joining us over the phone is foreign correspondent matt bradley. matt, what we know here about what has happened? >> wednesday, this is all just coming in and this is the latest in a tit-for-tat response between north korea. this has happened years past, between north korea, testing intercontinental medium range ballistic missiles, and the united states, south korea and japan engaging in military exercises and land exercises in an effort to try to respond to intimidation, to keep them from launching more tests. we've been talking about his four years, this is been going on for years, this is the exact same type of pattern and what makes this unique and this different, the tempo has increased this year for the first time since 2017. the reason why so many observers are watching this so closely right now is because in 2017 this increased tempo of military exercises, as i said, this eventually led to the testing of a nuclear weapon by north korea. that was back in 2017. now, there is some evidence, including some satellite images of some of the nuclear

nbc's matt bradley is live in seoul, south korea, for us. cord-breaking number of missile tests this year? >> reporter: peter, that's the big question, why have we seen more than 40 launches of missiles? that's the most we've seen ever since 2017, when tensions were sky-high. and the reason why people are really focusing on north korea here is because back in 2017, when there was this increased tempo of missile tests, they included the testing of a nuclear weapon. so a lot of people here who are watching this korean peninsula, they're worried that the north could decide that they want to test another nuclear weapon. that would be the eighth test. and first nuclear weapons test since 2017. so one of the reasons why we're seeing this increased number of tests is because the u.s. and south korea and japan are also running their own military exercises that the north koreans consider threatening, they consider it to be a prelude of an invasion of north korea. so there is quite a lot of tension on both sides. and if it continues like this, we could

joining us by phone is nbc news foreign correspondent, matt bradley. matt what are you learning? >> well lindsey, we have very few details. of course we just heard about this incident. this is not something that was not anticipated, this is in the midst of a tit-for-tat exchange between a north korean on one side. and then the united states in the south korean on the japanese on the other side. this is following a typical pattern, i oversaw back in 2017. where we are seeing an increase tempo of the north koreans firing test of intercontinental ballistic missiles, short range ballistic missiles. and whatever this was. we don't actually know quite yet what projectile was fired. but this was certainly a response, part of this pattern of these firing of test missiles, and then on the side of the united states. south korea, the japanese, engaging in military exercises. which north korean some publicly stated, repeatedly that they find provocative and they see as kind of a rehearsal for an invasion of north korea. just hours before, we saw this latest missile strike, we had a statement

jose. >> matt bradley in kyiv, extraordinary work, as always.ughout the weekend, we were together on "nightly news" bringing us the very latest from ukraine. admiral, the dirty bomb, let's talk about that. we just use these terms left and right. what exactly is a dirty bomb? what would be considered a dirty bomb? >> a dirty bomb, jose, is simply a conventional explosion where you've packed around it radioactive material. 9 bomb goes off and the distribution of the radioactive material creates a dirty environment which can make people very sick. they will exposed to high levels of radiation. can have long-term effects. it's concerning but a lesser capability than, say, a tactical nuclear weapon, which is an explosion with tens of thousands times the explosive power of that dirty bomb. the dirty bomb is all about radio activity. the tactical nuclear weapon has a radioactive component to it. but it's really about explosive power. >> what would be the cost benefit analysis for putin to use a dirty bomb and to use the title of your book, "to risk it

most ukrainians are prepared to persevere, defiant even in darkness. >> matt bradley with that report. >>> coming up, a string of recent videos have shown people staking out drop boxes in arizona. could it actually be nevada that leads the way in election chaos? we'll explain that. >>> also ahead, a new poll shows latinos in florida support governor ron desantis by a wide margin, including his decision to traffic migrants from texas to martha's vineyard. that's straight ahead when "morning joe" returns. our home , here's a pool party. ♪ good times. insurance! ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪hit it!♪ ♪it takes two to make a thing go right♪ ♪it takes two to make it outta sight♪ ♪it takes two to make a thing go right♪ ♪it takes two to make it outta sight♪ ♪one, two, get loose now!♪ ♪it takes two to make a- it takes two to make a-♪ ♪it takes two to make a- it takes two to make a-♪ ♪it takes two to make a- it takes two to make a-♪ get double rewards points this fall. book now at bestwestern.com. i love san francisco, but i'm working overtime to stay h

matt bradley is in kyiv. putin here as russia claims that ukraine would use a so-called dirty bomb is the fear here that he would use this false flag premise as a justification for escalation? >> reporter: yeah, that's what the u.s. said, that's what ukraine said, that if putin is saying that ukraine is going to use a dirty bomb, that probably means that russia is going to be using a dirty bomb. we heard putin directly saying that he had heard about this dirty bomb talk and parroting what his defense minister had said earlier. just now, in the last couple of minutes, we heard vladimir putin delivering yet another one of his greatest hits speeches. he was talking about how it was the u.s. and the west who incited the war in ukraine, not russia. he said that basically, russia is at war with not just the west but with western elites, the sort of decadent cosmopolitanism that you find in the west. this speech, it would have a pretty good home in a lot of cpac conferences or some right wing talk shops in europe or

alex. >> matt bradley from south korea. >>> harvey weinstein is back in court facing 11 charges of sex assault, but the jury selection that begins today is separate from that new york case. this one largely focused on crimes prosecutors say were committed during one particular oscars week back in 2013. nbc's maura barrett is following this from los angeles. welcome. walk us through the charges here and what makes this trial different from what we saw in new york. >> reporter: alex, harvey weinstein faces four counts of rape and seven various counts of sexual assault here in los angeles concerning five women through those years, as you mentioned, ranging from 2004 up to 2013. now, this is very different than the new york case. while we're going to see obviously similar allegations, it's different victims, different testimonies. as one legal analyst told me, potential different vindication. we have just learned that one of the women that is testifying is jennifer segal newsom, a documentary filmmaker, wife of california governor gavin newsom. she intends to testify to seek justice for wo

matt bradley is joining me with more.mber now that she's back in iran? will this international attention keep her safe? >> reporter: that's the big question. that's what everybody wants to know. will she meet the same fate that the other woman faced, the woman whose death, this 22-year-old woman, her death sparked massive protests, unprecedented really in recent iranian memory. we see these protests time and time again in iran. but these are threatening to topple the regime and those propping it up. she might not meet the same fate. she's a high profile international figure. she has a lot of eyes on her. she was already greeted at the airport by dozens of people who chanted her name and called her a heroin. after she was met at dawn, running from south korea, then we saw some pictures that were passed out by the government of her meeting with the sports minister of iran. it looks as though the iranians do not want to turn this incident into another like the death last month that sparked the protests that have killed more

foreign correspondent matt bradley is live from seoul, south korea, with more.hes now? >> reporter: what we saw just the last 24 hours was kind of -- i guess what the kids would call a photo dump. just tons of pictures of kim jong-un from the past several weeks observing all of these missile tests and there have been a lot of them. he's walking a cat walk's worth of different outfits along with his wife. this is seven missile tests in the past two weeks. it's been more than 40 missile tests since the beginning of the year. that's more tests in a year than we've seen in recent memory out of north korea. you mentioned why not? that photo dump i was talking about, that's clearly time for the 77th anniversary of the founding of the north korean communist party. normally, those photos of missile tests would come out immediately after the tests are done. instead, they waited until this very moment. now, why were the tests down in such frequency? we can believe what the north koreans have said at face value. they have the tech and they want to test it. one of the thing

joining us now, nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley in kyiv and general barry mccaffrey, retiredive in kherson? >> reporter: yeah, well, it sounds as though the ukrainian military are finally on the ci. they're on the west bank, or what they call the right bank of the river and they're just really on the outskirts. i've been speaking with some people in kherson and they're saying that the city is almost empty now and that a lot of those military personnel and local ukrainian collaborators with the russian occupiers have all been evacuated. we just heard today from the russian-appointed leader of crimea that that evacuation is complete, but many civilians do remain in kherson. and we also heard from -- i also spoke yesterday with the defense minister of ukraine, and he said that one of the reasons why this advance has been so slow or relatively slow compared to that lightning advance that we saw in kharkiv just a couple of weeks ago is because of the agricultural land in the southern part of the country. it allows for the russians to use drainage ditches and irrigation canals as b

matt bradley is with us from kyiv. what's the latest? >> actually, lindsay, we were down at at a hospital today near where i'm standing in the capital of kyiv. this hospital has been going without regular electricity for the past week and it really was a sad sight to see. they were relying on generators, they were delaying in some cases surgeries in order to find more reliable electricity. they didn't want to start an operation and have it cut out in the middle because the power went out and they also showed me a demonstration of how they were using a hand pump in certain cases in order to resuscitate some patients if the power went out and they didn't have the machinery available and the batteries weren't working. this has knock-on effects and this has been russia has been pummeling the electrical infrastructure for the past two weeks. it's affecting civilians across the country. we have been meeting with families who have described the difficulty, some of them have escaped from other parts of the country and russia's bombardments have

jose >> matt bradley in kyiv.nk you. >>> in china, a bizarre possible power play is raising questions tonight. take a look at this video of a meeting of china's communist party congress the man on the right is china's former president huh jintao. watch as two men take him by the arm and he appears to resist and they abruptly begin escorting him out and he leans over to the current leader xi jinping before being taken out of the room. state media reported that the former president was not feeling well, but the vide cannot be found on china's heavily censored social media platforms. >>> coming up, mystery under the mansion. how a luxury car filled with concrete ended up under ground and why police are investigating foul play.

matt bradley is following it fro kyiv. >> reporter: high calibers and even higher spirits asern, the first major city to fall to russia in the early days of the war. there hasn't been a battle here yet, but russia is already retreating, pulling out soldiers, equipment, and moving citizens by ferry to the east side of the dnipro river. one woman in kherson reached via text message described the chaos russian exodus. the russians are stealing everything, she told me. russians are fleeing from neighboring regions and towns to kherson, they said. they look bad like they're sick. they try to scare the locals, saying ukrainians will shell the city, she wrote. nobody believes them except a few collaborators. but some are far from the frontlines. deep inside russia, a fighter jet accidentally slammed into a residential area killing both pilots. it was the second such crash in just a week. families line up to feed new russian recruits. one woman compares their conditions to prison. as fresh russian soldiers head to the battlefield, more are returning in body bags. this family burying their so