was a little black woman spraying trees and it scared him. after learning of the incident, the yale school of public health decided to honor bobby in a ceremony last month for her efforts to curb the invasive species. the peabody museum of natural history at yale, in a rare move, accepted bobby's donation of her personal lantern fly collection. and gave her the title of donor scientist. an important term. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. i'll see you tomorrow night on "nbc nightly news" saturday. thank you for the privilege of your time. lindsey reiser picks up with more news right now. lindsey reiser picks up with more news right now. good friday morning. i'm lindsey reiser at msnbc headquarters in new york. this morning, major new national security concerns and escalating

tensions with china. nbc news was first to report the suspected chinese surveillance balloon hovering over the northern united states around montana for the past few days. china is now responding claiming it is a civilian airship used for weather research that was blown off course. but how credible is that claim? minutes ago we learned secretary of state antony blinken is postponing his trip to china for what was supposed to be a highly anticipated meeting with china's leader next week. the pentagon is set to hold a briefing in the next hour. we know the department of defense is tracking the balloon closely, even at one point discussing shooting it down. we even have air traffic audio from wednesday about a, quote, special mission. >> we just got alerted from salt lake tmu we're on a ground stop right now until further notice for a special mission going on over the livingston area. we don't know exactly when we can have our next departure. >> it is landing with a thud on

capitol hill with speaker mccarthy demanding a briefing for the gang of eight leaders. in the last hour, president biden pointedly avoided questions about it at the white house, instead focusing on the new red hot jobs report with more than 500,000 jobs added in january. >> well, we may face setbacks along the way, there will be some, but more work to do is clear. our plan is working because of the grit and resolve of the american worker. >> unemployment now at its lowest it's been since may of 1969, the year we landed on the moon. a conundrum as the federal reserve tries to cool down the economy to fight inflation. what it means for your wallet and the economy. also on our radar this morning, a historic arctic blast impacting tens of millions over the next 36 to 48 hours. with meteorologists throwing around words like epic and generational, it could be the coldest weather the region has seen in decades. what you need to know about this looming cold emergency. we're going to start with the national security

implications tied to the suspected chinese spy balloon hovering in u.s. air space. nbc's courtney kube first broke this story. kristen welker is at the white house. ali vitali is on capitol hill and with me is victor cha at the national security council, the senior vice president for asia at the center for strategic and international studies. courtney, china says the suspected spy balloon over the u.s. is a civilian airship used for weather research. just as canada says it is monitoring a potential second incident. we're likely to hear more from the pentagon at noon, but walk us through what we know at this hour. >> so we know this high altitude surveillance balloon has been over canada and the united states for the past several days. during that entire time the u.s. military has been tracking it and watching its movement, trying to figure out how capable this is of gathering intelligence. it got to the point where they were so concerned that secretary of defense lloyd austin on wednesday convened this meeting with his senior leaders. austin was in manila at the

time, so in the middle of the night, he brought together the chairman of the joint chiefs, the head of north common norad, he called them all together and said let's figure out what this thing is doing and where it could be heading and whether action needs to be taken. when they discussed the possible courses of action to take, one of those included taking it out. and it got to the point where on wednesday norad actually brought in aircraft, including an awacs to try to surveil this craft, this balloon, and also f-22s, which have very advanced surveillance capabilities but also have the ability to take this out if that was decided. ultimately the military leaders decided that if they were to bring this thing down, in a kinetic way, it could potentially leave a large debris field on the ground, putting civilians and infrastructure in danger. that he decided that was not going to be their recommendation. they took that recommendation to president biden on wednesday, he concurred. so at this point, they are still watching it. defense officials will not say, they're acknowledging it was

over billings, montana, on wednesday, when all this was going down. they will not say where it is, other than to say it is still over the continental u.s. a defense official telling me they're watching it minute by minute, and reserve the right to still take some sort of action if they decide to. >> the president very specifically closed the door to questions in the last hour. we know secretary blinken postponed his planned trip to china. how is the white house trying to navigate this? >> reporter: this is incredibly complicated. you're absolutely right. during his remarks on the jobs numbers, he said it would only take questions about the economy. so we shouted a number of questions about him about this chinese balloon or suspected chinese balloon. he did not answer any of them. now, this morning a national security council official telling me the president has been briefed yet again on this situation. and as courtney said, they do not believe the balloon currently presents a military threat to the people on the ground. and it does come as secretary of state antony blinken announced he will postpone his trip to china. he was set to be there, to be

the most senior administration official to visit the country and first secretary of state to head to china in six years. this is going to be really significant. this was aimed at being really a reset in this relationship because if you take a step back, the relationship between the u.s. and china has been incredibly strained in recent years, think about it, the wake of covid-19, the resulting lockdowns there in china as well as, of course, the ongoing tariff negotiations and other foreign policy flashpoints. president biden, president xi met in person for the first time in november. signaling that the potential fo considered one of the most important and fraught relationships between the two countries. so, this is really a significant moment, lindsey, particularly as you think about the potential geopolitical implications of it. >> victor, how credible is china's claim that this is a civilian airship used for research, with meteorological purposes. >> weather balloon.

weather balloon. >> thank you. save me. >> well, of course, we don't know. i would say it could be both. it could be -- they call it a civilian airship, it could be a weather balloon, and they may stick some intelligence gathering stuff on that weather balloon which makes it a little bit of both. china has a massive intelligence collection campaign against the united states. whether it is through these air balloons or through satellites or through people on the ground or through online abilities. it is a massive effort directed against the u.s. government as well as against the private sector. and they have a massive disinformation campaign as well that's directed on social media and around the world with regard to the united states and like nato, for example, with regard to the war in ukraine. so this is just one piece of a broader intelligence effort and information campaign that china directs against the united states. >> ali, let's talk about the news on capitol hill. moments ago we got an update that staffers for the gang of eight were given a classified

briefing on this balloon. speaker mccarthy wants a briefing for leaders. but republicans are slamming the biden administration over how this is being handled, senator marco rubio leading -- the leading republican on the intelligence committee tweeted earlier saying it was a mistake to not shoot down that chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area. this is not some hot air balloon, it has a large payload of sensors, the size of two city buses and the ability to maneuver independently. how have lawmakers been mobilized by this incident? let's not forget there is talk among house republicans about slashing defense spending. >> reporter: there is some of that talk as part of the debt ceiling negotiations that republicans are also in the midst of at this early point with the biden administration. i think that conversation will happen separately, though. it is a tangent to this current conversation that we have now about national security in light of this balloon being spotted over montana. i know that people like speaker mccarthy have called for a gang

of eight briefing. i think because of the timing of this, it makes more sense that staff were briefed from the gang of eight. simply because yesterday was a flyout day for the senate and the house. it is also likely that by the time they were able to mobilize for this classified briefing that lawmakers had already gotten out of town. so it is entirely possible that after their staff have been briefed, they were then briefed in that fashion and then when they get back to town next week, we expect to see more briefings on this topic. among them not part of the gang of eight, but relevant to this because it is over montana is senator jon tester who said in a statement just this morning that he expects to get a classified briefing on this when he gets back in town next week. senators will be getting more information about this in the coming days as they both watch this situation continue to unfold and then also come back to washington for the briefings they want on this. we already are watching right now, lindsey, pressure points starting among some republicans like marco rubio who have been critical of the decision not to

just shoot this balloon down first place, i imagine we'll hear more of that as the situation unfolds too. >> shooting this balloon down means potential damage to people below. is that cautious posture still the right move at this point? >> i think that the action that the u.s. and the biden administration has taken is not to shoot down the balloon, but then to postpone or cancel blinken's trip, which politically is a much more important message to send. this trip was coming at a time when they were trying to tone down the temperature in the relationship and then the chinese end up doing something like this. it is entirely appropriate for blinken to postpone the trip, but this is, again, a sign of how the relationship, this is coming in the aftermath of austin's visit to the region and announcement of new bases in the philippines, the temperature is going up in the relationship and here we had an opportunity to

bring it down a little bit and then the chinese have this balloon flying in the area that makes it impossible for the secretary of state to go. >> if you're still at the nsc, how would you advise the biden administration moving forward, victor? >> i still they still have to keep their eye on the ball. continue to deal with this question of how the ukraine war is affecting china's designs on taiwan, improve capabilities of all the allies in the region. that's china's threat, that's what we have to focus on. this particular balloon is a problem and it speaks to the broader intelligence gathering campaign against the united states, but we have to keep our eye on the ball with regard to that, and then also find guardrails in the relationship, which is what blinken's trip was about. but we can't do that if the chinese are doing things like this that embarrass the administration. >> all right, courtney kube, kristen welker, ali vitali, victor cha, thank you. the northeast is bracing for

what the national weather service is calling an epic generational arctic outbreak. tens of millions of people expecting life threatening cold. it will feel like negative 15 degrees in buffalo, 30 below in boston and 54 below in maine. emily aquetta is live in boston. also joining me is nbc meteorologist bill karins with a closer look at what's ahead. emily, how are they preparing for this huge temperature drop? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. as you mentioned, it is cold enough here to cancel classes in several school districts in massachusetts, also in buffalo, new york, we're watching temperatures rapidly plunge. we started reporting this morning around 7:00 a.m., we saw the temperature about 23 degrees. well it has dropped at least nine degrees since then, we're well into the teens and it is only going to get worse. on top of the cold temperatures

we're seeing whipping winds expected to reach up to 50 miles an hour in parts of new york and new england. we're seeing cities including here in boston take steps to try to offer some places of refuge. a lot of warming centers opening up across the region. also taking steps to make sure that buses and the trains can remain operational, storing those in tunnels overnight. chicago will feel like minus 20 today. tomorrow in boston it is going to feel like 30 below. and as you mentioned, just that draw jaw dropping minus 60 windchill in northern maine expected. that's why the national weather service is calling this an epic generational arctic outbreak. and as we're seeing these frigid temperatures move in here, the south is still trying to thaw out from that week long ice storm that claimed eight lives in the south central region and left a tangled mess of trees and power lines. even days later, hundreds of thousands of people in the south central region are without

power. austin energy telling its customers last night that they can't say when they expect power to be restored. now, back here in boston, as we are preparing and bracing for what could be that bone chilling minus 30 windchill, to put that in perspective, it is quite mild compared to nearby new hampshire. mount washington there, forecasted to see minus 100 windchill and 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts on top of that. lindsey? >> oh my gosh. all right, thank you so much to you and your crew. go get warm. bill, who is going to get the worst of it? how long is it going to last? and how does one say meteorological? >> meteorological, meteorological, many people think we study meteors, the name gets a little confusing. let's get into it. when the sun is out, it is tv, you can't tell if it is cold or hot. but when the sun is out, it feels that much better. but when the sun sets this evening in areas of northern new england, that's when it gets really ugly and will feel bitterly cold. we dropped the windchill

warnings in northern portions of wisconsin and minnesota. now the windchill warnings are from syracuse to burlington, all of maine, new hampshire, vermont, massachusetts, rhode island too. does not include the new york city area. so the frigid blast, right now negative 10 in chicago. marquette, negative 22. minneapolis, you still feel like negative 20. but the wind is dying down. so things are beginning to slowly improve. now look where all the cold air is heading. blowing through southern quebec to vermont. negative 31 is the windchill in burlington. negative 31 in caribou. caribou has a chance to get to negative 50 to negative 60 at peak of this early tomorrow morning. so here are the numbers that we're projecting for tomorrow morning. this will be the coldest of it, right before sunrise. and that's the negative 40 in burlington, negative 54 in millinocket. where the end of the appalachian trail is they're expecting windchill of negative 90. no one lives there. and hopefully no one is hiking. but that's how ridiculous of a

number it will be in maine. we do warm it up quickly. that's the thing about the arctic blast. it is not here to stay. if you stay in your house for the next 18 hour and come out saturday afternoon it done, it is gone. boston you're going to be in the 40s sunday through next week. so this is a short-lived arctic blast. it is going to be harsh tonight and tomorrow morning in northern new england. and tomorrow afternoon and evening, back to mild winter. >> staying inside in the next 18 hours sounds really nice. bill, thank you. the brand-new job numbers out this morning, more than half a million new job s added in january. does that mean we'll avoid a recession? we'll break that down. this morning in michigan, a former police officer is trying to get second degree murder charges thrown out for the shooting of patrick loyola during a traffic stop last spring. and a new warning from ukraine that hundreds of thousands of russian troops are being readied for a major new offensive. we're live from kyiv on the preparations the ukrainians are

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smashing expectations. this morning's jobs report shows the economy added a stunning 517,000 jobs in january. nearly 300,000 more than what economists were predicting. the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.4%, that is a 53-year low. president biden delivered remarks in the last hour on those positive numbers, touting all the jobs added under his administration. >> as my dad used to say, job is about a lot more than your paycheck, it is about your dignity and 12 million more americans get up every morning knowing they can provide for their families with the dignity and sense of self-worth that had been missing. >> it comes despite the massive layoffs hitting the tech sector. nearly 87,000 jobs since the start of 2023 according to the job cut tracker layoffs fyi. but it is drawing an interesting reaction on wall street. right now the dow is -- it looks

a little flat, i believe that's what cnbc's morgan brennan would tell me. she's joining me now. also the host of public radio's full disclosure, robert farzad. tell me why the numbers were so far off estimates. >> these numbers were very far off estimates and the word i would use is stunning. this was a stunning strong -- much more stronger than expected report and it comes at a time of the year where seasonally you tend to see labor reports that are a little weaker. the dow just turning positive in the last few moments, up 50 points now. the s&p and the nasdaq also moving toward the flat line. 517,000 jobs, just to put that in perspective, wall street economists were expecting 188,000 jobs added. you also saw average hourly earnings increase on a year over year basis up 4.4%. so wages continue to be resilient. in terms of the gains, it was a broad range of sectors led by leisure and hospitality. and professional business services, healthcare, government

employment tick up as well here too. there have been some whisper numbers you could seeing some stronger than 188,000, but nobody came close to half a million jobs added and it really speaks to the fact that there is still a lot of pent-up demand out there despite the churn we're seeing with big tech companies for workers, even as the economy is showing some signs of cooling. >> big picture, what is on the big picture implications here? are investors a little spooked because of these reports continuing to be so positive and counterintuitively it may mean there is no end in sight to rate hikes? >> the thesis that is now playing out right now and sort of the key question for markets and for investors, we just had the federal reserve meeting earlier this week raising rates by a quarter of a percentage point saying they're going to keep raising rates and they're going to keep rates at the higher levels we have seen for the past year for much longer to continue to tamp down on what has been such high inflation.

the focus by the fed has been the labor market increasingly because if the services side which is things like wages, the services side of the economy, where the expectation is inflation could be stickier and harder to sort of get under wraps, so the market actually started this morning lower as we did see the stronger than expected number, but we're seeing it move back towards the flat line, back towards positive territory. there is really no holes to be poked in this report, incredibly strong, incredibly robust. i think the market bulls out there are -- would argue this just propels this idea of a quote, unquote soft landing for the economy. >> okay, so help us figure out what this signals to the fed and their fight against inflation. >> i think at the very least they keep hiking by quarter points, you know, 25 basis points, whatever we call them in the parlance here. i think up until about sunrise this morning there were a handful of traders still fantasizing about rate cuts maybe as soon as thanksgiving or christmas. and i just think that's off the

table right now. and this isn't so much science. is it just enough to leave rates where they are right now and not hike anymore? i think this gives ammo and credit to more rate hikes. so the problem with that is you risk overshooting. you at that point, the economy is trying to telegraph some element of perfection, inflation and wages are headed downwards in terms of pressure. unemployment, you think in the low not seen since 1969, but i think jerome powell would gladly trade marginally higher on unemployment for lower inflation and there is really not that much evidence of that yet. >> morgan, alphabet, amazon, apple, they release earnings reports this week. what do the numbers look like, especially given the number of layoffs in the industry? >> yeah. so, this is where the cross currents come into play. this is why you are hearing so much talk of quote, unquote uncertainty where the economy, not just here in the u.s., but globally, the macro economic environment is concerned because

apple, alphabet, amazon, all putting up relatively at least compared to their own histories weak reports and citing and showing some signs that you're seeing some weakness where the consumer is concerned, particularly where amazon is concerned. but also that companies, that businesses are starting to tighten their belts in terms of their future investments as well. and all three of these companies talking about an uncertain macro economic environment. also, the covid lockdowns in china that we saw last year, that had an impact particularly where apple was concerned and the supply chain, the fact that there are many people out there that couldn't get new versions of eye phones, for example, in time for christmas. so that played a role too. also the fact we had some currency head winds, which say result of what has been going on at the fed, the tightening cycle that we have been seeing and how that has been playing ought across the fx market as well. >> so an uncertain economic environment, is the tech industry seeing or experiencing something that other industries

aren't? >> no. i think it is a kind of, you know, they have an extraordinary level of options. profit margins are so huge and i think they're publicly traded and they saw a cloud cover them to have layoffs, the likes we haven't seen since 2002. so they did that to preserve and boost margins and get more leverage for the stock price and earnings reports. i don't think it jives in any way with the 517,000 jobs we saw created in this report. i mean, you could have a self-fulfilling recession where everybody on their therapist chair is saying, oh, my god, the economy is awful. it doesn't gibe with the numbers we're getting out of the bureau of labor statistics. >> cloud cover. all right, thank you. this morning, an official warning to ticketing giant ticketmaster. don't let it happen again. tickets for beyonce's first tour since 2018 go on sale next week. of course you remember the chaos of taylor swift's ticket sales in november. ticketmaster blames cyberattacks and bots, fans are worried that

this will happen for them too. some pushed to break up the company over antitrust concerns, the official account for the judiciary democrats tweeted yesterday, we're watching, ticketmaster. i guess in three days we'll see if that message got through. still to come, the former police officer accused of second degree murder for fatally shooting patrick lyoya is michigan is back in court this morning. will jurors in the alex murdaugh trial hear testimony about the final crimes prosecutors say he was trying to cover up? >> he admitted to you he had been stealing client money? >> yes. been salteing client money >> yes i just switched to verizon business unlimited. it's just right for my little business. unlimited premium data. unlimited hotspot data. (woman 2) you know it's from the most reliable 5g network in america? (vo) when it comes to your business, not all bars are created equal. so switch to verizon business unlimited today.

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case. activists gathered yesterday to call for the release of all body camera footage as well as the prosecution of the officer who filed the deadly shots and a total ban on no knock warrants in minnesota. in michigan this morning, we just got a major update on another deadly police shooting that is back in the headlines. a hearing just wrapped up in grand rapids in the case of patrick lyoya shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop last april. the judge in the case just announced minutes ago that the former officer will stand trial for that shooting. he is charged with second degree murder and faces life in prison. nbc's jesse kirsch has been monitoring that hearing. we heard from his attorney. what did he say? >> reporter: yes, so, lindsey, the defense was trying to have this charge thrown out and as you just mentioned, according to our local affiliate on the ground, the judge said this case will move forward to trial, but the argument from the defense amongst the arguments that it is making is trying to raise the question of whether or not police officers and typical

citizens are held to the same standard in terms of when they can use this kind of deadly force. here is part of what the defense team said after the hearing. >> i don't know how anybody can look at that video and say he wasn't either trying to escape during the entire time, or using force to try to get away. you can argue whether or not he was trying to hurt the officer, it can't be the only time an officer can use his firearm is when he's about to be hurt. maybe that could be the law. but that's not the common law. >> reporter: the defense team says bluntly that it believes that the former officer was doing his job. this all unfolded during a traffic stop in april in grand rapids, michigan. officer pulling lyoya over saying that he had a car that did not match the license plate. there is a brief moment where lyoya flees and the officer gives chase, all of this

captured on camera for multiple angles including body camera footage and security footage nearby as well as from cell phone footage. a conflict ensues. you hear the officer telling lyoya to let go of his taser. the defense claims that he had exclusive control, they believe exclusive control, how they phrase it, of the taser and the officer fires a single shot. lyoya died from a gunshot wound, which was to the head. his family has filed a federal lawsuit in this case as well. and you can see the images, there are many of them from the scene, it sparked protests in the community as well and at this point we know this case is proceeding to trial. lindsey? >> jesse kirsch, thank you. on capitol hill, between those cases and most recently the death of tyre nichols there is renewed focus on police reform. just yesterday president biden hosted members of the congressional black caucus at the white house to talk about a way forward. the caucus requested a meeting in the wake of nichols' death and here is part of what president biden said.

>> we got to stay at it as long as it takes. how can we make some progress on police reform and consequence and the violence in our communitys? >> after the meeting, the chair of the congressional black caucus told reporters they have an agreement on how to work forward on police reform, both from a legislative stand point and as well as executive and community-based solutions. and this morning a new "washington post" abc news poll is revealing a stark drop in confidence in police in the wake of nichols' death. 60% of americans say they are not confident police have adequate training to avoid using excessive force. right now, in south carolina, the second week of the double murder trial of disbarred lawyer alex murdaugh is coming to a close. the court heard more testimony without the jury present as the judge has yet to decide whether to admit evidence of murdaugh's alleged financial crimes. catie beck is following the latest. what do we hear this morning?

>> reporter: well, we expect the jury to be brought in sometime after 11:30 as you stated. they have not been in the courtroom all morning long and they were not in the courtroom for most of yesterday. the attorneys arguing before the judge just how much evidence if any will get into this trial, having to do with the financial alleged financial crimes of alex murdaugh. now, prosecutors are saying this evidence is critical to establishing their motive. that their entire theory rests on the fact that murdaugh was trying to disguise, distract, get sympathy by avoiding the financial exposures, that's what caused him to kill his wife and son. but the defense says a lot of these allegations are right now only charges. he hasn't been convicted. and so therefore this is prejudicing the jury to hear this information and swaying them unfairly. on the stand we have heard from several people that worked in alex's law firm and banks he did business with, talking about the

procedures, talking about how this fraud was done, allegedly, and the judge is hearing all of that and taking into account how much he feels the jury should hear. here is one exchange from the stand with someone at a bank alex did business with a little while ago. >> it would come out that alex murdaugh had been diverting fees from his law firm, if he had been forced to resign from his law firm, if it had come out that he had been misappropriating money from his clients, would the bank have continued to pay charges coming in on that account? >> no, sir. >> no? >> no, sir. >> reporter: now, the judge has indicated that he intends to let some portion of this information into the trial. how much will be really, really impactful to the prosecution's case. as i said, their motive rests firmly in these financial documents in the evidence of

this impending perfect storm that was crashing in on alex murdaugh at the time he committed these murders. the judge hoped yesterday the sides would reach some kind of agreement on the boundary, but said if you don't, by tomorrow, i'm going to decide it for you. we're waiting to hear exactly what those boundaries will be. lindsey? >> catie beck, thank you. still to come, a shocking death in new jersey. police say a 30-year-old local councilwoman was shot and killed in her car outside her home. what we know about the investigation. and has mystery in dallas been solved? what police say about a suspect arrested in the disappearance of two monkeys from the local zoo. f two monk geys from the local zoo . (woman) it's a perfect fit for my small business. (vo) verizon has business internet solutions nationwide. (man) for our not-so-small business too. (vo) get internet that keeps your business ready for anything. from verizon. think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill.

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new jersey's governor saying he's stunned. ron allen is following this case. governor murphy says the state police will have their support. what is the latest? >> it is a high profile investigation and police and prosecutors right now are not saying whether they have a suspect or a motive. there is a lot of speculation in the neighborhood that she may have been targeted for some reason. and so far here's what we know about what happened. >> around 7:30 p.m., police responding to a 911 call about shots fired in a new jersey suburb. >> check avenue for a subject of a shooting. >> investigators say they found eunice dwumfour, a 30-year-old borough councilwoman, in her car, with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced her dead at the scene. >> got one victim that we know of. >> reporter: horrified residents described hearing a barrage of gunfire. >> i heard just a volley of gunshots and i immediately got away from my window. i knew that was abnormal. >> reporter: new jersey's governor says he cannot recall the last time a gunman killed an elected official in the state. >> this is shocking, shocking

development. so, please keep her memory and her family and the community in sayreville in your prayers. >> reporter: our new york station reporting that neighbors say they saw a man standing near the car, who then fled the scene, toward a wooded area and highway near the apartment complex where dwumfour lived and died. while those knew the single mother with a preteen daughter and praised her commitment to public service, elected as a republican in 2021 and her devotion to her church. >> eunice struck me as a person who loved the challenge and loved to serve. and loved to serve through her church and loved to serve the community. >> governor murphy also said in an interview last night that there does not appear to be a political motive or anything political behind any of this, which is reassuring to the community down there. the public is asked to provide any information they have that might help as the investigation, the homicide investigation continues. >> she was considered a rising

star. >> very much so. >> ron allen, thank you. a mystery at the dallas zoo appears a little closer to being solved. police in dallas say they arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with the disappearance of two monkeys from the zoo earlier this week. the monkeys were reported stolen on monday. they were found unhurt the next day in an empty house nearby. police say tips from the public helped them track the suspect too. this is true, to the dallas aquarium. no word on what exactly he was doing at the aquarium at the time of his arrest. new warnings from ukraine about a major new russian offensive as we get closer to the one-year mark of the war. i'm going to talk to a former adviser to president zelenskyy about that next. ormer adviser to president zelenskyy about that next. ♪ ♪ [ cat purrs ] [ phone vibrates ] introducing astepro allergy. steroid-free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. now with astepro fast allergy relief, [ spray, spray ] you can astepro and go. (woman 1) i just switched to verizon business unlimited.

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egor novakov. what do we know about the warnings of a new russian offensive? >> reporter: they are coming loud and clear from here in kyiv. president zelenskyy held an unusual meeting last night with the senior leadership of his military. he said it was a particularly important conversation given the very widespread now expectation that russian forces are regrouping and that they are preparing to launch this new offensive potentially any day. one of zelenskyy's strengths over the course of this war, your next guest may speak more to this, but he has avoided the temptation to micromanage the war. the left military tactics to generals. he has focused on the side of it that play to his strengths. one of them, rallying this country, speaking to the ukrainian people, trying to keep morale up.

also, being ukraine's chief spokesman, the one making the case to the international community that ukraine desperately needs those advanced nato weapons as it faces up against this renewed russian offensive. that's what we have been seeing him do today. he is meeting with leaders of the european union. the europeans said they will double the number of troops that -- number of ukrainian troops they will train over the coming months. ukraine is waiting for those german leopard 2 tanks to arrive. they are hoping, hoping, hoping that they can reach the battlefield in eastern ukraine in time to play a role in heading off this russian offensive. we know those american abrams tanks are not going to be here for several months, potentially up to a year. zelenskyy has been focusing on that diplomatic side of things. but he has been sounding the alarm here to the ukrainian people and to western capitals that this russian offensive is coming and it's coming soon.

>> egor, i will let you respond. 500,000 troops and as raf mentioned the tanks not getting there maybe soon enough as ukrainians would view it. >> i think the next couple of months, up to half a year, will determine what happens as a result of this war and what happens to our country. russia is amassing lots of troops. there's also a certain law of diminishing returns in terms of quality of those troops. russia doesn't have enough fire power, doesn't have enough troops to go for a third or fourth attempt, at least properly so. i think this is it and we are preparing for it. >> "the new york times" reporting the number of russian troops killed and wounded is approaching 200,000. to your point that you mentioned, russian military sent poorly trained recruits in.

hundreds of troops have been killed or injured a day. what does it say about how the war is going for russia? >> it's not going well for them if we judge them by our standards. by their standards, they are buying time to prepare the next major offensive by basically spamming us with cannon fodder. that's what it was. they were using convicts, poorly trained, poorly armed and coming in waves. they bought themselves time. now they're going to go for a second try. that's our assessment. >> "the new york times" highlighted some new details from this new wave of anti-corruption bursts in ukraine. bundles of cash found in an official's sofa. attacks inspector accused of fraud and issuing refunds. the senior officials from a consumer protection agency and a

business tycoon. you have worked with president zelenskyy. they characterize this as his willingness to tackle corruption. what are your thoughts on how he is handling this and how the west is viewing it 1234? >> this is his second defenive against corruption. the first happened in 2019. when he just became president, he basically decided that he is going to ridded system of all the corrupt parts of it. unfortunately, both inside ukraine he faced stiff resistance and also from the previous white house administration. they were distracting him from that fight. this is the second war ukraine is fighting. i would say this war is as important. president zelenskyy is not corrupt. i worked with him for years. >> i have to be quick with you on this. what do you want americans and european allies to know about the war right now? >> we need weapons quickly.

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," tony blinken at the last minute postponing tonight's critical trip to china. the first by a u.s. secretary in six years if he had gone in response to china's sending a spy balloon to hover over the u.s., increasing tensions between the two world powers. we expect a pentagon briefing momentarily. we have former cia director john brennan and republican house china committee chair mike gallagher as the speaker demands president biden take strong action for what mccarthy is calling china's brazen disregard for u.s. sovereignty. a massive january jobs report, a big boost for the white house. a sign the fed will not stop raising interest rates any time soon.