courtney kube is in somalia tonight. >> reporter: tonight in somalia, an urgent fight against one of the world's biggest terror threats we're with u.s. forces now training somali troops in live fire drills and hand-to-hand combat. the target, al shabaab, the al qaeda subsidiary responsible for deadly attacks across africa including on u.s. civilians. u.s. troops are not on the front lines here, but do watch from overhead drones. this never before seen video shows somali forces taking back territory that al shabaab once held. this is the joint operation center the video was first seen here where the u.s. military monitors drone feeds of somali special operators during missions. when trouble arises the u.s. can provide support with air strikes. that decision made by the commander of the u.s. special operations task force east africa. we can't identify him for safety concerns. he says he turns down more strikes than approves often to avoid civilian casualties >> one strike won't win or lose this war, but one bad strike will take that authority and capability away from us and have ramifi

fighter jets defense secretary lloyd austin discussing it in an exclusive interview with nbc's courtney kube. >> reporter: defense secretary lloyd austin sitting down for his first interview since the u.s. shot down a chinese spy balloon and then three other flying objects over north america. has anyone claimed ownership of the last three? >> no, they haven't. >> reporter: the intelligence community now believes those three objects were not hostile, but austin defended the recommendation to take them out >> the safety and security of the american people is always foremost in our minds. >> reporter: the decision, he says, made because the objects threatened commercial aviation and may have been collecting intelligence objects like these likely over u.s. skies for years but going undetected is this something that the american people have been potentially in danger from for years and just not known it? >> we don't know, you know, how frequently these things may or may not have appeared in our airspace. we're learning a lot more about that. >> reporter: the fact that the u.s. military didn't kno

let's get right to our pentagon correspondent courtney kube she's been following all of this from the beginning. courtney, what could these objects possibly be >> reporter: so we only know about the first one, that was high altitude chinese surveillance balloon the other three are smaller. it's not clear who owns them. we don't even really know what they were doing whether surveillance or something else we do know that the u.s. would take a couple things into account when deciding whether to shoot them down one is whether they pose a threat to civilian or military aviation the next is, do they pose a threat to people on the ground and then, finally, do they pose some sort of general national security threat? those would have been taken into consideration when deciding to take it down. >> the biggest question everyone has, is there some kind of increase in the number of flying objects right now? were they always there and the military is just finding them? >> reporter: that is also not clear we know the u.s. military now is looking at a wider range of radar data. they may just be seein

courtney kube, thank you. >>> the u.s. secretary of state blinken was supposed to travel to china for this weekend for an historic visit with president xi, but after the discovery of the balloon, he postponed his trip. ryan nobles is at the white house with how the biden administration is reacting. ryan. >> reporter: peter, good morning. president biden has yet to publicly weigh in on the situation with the chinese spy balloon. playing down the threat. letting the state department and pentagon do most of the talking. it is clear that they are taking this issue very seriously and part because as you mentioned the secretary of state blinken postponing his anticipated trip to china that had been scheduled for today. that hasn't been enough for republicans who are using this incident as an opportunity to hammer president biden for being too soft on china criticizing the decision to not bring it down. meanwhile, officials in congress are looking for answers how this happened. peter. >> ryan nobles at the white house. thank you.

wouldn't be surprised if the two membership do get together if that's something they discuss. >> courtney kubeurtney who first broke the story. we expect to hear from president biden as soon as today about the chinese spy balloon. the latest from our white house team next. we are live in munich at the security conference as it's beginning to open right here in germany. germany. we all have a purpose in life - a “why.” no matter your purpose, at pnc private bank we will work with you every step of the way to help you achieve it. so let us focus on the how. just tell us - what's your why? good luck. td ameritrade, this is anna. hi anna, this position is all over the place, help! hey professor, subscriptions are down but that's only an estimated 15% of their valuation. do you think the market is overreacting? how'd you know that? the company profile tool, in thinkorswim®. yes, i love you!! please ignore that. td ameritrade. award-winning customer service that has your back. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ hey, man. nice pace! clearly, you're a safe driver. you could save hundreds for safe driving with libert

nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube got that exclusive interview.oins us now from brussels. what all did he tell you, courtney? >> reporter: that's right. so on ukraine, he's here to meet with the ukraine defense contract group. that's a group of about 50 nations that get together and talk about weapons and equipment that they can provide to ukraine in the near term and long-term. that meeting was yesterday. today he met with fellow nato defense ministers also talking largely about ukraine. i asked him specifically as we're on the eve of the one-year anniversary of russia's invasion of ukraine where is this going from here. the u.s. until the past year has provided increasingly more potentially escalatory weapons to ukraine, like the patriots, the himars, the stingers, things at one point the u.s. was hesitant to give they're now providing en masse. i asked him a year from now what would this look like. here's what he had to say. is the u.s. getting more and more directly involved in the war in ukraine, and how could that evolve over the coming mont

lester >> courtney kube, at the pentagon, thank you. this incident is already having a serious ripple effect with the secretary of state postponing a trip to china at a time of rising tensions between the two countries. andrea mitchell has that part of the story. >> reporter: that chinese spy balloon blowing up secretary of state tony blinken's high-stakes trip to china. >> in light of china's unacceptable action, i'm postponing my planned travel this weekend to china >> reporter: blinken would have been the first secretary of state to visit china in six years, now calling it off, even though he was expected to meet with china's president xi jinping to smooth relations at a time of historic tensions the two superpowers at odds over china's support for vladimir putin in ukraine, threats against taiwan, north korea's nuclear program, trade and china spying on the u.s. >> we have to send a very clear signal to china that this is unacceptable. >> reporter: experts say it's no coincidence china launched its spy balloon the same week the u.s.

joining us now nbc's courtney kube who was the first to report this story, and general barry mccaffreyretired four-star general and an nbc news military analyst. courtney, what are officials saying about this balloon? what really is it, and how did the u.s. learn about its presence? >> so the u.s. military first started tracking this several days ago. it moved down from the aleutian islands through canada into montana, and they were watching it during its entire track. they're characterizing it as a high altitude surveillance balloon, so something that is gathering, collecting information. they've been really particular about not saying what kind of information it can gather with the exception of the fact a senior defense official told me they don't believe it has any kind of new or different intelligence capabilities beyond some of the things that they already know that china does, like using satellites to gather information about things in the continental u.s. so they've been tracking this for several days, but one of the differences here, this is not unprecedented. the chinese have

pentagon correspondent, courtney kube. peter, let's start with you, you were able to get some questions off camera. can you tell us a little bit about what you asked him and what more he said about this government effort led by the nsa to have a policy in place for what's in the skies above us? >> reporter: because there was shooting in the room, he couldn't hear my question. after he left, the president called me on my cell phone about 20 minutes ago so that i could ask those questions so i want to share with you what i asked him and what he told you, specifically i asked him, over reaction, of aerial objects and whether he was responding to political pressure. some of the president's critics have suggested. i'm going to read from my notes in that conversation. the political pressure would have been easier not to do it because i got a recommendation from the military that they should do it. it turns out, he said that now, we understand there's further information, the reason i did not hold a press conference earlier is i

i want to bring in nbc's courtney kube. capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, and retired four star general barry mccaffrey, and msnbc military analyst. the big question we don't know, where did this thing come from? was it china given what we saw with the chinese surveillance balloon last week. still no answer to that key question. >> we don't know who sent it, who it belongs to or what it was. there's a couple of big differences we have been learning about. one is the altitude. this one posed a threat to civilian and military aircraft, and people, there were some questions there about how it was detected and when. remember, norad and northcom, one of their major jobs and responsibilities is to track aircraft over north american airspace. that's about the same altitude aircraft are flying. stands to reason this would have been more easily tracked potentially. it was a lot smaller than the chinese surveillance balloon we learned about last week. that means two things, number one, if they were to take it down, it wouldn't h

. >> joining me live now live from munich's courtney kube, courtney, thank you very much for being here, you are present at vice president harris's address this morning, what was the response in the room? >> you could hear a pin drop there in parts of that speech and particularly some of the more graphic descriptions of some of these crimes against humanity that the u.s. is now saying russia is guilty of, so, vice president harris went into detail about some of the things the u.s. is now accusing russia of having done, specifically russian military against ukrainian civilians, and, i am telling you jonathan you could hear a pin drop while she was saying these things, i was also very struck by how she said that russia would be held to account for these things, now, this is been one of the themes or the overarching topics that has been discussed at this munich security conference since it began yesterday, not just the warren ukraine, not just the fact that we are on the eve of the one year anniversary of russia's invasion, but the fact that there is a growing call for accountability for r

people on the ground could be hurt or killed. >> courtney kube who has her eye on the balloon. courtney. thank you. >>> who won the week is still ahead, but first, after voting to remove congresswoman ilhan omar from the foreign affairs committee, one republican is overheard calling it the stupidest vote in the world. we'll be right back. teeth sensitivity is so common. it immediately feels like somebody's poking directly on the nerve. i recommend sensodyne. sensodyne toothpaste goes inside the tooth and calms the nerve down. and my patents say: “you know doc, it really works." type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. and my patents say: in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't

. >> and the defense secretary lloyd austin was interviewed exclusively by my colleague courtney kube brussels today about these unidentified objects. let's watch. >> i'm not aware of any additional objects that have been reported operating in the space in the last 48 hours, so but in terms of whether or not the debris is important, it's absolutely important, and we're going to do everything we can to recover debris, if it's possible. that will help us learn a lot more about, you know, what these objects are. >> and that was, of course, lloyd austin at the news conference. he's about to sit down right now with courtney kube, we'll have that of course on msnbc later in the day. but what information are you hoping that we can learn from -- that you want to learn from the chinese and from the intelligence community now? >> yeah, first, there's alternate explanations for the last three instances. is it connected to china's surveillance program or is it potentially, again, commercial university research, benign uses? and again, it's not completely benign if it's in civilian air space. it p

joining us now nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube. good morning.nee and why did the transfer happen? >> so there's a couple of things that are unusual about this. this is a pakistani citizen, but he also was a resident of the united states. he spent his high school years in baltimore. after graduating from high school, the u.s. granted him asylum after the attacks on september 11th, he returned to pakistan and joined al qaeda ultimately working for al qaeda's operations chief, its planning operations chief. so he was the only detainee to be held at gitmo who had a status in the united state. he moved from guantanamo bay this morning, flew to belize where he will be resettled. this is the first time the biden administration has resettled a detainee. they have repatriate them, but this individual majid khan was cleared for release prior to this decision to send him to belize. this took months and months of diplomatic wrangling and discussions to decide where to send him. a senior state department official telling me that the decision, they're very pl

. >> i want to bring in nbc's courtney kube, she broke the story.e sherman, an msnbc political contributor. i know this came up at the pentagon briefing that wrapped up just a few minutes ago. tell us what did we learn, but what are also still the outstanding questions? >> reporter: yeah, so it dominated the pentagon briefing. that's for sure. one of the big questions that i've been asking is where is this balloon? we know as you mentioned it was spotted over billings, montana, the pentagon has acknowledged that. but yesterday when i was asking about it, no one would talk about the exact location. so we learned a little bit more about that from brigadier general pat rider, the pentagon spokesperson at the briefing. here's what he had to say. >> while we won't get into specifics in regards to the exact location, i can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental united states. again, we currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground a

if it were to happen, it would probably happen sometime over the summer. >> ryan nobles, courtney kube, carol lee, thank you very much. >>> and coming up, what president biden said in the last hour about our economy as we're hearing new warnings about when the u.s. could default on its debts. >>> plus, she's in, but can she beat her former boss? what nicky haley says she can do that trump cannot. >>> and enough is enough. what michigan state students did just two days after three of their classmates were shot and killed on their campus. e shot ad killed on their campus (woman 1) i just switched to verizon business unlimited. it's just right for my little business. unlimited premium data. unlimited hotspot data. (woman 2) you know it's from the most reliable 5g network in america? (vo) when it comes to your business, not all bars are created equal. so switch to verizon business unlimited today. think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins.

. >> nbc news pentagon correspondent, courtney kube, we have seen this over and over again.ke the move the u.s. made ahead of the invasion of ukraine, publicly they expect russia to do this, even saying the date. do they believe that they can turn things around with china by going out publicly and saying this. they weren't able to do it with russia. what is the belief internally about the way that they can influence shy jinping. >> there is this hope, according to -- among administration officials that by putting this information out before a decision is made as we heard from director burns there, that they will influence the decision and keep them from doing something. so there have actually been cases according to the administration officials where they believe they have been successful here. you mentioned the intelligence that was released before the russian invasion of ukraine. it did not stop the invasion. but the u.s. has put out other information that may have deterred. in the case of iran, they were open about the fact that they realize iran was providing russia with

could come as soon as today meanwhile, the defense secretary discussed this issue in an interview courtney kube. >> reporter: defense secretary lloyd austin sitting down for his first interview since the u.s. shot down a chinese spy balloon and three other objects over north america has anyone claimed ownership of the last three >> no, they haven't. >> reporter: now they believe they were not hostile, but austin defended the recommendation to take them out. >> the safety and security of the american people is always foremost in our minds. >> reporter: the decision, he says, made because the objects threatened commercial aviation and may have been collecting intelligence objects like these likely over u.s. skies for years but going undetected is this something the american people have potentially been in danger from for years and have not known it >> we don't know how frequently these things may or may not have appeared in our airspace we're learning a lot more about that >> reporter: the fact that the u.s. military didn't know about these until recently, is that a th intelligence failure a mili

nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube joins us now from munich. as her message for the western alliance, courtney? >> reporter: well, according to a white house official she'll have a number of high level meetings including with france's emmanuel macron and germany's olaf scholz and with the leaders of finland and sweden, two countries trying to join nato, decisions they've made since russia invaded ukraine a year ago. vice president harris addressed this conference almost exactly a year ago on the eve of the russian invasion. at that time she laid out what the u.s. knew about russia's potential plans for that invasion and any potential intelligence that the u.s. could share about how they worried that it could unfold. now, a year later, we will hear a very different speech from her. according to a white house official she'll talk about the resilience of the ukrainian people in the face of this brutal russian invasion and war, and she'll talk about how the u.s. will continue to support the ukrainian people in the face of this russian invasion and

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

we have reaction from capitol hill, mike memoli joins us from the white house, nbc's courtney kube is in brussels traveling with lloyd austin, and i'm joined by mark polymopolous. let's get to what we know so far about the all senators classified briefing happening right now. what are they allegedly going to be told? >> this classified briefing for all senators is just getting under way now. there have been four objects that the united states has shot out of the sky within the last few weeks and senators want answers. they're frustrated by what they see as a lack of transparency, a lack of communication from the biden administration on what in the world is going on right now. they're asking questions right now such as what are these objects who is sending them, they would like to see images of them, they want to know if the objects are new or have they been around for a while and shooting down of the chinese surveillance balloon has enhanced sensors to detect them, who is in charge, what is the policy to decide what objects get shot down and what don't? we're aware of five briefers go

courtney kube, thank you. appreciate it. you can see much more of andrea mitchell's interview with vice president harris on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. >>> we've got some unanswered questions after the release of the georgia grand jury report into alleged election interference, who do jurors think lied under oath? they think someone did. >>> plus, a curve ball in the closely watched murder trial of alex murdaugh. why the judge allowed testimony about a suicide plot. >> i have a fair amount of life insurance that -- how much? >> not off the top of my head, $12 million. he top of my head, $12 million. was hiring local talent. if i knew about upwork. i would have hired actually talented people from all over the world. instead of talentless people from all over my house. (vo) red lobster's finer points of fun dining: at lobsterfest, whether you're a sea-foodiell over the world. or a lobster newbie, there's something for everyone. try one of six dishes, like new lobster and shrimp tacos for $17.99. and leave completely lo

let me go to nbc news' courtney kube where world journalists are at a security conference. talk about the need to set new parameters. obviously, we can't imagine a world that anything that's not identified gets shot down immediately. is there a pressure within the military to come up with hard, fast rules with how they react to these? >> and i think this is not just going to be for the military, but this will be wider including the faa. a decision about not just changing the radar parameters again, but looking at some of the smaller, maybe slower moving objects and rather than immediately scrambling, but having some sort of a specific checklist of what to do. but i have to say, lester, there were two things that stuck out to me in the president's remarks. one was the very last line that he said before he walked away and that was that he makes no apologies for shooting down that balloon. he didn't mention the other three objects. he specifically said he didn't apologize for shooting down the one balloon. he didn't say whether he thought it was an overreaction or the three fo

some more detail on this, let's bring in nbc news national security and military correspondent, courtney kube, who broke the story for us at nbc. courtney, wow. first of all, reading through the details of the story and looking at the history of it, it turns out this happens from time to time. there are balloons floating around, looking down on the united states, sometimes from china specifically. also, it was within range of being shot down, but the defense department made a decision not to do that. can you explain a little bit how often this happens and where the balloon may be now? >> so we know of at least two other times this has happened in the past. it's not just during the biden administration. it's happened during past administrations, as well. the difference about this one that's caused more concern is that the balloon -- in past cases, these ariel surveillance assets will come near the u.s. or maybe go into the u.s. for a short time, then they leave again. this one flew, as you could see from the map, from the aleutian islands, through canada to montana. it's been there several day

allies are gathering for a key meeting regarding aid to ukraine nbc news military correspondent courtney kubeend? >> reporter: no. we're still waiting for them to actually get to the sites and recover some of the three unidentified objects that were shot down in very quick succession. we don't know, mika, who sent these balloons or if it was a nation at all. whether they could have been civilian research balloons, those are the questions we're asking. the first balloon, the thing that kicked off this entire thing about a week and a half ago was a chinese surveillance balloon. in the aftermath of the u.s. shooting that down, three additional balloons came on. they have very different characteristics. we're not calling them balloons. we're supposed to call them unidentified objects. they're much smaller and flying at lower altitudes. again, we don't know exactly what they were doing or who they belong to. those are the questions the u.s. government is hoping to find out when they recover them. all three have gone down in difficult environments. it's one of the reasons they haven't reached them

remember, we first learned about the chinese spy balloon from our own courtney kube's reporting. we learned about the unidentified object shot out of the sky off the coast of alaska on friday because reporters asked about it during the white house press briefing and then we learned about the unidentified b object shot over the yukon by canadian officials first on saturday. there's questions growing on this white house to answer more questions about this. you heard tom talk about how long the recovery efforts for t. the white house saying they don't want to get ahead of the pentagon and reveal temperature information before they reveal the results and analysis from the information collected from that debris. in the meantime, you're seeing conspiracy theories and rumors spread like wildfire, people wondering what these objects could be, where they're from, their purposes, their capabilities and the pressure is growing on this white house to answer those questions. we do expect there to be a white house briefing today with press secretary karine jean-pierre. . there are no plans to

our colleagues courtney kube and carol lee have reported there may be additional economic assistanceine, perhaps extra military assistance, all of that wrapped in the diplomatic symbolism of the president going right to the heart of kyiv, sitting down with president zelenskyy in his own palace. the president looks very calm there, like he would be in any capital around the world, but here he is in kyiv making the clear message the u.s. will be in this in the long hall in support of its allies. >> josh, it seems this trip is well timed not just because of the anniversary of the war, but because so many believe the war is about to hit a critical inflection point because there is a fear of war weariness. also it's a much telegraphed offensive. it's not clear they can make another strike at kyiv, but certainly it feels like they're trying to regain some territory they had lost, previously conquered in the east and south, and ukraine running dangerously low on ammunition and other supplies. so the kind of signal the president is sending, showing him there by himself, would also say it's s

. >>> coming up, we're going to get a live report from nbc's courtney kube in munich fresh off her interview the latest on the train derailment in ohio straight ahead on "morning joe." o straight ahead on "morning joe." if your business kept on employees through the pandemic, getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee, even if it received ppp, and all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then we'll work with you to fill out your forms and submit the application; that easy. and if your business doesn't get paid, we don't get paid. getrefunds.com has helped businesses like yours claim over $2 billion but it's only available for a limited time. go to getrefunds.com, powered by innovation refunds. overactive bladder, or oab, can change your world. like going hiking, just to hike to the bathroom. reaching for the bar, just to reach for pads. waiting for the sunset, just to wait for the stall. discover gemtesa. a once-a-day pill proven to reduce all 3 key symptoms of oab: leakage episodes, urgency and frequency in adults. do not take if you

as i was speaking with courtney kube, she was in munich at the time, breaking the story for us. about china's aid to moscow. >> exactly, yasmin, and all of these stories are really pretty connected if you look at this. the fact that secretary blinken was meeting with his chinese counterpart, that was high stakes in terms of the face to face nature given all of the tension over the tight -- chinese by balloon. in fact, secretary blinken was going to be traveling to china and had to postpone the trip because of the incident. and then there was all this mounting pressure to seek when the u.s. and china were going to come together and talk about. it through the course of this meeting, we understand it lasted about an hour. there was another important topic on the agenda. this was something that the u.s. has now continued to call china out for. which, is they say they were not being very forthcoming, with their true position on russia's invasion of ukraine. saying, one thing publicly, which is that they're trying to work on a way to achieve peace and end the conflict, but privately,

luckily, our own courtney kube sat down with the secretary of defense today for an nbc news exclusive and you flat out asked him directly, what is going on? >> is this something that the american people have been potentially in danger from four years and just not noted? >> we don't know how frequently these things may or may not have appeared in our airspace. we are learning a lot more about that. >> the fact that the u.s. military did not know about these until recently, is that an intelligence failure? why is it a military failure? >> no. it's how you use your radars. they recently made some adjustments on radars and opened up the aperture and they are analyzing the data differently. we are typically focused on things that are moving very fast. and so it is a bit more difficult to collect on slow-moving objects, like a balloon. >> china today, insisting again that its balloon flew over the u.s. accidentally and that in response to the u.s. sanctions it will, quote, take countermeasures against relevant u.s. entities. austin acknowledge recent tensions with china have halted communic

joining me now first is nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles, from beijing is nbc news correspondent janis mackey frayer, and "new york times" chief white house correspondent and msnbc political analyst, peter baker. so you heard it right, the brigadier general saying this violated u.s. airspace and violated international law. what's china saying in reaction to that? >> well, china has admitted that this is a chinese airship, though they did spend most of the day trying to diffuse tension with washington earlier, and foreign ministry spokesperson said that they were still gathering information and that china had no intention of violating any country's sovereignty or airspace, and the statement appeared on the ministry's web site, attributing to nobody, confirming that it was a scientific balloon. that it was used mainly for weather research and that it had strayed inadvertently into u.s. airspace because they claim that it isn't easily controlled and that it got caught up in the westerlies, and th

courtney kube, our pentagon correspondent was the first to find out just last week about the chinese balloon that was eventually shot down over south carolina. she also found out about this one. i point that out not just to toot the horns of my own colleagues but to share that the pentagon is not freely giving this information. it's only because the media is finding out about it, and in fact, that could be a source of frustration for some members of congress who want the pentagon to do more to tell them and the public more upfront about these threats that apparently have persisted long before last week. >> all right, julia stand by for us. i want to bring in now nbc news white house correspondent monica alba. the chinese were not happy when we shot down this first spy balloon, and now this happened. how is this escalating the situation with that other superpower? >> just to echo what julia was just saying there, this is remarkable. the fact that this came up mid white house briefing that was on a completely different topic. they were announcing that the president was going to be trav

the reason that that is significant is because we learn from our own courtney kube yesterday that u.s. officials already believe china is supplying nominally filet aid to russia from in that battle against ukraine. that is another big part of the conversation. as president biden heads to poland tomorrow to mark the one year anniversary of russia's war in ukraine. where he will be emphasizing the strategic alliance with our european allies and talking about this and the role again the china potentially could play in this war and conflict as well. >> definitely gonna be a dominant part of this week's conversation. thank you so much, monica alba. on the heels of that, let's bring in peter baker, msnbc political analyst and chief white house correspondent for the new york times. welcome, my friend. here we go, peter. in your new article. biden tries to calm tensions over chinese aerial spying. you say that the president wants to have a conversation with president xi to register his objections to the chinese surveillance machine. also to see the lines of communication open. you heard there

remember, we learned of the chinese spy balloon from our own courtney kube by's reporting. then we learned of the unidentified object shot over alaska on friday after it was asked about it during the white house press briefing. the unidentified object shot down over the yukon on saturday. we expect a white house briefing that will involve john kirby as well as press secretary karine jean-pierre. >> let's talk about capitol hill with you, garrett. new hope for a bipartisan committee focusing on china. per our reporting those areas include spotlighting human rights abuses by the chinese communist party, devising a strategy to reduce u.s. dependence on china and investigating the alliance between russian president vladimir putin and chinese president xi jinping, especially as it relates to defending taiwan. garrett, beyond briefings, hearings, resolutions condemning china, what kind of legislation might be on the table for lawmakers? >> reporter: alex, i would say despite the fact standing up to china is one of the few principles that unites democrats and republicans in this c

another sort of kind of in the tempo of how these things roll out, our colleague courtney kube was ableinterview the secretary of defense lloyd austin. so he has now spoken publicly. that is kind of a data point in how these kinds of public rollouts on what could be new policy, an assessment for the american people can develop from a cabinet level and then pushing it forward to the president. also, the reports that have been gathered across the different departments that have been dealing with the chinese spy balloon have been put together, have been presented to the white house. we presume that means the president has had a chance to be fully briefed on this and trying to formulate new policy. why does this matter, we've been able to talk to the president in fits and starts, in brief moments where we've been able to ask him a question, where he's responded about his decision-making with respect to the timing of striking down that chinese spy balloon, but we have not had the chance to hear a fulsome response from him about his policies on this, what he has learned from it, now that some

a couple minutes later, i was able to confirm and break with courtney kube that this object was short down -- it seems like a matter of hours. it's interesting that the airspace was so quickly reopened and it suggests that they were able to identify what this was. maybe it was not an urgent threat to civilian aircraft at that point. but as you can tell, they quickly moved to shoot it down. again, one important question we don't know yet, is this the same object that raiders picked up over montana overnight? or is this an entirely new one? a lot of questions here. more questions than answers. >> more questions than answers, to say the least. but you told us something we didn't know. thank you so much. we are obviously going to continue to monitor this update. we will bring them to you as soon as we get them. another flying object, folks. welcome to sunday afternoon. coming up, we will continue to cover other news. particularly the intensifying questions and concerns about these high altitude flying objects. we will break down the latest details. stay with us, folks. passing through the

so we've already heard the secretary of defense in an interview with our colleague, courtney kube, talking about this and some of the tension with china and now we wait to hear from the president. jose. >> kelly, what do we know about the president's physical today? >> well, that is ongoing. this is something that happens on a yearly basis. and then we expect we will get a report from his physician, dr. kevin o'conner. obviously at age 80, the oldest sitting president, there are always questions about his fitness and wellness. we would expect to get a report about all the kind of basic elements of a physical to give us a sense of how the president is doing. since the last physical he had covid and a rebound case. we know that the white house physician has talked about a hoarseness in the president's voice at times. so we'll be looking to see if there have been any changes since the last official physical. jose. >> kelly o'donnell in washington, i thank you so much. >>> joining us now is democratic senator bob menendez of new jersey. he is the chairman of the senate foreign relations commit

. >> all right, courtney kube, thank you for jumping andres.ell. that wraps up for me, everybody. i am yasmin vossoughian, i'll be back in a chair and excited and sunday, 2 pm eastern. you also see this wednesday through friday at 10 am eastern right here on msnbc, our coverage continues with simone starting right now. >>

we learned of the chinese spy balloon from our own courtney kube's reporting, the unidentified object over alaska after reporters asked about it, and we learned of the discovery yesterday from canadian officials first. mounting pressure for more answers. >> allie raffa, garrett headache, joining me now naval aviator, and senior technical analyst for rand, brynn tannehill, our expert on flying objects. we had three more over the weekend. what can you tell us about why there was sensitivity about these objects and how much you were able to glean from the white house's and lloyd austin's talk about what exactly these things are? >> it seems likely these are balloons again, that they were drifting free. unlike the previous balloon shot down off the coast of south carolina, these appear smaller, much less payload, if any. they were not able to change altitude to have any sort of navigation. they were just free floating. which indicates a lower level of sophistication than the previous balloon. all three were shot down with missiles, which indicates that there is a capability to do so. but

one downed over south carolina and the news of that becoming public because of our colleague, courtney kube'sorting before that. we've already seen bipartisan investigations, especially on the senate side. both the house and senate have all gotten classified briefings. if you listen to majority leader chuck schumer this morning, he supports that kind of bipartisan investigating going forward. democrats like jon tester of montana leading it alongside lisa murkowski of alaska, those are states central to this information. you have the michigan delegation and other delegations as clear parts of these briefings, because these things have been shot down and flown over their states. frankly, when you think about the transparency or the slow movement of information and details out of the white house, a lot of this information has come from lawmakers on capitol hill, both because they have demanded briefings and also because they shared what they've heard, to the extent they can, in terms of classified and not, with reporters by holding hearings and trying to get more information from these officials

i know we will, because courtney kube and andrea mitchell are on it. for now, thank you.ppreciate it. still, ahead everybody, how senator john fetterman's openness about his struggle with depression we help lessen the stigma around mental illness in this country. we certainly need to do that. plus, a new series looks at the rise and fall of former prosecutor and mayor rudy giuliani and how little he changed in between those days and what we see today. one of the journalists who took part in the documentary joins me ahead. and, one of the 90s most prominent childhood of icons is getting a little bit of a cleanup. we are gonna tell you all about it, coming up. you all abou it, coming up. it, coming up. i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. uhhhh... here, i'll take that. [woo hoo!] ensure max protein, with 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar and nutrients for immune health. a lot of new dry eye patients in my office tell me about their frequent dry eyes, which may point to dry eye disease. millions

. >> all right, courtney kube, thank you for jumping andres. we appreciate it on this sunday afternoon, julie tsirkin, thank you as well. that wraps up for me, everybody. i am yasmin vossoughian, i'll be back in a chair and excited and sunday, 2 pm eastern. you also see this wednesday through friday at 10 am eastern right here on msnbc, our coverage continues with simone starting right now. >> greetings,. everyone you are watching symone, we are following breaking news out of michigan. new details about a fourth object shot down by u.s. forces in just over a week. this happened a short while ago. we want to have a very live update for you this hour. also the death toll from that devastating earthquake in turkey and syria. now more than 30,000 people. it's hard to even imagine rescue efforts are still underway in the ruins, as thousands forced from their home are in desperate need of aid. we are live on the ground with the latest. and are living black history series. we are talking to civil rights leader, author, and president of the national ne

we're joined by nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube in dc and foreign correspondent janis mackey frayer in beijing for us. >> china obviously says this was a weather balloon that went off course. why is the pentagon convinced otherwise, and is there a way to know for sure? >> so the pentagon won't tell us why they are so confident that this is not only a surveillance craft, but it belongs to the chinese. those are details they just won't provide to us. but when specifically asked today about whether this chinese claim that it's some sort of a meteorological balloon, that's been straying off course, due to the winds, the pentagon press secretary brigadier general pat ryder said simply, we're confident this is a surveillance asset. and what we do know, a little bit more today than we did yesterday, about what it is doing and where it's moving. we know on wednesday, that it was over billings, montana. we now know it is moving in an eastward direction, and it's over the central part of the continental u.s. so it is so critical about that, aaron, it is still over the continental u.s.

nbc's courtney kube covers the pentagon and was the first to report this story. the latest now? >> reporter: so the last place we know it was spotted was around billings, montana, on wednesday, but it is only a couple hundred miles from a u.s. base which critically is where the u.s. keeps some of their intercontinental ballistic missiles. u.s. officials were so concerned about the spy balloon that on wednesday, secretary of defense lloyd austin while traveling in the philippines convened a meeting of the senior levels in the middle of the night his time to discuss this balloon and they even discussed options for bringing it down. this morning, tensions are rising, between the u.s. and china, over a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern u.s. for the past few days. >> it's been there, stationary, for about the last 35 minutes. >> reporter: this footage shot by an eyewitness in billings, montana, on wednesday, the same day the pentagon says the suspected spy balloon passed over the area. it is an area near a u.s. military ba