morning on "morning joe." for now, chris jansing picks up the coverage. hi, there. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is monday, february 21st, president's day. and we have got a lot to get to. this morning white house officials tell nbc news that president biden has agreed in principle to a summit with russian president vladimir putin, a last-ditch effort to stop a war that some argue has already begun. secretary of state antony blinken and his counterpart, sergey lavrov, plan to lay the groundwork for the summit thursday unless russia invades ukraine before then. and, in fact, nbc news has confirmed that u.s. intelligence shows russian military officers have been given the order to do exactly that. while we haven't seen russian soldiers actually cross the border, heavy shelling has been pounding eastern ukraine all

weekend. ukraine's military says two soldiers have been killed. russian-backed separatists say ukrainian attacks killed civilians but the ukraine military said last night that separatists have been firing artillery at their own people with the goal of blaming ukraine. richard engel has more. >> reporter: these may be the opening shots of the war that could tear up the map of europe. russian-backed separate ipss fighting in a largely ignored conflict for eight years against the ukrainian government have dramatically stepped up artillery and mortar attack, firing on houses seemingly at random in government-head areas. villagers tell us ukrainian forces are firing back. a security guard at a fish cannery says he just left his house when an artillery round exploded. it came, he said, from the separatist areas. but over the fields in

separatist territory, the mirror is twisted. the separatists say they are facing an unprovoked and merciless assault by the ukrainian army and gangs of saboteurs. ukraine denies it's launched an offensive and accuses the separatists of manufacturing a crisis to give russia an excuse to invade. >> that was richard engel in eastern ukraine. while the fighting escalates, thousands of ukrainians are being evacuated from the combat zone, pulled out of their homes, told to pack their bags, and holded into buses. their destination is someplace in russia, but no one seems no know exactly where they'll end up. for their trouble, putin has promised to give each evacuee a grand total of $130. russia and belarus have announced they'll extend massive war games that had been set to end on sunday. those war games helped position thousands of russian troops roughly three hours from the ukrainian capital of kyiv.

and one final development -- nbc news has confirmed the u.s. has told the u.n. human rights commissioner that it has received credible information that if it invades, russia is planning to torture, kill, kid nap scores of anti-russian dissidents, activists, journalists, and cultural minorities. russia says there is no such list, that it's all a lie. i've got a great group to talk to. keir simmons, evelyn farkas, an expert on the region, serving as deputy assistant secretary of defense for ukraine, peter baker from "the new york times," previously the moscow bureau chief for "the washington post," and william taylor served as u.s. ambassador to ukraine. thanks to all of you for being here. keir, of course, moscow is reporting its own version of what's going on in ukraine. what can you tell us about that? and what does it tell you about where we're headed next? >> reporter: i've been watching. president putin begin a meeting

of his security council. he gave a fairly short speech for him, lasting over a number of minutes, and in that speech he announced that they would be deciding whether to recognize the breakaway separatists of eastern ukraine. that, of course, is a crucial question. the donbas, the region in eastern ukraine, which is majority ethnic russian, that area, of course, has been broken away to some extent for some time but not officially. and now president putin saying that he will make a decision with his security council about whether to answer. what we've been seeing today, leaders from those regions go on television and ask directly president putin to recognize them, to support them. so all of this if i wants with the really the propaganda we've

been seeing through the weekend on russian television. russian television almost moving to a war footing and making unverifiable claims of attacks on eastern ukraine, even today claiming that the group of ukrainians tried to cross the border into russia. again, automatic of this looks like the drumbeat of war, looks like the russian media and government preparing the russian people for war, or maybe they're still just threatening. >> evelyn, let's talk about the potential military signs of how you see this developing. do you see it potentially as a slowly developing isolated incursion and putin sends some back to the east, the separatists? or do you expect what president biden indicated, kind of a blitzkrieg attack on the capital itself? >> chris, up until president biden said what he did on friday, i was convinced that vladimir putin would use his military, seize the area in the

donbas region where those separatists are because it would give him leverage against the ukrainian government so he could try to increase the pressure on ukraine and, you know, see if they can get some leverage to frankly get rid of the president. i think he has no respect for president zelensky and he would like to have him replaced directly or indirectly. but now, given what president biden said on friday, i'm deeply concerned because we do have excellent intelligence on russia. you know, for a long time i worked on north korea. we did not have the same level of intelligence. so, the fact that president biden has said what he said leads me to be really concerned about what's coming next. >> so, ambassador, if the u.s. believes, as the president indicated, putin has already ordered military commanders to attack, what can the u.s. offer at this point to stop it? >> chris, president putin knows that he's got a big choice. president biden over the weekend said that, yes -- he said two

things, one, he thinks president putin has made the decision to invade. we haven't seen any tanks go across the border yet, so we don't know that, we haven't seen that, but he may have had made that decision. the second thing president biden said was there's still an opportunity, getting to your question, chris, still an opportunity for mr. putin to make the other choice, to decide to negotiate instead of invade. and president biden's been very clear. there are areas of negotiation that are productive, that can benefit both sides if president putin will agree to go to geneva and have this conversation. what president biden has said and what president zelensky has said is they're not backing down at all on the putin demand that ukraine will swear forever nato, nor is rolling back nato. that's not on the table either.

but there are some things president putin can go for and negotiate, and there's his off-ramp. >> so, peter, i mean, we know from the president that he has said these things to vladimir putin outside of preparing sanctions and messaging that he's given to putin himself. what is the biden administration doing to get ready for whatever inevitability there is here? >> for weeks you've seen the biden administration provide additional weaponry to ukraine. they've tried to expose russian plots to create a false pretext for an invasion, in other words, to discredit any invasion that might come so that nobody in the world thinks this is somehow justified by, you know, some sort of hostility by the ukrainians. nobody believes that i think outside of russia right now. and now of course we're hearing this talk about a possible summit. that's a really fraught idea. it's a huge gamble if it were to take place. i'm not sure there's any

likelihood that it would, the russians throwing cold water on it, but if it were, it's big deal. you don't want to have a summit at the barrel of a gun. president biden doesn't want to give anybody reason to think this is another unit where you're trading away something under threat of force. on the other hand, he would be showing he'd go the last distance for peace and that he would do whatever he could to find diplomatic solution short of abandoning the principles that ambassador taylor just talked about. >> and the information we're getting again, evelyn, to your point about intelligence, nbc news confirming the u.s. is warning, russia wants this list of dissidents, journalists, to kill or kidnap. i want to play what national security adviser jake sullivan said act how this will make this conflict even worse than many people realize. take a listen. >> it will cost the lives of ukrainians and russians, civilians and military personnel alike, but we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater

form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies. it will be a war waged by russia on the ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them. >> what is this going to look like? >> this is what i'm afraid of. i tweeted about this, chris. i lived in bosnia right after the war. it was a brutal, blood di war very intense in '92, '93, and brought it to an end in a '95. it took so long. i'm afraid it will be a grinding, brutal war. this is why i'm really glad that the administration went to the united nations because the answer to russia has to be concerted diplomatic pressure. they need to have the light shined right on them, and think need to be told to stand down and need to be told they will be held accountable by the entire world, not just the united states, european allies, and japan. >> obviously, ambassador, we haven't spoken a whole lot about

the ukrainians caught in the cross fire here. you and i have talked about the fact that you were there very recently. you've got 2 million people in eastern ukraine alone. what's going to happen there? because the ones being sent to russia say they're being dumped with no food, no place to stay. >> chris, it is miserable in those two little puppet states that the russians have set up. it is miserable there. it's misery for the people that the russians are transporting out of the puppet states into russia. it is miserable. they are looking, chris, the russians are looking for some rationale, some excuse, some justification for an invasion. they don't have it. they can't figure out how to tell their people, the russian people, who are about to lose a lot of soldiers, a lot of burials and a lot of russian towns, if president putin goes in, and he can't explain it to them. there's no rational reason. nor can he explain it to the international community as evelyn said. >> peter, that reminds me of

something that stuck out to me over the weekend. it was the russian ambassador to the u.s. who said the problem is not ukraine. the problem is what the world order will be in the future. what does that say about how russia views this standoff and why putin appears to think, frankly, this is a fight worth having? >> this is why the whole situation is difficult for the americans and the europeans because if you're vladimir putin and your goal is sort of to re-create much of the soviet union lost in 1991 from his point of view, that's sort of a messianic mission that's harold to defuse with the traditional tools of diplomacy or deterrents. if he is looking at this after more than 20 years in office as an opportunity to make a mark in history, to reassemble, in fact, part of what was lost or re-create russia's greatness on the world stage, it's harold to say he'll get that go just because he gets an agreement on

where missiles are placed or on future exercises in europe. that's the trick for american and european interlocutors at this point. it will come down to what putin himself decides he's willing to do in order to pursue this place in history he seems to be aiming for. >> ambassador taylor, let me ask you what may be an unanswerable question. what do you think the chances are that this meeting between biden and putin actually comes off? >> i, think it's pretty good. i think it's not a concession by either side. i wouldn't read too much into it. it's better to be talking while they're preparing for that meeting with secretary blinken and mr. lavrov getting together later this week. if they're preparing for this meeting between the two presidents, that's an indication that president putin has not decided to actually pull that trigger. so, i think it could be positive. >> ambassador bim taylor, keir simmons, evelyn farkas, peter

baker, always great to have you on the program. thank you. coming up this week is president biden's self-imposed deadline to nominate a black woman to the supreme court. his outreach to key republicans and what it could mean for the confirmation still ahead. first, a major u.s. ally announcing an end to its covid self-isolation rules as more states move toward dealing with covid as an endemic. what does that mean for parents with kids too young to be vaccinated? vaccinated redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like. so what's yours going to be? ♪ ♪

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in just a couple hours, british prime minister boris johnson is expected to meet before parliament. he'll announce an end to all covid restrictions, including mandatory mask mandates. it comes a day after we learned queen elizabeth, just shy of 96 years old, tested positive for covid over the weekend. the palace has been light on

details saying the queen has mild cold-like symptoms. doctors expect a team of royal physicians to give her antiviral treatments. here at home, the cdc could update mask guidelines this week, but there are a lot of state and local governments ahead of that. california governor gavin newsom says he'll prioritize strategies like vaccinations and stockpiling supplies while easing away from emergency measures like mask mandates. >> a year and a half, two years ago, we had to wear a mask. we were hoping there would be a ticker tame parade ayla world war ii, but at the end of the day we have to realize we'll have to live with different variants for many years. we set out a course to do it sustainably. >> these changes reflect a psychological and economic desire to move on but also an improving pick which you shall of where we are in the pandemic. the number of daily cases in a

seven-day period has plunged more than 83% since january 15th. and the daily death toll, a lagging indicator, is also down 16% over the month. kelly cobiella and russ in london, and dr. kavita patel. good to see both of you. the british prime minister is set to unveil his plan living with covid just as we saw from gavin newsom. tell us what boris johnson is expected to say. >> reporter: chris, the single biggest change we're expecting to hear from him is that going forward, if you test positive for covid, you are no longer legally required to stay at home. that is effectively relegating this virus, which has turned the world upside down over the last two years, to something more like the flu, something we need to learn to live with. boris johnson's argument is that the risk here in the uk is low

enough and rates of vaccination are high enough that he can move forward with this. 81% of adults here in england have had their booster shot, let alone being fully vaccinated. that is a much higher rate than what we see in the u.s. now, as you said, the prime minister is going to be in parliament soon to make this official, but he has put out a written statement and i'll read a little bit of that. he says, "today will mark a moment of pride after one of the most difficult periods in our country's history as we begin to learn to live with covid. the pandemic is not over, but thanks to the incredible vaccine rollout, we are now one step closer towards returning to normality and finally giving people back their freedoms while continuing to protect ourselves and others." now, chris, this decision is controversial in some quarters. the prime minister has moved this date to roll restrictions back ahead by a month. it wasn't supposed to happen

until march. and there are concerns about people with weakened immune systems, especially if rates start to go back up after these restrictions are rolled back. gavin newsom v but also concerns for people who are financially vulnerable, who can't really afford to take a day off work if they're sick but who also want to do the right thing, stay home, not spread the virus any further. the british government is now basically taking itself out of that decision and putting the responsibility entirely on the shoulders of individuals. >> so, kelly, what more are we learning about the queen's condition and her vaccination status? i heard conflicting things on whether or not she had a booster. and any planned treatments. >> reporter: as usual, buckingham palace is being tightlipped when it comes to details about the queen's health. we did hear yesterday she has mild cold-like symptoms, that she tested positive for covid yesterday, but we're not getting much more in terms of detail as

to how she's feeling. there's some video out just about four days ago when she was meeting with members of the military last week, and she feels leaning on a cane, sort of making light of it when she feels asked how are you doing, your majesty. she said, you can see, i can't move. so she has had some mobility issues. she's been using a cane. more recently, over the past couple of months she did have that health scare back in october where she spent a night in a hospital. again, buckingham palace didn't elaborate on just what the issue was there, only saying she was put on light duty for several weeks. in terms of her vaccination status, again, buckingham palace won't confirm that she's had her second vaccine and a booster, but there are reports that she's had all three shots. of course, chris, she's 95, going on 96. she turns 96 in april.

and she's in generally good health. but there are concerns that, you know, there could be potentially complications for people who are her age, so she'll be looked after by a team of doctors, royal doctors. again, buckingham palace not getting into the details about how she might be treated or whether she may get some sort of antiviral sort of an insurance policy that this covid infection doesn't develop into something more serious. >> so, dr. patel, the queen is somebody who is guarded by the strictest of protocols to keep her safe. that is something, one of the few things that buckingham palace has made clear, yet she still tested positive. it raises the question as we move into this new phase especially for the elderly, people with underlying conditions, how do they operate within this new reality in places like the uk and california with what they're doing? >> yeah, chris.

i think it's incredibly important for people who are immunocompromised, older, and even young kids who can't get a vaccine, to try to understand what would happen if they were to get positive and do as much as they can to prevent that snarp owe because it can lead to serious consequences. for the queen, for example, i'm sure she's at least been offered antiviral treatments, treatments which we look forward to having more of in the united states as well, but we don't have enough for the 7 million to 12 million people who were to need it if they were positive. i do think this is something of kind of a tail wagging the dog if you will. i think that i would love to see the day where the uk is this week, but we're not there yet in terms of vaccinations and certainly with treatment availability. it's hard for immunocompromised people to get the monoclonal antibodies you can take to prevent getting sick. i hope people also ask their doctors about that available for 12 and up. >> and obviously i've heard from

a lot of parents whose kids are under 5 that they're worried. i've been told, i don't have little kids, but that it's tough to get good masks for little ones, and obviously they're always pulling at their face anyway. what do you do now? particularly address the parents more broadly. >> yeah. more broadly. i'd like to see the fda give us some sense of are we going to potentially see something in april, which is the due date for pfizer, at least. we have other manufacturers. it would be nice for parents to have some sense of when could i have an option? but in the meantime, two, to your point, masks do not fit under the age of 5 very well, so i've been telling parents incluing my own kids, wear whatever you can that keeps it on securely, even if it's a fabric mask. not perfect but something. and the third is try to create a bubble that you have around your younger children where nobody has simple toms. you kind of make an agreement.

. with other parents, daycare, teachers, staff, look, just do as much as you can to keep people with symptoms, even if it's your own child, if they have a snism or cold, do a rap i would test as home, but if it's negative, keep the child home so you don't get anyone else sick. peeld ya transitions are very well equipped. we've seen a lot of covid the last few months, especially in children. we know what to look out for. >> dr. kavita patel, raf sanchez, kelly cobiella, thank you all. up next, president biden promise told nominate the first black woman to the supreme court by the end of this week. could the russian crisis interrupt that? the answer next. the way that advil®, aleve®, or motrin® sometimes can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®.

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judiciary committee are putting the pressure on. dick durbin says he wants the nominee confirmed by early april, before the easter break. joining us is josh ledderman, harry lipman and former deputy assistant general during the clinton administration. he helped prepare justice breyer for his confirmation hearings. good to see you all. josh, what's the word from the white house and where this process stands right now? >> reporter: there's a good chance we could learn about president biden's pick this week, chris, or at the latest by next monday, which is of course the end of february we white house officials saying president biden is still expected to meet his self-imposed end of february deadline to announce that pick. also eight days from now is the president's state of the union address. the president possibly could use that as a moment to make the sell for his nominee as democrats are trying to use this opportunity to put the first black woman on the supreme court

as a moment to really gan vannize democrats and try to change some of the political narrative heading into the midterms. we know president biden, according to our reporting at nbc, has narrowed his list to three candidates for this position, ketanji brown jackson, leon dra kruger and judge j. michelle childs from the district court in south carolina. the white house has been mum about the interview process and exactly what president biden is doing to try to pick from among these candidates. in the meantime, behind the scenes, both the president and his white house aides very active in reaching out to the hill. both democrats and republicans, frankly, are pretty optimistic at this point they could see some republican support for the president's nominee, depending on who they choose. ron klain, the president's chief of staff, was on the hill at the end of last week meeting with senate democrats largely about this pick. joe manchin emerged from the meeting afterwards saying he got

the distinct sense that president biden was just about decided on who he's going to nominate for this opening. >> jake, lemt's do a deeper dive on the hill, democrats on the senate judiciary committee absolutely do not want this to drag out. they want it done by early april. what's the latest you're hearing about a time line and any pressure coming from the hill? >> well, there's pressure in that senate democrats want biden to move quickly. he doesn't have much opportunity, as josh notes, to move that quickly considering the end of the month is one week from today. so if he's going to meet his deadline, he needs to make this pick many the next seven days. the average, you know, time to confirm a nominee is 40 days. there are a lot of things that could go wrong or that could go sideways or that could delay it. there's a lot of document production that's owed to capitol hill, both republicans and democrats, in that time period. so they'll have to stem on the

gas here if they want to get that done. but i think it's important to note here, if he does meet that deadline as josh kind of indicated, he could start talking about this nominee at his state of the union. 30 million people at least, 35 million tune into the state of the union. he has that opportunity to make that case to the american people why his selection is the right selection for the supreme court for this lifetime appointment. so, it is a fortuitous time, so to speak. again, he needs to get this going this week. with all that's going on in the world with russia and ukraine, he's obviously quite busy but, again, needs to get this done in the next couple days. >> harry, you've been behind the scenes during these nominations. how difficult might it be to get someone prepped an ready quickly? obviously, if you're on that short list, you already kind of know what's coming, but how does that time line look to you logistically and realistically?

>> ambitious but doable. look, each of these three nominees, and the white house is teasing there might be a fourth in play, will have maybe half a dozen sort of stress points, issues, you wrote this, you joined such and such an opinion. the white house already knows what they are. and also this is shaping up, it's a historic nomination, but it's probably the least consequential in 50 years in the sense that it's a 6-3 court and one of the three is being replaced by another democrat. now, he will, i think, meet his deadline. the question is the dems are putting pressure on for the confirmation hear to occur by the easter recess. but breyer will be there to the end of the term. there's no true necessity, but the democrats, a, don't want anything to go awry, and, b, have other things to think

about. but the time line is quite doable, especially because the republicans are signaling that they're going to play relatively nice. senator cruz said yesterday he won't be playing attack dog politics. that stands to reason because, a, they can't derail it, and b, they want to show how nice and reasonable they are after spending three years sandblasting their way to a 6-3 court. so i think for all of those reasons the beginning of april is doable but it might gave little because the white house will want it to. >> jake, everything said about the republicans is true, whether some folks particularly on the left believe it may be called into question. but does this look like it could be a pretty straightforward process? >> i agree with harry for the most part. nothing is as straightforward as we ever think it will be. i think that is what we've learned over the last couple years. but there's little they can do to stop it. they could not show up for the

judiciary committee hearing, but lindsey graham, who play askey role in the senate judiciary committee process, obviously, has suggest he's not going to do that and he would show up for a vote. so i think most people realize that they need to save their ammo here and they're not going to play games because it's not -- as harry notes, it's not as consequential as previous supreme court nominations. so i think that's generally, directionally right. >> jake scherr mesne, harry lipman, josh, thanks to all of you. still ahead, the redistricting battle in ohio. this is almost unbelievable. democrats and republicans only agree that it's a constitutional crisis. crisis we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment. that's why at america's beverage companies,

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about it? well, if you're ohio, the answer is apparently slow to come. the gop-led ohio redistricting committee has failed several times to produce fair redistricting maps before the court-imposed deadline. now they're facing contempt of court charges with ohio's first primary just months away. nbc's heidi przybilla joins us with the latest. >> reporter: in ohio, a growing constitutional crisis over redistricting. >> this is a direct assault on our democracy and ohio's owners. >> reporter: a gop-like commission has failed to meet a deadline ordered by the ohio supreme court to fix state maps the court deemed unconstitutionally jerry manhandlered in favor of republicans. >> it would appear that this sxhigs is at an impasse. >> reporter: for voters, that means there are currently no districts for 99 statehouses and 33 state senate seats and no roadmap for what happens next. the secretary of state issuing a

warning as the clock ticks towards the may 3rd elections. >> with much to be done in preparation, we are dangerously close to possibly violating federal law. >> reporter: the democratic minority members on the panel say republicans are blocking fair maps and are trying to run out the map. republicans say it's impossible to meet the court's standards for fair maps. >> it's not surprising, and we suspected all along that this would be the strategy that they would use. >> reporter: the court had ruled the maps must reflect statewide voting preferences, roughly 54% republican representation and 46% for democrats. now the court must decide what to do about a commission in open defiance of their order. among the members of the ohio redistricting commission, remdesivir governor mike dewine. >> we have an obligation to follow the court order, whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not. >> reporter: and among the justices who will decide the consequences for the failure to

act, governor dewine's son, ohio supreme court justice, pat dewine, who has previously ruled to uphold maps. some independent judicial experts say it should require a recusal. >> there's no way the son of the governor can sit on a case that will determine the legitimacy of the redistricting where the governor has an interest in maximizing republican victories in the districts. >> heidi przybilla with nbc news. how are you? >> reporter: governor dewine wasn't interested in talking about it. do you think it's appropriate for a son to be willing -- >> i'm not discussing this. i never talk with him, so i have no idea -- >> reporter: you haven't talked to them about it? >> i have no comment because i made it very, very clear, i'm not -- i never talk about what

he does in court, his decisions. so i'm not going to talk about this decision. >> reporter: in a statement, justice pat dewine has asserted as one of seven members on the commission, his father has, quote, considerably less influence on the decision. and added, most importantly, he has no personal interest in the litigation. a decision by the court one way or another will not provide any personal benefit to him. >> we have an obligation to produce a map. >> reporter: late on friday night the ohio supreme court warned governor dewine and other members of the commission to explain why they could not be held in contempt for failing to produce a map. now they have until wednesday at noon to respond. the stakes couldn't be higher. this will determine ohio's political landscape for the next decade. >> i love my home state, but this is messed up. you don't know if you want to run for office, where are you going to run, if you want to figure out who you're going to vote for, you don't know who is

going to be eligible to vote for. it's crazy. say we have this wednesday deadline, right. could the courts take it out of the hand of the commission and, i don't know, have somebody else draw the maps? what are the options here? >> reporter: that is such a good question because that is the suspicion of the democrats because they said there are so many contingenies that were built into the law that we should not be off the grid of what's supposed to happen next. there's already gop groups filing lawsuits asking federal courts, looking around for federal courts that would just install these gerrymandered maps that the ohio supreme court determined they're gerrymandered, chris. right now the clock is ticking down. they have another shot before wednesday. they can reconvene. but right now, no maps and nothing on the grid that tells them what to do next. >> thank you so much, heidi przybilla. appreciate it. coming up, closing arguments began just moments ago in the federal hate crimes trial of three white men accused of

killing and convicted of killing ahmaud arbery. we have the latest after a quick break. don't go anywhere. after a quick break. don't go anywhere. ♪ who would've thought printing... could lead to growing trees. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey, i get it, commitment can be scary. but not when you're saving up to 15% with subscribe and save at amazon. you get free repeat delivery on your favorite items and if things don't work out, you can always cancel. seriously, no one will judge you if you call it off.

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crimes trial of the three white men convicted of killing ahmaud arbery got under way. the prosecution trying to prove the three men targeted arbery because of his race. now, they called nearly 20 witnesses, including several who say they heard racist and discriminatory remarks. the defense called just one witness before resting on friday. joining me from atlanta, nbc's blayne alexander, who has been covering this for us. give us the lay of the land, where are we and what can we expect in court today? >> reporter: well, as you said right now the prosecution has just gotten under way, giving the closing arguments. remember, their entire focus of this case is essentially proving that the three men who have already been convicted in a state courtroom of the murder of ahmaud arbery, now the federal government has the burden of proving that they did so, that the events that ultimately led to his death back in february of 2020 were motivated by race. so, we're hearing from the prosecution right now, making closing arguments, specifically they're trying to prove that the three men who are on trial

deprived arbery of his rights by denying his use of a public street. so we're hearing a couple of things, you know, all along the defense has said essentially that they chased down arbery and ultimately killed him, not because he was black, not because of the color of his skin, but because they suspected him of a number of recent crimes in the neighborhood. well, right now the prosecution is trying to essentially argue against all of that, knocking that down saying there is a difference between being vigilant and being a vigilante and saying what happened that day in february of 2020, that wasn't being vigilant, that wasn't being a good neighbor, that was taking the law into your own hands. we also heard her bring up something that was really central to this case, which is the issue of race. we heard 20 witnesses, we saw dozens of pieces of digital evidence that give examples of the three men who are on trial now essentially using racial slurs, making racist statements against black people. the prosecution is saying that that gives evidence that they

had a specific thought on their mind, they made an assumption about ahmaud arbery when they saw him running down the street that day. chris? >> blayne alexander, thank you. still ahead, the winter olympics, yes, they are over, after weeks of competition, controversy, big upsets. we'll take you to beijing with a recap. and a look ahead to paris in two years next. ahead to paris in to ahead to paris in to years next-roasted turkey, and baja chipotle sauce. it's three great things together. wait! who else is known for nailing threes? hmm. can't think of anyone! subway keeps refreshing and re- i could've waited to tell my doctor i had leg pain hmm. can't think of anyone! just walking the dog... but i didn't wait. i could've put off telling my doctor my leg was red and swollen just doing the crossword... but i didn't wait. they told their doctors. and found out their symptoms... leg pain, swelling and redness - were deep vein thrombosis. a blood clot which could travel to the lungs and lead to a pulmonary embolism. which could cause chest pain or discomfort, or difficulty breathing - and be deadly.

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on to paris, a glitter, closing ceremony brought an end to the 2022 olympic games, one not just dominated by covid, but some thrilling highs and lingering controversies. nbc's steve patterson has a look at the closing in beijing and the big stories of these games. >> i can say from experience this truly was a games like no other, from covid, to controversy, but also moments of triumph and joy mixed in, all capped off now with a spectacular closing ceremony, lighting up the beijing sky. the flag bearer from the u.s. is notable, elana meyers taylor, the bobsledder, five-time medalist leading the u.s. home after winning bronze and silver. the most winningest black athlete in olympic winter games history. again, leading the charge back. meanwhile, we did see some action this weekend. mikaela shiffrin, on mikaela watch the entire time, she's not performed well these games,

especially in the races that were supposed to be her races, the slalom races, not qualifying, three times in two weeks. surely disappointing, but she said that last race, the team race was the best she's ever felt, she was smiling and in interviews, she said she still understands she's a strong skier, maybe one of the best in the world and we know she'll be back. meanwhile, jessie diggins added one last moment of joy for team usa, crossing the finish line and then collapsing. we heard earlier that she actually had food poisoning while doing a 30 kilometer race, imagine that. and pulled it out at the last second, exuberant from diggins. meanwhile, you know, looking at the overall medal count, 25 medals, fifth place overall, two better than pyeongchang in 2018, nowhere near norway, 37 medals for that country, 16 gold, shattering the record that they set about having the most medals at a winter olympics. now, everybody obviously looking toward paris, summer games in

2024. still, so much to celebrate for team usa, and really for all the olympians here in beijing. back to you. >> steve patterson, thank you for that. that is going to wrap up this hour. i'm chris jansing. jose diaz-balart picks up breaking news coverage right now. and good morning. it is 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart and we begin this busy presidents' day with the latest on the crisis along the ukrainian border. the white house says president biden has accepted in principle a meeting with russian president vladimir putin, but only if an invasion has not happened. this as nbc news confirms the u.s. informed the u.n. that russia is planning to kill and arrest the list of anti-corruption activists, journalists and vulnerable populations in ukraine after an invasion, a plan russia denies. we'll bring you a live report from moscow. and ukraine. happening this morning, in georgia, closing arguments now under way in the federal hate