unbelievable. the pictures just hard to wrap your mind around. that does it for us. jose diaz-balart will pick up our coverage right now. good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we're tracking tropical storm idalia as the remnants barrel north after creating chaos in florida's west coast yesterday. we'll take you live to our reporters on the ground. major legal developments out of georgia, a judge found rudy giuliani liable for defaming two workers who counted votes in the 2020 election. we'll break down where the critical case goes next. in washington, senator mitch mcconnell's team is responding after the 81-year-old appeared to freeze again at an event in kentucky. meanwhile, a devastating tragedy in south africa. at least 73 people are dead after a massive fire tore through a five-story building, some jumping out of the

structure to escape the blaze. and happening right now, remnants of idalia going through north carolina, causing heavy flooding and even spawning tornadoes. in south carolina, just as the storm was barreling through the region, a small twister may have flipped over this car. take a look at that. this after idalia made landfall in florida yesterday as the most powerful hurricane to hit the big bend in over 100 years, packing wind speeds of up to 125 miles an hour. at one point in cedar key, the storm surge surpassing ten feet, entire neighborhoods converted into rivers. right now, just as we approach the hottest point of the day, roughly 300,000 people are without electricity across the south as crews are working around the clock to restore power. joining us now with more is nbc news meteorologist angie lassman and nbc's julia ainsley is in

morehead, city, north carolina, and nbc's guad venegas in cedar key, florida. there is an update from the national hurricane center at 11:00. what does it have to say? >> reporter: we have expected this, not much of a change as far as intensity, not much of a change as far as the -- where it goes down the line, the forecast in the coming days. we're still going to expect this to continue to weaken here as we move through at least thursday and friday, finishing out our workweek. and down the line, we could see our friends in bermuda dealing with this system as a tropical storm, not expecting the intensity of what folks in florida dealt with, that landfall, but still some rain and potentially some stronger winds that they'll have to contend with. right now that latest update does still keep the winds at 60 miles per hour and moving east now at 20 miles per hour. notice the center has been offshore for some time now, and the earlier hours of the morning. we saw that work offshore. but the rain is still draped across parts of the carolinas. kind of starting to taper off for folks in south carolina. but still dealing with heavier rain across parts of north

carolina and even into portions of virginia, where we have seen really impressive storm surge values as well as flooding concerns as expected. here is the rain right now. most of the heavier stuff is norfolk off to the north and east. we're going to continue to see that pull away as the system gets further away. we still have flood concerns. the flood watch is going to last until 5:00 this afternoon. you're not out of the woods when it stops raining here in the next hour or couple of hours for this area. you're still going to have to deal with the potential for flooding as we wait for that water to recede, where you see that brighter red or that shade of red, that's a flash flood warning in effect for that coastal area of north carolina as well. there is the center of the storm, wind gusts still coming in, 40, 50 miles per hour. we're still dealing with stronger wind gusts that could knock down trees and palm fronds and stuff like that, that we'll have to watch for here as we work through the next hour or so. but the storm surge is going to start to alleviate as well. this will be something that we'll see improvements on throughout the day, not major improvements immediately, but

definite improvements as we get closer to the afternoon hours and folks have quieter conditions to see exactly what has happened across their community here as we, of course, get the dryer conditions settling in for folks there. >> julia, what are conditions like where you are this morning? >> reporter: windy in a word here, jose. we're having a big wind gust coming in, rain is coming in intermittently off and on. we saw the sun peek through for a moment. things are improving here along the coast of the carolinas. as you know throughout north and south carolina, 50,000 people remain without power. but here in downtown morehead city, the businesses are closed, we're still seeing traffic pick up because by and large that flooding they were worried about, they expected as much as a four-foot storm surge, it hasn't come. in fact, high tide already receded. so we're seeing at this point as far as damage to this area, they might be in the clear. now, this is my home state,

we're used to hurricanes here, right here where i'm standing in 2018, this restaurant had a heap of water flowing during hurricane florence. locals feel like they were spared the brunt of the damage of this storm, especially compared to people in florida. but to watch throughout the day, looking at this wind and the rain as it might pick up and just sort of build more and more and some of the low lying areas there could be localized flooding. they remain under the tropical storm warning as we see the dismantling of the storm as it moves out to sea. >> yeah, julia, we talk about storm surge, something that we saw in florida just in the last 48 hours. guad what are you seeing there? cleanup efforts continue at this hour. >> reporter: jose, we saw what the storm surge was like all along the west coast, so this is cedar key. i want to show you the destruction that is left. this is a hotel, here in cedar key, where some of the cottages were completely destroyed. this one is completely gone. and then there is another one

over there that is missing an entire side wall. what i want to show you, jose, is when you look at this from the outside, i first looked at some of these structures and they look like they were made out of wood, but this one, jose, it is cinder block. these walls that were blown out of the way are made out of block. these aren't some of the structures we have seen in the past that are damaged by hurricanes are usually older structures made out of wood, but look at the materials that this was built with. and the storm surge came in, and just completely destroyed this cottage. the owner of this hotel said this was the favorite most popular one for clients and i'll show you why. this is also one of the reasons, jose, why people live in this part of florida, because you have a place like this, and the view is a beautiful ocean view. sometimes people live in other parts of the country wonder why do people live in areas right where you get hurricanes? it is because they enjoy these ocean views, these are communities with a lot of

tourism, communities with people that buy homes and retire, it is a beautiful part of the country that, of course, deals with these storms. and this is where the water sits now. so you mentioned how high that storm surge came in. we can actually see some chairs, a microwave in the water, you talk about the debris and all of the stuff that needs to be cleaned up. these are just the items that i'm looking at here, there is some small piers over here that look like they -- they're missing everything on top, right? they're missing a big chunk of what -- was there before. and we actually spoke to a resident up the street who has a tourism business who told us everything was damaged, so he made another point, jose, i said, this community, i was thinking, this community depends on tourism. while we have this cleanup process happening, there is no tourism that is going to be happening here, so there is an economic loss for a lot of these businesses that depend on the visitors. a lot of moving pieces here and we also heard that the governor is going to be making his way to

some of these communities along the coast. offering that support. i saw some vehicles from the national guard outside of cedar key, probably planning how they can bring in some of the help and the cleanup efforts are happening. if you look at the images now compared to what it was like yesterday, there has been a lot of cleanup taking place. after they cleaned -- or they picked up all the debris off the bridge that connects the mainland to cedar key yesterday, then the help started coming in. but as you can see, this is the destruction here in cedar key, jose. >> and, guad, it is important we talk about the health that is coming. the governor is going to be there and it is important that he go there and offer support to the folks there. but, guad, a lot of the people are coming in to help to clean up are people who may not be living from there and maybe even without their documents. >> reporter: yes, yes. i think you're asking me about

the people that -- were you asking about the possibility of people who were undocumented that are -- that might have been affected, jose? i lost you for a second. >> i'm sorry. guad, let me get back to that. what we're talking about is that there are people coming in to help clean up the debris, et cetera, that maybe don't live there, but maybe don't have their documents but are coming in there to support the efforts to clean up these places. >> reporter: so, we're going to have to wait and see when we see the cleanup crews. last year during hurricane ian, we reported on the workers that were being bused in or trucked in to help with that cleanup process. and what happened last year is that some of the companies that were hired to do the cleanup process, those companies needed labor, so what they did is they went around and spoke to some of the subcontractors, at least that's what i was told by the workers themselves, a lot of them told me they were undocumented, how were you recruited to come to the

cleanup? we haven't seen the crews come in yet, but we should be seeing them in the next day or two and then we can speak with them. last year, i can tell you that i spoke to some of the workers who told me they were undocumented and who said they had been recruited by some of these companies. that type of cleanup is probably goinging to happening in the next few hours, jose. >> guad venegas, julia ainsley, thank you for being with us this morning. i spoke with former fema administerer craig fugate yesterday about how people who are undocumented or families with mixed immigration status can get help. here is a reminder of what he said yesterday. >> fema has prohibited -- financial assistance directly to undocumented people. a child born in the u.s. is a u.s. citizen. we have been through storms before we worked with red cross and others, catholic charities, if we find a child born in the u.s., they can register on behalf of their family for fema

assistance. >> and if you or anyone you know needs help from fema, you can visit fema.gov. you can also call the number you see on the screen. 1-800-621-3362. for our viewers who speak spanish -- [ speaking in a non-english language ] we're back in 60 seconds with breaking news on president trump's fulton county, georgia, case. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. se you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. i'm adding downy unstopables to my wash now. i'll be smelling fresh all day long. [sniffs] still fresh. still fresh! get 6 times longer-lasting freshness, plus odor protection with downy unstopables. let innovation refunds help with your erc tax refund so you can improve your business however you see fit. rosie used part of her refund to build an outdoor patio.

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donald trump just waved his arraignment appearance and entered a not guilty plea. trump and his co-defendants have an arraignment scheduled for next wednesday. it comes as the judge in georgia overseeing the case against trump and his 18 co-defendants is set to hold a hearing today on requests by news organizations to allow additional cameras and other recording devices in the courtroom. also comes one day after a federal judge said rudy giuliani defamed two georgia election workers and is liable for damages after failing to comply with discovery obligations in their lawsuit over baseless claims they committed fraud during the 2020 election. a civil trial will be held to determine the amount of damages. with us now nbc news correspondent blayne alexander in atlanta and paul butler, former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at the georgetown university school of law. he is also an msnbc legal analyst. so, blayne, what do we know about trump waving this

arraignment? >> reporter: well, we know that that was entered not too long ago, jose. we know that, yeah, his arraignment is scheduled for next week on september 6th. now that he's waved it, that means he will not be coming down to fulton county next week. he won't be appearing in person. he won't have a virtual appearance. he waved that appearance altogether and he's entered a not guilty plea. this is something that we expected to happen. we have seen several of his co-defendants do the same thing, wave their appearances, put in a not guilty plea. now it is on the record from the former president. it also answers a number of questions we had around this as to whether or not we would see kind of the same almost extraordinary moment where we saw him come down to georgia last week, surrender, turn himself into jail. would we see him come back to georgia and appear before a judge? that will now not be the case. i understand that at least from a local perspective there was a plan in place as to how security would go, how the courthouse would be secured, if that was something that needed to be

used. but, again, because he's entered that not guilty plea, waved that arraignment, he's not coming back down here, at least not in the immediate future. >> paul, is this a surprise for anyone? >> not at all. trump would much rather be at mar-a-lago or on 5th avenue or on the campaign trail than at an arraignment in fulton county. especially as blayne indicates, one that will be televised. this is a move that everyone expected trump to do, many of the other 19 defendants in this case will make the same move. >> paul, what is the legal process? does there have to be some, you know, agreement or something for these wavers to take effect? >> the judge has to approve it, but they usually do. this is a fairly standard courtroom proceeding at the arraignment. the defendant is formally advised of the charges against him or her and they enter a

plea. almost always the first time for people who have great lawyers or rich people, they enter pleas of not guilty. so that's what trump and these other 18 people will do. what's the most important aspect of the arraignment is that the judge will set the schedule for motions. that is legal proceedings in which the defendants try to get the case dismissed or as we have seen in this case, moved to a federal court. >> blayne, what does the giuliani ruling mean and what comes next for him in this case? >> reporter: well, there is a lot of overlap with what we saw. of course, that ruling was in a civil case, but it found he's liable for spreading false information about those two election workers, ruby freeman and shaye moss about saying they were at the center of election fraud here in georgia. that's not the case. and now a judge has found that that is not the case. what was said about them were lies. so, that's kind of where that stands right now. it is not going before a jury to decide whether or not giuliani

has to pay additional damages. remember, he's already having to pay attorney fees to the tune of some $130,000 or so. now a jury will decide whether or not he has to pay more. now, how that impacts georgia, remember, this is very much -- this was one of the allegations at the center of this indictment here in georgia. false claims about the 2020 election and including those that were spread about the two election workers, jose. >> paul what could happen to giuliani as a result of this ruling? >> he could get fined lots and lots of money. the judge said that giuliani is apparently worried about his legal exposure in other cases including the georgia prosecution and that may be why he's refusing to turn over evidence. jose, it is really an extraordinary opinion, the judge is extremely dismiss of giuliani's character and his honesty. it seems appropriate the way that he's disrespected the legal process in this case.

he hasn't complied with the rules of civil procedure regarding his obligation to turn over evidence to the defense. the judge said that his claims have more holes than swiss cheese. she didn't buy anything he said. he already has been ordered to pay these election workers $82,000, he claims he doesn't have the money, but the judge noted that he's got a condo on the market for almost $7 million. >> so, how does going forward, paul, how does that kind of square, right, with what the judge is saying and what certainly the plaintiffs, you know, are saying, and then also the fact that, you know, sooner or later, right, paul, you got to find out what someone is worth legally, right? >> under our rules of civil procedure, the defendants have an absolute -- the plaintiffs have an absolute right to find

that out. giuliani has been fighting that at every turn. that's why the judge found as a matter of law that giuliani defamed freeman and moss, the election workers. she made that finding as a sanction. she was intentionally penalize giuliani for not turning over the evidence. the only question for the jury is the amount of damages. but the judge suggested she thinks that it should be substantial and, jose, she also said that if giuliani continues not to follow the rules, if he doesn't hand over evidence as he should, she's going to instruct the jury that he's tried to hide his net worth and they should take that into account when deciding damages against giuliani. >> blayne alexander and paul butler, thank you very much for being with us. ahead, what we're learning about the newly released financial disclosures of some of the supreme court justices. and, next, after being asked about running for re-election,

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24 past the hour. we have breaking news when it comes to ethics at the u.s. supreme court. last hour, the 2022 financial disclosure forms for justices were released. in his disclosure form, justice thomas disclosed trips that were paid for by billionaire harlan crowe. the reports follow a series of articles revealing details of gifts and luxury travel paid for by republican megadonors.

nbc's lawrence hurley who covers the supreme court joins us this morning. good morning. what else are we learning from the disclosure forms? >> i think there are two significant things on thomas' form in particular. this is the first time he's disclosed trips that were paid for by his friend harlan crowe and previously he hadn't disclosed the trips in previous years. this is the first year he's done it. so that's significant. the second thing is that, you know, he's quite defensive in his explanation as to why he didn't previously disclose them. he pins it on the fact that the judiciary changed its rules for what needs to be disclosed earlier this year, making it clear really -- crystal clear for first time that things like private jet travel paid for by friends had to be disclosed. so he is saying the only reason really he's disclosing it this year is that the rules have changed and therefore he's showing that these trips to dallas and other places did need to be disclosed this time.

and also in this report he addresses something else raised in the article which is some real estate transactions in savannah, a property he and other members of his family own that was sold to harlan crowe and thomas admits he probably should have disclosed this previously, but said he didn't feel like he needed to at the time because when he sold the property, he didn't make any money off it because of previous investments he made into the property, which meant he didn't make any money out of the deal. >> lawrence, thank you very much for that update. i really appreciate it. >> no worries. and this morning, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell's team is responding to this moment yesterday when the 81-year-old froze at an event in kentucky. >> what are your thoughts on running for re-election in 2026 -- running for re-election in 2026.

>> mcconnell's office said he was feeling light headed at the time of the event and will consult a physician prior to his next event. joining us now with more is ali vitali. ali, good morning. how are lawmakers on capitol hill reacting? >> reporter: this is not the first time that we have seen this kind of a moment from the minority leader. in fact, it happened just about a month ago before the senate went on a lengthy summer recess. we're seeing the same kind of support for the 81-year-old mcconnell we saw the first time. but this happened back here on the hill. many members of gop senate leadership saying they spoke with mcconnell yesterday, that he was in good spirits and himself. we have not seen any of the kind of behind the scenes politicking you might expect that could come from someone of this stature and power level within the party. clearly showing signs of age and worrying many people up here on the hill. you got to just say, those

moments, the first time we saw it, and now the second, yesterday, are really concerning and frankly hard to watch. we also seem to see, though, this concerted effort yesterday not just from his senate colleagues, but from other people who spoke with mcconnell in recent hours after that latest episode to say he's still doing the work. for example, congressman jim banks who is running for senate right now said he spoke to mcconnell, again trying to show that mcconnell is at work. and i do think as we watch lawmakers finally coming back to town next week on the senate side, watching the ways that these conversations happen with republicans, trying to ask more questions about if this is something that happens with mcconnell only publicly or if they have seens like this behind the scenes in closed door meetings. all of these now are becoming questions that need more answers, jose, as we keep seeing moments play out. it is the second time his office said he was light headed or in the first instance dizzy. and that he's going to be

consulting a doctor. it is potentially coming to a point where it is untenable for them to continue not really giving clear answers to what is going on here. >> ali vitali on capitol hill, thank you very much. coming up, a horrific tragedy in johannesburg, what officials are saying about a deadly fire that killed at least 70 people. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. e. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. (ella) fashion moves fast. setting trends is our business. we need to scale with customer demand... ...in real time. (jen) so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) with verizon business, we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) so our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) it's not just a network. it's enterprise intelligence. (vo) learn more. it's your vision, it's your verizon.

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33 after the hour, turning to washington, where we are waiting for what could be one of the longest sentences delivered in connection with the january 6th attack on the capitol. federal prosecutors were seeking 33 years in federal prison for former proud boys leader joe biggs who was convicted with three other members of the far right group of seditious conspiacy for their role in the attack. ryan reilly joins us now. what did the judge have to say? >> reporter: he calculated the guidelines, which if implemented would be the longest sentence of any january 6th attack defendant. that said, he is talking about potential for departing downward from that range, so that could not ultimately being the sentence range he gets. that's what they're starting off with, saying he does get a terrorism enhancement because he -- this was a crime of terrorism in taking down that black fence that joe biggs took down in front of the capitol on

january 6th, that was under federal law a crime of terrorism because it was all about this broader movement of using force to basically to oppose the federal government, to strike fear in the hearts of lawmakers, who were inside the capitol that day. so could ultimately end up with the longest sentence here. the longest sentence to date was 18 years. that went to the founder of the oath keeper, stewart rhodes. they were seeking 25 years and the judge landed on 18 years back in may. and in that case, he was calling rhodes a threat to the country. we could see in the next half hour or so that record be shattered potentially by judge kelly in this case, who is overseeing the sentencing here of joe biggs. >> ryan reilly in washington, thank you. turning now to some headlines from beyond our borders. this morning, north korea claims it carried out a simulated nuclear strike on south korea, according to a north korean state media. north korea says the simulation

was in response to new u.s. and south korean military drills. in the central african nation of gabon, military leaders say they seized power and arrested the country's president in an attempted coup. the move comes hours after the president declared victory on wednesday's presidential election, which has been criticized by international observers as not being credible. in uganda, two men have become the first to be charged under one of the world's harshest lgbtq laws which can result in life in prison or the death penalty in certain cases. and in johannsburg, south africa, at least 73 people are dead after a fire broke out at a building that was occupied by homeless people. nbc's matt bradley is covering the story for us. what do we know about what happened there? >> reporter: good morning, jose. as it stands, it looks like the fire has been controlled, the building is still smoldering and

rescue workers are still going through the painstaking process of searching this entire five-story building for survivors. and for bodies. now, this was a real tragedy, jose. at least 73 people died. and that number is likely to go up including now, according to some sources at least a dozen children. that number has gone up from seven earlier in the day. the fact there were so many homeless people there meant the entire building was a warren of tents and living areas for squatters and that's why it's been so difficult for rescue workers because the building, it hadn't been maintained. the fire escapes were apparently no longer functioning, nobody knows how the fire started, but it is thought since it is winter and the building is off the electrical and gas grid, perhaps people were cooking or heating for themselves over these open fires and that might have set off this terrible blaze. now, one of the things that caused such a massive loss of life is the building was vacated by the previous owners and is now occupied by what is thought to be about 200 squatters. many were homeless people and

many of those were undocumented immigrants from outside of south africa. so, this fire is likely to become an indictment of the state of johannesburg and really modern south africa because this was one of some, quote, 700 hijacked buildings, right in the center of the city's commercial district. and this used to be a buzzing area and what is still the richest city in africa. but south africa's economy has been diminishing and so companies that once inhabited the office spaces have left. and there has been a huge influx of undocumented migrants. that caused buildings like this to become so terribly overcrowded. there is a lot of criticism levied against the government. the government said, listen, we can't evict these people, the law won't let us. we're seeing hundreds of buildings occupied by homeless people, the law won't let them go in and remove people. this is likely to happen again and maybe even at the same level of lethality. jose? >> matt bradley, thank you very

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gusty winds and low humidity, people should delay activities that could cause sparks. now as residents of maui pick up their lives, two big stars are stepping in to help in the recovery efforts. nbc's sam brock has the latest. >> reporter: this morning, some relief for the people of maui, from two of hollywood's biggest stars. >> we have been meeting with community leaders for the past couple of weeks and just trying to figure out what we could do. >> reporter: oprah and the rock dwayne johnson coming together to aid communities impacted by the wildfires, launching a fund with an initial donation of $10 million, but also asking for more help. >> in this time of need, you want to take care of the greatest need, the people, and that's giving them money. >> reporter: the two reflecting on the devastation of the fires. >> oprah lives here. maui. i was raised on these islands. my family are buried in these islands. it is going to take a long time

to rebuild, probably get a little worse before it gets a little better, but we're here doing what we can do. >> reporter: all this essamu ass reeling, but looking to rebuild. search and rescue crews have all but finished the operations as the death toll standing at 115, the same as it has been for weeks, with fewer than half of those victims identified. while those searching for some peace want answers about how and why this happened. scarred residents said they had no warning of the fast moving fire, with officials promising to overhaul the siren system. this latest briefing contentious. >> let me finish. >> reporter: the mayor questioned about who is calling the shots at the emergency management center as lahaina was burning. >> i'm not sure who was in charge. i think herman was still in charge, he just wasn't present. he was in contact with his team, i guess, by phone.

>> reporter: the questions mounting as more relief comes in. president biden now pledging $95 million to rebuild infrastructure, and to harden hawaii's electric grid. >> we're doing everything we can to move heaven and earth to help you rebuild and return to your lives. >> we thank sam brock for that report. we continue tracking idalia as it is forecast to move offshore today. officials say it could hit bermuda next week as a tropical storm. idalia comes two weeks after noaa raised the forecast of the hurricane season, saying they anticipate more dangerous storms than they originally projected. joining us now, jeff masters, meteorologist for yale climate connections, also a former hurricane scientist at noaa. great seeing you. so, give us an update on idalia and how the tropics look right now. >> idalia is moving out to sea, which is good news, still going to bring a little storm surge and some rain to eastern north

carolina. maybe threaten bermuda this weekend. but it is pretty much a past story. now, the tropics still look pretty active. we have a bunch of storms out there, including a storm named jose, looks like we'll get another one called katia off the coast of africa. none of these are expected to threaten land. by next week, though, it looks like a new tropical wave we have to be concerned with. >> what is that looking like? >> yeah, that is supposed to come off the coast of africa on saturday and move across the atlantic more on a westerly trajectory than what we have been seeing. that could potentially be a threat to the caribbean or north america in the long range, we're talking, you know, more like a week or ten days in the future. so one to keep an eye on. nothing to be concerned with at present. >> so, jeff, do you think there is a connection between climate change and the hurricanes that we're seeing? i mean, you know, what is your analysis of that? >> absolutely.

because hurricanes are heat engines that take heat out of the ocean, convert it to kinetic energy, the winds. if you heat up the oceans, you could potentially have a stronger hurricane. and moreover more rapidly intensifying one like we saw this week. and we have been seeing an increasing number of these storms in recent years rapidly intensifying hurricanes making landfall right on the gulf coast in particular. we just have seen nine major hurricanes at the u.s. the last seven years and i don't think we would have seen that battering if it hadn't been for warmer oceans due to climate change. >> and so, why does the ocean get warmer and is that not something that happens just every year or why the increase? >> yeah, i mean, the long-term warming of the oceans, that's due to heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. now, we had exceptionally warm ocean waters this summer, that

was partially due to weather. we had unusually light winds. when you have that situation, you don't mix up the ocean as much, causing cooling, and you have more sunshine like we saw this summer, that helped heat up the ocean as well. about half of the warming we ascribe to the oceans, the other half due to long-term global warming. >> and, jeff, you know, as we know the atlantic hurricane season is june to november. how do you see things going forward? we're still just last day of august today. >> yeah, the peak of the season is usually the second week of september, so we're not quite half over. but the season is probably going to get more quiet after maybe an active week or two coming up now in the early part of september. we go through these periodic cycles of active, not active and so on. but the fact that the oceans are record warm right now, most of the atlantic, that could let us

see activity well into october and november, despite the presence of an el nino, which usually tends to dampen atlanta hurricane activity. >> what is that relationship between el nino and the atlantic hurricane season? >> el nino is a warming of the waters in the eastern pacific and it eastern pacific. it tends to bring strong upper level winds over the atlantic. those winds cause wind sheer which will tear storms apart before they can get going. that increased wind sheer usually reduces the number of hurricanes. in fact, we haven't seen much in the caribbean this year, which is the signal you expect to see during el nino. it doesn't have much impact on, say, the gulf of mexico where idalia formed and the eastern activity where activity is going on. >> franklin was hitting the dominican republic and haiti last week. i appreciate your time. very informative conversation. i hope to have you back soon. >> thanks, jose.

up next, new inflation and jobs information is out. what it all means for all of us, our wallet and more.

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it is international overdose awareness, a day meant to highlight the need to end drug overdoses. it comes as the maker behind the

overdose narcan will be available at major retailers. it could be available to buy online. a two-pack box of narcan will cost about $45. overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the u.s. we are getting another look at where things stand when it comes to the fight against inflation. what are we learning from the personal data information? >> they have so many acronyms. it's a very important number for our central bank, the federal reserve. the central bank's goal is to bring down inflation. what we saw in july is that prices climbed 3.3%, which is higher than what we saw in june. even if you strip out the volatile gas as well as food, that number was still about 4.2% higher. compared to last year, we are

improving. there's a little bit of an improvement. it's concerning for the fed. it gives them incentive to continue to increase interest rates. the policy rate is 5.35%. that trickles down to further expensive debt for you and i. think of credit card debt, mortgages, it keeps climbing because the fed sets the policy rate. with this latest july number, it shows inflation is still climbing higher. >> we got the first time jobless claims this morning. >> yeah. this is an important number. it allows us to see the number of layoffs each week. we saw 228,000 jobless claims, which sounds like a lot. it is. people seeking assistance, unemployment benefits. it improved just a little bit. on the four-year average -- four-week average, i should say, it's climbing, but it's still nowhere what we have seen in the pre -- or just in the middle of the pandemic. that's a good thing. employers are keeping their employees and maybe the labor

market is starting to cool off so slightly, which is another goal of the fed. >> the august jobs reports come out tomorrow. what are expectations? >> last quarter -- or last month we had a goldilocks scenario. we are expecting a very similar situation with this upcoming jobs report. 3.5% for unemployment, 170,000 non-farm jobs added. again, it's strength. there's concern. they are starting to show cracks. we are seeing people, savings rates are declining. household saving rates, and more people are applying for auto loans and those are signs the economy is very strong, but we are starting to see that slowdown that the fed has been pushing towards. >> thank you so very much. >> thank you. as we wrap up this morning,

i want to take a moment to reflect and remember the life and legacy of don browne. he passed away as a result of a brain tumor at 80 years old. here at nbc universal, he will be remembered -- there's a picture with his beloved maria. he will be remembered for his leadership in our newsrooms and in the wake of historic moments such as the natural disasters, the fall of the berlin wall. i can go on and on how he served and witnessed. he retired in 2011. he served 30 years with nbc universal. his son wrote -- a beautiful statement that chris and his other son ryan wrote. he left the world the same way he lived in it, grateful. this is a gentleman who was larger than life.

he lived a life of service. lifting up so many people, mentoring so many people. it's a privilege for me to have been his friend and to have learned so much from a man who lived his life with a vocation of service. that wraps up the hour for me. you can reach me on social media. you can watch highlights from today's show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," former president trump has entered a not guilty plea in the georgia election interference case, and he waived his right to appear in person at his arraignment in fulton county next week. his former lawyer, rudy giuliani, has been final liable for defaming two georgia election workers by