good to be with you. i'm katy tur. will it hold in the 500 days since russia invaded ukraine, the nato alliance has held together. a lot of the credit for that has been given to president biden. can he keep it all together? we'll see what the stress points are tomorrow when member nations meet in lithuania. unlike last year's gathering in madrid, the backdrop of this year's summit is different. a year ago, vladimir putin told members of parliament, the war had just gotten started. his troops had just captured the key city luhansk and he had begun deploying tactical weapons to belarus. while we still don't know where the leader of that uprising is

now, we do have new reporting on where yevgeny prigozhin was shortly after. the story keeps getting weirder. the only sort of bright spot for vladimir putin is ukraine's counter offensive has been slow. will cluster munitions change that, and how much blow back will president biden get for that. one nation against it is the uk, we have the latest on the president's stop in london this morning. there's a lot to get to. let us start with the reporting. joining me now, nbc news correspondent ali arouzi, and from kyiv, nbc news foreign correspondent kelly cobiella. let's get to lithuania, the president has just gotten there. what's the agenda for tomorrow? what's on the table? >> reporter: well, the summit really kicks off in earnest

tomorrow, and president biden will be meeting other leaders of nato countries. he'll be very various bilaterals. there will be a nato family photo, and then a dinner at the presidential palace, where they will be able to discuss various issues that they're here to discuss, and some of those issues are getting nato countries to donate the 2% of their gdp to nato defenses, to having better relations with indo-pacific countries. but the main focus here is going to be ukraine. that's the hot topic of conversation. and you arrive here, and there's ukrainian flags everywhere. there are air defenses on the runway. it's a clear message, even though they are not a nato country, nato fully supports them in their war against russia, but there are also some big differences on exactly how to support ukraine. especially between the united states and the uk or say other

baltic countries and germany, they all agree that they have to support ukraine. but how much support, how to give them the ammunition they want. the u.s. has put certain deterrences on them. those deterrences like the u.s. has put on, the f-16s they want to get the ukrainians, the british think they have slowed down the counter offensive for ukraine. there's a lot of important subjects for nato member countries to discuss, and the most important subject, how to support ukraine against their war in russia. >> and whether to admit ukraine into nato. ukraine wants to be a part of nato. the president over the weekend, though, kelly, saying that it's not a good idea right now, saying that if ukraine were to enter nato right now, then we would all be in world war iii. kelly. >> reporter: that's right. that's the president's view on this. the president and the head of germany both trying to sort of put the brakes on any sort of

push to fast track ukraine into nato membership for exactly that reason, the article 5 reason, but there are other nato allies who disagree. poland, for example, wants ukraine in, and they want them in quickly. the czech republic also favors a quick ascension to the nato alliance, and this is something that nato allies are going to have to talk about. how do you balance that out, and how do you give ukraine some of what they want. president zelenskyy said he wants some sort of assurance, concrete signal that there is a pathway at some point once this war is over for ukraine to join the alliance. even suggesting that he's not going to show up at the summit if he doesn't hear something along those lines, katy. >> what about the cluster munitions the president is going to be giving to ukraine. he's talking about how ukraine is running low on ammo, that we're in the united states running low on ammo as well.

that's why he's giving the cluster munitions, but it's controversial. what's the controversy behind it, kelly, and how do they plan on deploying these once they get them? >> reporter: yeah, so the controversy has to do with how these weapons work. the cluster munitions break apart once they're fired. you have these bomblets falling across the battle space. there's what's called a dud rate. a certain percentage of them don't actually explode. they remain on the battlefield sometimes for months, years to come, and are a huge danger to civilians and actually troops moving forward because of that. but there's another aspect of this, and the president has talked about this, the fact that ukraine needs those munitions, that ukraine is running short on artillery, and military analysts have also talked, katy, about how these munitions work, and how that can favor the

ukrainians because what they need is something to fight troops who are in the trenches. the russians have built these extensive defensive lines, extensive trenches over the past several months, trying to get to frankly soldiers who are in the trenches is a lot tougher when you use a standard ammunition, when you have these cluster munitions, you have those bomblets falling into the trenches. they're a greater danger to soldiers who are taking cover there, therefore could provide ukraine with an advantage in terms of inflicting higher casualties on the russians, and we know that the ukrainians have a disadvantage when it comes just to pure numbers versus russian soldiers, katy. >> kelly cobiella, thank you very much. ali arouzi, thank you as well. the president of the eurasia group in bremer, good to have you ian, so the alliances held together, the nato alliance for the past 500 days that the war

has been going on. questions about whether it would. are you seeing any stress points? >> in fact, i'd go farther than that. the alliance is stronger today, considerably stronger than it was before the invasion some thought 100 days ago because of the invasion, that's also true of the broader g7, and indeed, you see the japanese, the south koreans, the australians, more directly engaged with nato, and also more engaged and aligned with the united states and asian security architecture because increasingly, concerns of military challenges to the status quo are growing, and the russian invasion made that so dramatically apparent, especially of course to the front line states. nato is larger than it would be, finland has joined, sweden is trying to acdc, they didn't want

to join before. the ukrainians were invited into the european union. are they going to leapfrog turkey. erdogan saying let me into the u, you promised years and years ago. the ukrainians don't want tur key in, they want ukraine in. there are points of disagreement and tension ass war continues, as the fighting becomes more and more costly, and americans and other question how much you want to spend when the american president is saying, as long as it takes, as long as it takes. >> let me ask you about sweden and turkey here. sweden is in the holding pattern, why doesn't the eu want to accept turkey, and is that the only reason turkey is saying no to sweden? >> turkey knows that the eu is not linkable to the nato

process. the fact that erdogan is saying that as this summit is about to get underway and as he met with ukrainian president zelenskyy and strongly said zelenskyy should be allowed to join nato, this is a president that wants to get a deal done. the question is what is his price. if you're not going to accept the eu integration, what else will you give him, how is he paid off? he's firmly aware of the fact that he's the lone person that stands in the way of swedish full expression. they can get rolled. the turks are a different story. that's what this is about. most of the conversations will be about how much additional military support for ukraine, what might negotiations eventually look like under what circumstances, very early conversations are on that, too, even though we have seen fighting for 400 or 500 days and what security can be provided

for ukrainians in a multilateral format given that nato membership is not near term on the table. >> expand on what the member nations might be saying in terms of when this and how this war comes to an end, and what sort of security guarantees there possibly can be with russia. >> there are disagreements here, the polish government supports nato integration in ukraine. french president macron thought that was too dangerous to offer several months ago has flipped, and he believes and has been telling nato allies that he believes the ukrainians should be brought into nato. the americans and germans are saying no way. you heard that from biden this week. he thinks it's too much of a risk in terms of not just antagonizing the russians by making that decision but the prospect that other soldiers would get involved in fighting

as a consequence, and the americans have no intention of fighting directly. they don't want to fight directly. i think most americans understand that. what might we be looking at for guarantees for the ukrainians. i think given the fact that you have a republican leader for the nomination who has been saying he would end the war in 24 hours, and is much more aligned with putin's position than anyone else in the american political spectrum, given u.s. democrats and republicans have increasingly polled that they are much less willing to provide the same level of support going towards ukraine than they have before. what ukrainians want to see is a multilateral commitment, an extended commitment for security, for training, for intelligence that would come from nato or the g7 as a whole. that would be suitably enmeshed, entrenched in that decision making process that the russians

would understand. it doesn't matter who gets elected in these governments. you're not going to get a second bite at this apple. you're not going to be able to come in and attack ukraine a second time because you know that nato will actually be there, and people talk about an israeli model or taiwan model. but something that is substantiative and includes a level of factual commitment ongoing that will be costly, but will also be a deterrent, an active deterrent to president putin. >> can we get the vladimir putin side of things. he's in a unique position. one we have not seen him in before, where he faced a would be rebellion, i guess is the nicest way of putting that. what's the deal with meeting with prigozhin, yevgeny prigozhin in the days after and what does that signal about where in the world yevgeny prigozhin is today. >> we don't know where he is. we assume he's still in russia.

if i had to guess, i would say he's in rostov or somewhere nearby where he has lots of troops around him that are sympathetic and supportive and loyal so he can't get easily taken out by putin. but let's be clear, if putin didn't need anything from wagner ongoing and didn't feel that prigozhin was an unacceptable threat, he would be dead already. the very fact that a deal was cut request prigozhin going to belarus, saying prigozhin is a traitor to the russian nation, an enemy of the people, the fact that he's meeting in putin with moscow, a story broken by european and american newspapers, and only then reported in the russian state media, the same russian state media that has been criticizing, demonizing prigozhin all weekend, implies that putin

still needs things from the wagner group, needs to ensure they are integrated and more loyal, directly coming up to him, needs to ensure that he has a level of control also of the ongoing monetary close that are significant, coming from wagner's contracts in places like libya and the central african republic and mali. is it weeks, months, it's certainly in prigozhin's interest for him to continue to have a level of ability to maintain things that putin needs. but let's be clear, you and i would not want to be in his position right now. i think that's an easy thing to say. i think it's unlikely he's still going to be walking around as a free man by the end of the year, precisely because the longer he does, the weaker putin gets. i'm not talking about domestic dissatisfaction inside russia where putin has complete control of the information, for example,

i'm not talking about a palace coup. i'm talking about people in the west that look at the fact that prigozhin was able to get away with challenging putin and is still a free man, and they say, why wouldn't we send cluster munitions, why wouldn't we send f-16s, why wouldn't we bring ukraine into nato. he's not going to deter us, right, it's very dangerous for putin to be fighting a proxy war with nato when he's seen as having no fist in his glove. >> that's a very good point. alsys.hank you for joining us a we appreciate your expertise, especially in this area. coming up, a thousand-year rain puts millions under a flash flood warning. look at this. this is the northeast and new england. what makes these storms so devastating and deadly and where these storms are headed next. plus, malaria is on the rise

in florida. the first locally contracted cases in decades. and what angle jack smith could be taking in the january 6th investigation and how it could make a difficult prosecution easier. we're back in 60 seconds. ficult prosecution easier we're back in 60 seconds ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists taking photos that are analyzed by ai. so researchers can help life underwater flourish. ♪ what if your entire day glided like dove men? it's made with a plant-based moisturizer and glides on without irritation. so you can glide through your entire day with confidence. ♪♪ feel the dove men glide.

this week is your chance to try any subway footlong for free. like the subway series menu. just buy any footlong in the app, and get one free. everyone loves free stuff chuck. can we get peyton a footlong? get it before it's gone. on the subway app. at least one person is dead and others remain unaccounted for after a deluge of rain in new york state. hudson valley took on nearly 10 inches of rain, washing out homes and roads, as you can see here. that is a summer's worth of rain in just 24 hours or as the national weather service is calling it, a quote thousand-year rain event. >> like a change of clothes and before i could get to the front door, the water was rushing up on to the patio, and i knew i couldn't open the door.

i am disabled. my right leg doesn't bend and i couldn't walk out. the water would have taken me away. and west point fire department and water rescue had to come up with a plan, which was finally to help me get up on to my coffee table and sit in the window and then fall back into their arms. the thing that hit me this morning is that my dad's ashes are in a box under my desk, and i can't get those back. >> joining me now is nbc news meteorologist bill karins. so, bill, what's up with these storms and where are they going next? >> we're at the tail end of this historic flash flood event and the biggest problem is vermont. it's not a hurricane, they're comparing this to what hurricane irene did in areas of the northeast, and that was a horrific flood, and this is going to rival that when all is said and done. tropical air resistance push

into areas of new england. when you get into the mountains, it rings it out, and all the water collects in the mountains, and rushing down into the valleys, and that's where all of these little rivers are, and that's where we get this extreme flash flooding. that's where you have been seeing the extreme pictures from. so from about massachusetts lined southwards, and connecticut. boston, heavy rain, you're fine. it's really northern portions in central vermont. you can notice the burlington area, heavy torrential rain over the top. this is the worst time for you in that area, telling people to just stay where you are. already in central and southern vermont. there are roads that are washed out, bridges washed out, reports of about 20 water rescues already today. that's the area of greatest concern. it's also been pouring from utica to syracuse with heavy rain. it's not often we see the map. the green shows who has a chance of flash flooding. where you see the maroon colors, that's where flash flooding is right now, and that's almost the

entire state of vermont. it does not include burlington. it just started pouring there. maybe a half hour, 45 minutes. they'll probably be under a flash flood warning also. as far as the rainfall totals, it looks like an additional 2 to 3 inches will be the worst in areas of the north. and we don't want to forget what's going on with the heat. the southern half of the country, day after day, it's boring numbers, heat, it's not supposed to be this hot. phoenix to the southwest, excessive heat warnings for the last four days, they're going all the way out there sunday, which is just ridiculous, day after day. earlier about an hour and a half ago, miami, there they are again, back to up 110 heat index. put scale it, the highest was 111. almost as hot as anyone has felt it in south florida. so that's not normal. and they have been doing this day after day. there's a couple of buoys out in the water where we measure the temperature. leave a chance of one of the

buoys in the keys hitting 91 degrees. imagine slipping in a pool that was 91 degrees. exceptional stuff going on. >> you could get in a jacuzzi in florida and have it be cooler than the air outside. bill karins, thank you very much. health officials in south florida say they are confirmed two more cases of malaria, just like the other five confirmed cases, neither of these patients reported international travel making these the first locally acquired infections in 20 years. guad venegas has that story. >> reporter: two new cases of malaria reported in sarasota county in florida. that's a total of seven cases in the u.s. this summer. one in texas, and six in florida. now, public health officials are prepared to deal with this in florida. it is hot and humid, and mosquitos are often in florida so they do have a system in place. in fact, as of last friday, the county in sarasota was using a

plane to spray insecticides to kill mosquitos, and when you have to battle a disease like malaria, the mosquitoes authorities have to control. the mosquitoes that can give malaria to human beings live two to three weeks and can only travel a mile. that's why the cases have been in the area in sarasota county. and public health officials are telling people to be aware. not to panic, but beware. the symptoms are similar to the flu. if anyone has flu-like symptoms, especially a very high fever. it's a good idea to get checked at a clinic. hospitals have what's necessary to check for malaria. it's a drug test we're told by health experts and we have medication to treat them. a disease that exists in tropical and subtropical, they get malaria and are treat for

malaria, the united states though it had technically been eliminated since the 50s, we have methods in place to fight it. especially because really what public health officials have to focus on is the mosquitos, right, so they are working hard in that area, again, in sarasota. there has been a p health advisory for the state of florida, for any individuals to be careful when they go outside, again, especially in the area. people can try to wear long sleeves, wear shirts, pants, of course it's really hot. often people are wearing shorts and t-shirts. for them, it's recommended to use repellant, and to get rid of standing water. let's keep in mind, mosquitos love to lay their eggs in standing water. back to you. >> i have been stung by a mosquito through my jeans, so some people, it just doesn't work. guad venegas, thank you. coming up next, what jack smith is focusing on in the january 6th investigation, and how it could make a prosecution potentially easier. plus, fox news might be

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legal experts have been telling that prosecuting donald trump on the insurrection could prove difficult because it could be hard to criminally link his words with rioter actions. jack smith is taking an alternate approach focusing instead according to nbc news analysis on an angle that might provide a clearer instance of potentially illegal conduct. joining me now is nbc news justice reporter ryan reilly, you're behind this analysis, explain it to me. >> yeah, so essentially what we've seen over the past, you know, several months, really, almost a year, is individuals appear before the grand jury who are involved, you know, in the

fake elector scheme and people also being questioned about some of the fundraising mechanisms that were going on. it seems that there's a particular interest in that infamous meeting which has been sort of referred to as the craziest meeting of the trump administration, which took place just before that will be wild tweet that set all of these events into motion, and involving all of these figures that he could seize voting machines and do all sorts of really out there methods to stop the peaceful transfer of power. you know, rudy giuliani we know has gone in to talk with investigators. he hasn't appeared before a grand jury specifically but has talked to investigators about it, and of course the most, you know, infamous or famous, most high profile person to appear before the grand jury was the former vice president himself who is now of course running against the former president trump for the republican primary. i think building to this key moment where they have to sort of get the show on the road

pretty quickly because you very quickly get into that 2024 timetable. in fact, we're kind of already in it. the longer you keep delaying this, the more that grinds up against long standing doj policies about not interfering with an ongoing political campaign. >> closer indeed, ryan reilly, thank you so much. tucker carlson may be off the air, but fox is not clear of the consequences of what he said on the air. on the pending defamation suit from smartmatic, there's a man from arizona considering defamation litigation. ray epps is a two-time trump voter present at the january 6th insurrection. there is tape of epps from the night before the attack encouraging the crowd to enter the capitol. while he was present on january 6th did not enter the capitol himself and told other protesters not to be violent. because doj has not charged

epps, carlson began to claim that he was a government plant, repeatedly saying on his prime time show that epps was in cahoots with the feds. joining me now is "new york times" reporter, and msnbc contributor jeremy peters, so what is epps considering suing over, what's he claiming? >> this really could be, katy, fox's next dominion style defamation suit because what tucker carlson said about ray epps over the course of 18 months was demonstrably false. he's claimed that ray epps was a secret government agent, that he incited the january 6th riots to embarrass trump supporters and make them look stupid, and none of that, of course was true. this idea that there is this government plant in the crowd on

january 6th came primarily from tucker carlson, and it caught wind and gained traction on the right from tucker carlson. so there's a very clear cut case, according to the defamation experts i have spoken to that really, you can make it that tucker carlson essentially defamed this guy, claimed that he was some type of government plant, and none of it was true. >> he said it multiple times on the air, unlike what we saw on dominion, carlson was agenda to a loft dominion claims. in this case, he plays a much more direct role. >> that's exactly right. if you look at the dominion claims, tucker carlson's broadcasts were one part of what dominion was arguing in court. they had like a 20-point case that they were making and tucker carlson's show was only one of

those 20. here you have 18 month of tucker carlson's shows over and over again, repeating these false stories that show ray epps is, you know, a secret agent that was in the crowd inciting the riot. and, you know, it never happened. now, none of that precludes ray epps from being charged, right, because what essentially ray epps is' opponents were arguing is that because he hasn't been charged, that somehow makes him a government agent. well, we don't know that ray epps is not charged. he very well could be charged and so it was this absence of a charge that led people to kind of run wild with these allegations that somehow this guy is, you know, responsible for the entirety of january 6th,

which even by the comparison of what dominion claims were, remember, dominion like somehow rigged the election, that their voting machines were somehow hackable, that trump or biden could steal votes from trump. that's all really fanciful, but what this guy is accused of, ray epps is crazier than that. >> get back to those text messages, might be telling you that you and i look like twins today in the same color. jeremy, thank you very much. we have reached out to fox news and tucker carlson's attorneys, we have not heard back. what prosecutors said to refute an irs whistleblower. and former sports doctor and convicted sexual abuser larry nassar was stabbed in prison. we're going to tell you what happened. stabbed in prison we're going to tell you what happened de is busting laundry's biggest myth...

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the prosecutor who investigated hunter biden has sent a letter to congress trying to set them straight on his decision to reach a plea deal. u.s. attorney david weiss wrote to the senate judiciary committee to deny republican and whistleblower claims that he wasn't allowed special counsel authority. joining me now is nbc news

senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake and nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. so what did he say in this letter, ken? >> reporter: well, katy, he said he never sought special counsel authority, but that appears to have been a mistake that the republicans and whistleblower made because he said that he did seek the authority to become a special attorney which would have given him the authority to bring a case in any jurisdiction in the country without the u.s. attorney. the whistleblower has said weiss told him he was blocked from bringing cases against hunter biden in california and the district of columbia. weiss is saying that's not true. he's not saying he didn't discuss potential charges in those jurisdictions but ultimately he didn't decide to bring those charges, and what he's saying is he had the full authority to do it if it was warranted and the sub text is the republican appointed, trump appointed u.s. attorney is saying there was no political interference in his prosecution.

>> is he saying that flat out, that this was not politically interfered by garland, nobody from the administration, he went where he needed to go. he charged what he thought he could charge and that this deal he made, this plea deal was not a sweetheart deal as republicans and this whistleblower are alleging, ken? >> reporter: we don't liken him to be that candid. he's constrained because the investigation remains open. he's not saying all of those things. what he is saying is he had the full authority to bring whatever charges he thought were warranted. that's important. it would be a problem if democratic u.s. attorneys had the ability to block potential charges against hunter biden and this irs whistleblower is a credible figure. he's a criminal investigator who was involved in this case. but, you know, case agents and prosecutors disagree all the time, katy, about the strength of criminal cases. and it often doesn't spill into the public like this one has. the republican majority in congress is amplifying every claim he's making including some that appear to be mistaken.

>> let's talk about congress, garrett. does this dissuade anybody in congress who quit investigating this to maybe back off merrick garland? >> reporter: i don't think so. look, i hope our viewers at home are interested this this story line because they're going to hear quite a lot about it the next month or so. house republicans are interested in digging in further to what whistleblowers had to say about the hunter biden investigation. investigations have been where the energy is, at least on the house side. very little is going to survive a democratic senate or president biden's veto pen. the investigations were going to get the lion's share of the energy. this whistleblower gives them somebody testifying under oath to a lot of the things they have been interested, the idea of business dealings between hunter biden and foreign entities, that joe biden might have known about it. it's given them a figure hold, a foothold to pursue this deeply. i expect to see one committee,

and possibly several try to get little pieces of that pie here in the next work period that lasts over the next three weeks or so. >> what is this interest among republicans in investigating the administration but using the holman rule, what's the holman rule? >> there's good reporting in "politico" about this this morning. the holman rule was revised by kevin mccarthy in this congress that essentially lets congress adjust the salaries of executive branch officials, potentially even zeroing them out. it's an idea that, you know, if you want to kind of punish an official for misdeeds or political disagreements you might have in theory, you could do this. it's something being discussed or explored as a way to go after cabinet officials with whom they have bigger issues like alejandro mayorkas. it runs into the same problem anything else, it has to pass the democratic controlled senate. it isn't going to go anywhere. you can think of this as a tool

republicans can use politically to show their base they're going after these folks, short of impeaching them. but i'm not sure it's going to get off the ground either. it just shows you, again, the energy behind the investigations and sort of the political fights as opposed to some of the very big legislative things that have to get done in the next work period, like funding the military or excuse me, authorizing the military and the ndaa and eventually funding the government before the end of september, which comes quicker than you realize when congress takes the entire month of august off. >> the house gets back to washington tomorrow. they're back in session. there's 12 days before the recess, right, what's on the agenda? >> the annual military authorization that's passed every year for 60 years running. both measures passed their respective committees in the house and senate. there are tons of amendments, hundreds of amendments that have been offered on this, including

things like marjorie taylor greene saying she wants to strip out all the funding for ukraine. how is that going to go over? right, there's a huge political fight that's going to happen around that bill. that's the most immediate thing, but the thing i think bears keeping one eye on at all times is the government funding issues, the appropriation bills that have to be passed by the end of the fiscal year, the ed of september. if that doesn't get done, we get into a government shutdown in october, and there's a clear indication that republicans aren't going to view the spending levels in the debt ceil negotiation, they're going view it as we need to lower the malt. it's not a ceiling or floor, it's just a guideline. expect to see a big fight about how much money we spend on very basic stuff over the next two months, if you want to see the government stay open. >> you have some long days ahead of you my friend. garrett haake, ken dilanian, gentlemen, thank you very much. and we've got some breaking news about something we were just talking about at the top of

the show. we're talking about nato, turkey's president erdogan has officially now agreed to forward sweden's ascension to nato. he said yes. secretary jens stoltenberg, announced they have protocol to the grand national assembly. with me now is ali, they were saying now, why are they now saying yes? >> if sweden was going to get in, they wanted membership in the european union. obviously pressure was put on erdogan to come and acquiesce, it is at an important time they wanted members to join, especially countries that are so close to russia.

so this is a huge coup for nato now to have norway and sweden on board, two countries that are right next to russia. it sends a big message to the russians that there's a big unity here, and it's a huge blow to russia, katy, if you think about it. this was a country that didn't want to join nato. they were offered to join nato in 1949, they chose a policy of not getting involved in conflicts, of being neutral during peacetime. this is a country that hasn't initiated a conflict since the wars, and now they're joining nato. the only reason they're joining nato is because of the russian invasion of ukraine. this is a really big deal. this is probably one of the biggest thing that could have happened at this conference besides bolstering support for nato, was sweden going to be able to join because it was so important for all the other nato nations to show this unity and there was this big question whether erdogan was going to keep blocking it here at this

summit. but clearly he hasn't. he's come around. he's let sweden join nato, bolstering nato's membership. now making it a much stronger country, and countries that are very close to russia. so this is not going to be good news for vladimir putin. but it's something that's going to be good news for the ukrainians and a bigger argument to let the ukrainians join without jumping through all of these hoops that have been put in front of them because sweden and norway didn't have to pass many of the tests they're asking ukraine to pass. this is going to give ukraine a boost and all of the nato countries but not a good day for vladimir putin. >> this could mean a lot for ukraine once they figure out how to end the war or russia stops waging war. let me ask about time line. jens stoltenberg says asap, how quickly will sweden be a full member of nato? >> reporter: well, i don't think

it's going to take very long. if we look how long it took for norway. it happened in very short order, and that's probably what they're going to do with sweden because there are no problems with sweden really joining nato. they don't have any of the issues that they've highlighted with ukraine. they have been inviting sweden to join, so this will probably happen in a very short period of time. weeks, if not months, before they're a full member of nato, and involved in operations right next door to russia. so, yeah, this is going to happen very very quickly now that turkey has agreed. that was the only stumbling block from stopping this happening very quickly, and that's been put to one side as well now. >> ali arouzi in lithuania where the sun sets late. thank you very much. coming up, have you seen this man? a man hunt is underway for an escaped murder suspect. what police say will make it harder to find him. olice say wit harder to find him ne's unlisted. try boost® high protein

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right now a manhunt is under way for a murder suspect who escaped from a pennsylvania prison this weekend. we are just minutes away from an update from the pennsylvania state police on the search. it's going to start at 4:00 p.m. michael charles burham, the suspect here, the escapee, has survivalist skills. police say he is considered very dangerous and that he is likely armed. we'll get that photo of him up again for you so you can recognize him if you see him. joining me is msnbc news correspondent rehema ellis. so, how did this guy get out? >> very interesting. maybe we'll learn more about that at this 4:00 news conference coming up. he was in an exercise yard within the confines of authorities. and they are telling us they had surveillance cameras. well, he got up on an exercise -- piece of exercise equipment, climbed on top of that. from there he climbed on top of a roof and got through a metal

portion of the roof. imagine, he had bed sheets with him or they were in place. they were tied together. he used that to shimmy down the wall and off into the woods. they're looking for him now. >> was he awaiting trial? >> he is awaiting a hearing arraignment. in fact, he's due to be arraigned in pennsylvania tomorrow on these charges with which he was in custody. >> so, police say he's a survivalist. >> yes, self-trained survivalist. someone interested in what's going on in the woods or how would he care for himself, feed himself if he had to. well, maybe, this is one of those times he has to. that's why they're saying they're searching in these wooded areas. the terrain is steep, very hilly and very dangerous. it's rough. so, some of this is foot by foot search. >> they say he's dangerous. they also say he could be armed. why do they think he could be armed? >> and why not? >> i mean, he would have to get the weapon. >> yes, but he also had to get the bed sheets. he also had to evade authorities

in terms of -- they say there were surveillance cameras in that yard. this person apparently knew the point of time when he could escape the view of the guards who were supposed to be looking at those tapes. so, this was planned. it wasn't just something obviously this person just got up and said, i'm going to leave, because he had equipment and i think that police are saying, they should assume that he is armed and that he is dangerous. >> don't approach him. thank you very much for joining us. up next, an nbc news exclusive. behind the scenes of fighting a secret war on terror. some descn intense burning sensation or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks. it could make your workday feel impossible. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you.

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we talk about war in ukraine almost daily. and yet quietly the united states military has been engaged in a war on terror across at least 20 countries. the brennan center for justice reports this is a two decade long effort stretching clear across the globe from south america to indonesia, including africa, where nbc news pentagon reporter courtney got access to the nefrts somalia. >> reporter: it's a mission most americans don't even know are happening. elite teams are fanned out all around the world, working with local partner forces in most cases to battle terror networks. one of the most urgent threats is in somalia against al shabab.

we embedded with u.s. forces training elite somali military troops as they participated in live fire drills, hand-to-hand combat and learned how to face their biggest threat from al shabab, roadside bombs or ieds. >> counter ie d-training takes plays here. >> reporter: this is the senior enlisted navy s.e.a.l. in charge of working with the somali troops. we cannot identify him for security reasons. >> ieds pose a significant problem. some of our troops provide that support as well. and basic marksmanship, patrolling tactics, small unit attacks. >> reporter: officials say two of every five soldiers will be wounded or killed in combat. about 350 recruits graduated today. they're now somali special forces and dozens of these men and women will be on the front lines in the battle against al shabab in a matter of days.

>> reporting for us, thank you very much. that is going to do it for me "deadline: white house" starts right now. hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. it is practically a statement of fact at this point that when it comes to donald trump, he tries to do exactly whatever it is he says he will do, that he will take any lever of power at his disposal to turn a threat or pledge made or twitter or on the stump into action. the latest example of this, new evidence showing that donald trump, while he was president pushed to get the irs to investigate fbi officials pete strzok and lisa page who were repeatedly and notoriously by the end targets of donald trump's wrath. from "the new york times" brand-new reporting on this evidence. john kelly who served as donald trump's second chief of white house staff said in a sworn