Morning News NOW Full Broadcast - Dec. 18

developing right now on Morning News Now pressure and push back as Israel moves deeper into Gaza this morning Israeli Defense Forces denying allegations it attack civilians during a raid on a hospital in the north this as calls for a ceasefire grow over the idf's killing of three Israeli hostages mistaken for threats we are on in a war for our existence and in this war we have to continue until Victory plus defense secretary Lloyd Austin in Israel this morning as the US urges its Ally to pull ba

ck we have Team coverage also this morning a funding fight on Capitol Hill lawmakers delaying their holiday break to hammer out a deal on immigration the latest on talks and how an agreement would impact future funding to Israel and Ukraine also much of the East Coast drenched as a powerful storm system pound several States we're tracking the condition and what you can expect as the work week begins and calling all procrastinators time is running out to cross off your holiday shopping list we'll

get you some tips on how to do it without breaking the bank plus if you're still looking for your perfect Christmas tree might we suggest branching out if you will we'll go through the options from fresh cut to straight from a box and even some Greener Alternatives I am the procrastinator who needs the tips you're ready go uh good morning I'm Valerie Castro in for Joe frier and I'm Savannah sers thanks very much for being with us on this Monday we're going to get started this morning with new d

etails surrounding the death of three hostages held in Gaza Israel says it's now investigating how the hostages were killed by Defense Forces one of the hostages 26-year-old Alan Lulu shres was buried over the weekend prompting a new round of protests against the Israeli government the families of the three hostages killed are also demanding prime minister Netanyahu resumed resum negotiations with Hamas to release the remaining hostages in Gaza this comes as the humanitarian crisis continues to

worsen there according to Gaza Health officials nearly 70% of people killed in the war are women and children we have NBC News military analyst Colonel Jack Jacobs standing by to give insight into what happens next in this war But First NBC News correspondent H grani joins us from Tel Aviv with the latest on the ground H good morning thanks very much for being here so let's start with the killing of those three hostages by the Israeli Defense Forces what do we know at this point about what occur

red about what occur well over the last few days there's been widespread consternation in this country as details of how these three men died have been confirmed by the Israeli military they came out uh with their hands up in chaj this is in the northern part of the Gaza Strip you're seeing pictures there of the three men including the the uh man who you mentioned there Alan simrit who was buried over the weekend they were waving a white flag they were shirtless two of them were killed immediate

ly one of them managed to escape uh and uh there were cries for help HT in Hebrew which should have been a signal to the Israeli military on the ground uh that these could be hostages despite that uh there was a burst of fire according to an IDF official who was briefing reporters and the third individual was killed and there was a building nearby that was located on which inscriptions were held for for help I should say were found so there were several uh really there clues that should have bee

n uh taken seriously by the troops on the ground the IDF says that this was a violation of the Rules of Engagement and there have been um reiterations now on the ground by some of the officials inside of the Gaza Strip to their troops saying that no one waving a flag certainly no one waving a flag who is shirtless should be shot at should be targeted and that includes any Palestinian coming out in surrender uh Savannah and uh Valerie back to you but yes you can imagine a lot of anger there among

ordinary Israelis uh at the uh news here that's been confirmed by the military and the government of this accidental killing and Hala given that anger what kind of pressure are Israeli officials facing to resume hostage negotiations in light of these deaths is prime minister Netanyahu willing to return to the table and how is Hamas responding IM pressure uh immense pressure on this prime minister he's he is very unpopular in this country more than 80% according to a poll from a few weeks ago wa

nt him to step down though support for the war it has to be reiterated is still very high um I spoke to a source close to the negotiations they are staying quite mum but they're saying we're closer to an outcome than just a few days ago which is not saying much because there had been really almost a complete breakdown of talks but we are hearing reports that perhaps there's renewed momentum for talks and we know of course that the US defense secretary Lloyd Austin is on a visit we expect him to

address reporters a little bit later with the prime minister so we'll bring you the latest on that as well also holla meanwhile the United Nations is warning you continually warning about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza saying it is reaching a Breaking Point hospitals are now Under Siege as thousands look for medical treatment for injuries sustained during bombings also we know diseas is spreading what are you hearing from the doctors working inside these hospitals what is it like just on the gr

ound there and to try to be helping other people well the hospital system in the north has all but collapsed and Palestinians on the ground are telling us that some hospitals have been surrounded and raided they're pretty much um not operational in the South there is a lot of pressure on the medical team some of whom have relocated from the north to the South to try to treat people with injuries we spoke the NBC News crew on the ground spoke to one doctor in Rafa and this is how she described he

r job of trying to tend to those with wounds and injuries on a daily basis listen the situation cannot even be described every second in this world is difficult it's very difficult and and heavy on my heart but when I have to deal with a child or a baby without um uh their family without their father and mother I feel heavy hearted and restricted well this as we're hearing from the uh Ministry of Health uh run by Hamas that almost 19,000 Palestinians have died since October 7th back to you all r

ight Hala thank you very much for your reporting let's bring in Colonel Jack Jacobs for more Colonel good morning National Security adviser Jake Sullivan warned a new phase is necessary in the war between Israel and Hamas here is some of what he had to say there will be a transition to another phase of this war one that is focused uh in more precise ways on targeting the leadership and uh on intelligence-driven operations that continues to deal with the ongoing threat that Hamas poses Colonel wh

at do you make of those comments well from the very beginning it's been extremely difficult for the Israeli Defense Force to Target the leadership because it was in difficult locations the intelligence wasn't good wasn't good from the very beginning and quite frankly if it's not going to get a whole lot better unless there's a painstaking labor intensive search on the ground which takes a lot of time this works to the tremendous disadvantage of the Israeli Defense Forces and netanyahu's objectiv

e of getting the war over as quickly as possible uh so they're mutually exclusive but that's exactly what's going to have to happen if the IDF is go if it intends to eliminate the leadership of Hamas uh and wants to minimize civilian casualties it's going to have to take a lot more time and politically inside Israel as well as outside Israel Netanyahu does not have a lot of time Valerie and meanwhile defense secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to the region over the weekend he was there to reiterate

the need to end ground hostilities immediately what role can the US play here to get Israel and Hamas back at that negotiation table well uh Austin's there to deliver a very pointed message and it's probably going to be something like this while the administration itself is strongly in favor of Israel's continuing the attacks to eliminate Hamas it's imperative that civilian casualties be be reduced uh to as low as it possibly can be that means that the use of explosive devices whether they're d

umb or smart bombs has to be reduced and in the end the administration may not be able to control the funding for uh Israel's offensive that is though the administration itself the White House Austin may be strongly in favor of Israel's doing as much as it can to eliminate Hamas the Congress in the end holds the pur strings and Colonel prime minister Netanyahu said yesterday he expects this war to last for months how do you see it playing out in that time well you raised a significant issue in t

he end what happens in the end somebody has to administer Gaza it's not going to be Israel it doesn't want to do that and nobody else wants Israel to do that uh the Palestinian Authority is uh the United States is strongly in favor of Palestinian Authority uh of managing Gaza but Israel says no there's going to have to be some sort of compromise that's going to include the participation of Arab countries in the region without that this war will go on a long long time and nobody's in favor of tha

t all right Colonel Jack Jacobs thank you for your time well this morning on Capitol Hill Top Senate negotiators are back at the bargaining table trying to reach an agreement on immigration laws over the weekend Homeland Security secretary Alejandra mayorcas joined lawmakers to Iron Out sticking points now remember though this has implications greater than the southern border Republicans say an immigration deal is essential to securing their votes to pass aid for Ukraine and Israel NBC News Cong

ressional correspondent Julie cirin joins us now on this say Julie good morning so where did negotiations stand at this point what are some of these major sticking points hey Savannah good morning yeah well I was outside of the room all weekend we're negotiators the Senators at James Langford kison Cinema and Chris Murphy sat in a room with secretary Mar orcus trying to come to some kind of agreement that they could move forward on a deal to secure our Southern border but also send Aid overseas

to Ukraine and to Israel but there are still significant gaps I'm told by sources in the room uh that three main buckets the two sides still have major differences on and you see them on your screen the first one tightening Parole Authority that means limiting who the Biden Administration can admit into the country on temporarily humanitarian basis also expanded Detention of Asylum Seekers this is something progressives in particular are strongly pushing back on saying it's inhumane and cruel an

d expedit deportation of migrants expanding that measure beyond the border and into other American cities like New York City and Chicago which has seen a lot of migrants over the month the last few months especially with Republican Governors sending migrants up but bottom line here still a lot of work to be done and they are set to meet again later today to try and Hammer out some kind of framework their colleagues could potentially vote on is the Biden Administration willing to make significant

concessions here when it comes to the Border in order to get the deal done given that it's tied to that other Aid funding for Ukraine and Israel it's Savannah they are willing to make significant concessions they are going in the direction of Republicans especially because they see what they're dealing with in the house conservatives who lead that chamber uh really a lot of them not in favor of even sending Aid to Ukraine but they do want to see the most conservative the most trump-like border

policies of course Democrats are not willing to go that far but they are willing to go far enough Savannah that I am told that Hispanic lawmakers in a meeting with White House officials including secretary mayorcas and Biden's chief of staff uh they were very frustrated in that meeting on Saturday because they do find these proposals to be cruel to be untenable they think they're being iced outout of conversations uh and that Republicans are getting far too much of what they want here but still

the Biden Administration seems po to want to get something done because they do recognize this is not only a problem at the border for the president for Americans but it is a political one too Julie I know the Senate hopes to vote this week even if they have the votes to push it through still has to go through the house I mean what kind kind time frame are we looking at here for this to even make it to President Biden's desk well if the Senate did take it up this week which really is a big if th

at means the house is actually not going to come back until mid January and that's when they would take this proposal up but realistically Savannah and just to be straight up with our viewers I really just can't see that happening it's too ambitious yesterday the minority leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell sent a note to colleagues telling them listen progress has been made but we are not going to rush we are not going to jam you to vote on something when there is still no legislative text and

again those significant policy gaps still remain so I can't see the Senate taking this up this week we'll see if leader Schumer still plans to put a bill on the floor without text uh to fund uh Ukraine and Israel and of course to secure our Southern border but again Republicans are really pushing for that vote to happen in January and that sets up quite a busy timetable with also those two spending bills up at the end of January and beginning of February as well all right Julie cirin thank you

so much former president Trump is feeling the Heat this morning following some anti-immigration remarks he made over the weekend the Biden campaign accusing Trump of echoing remarks made by Adolf Hitler NBC News correspondent Von hilard has [Applause] more former president Donald Trump ring his supporters in the early voting state of Nevada it comes a day after he made these controversial comments about immigrants at a rally in Durham New Hampshire they're poisoning the blood of our country that

's what they've done the Biden campaign accusing Trump of paring Adolf Hitler as similar wording was used in his writings and at least one of Trump's GOP Rivals blasted him for the remark he's disgusting and what he's doing is dog whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy Trump is promising the largest deportation program in the nation's history if reelected in 2024 and requiring immigrants pass a strong ideological screening Trump also touted his relati

onship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un calling him quote very nice in referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin but even Vladimir Putin has anybody ever heard of Vladimir Putin of Russia says that Biden's and this is a quote politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rotness of the American political system in new polling from CBS News out of New Hampshire Nikki Haley climbing to a strong second position following the endorseme

nt of the state's Governor but this is Trump this weekend attracting the New England masses Donald Trump loves our country he loves us we need a new birth of Freedom a star contrast to Florida Governor Ronda santis as he struggles to gain Traction in the state Bon Hillard NBC News and there's people coming and I we say on politics NBC News has just launched a new series called the deciders we're taking a closer look at Seven Counties that could have a major impact on the 2024 election this morni

ng we're focusing on Miami Dade County in Florida which is home to a large Hispanic and Latino population NBC News correspondent Marissa par joins us now from Miami Marissa good morning what is it about Miami dat's demographics that make it such an important and unique County to watch hey guys good morning well where to start I mean Florida has the largest Latino electorate of all of the Battleground States in Miami date County where I am right now also has the most registered Hispanic voters I

want to show you the breakdown of Voters here in Miami Dade County these are the residents of Miami Dade you can see nearly 70% of them identify as Hispanic or Latino and half of them are Cuban or identify as Cuban and 66% report speaking Spanish at home primarily I also want to point out that this is also home to the largest populations of and I'm going to Rattle off a lot of names here Venezuelans nicaraguans argentinians Chileans Colombians peruvians uruguayans so when we talk about the diver

sity here uh yes nearly 70% of the people here in Miami Dave County are Latino Or Hispanic but within that there is a lot of diversity and all of those countries all of those cultures is going to really inform how they vote and is going to specifically inform how campaigns try to reach those populations here guys what can we learn from the country's voting trends in previous elections how are they changing over time what are you learning there in Miami yeah and I want to show you the specific nu

mbers that that illustrate what I'm about to say here which is that Republicans over the years consistently since 2012 have made significant wins and gains so look at the difference there I think most significant uh when you look at the difference in support for president Trump for former president Trump that left from 34% to 46% between 2016 and 2020 so it was during his presidency during those first four years that he really made a significant difference here and and we can talk about the stra

tegy in a little bit here but Republicans have not seen wins or gains in Miami dat County like this since 2002 guys so this was a significant wakeup call to Democrats who had previously seen Miami dat County as something that was a Surefire wind for them previously so given those Trends and looking ahead to next year's election what can we expect strategy-wise from both both Republicans and Democrats in that county and how much of a priority is it expected to be for both of those parties yeah I

mean I can certainly illustrate and and describe to you what we've seen in previous years I mean Miami Daye county has always been an important stop uh an important campaign stop for former presidents for people on the campaign Trail I mean we had the former President Bill Clinton former President George W bush and then of course most recently we had former president Trump he has made a point to make his presence and visibility known here in Miami dat County I mean look at this is footage from V

ersa restaurant this is the day before his Miami court appearance um and then we also had Chris Christie on the campaign Trail this is verside this is a landmark in Miami this is a popular Cuban restaurant but you also have appearances by Republicans especially former president Trump on radio Spanish language radio Billboards this is something that both Democrats and Republicans are going to have to do especially when we have 66% of the population here reporting speaking Spanish especially targe

ting those Spanish language predominant neighborhoods um and we do know that this is something that Democrats are talking about ramping up because visibility is going to be key here guys and as we've seen in previous elections before both midterms and presidential elections Miami Dade is an important and key County when it comes to winning the Battleground State of Florida absolutely a lot to watch where you are very interesting Marissa para thank you so much a powerful storm system is bringing

strong winds heavy rain and flooding to the east coast today Michelle Gman is here in studio to tell us more hey Michelle good morning hey there guys good morning and it is a big storm it was a miserable weekend for many along the east coast and it's a miserable Monday morning in the Mid-Atlantic the Northeast into portions of New England we have very heavy rain falling it's a slow commute ponding on the roadways the winds are really starting to pick up we could see winds gusting up to 70 mph in

some spots this is what it looks like on radar you can see those brighter colors that's where the heaviest rain is falling so there is a lot of it be careful as you head out this morning but we're looking at the back end of the storm so you can see down the Mid-Atlantic that is the back Edge so we're going to start to clear as we go throughout the later part of the morning in the Mid-Atlantic also the Northeast it's going to linger longer in portions of New England and we're going to see the po

tential for some flooding rains there we're going to see the winds continuing so more power outages we have a lot of power outages right now in the state of New York also throughout New England as well then on the back edge of the system we're pulling in really cold air so it's mild today in portions of the Northeast New England land big difference tomorrow we're going to drop about 20° in some spots but cold enough along the Great Lakes into the appalachin where we're looking at lake effect sno

w we could see up to foot of snow in some spots flood alerts we're looking at 59 million people under flood alerts we have lots of flash flood warnings that is in the red that means flooding is happening right now or it's imminent where you see the green that is a flood watch so portions of the Northeast into New England we're looking at really really wet conditions this is not a tropical storm but it really is acting like one with lots of water and lots of wind in terms of rainfall totals we're

not looking a whole lot in the midatlantic most of the Northeast looking pretty good as we go forward in terms of additional rainfall but we're looking a lot through New England even up to 3 4 Ines of rain is still expected and we're looking at really soggy grounds the winds will be blowing so we're going to see trees coming down winter alerts 13 million people impacted we have winter weather advisories that is in the white winter storm watches winter storm warnings that's in that Pinker color

and we could see up to a foot of snow in some spots where you see those purples and pinks that's the highest amount so so downwind in the great laks also along the appalachin we're looking at some really heavy snowfall not just today but into tomorrow we'll start to see it wrap up tomorrow and then the wind alerts 46 million people impacted from portions of the Mid-Atlantic the Carolinas into parts of New England we have high wind warnings 50 60 70 mph winds remember uh that's close to Hurricane

Forest winds with really socky soggy uh grounds that's not a good combination so winds gusting as we go throughout the rest of this morning we're going to see 40s 50s even 65 m per hour Inka could see a little higher there as well up through New England we're looking at 59 miles in Portland or at least that's what we're expecting as we go throughout the next couple of hours this is the setup here we're going to see gradual clearing throughout the Northeast we're looking at scattered snow shower

s snow showers but could see a lot of snow on the back end of this is that cold air kind of continues to wrap in and then tomorrow staying Breezy but we dry out so that's good news we're going to see those lingering snow throughout the Great Lakes we're also really wet along the west as well this is not just today tomorrow but also windnesday we have a series of friends that will continue to move on Shore the first one today so from the Pacific Northwest all the way down through portions of Cali

fornia really most of the wet uh West Coast will be wet today with higher elevation snow and we're looking that lower elevation rain and we could see quite a bit of rain as we head throughout the next few days the next storm will be on deck and we're looking at a cold front moving through tomorrow and again it will stay in place on Wednesday so guys we're looking locally up to 5 Ines especially in portions of Northern California so Eureka Chico down to San Francisco so we are wet on both coasts

but really looking nice in the middle of the country we're back now with developing international news North Korea has launched an unprecedented military drill renewing nuclear fearce here in the US NBC News foreign correspondent Ali arui joins us now from Cairo with that and another world headlines hey Ali good morning good morning Savannah and good morning Valerie that's right North Korea has produced its first intercontinental ballistic missile test after the launch of its first military reco

nnaissance satellite last month the launch is speculated to be in response to us and South Korean moves to boost their nuclear deterrence plans South Korea described the missile test as a solid fueled weapon making its launch more difficult for adversaries to detect than liquid fueled weapons uh the South Korean military say the ICBM flew about 620 miles before plunging into the water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan over to Chile Where voters rejected a proposed conservative Constitution

to replace Chile dictatorship era Charter underscoring deep divisions in the country and an inability to address people's demands for change made four years ago vote came more than a year after Chileans resoundingly rejected a proposed constitution written by a left-leaning convention and one that many characterized as one of the world's most Progressive Charters and finally a Christmas tree purchased over a century ago for pennies has sold at auction for over over $4,000 the modest tree which w

as expected to sell for no more than $100 is only 31 in tall with 25 branches it was delivered to Dorothy Grant in England in 1920 when she was just 8 years old she treasured the tree until her passing at the age of 101 in 2014 and those are your headlines guys be Tre Al thank you so much thank you well in the United Kingdom a Court ruled over the weekend that Prince Harry's cell phone had been hacked by the mirror group that's a british-based tabloid now there are calls in the UK for more regul

ation to reign in newspapers Sky News Katie Spencer has that story a partial victory for Prince Harry with profound implications for the British media landscape while newspapers say they moved on from the Dark Arts of 20 years ago the passing of time doesn't stop those who were in charge back then from being any less culpable the ruling that those in senior positions at MGM then like former Chief Executive Sly Bailey and former editor Piers Morgan knew about hacking and blagging now puts the bal

l firmly in the police's Court despite Morgan's repeated denials over the years if the law was indeed broken it's no longer a civil matter but a criminal one I've never hacked a phone or told anybody else to hack a phone and nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that I did about time say the whistleblowers who have repeatedly alleged top management knew and covered up it's difficult for me cuz you know I I I don't want to see journalists go to jail or or lose their jobs but at the ver

y least they could tell the truth if you're wondering whether those employing Morgan for his journalistic Integrity might consider taking him off air in the interim well that'll be for his talk TV boss Richard Wallace to decide also a former editor of the mirror more widely the Court's ruling will have a domino effect for other newspapers involved in legal proceedings with Prince Harry many of those private investigators who worked for mgn worked for their titles too it of course also calls into

question everything that was said under oath back in 2011 at the leveron inquiry the judge finding that at the same time as the public inquiry into culture practices and ethics was taking place remarkably the practice of unlawful information gathering still continued up until now the conservatives have leaned towards less regulation in fact dropping the second part of the lon inquiry but campaigners would argue that this judgment is evidence of a press Reg atory system that's failed the questio

n is whether the government want to change anything will they want to go to war with the newspapers with an election looming a royal Reckoning with print media unleashing a can of worms I hope it would put the fear into the boots of newspaper editors up and down the country that look if you use illegal means whether it's phone hacking whether it's private investigators wir tapping whatever to obtain those stories you will be found out the ruling might be over practices from a different era but t

he judgment is damning at a time when the newspaper world is dying of redundancies of struggling readership numbers The Fallout from Harry's battle for accountability that set to unleash hell when the industry was already on its knees casy spener Sky News we're back with a look at the homeless crisis here in the US as new data shows homelessness has reached record levels this year local leaders say they don't see the issue slowing down anytime soon NBC News correspondent Dana Griffin has more ta

ke a drive down Los Angeles's Skid Row filled with ttin people and growing frustration if I can get back in to another uh residence then I won't make the same mistakes I made before according to new federal data a record number of people are now unhoused more than 653,000 a 12% population increase since last year Mel tarat runs a nonprofit that provides free showers to people people living on the street the system is completely overwhelmed DNA points to a rise in housing costs the opioid epidemi

c mental health issues and the migrant crisis as factors exacerbating the problem in La we have families Asylum Seekers to families in La who become homeless and prior where we would be able to send them to a motel or a shelter within a couple of days now there's absolutely no resources these issues are also creating friction in major cities back in September New York mayor Eric Adams revealed new fears as tens of thousands of Asylum Seekers flooded the city I don't see an ending to this this is

sue will destroy New York City in Phoenix the city recently cleared a large encampment located downtown it seems that the quote unquote cleanup that the city did just spread the mess out a lot further people going through everyone's dumpsters dragging stuff out into the streets across La official have tried to clear out encampments they come hit tents and then then all your stuff will be gone this year Los Angeles County declared a state of emergency since then officials say they have provided H

ealth Services counseling substance abuse treatment and found temporary housing for more than 15,000 people and permanent housing for more than 8,000 but even those resources are not enough for frustrated business owners like this woman who doesn't want to be identified we'll feed them we offer food but if they don't want it what can we do it's very frustrating they'll throw things at you and they'll grab you a growing National problem that could take decades to fix Dana Griffin NBC News Los Ang

eles now to a chilling announcement from the FDA this is about several types of applesauce that potentially poison dozens of kids well according to the agency the poisonings may have been deliberate NBC News correspondent Jesse kers has the details the FDA says it is investig ating if someone deliberately tampered with ingredients used in certain cinnamon apple puree pouches using a cheaper product to make more money it's called economically motivated adulteration and it may have been responsibl

e for the lead poisoning of dozens of young children I think it's absolutely disgusting that you would knowingly do that to make an extra dollar say hi Ricky and Sarah Callahan say they regularly gave their son Rudy these wabana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches those as well as Weiss and schnook cinnamon apple saces now all voluntarily recalled due to reports of elevated levels of lead the Callahan suspect those pouches poisoned their 15-month-old son how is he feeling so since he's been diagn

osed with lead poisoning uh we've found out that Rudy has a little bit of a speech delay it's not clear where in the supply chain the puree may have been compromised but the FDA suspects the cinnamon may be the source of unusual usually high lead levels wabet did not respond to our request for comment but has previously said it is working closely with the FDA to investigate the source of the contamination even if they find that it was intentionally put into the cinnamon even at the source testin

g of that product should have occurred at some level so far the FDA has received at least 65 reports of lead poisoning in children under AG 6 which doctors say can have serious consequences some stomach upset a little bit of fatigue all the way to somewhat permanent and life altering events such as damage to the brain and developmental delays concerns leaving parents like the callahans left to worry Jesse kersch NBC news we're back with some Financial headlines now and a major strike could be in

store at anheiser Bush factories across the US cnbc's Pippa Stevens joins us with that and more hey Pippa good morning hey Savannah while the Teamsters Union says members have voted voted to authorize a strike at anheiser Bush the Union's current contract expires at the end of February the teamsters are seeking to improve wages protect jobs and secure health care and retirement benefits for 5,000 workers at the company's 12 us breweries a vote to authorize a strike is a common practice in contr

act talks and may not result in a walk out earlier this year Teamsters at UPS and Hospitality workers in Las Vegas voted to strike But ultimately reached New Deals meantime apple is testing a way for app developers to bundle discounts for customers with more than one subscription it could help them lure in people with cheaper subscriptions based on other purchases be it their own apps or another participating partner Apple says the bundle discounts will be highly visible to customers on the App

Store so you can easily find and take advantage of them the test comes as Apple's practices with the App Store and how it handles inapp purchases are being scrutinized by the courts and regulator ERS on both sides of the Atlantic finally it was a sweet opening for Wonka which topped at the weekend box office with 39 million that's according to Comm score the Warner Brothers movie explains how the inventor magician and chocolate maker becomes Willie Wonka for Hollywood the strong showing is boost

ing hopes for a positive end to the year Wanga is the first major release since the actor's strike ended and studios are targeting a 9 billion box office sales for 2023 back to you I want to see that movie I do too me too it looks awesome thank you so much thank you well we are a week away from Christmas and in the final stretch then of course of the holiday shopping season this year Shoppers are facing record high credit card debt and high interest rates which means it can be easy to bust your

budget especially if you have a lot of names on your shopping list so how can you get your shopping squared away without going into debt Emily Irwin senior director of advice for Wells Fargo joins us now with some best practices Emily thanks for being with us this morning many people might be tempted to put their gifts on their credit card and then worry about paying for it after the holidays but is that a good idea good morning well using a credit card isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're us

ing it for a financially responsible reason such as having all of your purchases Consolidated on one statement so you can easily manage them or maybe you know you're going to get cash back on certain purchases that will help you in the future that's a good reason to go ahead and use it the caveat is if you know you're not be able to make that payment in January or February when the bill comes due that's what you want to avoid as you mentioned interest rates are high they can sore around 20% and

what you don't want is that holiday letdown to come early in the new year and now you're struggling to be able to make your bills I know you've got some tips for us give us I think there's kind of like three easy ones people can remember people can follow as they're trying to finish up their holiday shopping absolutely first of all you want to prepare to shop you want to go ahead and price shop look at different retailers some are already having early sales some aren't you want to be sure that y

ou're targeting those that maybe have sales available before the holidays second determine your budget your overall budget it's helpful if you can even itemize down to the person you want be maybe a little bit more spendy on parents maybe a little bit less spendy on someone who delivers your mail for example and then finally make a written list you want to think about both who are you buying for and what do you want to walk into that store or go online and click to purchase and Emily you touched

on sales a lot of stores are offering those deep discounts this time of the year what should Shoppers look out for in order to get the most out of those deals well you want to be sure that you look at return policies that's really important this time of year make sure that you keep your receipts because the best thing the worst thing that can happen if you get a great sale you find out it's not the right fit or the right item and you're not able to make um to make an exchange or a return and th

en you're out the money and out the gift second look at shipping policies do you have an availability to have free shipping if you're going to be shipping if you're going to be shipping using a third party like such as USPS FedEx or UPS be sure you ensure those packages up to the value if something either breaks or goes missing and you know when they're going to be delivered sometimes if they miss that delivery date you can actually go in and get a refund on what you pay to ship those items How

concerned should people be right now about getting those items last minute Shoppers when we think about shipping an inventory it's going to be tricky we're one week away from the big day and Santa slay is going to be really hard to get where you need it to go so I would say really really pay attention and if they say there's a chance it may not arrive take that into heart and say it probably won't arrive by that date yeah it's a good call unfortunately probably Not Gon to happen keep it in mind

Emily Irwin senior director of advice for WS Fargo thank you very much for joining us thanks we're just a week away from Christmas but there's still some time if you haven't got your Christmas tree yet who doesn't have it yet that's the joy of the season is to get to enjoy it well there are plenty of options for real and artificial trees if you don't have one also get this you can even rent one so how do you know which to choose we are joined Now by Bert Craig a professor of horiculture and Fore

stry at Michigan State University Bert thank you very much for joining us this morning we appreciate you being here um this is an interesting one so let's start first on real trees because there are actually different options available it's not just what you might think of when you show up at you know a grocery store parking lot or on the street here in New York City do they all come from these tree farms yeah so most trees do come from tree farms and so the options people have would be a tradit

ional cut tree and so the principal options there you can go to a tree lot you can go to a big box store you can go to a garden center those sorts of places you can also choose and cut your own tree and that became of course very popular here as we went through Co and there weren't many options things we could do outdoors and so that's really the experience right you're going out looking for the tree taking the family the hot cocoa the wagon ride all of that so uh cut trees are certainly the vas

t majority of of the option and virtually all trees are grown on tree farms kind of a misconception people have is somehow that having a real Christmas tree is contribut into deforestation all these trees are planted by Growers they're harvested for that purpose uh small percentage of the US Forest Service allows cutting of trees by permit for Christmas trees but it's a small fraction of the market what are some tips for maintaining the real tree if you do get that so we always talk about fresh

tree fresh cut fresh water and so fresh tree means getting the freshest tree you can if you do a choos and cut pretty obvious you know when that tree was cut if you're getting it from a lot bear in mind right now and some people do it's it's a tradition some people wait till later to get their tree and so if you're doing that understand that most of those trees on a tree lot right now probably were cut about a month ago but that's okay as long as they've been cared for properly that that's not a

problem and so what we encourage people to do is what we call the pull test so take your thumb and forefinger kind of pull along those branches and see if you get any needles coming off in your hand you shouldn't if you do then then keep looking for another tree and then fresh cut is taking about an inch or so off the bottom of that tree and uh with a saw hand saw and then that enables that uh cut end of that tree then to take up water better and then fresh water that's really the key you don't

need to add aspirin anything else sugar soda pop we hear these things uh right behind me behind my camera here I've got our tree that we got about four weeks ago I check the water every day we are still adding water to it here four weeks out from when we cut it so really imperative that people keep lots of water to their trees mine's kind of stopped accepting it which I think is a bad call and if I did that needle thing'll do that that's okay but you want to make sure you keep keep adding it ke

ep checking it sometimes they'll fool you they'll stop for a few days and they'll start again okay don't don't don't forget about it thank you run home and do that uh let's talk about sustainability what are the pros of getting a real tree versus buying an artificial one what should we know about that yeah so with the artificial tree um the thing to bear in mind there is individual components plastic the metal are recyclable but the whole tree itself is difficult to handle and so vast majority o

f artificial trees ultimately are going to end up in a landfill so the longer you can hang on to your artificial tree then you know in terms of environmental footprint that's that's a better thing uh if we're talking about a real tree then we want to make sure at the end of the holidays that that tree gets recycled so many of our communities now have recycling programs either curbside pickup in some places if you're very fortunate uh but at least uh most communities have places where you can dro

p off your tree after the holidays and and have it recycled we have one grower here in Michigan clock Farms they uh if people bring their tree back uh they will uh give you a a Seedling to plant and so that kind of encourages people to to recycle Bert also I mentioned renting a tree what to explain this yeah so it's having a potted tree and so it's pretty much a niche market it's available in on the west coast in a few places and probably some other places in between but having a live tree is no

t a new thing we have lots of tree farms lots of garden centers that will sell live trees so you can plant the tree out after the holidays uh and then the the rental idea is just a take on that where the rental company has a nursery potted trees they'll bring it into your home you display it for your three or four weeks whatever you want they come back pick it up they either take it back to their Nursery Let It Grow another year it's a little bit bigger but prob fit in somebody else's home at th

at point or if it's gone beyond the sdes it's going to be able to be used again then they'll plant it in a par something like that everything ever knew about trees love that for Craig thank you so much welcome back Love Is in the Air for demi levado the singer just got engaged over the weekend levado told People magazine that her fiance Jordan loots po the question in a personal and intimate proposal she announced her big news on Instagram with a caption saying quote I can't believe I get to mar

ry the love of my life Demi and I actually met early this year for an incredible conversation about mental health a topic that we are both passionate about so just absolutely oh there was a cute picture from it absolutely love her so from us here at Morning News Now best wishes to You Demi and Jordan congratulations isn't that sweet Valerie that is is the season right exactly maybe Taylor's next I don't know all right thanks Savannah yeah we end this hour at St judee's Children's Research Hospit

al hit in Memphis and the incredible staff that worked tirelessly to help kids battling cancer this morning NBC News correspondent Harry Smith brings us the incredible story of one Doctor Who was once a patient herself Ayan Gupta is good at many things be it Rubik's Cube or bottle toss for him conquering challenges has been Child's Play until I couldn't believe it I continued to say it was the lab error um a lab eror he was completely normal with no complaints no symptoms no symptoms of acute ly

mphatic leukemia ion's parents are doctors fortunate to live in Memphis we knew St Jude was the perfect place to be for the cancer that my child had treating Childhood Cancer is not kid stuff the regimens are difficult what parts of it did you not like I didn't like taking the liquid medicines so then I learned how to take pills how much of a different difference did it make to learn how to take a pill it was much better they eased his mind by talking to him through every single step of treatmen

t or procedure ion's doctor it turns out has a little extra inner resume my name is Maggie cupit link I take care of kids with cancer Dr cupit Link herself was a patient at St Jude when she was in college what was the diagnosis Zing saroma which is one of the types of childhood bone cancer she was hospitalized for a year my treatment included lots of chemotherapy as well as a really big surgery where they removed the bones and the tumor and replace it with metal so this is my scar from the surge

ry 19-year-old Maggie was not a model patient I wish I could say that I was just had a great attitude the whole time but I did not until she took a good look at her fellow patients they're so resilient and genuine and not a friend afid of death the way that grown-ups are and then I knew if I live then this is the kind of doctor I'll be what does it mean to you to have a physician who's quite responsible for your son's Health who was actually a patient here once herself I think somewhere in the b

ack of my head I thought um this child may not be able to do what he needed to do um but when Dr Maggie walked in and she told me that she herself was a patient and that she overcame all of this and it's is doing what she's doing now I became hopeful that he's allowed to dream and he's allowed to be whatever he wants to be yep there's nothing better than the feeling of knowing that I'm helping these kids in a way that is unique because I understand something that they're going through all of whi

ch makes for a really good story but there's more when I was just 21 I went into menopause Dr cupit Lincoln and her husband planned on adopting but so they woke up the ovaries yes Dr cupit Link got pregnant it definitely is one of those moments where you realize that you're not in control of what happens to you healing is not only about science we have definitely evolved in a way we never thought we would isn't that something it totally is Harry Smith NBC News no surprises incredible coming from

har but what a story exactly so sweet congratulations to her on her pregnancy as well yes absolutely that does it for this hour of morning news now but the news continues right now stay with [Music] us good morning thanks so much for joining us on a Monday I'm Savannah cers and I'm Valerie Castro Joe has the morning off right now on morning news now we've got our eyes on some Wicked weather that's battering much of the East East Coast this morning with heavy rain and driving winds making for a

soggy start to the work week for Millions we've got team coverage in just a moment on this massive Storm's latest track in the Middle East this morning we're learning new details about those three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly shot and killed by the IDF on Friday our Richard Engle is on the ground with the latest also this morning the new question surrounding the death of actor M Matthew Perry that are now putting the effects of ketamine into the national Spotlight and later in the hour w

e're talking the top travel trends of 2023 with something called not jet setting but set jetting we will explain that has something to do with White Lotus yes we start this hour with the latest on a severe weather system impacting millions of Americans a massive storm brought damaging winds and flooding to parts of the East Coast overnight yeah the bad weather's not done yet Michelle's going to be here with your forecast in just a moment but first let's bring in NBC News correspondent Emily aeta

she's in Jones Beach on New York's Long Island with the very latest here hey Emily well you can see in here the wind has been howling and we could see gusts up to 60 M an hour it's a major concern with this storm system which has already knocked out power to tens of thousands of people in the Northeast here on Long Island they're also watching for excessive flooding which we saw wreak havoc for millions of people down the East Coast this morning torrential downpour is bringing new flood threats

to the east coast impacting 59 million people from Virginia to Maine heavy winds and rain rushing into the Northeast overnight roads blocked as the busy morning commute begins over the weekend the same system swept the South hitting Beach communities in Georgia and the Carolinas High Tides washing debris from the ocean onto the roads in Sullivan's Island South Carolina while in Charleston 3 Ines of rain broke the city's daily record on Sunday this is not usually my backyard it's not usually thi

s flooded massive amounts of water also making driving dangerous with vehicles getting stuck on flooded roads outside Myrtle Beach a likely tornado causing extensive damage tearing through homes and knocking down trees and power lines one resident posting on social media I have never heard winds like that the fast moving storm system started down in Florida dumping up to 7 in of rain severe storm conditions even creating a possible power surge in St Petersburg with residents capturing this scary

moment outside their home oh my god get inside and with all of this rain some may be wondering could there be snow in the forecast just a week out from Christmas well for some communities between Cleveland and buffalo and along the Appalachians they could see up to a foot of snow this week back to you oh my goodness Emily stay warm stay safe thank you so much time now for a check at your Morning News Now weather yeah Michelle Grossman is back with us to track where that storm is lingering where

it's headed hey Michelle good morning good morning guys yeah we are still seeing a whole lot of wind a whole lot of water this is not a tropical system but really felt like one with all that water that is falling and continues to fall so we're going to see the lingering storm in portions of the Northeast and New England we're going to start to clear it out gradually in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic so by 10 11: a.m. looking better or starting to look better but it's going to linger in portions

of New England we could see some flooding rains there throughout the afternoon hours on the back side of the system Emily sort of alluded to this we're looking at colder air really filtering into the system system it's being wrapped into the system and we're looking at the uh impacts of lake effect snow we could see up to a foot in some spots really quiet through the middle of the country we are wet in the west we're going to see a series of fronts once again moving on Shore that's going to bri

ng some rain from the Pacific Northwest all the way through most of California not just today but tomorrow and then it's going to linger in the state of California on Wednesday as well so this is Wednesday There's that rain and snow higher elevation snow could see a lot of snow in the sieras lower elevation rain and notice those Reds orang just yellows I've said this before but that's where we're expecting the most amounts of rain plenty of sunshine throughout the middle of the country temperatu

res not that bad in the South Central States the Tennessee Valley the Ohio Valley the Midwest we're dryy too by Wednesday in the Northeast above average temperatures in parts of New England and then by Friday we're still relatively quiet although we're looking at Travel impacts in the west we're looking at some higher elevation snow we're looking some elevation rain that's going to cause some travel delays there un seasly warm throughout the northern part of the nation and we're soggy in parts o

f the Midwest all the way down to the South Central States we're finally dry though for a Friday hopefully Sunday we have to look a little bit uh further into the future there but we're looking at dry conditions along the east coast there so in terms of the storms alert we're looking at 50 million people under flood alerts where you see the Green from Philadelphia New York City Albany into Burlington Banger we're looking at those flood alerts continuing we're also looking at some flash flood war

nings right now because we're looking at flooding conditions in some spots we're going to add on the Wind alerts too 41 million people at risk for really high winds we've already see winds gusting up to 60 mph in some spots we could see winds gusting up to 70 m per spots along the New England coast into portions of New York as well and extending all the way down to portions of the Appalachians winter alerts 19 million people we're looking at the chance for lots of snow in some spots along the Gr

eat Lakes up to a foot in some spots and look at all that rain that is still really heavy is a tough morning for many of us especially with those brighter colors we're looking at torrential downpours we're looking at ponding on the roadways we're looking at flood conditions and also debris on the roadway so really tough Monday morning commute this is what it looks like for the rest of the day we'll see that gradually clearing throughout the Northeast lingering in parts of New England and then we

're looking at that snow continuing on the back side of the system that will continue into tomorrow we're going to clear that out but it's still going to be pretty Breezy as we head towards Tuesday and much colder than where where we are today we're going to be above normal additional rainfall not as much in uh portions of North East also Mid-Atlantic but lots out parts of New England we're looking at up to 4 in up to a foot of snow parts of the Great Lakes and really really windy conditions so

guys we're looking at the chance for more power outages we have a bunch throughout Connecticut throughout New England also throughout portions of the Northeast not a great time of year for that either it's tomorrow thanks all right Michelle thank you so much well Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing backlash this morning after his Defense Forces killed three hostages held in Gaza officials in Israel say their deaths were an accident now their families are demanding answers and mor

e Israelis are calling on netan to resume hostage negotiations with Hamas NBC News Chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has the latest from Jerusalem NBC News has confirmed that ceasefire negotiations have resumed with the directors of the CIA and Israeli Massad meeting with Cy officials as anger in Israel is growing as new details emerge about the three Israeli hostages killed on Friday by Friendly Fire the three Israeli hostages in Gaza made white flags to warn the their own Army not to s

hoot smearing SOS in Old food and writing in Hebrew help three hostages the Israeli military released the images overnight saying the hostages were nonetheless mistakenly shot by Israeli troops Israel's Chief of Staff told soldiers The Friendly Fire could have been avoided saying the hostages took off their shirts so that no one would think they have an explosive device and held a white cloth on a pole to identify themselves they came speaking Hebrew calling for help he said telling the troops n

ever to shoot anyone with their hands up the families of hostages still in Gaza are outraged Calling daily for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to resume negotiations with Hamas and bring their loved ones home I am angry that the government let this get let this situation get so far I am angry at the world that is not supporting a deal right now because this is the only way to bring them back home and I am angry at right now I'm angry at all opinion poll suggests Israelis remain United in their

support for the war in Gaza to destroy Hamas but not in prime minister netanyahu's leadership under us pressure this weekend Israel opened a second Crossing into Gaza for humanitarian supplies but it's still far too little 12-year-old rosan al-habash displaced from her home in Northern G says she waits in line for hours to get food for her family every day I wake up at 8 and leave for the food bank sometimes we spend the day without eating anything she says Human Rights Watch this morning accuse

d Israel of using starvation as a war crime yesterday with International pressure growing the Israeli military continued to make its case for the offensive releasing video of what it calls the largest tunnel it's found underneath the Gaza Strip and showing a man the milit milary identified as the brother of a top Hamas leader driving through it NBC News has not been able to verify the footage this conflict is spreading Beyond Gaza and Israel out to sea with Iranian backed houy militias firing on

ships in the Red Sea over the weekend and again this morning us and British warships responding there were no reports of casualties or significant damage all right Richard thank you so much for your continued reporting here on Capitol Hill the house may have adjourned for holid recess but the Senate decided to delay its holiday break and return this week to hammer out a deal on immigration and Aid to Ukraine and Israel NBC News senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett H joins us now so Garrett

where do things stand with talks this morning what are we hearing from Senate leadership well Valerie the Senate negotiators were in all weekend they met for several hours Saturday several hours again on Sunday they are saying all the right things about trying to reach a deal but they're also cognizant that time is running short and with senators coming back today they don't have an agreement they don't even have a framework and you can't vote on either of those things you would need text to vo

te on a bill so uh I think for people who want to see this deal get done the optimistic case here is that things are moving forward but that they're just not there yet and Garrett what would the consequences be of leaving this issue unresolved through the holidays well look there could be consequences on the battlefields in Ukraine and in Gaza uh especially in Ukraine where the fear is that the draw down Authority the ability for the White House for the American government to keep sending milita

ry aid to Ukraine is about to be badly impaired and could affect the war there but also there's political consequences too dealing with this in January just makes everything harder in January we've got the first of these funding deadlines to keep the government up and running and we're also going to have the presidential race getting going in full swing doing anything as politically uh delicate as reforming the immigration system during a presidential campaign is just harder and harder than it w

ould be to do it now just before the end of the year so Garrett although the Senate is back today the house is not returning this week to push this legislation why is that and what's been the reaction from the White House well the house says there's no legislation to push and right now they're right I mean they don't want to keep their members here sitting in town twiddling their thumbs if there's not a bill for them to vote on and so the speaker has sent everybody home I think it's possible alt

hough I think it's a very low likelihood that if somehow the Senate got a deal passed it maybe we'd see the house come back but more likely they're probably not going to vote uh on anything until early to potentially even mid January they don't want to get jammed here that's not unusual and the White House is involved in these talks now finally I think a lot of lawmakers were uh glad to see secretary my orcus from the DHS uh start showing up and being engaged in these conversations right now the

president has had something of a hands-off approach but I think as this gets closer to the possibility of actually becoming law we might have to see Joe Biden get his hands dirty uh in these negotiations because ultimately he's going to have to sign it and sell whatever they agreed to to the American people all right Garrett he thank you for your reporting you bet well overnight there was a security scare outside President Biden's campaign headquarters in Delaware a car collided with his motorc

ade while the president was just steps away his reaction was caught on camera just as the Secret Service jumped into action NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez joins us from Washington with the details here hey gab good morning hey there Savannah good morning it's not every day you see a collision just feet away from the president of the United States and it happened as the president and the first lady were heading home for the night thankfully both of them are safe and we'r

e not hurt overnight President Biden leaving a dinner with staff at his campaign headquarters in Delaware Mr President why are you losing to Trump in the polls when all of a sudden a car plowed into a vehicle that was part of a secret service detail the president appeared startled by the Collision before Secret Service agents hustled him into an armored SUV additional agents Drew their guns on the driver who put his hands up the president and the first lady were not hurt in what appears to be an

accident the unusual security scare coming as the 2024 campaign heats up less than a month before the Iowa Caucasus over the weekend Republican front runner Donald Trump in Nevada and New Hampshire where he made controversial comments about undocumented immigrants they're poisoning the blood of our country that's what they've done the Biden campaign accusing Trump of par ing Adolf Hitler who used similar wording in his writings but only one of Trump's Republican Rivals have blasted him for the

remark he's disgusting and what he's doing is dog whistling to Americans Trump also called North Korean dictator Kim jonun very nice and he quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as he argued the four criminal indictments he's facing our political payback Vladimir Putin of Russia says that Biden's and this is a quote politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rotness of the American political system one new poll out of New Hampshire has

former Ambassador Nikki Haley in a strong second in the state following the endorsement of its Governor Chris anunu I'm going to fight to earn every single person's vote because we have a country to save while Florida Governor Ronda Sanz betting big on Iowa is ramping up his attacks against the former president Trump loses he will say it's stolen no matter what absolutely he he will he will try to delegitimize the results as for the collision near the president it is not clear what if any charg

es or citations that driver might face the Wilmington Delaware Police Department is investigating whether he may have been impaired Savannah all right Kate thank you very much welcome back we are so excited about our next guest in August NASA's SpaceX crew 7 Mission launched to the International Space Station now they're already more than halfway through their six-month Mission and the work they are doing is pretty neat they are conducting more than 200 science experiments and Technology demonst

rations to prepare for Missions to the Moon to Mars and Beyond and guess what we have them joining us now live from space we are with AST NASA astronaut Jasmine MOG belly and Expedition 70 Commander Andreas mogenson thank you so much for joining us both of you we are so excited to talk to you it really blows my mind that we even can talk to you Jasmine I will start with you I know that you were selected by NASA to join the 2017 astronaut candidate class and now you are currently on your first mi

ssion in space so what's it been like you've been up there for 4 months how's it going it's been awesome so I was a little nervous before launching I was like well you know I've wanted this my entire life what if I get up there and I'm like oh you know this is just okay um but it is not disappointed at all um floating is just the coolest thing looking back at Earth uh I mean every time I look back at Earth I'm I'm Blown Away um and then the International Space Station itself is just um an absolu

te Marvel of human engineering so I've loved every moment up here and it's gone by way too quickly oh that is so neat to hear and and satisfying to hear that floating is as fun and cool as we all think it would be um Andreas I know that you're not look at that look at the oh my gosh thank you for indulging Us in that um Andreas you're more than halfway through the mission I mentioned your commander here tell us about your role and what youall have tackled so far during this Mission at the Intern

ational Space Station I said all those science experiments things like that what exactly does that mean well we have a a terrific team up here we are Seven astronauts on board the International Space Station um and we get along uh really well we uh learned or we got to know each other during the year and a half of training prior to launch and uh everything's been going really smoothly so far and we've been able to concentrate on the scientific research and Technology development that we do up he

re and it really spans the uh the gamut from physics chemistry biology human physiology medicine to Material Science atmospheric science I mean just to give you a couple of U examples lately we've been working on um uh brain cells to understand how uh cells age in space uh we've been working with our biofabrication facility which essentially is a a 3D printer for human tissue where we can print wow simulant of of human organs uh and other uh human tissues um yeah it's really incredible we've bee

n studying giant lightning strikes uh that shoot upwards uh out towards the edge of of space from the top of Thundercloud so really it's a very wide variety of scientific research we can do up here wow no kidding that's incredible that this same team is doing all those different types of things you guys are just amazing Jasmine I know you are part of the fourth all female spacewalk in history I love this I have interviewed Christina cook before I'm not sure assume you all maybe kind of at least

know each other but you know I know she was part of the first couple um what was it like for you to know that you are now part of History being part of that fourth walk and just kind of what it means to be what does it feel like to be to know that you are doing this with just all women and that it's breaking barriers first off just going out on my first Space Walk uh itself was just one of the top experiences of my entire life um just being out there knowing you're relying on yourself your crewm

ate and the team back on the ground going out with Laurel who's a good friend of mine um and also uh one of my classmates uh from the 2017 selection on her face first space walk as well and then you know on the ground guiding us through it was an mlan who I overlapped with at test bout school so just a a great group overall to be uh working with and and really proud of of what we accomplished yeah absolutely well this last questions for the both of you just you know I know that it sounds like yo

u both love what you do which is just so incredible to hear you talk talk about um but you're also away from your families of course it's the holidays what helps you get through being apart from loved ones especially at a time a year like this when you are in space well the good thing is uh even though we're in space we're not that isolated anymore thanks to uh you know our communication uh assets up here we can uh you know talk to our uh uh family and friends on video um almost daily if we want

to uh we also have access to email and and and the internet so there's lots of opportunities for us to keep contact with our family and friends uh especially over here in the during the holidays which is nice absolutely and then I just tried tried to find little ways to connect uh with my family back home and and my two girls um you know uh we just finished up Hanukkah celebrations each night I would send them a video of me putting another light on the felt manora they had sent up for me um I'v

e got my crew quarters decorated with ornaments which are mostly pictures of my girls or us as a family so just little things to to feel connected uh to them back home okay the drle spinning in space is a pretty epic video thank you both so much Jasmine MOG belly Andreas mogenson we appreciate you both thank you so much and what an incredible exciting thing you guys are up there doing we really appreciate you calling in all the way from the International Space Station thank you and happy holiday

s thank you so much happy holidays what a cool interview ahead of what's expected to be a very busy holiday travel period the state department says it's working to fix something that's given millions of American Travelers a headache this year those frustratingly long wait times to get or renew your passport here with more on what's being done to help is NBC News Chief Washington correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell Good morning Andrea with the state department processing a record-breakin

g 24 million passports this year it is added staff and overtime to finally reduce a common complaint for American Travelers the wait time to get new passports or renewals just in time for the holidays with the holiday travel season now here the state department is stepping up its efforts to ensure Americans can take that dream overseas family vacation with ease standard passport renewals Take 6 to 8 weeks by mail or if expeited 2 to 3 weeks but what if at the last minute you realize you've lost

your passport or it's expired these anxious Travelers rush to a passport office to get one the same day Christopher Donald for his 11-year-old son Gabriel we are going to Spain to Portugal to Italy the Netherlands into London passport processing has improved dramatically when travel picked up after Co renewals took 10 to 13 weeks to process now they're up to date we had to do a lot of overtime um how much well thousands of hours per month for an extended period of time we really worked our staff

as much as we could the photo requirements can cause delays you got to have a photo that's a specific size he has can't be smiling there's all kinds of requirements on that so and you like to smile I love to smile and the new passports have laminated photo Pages similar to a credit card to make them even more difficult to counterfeit we consider our passport the golden standard of passports in in the world Rael Gomez and her husband were packing to take 2-year-old Eugenia and 5-year-old Mercede

s to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Valencia Spain just hours before their afternoon flight how did you realize that mercedes's passport had expired in the worst of ways we were packing our passports and we literally real I that it's expiring next week and so we couldn't come back in without her passport yep it's all good the passport office rushed mercedes's passport through in a few short hours Raquel grabbed her kids and raced off to try and catch their plane the next St coming sometime in 2024

the roll out of a website where you can renew your passport online just remember don't smile for the photo and no selfies if you want to avoid more delays all right Andrea Mitchell thanks so much no no smiling no smiling yeah there you go International headlines now Northern Australia is seeing record rainfall leaving behind disastrous flooding NBC News foreign correspondent Ali ruzi joins us now from Cairo good morning Ally good morning Savannah good morning Valerie that's right flash floods i

n North Queensland Australia have forced an entire town to be evacuated with some people trapped on a hospital roof in what authorities expect to be Australian the Australian Region's worst ever flood extreme weather driven by a tropical Cyclone has dumped a Year's worth of rain on some areas images show planes submerged at Karen's airport a crocodile scene in the middle of the town and people fleeing in boats so far thankfully no fatalities have been reported self-made millionaire and pro-democ

racy Tycoon Jimmy Le has gone on trial in Hong Kong on charges of breaching National Security and colluding with foreign forces Mr Lei who's been held in solitary conf confinement for the past 3 years is an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist party if convicted he faces life in prison his case is seen as a test of Hong Kong's judicial Independence and finally a tattered 80-year-old threadbear teddy bear has been resurrected as a Christmas present for an 87y Old owner by his wife the bear w

as given to grahe Windsor in England in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II providing him comfort as Nazi bombs rain down around him the couple said the bear was one of the best Christmas presents they've ever had you never grow out of a teddy bear do you those are your head cly do not welcome back authorities have released the autopsy report for the death of beloved friend star Matthew Perry yeah the report says the actor died from acute effects of the drug ketamine and has ruled his death an

accident NBC News Now anchor Kate Snow joins us now and more on this she's here on set with us hey Kate good morning hey guys good morning so since the news broke on Friday there have been a lot of questions about ketamine it's an anesthetic and a hallucinogen that we've talked about before it's sometimes used recreationally it can be found illegally but recently it's also been studied for its potential to treat mental health disorders including depression and now it's being blamed for the death

of Matthew Perry who talked openly about his struggle with substance use this morning new questions surrounding Matthew Perry's death as the world remembers the belov star I'm going to hug you you hug me all right in an autopsy report released Friday the medical examiner determined the 54-year-old died from the acute effects of ketamine ruling his death an accident ketamine is a fast acting hallucinogen approved by the FDA as an anesthetic it gained popularity as a party drug because it boosts

feel-good chemicals in the brain and causes a euphoric effect but recently ketamine has increasingly been offered off label at clinics to treat depression and other mental health disorders and has even been studied to treat alcohol and drug abuse Perry was known for his light-hearted onscreen Persona I'm not great at the advice can I interest you in a sarcastic comment but had a long history with addiction it's so cunning baffling and Powerful alcoholism and addiction it's a disease that we have

and we don't know that we have it in his Memoir released last year the actor wrote about being given ketamine during rehab AB taking ketamine is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel but the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel ketamine was not for me he wrote It's unclear how Perry obtained the ketamine that led to his death but according to officials Perry was reported to be receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety and his last treatment was a week

and a half before his death the examination found the amount of ketamine in his blood was equivalent to the amount used for general anesthesia levels the report says too high to be residual from his last clinical treatment Perry was found floating face down in his hot tub in October one of the contributing factors authorities also noted a drug buprenorphine approved by the FDA to treat opioid use disorder which people often stay on for years I just want to say that I I love you recently friends

co-star and close friend Jennifer Aniston told variety that Perry was getting healthy adding he wasn't struggling he was happy a witness who talked to investigators said Perry had been sober for 19 months the autopsy found no evidence of other illicit drugs like cocaine meth heroin fentanyl none of that for now it's unclear if investigators will look into how Perry obtained ketamine but guys this news is obviously very difficult for his family and for all his millions of fans yeah and all the p

eople that he helped by the way right every time that he opened up about this himself that's right Kate thank you very much now let's bring in NBC News Medical contributor Dr Natalie Azar who is here to better help explain ketamine good morning Dr Azar we just heard about the effects of ketamine but can you explain how it works in the body yeah absolutely so I guess you know depending on what the ketamine is being used for it has a number of different effects obviously it's been used for decades

as an anesthetic but more recently it has been found to be Inc extraordinarily effective to treat depression and it does so uh by raising a level of a chemical called glutamate um in the frontal part of the brain and it's also thought to um enhance or or better shape those connections what we call synapses in the brain that are thought to help with resilience so that if the ketamine actually works to treat depression it actually can help people sustain that potential benefit as Kate mentioned u

m it it is also used as an anesthetic and it can slow down the rate of breathing and too much ketamine can can actually cause you to become unconscious which is what is thought to have happened in the case of Matthew's accidental death and Dr ASA we understand that Matthew per may have been on a second medication in addition to ketamine tell us about that and and how it works with opioid use disorder yes that's that's exactly right so yes ketamine is also being studied in substance use disorder

in his system is something called borine it is actually what we call like a partial opioid Agonist which means in in layman's term that it it is a narcotic and it can function as an opioid but it doesn't result in that same Euphoria and Pain Relief and everything as a stronger opioid so it is used to treat people with opioid use disorder and when it's appropriately prescribed and and patients are followed it is very very safe the issue is that because it also acts as a narcotic it can also slow

down the rate of breathing and so the thought is that the combination of the ketamine and the borine is probably what led to his you know significantly slowed breathing and then because he was in a hot tub that led to his drowning and Dr AAR I know you just touched on it what happens to the human body when someone takes too much ketamine but is it easy to overdose on ketamine so yeah so everybody reacts differently to ketamine and I don't know that we know exactly the the dose that can lead to t

o an overdose but as Kate mentioned in her piece he was on the the level that they found in his blood was basically in the middle range of what is used in anesthesia so really quite a significant amount there's also an issue that ketamine acutely can raise your heart rate it can raise your blood pressure um and while Matthew Perry did not die from a heart attack the the medical examiner clearly stated that he did have underlying coronary artery disease so there was probably some strain on his he

art and in this situation really it was it appears to be a perfect storm of a number of different things each one isolation may not have caused his death but the combination clearly uh clearly did all right Dr AAR as always thank you so much we're back with what's making Financial headlines this morning there are new reports that Japan's nepon steel will buy us steel cnbc's Pippa Stevens joins us now with that and more another money news good morning Pippa hey Valerie well Japan Japan's nighton

steel striking a deal to buy us steel for more than 144 billion the move coming months after us steel put itself up for sale and it rejected an offer from rival Cleveland Cliffs us steel has struggled for several years with falling profit and revenue making it an attractive Target for Rivals looking to add a maker of Steel used by the Auto industry nighton steel says it will honor all collective bargaining agreements with United Steel Workers Union Southwest Airlines has agreed to pay 140 millio

n to settle government investigations into the service meltdown during the holidays last year the airline canceled thousands of flights stranding more than 2 million passengers about 90 million will go towards travel vouchers for people who were delayed even before the settlement Southwest says the Meltdown costed more than 1 billion in refunds reimbursements and lost ticket sales and nearly two-thirds of Americans do not expect their personal finances to improve in 2024 including more than a qu

arter who believe their situation will get worse a new survey from bank rate finds inflation is the most commonly cited reason along with flat or reduced income and changing interest rates of those who have a financial goal for next year the most popular are paying down debt getting a higher paying job or another source of income and saving more for emergencies Valerie back to you all right Pippa thank you so much as we prepare to say goodbye to 2023 it's time to look back now on the year in tra

vel it's been a rocky road for the travel industry this year Airlines received a record-breaking number of complaints amid ticket prices that jumped 25 % meanwhile set jetting was the trend of the year so if you travel to see the filming location of a show or movie you were not alone here with us now to discuss is travel expert Mark Elwood Mark thanks for being with us this morning so Airlines were hit with a record number of complaints this year 38,000 Travelers filed complaints in the first ha

lf of 2023 which is double what it was last year so what are some of the things that people complained about the most I think most important just to pause and say they complained so much that the department of transp stopped issuing monthly tallies cuz they couldn't keep track people were complaining about delays and cancellations I don't need to tell any of you that because I think we all exper If you flew this year you probably had a delay or a cancellation the issues really were twofold we're

seeing climate change make our climate really unpredictable storms in New York last summer that really cause chaos and then we've got real problems with Staffing air traffic controllers the certified air traffic controllers were down 10% in the decade to 2022 we don't have enough people to cater to the fact we want to go everywhere even more and the holidays are coming up Christmas is just a week away everyone's getting ready to head to the airport again what tips do you have so people can avoi

d some of the headaches that they saw last year don't pack wrapped gifts remember you've got to be able to let them see that uh get uh the you always want the Airlines app to make sure that you can check what's going on I recommend flighty which is a great app that sort of goes around the Airlines and often notifies you earlier those early morning flights always better because the plane is already there and when you're packing remember that a little scented candle that's one of my holiday tips l

ooks like a wick in a bomb and will often mean that at security you'll need extra hand searching so maybe leave that one at home leave that out or take it out of the B take it out of the bag for go another trip that I saw there that my parents have really gotten into is putting the little tracker in their suitcases Genie I do it every time my bag went a stray in Venice I knew exactly where it was I could get it within 2 or 3 hours so smart Okay uh can Travelers expect any relief in ticket prices

next year okay there is good news ticket prices next year are predicted to go up about 1% so in other words they're going to stabilize I think the big issue actually is hotels in Italy this summer uh prices for hotels were up 51% versus 2019 which was already a ban a year so I think you're going to see hotel prices continue to rise even if the uh airline prices stabilize so some good news bad news yeah so maybe factor that into your budget for next year totally okay uh the trend this year was s

et jetting I think I said earlier White Lotus probably played a role in that I mean did you did you go I think I did not go but it seemed like people went to go see it I will tell you that Sicily had a ban year that hotel that Four Seasons Hotel had a ban year I know the Four Seasons people very well they told me that it was a real driver of bookings Emily and Paris getting people to Paris to the south of France you're not alone if you're following that and I would watch actually asot companies

rush to work with movies and TV shows because they can see it's the best marketing you can imagine so what's the next big trend for next year is that going to continue or is there something else we can look out for are you ready to go to space Oh interesting I mean I know you have the astronaut so there's a company called space perspective which has much less publicity than say SpaceX but it's it's got a essentially a weather balloon with a luxury capsule attached $125,000 a person but you'll ge

t a few is almost in space no training needed and they say they're going to start flights by the end of next year wow I don't yeah I don't know if I'm into that one would you take I mean it's a weather balloon that didn't that didn't sell it you no that doesn't PE my interest but it has champagne and Wi-Fi okay maybe all right lastly uh how is the travel industry looking as a whole for next year there are some there are some challenges with Supply I talked about the air traffic controllers there

's pilot shortages and also there are plane shortages so I would anticipate the issues we had this year rolling over to next year but remember First Flight of the day get that flighty app there are certain things you can do which mean that when the problems arise you're not the last person to be helped okay so you can take some control when things do go out of all right Mark Elwood thank you so much we appreciate your time and now to a story that will warm your heart our friends on the Today's S

how honored a four-legged therapy dog who works closely with kids with autism NBC News correspondent Sam Brock has been filling in as Santa's helper to bring those kids and the dog some holiday cheers Sam good morning yeah guys good morning look we all know the powerful connection with animals we're about to introduce you though in our own lives to a six-year-old Labrador Retriever her name is Eliza she lives outside of the Atlanta area and when she shows up at the autism Therapy Center in her n

eighborhood she is doing things right now to help children Thrive and succeed in their everyday lives and when chewy the online pet supply store company reached out to us to talk to us about their campaign with Eliza we knew that we wanted to do something something to make this holiday season perfect whether it's a warm hug or a slobbery kiss when Eliza the therapy dog joins the party it's joyful chaos puppy that's green that's green too everyone wants to say hello to their four-legged best frie

nd as for me well I'm kind of just in the way hey bud how you doing welcome to the party and honestly who can blame these four and 5-year-olds face Eliza's patience honorable as she reports for duty at hopebridge autism Therapy Center in Georgia just one of many clinics designed to help children Nationwide with autism often in underserved communities Eliza's job is to assist the kids with activities that teach them life skills like counting how many toes does Eliza have so she's got five toes on

her paw all of it working towards School Readiness we want these kids to be independent Donna Bryan is Eliza's owner and a former therapist at the clinic she left to pursue her masters in social work a lot of these kids are really struggling with communicating their needs well Eliza doesn't need to communicate you don't have to explain anything to her she is just right there she's going to meet you wherever you are you show Li of your tongue y are you seeing them become more verbal even without

having to communicate with Eliza absolutely absolutely we might not necessarily understand exactly what it is that they're saying but you know what she does and she's going to she's going to respond in in only a way she can one of those children is 4-year-old anuka Gonzalez in less than a year she hit a communication Milestone when she was diagnosed with autism she was considered non-verbal to be honest when she was was diagnosed I never thought I would hear her say mom or I love you but now an

uka can form complete sentences her mother Kimberly says thanks in part to Eliza's helping paw when she's with Eliza she feels a sense of security she feels happiness and joy yes I love [Music] you a that kind of progress is something worth celebrating so in honor of Eliza anyone want to go to a party yeah let's do it so chewy threw you a holiday party look at all these [Music] presents ANUK what is this what is this Eliza can I have your help with this please give me give me and there was one m

ore surprise left in store for our guest of honor Chewy likes to celebrate deserving animals like Eliza this year they would like to donate $20,000 to Blue path service dogs that there can be so many more alyas out there wow oh my goodness you guys have no idea the impact this is going to make on so many families here's the moralizes [Music] and Valerie a little bit more background on Eliza according to Donna she was actually trained originally as a guide dog but had a food allergy so instead sh

e channeled her inner spirit and all of that beautiful love and became an animal therapy dog instead really really remarkable story there as long as we're talking about a personal dose of love right now this buddy right here is Oro He's Mine He's only 2 months old and if many of you right now are wondering don't go anywhere AIO if you're wondering at home like is my animal potentially uh qualified to be a therapy dog the sorts of things you'd be looking for calm so if they're a bundle of energy

unfortunately that's great at home but it's not great for therapy that they love all people and immediately are drawn to them and they're not easily spooked or unsettled so I still have hope for this one right here he's fairly unflappable my other dog at home very different story Valerie I'm sure we can all relate on that one I think that one there is made for TV so cute Sam all right TV star we're back now with a blast from the past well the early 2000s actually the leading ladies of The Sister

hood of the Traveling Pants are back together again but this time they're trading in their signature denim for Barbie pink the former co-stars reunited to celebrate America ferrera's performance in Barbie at a sag after screening right here in New York Ferrara Blake Lively Alexis badell and Amber tamin all post for pictures nearly two decades after the first of their two films hit the theaters and St many of our hearts it was a moment of pure Nostalgia for fans who fell in love with those magica

l pants but even without them The Sisterhood still lives on and Savannah they were teenagers when they shot those films so so great to see them coming back together I know I love that they are all still such good friends and they look fabulous and she was so good in that movie thanks so much Valerie well finally this hour if you watched the Jacksonville Jaguars take on the Baltimore Ravens yesterday you'll have seen well-known Ravens players like Lamar Jackson Odell Beckham Jr but there's one pe

rson you might not have seen the chaplain every team in the league has one and I had the chance to spend some time with the Baltimore Ravens chaplain a beloved member of that team who's just as important as the players on the field for many Sundays are a day dedicated to football and to Faith and it is not for them Lord it is For Your Glory but few people combine the two more fully than Johnny Shelton team Chapan for the Baltimore Ravens on you Lord a spiritual guide on the sidelines of every ga

me like Sunday night in Jacksonville against the Jaguars do most people know that this is a part of an NFL team most people don't know which is a good thing for us is that you stay out of the way well today's your moment it's God's moment all 32 NFL teams have a chaplain but the Ravens say they are one of a handful that have theirs inhouse full time the blessing is being able to be in the building full time things that just come up where people need to talk or they want advice Johnny has been wi

th the team for a decade in addition to scheduled Bible studies for different groups like coaches players and even their significant others Johnny's door is always open for counseling what are the types of things that the players come to you about they come to me with football pressure family pressure relationship issues life is hard enough and at the flip side of that football is hard enough so when you put those two together it's it's just it's it's crazy johnny makes it easy for players to se

ek him out when they need him doing a prayer walk around the training fields at the start of every practice I pray for for the safety for their minds their hearts to be clear to be able to focus um on the task at hand and and they will literally come up and some of them will ask for prayer personally so it's it's a field yeah yeah right here as we as we're going going as I'm coming around the same is true on game day when Johnny will pray with players individually on the sidelines and collective

ly as a team in the locker room so right before we go out to take the field the last thing we do is we pray as a as a team Johnny's message resonates with players of Faith Like three-time Pro Bowl defensive back Marlon Humphrey football comes up occasionally but it's it's mainly just life different things going on relationship even sometimes when it is football it's it's more so just how can you be more of a leadership role as well as with former player and current assistant coach Anthony Weaver

we're football coaches we're football players we assume we're Alphas right we can we can solve and we can figure out everything and you it's not natural to turn to somebody for help and for guidance he makes that easy you mentioned some of the players that aren't Christians is your door open to all faiths all beliefs oh absolutely absolutely I'm I'm here to I'm here to love all we're not going to disciple everybody so whatever their faith is we're we're here to love them that's what Jesus did t

he influence of a chaplain is felt throughout the NFL once a month the chaplain across the league have a zoom call together those are my guys I know them very well we're able to lean on we we talk with each other the league chaplain also shephered one of game day's more touching Traditions a postgame prayer circle formed by members of both teams the chaplain call it meet me at the 50 we will pray together just thanking God for to be able to have this competition to play this great game of [Appla

use] football so by the way Baltimore beat Jacksonville 23-7 they are now 11 and three this season they are our team by the way we're going on New Year's Eve it's my husband he's from Maryland so we're very excited and also Chaplan Johnny says his door is open to all faiths which is very cool he has all different types of people who come and see him and he loves his job what a great job yeah it's awesome that does it from morning news now but the news continues right now stay with us thanks for

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