[Music] so we're coming on the air with the breaking news that the defense has rusted now in the Alec Murdoch trial we've got details on that incredibly high profile case coming up in just a minute we're also getting some shocking video out of Oklahoma after a tornado ripped through a town with the whole country dealing with this dangerous weather Whiplash millions of people under severe winter weather alerts with a new storms Slam in California we'll take you live out west plus the White House says Hey pump the brakes on this new report that talks about China and where the covet pandemic came from originally we've got the political Fallout and what this leak Theory means for the very tense relationship with Beijing plus it's time to play ball but the game is going to look different we're taking a look at baseball's new rules all of them and why they're causing so much controversy just four days into spring training Plus in tonight's original know how one of the country's oldest historically black colleges is taking students back in time and into the metaverse to teach black history and in tonight's backstory a doctor reporting on a potential solution for the Nationwide shortage of therapists and psychiatrists and you know what the solve may be artificial intelligence we'll talk about what happened when he spoke with a mental health chat bot a little bit later on in the show don't miss that hey I'm Hallie and I'm willing to bet that right now you are in or you know somebody who's about to be in some terrible weather tonight with huge storms ripping through some spots down south look at it right this is what some people have to go home to this is all that's left in one part south of Oklahoma City you can see the cars like flipped over the house is gone a tornado went through town there with at least five more reported tornadoes in other places today look at this one you can see that twister coming through Champaign Illinois it's going fast 50 miles an hour according to the National Weather Service no word on what kind of damage it left behind yet 42 million people are under winter weather alerts from Wisconsin to Maine that means rain snow wind ice tonight into tomorrow and check this out in Michigan trees and power lines are already down and keep in mind this is a state that hasn't even recovered from last week's storm about 200 000 people still do not have power from those storms almost seven days ago now out west you've got another monster coming for California where folks are still digging out after a rare record snow in spots that don't usually get it does this look like a lovely ski Trail to you fresh pow no that's actually a road that are those are literally cars on a road covered in snow in Southern California uh parts of people who live in those parts of those places say they just like don't see this they can't remember this happening before we've got Bill Karen standing by at the forecast but I want to get some more about it in LA we'll get to what's happening in Southern California in a second Maura let's talk about these tornadoes overnight into today how people are cleaning up there's so many houses as we've seen that have been ripped to shreds houses completely flattened businesses schools all affected more images like that that you showed with those cars flipped over just all across Oklahoma and Texas as we've seen those reported nearly a dozen tornadoes in the last 24 hours across the Midwest and some of the South and so officials have warned people to stay away from downed power lines roadways are still closed as recovery efforts begin and officials say that they're still working their way through the community especially in Norman Oklahoma where one of those tornadoes really swept through to make sure that they've accounted for everybody make sure anybody with injuries have gone to the hospital at least a dozen people in the hospital though no life-threatening injuries as far as we know right now and they're looking to see if anyone needs any overnight shelter but this is obviously going to be quite the undertaking when it comes to recovery and all this is going on as a tornado warning remains in effect for parts of Indiana excuse me and Ohio through this evening Hallie what about where you are in California more I mean listen it looks like raindrops are falling around your head unless it's a trick of lighting I know that people there barely see rain much less snow the flooding has been real folks are getting ready for what's next yeah the rain has started to fall again we have had a brief break here from Sunday afternoon into this morning with the rain in Southern California but it's predicted to last the next several days yet again after that last storm people were just starting to dry off digging out in the eastern part of La out into the mountains and you know as someone who is very well versed in snow growing up in the Northeast being in Chicago the scene that we saw this weekend was just absolutely absurd seeing the fact that there's palm trees as you're walking around downtown L.A but then there's snow-capped mountains within the same view highways east of L.A in the San Bernardino Mountains completely shut down because of the record-breaking snow that the San Bernardino Mountains and Big Bear those pictures you're seeing there now saw this weekend they've never seen it before the same thing up north in Northern California and the thing is is they're expected to see even more snow the superior Nevada is expecting three to seven more feet blizzard warnings in effect up by Tahoe and you might think it's great skiing but the problem is you can't get there the plows aren't used to it they were working 12 to 14 hour shifts overnight over the weekend to try to clear the roads there's no salt and so it's really something that people aren't used to driving in and it's the same situation with the flooding here in LA River beds are roading people hydroplaning on the highways and so officials really warning people to be careful and only go out in case of emergency Hallie Laura bear thank you for that breakdown I want to get to meteorologist Bill Karens who's got the path and this one bill qualified as a direct show right talk about why that piece of it is a big deal yeah Doritos you know we get a couple of them every year they're they're big wind events they're the wind events that will last about 70 to 80 miles and we'll get wind damage all along that path happens a lot in the summer very rare to get them in February yeah so in the winter months that's what was very rare about that so that was with the thunderstorms that were in Oklahoma yesterday the ones that produced the tornado around Norman we've had tornado warnings Columbus Ohio was under a tornado warning about a half hour hour ago those storms have since moved out another line of storms coming through we've had four reports of tornadoes today nothing that has been extremely devastating we do have new 20 NATO watch that's extended here into areas of West Virginia in the southern Southeast quadrant here of Ohio until seven o'clock this evening so that includes Cambridge and Parkersburg down to Huntington's we'll watch that again four tornadoes so far maybe an isolated one or two left then we transitioned this into a winter event tonight we're still looking for the first significant snow for New York City this winter doesn't look like a huge event I think the roads will be fine but in the park on the grass and on the snowboard two to four inches as possible more traveling through New England and New York state is where you'll have more four to six and plowable a lot of school delays also in these areas tomorrow Hallie there's also an early Alert issued for later in the week right and we're already looking ahead even though it's Monday to what's going to happen then well right that the storm that's going to hit the northeast tonight is the storm to hit California the end of last week and so we already have another new storm coming into California the one that's already moving in about 12 million people those are the blizzard warnings we were just talking about we're going to get more snow in northern Arizona the snow levels aren't quite as low this time we're not going to see like palm trees with snow like we did last week but it's still going to be pretty cold the mountains outside of L.A are going to get more snow it's already snowing really hard at Interstate 80 I'm sure that's probably closed and we're going to see feet of snow as we mentioned it's been an insane season for snow Mammoth by the way is already going to go going to go over 500 inches of snow and their records like 600 something so they're going to close in on that Hallie and Holly I'll end with this my son is going to say that you're his favorite anchor of all time because you use the word Powell and he's a snowboarder and so I am very very impressed power is short for powder it is fresh pal meaning fresh powder it is something that I bet your son probably says to his friends thank you Bill appreciate you thank you let's talk about some breaking news we've got coming into us here because Alec Murdoch's defense team is resting its case literally in just the last couple of minutes here and it's coming as there is a new twist in this very high profile South Carolina double murder trial the jury may get to see the crime crime scene rather right up close they're going to see it for themselves and that's probably going to be the last big moment in this trial but before it happens Murdoch's team is bringing in the Murdoch's lawyers excuse me Murdoch's brother he's a disbarred lawyer remember Murdoch used to be a lawyer no longer is the defense is also bringing in its own expert Witnesses who contradicted at certain points how law enforcement saw that crime scene one witness kind of dismissing how the County coroner figured out the time of death for Murdoch's wife and son tell me what you would learn by sticking your hand under the armpit of a deceased you wouldn't learn anything it's just not a valid method to try to make a determination of time just a guess it's a guess yes so that's the defense team trying to make its case and you can see Murdoch again getting emotional when they brought up some of the more graphic crime scene images he has maintained that he is innocent he says with closing arguments expected by Wednesday Danny Savalas has given us the legal breakdown in a sec but let's start outside the courthouse Ellis and barber is in Walterboro for us so Ellison the defense has just rested its case that means the prosecution is now going to get its turn for like the final word before closing statements and perhaps this field trip right right yeah so the prosecution has said they probably have about five additional witnesses to call initially the timeline we heard this morning in conversations before the jury came in the courtroom uh you had the defense and then the state agreeing saying they thought potentially they could be uh in closing arguments by Wednesday but then came up this idea of the jury taking a trip a jury viewing a field trip if you will to the murder scene the hunting lodge that's known as Moselle initially the defense brought it up suggesting that maybe the jury should take a vote and say whether or not they want to go see it the judge the prosecution as well said that is essentially unheard of but the judge said he was open to considering it if either the state or the defense was making that request des carputli and the primary defense attorney here the lead on on the case he said that is what we are requesting and it seems now that that likely will happen the defense predicted that that process alone could take about three hours roughly 45 minutes there an hour on site roughly 45 minutes back so that could delay a little bit the timeline here if that trip does in fact happen as we think that it likely will in terms of the details who would be going will the media be able to see all of that that has not been figured out yet the judge just said if you want them to have a viewing I can work with law enforcement and make that happen Hallie but the prosecution didn't necessarily want that to happen right yet they seemed a little hesitant some of the different arguments that came up back and forth was that uh the defense said they felt like they needed to have this happen because the jury needs to get a bit of more you know like spatial uh awareness in terms of how things are laid out saying in part one of the things that has come up a lot is the feed room the defense uh suggesting and saying at different points that physically given elit Murdoch's height and weight at the time that for him to be in that area pulling a weapon and then switching to another weapon that that would be unlikely because of the space they want the jury to see that the prosecution they protested this visit uh or objected a little bit to it saying the entire area has now changed since these murders took place there were trees that weren't there at the time a lot of things are different and they seem to have issue with that saying if this visit were to happen then okay we need to call more witnesses back after that because we would need to explain some things Hallie Ellison Barber live for us watching all of it Ellison thank you as you will be for the next few days so Danny Savalas let me bring you in here you know as a defense attorney that getting these kind of jury field trips approved doesn't happen all the time there was one people may or may not remember back during the very high profile O.J Simpson trial like is this going to be an if the glove doesn't fit you must acquit moment what's the goal here for the defense as far as I know the last jury visit to a crime scene was the O.J case believe me if this were a
run-of-the-mill case with a run-of-the-mill defendant that motion would be denied it wouldn't happen judges hate jury visits jury views because they're an administrative headache you got to put everybody on a big yellow school bus make sure they're not tainted by any outside influence and this is a high profile case so it's even harder and then go all the way out go all the way back it's a huge problem that's why most judges just say no and the only reason Murdoch has a chance of getting this granted is because it's the Murdoch trial and all eyes are on this judge but believe me if this was a case nobody heard heard of there would be no jury view no field trip the state says it's got as Ellison has reported now maybe four to five witnesses that they're going to use sort of these reply Witnesses they call them they think they can get them all done tomorrow but think about how many witnesses they've presented dozens of them hundreds of pieces of evidence at some point is there a risk that so much of that right overwhelms the jury here from the point of the prosecution yes and no the prosecution has the burden of proof here and it's beyond A Reasonable Doubt so they have a lot to contend with and for that reason the government or the prosecutors have a strong incentive to back up a dump truck and throw in as much evidence as they can because every piece of evidence they get in that trial is an option for them to discuss in closing so much of that is the only purpose is so you can make closing argument about it so by cramming all this into the record even if it's boring at times the prosecution knows it gives them more options at closing to formulate however they want to do it however they want to end up some doing summation to the jury so that's that's really why they do it it's a risk but they have to do it Danny savalos always good to see you thank you appreciate it here in Washington today the Biden Administration is basically saying let's not get ahead of ourselves about a new classified report it says with low confidence the covet virus may have started from a lab leak in China That's according to it two sources with direct knowledge on this or telling NBC if that's true this would be the answer to one of the biggest mysteries of the covet outbreak how did it start but this afternoon late today you've got a top White House spokesperson telling reporters listen they're just not in a place where they can say anything for sure watch there's just no consensus across the government the work continues and I'm not going to get ahead of of conclusions that haven't been uh arrived at okay so obviously no confirmation here about this conclusion as John Kirby puts it from the energy Department that the virus likely leaked accidentally from that China lab but it's important to note here they're saying this with what they call low confidence the Chinese government's responding to all this basically saying hey stop in their words stop smearing China stop hyping up this report Kelly O'Donnell is joining us now and Kelly you know I think what we can say definitively is that there is not a definitive answer here right like that seems very clear talk about how seriously we should take this and how we should understand the idea that some of our intelligence agencies don't agree with each other on the conclusion here that the conclusion is in question how does that happen well there are 18 intelligence agencies and they come at this information with different expertise and different perspectives and part of what's interesting about this is it comes the information comes from the Department of energy which oversees the National Lab so they have some expertise about how Labs function the kind of work that happens there and the intelligence that came to them some kind of new intelligence we don't know what that is was then put into the sort of intelligence processing uh device of how the government assesses this information and low confidence is what they say about this so it may not have credibility it may be limited in information but the fact that it is in some way related to the expertise of Laboratories is interesting in addition to that it is our understanding that the FBI also has moderate confidence that an accidental lab leak is a possibility where this is concerned other agencies within this broad spectrum of intelligence community believe a transmission from an infected animal is a possibility so why don't we we know more in part there are many in the government who believe that the Chinese Communist party was not more forthcoming did not allow inspectors in did not allow transparency of what was happening in the Wuhan lab in those early days so they're trying to get more information they believe the biod administration believes finding an answer is important to better understand how to be prepared for future pandemics and so the Biden Administration has called for a full government approach to this which included bringing in the expertise of the Department of energy and the National Lab so that's how we got here and can we get a better answer that remains to be seen that does remain to be seen and there are real geopolitical implications here right because this is coming at a time when the relationship between the U.S and China is you know if not at at its lowest point is certainly at a lower point I think is fair to say I mean this is a Minefield in some ways it is a tense relationship in what is on its best days a very competitive and uh delicate relationship so here we have this issue that has been a bubbling unresolved for three years and now a new information that may Port point to some negligence or some culpability on the part of uh of the Chinese lab and then you have the other issues like dealing with Ukraine war and so forth uh not before we even get to trade and all the other kinds of things so this adds to what is a complex situation with China to be sure Kelly and so I said geopolitical regular political Kelly like it's a regular political thing too because I mean I'm old enough to remember when for example Senator Tom Cotton back in the day was saying hey maybe this is a lab leak and he was getting sort of pushed aside in some ways by members you know who were previously in positions of power at the time like there's a lot here to untangle for those who have been talking about this and felt that they were ostracized and ridiculed uh this kind of information is a little bit painful and uh there's some frustration about how this is being received Kelly O'Donnell great to hear from you thank you very much Cal appreciate it so listen we are getting some brand new updates on where all that toxic waste from the train derailment in Ohio will go including one spot in Ohio another in Indiana listen to what we just heard worth in the last maybe 45 minutes or so the addition of these disposal locations gets us closer to having enough capacity to finish the cleanup and to get all the waste out of East palestinas quickly as possible it comes as we're also learning that the head of the EPA will go back to East Palestine tomorrow with the train company started to clean up that toxic waste again getting the go-ahead from the EPA to ship the contaminated dirt and water to those places we just told you about four sites in all after leaders in Texas and Michigan waved red flags over the original plan to send this toxic waste to places in their state all of this right is the politics the back and forth over the derailment continues to be a kind of hot potato you've got some republican-led house committees launching investigations over the way the Biden Administration handled this derailment we don't know if they're going to hold hearings we don't know exactly what comes in Acts that's all still TBD George Solis is on the ground in East Palestine Ohio remaining there for us on this critical story what else do we know George about what we found out in the last hour or so the new spots where this toxic waste will go Etc yeah Hallie this is really a case where the plot thickens right you kind of mentioned that this all kind of began over the weekend the EPA coming out and saying like hey Norfolk Southern needs to stop moving some of this hazardous material to these sites just outside of Detroit in Houston officials there saying hey wait a minute you guys didn't let us know if this was happening we found out their news reports so we're blindsided by the shipment of this stuff we're talking contaminated Wastewater contaminated soil right so the EPA says fine we're stopping that we need to further vet more locations where some of this material can go they find the two sites here in Ohio in East Liverpool and Vickery Ohio we just got word as you mentioned from the EPA that they found additional sites a third here in Ohio in Grafton Ohio and then a foresight in roachdale Indiana and what's happening you have incinerators that will burn some of this material that are EPA certified and you also have what's called a deep well injection site which is basically pumping a lot of this Wastewater into big holes in the ground again all under the EPA approval for sites that can actually handle this kind of material because that is a question that a lot of officials have like hey is this going to contaminate our groundwater it's just going to pose a threat to our residents in our community so clearly the EPA is still trying to find more sites for this material they still can't give a definitive timeline when they'll have the entirety of that cleanup to to do but it's still ongoing here this as you mentioned the head of the EPA is set to come back to East Palestine for the third time tomorrow Hallie what's he gonna do right what do people think about that what do people think about the way that this has become sort of a politicized issue um playing out now for both the Biden Administration for the White House um for for folks on the hill too yeah I'll tell you the residents here they've said time and time again we're all for the attention we like the publicity here you have former president Trump visit you had people to judge visit but the residents just want to know what the long-term solution is for some of the unanswered questions what is this going to look like five ten years down the road not long ago I just had a conversation with a mother of two who wants more answers take a quick listen to what she told me I have a 10 year old daughter and an eight-year-old son and are they going to in 10 years be diagnosed with cancer that's from this Norfolk Southern is making me question whether I'm a good parent [Music] yeah some really powerful sedimentality again residents here just looking for long-term accountability Ali George Solis live for us in East Palestine George thank you very much coming up we have more breaking news to send to us tonight on that Dominion lawsuit against Fox News we've got the new extraordinary acknowledgment from Fox Head Rupert Murdoch plus another earthquake hitting turkey today we'll talk about what we know about the damage and who was hurt plus Elon Musk now adding his voice to the racist comment controversy from the creator of the Dilbert comics strip we'll tell you who musk is blaming instead coming up foreign [Music] two outs Bases Loaded tie game this is the dream scenario for like any baseball player right when you're a kid in your backyard this is the moment you dream about imagine that imagine you're playing a game and that happens the UMP calling the batter out because of a pitch clock violation right so not because of like an action that happened on the field but because of I guess you could say an inaction there that's how this spring training game between the Red Sox and the Braves ended this is baseball in 2023 folks pitchers now have 15 seconds to throw 20 seconds when there are Runners on they have 30 seconds between batters who have to be quote unquote alert at eight seconds the goal of all of this is to try to speed up the game but you saw what some of the consequences are too new numbers from the league though show that this might actually be working games over the first weekend of spring training are 23 minutes shorter and scoring is going up there are more runs being scored Sam Brock is live for us in Miami and Sam the big argument here is that we're not getting less baseball we're getting less not baseball right we're losing some dead time here but my question is like at what cost right do people feel good about an ump ending a game like that on a pitch clock violation I don't know yeah I don't think anyone feels good about what happens on Saturday Hallie there's no crying in baseball and there are no ties in baseball there's certainly no game-ending violations in baseball until this I mean the reality is in in the regular season you're not going to have a tie but there could be consequential calls that come down to well not a violation appeared to be taking place and the reason this is so difficult is because it's subjective you went through it beautifully all the details of the pitch clock the hitters as you mentioned when they're in the box and it's down to eight they have to be quote alert and locked in meaning they're not just in their pose but staring at the picture and ready to go who decides whether or not they're actually alert or not alert the player may think they are the Umpire may think they're not now as far as fans of reaction to all of this we spoke with a few of them many people feel pretty positive about the idea that this is gonna move things along and make the average time of these games shorter here's what we heard [Music] you know what helps feed the game I think the attention span is you know less than it was in decades ago so we have to adjust somewhat in order to keep the the fan base you know what it needs to be for the next generation and how do you hit on this a second ago the average game in 2022 was three hours and four minutes the year before that it was three hours and 10 minutes that was an all-time high Major League Baseball would feel more comfortable if that got down to about two and a half hours really it feels like that's the goal there's a whole boat we just put up a graphic that showed a whole bunch of other rules right it's not just the pitch clock stuff it's in the batter alert stuff it's bases it's pick-offs it's shift restrictions of where fielders can stand this is stuff that like I don't want to overstate it and say it could totally change the game but it's definitely a very different Vision than like of what baseball purists I think might have in mind there's no question about it I think offense and base stealing is definitely going to go up we talk about these new bases Hallie and they are significantly bigger when you see a picture I was holding them today of what the current base looks like and what 2022's version looks like it's three or four inches bigger you know managers and players have called them pizza boxes but it does make it easier for players to swipe and also one of the bullets on your full screen a second ago was the idea that you only get two pick-off attempts per plate appearance so these pitchers can't really hold the Batters on the same way that they used to here's John birdie he led the major leagues in stolen bases last year for the Miami Marlins about the prospect he is licking his chops right now at what he's going to do on the base pass this year here's what he told me how much of an advantage is that um you know I just feel like there have been times that especially with replay now where um you feel like you're safe and you go to replay and you're out by maybe a half inch or you know it's bang bang where now you got a little less distance to cover and maybe you can slide in there safely a little more often Hallie the minor leagues has already tested out some of these rules and stolen bases are up a bit you can expect them though to go up likely substantially with these new rules this year it's so interesting especially when you look at the fact that you have some I think minor league teams right looking at Robo upps like taking the sort of subjectivity out of it all together and putting it in the eyes of like you know a bot it feels like that's the next step Holly this was implemented for the first time in 2019 in the minor leagues this year is the first year it's going to be at all minor league AAA games the umps do have a some sort of clause in their contract that says they will agree to help out if it's brought to the major leagues hasn't happened yet but close to 100 accuracy feels like it's right around the corner Sam Brock lots to watch thank you for being our senior baseball correspondents and I appreciate you thanks listen we got some breaking news just coming into us here tonight new documents from this billion dollar lawsuit against Fox News they are literally truly breaking in just the last couple of minutes here and there's something interesting in them they show that the company's President right the head of Fox News Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that some of his big stars commentator specifically endorsed lies about election fraud being pushed by former president Trump in Murdoch's words hosts like Sean Hannity Genie Imperial Lou Dobbs and I'm quoting endorsed those lies he said I would have liked this to have been stronger in denouncing it in hindsight the lawsuits being brought by Dominion voting systems again more than one and a half billion dollars Danny savalos is back with us so Danny again this is coming into us we're working on like getting all the TV pretty stuff the graphics and everything else what's interesting here is that if Murdoch is acknowledging these lies these election fraud lies and he is the sort of to chill out of the company what does that mean from a legal perspective does that not strengthen Dominion's case here it makes it harder for the defense here but uh in this motion this filing that we just got the reality is is that fox is not likely to win that's not even that much of a legal opinion in motions for summary judgment you're essentially asking the court hey this plaintiff has zero chance of winning at trial not a small chance not a diminishing chance but basically 0.0 that there's no issue of fact and the only thing left for the court to decide is that this case simply cannot win and for that reason these motions almost uniformly lose so the odds are in favor of the plaintiff to survive to trial but then the argument that Dominion makes is a compelling one which is that Fox's definition of what neutral reporting is is not what the legal definition is in other words Fox claims that as long as it's newsworthy we can pretty much say anything and that's really not what the test is does it matter that Murdoch in what I've seen from this and again as we know it's 200 Pages we've been on the air since it came out I have fully disclosure full not worth a full thing but it sounds like Murdoch was trying to at one point draw the distinction between like commentators quote unquote and sort of more you know journalists or reporters who are on Fox News does that matter in the eyes of the law or is that a distinction without a difference yes and no opinion is typically not actionable as defamation so if you say something that may otherwise be defamatory if you couch it as your opinion you may be protected but courts recognize also you can can't say something awful about somebody and then just put my opinion at the beginning of it but in this case Fox is arguing that they were using protected opinion and Dominion is arguing in return that no no even opinion must not be based on false facts on things that are not true so that's the minions argument that fox does not get to get the case thrown out based on the defense it doesn't mean Fox loses it means the case goes forward to trial but that is very significant because from a practical standpoint defendants are never thinking about settling until after they take their shot with a motion for summary judgment and if they lose then they'll think about it but why not in their mind take a shot at throwing the case out with emotion even if it's not likely to win and we have I think some of those Graphics there from Murdoch and what he's saying now in this new document drop that has just come out more coverage of course you can see it there as he said I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight Danny savalos thank you for your uh your fast analysis on this one I know more to come appreciate it let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight number one the state department says an Israeli person killed in the West Bank today was also an American citizen multiple Shooters apparently reportedly drove up to the person's car opened fire and then drove off two other Israelis were killed in another shooting this weekend which triggered a violent riot in a Palestinian town that killed one person and damaged several buildings number two another earthquake if you can believe it has hit turkey today look at this some of it was captured on camera some two dozen buildings collapsed at least one person was killed more than a hundred people have been heard it comes three weeks after that catastrophic 7.8
magnitude earthquake devastated parts of turkey and Syria killing more than 48 000 people number three U.S treasury secretary Janet Yellen showing up in Kiev today a surprise visit there meeting with the Ukrainian President Vladimir zielinski secretary Yellen says the U.S has provided nearly 50 billion dollars in help for Ukraine and she announced another multi-billion dollar Aid package to try to boost the country's economy number four have you heard about what Mexico's president posted on socials here he says it looks like a mythological Woodland spirit it's called an aloosh it's a creature straight out of my in the folklore kind of like an L for a gnome it doesn't seem like he was joking either amlo as he's known captioned the picture saying quote everything is Mystical number five cocaine bear as I'm sure you've heard about the movie featuring a cocaine adult bear it's a hit it is a monster headed to box office 23 million dollars on its opening weekend another five million dollars overseas remember we've talked about this before it's based on that Bonkers true story of a bear that ingested a bunch of cocaine in a forest in Georgia all right Elizabeth Banks doing it when we come back don't call it a campaign at least not yet we're reading the tea leaves on Ron desantis's latest moves including one late today after a break foreign [Music] musk today walking things back a little tweeting not too long ago that comedy should not be canceled after a lot of Fallout over some racist comments made by the creator of Dilbert comics a guy named Scott Adams you might know the backdrop to some of this Adams went on a racist rant warning white people to in his words get the hell away from black people just racist stuff over the weekend musk responded to this whole controversy he stepped into it blaming the media and what he describes as Elite colleges and high schools of being the racist ones with no evidence racism and hate speech is a big issue for Twitter musk's company and it's only getting worse with experts saying there's been an unprecedented rise in hate speech on the site it's coming as the New York Times is reporting the company Twitter is laying off another 200 employees which could make it harder for the platform to deal with stuff like hate speech musk and his reps not responding to requests for comment Emily aqueda is joining us now and Emily what's so interesting here is musk kind of got into this right he fanned the Flames of this controversy on something he himself himself has gotten criticism on over on his platform of Twitter this idea of hate speech and how you how you um how you contain it yeah that's right Hallie musk has previously called himself a freedom of speech absolutist so it's really no surprise that he's weighing in on this fiery debate when it comes to the so-called cancellation of this cartoonist he tweeted in response to the fiery debate a number of different things calling the media racist against whites and Asians and then later following up with this tweet saying I don't agree with everything Scott says referring to Scott Adams the cartoonist but Dilbert is legit funny and insightful we should stop canceling comedy we know Howie musk has restored some of the previously banned accounts on the platform and while he disagrees and denies some research shows that uh hate speech on the platform has increased at an unprecedented rate for instance the use of the n-word has tripled compared to Primus Cali that's according to the Center for countering digital hate let's talk a little bit more about what's atoms specifically the Dilbert Creator said specifically he says now like oh the media is taking this out of context but he stands by them and he knows it's going to cost them help us under understand that Hallie this all started last week when Scott Adams was reacting to a recent poll that found 26 percent of black respondents disagree with the statement it's okay to be white now background on that that has been widely a phrase widely popularized by white supremacists and something considered a hate slogan according to the Anti-Defamation League but in his reaction Adams as you mentioned has called Black Americans Americans as part of a hate group and said that white people should stay away from black people in various tweets and live streams since he continues to double down and he said that he was only suggesting Americans avoid hate still we are seeing sweeping and Swift reaction from hundreds of Publications take a look at the list here we're talking major Publications the New York Times Washington Post USA Today and Halle The Fallout continues today the company that syndicates Dilbert says that it has cut ties it has severed its relationship with Adams and we just learned his publisher port folio will no longer be publishing his upcoming book in September Hallie Emily akata thank you very much lots of fall out there to keep track of appreciate it some new NBC news reporting today shows Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis getting closer and closer perhaps to a full-on presidential campaign he's not there yet but it looks like he's trying to get there you have the governor making a bunch of appearances things that sound and look suspiciously like what a presidential candidate might do like speeches to Republican friendly police unions in Liberal cities way out of the state a retreat for top donors at a fancy hotel in Palm Beach a national tour for a book that comes out tomorrow and soon in a couple of months here a million dollar event in a mid-sized City a midset why we don't know he's even got a new video out today that is not like technically a campaign ad because it's not a campaign but it looks like a campaign ad watch Florida's success has been made more called by the floundering Federal establishment in Washington D.C Florida's proof positive that we the people are not destined for failure the client is a choice success is attainable and freedom is worth fighting for hmm okay so if you're getting 20 24 vibes from that you are not alone however the governor's advisors are like well wait a second it's on NBC News DeSantis is focused on policies related to Florida like the bill he signed today taking away from Disney a special self-governing status over the area that makes up Disney World that's Fallout from the uh so-called don't say gay law that was passed in Florida months ago NBC's Ali Vitale is part of the reporting team behind this one she's been all over at ali um I guess you're our 2024 preliminary one of our early correspondents on this one when we don't even have an actual candidate it looks like he is going to be one he's doing something that's kind of not candidate which is he's skipping CPAC this year NBC News just confirmed that a couple of minutes ago what's his strategy what's the deal here he's going to book out tomorrow is this just PR to try to sell books is there more to this yeah Hallie you know once a campaign reporter forever campaign reporter so this makes a lot of sense here but look in the case of DeSantis right in our reporting with John Allen and Natasha karecki Bears this out at a certain point if it walks like a candidate campaigns like a candidate raises money like a presidential candidate it's probably a presidential candidate now with DeSantis he's trying to have it a few ways where you're going to hear this term of Florida blueprints a lot it's something that comes up a lot in his book I actually just finished reading some excerpts of that and I can share a piece of it here with you too because what's important about this is this sort of like lays out the whole strategy of leading from Florida but making it national he says at one point this is a blueprint for America's Revival we've shown it can be done this is how DeSantis is going to campaign for president even if as his advisors told me he's not focused there yet because he's got a legislative session in Florida that oh by the way continues to lend to the blueprint to run for president you need money like that's just a reality of the political system we find ourselves here you have Donald Trump who is officially a candidate for president who raised nearly 800 million dollars in 2020 President Biden then raised more than a billion let's say Donald Trump runs I mean like we know Donald Trump is running let's say the sand Rona Sanders runs against him um you got donors who are already like and I you talk to them I talk to them they're already looking like okay who do we back they're getting courted by these candidates Etc what kind of field does that leave if it's Trump DeSantis and everybody else Nikki Haley for example who else is in that everybody else Camp yeah I mean everybody else is like people like Mike Pence who I talked to on Friday who's clearly mauling a run it's Tim Scott who has been teasing it by doing sort of a listening tour in states that are really important like South Carolina New Hampshire Iowa those are important places for him you have a constant conversation about maybe Governor Glenn Younkin can get in obviously his is a name that got a lot of attention when he was elected back in 2021 as sort of like a new face in the Republican party so all of this all these are names that are in the mix but look for donors they can sort of play this game and give to one person they don't have to just give to one person they could give to a lot of people and say like I'm on the team but I'm also like on a few teams that's fair Ali Vitale lots to watch for Ali thank you very much great reporting appreciate it back here in Washington the Supreme Court is getting ready to hear arguments tomorrow over presidents Biden President Biden's plan I should say to forgive student loans this is a decision that's going to affect millions of borrowers I guarantee somebody you know if not you yourself here's the issue that the court has to decide does the president have himself the power to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans can he just do that the bite Administration says yes they say there is a law on the books that lets them modify Federal Loan Provisions during times of national crises in this case the pandemic but opponents say no no no this is so much money this is more than 400 billion dollars and that requires approval from Congress that's the question the court has to consider can the president do this on his own or not Ali Rafa is joining us now she like the White House is watching this give us the court primer alley prep us for tomorrow's arguments what should we be listening for to help us read the tea leaves as to which way the Court's leaning yeah Hallie well first of all the two hours the court has slated to start and finish these arguments tomorrow may not be enough when you just think of how much is on these justices played how much they have to review because they're going to essentially be looking at two separate cases and asking a bunch of questions related to them these two cases one of them by as you mentioned a group of six red states that are essentially challenging this and they say that the president doesn't have the power to be able to enact such a plan the second is from two actual students themselves who say they're entitled to essentially more student debt relief uh than uh than they're allotted to in this plan so these justices are going to be asking themselves things like whether these parties even have the right in the first place to sue they have to prove that these parties were financially harmed with this plan going into place they're also going to be asking whether the Biden Administration was constitutionally correct in using the method that it did to enact this plan remember they use something called the heroes act which was this act passed post 911 it gives the president power to delve out financial aid in times of national emergencies the bite Administration saying the covid-19 pandemic is such an emergency that met that standard uh so these are critical questions that we're going to be looking out for tomorrow when the justices meet these are questions that have high stakes especially when you think of what could come if the conservative majority Court does rule uh not in favor of the Biden administration's plan what could come next after that Halle Ali Rafa live first they're outside the White House a busy day I know for you and the team tomorrow thanks Ali coming up the original and tonight we're looking at how one college is having students look back at black history using a technology from the future stay with us thank you NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day and because you couldn't possibly read or watch or listen to them all our Bureau teams have done it for you this is what they tell us is going down in their regions in a segment we call the local out of our Southern Bureau an arrest warrant has been issued in Florida for rapper Kodak Black after he was allegedly late for a drug test and then tested positive for fentanyl he's on bail in a drug case not clear whether he plans to surrender Black's attorney declining to comment to NBC news on this one former Midwest Bureau Michigan Congressman Alyssa slotkin announcing today she will run for Senate in Michigan next year it's the seat of fellow Democrat Debbie stabenow slotkin who used to be the CIA says she wants to be a part of the new generation of leaders serving a nation that she describes as living crisis to crisis it's gonna be a competitive race there are some other big names in Michigan have said or signal they're not going to launch a bid but we'll see how that goes stabenow is not running for re-election from our Western Bureau are you one of the thousands of people who have turned in into this bird cam have you watched the bird cam two bald eagles taking turns on Nest Duty after a storm dumped like 45 inches on Big Bear Valley in California over the weekend these little Eagles have been braving the cold for more than 40 days protecting their eggs how incredible is that a lot of people are watching to see how that goes when those little Eggies hatch to the original no with in-depth reporting on a topic we've been watching and as we get towards the end of Black History Month we're looking at one college teaching the subject in a brand new way Morehouse College using virtual reality now to immerse students in key moments from the past giving them the opportunity to learn black history in the metaverse NBC's zinclair essenwa has more Morehouse College is taking virtual learning to a whole new level why teach black history through virtual reality why not use a textbook or the typical means of education so immersive virtual reality is a real unique space Dr Messina Norris is the director of this historically black College's metaverse project you can actually go back to that time period and recreate the scene of what happened and bring it to life for most students students in Atlanta Georgia now taking the inaugural introduction to the African diaspora course in the class we cover a scope from like say the Underground Railroad Museum with the Amistad all the way to the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King's Martin Washington and also his assassination 1968. the class at
times witnessing historic and humbling scenes from U.S history and you can see the horrendous just inhumane conditions it's a lot to take in I imagine a lot of this content is pretty heavy and sobering for students how do you walk them through that first you know I mentally prepared them for the class and saying no you're going to be seeing uh like say slaveship we've been seeing some gore but if you cannot take it you can always you know there's an exit button on your headset you can exit out and while the course requires emotional depth practitioners and students say they're glad to dig in I never used a metaverse or virtual reality before it just made me realize I'm grateful where I'm at today and I was born in this age so I can go back in history and just see what people went through the course is part of a wide VR by victory and augmented reality company founded in 2016 in partnership with Qualcomm Technologies each Morehouse student was given an Oculus VR device and the experience is expanding we have close to 70 colleges and universities signed up to either deploy classes in the metaverse or uh they have purchased licenses to begin exploring and figuring out what model might work for them professors Morris and Hamilton hope more schools will follow suit to give teachers and students the historical knowledge and Technical skill to enter the 21st century Workforce and world at the end of the day we have got to use the lessons of the past to help make sure that they don't get relived a look at black history Through The Eyes of the future NBC News Atlanta Georgia so to come here on the show can artificial Minds help heal real ones that's the question our next guest is looking to answer we're talking to him for our back story about how AI could change the world of Mental Health Care Maybe time now to get the back story our behind the scenes look at how a story comes together and how it fits into our big our bigger picture and tonight it's whether there's a role for AI in mental health care because as the New Yorker puts it there aren't enough therapists to go around but there are plenty of smartphones part of the issue is that a survey last year found six out of every 10 therapists or psychologists or psychiatrists had no new openings for new patients right think about that that makes it tough for people to find mental health care in the first place so the big question now could AI help that could AI be a kind of therapist researchers have reportedly been using data like suicide notes and audio of therapy sessions to teach the AI how to respond so in the words of writer Drew cooler you see him here can artificial Minds change real ones and what do we stand to gain or lose in letting them try polar isn't just a writer he's a doctor who tried one of these chat Bots himself to see what it was like are they perfect no but he is joining us now to talk more about it cooler Dr cooler thank you very much for being with us because this can be a jumping off point right potentially for you think providers practitioners to work with patients it could be a jumping off point for the patients themselves to at least talk to somebody in this piece you walk through a whole bunch of different AI chat Health Bots here what was it like using one how did you first decide to do this yeah it's a great question and thank you for having me so you know the story really came together because um you know I saw that these two enormously important things were happening one is that we have an enormous Mental Health crisis in the United States so one in five Americans has some form of a mental illness over the course of a year one in 20 has a severe mental illness and these problems have really gotten worse over the past decade with a rise of smartphones and our phone addictions and then the kova 19 pandemic and so we're really in a place where we need to think about new and creative ways to address the epidemic the other part of this is that now chat Bots have gotten so good and so powerful that they're able to communicate in ways that they never were able to before and so many people are starting to think can we use these types of things to help assist therapists or even deliver automated therapy to people who need help well you know one of the things that we that I'm so glad that you're joining us for for this segment Dr coolar is the idea of like pulling behind the curtain a little bit like we sort of laid out the reporting you've laid it out in the New Yorker where you're a contributing writer here but what was it like give us a little bit on how this sausage was made and by that I mean like what was most surprising to you I mean you're you're you're a practicing physician yourself you spoke with several experts who are working in this in this field were you capable of being surprised I think the answer is yes based on the the story but tell me more about that absolutely I mean as a as a physician you know one of the things that I really value is the ability to connect with people that kind of human interaction that you get and so one of the things that was really surprising is how real sometimes artificial empathy can feel you know I downloaded this bot called robot and I was texting with it and um you know this kind of suspended disbelief can take place and you're as a human you're hardwired to respond to empathy and other types of cues with an interaction that feels like okay I'm speaking to another person and that's because I think in part you know so much of our interaction these days is Tech space we're always sending emails we're sending text messages direct messages to one another and so something comes at you it's a very easy to to take that to be another human on the other end even when it's not and I think that's part of the power of these AI algorithms but it's also part of the Peril of them if they're not used appropriately I was gonna ask like are there risks to this too right yes I mean I think we cannot talk about this without thinking about the many risks that are involved I mean part of this is there's obviously risks involved in terms of data privacy data security uh bias in some of these algorithms so they may not treat everyone in the same way and some of the beta versions that we've seen I
2023-03-04