with military leaders. she was in person, she was not wearing a mask. she was looking fantastic, for her 95. this morning she tested positive. a couple big questions.

first, really and the palace is not giving us any guide ons on where she may have contracted that. we do know she's receiving medical attention and we're pulling for her. >> we are so pulling for her because she's the ultimate rock star. thank you. i hope she comes through with flying colors. back in the u.s., a federal judge denied donald trump's requests to toss multiple lawsuits. the ruling says trump is liable for civil damages over actions he took as president. let's bring in nbc's ally joining us from capitol hill. the judge says evidence that trump assembled the crowd and instructed them to march on the capitol exists. what else is he saying? what might come out of these cases? >> reporter: first of all, these lawsuits filed by house democrats and several capitol police officers argue former

president trump triggered the ooevens we saw and in this ruling, this federal judge lays out why he thinks their arguments are valid. he says the former president was well aware of the consequences of his actions, of his words that day. both before, during and after the attack on the capitol. the judge saying in part, quote, to deny a president immunity from civil damages is no small step. the court well understands the gravity of its decision, but the alleged facts of this case are without precedent and the court believes its decision is consistent with the purposes behind such immunity. alex, this is a huge blow to the former president's case because the main argument he and his legal team have been using to skirt charges in these lawsuits was that trump was protected by the office of the presidency as well as the first amendment on january 6th. but congressman jamie raskin, who sits on the january 6th committee and played a huge role in president trump's impeachment

says that with every piece of evidence the committee collects, the case against the former president grows stronger and stronger. listen here. >> there's also, perhaps, the most documented episode of political violence and assault on democracy in our history. and we're just pulling in all of the texts and we're trying to pull in all of the phone call information, the visitor logs, the messages going back and forth, the tv appearances, the facebook live appearances, and all of the pictures and video footage that were being created by the participants themselves. >> reporter: now, alex, there's still a lot that needs to develop here before we can guess what sort of charges the former president could face, but just the fact these lawsuits still stand is a big deal, so this is definitely something we'll be keeping our eye on. >> we thank you for doing so,

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dove men+care. smoother, healthier skin with every shower. back with breaking news on the cries in ukraine and escalating tensions in the east of the country with increased shelling with european monitors showing the number of cease-fire violations near russian-controlled areas have more than doubled in the last few hours. stewart ramsey is on the front lines with ukrainian soldiers and here's part of his latest report. >> reporter: it's over 100 years since world war i, but the images of the front lines haven't changed a bit out here. and like the christmases of the great war, the troops on both sides dug into the trenches, are holding out for the new year. holding out and hoping they'll make it. these are the ukrainian army's trenches in the east of the country. they snake along a 250-mile

demarcation line. across a narrow no man's land, are russian-backed separatist military, and they're equally well dug in. the narrow walkways and tunnels, the near silence all add to an eerie sense of foreboding. sign says, beware, sniper. there's been a cease-fire here since 2015, but it's constantly violated with both sides accusing the other. but russia is now involved, building up troops, even threatening an invasion. the ukrainian soldiers think it's a bluff. they say they're ready anyway. with heat-seeking cameras, the soldiers attempt to monitor the troops and equipment on the separatist side. their front line is that row of trees. it's barely 100 meters away. all the diplomatic moves,

conversations between the united states and russia, and the increasing evidence that shows there are more and more russian troops at least gathering not far away. doesn't make much difference to these guys. they're sort of stuck in these world war i style trenches and they'll wait and see if they're attacked or not. literally have no choice. >> wow. extraordinary reporting there, right, by sky news chief correspondent stewart ramsey on the front lines in eastern ukraine. richard engel doing the same kind of reporting for us. there are some 190,000 russian troops that remain on ukraine's door stop. they are poised to attack. today the white house says president biden is holding a meeting with his national security council with the white house in pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the crisis. back here stateside, the man looking into the russian election interference investigation is distancing himself from reports spread on conservative media this week.

some outlets portraying john durham motions as proof that the hillary clinton campaign paid to spri on the trump camp. he rejects that he fought to politicize the case. he writes, if third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government's motion. that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the government's inclusion of this movement. hayes brown joins us. as i welcome you, my friend, how significant is it you have durham himself now distancing from the way the conservatives are portraying his filing? >> i think it's pretty important. this whole thing goes to a case against an -- an indictment named michael flesman with the hillary campaign, not directly for. and it looks like he freelanced

a little bit. he was charged with lying to the fbi and in the filing that made people go nuts, durham included a bit of a side note about why he thinks the law firm that is working has a conflict of interest. the fact this got spun out and durham sees it as a threat to the case that he wanted to push back on it, i think, it's very important. they filed with the court saying, look, john durham is clearly just trying to make a mess of things. he's trying to push this narrative into conservative media, which forced durham to say, no, no, if you are misreading this, that's on you. i am not trying to make this into a political thing. >> so, was it then just a handful of paragraphs in this filing that created such a buzz or was there anything in the filing that was consequential? >> so, i wouldn't say it was

consequential. there were in the filing that durham put in with the court saying, maybe there's a conflict of interest between this law firm, it was a bit of an anecdote saying there were lawyers involved in this and also in this situation where sussman got information about data that was -- relates to internet traffic near trump tower and the white house before trump came into office. but because it was just sort of, like, tucked in there in a way that, you know, this is not about the charge itself, it's not a charge in and of itself. there's no crime that anyone suggested was being committed in this filing, but it sounds sneaky, sounds suspicious and that's what got picked up on and ran with by conservative media. >> well, let's take a listen to how hillary clinton responded to trump's claims this week. these were things he had put out there relative to this filing. so, take a listen.

>> it's funny, the more trouble trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get. so, now his accountants have fired him and investigations draw closer to him, and right on cue, the noise machine gets turned up, doesn't it? >> hayes, is there anything to clinton's framing that this is an attempt to distract from donald trump's latest legal troubles, sandwiching this all together? >> yes and no. on the one hand, yes, this is what conservative media want to focus on. they don't want to focus on donald trump. do i think that trump himself said, okay, john sussman needs to put this out there? no, don't think that. i do think, though, that one of the main sources in durham's

filing was cash patel who told us this story about sussman to begin with in testimony to congress. i think that this connection, this former trump appointee, getting in touch with conservative media, fox news' reporting was framed heavily around patel's framing that clinton hacked into trump's computer, which is very much not the case. nothing was hacked into. nothing was stolen. at most there was data saying, it's weird a bunch of computers and phones near these places were looking up website information -- looking up ip addresses that are based in russia around these times. that's the extent of what is being put out there in these documents. but conservative media was allowed to fill in the blanks. what they filled in with was a wild tale of clinton's deeds and they know that works. so, they're going back to the hits, is what it feels like. they know their audience has this strong visceral reaction to

hillary clinton and will do so whenever her name is brought up in what sounds like it could maybe be a scandal. >> okay. hayes brown, thank you so much for following that bouncing ball, because it's a complicated issue. appreciate that. so, in florida, a culture war exploding on one big issue. that's next. r exploding on one e r exploding on one e that's next.an) oh, no, no, after you. wahoooo! (vo) you can be well-groomed. (man) ooooooo. (vo) but there's just something about being well-adventured. (vo) adventure has a new look. discover more in the all-new subaru forester wilderness. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru.

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expected to approve the bill, which passed the house late last week. it mirrors mississippi's 15-week ban, which is now under review by the supreme court. let's go to stephanie stanton joining us from st. petersburg, florida. thank you for joining us. tell us more about this bill and the impact it could have in the state of florida. >> reporter: good afternoon to you. florida has moved one step closer to banning abortions after 15 weeks. last week the house passed the republican-sponsored bill hb5 which will head to the gop-led senate which it is expected to be approved before it is signed into law by governor desantis. this bill would ban abortion after 15 weeks, with exceptions if there's a serious risk to the mother or in the case of a fatal feegts abnormality. there are zero exceptions in the case of rape or incest.

>> it strikes at the core of everything that is wrong with our communities and our country today because we have devalued human life to such an extent we should not be surprised by the outcomes we see and the failures we face every day in our communities. >> reporter: while this was happening last week, several organizations descended upon the state capitol to protest this bill. among them, representatives from planned parenthood as well as several student groups. we understand that there were at least 100 protesters who were actually inside the capitol when several people were detained by capitol police. we also understand that at least one representative from planned parenthood was arrested and taken to jail. i can tell you that these protesters say they vow to continue to fight this bill. they also say that is

disproportionately impacts black and brown women. so, again, this is what is happening here in the state of florida. as you know, alex, there are similar bills being passed and being approved throughout several red states across this country. >> let me just ask you very quickly to make sure i heard you right. there are zero exceptions for incidents of rape or incest, which means a woman has to carry to full term? >> reporter: that's as we understand it, there have been no provisions for rape or incest within this bill, which would essentially ban abortions after 15 weeks. >> stephanie, thank you for that report. why some teachers say teaching about black history month is now like walking a tight rope. how did it get to this? t rope t rope how dii started cosentyx®.

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new insight into a struggle facing many teachers. how to educate students about race during black history month? here's why. read this headline. an indiana school planned black history month lessons. a letter sent to parents allowed them to opt out. this headline, alabama schools accused of teaching critical race theory by recognizing black history month. and this heed line, denver elementary school draws fire for black lives matter lessons. which leads me to "new york times" reporter, julia hayward, who co-wrote this article, teachers tackle black history month under new restrictions. welcome, julia. it begs this question, what is happening here? >> thanks so much for having me. right now there is an estimated 37 states that have introduced some sort of legislation that seeks to limit how race is talked about in the classroom. as of january, 14 of these states have actually passed them into law. with this month, february, being

black history month, we now have teachers who are contending for the first time how they're going to talk about race in the classroom. >> so, did teachers say, when you spoke with them, that there's always been some resistance to teaching black history, or are we seeing some sort of a change since the protests of 2020? >> that is such a good question. over the past two years, as i'm sure you're aware, there's been this explosion in conversation and dialogue about racism, privilege, and so with a lot of these bills being recent, we are seeing a sort of pushback right now. the sentiment from legislators and some parents is that they want to protect their children, students from having uncomfortable conversation in the classroom. but what you're going to hear from the other end are teachers saying, you need to have this kind of free speech and dialogue in order to give children the best education possible. >> well, yeah. i know you spoke with several

educators of color. they seem to feel like they're walking a fine line even talking about race. is there one particular educator's story that sticks with you the most? >> my colleague and i spoke to teachers from all across the country, in states that have recently passed this legislation. personally, one that sticks with me is a teacher in texas who talked about the sort of free dialogue he allows in his classroom, even though students may not see eye to eye with everything that's discussed, they tell them at the end of the school year his class was their favorite because they feel they're respected as thinkers, people allowed to have this sort of uncomfortable conversation. but that's just one example. what we're also seeing are teachers that are more pro-active than reactive. i spoke to a teacher in new hampshire that took down a black lives matter sign in her

classroom. teachers in oklahoma are scared to use the word white now. there is fear among teachers, in what has already been a very difficult school year, they say something in class and the next day are called into the office because a parent is upset with what they said and want them to be fired. >> talk about a tight rope walk for sure. let me point out what you closed your article with. it was a quote from an oklahoma teacher who said this, i always tell them, i don't care what i say or what your parents say about the things that we learn. you guys have to start deciding how you feel about it for yourself. thinking for yourself, it is a key part of growing up. what could get lost here, if only a sanitized version of history is taught in schools. i mean, weigh in on that. >> it just -- it's really interesting because both sides of this issue, they both at the end of the day want the same thing, which is the best

education possible for students. but the way in which they're sort of going about it is starkly different. you have parents, you have legislators that feel as if now is the time to -- to safeguard what's being discussed. again, it's been such a fraught school year, this just feels like one more thing that students just don't, in theory, need to deal with. on the other side you have people saying, even if the conversation's uncomfortable, students need to have this sort of dialogue and free speech in the classroom to develop and become, you know, thinkers, people for the next generation. >> that's right. i'm so glad you wrote this article. i'm so glad you came to talk with us about it. thank you for your time. that is going to do it for me on this edition of "alex witt reports." my colleague yasmin vossoughian continues our coverage. my colleague yasmin vossoughian my colleague yasmin vossoughian continues our coverageech solut.

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hey, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. we are covering a lot of ground this afternoon as president biden meets with his national security team today. new nbc news reporting on the intelligence that has made him so certain a russian invasion of ukraine is just a matter of time. breaking news from buckingham palace. the queen has, in fact, tested positive for covid. a live report on that in mo