hey, everybody, good afternoon, great to see you. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we have a lot of news to get to in the two hours ahead. stick with me. we are now in day 59 of russia's war inside ukraine. a new missile strike in the port city of odesa, the ukrainian government saying at least five are dead, including a young child. and as the besieged eastern port city of mariupol barely is hanging on, there are new efforts to evacuate women, children, and the elderly out of

that war zone, now halted because of ongoing threats of shelling by the russians. this is all happening as we have new satellite photos by maxar showing what appears to be a growing mass grave inside the city of mariupol with as many as 9,000 bodies. that is according to local officials. we are live on the ground in ukraine with the very latest on that. we are also following a lot of the developments here at home as well. major fallout from newly released audio exposing house minority leader kevin mccarthy's hypocrisy when it comes to january 6th. who's to blame and flatout denying what we heard him say on that tape. >> the conversation is very good because the conversation here is what they -- what they said we did, we never did. i mean, i never asked president trump to resign. we both talked about that. we've talked about -- no, let me be very clear. i have never asked the president to resign.

>> all right, so, we got the latest from capitol hill, everybody, as the january 6th investigation is heating up. you're going to want to tune into that. plus, you got desantis vs. the happiest place on earth, disney. florida governor ron desantis signing a bill, stripping disney of its special self-governing status. we have a live report from orlando on that. and then, next hour, illogical and cruel. that is how one opinion columnist describes wimbledon's decision to ban russian players. he's going to join me live to explain why. we want to begin, though, with that breaking news out of ukraine. secretary of state tony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin visiting ukraine tomorrow, so we are told, according to president volodymyr zelenskyy. however, nbc news has not yet confirmed zelenskyy's claims. is, however, though, looking into it. this is coming, of course, weeks after zelenskyy hosted uk prime minister boris johnson in kyiv.

we had the images of that happening here on this show. and urging the president to visit as well. nbc's cal perry standing by in the ukrainian capital of kyiv to talk more about this. cal, as i mentioned, good to see you, by the way, my friend. as i mentioned, i know nbc is currently working to confirm the details if this visit is actually happening tomorrow, announced by zelenskyy. of course obviously, a very sensitive time there when it comes to security, of course, the secretary of state visiting a war-torn country. that said, what are we learning about the possibility of this happening? >> reporter: well, listen, this was an extraordinary press conference, very well produced by the ukrainian government, not surprising. we've seen this president in a leadership role now for 60 days doing things like this. it's likely we are not going to be able to confirm that the u.s. secretary of state and the defense secretary are traveling here until they arrive here because the secretary of state and the defense secretary operate under different rules of security and the pentagon and the state department are just not going to want to talk about

it. so, we probably won't be able to confirm it until we see them here on the ground and we're going to take the sourcing from president zelenskyy. extraordinary press conference, not just because of its location in a subway, but because of what was discussed. the beginning of the press conference, we saw a discussion not just about the united nations and how the united nations is basically defunct now in the eyes of the ukrainian government, because they have not been able to make the russians come to any kind of serious negotiations but a discussion about vladimir putin, and we heard president zelenskyy saying that it takes a sane and health individual to choose the diplomatic route, one more indication that he wants to talk about a ceasefire, that he wants to talk about some kind of a peace agreement. our colleague was there at this press conference. it seems to me asked president zelenskyy, why is it important that western leaders continue to visit the ukrainian capitol? here's what he had to say. >> reporter: why is it important that we be visited by leaders? >> translator: i'll give you a

pragmatic answer. you cannot come to us now with empty hands. we expect not just the presence of some cakes. we expect concrete things and concrete weapons. >> reporter: those concrete things are continuing to come, especially from the united states. the most recent, $800 million military aid package will start arriving this weekend. included in that aid package will be drones that were designed here for the ukrainians, and when you look at what happened today in odesa, rocket strikes killing at least eight people, wounding some 18 more, you get an idea of why president zelenskyy continues to ask for more weapons. we've heard from the russian defense ministry saying that odesa really is going to be vital in this what they call phase two operation where they want to create a land bridge basically from the breakaway republic in moldova all the way to russia, so we'll keep our eyes, of course, on odesa and we do have colleagues there as

well, yasmin. >> cal, let's pivot here and talk about a little bit of odesa, the east as well, as fighting is continuing there, trying to develop a humanitarian corridor to get the elderly and the sick out. the discovery of these mass graves by the maxar images that we can now see. take us through what we are learning about in the eastern part of ukraine. >> reporter: and this is what the russians have said is going to be their next goal, what they call, quote, phase two. and i think we have a map we can throw up. and if you look at what's happening, it is that southern part of the country that is now facing sort of the worst bombardment and of course those territories in the east and the donetsk region, we heard today that the shelling was almost nonstop throughout the day. the city of odesa coming under assault for the first time in three weeks and even west of that, the city of kherson, which was the first city to fall to the russians which then couldn't be occupied because we saw those protests. today, we understand from the

ukrainian defense ministry that at least two generals, according to them, two russian generals, were killed in that city in a ukrainian counterattack. so, we're starting to see the fiercest fighting both in the southern part of the country and continuing, of course, in the eastern part, which we've seen now for eight years, yasmin. >> all right, cal perry for us. i want to talk to you again at the top of the hour. thank you, my friend. much more throughout the show. in our next half hour, by the way, former ukrainian defense minister andre zagorodnyuk on where he thinks things are heading for his country. let's move to capitol hill, back here in the states where house gop leader kevin mccarthy is desperately trying to dodge growing fallout after newly released audio reveals he said former president trump should resign in the days following the january 6th capitol riot. >> the only discussion i would have with him is that i think this will pass and it would be my recommendation he should resign.

i mean, that would be my take, but i don't think he would take it. but i don't know. >> all right, allie raffa joining us from capitol hill. we know obviously we're hearing denials from kevin mccarthy, some clean-up when it comes to his camp and of course the question of whether or not the former president is now going to denounce mccarthy. the word is you got a lot of republicans looking at that kind of view and saying, okay, if the former president denounces kevin mccarthy, does that mean that we wouldn't necessarily get behind him if he vies for speaker of the house, if republicans take back control of congress in november? so, where are we on kind of all of that as we take a look at these stunning, stunning audiophiles? >> reporter: yasmin, the latest we've heard from mccarthy is late last night, and this was his first response since these

audio recordings have been made public and he is blatantly denying what we can very clearly hear in these audiorecordings from the several calls that he had with gop lawmakers in the days after january 6th about the former president. take a listen to some of these recordings here. >> the conversation's very good because the conversation here is what they -- what they said we did, we never did. i mean, i never asked president trump to resign. we both talked about that. we've talked about -- >> you spoke with him about resigning? >> no. let me be very clear. i have never asked the president to resign. >> reporter: and that was actually rather his reaction to these recordings, so not only is mccarthy saying that he never asked the president to resign, he's also saying that the thought never even crossed his mind, which is very different -- pretty much the opposite of what he is saying in one of these recordings. now, the former president himself is reacting to all of this in an interview with the

"wall street journal" late yesterday. he says that mccarthy and other house republicans who were upset with him after january 6th, quote, realized they were wrong and supported me. trump adding this about mccarthy's chances of becoming speaker of the house, saying, quote, i don't know of anybody else that's running, and i think that i have had -- i have had actually a very good relationship with him. i like him. and other than that brief period of time, i suspect he likes me quite a bit. and now, trump and mccarthy have reportedly spoken at least three times since these audio recordings have been made public and the "washington post" is reporting that these calls were cordial and friendly with trump actually reveling in the fact that he is still the undisputed leader of the republican party, so for now, it doesn't seem like mccarthy's chances at the position of speaker of the house are in any way diminished, but the question now is, can he remain in trump and his followers' good graces because it's becoming more and more

obvious that that is necessary for him to take that position, yasmin. >> yeah. as we have seen these things change, minute by minute. we'll be watching it. allie raffa, thank you. we are going to dive deeper into mccarthy's comments tomorrow when i'm joined by zoe lofgren. let's turn now to republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene. so, on the stand this week, for a hearing filed by voters in her state who say that she should not be allowed to run for re-election, greene repeatedly deflected questions about her alleged involvement in the insurrection and disruptions in the certification of the president's victory, testifying that she has never endorsed violence. nbc's morgan chesky has the latest on this. >> reporter: yeah, yasmin, good afternoon. and this all began when this lawsuit was filed on behalf of georgia voters to disqualify greene from the upcoming ballot and their legal tool they're trying to use here is a civil

war era statute that prevents someone from running in an election who took part in an insurrection. and believe it or not, this is the first time this has been used in more than 100 years. georgia congresswoman marjorie taylor greene's political future facing a possible roadblock. the first term representative's re-election bid challenged due to her alleged involvement in the capitol riot. at issue, a lawsuit citing section 3 of the 14th amendment that states no person shall be a senator or representative in congress shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion. greene is the first republican member of congress to testify publicly about january 6th. during the nearly four-hour hearing, greene admitted she knew people were gathering to object to the election results but stopped short of recalling specifics. >> my question is just about whether anybody at all ever mentioned to you the possibility of violence. >> i don't remember. >> okay. so you're not denying it you're just saying you don't recall? >> i don't recall. >> you said on a video on your

facebook page that the peaceful transfer of power ought not be allowed. >> i don't recall. >> you can't allow it to just transfer power peacefully like joe biden wants. and allow him to become our president. >> reporter: greene's attorneys arguing she too was affected by january 6th. >> yes, i was a victim of the riot that day. >> this was not the marjorie taylor greene that we're used to seeing who's brash and bold and willing to make comments or slam opponents. >> reporter: with midterms looming, the stakes are high. >> this is about the constitution. it's only about the constitution. it's not about politics. it's not about policy. but of course, it was important to see her being held accountable to answering questions under oath. >> reporter: so, what exactly happens now? well, attorneys from both sides have to submit briefs by next week. the judge will then submit his recommendation to the georgia secretary of state who ultimately will make the final call on whether greene appears

on the upcoming ballot. yasmin? >> thank you, morgan chesky, for that. we appreciate it. let's move over to ohio now where just a short time, former president trump is set to appear at a campaign rally alongside senate candidate j.d. vance ahead of midterm primary elections. the former president's influence also on the ballot as nbc news reports his endorsement of vance is creating chaos in the gop primary race. i want to bring in vaughn hillyard who is in delaware, ohio, for us ahead of that rally. great to see you. what are you hearing on the ground there, vaughn, about the former president's endorsement of vance? >> reporter: i think we're going to learn a lot here over the next nine days about where donald trump's influence lies here. this is more so than ever, i think, a shared rally here. we call them trump rallies, but there's actually a good amount of jd vance paraphernalia, jd vance campaign ads playing on the loud speaker. there's a separate tent over there in which you're having a reception with jd vance here.

this is the former president going all in for one particular candidate and a still crowded republican field of candidates. jd vance is not the runaway favorite by any means in this race. there is still a litany of others that are contenders here and we were talking to a great number of folks waiting out to get into this rally here about whether trump's endorsement ultimately swayed them and a few people said ultimately they decided to back vance because of him. at the same time, there are a lot of holdouts who were looking at other candidates in this race here and that is why you see the former president coming in here ahead of this may 3rd debate to try to give some momentum to jd vance, who, you know, we need to note, is going to be kind of the first to be the trump-backed candidate to go before voters. you see it in pennsylvania on may 17th. their pennsylvania primary, donald trump has backed dr. oz there. you see the likes of missouri's republican primary, arizona's republican primary. there's a lot of question marks

because if these trump-backed candidates don't pull off victories, you could see the likes of ron desantis, ted cruz, mike pence begin to open their minds up to maybe they got a shot to run in 2024. >> greg abbott out of texas too. i'm going to be speaking to molly in the 4:00 p.m. hour about just that, the endorsements that we have heard from the former president and what that means for those candidates and for the former president's future as well when it comes to the 2024 election so you don't want to miss that conversation. for now, vaughn hillyard, good luck on your coverage there, and thank you. florida governor, by the way, ron desantis, facing criticism inside his own state today after signing a bill taking away disney's special tax status. desantis took the action to punish disney for criticizing his "don't say gay" bill by critics say it will punish floridians instead. it is just one of the controversial moves and potential 2024 presidential candidate has made of late. nbc's stephanie stanton is in

orlando, florida, for us. great to talk to you. i think kind of the overarching question is, what does this mean for disney and also for the surrounding counties in florida? >> reporter: yeah, good afternoon to you, yasmin. well, really, it appears that the taxpayers here in orange and oseola county in the orlando area could be the real losers in all of this. as we know, governor ron desantis signed that legislation yesterday, it essentially dissolves the reedy creek special district here. this district was set up some 55 years ago to give disney a semblance of self-governance. that means disney could be in charge of its own 25,000-acre property here in the orlando area, taking care of services like fire, utilities, electricity, infrastructure. well, now, that is not going to happen going forward. and we did talk to the orange county tax collector.

he says that the reedy creek improvement district takes in about $105 billion annually, and he says now going forward, it's local taxpayers who could soon foot the bill. >> it could be a financial fiasco for orange county residents because, you know, reedy creek is an independent taxing district, which means disney pays the same property tax as everybody else does and then pays additional taxes to reedy creek. the moment that reedy creek doesn't exist, those taxes are gone and all that debt and obligation gets put on to orange county and orange county citizens. >> reporter: now, the new law won't take effect until june of 2023 and the tax collector says when that happens, area residents could see their property tax bills jump by as much as 20%. opponents to governor desantis say this is nothing more than political retribution for disney's public opposition to the "don't say gay" bill.

now at this point, we still haven't heard from disney, yasmin, but a lot of people are speculating that there could be some lawsuits on the table. >> all right, stephanie stanton, thank you. later on this hour, by the way, state representative anna escamani of central florida is going to join me to talk about how disney's punishment could be damaging to people in her district and the entire state as stephanie just walked us through a little bit there, bit of a teaser as to what could be in the pipeline. we are continuing to follow the events in ukraine, and we'll update you throughout the next two hours on that. first, to mask or not to mask. while the federal mask mandate is no more, some cities, airlines, and businesses, they still require them. dr. kavita patel is weighing in on how we should handle the confusion of it all. handle the confusion of it l.al what happens when performance... meets power? you try crazy things...

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all right, so, philadelphia has dropped its coronavirus mask mandate just three days after bringing it back amid its rise in cases. mayor jim kenny praising the decision to resurrect the mandate only hours before health officials voted it out, citing decreasing hospitalizations and infections. that is just really one example of kind of the confusion that's breaking out across the country over the last several weeks as americans are returning to old routines with conflicting guidance about masks and vaccinations as well. with me now to talk more about

this is dr. kavita patel, msnbc medical contributor and former white house policy director under the obama administration. dr. patel, thank you so much for joining us on this. we appreciate it. as always, it's great to see you. just give me first your take on what's taken place in philadelphia and really what we're seeing across the country when it comes to kind of one guidance one way and then switching back the other way immediately after. >> look, yasmin, it's confusing, so i think, in short, what we're seeing is really shifting now to not trying to prevent every single case of covid but trying to prevent severe cases and if you're vaccinated and boosted, and if you've also happened to be one of the 50% of the country that's probably been infected with omicron in the last several months, then you're in a pretty safe space. your risk, even if you don't wear a mask, yasmin, is incredibly low of getting infected or having any bad outcomes. but for a bunch of us, we still have to take precautions because we might have kids, you know, people who don't have as great of an immune response if they're

elderly or have diseases or we simply don't -- can't afford, yasmin, you and i, five days, going out, it's not something we can do in our job. >> how worried are you that if we have an increased case load across this country, if we're seeing an uptick, if we have another version of this virus that pops up that seems to be more dangerous than what we've been dealing with over the last several weeks or so, if mandates get put back in place, people won't just follow the rules because we are so beyond that. >> right. right. we're all done. we're just kind of -- it feels like, we're done. i don't care what the rates are or what the deaths approaching a million deaths, yasmin, people are done. so, i think that that's exactly why i really want this cdc, look, we've learned, we need the cdc to really focus on communication, it needs to be clear and able to send a signal that says, listen, people, i understand we're all tired but we need to do this and here are

the reasons, but then i think the reason that has to be added is, when will we not have to wear masks anymore? and i think what got confusing about the transit directive, they're extending it to may 3rd, but what's going to happen may 3rd that takes it away? we need to know that and i think that would have helped people have a little patience. >> are you worried the cdc has lost any semblance of a reputation because of the fact that a court now has stepped in and overruled scientific guidance? >> yeah, definitely, i worry about the precedent that this could set because the cdc is within its authority, given by the public health service act, to protect communities. it's been doing this, by the way, for literally decades. if not a century plus. so, i do feel strongly that this is the cdc -- and at the end of the day, yasmin, people, whether they want to admit it or not, they know the cdc is acting in the interest of public health. we may not like the way it

communicates these messages but i think that the faith in the organization has weathered a lot of the storm. but we do need to be clear, you need to wear masks for the following reasons, and here are the circumstances where we don't need to wear masks, just as i spelled out earlier. >> two more questions for you. what's going on with under fives? the last unprotected portion of this population, still no vaccines for them. i always bark about this on television, as you know, kavita, and we talk about this offline as well. >> i do. >> with young children as well. it's tough, right? because you see everybody going maskless and you have a little one and you're worried that they would get covid and they could be the one that could get it severely. >> yeah. let me be clear. millions of parents, myself included, have been very cautious because of exactly what you said, yasmin. long covid, misc, anything where growing up i would say to my children, i could have prevented this, i would want to take a chance at it.

under 5s, there's data coming soon from pfizer but it looks like we won't see anything until june, why? there's a lot of conspiracy theories, it's the fda suppressing things, delaying. i think the bottom line is that omicron happened, and that our vaccines, which even for adults yasmin, have not been as great with omicron, when kids got these vaccines in trials under5, they were just as not great. meaning, the efficacy was lower. so, i do think we're going to have a challenge, and it will probably be june but this is a good reason that i'll continue to wear a mask so i don't have to worry about the under 5s around me and i can protect them. >> last question here. sitting on a train, nobody else has a mask on, but i do. is that giving me any protection at that point if nobody else is masked? >> one-way masking can be protective but only if you have a really high quality mask, bridged around your nose, sealed, not the kn95s with gaping holes on the side that you can see and puff air through. test. if you spray perfume and you can

smell it, it's not sealed enough but one-way masking can work with a high-quality mask. >> well, that's a good test. i've never done that one before. i'm going to try that. if you're looking for a new scent for the spring, don't wear an n95 mask when you go to the store. >> right. >> to smell it. >> that's right. >> dr. kavita patel, as always, great to talk to you this afternoon. appreciate it. up next, everybody, the kremlin is vowing to take full control of the donbas region in ukraine. but how will this latest offensive be different than russia's tactics in the first weeks of the war? former ukraine defense minister is with me after the break. def is with me after the break ♪ ♪ ♪i'm so defensive,♪ ♪i got bongos thumping in my chest♪ ♪and something tells me they don't beat me♪ ♪ ♪ ♪he'd better not take the ring from me.♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. welcome back, everybody. so, as the russians are moving into the next phase of their war on ukraine, fighting for control over the donbas region and leaving a trail of death and destruction behind, ukraine secretary of national security and defense says he is still confident his country will claim

victory. but a russian defeat would come much faster if western allies stepped up their weapon delivery. here's some of sky news's debra hanes's conversation with alexi danalov. >> reporter: this is one of the officials at the heart of ukraine's war effort. and he's confident of victory. but he said the speed of russia's defeat depend on how fast the west delivers weapons. >> reporter: without western military support, would ukraine have been able to successfully defend kyiv in the way that you did? >> reporter: he showed me photographs of what he said were syrians killed fighting for russia. sky news couldn't independently verify the claim but moscow has

said it's recruiting fighters from the middle east. >> reporter: since russia launched its war on ukraine, the top official has been by his president's side. the toughest of times, but he says he's not scared. >> reporter: you're still smiling. how do you keep on going?

>> reporter: debra hanes, sky news, kyiv. >> our thanks to debra hanes for that reporting and that incredible interview. joining me now to talk more about russia's eastern push is andriy zagorodnyuk, former ukraine defense minister. andriy, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> so i want to talk through a few different conversations here. one of which, of course, is now this push east and south inside your country of russian soldiers and russian military. the terrain there is different for both the russians and the ukrainians. the war is going to look much different than it did earlier on

in this war. ukraine was incredibly successful, to some extent because of having a mastery of the urban warfare, of city systems, of being able to hold off the russians in places that they could. how is this fight going to be different in the eastern and southern parts of your country? >> the difference of this fight is going to be dominated by the -- sorry, the difference is explained because of the domination of the artillery systems in the war. but i have to say that ukraine was very successful with using artillery systems for, like, eight years and including in the first phase of the war so it's not like -- it's not like things will be completely different. we did use lots of individual equipment like javelins and stingers in the first phase. this one will be more like long range but at the same time, ukraine did use a lot of long-range in the first phase as well. so, we know exactly what needs to be done. >> let me first ask you, do you

feel confident the ukrainian military can stave off the russian military and push them out of the south and the east? >> absolutely. yeah. absolutely confident. the only question is we need to have resources for that, specifically equipment and ammunition. some of which is coming, so if it keeps coming, yeah, absolutely, no doubt. >> so, you feel as if at this point the ammunition that you're getting now, the military aid you're getting now, it's enough as long as it continues? >> it's enough, like with types. some of this still needs to come, but the critical thing is that it comes with the -- enough quantities and in the right moment of time, because of course, if we are doing this over long period of time, that's a totally different story, but yeah. >> have you thought, andriy, of the "what if" scenarios, if the russians are able to capture the donbas region, for instance,

which it seems as if is vladimir putin's goal now, at this point, his new goal, i should say. what then? >> yeah. of course, putin wants to go to the other regions of ukraine. he looks at kharkiv in the northeast. he looks at odesa in the south. he looks at different places. so it all depends on what type of capabilities they still have after, like, let's say, a month or two months. so, that's all about that. and our goal is to make sure that his capabilities are destroyed, and because he will stop only where he is stopped. he's not going to stop voluntarily, you know? we need to stop him and then he doesn't move on. that's it. that's the only option. >> are you worried about delivering the military aid to the ukrainian soldiers that actually need it? and i bring this up to say, of course, you're traveling from the west, much of this military aid in order to reach the ukrainian soldiers, it's just a

much more difficult terrain, right, a much longer journey than it was earlier on in this war, and of course, the soldiers are going to desperately need it to replenish the supplies they have to fight the russian occupation. >> obviously, it's a challenge. of course it's a challenge. but it's manageable challenge. so i wouldn't reconsider anything of our strategy based on that. it needs to be addressed. it is addressed. there are certainly efforts in order to make sure it's successful, and as we can see, largely, it's successful over this period of time. so, yeah, these logistics, ukraine will handle. we just need western nations to be very resolved about what needs to be done and very quickly. and then we can win. >> so, president zelenskyy -- >> because we are way more efficient. yeah. >> president zelenskyy saying today that secretary blinken is going to be heading to ukraine tomorrow.

and nbc news, our outlet has not yet confirmed this information, but your president is saying this. what do you want to hear from the secretary of state if, in fact, this visit is happening? >> well, first of all, it's a hugely symbolic thing because that visit is because lots of leaders of the western nations l been to kyiv. and that gesture of support is extremely important for ukrainian people and generally for the people around the world that we're not alone and the world understands the strategic importance of winning and strategic importance of our resistance. so it's a massive message and it's very difficult to overestimate. but also, of course, they can sit face-to-face and discuss the -- how we're going to move on, and i'm sure that they can talk about the -- how this whole war may end, because again, based on the fact that we know how to fight russians, with the right resources, we can actually talk about, like, for how long it takes and how we can move them out of our country.

>> former ukraine defense minister andriy zagorodnyuk, thank you so much. i'm sorry for some of the connectivity issues but we appreciate your holding with us. coming up, everybody, accusations of environmental racism. why a problem with raw sewage in alabama sparked an investigation by the department of justice into racial inequality. departme into racial inequality >> you got waste running in people's yards, neighbors' yards. it backs up in the majority of these neighbors' homes. it backs up in a bathroom and on their floors. p in a bathroom ann their floors ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the ihop rewards program is here, and it's delicious.

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waste water crisis has triggered an investigation by the justice department, with many residents accusing local and state officials of environmental racism. nbc's yamiche alcindor reports. >> reporter: the dark green waters across from jerry dean smith's home hold a foul-smelling mix of human waste. >> it smells. it smells so bad. >> reporter: in hanesville, alabama, and many towns across the county, residents pay for sewage to flow into these lagoons. but here, many homes have failing sewage systems or none at all. >> you got waste running in people's yards, neighbors' yards. it backs up in the majorities of these neighbors' homes. it backs up in their bathroom and on their floors. >> reporter: smith and her neighbor say it's a health risk. in fact, one study found one out of every three adults here tested positive for hookworms, an intestinal parasite long thought to be eradicated. katherine coleman flowers, who grew up here, is an environmental activist.

you call this america's dirty secret, why? >> because it largely exists in rural communities and poor communities, and most people, when they find out about it, they're shocked. they don't belief it's a reality in this country. >> thanks to yamiche for that. i want to get to some other top stories we are following. the nebraska legislature moving forward with a $53 million canal project in the state of colorado to divert water from the south plat river. that runs through both states. the plan is coming as western states are struggling with severe drought and other impacts from climate change, and ultimately, ending up vying for diminishing amounts of water. we have new data from the u.s. postal inspection service saying robberies of mail carriers more than tripled between 2018 and 2020 while robberies involving a gun more than quadrupled. one union leader is now begging for more protection. telling nbc news this, the surge being fueled by factors like

covid's economic impact, growth in deliveries and the mailing of government checks related to covid aid. and french president emmanuel macron leading opinion polls just one day out from the country's presidential runoff with far-right candidate marine le pen. some french voters in overseas territories are voting today in a race that could have serious implications for europe and the west, especially amid russia's invasion of ukraine. we're going to have coverage of the election right here on msnbc. you don't want to miss that tomorrow. coming up next, everybody, desantis vs. disney. >> no individual or no company in florida is treated this way. >> the florida governor may be living in fantasyland because the company's punishment may be a financial nightmare for florida taxpayers. state representative anna eskamani is joining me next. state representative anna eskamani is joining me next. ♪ well, the stock is bubbling in the pot ♪ ♪ just till they taste what we've got ♪ [ tires squeal, crash ]

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burbank, california, and you're going to martial your economic might to attack the parents of my state? we view that as a provocation, and we're going to fight back against that. >> all right, so, this is the latest in a series of trump-leaning moves by the governor with presidential ambitions including lax covid policies, gerrymandering. state representative anna eskamani has been publicly speaking out against the governor and is joining me now. thank you so much for joining us on this, representative eskamani. we appreciate it. let's talk through this. i just had a reporter on a little bit earlier from outside orlando or disneyworld, i should say, reporting on this, saying that the burden could easily fall on the taxpayers here. you got $163 million a year, it seems, that disneyworld essentially is paying to cover its own public services. so the question is where will this go? who's going to have to pick up the bill on all of this? >> well, thank you so much for having me. this is another example of

petty, punitive and performative politics by governor ron desantis who doesn't think twice about who is actually impacted by his poor decision making. eliminating the special taxing district, as you noted, also eliminates the tax that funds it, because right now, the walt disney world property does still pay property taxes, but they tax themselves as separate ad valorem to pay for reedy creek. when you get rid of reedy creek, you get rid of the tax source so the people of orange and osceola county will not only have to cover this new need for services around the disney parks but there's also over a billion dollars in debt that reedy creek has that would also be passed down to the local county residents. >> let me play for you what the governor is actually saying about all of this. >> now, people say, they do have services, utilities. we're going to take care of

that. we have everything thought out. don't let anyone tell you that somehow disney's going to get a tax cut out of this. they're going to pay more taxes as a result of it. >> wondering how the governor has everything thought out considering how quickly this took place, but what's your reaction to that, representative? >> he is lying, and i speak as someone who actually has never taken a penny from walt disney world. i serve as the ranking member in the ways and means committee, which is our tax committee, the florida house, and i am very critical of corporations paying their own taxes, which is why i actually filed a amendment on to this bill to close corporate tax loopholes and it was ruled out of order. what this actually does is put into place theatrics. governor desantis is such a good performer, he should be hired by walt disney world because what he has done is tried to send a message to his base that he's being tough on corporations, and meanwhile, he almost -- he basically has bailed out walt disney world's debt at reedy creek and is passing down the cost of these services to

residents in orange, osceola county, which, candidly, we're hearing from republicans, democrats and folks of no party affiliation who are mad about this and think the governor has gone too far. >> state representative anna eskamani of florida, thank you. great to talk to you. at the top of the hour, everybody, we got breaking news about tomorrow's trip to ukraine for u.s. secretaries of state and defense. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy just announcing this afternoon. what we know about the visit, what we can expect as well. all of that coming up at the top of the hour. ct as well all of that coming up at the top of the hour.

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hi, everybody, welcome back. i'm yasmin vossoughian. if you are just joining us at the top of the hour here, welcome. if you are still with us, thank you for sticking around. a lot to dive into in this second hour. russia's devastating war inside ukraine. we are at the two-month mark and showing no signs of letting up. we got a new missile attack in odesa, leaving five people dead, including a young child. and then in mariupol, an increasingly dire situation as the true extent of russia's brutality there is only just being revealed as what appears to be a growing mass grave is seen in new satellite images. local officials saying up to 9,000 bodies could be buried there. and then in kharkiv, one of