duty, reservists and guardsmen, as well as our veterans, thank you for the answering the nation's call to serve. your bravery, sacrifice and service makes us free. thanks to you for watching us today. i'm going to take tomorrow off to be with family and friends at our traditional neighborhood parade. i'll see you on wednesday. and lindsey reiser picks up our coverage right now. good to be with you. i'm lindsey reiser, 34 million people are under storm watches across the country today. how does that impact your july 4th plans. plus, police in baltimore are still searching for at least two suspects after a deadly shooting at a block party. we'll bring you the latest in that investigation. in israel, a major military operation in the west bank left at least eight people dead and 50 others wounded. what israeli officials are saying about their use of drone strikes coming up.

and it has been ten years since the yarnell hill fire claimed the lives of 19 firemen. we'll look back at their legacy, how that wildfire and climate change have crews changing their strategies. that's coming up. we're going to start, though, with extreme weather across the country, from heat waves to heavy winds and rain, cancelled outdoor celebrations and even ruined some travel plans over the holiday weekend. nbc meteorologist michelle grossman, with what we can expect. and first, here's blayne alexander. >> reporter: there's no question summer is in full swing, if you doubt it, just step outside. millions of americans are dealing with record-breaking temperatures, and it's not just inconvenient, it's dangerous. between the dangerous heat and severe storms, mother nature really is bringing a one-two punch. overnight, we saw severe weather hit places in alabama. we've also seen the weather turned deadly, turns trees over, including crushing one woman in her car in missouri. we also saw the nascar race

delayed in chicago over the weekend, due to heavy rain there. all of that combined with the hot sun, but keep in mind, a number of people are also still traveling for the holiday weekend. so people are dealing with a growing number of flight delays. in fact, we started the day today with more than 400 delays. think about this, we're seeing more people traveling than ever before, last friday, the tsa processed 2.9 million travel ers. that's the highest number for a single day ahead of a busy holiday. >> blayne alexander, thank you so much. let's go over to nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman. not the picture perfect forecast we were hoping for in a lot of places. >> great to see you. it's steamy, it's stormy, we're going to continue to see that as we go throughout the next several days. we have been tracking this for weeks and weeks, the heat dome in place, and we're starting to see storms pop already. the brighter colors, the reds, the oranges, that's the daytime

heating along with the front triggering these storms. out to the east, this is going to be the bulls eye for the storms this afternoon. into the evening hours. a lot of shores up and down the east coast will be impacted. you can see the swirl there, starting to pop in. that's indicating those thunderstorms are starting to happen, and we do have the chance for severe storms as we go throughout today, 34 million americans under some sort of severe weather risks. that could bring down trees. we saw a lot of trees in the package that blayne showed us. damaging hail, a low tornado threat, but not zero. we are concerned about that. where we see the orange area, that's the likeliest spot, probably spot. so that includes washington, d.c., richmond, yellow, where you see new york city, charlotte, philadelphia, strong to severe storms, as we go throughout the later part of today. that's not just the east coast that we're looking at, the northern plains into the inner mountain west, and enhanced risk for severe storms in rapid city. that is today, then we look at

july 4th. a lot of parades, celebrations, while it's going to be damp in some spots, the same scenario over 60 miles per hour. could see some hail. also a few tornadoes, where you see this orange here, also the yellow, that's where we're expecting the likely spot for strong storms including minneapolis and north plat, down to denver. so it's a large area tomorrow where we could see soggy weather. we have the stormy part, the steamy part. 36 million people impacted by heat alerts, whether it's a heat advisory or a heat warning, the southwest, we're going to see temperatures, air temperatures, not feels like temperatures, up to 119 in some spots. the pacific northwest, a heat advisory, we're going to start to see you heating up over the next several days, then we're looking at the carolinas, southeast, raleigh, gainesville. factor in the humidity. it's going to feel warmer than the air temperature. take a look at numbers. hard to wrap your head around these numbers. palm springs, 119 today.

that's 11 degrees above what is typical call for this time of year. 112 in las vegas. 115. heed the warnings, stay in the air-conditioning if you can if you need to be outdoors, some of us look outdoors, take water breaks, get shade, if you can. this is going to extend to the pacific northwest. even today, 11 degrees above average. 92 in boise. it's not just the southeast, but portions of the midwest. this he's is going to extend to wisconsin, madison, 91 degrees. 9 degrees above normal. sioux city into the 90s. 91 tomorrow in chicago. that's 8 degrees above average, and this is whatit looks like tomorrow. that's telling us there's a chance for rain. severe weather risk throughout the inner mountain west to the northern plains. the midwest as well. still really hot in the southwest. temperatures into the triple digits. we're going to be warm in the south central states. we have been talking about that

area for weeks and weeks with the heat dome in place. it's sort of relaxed. we're looking at temperatures near 100 degrees. conditions from the southeast to the carolinas, the mid atlantic, you get the idea, and notice the brighter colors. that's where we're anticipating the chance for heavy rainfall. it's not just the winds, not just the hail. not just the tornado threat. we're looking at the chance for really heavy rainfall. summer like downpours where you squeeze out the sponge and get the downpours that could lead to flash flagged. the forecast, who's going to be impacted. a lot of us are going to be impacted, the major cities in minneapolis, denver, billings, a chance for showers, also some storms and really heavy rain throughout portions of the midwest into the central plains, and then we headed over to the east. new york city, boston, d.c., atlanta, new orleans. houston, miami, most of the city seeing the chance for some showers, even some thunderstorms into the southeast, and also the mid atlantic, and then we get towards wednesday, the day after the holiday, and we're seeing

from the midwest. back to you. in baltimore, police say they are searching for suspects after a mass shooting left two people dead and 28 injured at a community block party on sunday. most of the people hurt were teenagers. some as young as just 13 years old. joining me right now is nbc news correspondent antonia hilton. i say suspects because at one point, we weren't sure. were they looking for one, looking for the multiple, what's the latest. >> there's so many questions to be answered. the community in south baltimore is grieving. this is after what we saw on saturday late night into sunday morning, what was supposed to be an annual celebration called brooklyn day in that neighborhood. devolve into a chaotic and frightening scene. as you mentioned, 30 people were shot. 14 of them children. according to the mayor, seven people are still hospitalized right now. and so this community is now making calls both on the local

but also the national level for change, of course they want authorities to hunt down the people who are responsible for this. we don't know much about motive at this time, was this a random incident. was this motivated by something. was it a type of retaliation or a disagreement, that's right. still so many questions on that front. they also want people nationally to pay attention to what's happening here. as part of the story you and i have covered so many times of the rising gun violence, they want to see change. >> we have this big holiday tomorrow where people will be hanging out outdoors. this took place at a block party where people were celebrating, the debris on the ground with evidence photos, markers next toll them, it's terrifying, what is the city doing to quell concerns knowing that these people are still on the lam? >> authorities are mobilized, and their primary reassurance is committed to promising to find the people responsible for this. they think this is more than one person who caused all of these people to be harmed that night, and you know, their message to people right now is to share as

much cell phone footage and information with officers as possible. they're going to all of the victims, interviewing them right now, but they're going to be expanding and talking to other community members as well. take a listen to some of what they shared at this afternoon's press conference. >> we will be putting different things out through our pio to help us identify individuals that we need to speak to. our detectives are still working through interviewing every one of the victims. we will continue to pursue any leads. that's why we need the help from the community. we have only touched some of the video that's out there. >> they were grown adults filming young people with guns who said knock, who did nothing, who didn't say to the police, hey, i know this teenager is out here at event with a gun, and we have to have a sense of responsibility to our own community as well because there was a time when even those who were the toughest of the tough in the street, if they saw some

young kid with something like that, they would step in there. do something. >> and, you know, this is really a stark reminder to put things in context. according to the gun violence archive we're at 340 mass shootings just this year, which of course isn't over yet. compare that to 2019, when there were 417, so we're on pace for a lot of violence this year. that's why you're seeing communities not just there in south baltimore call for action after this, but really around the country right now. >> nbc's antonia hilton, thank you. still ahead, israeli drones go on the attack, plus, hundreds of troops on the move. we're going to have a live report on what's being called the most intense air strike on the west bank in nearly two decades. plus, new details on special counsel jack smith and the growing attention he's putting on donald trump's former lawyers. we're back in 60 secondings. lawyers. we're back in 60 secondings. s. s. . . . .

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killed after a series of israeli drone strikes hit the occupied west bank. israeli also deployed hundreds of troops to the area. its largest military operation against palestinian militants in two decades. israeli says it was targeting terrorist infrastructure in the west bank city of janine, a stronghold for the islamic jihad group that has become a flash point, and the violence has been escalating all year. the palestinians condemned the strikes. nbc news foreign correspondent josh lederman is following the story. what more can you tell us about what happened and how each side is responding. >> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been speaking after he convened a national security meeting about this crisis, and he describes this refugee camp as a nest of terrorist, and the city of janine, a city of refuge for terrorism. that speaks to the mindset of the israeli government right now, as they are carrying out this massive operation as they describe as a counter operation

involving well over a thousand troops. the israelis saying that they have managed to go after a explosion at an explosives factory, as well as occupational situation rooms used by militant groups. this refugee camp has been a stronghold of opposition to the israeli occupation in the west bank. it has been the source of many of the exchanges of fire and violence between israeli military troops as well as palestinian militants over the last year. but the israeli government is signaling that this raid is different than the shorter term incursions that they have mounted over the last many months. they are not simply going in and pulling out. an israeli military spokesperson saying they could be there for days. they are going to stay there until they finish what they see as an ongoing task to root out these threats to israel's national security as well as to jewish settlers who live in the

occupied west bank, now, the palestinians obviously view this very differently with the palestinian leadership, calling this a new war crime, but the real question right now is whether this is going to stay contained. we're approaching in a few hours, 24 hours since this raid began, and so far we're seeing continues israeli raids, including continued use of drones for sites in the west bank. the key unanswered question is whether this starts to pull in militant groups, as well as potentially hamas and the gaza strip. that could lead to a much broader conflict. >> nbc's josh lederman, thank you. ukrainian officials are claiming small but significant gains across multiple fronts, while admitting the fighting against russian forces is complicated and hot everywhere. also today russia says it foiled an assassination attempt. the suspect detained by russian security forces, a russian man

who the kremlin alleges was hired and trained by ukraine. nbc's kelly cobiella is reporting from dnipro ukraine, and also with us, retired general, barry mccaffrey. what more can you tell us about the state of the ukraine's counter offensive right now, and what can you tell us about the alleged plot on the crimean governor? >> reporter: the fsb say this man in his 30s was arrested. they say he planned to blow up sergey's car. they caught him when he was trying to retrieve the explosives from wherever it was being stored. they haven't named the man. they haven't said much more about the plot other than that, other than adding they believe the ukrainian services recruited and trained him. they are not saying when all of this happened, how it happened, they do say that he entered ukraine sometime in june.

again, a lot of this we can't verify. the ukrainian government has not yet commented on this. meantime, the russian defense minister today is saying that russian troops have destroyed a large amount of ukrainian equipment on the battlefield, including more than a dozen leopard tanks as tanks provided by european allies, again, can't verify those claims, but president zelenskyy did say that the last week on the battlefield has been difficult. he said gains are being made, but it's sort of step by step. his deputy defense minister also saying that it is a difficult situation in both the east and in the south where they're facing serious and strong resistance. in the south, there is more planting of mines, she said, and reserves backing up the troops on the battlefield. in the east, she said the situation is changing so quickly that positions can be lost and gained sometimes twice in a day.

>> kelly cobiella, thank you so much for that reporting. general mccaffrey, what are your thoughts on the counter offensive progress here? >> well, i think ukraine should be very deliberate. i call this a reconnaissance force. you're trying to find places in the russian defenses that are weaker than others, trying to cause the russians to prematurely commit their reserves, but they're going about it in a very deliberate manner. they don't have adequate counter mine capability, the ukrainians. russians are very well dug in. so the ukrainians are still fighting and the security area, not in the main battle positions, ukrainians have two purposes, one is sever the land bridge between crimea and the donbas, and secondly, they're trying to recapture the move, and perhaps bag a bunch of russian prisoners in the process. it's a very tricky situation,

and i don't think anybody's filled with confidence yet on what's going to happen. the nine modernized ukrainian armored brigades have not yet been committed. all of this nonsense from the russians about losses of tanks, these are minimal forces that ukrainians have not yet committed their main battle force. >> general, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff says the u.s. is considering providing ukraine with cluster munitions, and he says russia is using them, ukraine has gotten them from other allies, there's a push to ban them entirely because of the danger they pose to civilians. i mean, what concerns do you have, and how does the u.s. weigh this? >> well, they're incredibly effective munitions, they're duel purpose. they're fired out of artillery and the himars rockets can fire them. the air force has bombs with dc ibm and internally they sped out in a wide area.

as well as being anti-personnel. they're extremely important weapons. we have not signed the convention against their use, nor have the russians, ukrainians and six of our nato allies haven't signed it. the problem is they have a reasonable dud rate, 1% or wet ground and sand, there's a high dud rate, and they're a real danger to civilians, if you don't then pick them up. i got to tell you, on balance, they're a lot easier to recover and remove than our deliberately planted anti-personnel mines in the ground. >> what's a dud rate? >> well, i don't think we really know. we said we're going to destroy all of our munitions that have a dud rate in excess of 1%. does that mean you fire duds and

have to collect it? >> you fire them out there, you may of 500, and 11 of them didn't go off, and you can see them quite visibly normally on the ground, we encountered them in the gulf war. the air force had a lot of bombs that had very high dud rates in soft sand, and they're dangerous as can be. i mean, they're armed now, and so if you kick them or touch them or step on them, they'll go off and remove both of your legs, so it is a concern, but on balance, i think the u.s. should provide ukrainian artillery with dpicm. this battle still got to be decided this summer, and missiles and dpicm will make immediate game changing effect on the battle. >> general barry mccaffrey. we'll have to leave it there. thank you for your time. we have all heard donald trump's phone call with the georgia secretary of state saying he wanted to find votes. coming up, we're going to dive

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of the votes in 2020 went to trump. the former president slammed some of his fellow republican candidates and railed against his recent indictment in florida, but it's not the only case moving forward. we've got new developments on multiple fronts when it comes to some of the other investigations donald trump is facing, including jack smith's other special counsel probe, into january 6th, and efforts to reverse trump's loss in 2020. joining me now is former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst, barbara mcquade, and former congressman and msnbc political analyst, david jolly. hi to both of you. the new reporting from the "wall street journal" showing a growing interest in the role of lawyers. the journal also reports rudy giuliani sat down with special prosecutors for some eight hours. does this suggest there are more targets to this investigation than just trump? >> i think so. it seems to me that one would

have to investigate the idea of a conspiracy here. i would think that at least within the scope of that investigation must be people like don eastman, perhaps giuliani himself, maybe sidney powell, maybe jeffrey clark who was the department of justice official who proposed sending letters to states, inviting them to submit their own slate of independent electors. i think that's right, and i think the idea that rudy giuliani is sitting is extremely interest. he's a former u.s. attorney. he knows how this works. he knows he can be the first in the door and tell his story. he can get leniency. he can get a cooperation deal if he can deliver information that is valuable to prosecutors in charging others in this case. donald trump and perhaps others. >> real quick, barbara, this proffer agreement, does that mean he wouldn't be a target? >> it could mean he's agreeing to plead guilty. it's a prelude to a plea agreement, a test drive, if you will, for prosecutors, they

don't want to offer a plea deal, they want to hear what the person can testify to. what they want to do in proffer agreement is not use anything in the meeting. the fact that giuliani spoke to them for eight hours suggests they were interested in what he had to say. it could lead to a plea agreement. i would think if he's exposed to any crimes, he would have to plead guilty for them, in exchange for a recommendation of leniency in sentencing. >> we got reporting from "the washington post," in a 2020 phone call, donald trump tried to pressure then republican governor doug ducey to overturn the state's election votes, saying if enough fraudulent votes for found, it could flip his prosecutorial. is it similar to the raffensperger. >> it wasn't just in georgia, it was in all of these states where

the fake electors were brought to bear, in an effort to throw out the votes so donald trump could win those states. it's very similar. i think it could be powerful evidence as well that this wasn't just a oneoff inquiry, that this was all part of a plot to overthrow the election. i think this second pressure campaign is significant for that reason as well. >> to the politics, david, chris christie was asked this weekend whether trump's pressure on governors was criminal. i want to play part of that. >> we're going to let the prosecutors decide whether it's criminal or not. i did do that for several years, and what i know is you have to have all of the evidence to make that kind of judgment. we shouldn't be making juchlts judgments until we hear. it's unacceptable to pressure the governor, as well as any elected official to be able to find votes to win a state you didn't win or to somehow come up with some kind of ridiculous theory to overturn the results in arizona. >> i mean, david, up until this

point, christie is really still the outlier, willing to say anything critical of trump. do you think that could change? >> i'm not sure it can because even though chris christie is exactly right in his words, they simply don't resonate in a republican primary, and you get into a republican primary to win, and so candidates will chase the messaging that they believe gives them the best shot. it is not the message that christie delivers and honestly at some point, chris christie will have to tell voters why he's running, what he intends to do, as opposed to just being a foil to donald trump, even though there's value if a candidate can stop donald trump. at this point, i don't think any facts in any of these cases, gt facts themselves will not wound donald trump. that's simply the status that he holds within the party. the question is will it change in his personal liberty if that should happen, ultimately change his status, if he is facing conviction, if he is facing the sentencing that goes along with it, whatever that might look like, if that happens before the

election or if he's facing it after the election, do republican voters say, wait a minute, i'm not sure this actually works because general election voters will definitely look at that and say, we can't elect a president whose liberty is now in jeopardy. >> we mentioned trump is back on the campaign trail this weekend. he had a positive response from the crowd, lindsey graham did not. people were calling him a traitor. i want to talk about polling too. recent polling shows him maintaining his lead against other republican rivals. what are you seeing on the state level, i know you're digging into that? >> that's a very important point. we use financial resources as best we can to chase polls and all of the national polls show donald trump up by 20 or 30 points by desantis, and if you dig deeper at state levels, that holds true as well. all of the early states where desantis needs a win or somebody needs a win, donald trump holds about a 20 point lead or greater in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina and nevada and even in florida, donald trump beats ron desantis, so no movement despite the hard ground game of ron

desantis right now encroaching on donald trump. >> barbara mcquade, and former congressmen, david jolly, thank you both. still ahead, janet yellen's high stakes trip to beijing, what the biden administration hopes to accomplish and tension between the world's largest economies. and preparing for invasion, richard engel gets rare access to a military base where rookie pilots are with increased worries about china. d worries about china. skin and joints, i'm getting into my groove. ♪(uplifting music)♪ along with significantly clearer skin... skyrizi helps me move with less joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and fatigue. and is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. skyrizi attaches to and reduces a source of excess inflammation that can lead to skin and joint symptoms. with skyrizi 90% clearer skin and less joint pain are possible.

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and just a few days, treasury secretary janet yellen will travel to beijing. she's set to meet with senior officials and u.s. firms doing business in china and have direct engagement with the chinese people, according to biden administration officials. this is part of a recent push from washington to steady u.s. china relations after months of growing tensions. yellen's trip comes just weeks after secretary of state anthony blinken traveled to beijing. with me now, nbc's kelly o'donnell at the white house, and peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" and msnbc political analyst. so kelly, what do we expect to see during yellen's trip? >> reporter: this certainly signals a high priority from the biden administration to try to improve the conditions between the two largest economies in the world. this is secretary yellen's first visit in her role, and it is significant because china's own economy has been struggling in

the post covid era, and they have a lot of concerns about trying to establish better relationships with the u.s. in recent years, of course, the u.s. has also been trying to in some ways get a little separation from some of the workings of business with china, things in the area of semiconductors, and biotechnology. some of the things that during the concerns about supply chain that we live through that those became very heightened, so there are points of tension. there are points of opportunity. and at the same timehere are those other parts of the diplomatic conversation that always have to be a part of it. human rights and so forth. for china, this is a very big deal to have the american treasury secretary visit, and it is a part of that group of meetings led by antony blinken and at some point down the line, this will signal teeing up a relationship where the president will, again, speak with president xi jinping. there has been that tension, especially over recent issues like the spy balloon and some of

the tensions between the u.s. and china. but clearly these are competitive partnerships, and it's something where they are trying to keep the relationship from further souring. >> so peter, kelly, she set out the backdrop from which this is happening. what's your take on why send yellen and why now? >> the americans said we have to send our secretary of state first, that's the way this should work. they set out a series of meetings as kelly just talked about that they would like to sequence over these next few months. you will see gina raimondo go over, the secretary of congress, john kerry, the climate czar, all leading up to the possibility of a meeting between xi jinping and president biden on the sidelines of the apex summit, scheduled to begin in november in seattle. after tony blinken's visit there, it was the president himself who kind of, you know, muddied the water a little bit, literally the day after the secretary of state was in

beijing, trying to smooth things over, the president told a fundraiser that xi jinping was a dictator, and embarrassed him by saying he didn't know anything about the spy balloon that traveled over the united states. he was kept in the dark by his own officials. not the kind of thing that went over well in beijing. this visit by secretary yellen will be a test of whether things like that will continue to, you know, complicate the relationship or was the outrage that you heard from china afterwards simply performative, and short lived. >> that said, though, peter, what does it say that the biden administration, they're saying, look, we don't expect any breakthroughs here. >> they're trying to keep expectations down, of course, and they're not looking for some sort of large agreement with china. they're trying to sort of steady the waters, i mean, steady the boat in the waters. after that spy balloon incident, things ruptured in such a way. we have seen all kinds of close calls in the air and the sea, between air craft and ships where the chinese had been

provocative according to the americans. what the biden administration wants to do is get things back into more of a calmer mode where they can have big conversations about issues without, you know, taking a chance of spiraling into some sort of a bigger conflict. >> you profiled richard haass, the outgoing president of the counsel on foreign relations this weekend. he's concerned about china and other threats, he says the u.s. poses the most serious danger to national security, why, and is that also something you're hearing from foreign policy experts. >> he's stepping down for 20 years as head of the council on foreign relations, and a foreign policy maker and diplomat. he has spent a career literally thinking about the threats posed by russia, china, terrorism, north korea, climate change, all of these issues. he's saying right now, our own conflict over democracy, our own, you know, dysfunction at home that is causing the largest instability in the world. america has traditionally been

through all of its up and downs, a pretty reliable source of stability in the world today, and that's no longer true because of trumpism, the uncertainty about whether we would head back to trumpism, he hears all the time, he says from foreign officials saying i don't know whether trump was about her -- aberration or the new norm, during his time in office, something world leaders would like to see not happen again. >> obviously tomorrow is the july 4th holiday. any word from the white house on the president's plans? >> reporter: the president has been at camp david. he'll return from camp david tomorrow, and he will host the south lawn celebration, which will include military families and first responders and other invited guests who will enjoy picnic style barbecue like many americans will and of course the great fireworks that are visible when you're on the south lawn, and the president will make his remarks about what the holiday

means, what independence means for the country, and then kind of a light schedule this week, with so many americans on vacation, but the president will be back tomorrow from camp david. >> okay. kelly o'donnell, and peter baker, thank you both. secretary yellen's visit to china comes as tensions rise between china and taiwan, the self-ruling democracy 100 miles off the china mainland, nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel visited the island and got rare access to military preparations. for what officials in taiwan see as inevitable conflict with china. >> reporter: this is one of taiwan's main training bases part of the island's front line defenses. military officials tell us they no longer believe it's a question of if china will invade, but when. >> nbc news was given rare access to a military base in southeastern taiwan. >> i feel pressure, like, this is what i do.

>> reporter: where rookie pilots are preparing for what officials here see as an increasingly urgent threat from china to invade, stripping taiwan of its democracy and autonomy. >> we can all foresee there might be war with china. that's what we are all preparing to do, like we're trying to fight. >> first lieutenant chang graduated from the u.s. air force academy. taiwan depends on the united states to survive. the island's 210,000 troops are no match for china's 2 million. >> i think of the obligation to make our sovereignty in tact. >> taiwanese defense officials tell nbc news a controversial trip by then speaker nancy pelosi a year ago was a turning point. >> america made a bedrock promise to always stand with

taiwan. >> reporter: she was the most senior u.s. official to visit in a quarter century. and for china, it seemed close to recognizing taiwan's independence. china fired 11 ballistic missiles right over the island. and encircled it with warships to prove it can strangle taiwan whenever it wants. some here say the pelosi trip needlessly provoked china. others say it exposed president xi real intentions. either way it was a wake up call, hardening the defenses, extending military service from men for four months to a year, intensifying reserve training, and pressing for the delivery of f-16s. in taipei, taiwan's foreign minister wu had a stark warning. >> i think china might be repeating what we saw as the origin of the second world war, and we have to be careful. >> reporter: how much risk is there that one of these daily

incursions could start a fire? >> a real conflict, yes, it is possible. if you look at the history of war, there are plenty of war out of accidents, out of inadvertent accidents. >> reporter: taiwan wouldn't have much notice of an attack. chinese jets could cross the narrow taiwan strait in minutes. the pilots here say their main mission is readiness to be on a hair trigger. taiwan's foreign minister said he did not see the threat as imminent, but apparent and increasing. still ahead, learning from loss, ten years after a wildfire claimed the lives of 19 firefighters in arizona, we look at the impact the tragedy has had on those left behind. edy ha had on those left behind

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known for what it lost, 189 highly trained, granite mountain hot shots died. >> you remember every detail of what you wore that day, to what you were doing the second you found out. >> reporter: alicia mofette was engaged to parker, who was in the elite unit. they were called to fight an explosive fire, threatening homes in nearby yarnell, spitting out flames as high as 20 feet. the crew lost communication and left their safe zone when the fast moving fire changed direction, trapping hot shots, all but the lone lookout perished. >> i went from planning our wedding that was going to be two months from then to literally planning his funeral, and trying to attend 18 other funerals on top of that. >> reporter: it is still the deadliest u.s. wildfire in 80

years and the largest loss of firefighters lives since september 11th. >> we recognize when you lose a quarter of your department, what that means on a human level is complete different. >> reporter: prescott fire chief said due in part to the disaster, their approach to how they fight fire has changed. >> we don't deploy a bunch of firefighters to the tip of a hurricane when the hurricane comes, we wait for the hurricane to come through, and then we rescue people after that. >> reporter: with fires burning hotter, faster and becoming more unpredictable, thanks to climate change, according to forecasters, it's a strategy of protecting lives and learning to live with the dangers of wildfires. >> if we can't succeed, we're going to step back and find a better approach, a better strategy. our highest priority is life safety, firefighter and public safety. >> reporter: technology has advanced, communication and fire tracking have also improved fire personnel tell us, and now departments like prescott are using drones.

in dangerous situations they can scout trouble spots from above, replacing the need for boots on the ground. reshaping how communities fight forest fires as they honor and grieve the men who gave their lives, protecting one they loved. >> i just hope they remember who these guys outside of their jobs were, husbands and brothers, and sons, and this crew that went there together and they died together, and they all stayed together. >> our thanks for alicia and ron for talking to us. there are ways in which fire departments are changing tactics when it comes to fighting fires, testing out beacons that track firefighters in realtime, and also with more people living in the wild land urban interfaces, departments have a tougher job on their hands so they're educating the community on fire dangers and how to safeguard their property. all right, everybody, coming up in our next hour of coverage, how a series of major rulings from the supreme court are making waves in the republican race for president. what we're hearing on the campaign trail. plus, florida governor ron desantis gets push back for a

controversial new ad from within his own party, and just in, new developments in the investigation into explosive devices and molotov cocktails thrown at three washington, d.c. businesses this weekend. what d.c. police and atf officials have revealed about the suspects, coming up. blood pressure pressur

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. thanks for being with us in our second hour. i'm lindsey reiser, the fallout from the supreme court is being felt across the country. black voters reacting to the fall of affirmative action. the white house is b after the overturned the debt relief case, and members of the lgbt community are concerned saying she had a first amendment right to refuse service to same-sex couples. while the ruling on free speech has opened the door to encourage discrimination, and hours after the scotus decision came down, one of the top republicans for the white house released this campaign ad to wrap up pride month. why ron desantis is being slammed as homophobic from the left. let's get right to nbc's kelly o'donnell who has all the details. >> reporter: high court