a veteran former commercial pilot. he knew how to fly. was he incapacitated by a medical emergency or depressurization event in which they lose oxygen inside the plane? at the moment that would be the leading theory, andrea. >> tom costello, thanks for checking in with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook and twitter. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. donald trump's lawyers left doj headquarters just a short time ago. the anticipation building as the nation waits for word from special counsel jack smith and the culmination of the classified documents investigation. what this week's return of the d.c. grand jury tells us about the timeline and the potential for charges against donald

trump. just as trump's legal issues grow more precarious, his political challenges are also growing more complicated. his republican opponents testing new ways to take him down, but do they risk focusing too much on the former president? we'll explain the trump trap coming up. take a look at this. u.s. and chinese warships coming heartstoppingly close to coming close to the coast of taiwan. both sides warning a military confrontation would be a, quote, disaster for the world. we're on the verge of a decision that could drag the country into uncharted territory as new clues indicate we could soon find out if special counsel jack smith is going to do something that's never been done before, charge a sitting or former president with a federal crime. nbc news learned that the grand jury investigating donald trump's handling of classified documents will be back in session this week after they've been on hiatus. in fact, nbc news has confirmed

that some members of trump's legal team were at justice department headquarters earlier today. here they are leaving about one hour ago. now, it's not clear what happened behind closed doors, but we know the evidence has been building. even within the last few weeks when they weren't in session, that includes a report that two trump employees moved boxes and documents the day before fbi agents came looking for them. and news just last week that trump was caught on tape admitting he took classified documents relating to iran. i want to bring in nbc's ken dilanian, carol lamb, a former federal prosecutors and mechanics analyst, and david jolly, a former republican congressman from florida and an msnbc political analyst. good to have you all here. ken, what do we know about what happened today, what's planned for this week? and when you look at those things together, does it mean we're any closer to getting a decision? >> reporter: good afternoon, chris. it sure feels that way.

as you said, we don't have the reporting. we don't know what went on inside that meeting today. i am told that attorney general merrick garland and deputy attorney general lisa monaco were not part of it. you see james truss see and john rowley, and then lindsey halligan, another trump lawyer, it's very common at the end of an investigation or as an investigation is reaching a charging decision for defense lawyers to come in and request a meeting with senior officials at the justice department to make the case about why their client shouldn't be indicted. that's what this feels like. again, we haven't confirmed that. as you said, we're reporting on nbc news that the grand jury is expected to meet this week after am weeks' hiatus. one of trump's former lawyers, parlatore said on "meet the press" yesterday that he felt this documents investigation had reached a charging decision. that's what it feels like here at the justice department, that we're seeing the end of this.

whether the grand jury votes this week and votes to indictment donald trump or whether there's some other outcome remains to be seen. as you know, chris, a lot of legal experts have been looking at the evidence that's been made public in this case for a long time and said almost any other defendant faced with this set of evidence would have already been charged. >> carol, as somebody who has done this, what do you imagine happened behind closed doors today at doj? we heard a trio of trump lawyers. what does it tell you about the grand jury coming back this week? >> there's a lot we don't know, chris. it's important to keep that front of mind. one thing i am pretty sure of is there's a lot of activity going on that we just don't see. there's a lot of communications with witnesses' lawyers. there's probably litigation going on that we don't see because this is a grand jury proceeding, and so everything attendant to that is secret. if motions are made to the judge

overseeing the grand jury and there's litigation going on there about what a witness can or should or should not testify to, we or not immediately seeing the results of that litigation. so jack smith's team has not been idle in the past few weeks because they're not in front of the grand jury. the fact that a meeting is taking place is doj is not surprising at all. there are a few reasons one would take place. one is to try to talk the department out of bringing an indictment. but another very important thing is defense attorneys like to have meetings. they like to have meetings with prosecutors because they're hoping to get more information out of them. so we shouldn't discount that fact either. of course, they want to show that they're doing everything possible for their client, and the department of justice wants to show that they're being fair in granting meetings with the

defense counsel. >> ken, let's talk about what happens now. let's assume the grand jury comes back. that's your reporting. what will prosecutors have to prove? >> well, it looks like they're looking at three main areas, three groups of potential charges. one obviously is obstruction of justice. did donald trump lie to the justice department? did he try to obstruct their investigation? did he try to hide these classified documents after there was a grand jury subpoena for them? that's a huge deal, carries a significant prison term. it would be a perversion of the justice system, and the doj and fbi take that very, very seriously. another baseline question is did he take classified information that he wasn't entitled to? lots of people have been charged with that crime. there's generally an aggravating factor like obstruction or some kind of effort to mislead or hide the documents. lastly, did he disseminate, did he show any of this classified information to people who weren't entitled to receive it? that's also a big deal under the

espionage act, carries a ten-year prison sentence. we don't know what the evidence is in this case. there is reporting that trump showed documents to people in his office at mar-a-lago, there's report that he talked about things with people who are not cleared. those are the three groups of charges. they would have to convince a grand jury to achieve an indictment, that probable cause was committed. they're doing that having decided they can win a conviction not only in front of a d.c. jury but they can win on appeal in case there are any appellate issues. >> carol, that evidence, those facts are at the heart of any charging decision that ultimately will be made. there was a former trump attorney on "meet the press" saying you can't ignore the fact that there are atmospherics at play here as well. let me play that for you.

>> you have to review every case based on what are the facts and the law, but also all the other atmospherics, is this something from a discretion point of view, is this something where prosecution makes sense? is it a slam-dunk case where some of these things could be interpreted a few different ways? also, when it comes to a specific issue like this where we're talking about potentially national defense information, is it the type of thing where they want to declassify these things if they haven't already been declassified and put them out publicly? >> how much, carol, do you think atmospherics play in this case? >> atmospherics play a very large role in this. he's right, but the atmospherics can work both ways. it can be that it perhaps is not the wisest thing to bring criminal charges against not only a former president but a presidential candidate. of course, the department of

justice has to take that into consideration. but on the other hand, atmospherics are also important going in the other direction. when the allegations are that highly sensitive or even classified documents have been removed wflly from the government and kept in private possession, is it appropriate not to bring those charges? so the atmospherics run both ways. i think the most interesting thing about the fact that donald trump has been perhaps disclosing the contents of these documents to people without security clearance is not just that it shows that he had those documents and he was aware of those documents being in his possession, but also that he was using them in some fashion. at this point we don't have evidence that he was using them with foreign governments or such, but the fact that he was using them at all is significant because it distinguishes this case from other cases where, for example, in the case of mike

pence, the documents appear to have been taken inadvertently but not used, sitting in boxes. it does make a difference in that sense. maybe that's one of the atmospherics that comes into play here. >> congressman, you've been waiting very patiently, and we've talked a lot on this program, obviously, over the last several weeks about the potential impact on this republican race with voters if, indeed, donald trump finds himself facing a federal indictment. if it happens, could that also potentially open up lanes for others who might not otherwise have jumped in? i'm thinking particularly about someone like glenn youngkin, there have been murmurings that he's reconsidering his decision not to run this year. >> chris, look, the strategy of every republican candidate but for donald trump is that donald trump will somehow wound himself, or the system will finally hold donald trump accountable. so you want to be the republican candidate in waiting. that is certainly baked into ron

desantis' strategy, and all these other republican candidates are measuring themselves against ron desantis, not necessarily against donald trump. it certainly could bring in some other candidates. but i think first and foremost, i'm not sure an indictment, even a federal indictmen roils this republican case. it was something we learned from the bragg indictment. we saw when the president is charged an faces a lot of liberty, in some ways it empowers the trump candidacy. an indictment doesn't hurt donald trump. you will hear him compare his victimhood to joe biden getting away with some conspiracy, even though the facts are appreciably different. one shows an attempt to evade indictment and another does not. the question for republican voters is what about when donald trump is standing trial or possibly losing his liberty which then races the question,

on this case, is it at least worth some type of settlement by drmt himself and is that something. >> david, you'll be back with me shortly. congratulate our friends, don't congratulate our enemies. as the gop race continues to grow, why the talk is all about trump and kim jong-un. we're back in 60 seconds. we're back in 60 seconds (vo) this is sadie. she's on verizon, and she has the new myplan where she gets exactly what she wants

and only pays for what she needs. she picks only the perks she wants and saves on every one! all with an incredible new iphone. get iphone 14 pro on us when you switch. it's your verizon. the republican race for president is shifting into a whole new gear. mike pence today filing the legal paperwork to run. chris christie set to join the fray tomorrow, and one more potential challenger, new hampshire governor chris sununu now ruling out a run. all of this comes as donald trump sets off a whole new controversy, this time with a post in support of north korea's dangerous dictator kim jong-un.

it's not a surprising move, but one that gave an opening to his rivals who gathered for a big early test at the iowa state fairgrounds over the weekend. ron desantis, mike pence and nikki haley all hammered the former president. does it show they're willing to stand up to trump, or are they falling into a trump trap by responding to what he has to say rather than focusing on issues of their own? robert gibbs is former white house press secretary under president obama and msnbc political analyst. david jolly is back with us, and nbc's vaughn hillyard joins me here after a weekend in iowa covering this growing field. okay. never a dull moment when you get all those candidates together this early. tell me about iowa. >> at this cattle call event they were echoing off one another and didn't have to worry about the big man being in the corner of the room to go yell at them or send his fleet of maga supporters to run to the other side and shut them down. there were no shouts of trump in the room, hardly any maga hats.

this was a group very much open and receptive to the other republican candidates. when you're talking about the contrast, none of the three candidates mentioned donald trump by name when it comes to the congratulations kim jong-un social media post, but they did respond. take a listen. >> what did you make of donald trump congratulating kim jong-un. >> let's not forget kim jong-un is a thug and a tie rand and tested ballistic missiles against our allies and threatened us. there's nothing to congratulate him about. >> i was surprised to see that. one, kim jong-un is a murderous dictator. we need to be getting out of that and rejecting the w.h.o. lockdown treaty and not congratulating. >> whether my former running mate or anyone else, no one should be praising the dictator in north korea or praising the

leader of russia. >> after years of steadfast loyalties, donald trump, his message, essentially anything he said, over the last month republican candidates running against him have shown a willingness to know set contrast with him. the big question i had while we were standing there on the iowa state fairgrounds was, if donald trump were to have come to des moines this weekend and had a rally, let's say, at the fairgrounds as well right next door to the barn where this event was held, would he have pulled in a greater part of the republican electorate? i think that's what all these candidates are grappling with. when you look at the poll numbers, you continue to see him dominate despite them trying to contrast themselves. but to what extent can they contrast themselves? >> david, how do trump's rivals avoid being forced into the trap, responding to what trump says, trying to stay on message, draw a contrast but not really? what do they do? >> trump gave them a softball down the middle with the north

korea praise. the trickier question is russia and china. i'll give credit to mike pence for being the adult in the room, comparing the leader of north korea and the leader of russia. where you see republicans take a very different approach is when it comes to vladimir puti. calling into account kim jong-un is an easy one. putin you continue to see republicans continue to misstep but for mike pence. i would say the challenge for every republican candidate but donald trump comes down to a simple premise, the loyalty of trump voters. that's about 60% of the party. all the others have found their candidate. none of the other candidates have been able to take a trump-loyal voter away from donald trump. so at some point they've got to go right at him. there's no playbook for that being successful in republican politics. >> robert, is the growing infighting among republicans some dream scenario for biden and the democrats?

or even a more pointed question on the other side is how do incumbents, obviously in this case joe biden, take advantage of the fact that they're nopt running against anybody? does he just let them battle it out and wound each other? how do you play that? >> well, i have no doubt that the campaign -- the biden campaign is watching closely what everybody says. to some degree, if they had taken a pass on criticizing donald trump in this, that would be something that you would want to seize on. i think the campaign is probably watching very closely to see what sort of contrast can be drawn between biden and the republican field to set up that comparison for later in a general election regardless of who the nominee is. i think for the republicans themselves, they have to draw a contrast. i think one of the things, and it relates to the previous segment, where you talked about

indictments, we watched candidate after candidate running against donald trump when he was indicted in new york, basically come up with excuses why that was a bad thing. at some point in an election, you're going to have to draw a contrast or you're going to lose the election. >> in that case, is the contrast you draw, he's under indictment and i'm not? obviously -- david said this in the last segment -- that hasn't resonated. in fact, if the weekend is any indication as vaughn reported, republicans are still loathed to address trump by name. >> look, i agree that not everything -- i agree with david, what happened post the new york indictment was people rallied around him. my question is what happens if he gets two indictments at the justice department and another indictment in georgia? at some point more than two points create a line in which republican candidates have to say this just isn't our

strongest candidate to take on joe biden, somebody who is under multiple indictments. again, you're going to have to watch these candidates try to figure out that messaging as they go along, and certainly the white house will be watching to draw that contrasting message as well. >> david, we're very early in the process. a lot can change in the next few months. henry olson points out in an op-ed in "the washington post" trump shows that the summer can be decisive in the primaries. he started the summer in 2015 upside down and landed right side up. if someone can replicate that feat, the race will look very different on labor day than it does today. every time we say something like that, we put a big asterisk on that, and that is that donald trump is always a different category here. what do you think? is there somebody who can turn this around over the course of the summer? >> yeah, ron desantis.

all of our analysis is linear. where we stand today, we see all the loyal trump voters staying with trump. is there a movement of rational voters that begin to see that donald trump just can't win this. if i was any candidate in this race, i would want to be in ron desantis' position. he's built a juggernaut of a campaign, as divisive as it is, the culture war politics in republican politics works. the problem is culture wars have victims. i think to robert's point, that contrast in a general election for whomever emerges as the republican nominee is going to shoe joe biden in step with mainstream america and the republican nominee out of step. that doesn't mean if it's donald trump, ron desantis or anyone else in the republican field. >> david and vaughn, thank you so much. robert you'll be back later. it was the sound that rattled washington.

♪ ♪ >> setting off a sonic boom while scrambling to respond to a private plane with an unresponsive pilot. what we're learning about those tense moments in the sky. plus, acts of aggression from china, from a warship barreling into the path of a destroyer to a chinese fighter jet buzzing a u.s. military plane, where do things go from sneer you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. s jansinreg ports" only on msnbc this is sadie. she's on verizon, and she has the new myplan where she gets exactly what she wants and only pays for what she needs. she picks only the perks she wants and saves on every one! all with an incredible new iphone. get iphone 14 pro on us when you switch. it's your verizon. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis keeps flaring, put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable, i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. and left bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc got in my way, i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq.

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investigators from the national transportation safety board are beginning their work in rural virginia today after washington, d.c. was rattled by a sonic boom on sunday shaking buildings and startling people across northern virginia and maryland. the loud noise was caused by the f-16 fighter jets racing from joint base andrews to intercept a private plane that had drifted off course, flying right over the capital before crashing near the george washington national forest. pilots determined that the plane was no threat. in fact, the pilot was incapacitated. the f-16 pilots had been authorized to fly at supersonic speed. that's what caused the boom and, in turn, produced a lot of social media posts. four people were aboard that private plane, no survivors have been found. now to breaking news. the state department revealing just moments ago that u.s.

diplomats had candid and productive discussions in beijing today with china, a resumption of bilateral talks that had all but broken down recently. it comes in the wake of a new video released by the pentagon "today" showing the dangerously chosen counter between a chinese warship and a u.s. destroyer in the taiwan strait on saturday. you can see it. the chinese ship cutting right in front of the american vessel, coming within 150 yards, so close the u.s. boat had to slow down to avoid a collision. the u.s. says that violates the rules of safe passage in international waters. there's that picture we were looking for. it is the latest in a series of close calls between the two countries' militaries raising concerns of a potential accident that could further escalate tensions. nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube is following the story. courtney, this incident happened while defense secretary lloyd austin and his chinese counterpart were in singapore for an annual defense conference. what are we hearing from the two

sides about why this happened and what it might mean going forward? >> reporter: not surprisingly, chris, both sides are blaming the otherment from the u.s. side, they're saying in the case of the destroyer it was sailing through the taiwan strait, international waters, they were there as part of a joint exercise with a canadian military vessel. the chinese, on the other hand, saying the u.s. exercising in that area is provacative and potentially escalatory. same thing with this aircraft incident that we saw just several days ago over the south china sea. in that case a chinese military jet flew directly in front of a u.s. rc-135 over the south china sea, flying so close and directly in front of its path that the u.s. aircraft had to fly through the dush lens, the wake of that chinese jet. in both cases the u.s. saying they had every right to be there, international airspace,

international waterways, but the chinese disagreeing. saying, in fact, they should not be there and it's provacative. one of the reasons we should point out to our viewers, that the military finds these so potentially dangerous and aggressive, these actions, is not just the proximity between the aircraft or between the ships, but the fact that the chinese vessel and aircraft went directly in the path of the u.s. military ship and the u.s. military aircraft. take the case of this u.s. destroyer. it doesn't stop quickly and it doesn't turn very quickly or very easily. it's an enormous ship when another vessel goes right in front of its path, it really increases the potential for a dangerous collision. that's why it's considered aggressive and dangerous. you mentioned the defense conference that both the chinese defense minister and secretary of defense lloyd austin attended several days ago in singapore. both men spoke about these kinds of interactions, the chinese saying the u.s. should cease

these exercises and these joint military engagements in the area. the u.s. saying they would continue them, and both sides needed to deescalate the situation. of course, it comes, as you said at the beginning, when the pentagon asked the chinese defense minister only weeks ago to sit down and meet with secretary austin at this conference. the chinese declined that. the real concern here according to defense officials, if the two sides are not talking and we continue to see these sorts of close calls at sea, in the air between the militaries, the chance for a real miscalculation or potential collision really becomes even more dangerous without the two sides talking to one another, chris. >> courtney kube, thank you for that. with china warning things could escalate further, what steps should the u.s. take? we'll discuss that with a former top national security adviser to president obama, ben rhodes, in our next hour. biden's age-old problem.

new behind the scenes reporting from the white house about the day-to-day and what it could mean about his future and commander-in-chief. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. watching reports" only on msnbc me, i knew. maybe you should host a commercial then. sure, okay. subway series just keeps getting better. (vo) this is sadie. she's on verizon, and she has the new myplan where she gets exactly what she wants subway series and only pays for what she needs. she picks only the perks she wants and saves on every one! all with an incredible new iphone. get iphone 14 pro on us when you switch. it's your verizon.

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maisha: shared leadership has to do with... michael: acknowledging parents as equal partners. narrator: california's community schools. grant: community schools lift the voices of folks that have traditionally not been heard whether they're parents, students, community groups. john: it's shared decision-making with parents. they're saying that these are the priorities that they want to see for their kids. wendy: it allows us to create the school that our students deserve. rafael: community schools are innovative, and they're working. narrator: california's community schools: reimagining public education. how old is too old to be president of the united states? that question is at the center of a complicated reality for president biden, america's oldest president at 80 and, if

re-elected, 86ality the end of his second term. as peter baker writes, among party donors it was all anyone was talking about. at a small dinner earlier this year, senate stores and governors, all in president biden's generation, all agreed he was too old to run again. the worry over biden's stiff gate and thinning voice is, posed with his accomplishments. the weekend signing of the agreement he brokered to avoid national default. other recent good news on lower border crossings and a resilient economy. joining me now, "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker and former white house press secretary under president obama robert gibbs. peter, how does the white house and frankly the campaign plan to approach this complicated issue of the president's age? >> well, they can't deny, obviously, that he's 80. what they'd like to do is make the point he can still do the

job. he can still accomplish what other presidents would have a hard time doing in today's modern polarized era. they also want to show him in a vigorous way. what you saw on the same day the senate voted on that deal he tripped and fell over a sandbag at the air force academy. a very unpleasant optic. anybody can trip and fall no matter your age. it was obviously the kind of image they didn't want to have for an 80-year-old president. they remind us that he exercises five times a week, bicycles out in the shore in delaware. he's right and so forth. but it's a real concern. they've heard many democrats express this to them and not to mention the images they're trying to avoid like this. >> robert, peter reports about how the white house works not to tax him. they schedule most of his public appearances between noon and 4:00 p.m., they try to protect

his weekends. on one hand it optimizes his energy, his focus when he has to make a public appearance. on the other, arguably, it can be interpreted as he needs help or isn't up to the job. what's a white house to do? >> look, i think much of what peter said here, and clearly his dog disagrees with this whole line of questioning, but i think what he's talking about is showing the president in a vague rouse way, showing things like last week that happened, a debt ceiling agreement that averts a catastrophe -- catastrophe economically. all of those things are tremendously important, showing him doing an oval office address, showing him with speaker mccarthy as part of this process. i think all of those images are important. look, i think protecting a president's weekends and making sure they have enough rest is smart whether you're 80 or 50. it's a taxing job.

it takes a lot of energy. first of all, the president is always on. there's no such thing as a president being off. if a president wants to play golf or go running or chop wood or ride a horse or ride a bike, i think those are things that quite frankly the american people should be thankful for. they want their presidents to be rested and energetic when they have to do the job. >> when you say ride a horse, it brings to mind ronald reagan. in that tradition, president biden has taken to joking about his age recently. let's take a listen. >> been around for 136 years. i know i look like it. i haven't. >> you guys were founded 122 years ago. that's not when i gotten doorsed. >> after all, i believe in the first amendment not just because my good friend, jimmy madison, wrote it. >> he's played it well, but if you look at the polls, it doesn't seem to be working, and

reagan was i think almost a decade younger. all of it -- again, you mentioned the fall. it reenforces something, a narrative, even though it could happen to any of us, it certainly has happened to me. is it too late to reverse that narrative? robert. >> oh, sorry. for me. i didn't know if you were talking to peter. look, his age is what it is. as i said earlier, he's not going to get any younger. if he could do that, he'd win in a landslide. i think again each and every day the white house is going to have to show an energy and a vigor to the president that's capable of doing the job. i do think -- i see this when i watch democratic focus groups. there's concern, but immediately once you get into when he has to face a republican everybody is on board. i think they're going to just have to continue to show him capable and able and successful in doing that job. i really don't think there's a

whole lot else to it. you'll see humor play into it much as reagan did in the famous debate with walter mondale. i think again it is making sure people see that he has the energy and the success that is showing from that energy as being president. >> the frustration i hear from a lot of democrats, peter, is that former president trump is only four years younger than president biden, and they argue, from the democratic side, he didn't do much of anything in terms of the way that some presidents have approached his office, the deep dives into policy, the number of meetings they would have, those kinds of things. but it still has not had an impact. the latest poll, 73% say biden is too old to be in office. just 51% said the same of trump. what do you make of that? >> it's a good question. i think trump makes up for whatever age issues he has had

with volume because he comes out on the stage and he's so bellicose and so loud, comes across with energy, it kind of masks whatever decline there might be as a result of age. if you really study what he says, and some people have done this, they found some pretty significant cognitive changes over the years. his vocabulary has shrunk, ability to put together coherent sentences is not what it used to be. there are lots of times while he was in office he was questioned by his own people about his mental ak cuity. john kelly, his second white house chief of staff, bought a book about president trump's presumed psychological problems in order to try to understand him. while people may not associate it with able, i think there are have been issues, questions raised about president trump's ability to do the job that could be linked with age. i think you'll see that come up again in the next campaign. >> peter baker, robert gibbs,

thank you. appreciate it. still ahead, reports of heavy fighting across ukraine. is this the beginning of a dramatic shift. the mystery in oregon. six women found dead in the last six months. could there be a serial killer on the loose? killer on the loose exactly what she ws and only pays for what she needs. she picks only the perks she wants and saves on every one! all with an incredible new iphone. get iphone 14 pro on us when you switch. it's your verizon. [stomach growling] it's nothing... sounds like something. ♪when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion♪ ♪upset stomach, diarrhea♪ pepto bismol coats and soothes for fast relief when you need it most.

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large-scale offensive in the donetsk region adding that ukraine lost more than 200 troops. the russian defense ministry released this video, not independent vard fied by nbc news, purporting to show action against ukrainian tanks. a ukrainian military official who spoke with nbc vehemently denied the start of an offensive and the loss of any troops but warned that a ukrainian attack is, in fact,ism meant and russia, quote, will be crushed r. nbc's molly hunter is live for us in kharkiv. what more do we know about these allegations rush is making and the response from ukraine. >> reporter: that's right, chris. the russian ministry of defense statement came out overnight and quickly spread around. we asked ukrainian officials. no one would comment directly on that statement until this afternoon, you read one of the statements. we got a statement from the

deputy defense minister in the last two hours, and this is her statement, what is happening now? we're continuing the defense we started on february 24th, 2022, a defensive operation includes everything including counteroffensive actions. very clearly the russian ministry of defense statement talks about an offensive. you will never hear ukrainian officials talking about an offensive. they're talking clearly about a count offensive, the stated goal to retake territory russia currently occupies. ukrainian officials have long said they will not announce or confirm a start date for this counteroffensive. over the weekend president zelenskyy got people talking and heightened the speculation that we were on the eve of some major count offensive when he told wa to launch a counteroffense and then his armed forces the next day released this 30 second video which basically shows ukrainian soldiers essentially shushing the camera. it's a campaign of silence. the defense minister even

quoting tweet earlier today, saying words are very unnecessary. they can only do harm. now, we certainly are expecting if russia says that ukraine has launched a counteroffensive, if this is what they are claiming, we have heard a lot of air raid sirens today and already been attacks in the kharkiv region about two hours southeast from where i am right now. nine people were injured, one person was dead, was killed. but we're certainly expecting more sirens, more attacks in this region and across the country tonight, chris. >> molly hunter, thank you for that update. much appreciated. here at home the labor fight that's raising concerns across the west coast, major ports and terminals have been shut down after union workers were not showing up to work after a failure in negotiations with port management. i want to bring in nbc's dana griffin if long beach, california, where now the largest terminal in the city is not open today again. so, i guess, most of these ports and terminals were closed over the weekend, but are back open,

but hypothetically what are we talking about in terms of real world impact here? >> reporter: well, chris, that remains to be seen because we're getting a lot of conflicting reports from all the players involved in these negotiations. you have the union workers, the port authority and terminals like tti behind me, you mentioned earlier, is the only terminal in long beach that has been shut down for the day. the company, according to the port authority, telling truckers to not come because they were caught up on shipments. but is there more to the story? possibly. but again, a lot of that information doesn't fully come out. now, the reason this is concerning for the industry, the supply chain is because right now there could be a potential backlog, according to the cnbc reporting if these slow down disruptions continue because labor negotiations stall, we could see a backup of shipments which could in turn turn into late fees for the shipping companies, which means they're

going to have to pay more money to get additional truckers in to try to move that product, which means that retailers could end up passing that cost on to us, the consumers. and the more concerning industry right now is that back to school supply chain there because right now i know a lot of kids are getting out of school and just into the school year, but from a business standpoint, a lot of those items that parents are going to be looking for in just a couple of months, they need to head to the warehouse now so that stores can start preparing to get those inside their stores and on the shelves. but if there is a backlog, which we will be monitoring throughout the day, it will be interesting to see how this trickles down and affects the consumer. >> do not mess with parents as their kids are getting ready to go to school. dana griffin, thank you so much. >> exactly. it took 18 years but the prime suspect in the disappearance of american teenager natalee holloway is about to come back to the u.s. when and why now coming up.

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we are now just days away from joran van der sloot being brought to the u.s., a new chapter in the 18 years long and agonizing wait for the family of american teenager natalee holloway, who disappeared on a school trip to aruba. here is nbc's sam brock. >> reporter: more than 18 years after the disappearance of natalee holloway, the prime suspect in the case, joran van der sloot, is one step closer to being in u.s. custody. peruvian authorities confirm they moved the 35-year-old from a maximum security prison in southern per true a prison in the country's capital, all to prepare for his extradition to the u.s. and a federal courtroom in birmingham, alabama, he'll face charges of wire fraud and extortion carrying sentences up to 20 years each. those charges date back to 2010 when van der slot was indicted by an alabama grand jury for

trying to extort a quarter of a million dollars to natalie's mom beth. promising details where to find her details and how she died. >> about a week later he indicated it was all a hoax, was his m.o. >> reporter: officials say he received $25,000 in an fbi sting operation, providing information he knew was false, likely using that money to fly to peru. van der slot's lawyer telling nbc news his client denies the charges and claims he is being set up, saying his client is mentally challenge and addicted to gambling. he was seen leaving a nightclub with holloway the night she vanished in 2005. no one has been charged in holloway's disappearance. he has been in the peruvian jail for murdering a student. he agreed to be sent to the u.s. because he feels tired spending time in the worst prison in the world. natalie's mother beth holloway opening up to savannah back in 2015. >> until he faces extortion

charges in the u.s., then justice is not being served for natalee. >> he'll soon have to answer for his crimes, writing in a statement, we are finally getting justice for natalee. sam brock, nbc news. we have a lot to cover in our second hour of "chris jansing reports." let's get right to it. ♪♪ at this hour, inside the likely cause of a disastrous train crash in india that left nearly 300 people dead, hundreds more injured. right now, families across the country are rushing to the crash site for news about their loved ones. and federal judge rules that tennessee's first in the nation law that created strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional. plus, we are likely very close to hearing from the federal grand jury in the classified documents case against former president donald trump. and as they are expected to meet this week, today l