major incident as firefighters are battling multiple significant fires across the city. i comes hours after the uk broke its record for the highest temperature ever recorded. joining us from london is nbc news foreign correspondent meagan fitzgerald. what more can you tell us about the fires and what this declaration means? >> reporter: lindsey, good to be with you. the uk has already said this is going to be a crisis situation for the last several days. they declared a state of emergency here. we're seeing a massive fire breaking out in a residential area on the outskirts of london. right now information is still coming in. we do know that 15 fire engines have responded. we know that around 100 firefighters are on the scene fighting this blaze. they're stretched thin, the uk seeing its highest temperatures ever at 104 degrees and possibly climbing. so you're thinking about these

firefighters that are fighting this blaze and then, of course, battling this heat. we're talking about a country that is not prepared for heat like this. the infrastructure is breaking down in certain locations, we're seeing that, where there's damage to runways at airports, seeing train tracks buckling. remember a lot of people in this country live without air conditioning which is why there's been such a concern for the public's health and safety. you can see people here doing everything they can to try and escape the heat, going to lakes, going to ponds, buying fans. but we know that not everybody is able to afford that and to do that which is why we saw top government officials meeting over the weekend for an emergency meeting to make sure ducks were in a row to care for schools, for example, that are still in session and without air conditioning. the elderly, nursing homes. but this is an issue that we're seeing all across southern europe, this heat wave that is just gripping the continue dent right now. temperatures soaring to 116 and

'14 degrees in portugal and spain. meanwhile, the wildfires are raging in both of those countries as well as france where the wildfires are intensifying in the southwest corner of the country in the bordeaux region, the wine country there. we know more than 30,000 acres have burned. we know there's more than 1,000 people that have died in portugal and spain because of this heat, and unfortunately, lindsey, right now this heat wave is continuing to spread. we know that germany as well as belgium, they are now bracing for temperatures that could exceed 104 degrees. >> we see people trying to beat the heat. we hope everyone stays safe. we're following a number of major developments in our nation's capital. on capitol hill, a potential end game for the january 6th committee is starting to take shape. chairman bennie thompson is telling reporters the committee will likely release a scaled-back report of its

findings before the final one. he also just released he has tested positive for covid. this all comes as a source familiar with the committee's plans reveals these two former trump white house officials are set to be thursday's star witnesses. sarah matthews, former deputy press secretary for president trump and matthew pottinger is a former member of the national security council. down the street in a wash courtroom lawyers for steve bannon have been arguing for a delay in his contempt trial. let's bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, anna nef vass, chief correspondent for pbs "newshour," and jill wine-banks, former assistant watergate special prosecutor and an msnbc contributor. pete, let's go straight to you. >> there won't be any delay in the trial. we're past the speed bump and will probably get along with

jury selection shortly. the issue has been this letter that bennie thompson sent to a lawyer for steve bannon on october 8th in which thompson talks about bannon's claims that he can't respond to the subpoena because of executive privilege that trump has asserted. bannon talks about that. what the lawyers for bannon said today is, well, the government should not be able to introduce this letter because it's here say. if we can't call bennie thompson to testify, the letter shouldn't be allowed. the judge initially said maybe it can be allowed if bannon would simply proffer or make a written statement about his reliance on privilege which the defense said, wait a minute, you said a while ago we can't get into that issue at all here. so we want a continuance, we want a one-month delay. the judge called a recess, came back and said, okay, never mind, no proffer, if this letter is going to be introduced, you have

to take out all the references, the three or four paragraphs of bennie thompson's description of bannon's assertion privilege. we're pretty well past that and i think we're going to get along to jury selection here shortly. and then to opening statements by the government. the government has said it only intends to call two or maybe three witnesses. the government's case should be presented pretty quickly. >> jill, what is the significance behind the judge's decision today? >> it means the case can go forward and a jury can render a verdict. we should see something pretty quickly. as pete just said, there is no delay involved and the jury should be selected very quickly, and the defense is going to be. >> reporter: quick, too, because there is no defense that they have very much left unless bannon agrees to testify. that may be something that could be a circus again. >> jill, during this jury selection process bannon is really getting an unfiltered

look at what some d.c. residents think about it. one person said it would be a challenge to give him a fair shake because he promoted the big lie. another person said he was following the january 6th hearings really closely. he straight up thought bannon was guilty. what are you thinking if you're bannon's defense team? >> well, i think they knew that in advance. of course, the real test for whether someone is qualified to sit on a jury is whether they are willing to agree to determine the guilt or innocence based only on the evidence in the courtroom, not on any preconceived notions. we've had that before. we had that with man man fort who said i believe everything that manifort says, everything trump says. i was sworn to uphold the rules of the jury and had to decide based on the evidence and voted to convict him on all counts. it's possible to get swn who will set aside their views. it's better to have someone set

aside their views than to have someone say i never heard of bannon, i don't know what the january 6th committee is all about. someone with that lack of knowledge around the world around them probably isn't competent to sit on a jury. >> ali, let's turn to the developments on the hill. what are you learning about the two witnesses expected to testify but also about this positive covid test from chairman thompson and also the committee says it's not going to impact thursday's primetime hearing. >> reporter: they say this is not going to impact their scheduling for what we expect to be the last in this series of hearings from the committee. i say that because they are not closing the door on doing more. in fact, what chairman thompson said yesterday, last night, because he was here on the hill prior to this positive diagnosis of covid, he was telling us that the committee's made a decision to do a scaled-back version of the final report and ultimately issue their final-final report

sometime in early fall. what i heard from chairman thompson yesterday, but also pete aguilar in the last few minutes is they're not taking the political calendar into mind in terms of when they're ready to issue these final reports. specifically they're thinking about the midterms. but it's also the former president. donald trump has seemed to inity mate over the course of the last few weeks that it's not a matter of the he's going to run for president again, which is not surprising, but a matter of when. that could happen in the next few weeks, just as the committee is getting to this pinnacle moment with their findings. it's something chairman thompson told me yesterday isn't going to impact what they ultimately end up doing here. listen. >> we are a nation of laws, and if a person breaks the law or is accused of breaking the law, he's not one who can just do what he chooses because he's running for president.

so donald trump is just like every other american citizen in this situation. >> reporter: chairman thompson there effectively saying no one is above the law, including former presidents. that's going to be the focus for the final hearing. you see it in these two witnesses that we reported last night, people inside the white house, people like matt pottinger who can speak to the machinations of what was goings-on or rather what wasn't going on inside the white house while the capitol was under attack. that is the key point of contrast. frankly, it's the culmination of the last seven hearings we've seen, the committee bringing us up in this point in the timeline to january 6th, highlighting their hopes of the chaos of what was happening on the hill versus what wasn't happening in the white house which is donald trump doing nothing to stop it. >> i want to get to that in a moment with jill. amna, do you see any complications in breaking out this final report? does the committee risk muddying their message or confusing the

american people? >> the committee has faced questions from the very beginning about motivation and intention and any committee member we've spoken to and certainly publicly in interview, they made very clear they're going to follow the facts wherever they lead. certainly the timeline has been part of the questions, the midterms looming has been part of the conversation. when you look at the way the whole work of the committee has unfolded, they've been incredibly methodical, working quietly for months and months before the series of public hearings began. as ali reported, they said there could be more in the future. i think they're trying to ignore a lot of the political conversation around it saying we're following the facts wherever they lead, and very carefully cobbling together all these key witness testimonies. we're hearing from many people who folks didn't know about previously. these were not household names during the trump administration who are now turning out to be key witnesses offering up information and perspectives and firsthand witness testimony that we haven't heard about before. so thursday's hearing now which is going to focus on the key, as

the committee puts it, 187 minutes from the time the insurrection began until the time then president trump took any action to try to get his supporters to stop the violence and leave the capitol. they hope some of these additional key witness testimonies, hearing more from white house counsel pat cipollone and others, they'll fill in those narrative holes. >> jill, what are you going to be listening for? >> i'm going to be listening for people who seemed to be in the room who can tell us what was going on with donald trump. they were in the west wing on those days that were really critical and they left the day after. they both resigned in probably protest of what happened. they both admit they were upset about what happened on january 6th. i think the 187-minute absence of any action is really

important to me and to the american public. the president, unlike any other person in the country, has an active duty to do something. we can all see a crime, but we don't have an obligation. the president is sworn to uphold and defend the constitution and he let this insurrection happen. he let people die. he let the congress be delayed in doing their job. i also want to know more about the secret service. i'm not going to ignore missing texts and try to find out how are they missing? were they deliberately and nefariously deleted, or were they just lost -- either way, the fact they're missing could be a crime and certainly potentially very interesting what was on there. but then i would be calling secret service agents who exchanged texts on that day. you don't need the texts.

it's best evidence, of course, because you cannot dispute the written word that was contemporaneous. but we do have alternative sources, either they must be in the cloud or you can call in the witness. those are some of the things that i want to see. >> and congressman adam schiff talked about this last night with my colleague, rachel maddow. i want to play some of this and get your thoughts, jill. >> whether they were lost or destroyed because of negligence or willfully we have yesterday to determine. but there's a very strong conflict between what we're hearing from the inspector general, the department of homeland security, and what the secret service is telling the public. >> what do you make of this apparent disparity between dhs and secret service? >> it's very important. this sounds like uvalde, where the story is evolving or is being made up as they go along. so, of course, it makes it suspicious. we've had many explanations for -- it was device migration,

it isn't missing, we know the ones that are at issue here aren't missing, they've said. how do they know they're not missing if they don't know where they are. there's just too many questions and only by testimony of secret service officials of the office of the inspector general, all those people need to be called in to explain. then, of course, we also want to know what happened on that date, and are they now saying they can't corroborate cassidy hutchinson's testimony because these texts are missing. but also i want to know about what was going on with vice president pence, not just with the president. it is important to know whether there was some risk that he was going to be whisked away, never to return to the capitol to do his constitutional duty. so there's a lot going on there, and the suspicions that come up from this changing story need to be answered. >> thank you all so much for your time. coming up, covid cases and

hospitalizations are ticking up across the country. so how can we learn to live with this virus? former white house covid adviser andy slavin joins us next. in the weeks since the overturning of roe v. wade, today the house is voting to protect the right to same-sex marriage. we'll talk to one of that bill's leaders ahead. o one of that bils o one of that bils leaders ahead. ♪ ♪ premium and capable. that's professional grade.

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[ heavy breathing ] [ heavy breathing ] [ heavy breathing ] [ ominous music playing ] run! we turn now to brand new numbers that show most americans greiko individual is here to stay. according to the latest poll, 78% of people surveyed agree with a statement that, quote, we will never fully be rid of covid in my lifetime. joining me is andy slavitt former white house senior adviser for the covid response, also the former acting administrator for the centers for medicaid and medicare

services. with covid so much a part of our daily lives, dealing with these subvariants constantly, what does responsible behavior look like for everybody? >> i think responsible behavior probably includes, even if you feel relatively safe from covid-19, that there are plenty of people that don't. to be conscious of that. even if you feel like it's inevitable and you want to go about your life and daily activities, no one can blame you for that, just recognizing that the reason you put on a mask when you go indoors when there's a high amount of covid, you could be getting it and spreading it to someone who isn't as safe. i think that's really important and really responsible, whether you're a person, a restaurant, an airline, that we all try to keep that in mind. >> if you go on the subway, in a store, you'll see most people really aren't wearing masks anymore. even though it has been sort of

a public consciousness issue and public health issue, should states and cities reintroduce mask mandates indoors? >> some of us are going to live in places where governments do that. i live in the los angeles area and the government is scheduled to do that june 29th. other people live in parts of the country, the south, where that's just not going to happen. so we all have to understand that reality, and it is better -- there's less spread, fewer people will die if that happens. but even in places where it doesn't happen, we all can protect ourselves by wearing high-quality masks, n95, being outdoors when we're in crowds, being careful, taking tests and so forth. we know it's a pain and people don't like the fact that this is part of the routine, but hopefully this will become a less frequent issue. the rltd is when we're here, if we all think we have an obligation to one another, it's a good thing to do. >> we'll town another virus.

washington, d.c. now says it has the highest rate of monkeypox per capita in the u.s. vaccines are on the way, but it doesn't seem like splay is meeting the demand. how do we get here? shouldn't we have learned some of these lessons from covid? >> yeah, the basics, the fundamentals include tracking and managing these cases and isolating and public education and broad recognition of symptoms. none of that seems to be happening a lot. all i can say is i hold some of this as people who just don't get focused on issues that they don't feel personally threatened by. because this is largely so far have been isolated to targeting communities, the response has just not been as strong. the good news is we do have vaccines, we have therapies. this doesn't need to be fatal. it can be painful and uncomfortable. we should get on top of it.

it makes me ashamed a bit to think about how we just sometimes don't seem to care about things if they're not affecting everyone broadly. >> there's a new report that shows there's division in the new york city hamiltons that the city should be encouraging gay men to reduce their number of sexual partners? wouldn't that stigmatize people? >> these are sensitive topics. i think the most important thing is awareness, making sure people are aware of the risks they're taking, particularly as things are spreading. i think we have to scientifically understand what's going on, even before we think about stigma, we want to protect people and make sure they're aware and they are protecting themselves, and there are ways they can do that to protect themselves.

i think how we recommend people, influencing their behavior or how we consider what stigma has to be done, obviously very carefully and very sensitively. but this is a public health matter and i think we want to protect people as best we can. >> andy slavitt, thanks for your time. >> thank you. up next, uvalde parents will have a chance to speak out at a pto meeting tonight after a tense school board meeting yesterday. >> -- do not give a damn about our children or us. >> the community reaction next. >> the community reaction nextr. it's easier to do more innovative things. [whistling]

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w-o-o-o-o-o... yeah, feel the savings. priceline. every trip is a big deal. a parent-teacher meeting in uvalde tonight is expected to be sentence after a school board meeting ran hours over time yesterday. parents, children and frustrated community members voicing their concerns and asking for action. >> what are you going to do to make sure i don't have to wait 77 minutes bleeding out on my classroom floor just like my little sister did? >> y'all are going to keep making money off our children while they're just sitting ducks. >> these are the things that keep me up at night, and i

wonder have you thought of these things? have they crossed your mind? so i ask you, what are you going to do about your failures? >> it's time to clean house and that starts at the top. with us is "the texas tribune"'s zach despart. every few days we get new reports and footage out of uvalde. what do we know about the response this week that we didn't know last week? >> sure. on sunday, the legislative committee who is investigating the shooting response released its 77-page report. it's the most comprehensive account to date we have of what happened at robb elementary on may 24th, notably the reporting to date in what authorities said before that had largely focused criticism and blame at the local school's police chief, pete

arredondo for his failure to take command and lead the response. this report says, yes, he was to blame for all those reasons. it says the blame is broader, to all the law enforcement officers, nearly 400 who responded to the scene. it said, for example, the 91 state police or the 150 border patrol agents had an opportunity as a larger, better-equipped police agency, when those people saw chief arredondo was not acting as the incident commander he should have been, they had an opportunity themselves to take charge of the scene and they did not. >> tell me what the purpose is behind this report? what's the end game? >> sure. the legislators who wrote this report sort of have two goals. the first one is to really fill the information void the past several weeks since the shooting for residents who had been frustrated at the lack of transparency so far and have a real comprehensive account instead of the drips and drabs of information that comes out. the second goal is to provide a

blueprint, a foundational text for the legislature itself to figure out what to do when they reconvene in austin in january to pre veept these shootings from happening in texas in the future, including school safety, including some restrictions about guns. >> i want to play you a clip of a little girl who spoke at last night's meeting. >> this was the last dress that all my friends saw me on. most of those kids were my friends, and that's not good. and i don't want to your guys school if they don't have protection. >> and she's encouraging for her friends not to go to school, too. zbluft heartbreaking to hear. as the school year approaches, the conversations about safety will continue. is there anything that will make these families feel safe enough to send their kids back? >> that's a great question. my colleague covered that

meeting last night where a number of parents said they don't feel safe sending their children back to the district. of course, they will not be returning to robb elementary. they'll be closing that school. i think the report is helpful, but in terms of restoring trust, but a lot of parents still have a lot of questions and are still tremendously frustrated with how school authorities, law enforcement and state officials have handled the shooting and the information in the aftermath. >> zach, what will you be looking at tonight at this pto meeting? >> i'll be looking to see if there's more information to indicate what the future for chief arredondo is. the district placed him on administrative leave in june. it's unclear if they will fire him, if he'll return, if he'll ever return to that job. plenty of residents want him gone. >> zach despart, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. in the next few hours the house will vote to codify the right to same-sex marriage under

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today a house committee heard testimony on the effects of the supreme court reversing roe v. wade. this ahead of an expected house vote on contraception rights tomorrow. in roe's wake physicians are consulting legal teams to decide whether certain reproductive care is legal in their state. joining us right now is dr. tony ma hole tra, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in cleveland, ohio. you're a high-risk pregnancy physician in ohio, a state that just outlawed abortion after six weeks. >> thank you for having me. the impacts sort of are

far-reaching. the law makes no exceptions for rape and incest. it makes no exceptions for lethal fetal anomaies and makes an exception that's very vague for threat to maternal life. so we have patients who are young, we can't even offer -- even if their pregnancy is a result of assault or sexual abuse, we can't offer abortions for them. we can tell patients their fetus has a lethal anomaly, one not compatible with life after birth and we give them this heartbreaking news and say legally there's nothing i can do. medically there is, but legally there isn't. finally there's the case of threat to maternal life. the way the laws are written, they're so vague, they've left us in a tailspin where we can't figure out how to manage our patients and counsel our patients and we have to call a lawyer before we can make medically sound decisions that four weeks we were making on our

own without any issues. >> what does that mean for you having to call your lawyer if you have a patient in an examination room or a patient in desperate need of care where every minute matters? >> that's the worst part of it is that latter situation, where you have a patient having a medical emergency, where medically i know what the decision to make is, and we have to step out of the room and say call the lawyers and make sure that what we were doing was okay to do. we're experts in medicine, not in law. we need now to be able to consult our lawyers. i'm lucky to be at a place where i can counsel lawyers, but i can't say everyone will be as lucky as me. >> "the washington post" reports of delayed and denied abortion care in really stark terms, life-threatening situations. in one situation, an ectopic pregnancy. instead of prescribing medication to terminate the pregnancy in the safest manner as she would have done before last month's ruling, the doctor

was forced to perform a riskier invasive surgical procedure to confirm the location of the ectopic pregnancy before ending it. we know these types of pregnancies are never viable, they are life-threatening. what are the consequences here if doctors can't act as fast as they normally would have to provided the needed care? >> the consequences are life-threatening, unfortunately. we have -- we do have a carveout for ectopic pregnancies in ohio. but again, the laws are written vaguely. even aside from ctopic pregnancies, there are so many other life-threatening conditions in which we may recommend or perform an abortion that we now cannot do. inherently pregnancy is risky. 19 of every 100,000 pregnancies that will result in maternal deaths. 19. that's a big number. that's higher in some other states. inherently it'sry ski.

are we allowed to offer them an abortion? we don't know. what about 50%? can we offer it then, or do they have to be actively dying before we can say we'll be able to provide this lifesaving care for you? >> what do you need, doctor, on a state or federal level? >> we need the politicians to stay out of our exam rooms. that's the bottom line. these are politicians with very limited or no knowledge about medical care. we need them to work on improving access for patients, improving infrastructure and support for patients to be able to receive the medical care they need, not interfering in my ability to make medically sound, evidence-based decisions. >> dr. tani mal hotra, we'll have to leave it there. members will vote later today to codifying the right to same-sex marriage into federal lawyer. congresswoman charisse davis

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we're keeping a close eye on capitol hill where the house is set to volt later today on a bill that would codify the right to same-sex marriage nationwide. this comes after justice clarence thomas said in a

concurring opinion to the supreme court's decision last month overturning roe v. wade that the court should reconsider its past rulings on other rights including same-sex marriage. with us to talk about this is kansas congresswoman charisse davis who is leading the effort to pass this bill as co-chair of the lgbt equality caucus. tell us more about what this bill would do? >> first of all -- first of all, i feel like we should acknowledge how many people, both part of the lgbtq+ community and so many communities across the country are actually feeling really scared and angry about the fact that we're even having this conversation right now. the respect for marriage act would, in essence, repeal the defense of marriage act which, although oberg felt has been the law of the land, the defense of

marriage act was never repealed. so definitely we need to get that done. the other thing we need to do is just make sure for people who are married across the country, that they can go anywhere in our country and that their marriage will be respected and all the legal rights and responsibilities that they have will be adhered to. >> how do you get this to the president's desk when it's not clear there are enough votes to get it through the senate? >> i think one of the things -- first of all, one of the things we have to do is make sure we get it through the house which we're going to do today. the other thing is, on the senate side, there is bipartisan support for this bill. my hope is that my senate colleagues will, in essence, catch up with the rest of the country and support the rights of people to be able to get married and recognize that nobody should be discriminated against when it comes to creating their families and keeping their families together.

>> senator ted cruz has agreed it should be revisited, although he said it's unlikely the court would reverse the decision legalizing same-sex marriage. you mentioned how americans are feeling, angry and worried. how worried are you that this right is still at risk? >> i certainly think when you've got a supreme court justice calling into question a decision like oberg felt which recognized same-sex marriage rights amongst people, it's concerning to have a united states senator calling that into question. i would just encourage senator cruz to, again, catch up with the rest of the country and recognize that people should be able to love who they love and have their rights respected no matter what state they're in as long as they're here in the united states. >> congresswoman davis, thank you for your time. >> thank you. tomorrow ukraine's first

lady, elena zelenska will give a speech to congress. up next, we'll go live to kyiv for a look at the message she wants to send on this tlip and the latest on the ground there. the latest on the ground there . that can scale across all your clouds... we got that right? yeah, we got that. [whistling] i get bladder leaks. i didn't want to feel like i was wearing the pads i wore when i was twelve. then i tried the always discreet pads. they fit perfectly in the places they're supposed to. look how much it holds, and it still stays thin! it's the protection we deserve! meltin', breadin', bakin', shreddin'. slicin', dicin', spicin', ricin'. if you're swissing it, then you're missing it.

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ukraine's first lady will appear before congress and deliver remarks tomorrow. she's in d.c. to bolster support for ukraine with high-profile meetings including antony

blinken and jill biden. this as the death toll rises to 25 in central ukraine. what can we expect from the first lady's speech tomorrow? >> reporter: she will make her address from the congressional auditorium where her husband received the standing ovation from lawmakers when he sent a video message earlier on in the war. she's probably going to tell lawmakers that ukraine is grateful for all the weapons, all the aid, all the money that they have received from the united states. she's probably also going to reinforce the message you hear from her husband and other ukrainian officials on a daily basis, that although they are grateful for the aid, all the weaponry, they need more and fast. without that, it's very hard to you ukraine to stave off this russian onslaught that's ongoing

for 145 days now. she's probably going to tell them that it's not just ukraine that faces the wrath of russia, but if they are allowed to expand through this country, european security is at risk and developing countries as far as africa are at risk, because they are not getting grain from europe. she's meeting the first lady today. she started up an initiative for mental health problems that ukrainian civilians are having from this war. she will probably talk about the toll that's taking on ukrainian civilians. it's taking a deep toll on civilians. civilians have been a major target after tacks from the russians, from day one. we have seen more and more civilian infrastructure getting hit by the russians. she will want to drill that home, to let people know the human cost of this war. that the russians have imposed on them. it's a high level trip. she's meeting very high level

people and people here in ukraine will probably be watching very closely to what she has to say. she's very popular in ukraine. she's garnered a lot of support, not only from ukrainians but people that support ukraine for staying put right here in kyiv while russian bombs were raining down on the city. people will be watching closely here and probably elsewhere as well. >> the death toll rising in that russian missile strike in central ukraine. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right. the death toll is now at 25 after that attack. i was there over the weekend. it was a community torn apart. we all know about the girl with down syndrome killed and her mother is in hospital. there are so many more tragic stories coming out. there's a 20-year-old girl right now in hospital there with 98% of her body burneed from that

attack. there's another little boy, an 8-year-old who suffered severe burns. he has been taken to a hospital in lviv in the burn center, waiting to be taken to poland more advanced care. it's children hit very badly. they were trying to get away from the front lines of fire. there was a little boy there who was sitting in his car, when the russian bombs came down, he got burnt to death, an 8-year-old boy. the civilian toll was really appalling. i can tell you, i was there. there were no military installations. the close of the thing to a military installation was a concert hall that was called officers house. people would take their children there for dance classes and recreation, visits there. it was an appalling act on civilians there. there was a memorial laid for that little girl. people were still dropping off

flowers and teddy bears in her memory. >> thank you so much. back here at home, the pain at the pump is actually easing, after months of record highs, gas prices have been dropping for the past five weeks. analysts say that may last for a while. >> reporter: on the nation's roads this morning, filling up is getting a bit less painful. gas prices have declined for the fifth straight week. >> they have been really high lately. it's about time. >> the national average is now $4.50. down 15 cents since last week and 49 cents a month ago. >> reporter: americans are paying $1.33 more than a year ago. gas under $4 a gallon is becoming a common sight. >> prices in 35 states now have fallen under $4 a gallon. >> reporter: drivers in the south are seeing the biggest drops. in south carolina, $4 a gallon

on average, texas at $4 and mississippi at $4.03. what's driving down the prices? experts say it's supply and demand. production has increased while inflation and economic uncertainty has led americans to fuel up less. >> we all are dependent on transportation. those gas prices are going to play a big part in getting around. >> reporter: officials at the white house insist the recent trend is not a blip. >> we think it's reasonable to expect more gas stations to lowerprices. >> reporter: it's also news. if there's an energy disruption, prices could just as quickly turn back around. >> if we do see a hurricane in the gulf mexico, prices can still rise dramatically. before we go, a teaser last night for baseball's mid-summer classic. washington's juan soto won the

home run derby. soto had a big week, turning down a $440 million contract from the nationals. it's a big week. it comes just before tonight's all-star game and players will take the field at 7:30 eastern at dodger stadium. that wraps up the hour for me. chris jansing picks up with more news right now. ♪♪ good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" i'm chris jansing in new york. andrea is on assignment. we are learning more about the january 6 committee and what they have in store for the nation during thursday's primetime hearing as well as how they're investigation could move forward. first, new live testimony from trump white house insiders. the former national security

council member and the former deputy press secretary, two officials who resigned after watching the handling of the riot. that will proceed without bennie thompson. he tested positive for covid. he has begun an isolation period while experiencing mild symptoms. a live report from outside the washington, d.c. courthouse where jury selection for former trump white house chief strategist steve bannon's criminal contempt trial got back under way today after the judge denied a new motion from bannon's attorneys for a continuance. the midterm spotlight son maryland as well as the race to replace republican governor larry hogan, a potential 2024 presidential candidate. i will talk to three top candidates on the democratic side about their chances today and the chances of winning in november to deliver the governorship back to a party that was