We are coming on the air following that breaking news, the US retaliating with strikes on dozens of targets in Iraq and Syria after that deadly drone attack that killed three US troops. We are just getting new details in about what was hit and what's next as we're live across the Middle East and in Washington with the latest in just a minute. We're also live in Michigan, where the jury is about to have the case against the mother of a school shooter. Prosecutors putting her parenting on trial in a case that's making history inside the emotional moments during closing arguments just ahead. Then to Europe with huge demonstrations there. Workers shutting down airports, closing businesses, egging buildings, and dumping dung in front of landmarks. So what do they want? Plus, we're just hours away from the first real test for President Biden this primary season, why some members of a key group in his base, black men, tell our Tremaine Lee they're conflicted. And in tonight's original, why millions of Americans are at risk, potentially of their own East Palestine disaster, because the same dangerous chemical is rumbling on trains through their backyards. We'll explain later on in the show.

Hey there, I'm Halley, and we are starting with that breaking news. The US hitting more than 85 targets in Syria and Iraq, according to military officials, in what is only the beginning of a campaign to retaliate after three American troops were killed in the region. The US military hitting command and intelligence centers, striking supply chain facilities, drone storages, rockets, missiles, going after Iran-backed militias, and even the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps. This is the US response to that deadly drone strike in Jordan. As Syrian state TV tonight reports, a number of people are now dead from these strikes. Questions right now about what else could come next. The White House walking a fine line of trying to respond forcefully while also trying to avoid this spilling out into a wider war. Iran says it's not looking to start a war, but it is going to give a strong response, in their words, if bullied, as they deny any involvement in that deadly drone strike. We've got team coverage here tonight. We've got Kier Simmons in Erbil, Iraq, Matt Bradley in Tel Aviv, Erin Gilkrist is traveling with the President in Dover, Delaware. Kier, to you first.

We're getting new details practically by the minute about this moment that people have been waiting days for, the anticipation now of the retaliatory strikes that are finally here. That's right, Halley. We are getting multiple reports now from across the region. But let me just highlight one, and it's not confirmed, but we are hearing from colleagues in Baghdad that they are hearing local reports of strikes in Ambar province, at a place where that Iranian-backed militia, Khatab Hasbala, have encampments. Now, if that is the case, of course, then that is... Well, it's within the region of Tower 22, where those three service men and women were killed. Of course, Khatab Hasballah is the group that were accused by the US of carrying out that drone strike that killed those three service members. Let me then just take you through, Halley, what we have been told by the US about what actually has been happening, confirmed tonight. It began around 04:00 PM Eastern, and the response started then, which is around midnight here in Iraq and Syria, the airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Cencom says, against the Iranian Republican Guard, the IRGC Kudz Force, and affiliated militia groups.

What that means is that they have targeted the Iranians themselves, not just their proxies here in this region, and in particular, the group The IRGC, which is considered to be the leadership, if you like, of this campaign, this Iranian campaign in the region. Cencom says more than 85 targets have been struck, long-range bombers among numerous aircraft use, 125 precision munitions employed. As you hear that, Halley, one of the things that you should think about and conclude is just how widespread and entrenched the Iranian influence and facilities here are are here. That's what this campaign is going to tell you, as well as about what America has done tonight. It's a campaign, Keir, and I don't think we can underscore it enough, that is expected to let... This is not it. What's happening tonight is not it, based on everything we've heard from US officials. That it will last longer, days, weeks. We just don't know. That's right. But though I do think, though, tonight, likely they are going to want to try and send an initial strong message. I mean, this is clearly about sending a message to Tehran to back off, if you like.

One of the questions we're going to need to ask ourselves is, how impactful will it be? And I say that because do remember that there has been a decade of targeting Iranian targets and Iranian-backed militia, particularly in Syria. And it hasn't thus far driven Iran away from its strategy, which is to try to put pressure on Israel and push America out of this region. Kier, what about the potential for essentially retaliation for this retaliation from some of these groups near places that have been targeted tonight? Well, you mentioned that the President of Iran, President Raïs, he said today that they would not be bullied. I think that was just messaging. We'll see how Iran responds when the US, under the Trump administration, killed Qassim Suleimani, the head of the IRGC, there wasn't a particularly strong response from Iran. That's one aspect. Another thing to say today, one of the other factions in this Islamic resistance in Iraq umbrella group that is said to be responsible for the attack on Tower 22, one of those factions declared that it would not give up on its aims no matter what happens to, again, put pressure on Israel and push America out of here.

Just to answer your question about the challenge for the Biden administration of all of this. Here in Iraq, Iraq is a partner of both the US and Iran. So if you push too hard here, if it's too powerful, you potentially drive the Iraqi government towards Iran. That's some of the calculation that the Biden administration is going to have been wanting to make, as well as clearly the idea here is to send a clear message. Kier Simmons, live for us there in Iraq. Kier, I know you have more reporting to me. I'm going to let you go to do that. Thank you. We're glad to have you with us. Matt Bradley, we're also glad to have you with us here from the region. One of the things you heard Kier talk about was how entrenched Iran is, not just obviously in Iran, but in other countries via other ways through these Iranian-backed militant groups, essentially. Talk us through that piece of this, because the numbers here... I mean, listen, the US, CENCOM, is saying that they have sent essentially these bombers to go after dozens of targets across what seems to be a fairly large swath, a swath of land here.

Yeah, it's a big swath of land, and covering Iraq and Syria, it sounds like 85 targets. But what we're talking about here is this axis of resistance Listen, Halley, I've been bending your ear about this for months. We were talking about this when I was in Lebanon, back in the early days of this crisis. This is something that from here in Israel, this is the culmination of a lot of fears and a lot of warnings that the Netanyahu is the Prime Minister here, that he's been warning against the US, saying that Iran is out to get Israel and that he will be out to get the United States. What we're seeing now is these strikes in Iraq and Syria, but there are other Iranian groups, Iranian groups in this so-called Axis of Resistance. I mentioned Lebanon, that's Hezbollah Hamas, which unlike the other groups, is not a Shia Muslim group, it's a Suni group, but it's still part of that resistance group. We're still seeing One thing we're not seeing are strikes against Iran itself, and that is important. We're not seeing that escalation against the Iranian mainland. Matt, I want to have you pause for just a second here because Aaron Gilchrist is looking at his phone, and I believe that's because we now have a statement from the White House about this the first time that we have heard officially from the White House about these strikes.

Tell us what it says. Yeah, Halley, this statement from President Biden. It's a relatively short statement, but I'll read it in its entirety. And take note that we are at Dover Air Force Base today, where the President was just a few hours ago. And the statement starts this past Sunday. Three American soldiers were killed in Jordan by a drone launched by militant groups backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. Earlier today, I attended I have the dignified return of these brave Americans at Dover Air Force Base, and I have spoken with each of their families. This afternoon, at my direction, US military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia used to attack US forces. Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world, but let all those who might seek to do us harm know this. If you harm an American, we will respond. That statement from President Biden in just the hour after these strikes began, as you noted, Halley, 85 targets in Iraq and Syria.

The President in this statement confirming what we have heard from others in the administration that there will be several elements to the response that we'll see over the next days and possibly weeks, Halley. Well, he's making that clear, Aaron, and this gets to when he says, as you note, and we are just now getting the statement into us here, too, for the rest of our newsroom, that this response will continue at times and places of our choosing, but also this point, and you read it here, that the US does not seek broader conflict. It gets back to this idea of a fine line to some degree that the US government is looking to walk in the region by both retaliating for the deaths of service members. And you said it, their bodies returning back tonight to Dover. One of the most solemn moments that a commander-in-chief can have. President Biden experience is today, right? And the retaliation for something like that, while also having some consideration here to the possibility of an Iranian response that could escalate what this tinderbox of a region is already. Yeah, you're absolutely right, Haley. All of that was a part of the conversation you would imagine that the President had with his national security team or has been having with that team over the last several days, trying to do the calculation on what would be the appropriate robust response, but But also realizing that the administration doesn't want to expand the conflict that's been happening in the Middle East in the last several months, and also doesn't want to directly go into Iran and initiate a wider war with Iran as a result of taking actions of this sort inside Iran.

That's why you've seen these targets in other places happening. But, Halley, it's not over. We know that there have been sanctions, additional sanctions that have been placed against funders of some Iranian actions, and we've yet to see what other sorts of strikes, whether they be military or cyber, that may come as a result of what these Iranian-backed groups have done in Jordan last weekend. Matt, let me go back to you in the region there after we now are hearing, of course, from President Biden in that statement from the White House, what are you looking for as far as what comes next? What's the thing we should be watching for? I think the real thing we need to be watching for is what happens with Iran itself. As I just mentioned, we have these long lists of targets. They're sprawling over Iraq and Syria. That's the first wave. We've been hearing that this is going to be weeks of retaliation, almost like a season of retaliation, open season, a turkey shoot for the US in the region. But we still haven't heard Biden and his administration saying they're going to be targeting Iran itself, despite some calls from the American rights saying we need to strike Iran.

I think maybe even Benjamin Netanyahu and his government here who, to put it mildly, have bigger fish to fry. I mean, they have a huge war and another one looming over their northern border. They are also seeing all of this originating from Iran, and they connect the dots back from Hamas, from Hezbollah, all the way back to Tehran, including from the Houthis in Yemen. And the Israelis have been striking in Syria as well. And when you talk about the Iranian axis of resistance, we also often mention Bachar al-Assad Syria. So for a lot of folks here, If Israel were to join in and start striking targets around the region, that would be a major next step. If we start seeing US naval assets that have been parked off the Coast of Israel, striking targets in Lebanon, like Hezbollah, that would be a disastrous event that could bring the entire region into war. Halley? Matt Bradley, live for us there in Tel Aviv. Erin Gilkros, live for us in Delaware, traveling with President Biden. Thank you both very much. We're going to continue to have more on this developing news throughout the night right here on NBC News Now.

We also have some headlines here at home to get to, including the fate of the mother of a convicted school shooter, set to be in the hands of the jury soon. After closing arguments have just wrapped tonight in a case that's the first of its kind. Prosecutors essentially putting Jennifer Crumbly's parenting on trial, with jurors set to decide whether a parent can be blamed for their child's horrific and deadly actions. In this case, the worst school shooting in Michigan's history. The prosecution and the defense painting two very different pictures in closing arguments today. Listen. If you just even looked at what happened that day, she walked out of that school and she knew. She knew something bad might happen. This family played together. They have fun. They did what families do. The prosecution just had zero context. This is after two intense and emotional days of crumbly on Stan, questioned on whether her son should have had a gun, the same one he brought to school that day. The same gun his parents gave him as a gift just days before the shooting. The gun he allegedly always wanted. It was for him to use at the shooting range.

We didn't just hand him a gun as a, Here you go, son. It was something he could use. We went to the range as a family together. He consistently had a desire to obtain a weapon. I know they consistently talked about it, correct? Okay. Prosecutors are trying to show that even with so many warning signs, Crumbly chose not to step in. On November the 30th of 2021 at 12:51 PM, you could have been with him. I could have been with him. And you didn't. No. That day, that time, You just heard a reference. That's when her son started his attack, killing the four people you see here, these four teenagers, Hannah St. Giuliana, Tate Mir, Madison Baldwin, Justin Schilling. Both Jennifer Crumbly and her husband, James, faced the same involuntary manslaughter charges. He is set to be tried separately next month. Angela Sanadella is standing by for the legal perspective on this. But I want to get to Adrienne Bratis, who's been covering this trial for us. We know that the jury likely set to get this case Monday, right? Court is done for the day. They're going to come back with instructions to the jury and deliberation set to begin then after what are truly some extraordinary, even bombshell moments here.

Talk us through it today. Yeah, Halley, we've seen so many twists in this case. Even this morning, the judge It allowed evidence to essentially be introduced at the last minute. That evidence, a text exchange between Jennifer Crumbly and her defense attorney. Here's why that's important. It goes back to what the defense was arguing yesterday in some of Crumbly's testimony. Yesterday, the defense argued that the couple had planned to turn themselves in Saturday morning, saying Jennifer and her husband, James, were not on the run. The defense said they even had their cell phone alarms set to 6:30 AM. You remember, though, they were found in that art studio in a warehouse in Detroit, Michigan, with more than $6,000 worth of cash. Now, prosecutors called that into question. And on cross-examination today, they also challenged Crumbly's testimony from yesterday when she said she didn't feel comfortable and that storing the guns was her husband's responsibility. They questioned how she could trust James Crumbly to be responsible for the guns when she didn't trust him with other assignments and responsibilities around the house. Adrienne, what is your sense of what happens from here? Because obviously, there will be the deliberations, but then James Crumbly goes on trial next month, right?

Yeah, he does go on trial next month. If we could, I would like the members of our audience to hear some more of that cross-examination. Station. Can we play that? It's pretty clear you didn't trust James with much. Would you agree or disagree? Depends on what you're talking about. Okay. Well, you didn't trust him to get out of bed on time. Correct. You didn't trust him to cut the grass when it was time to cut the grass? He would cut the grass when it got to a length I didn't like. I didn't trust him. You didn't trust him to update you on his whereabouts. There's a reason behind that. But this is the person you entrusted with a deadly weapon. I did. So even the little things at home, she testified she didn't trust James Crumbly with. He is on trial or expected to go on trial in March. The benefit for him, his attorneys have seen the defense for Jennifer Crumbly, so they know she pointed the blame on or toward him, so his attorneys can adjust accordingly. By going second, I feel he's He has a benefit. Halley. Adrian, thanks so much. Angela, let me go to you here because it's important to note, Jennifer Crumbly is not charged with murder here, unlike her son, who did plea guilty to terrorism, first-degree murder, other charges.

This is involuntary slaughter. So what is the burden of proof? What would the jury need to find in order to potentially convict Jennifer Crumbly here? That's exactly right. It is very different from a murder charge. No one is questioning if she shot the weapon, if she pulled the trigger. The standard here is quite high, and it's if Jennifer Crumbly did something that was so egregious, so out of bounds from not even just what one might think is a standard of parenting, but with something that was so unconscionable, and that was foreseeable and ultimately resulted in these deaths. That is a high standard. The prosecution is trying to link together the purchase of the gun with his mental health issues and claimed that is enough to meet that very high legal standard of what is reasonable foreseeability and what is reasonable doubt in a case like this, but I think it's going to be a tough case for the prosecution to win. Angela, thank you so much to you and Adrienne there, covering this very high-profile trial for us more, of course, next week when we know more. Got to get to some breaking news here in Washington, too, because the judge overseeing former President Trump's federal election interference trial is wiping that trial start date from the books.

Remember, this is the case related to Mr. Trump's alleged involvement in the January sixth attack on the Capitol. This is a trial that was supposed to start on March fourth. That was a big That's right around Super Tuesday time, right? But that's getting pushed off as the court considers this immunity claim. It means the next time we could see Mr. Trump in court will probably be end of March, the 25th, when New York's Hush Money trial is supposed to start. Laura Jarrett is joining us now. We're showing this web of legal issues that the former President faces. It can be a lot, right? So simplify it for us. Why is it significant that the judge is essentially erasing this trial start date? Because this determines who goes first, Halley. There had been an assumption for a while that possibly the case about the heart of the next election would be the one about him trying to allegedly steal the last election. That's the January sixth. We talk about the Washington, DC, federal election interference case. That was the one scheduled for March fourth, and that was the one that the special counsel was so concerned where the trial date might slip.

He tried to appeal it right up to the Supreme Court. He tried to leapfrog over everyone and take it right to the Supreme Court because this is exactly what he was worried about. Happening right now is what he was worried about. He was worried there would be delays if it went through all the appeals courts, which is still going. We've all been waiting on pins and needles for the last three weeks to find out what the DC circuit is going to do on this issue. Until they do anything, the judge in DC, the trial court The judge cannot do anything. The trial date is frozen. What's up with this immunity thing? We've been on pins and needles. You're right. Do we know anything about anything? I wish I had any reporting to tell you about why in the world they have not come back, including the fact that they expedited this case. They were moving on a fast track based on oral arguments. They didn't seem to be struggling with the issues. Why it's taking over three weeks? I cannot tell you. I wish I had an answer for you. But what I can tell you is if they do not rule fast, it's very likely that the first case we will see, a criminal case against the former President, will not be a federal case.

It will be a state case here in New York, Halley, having to do with his alleged interference in the last election, hiding hush money payments against Stormy Daniels. Laura Jarrett, thank you very much for this developing news here tonight from DC. I appreciate it. In just the last couple of hours, drama down south with a district attorney in Georgia insisting she should not get kicked off the separate case that she's leading against the former President, even if she acknowledges a personal relationship with one of the people helping in that case. We're looking at this fiery 176-page response from the woman you see here, Fannie Willis. She's the Fulton County DA. She's laying into what she calls the meritless push by Mr. Trump and some of his co-defendants to have her removed from the investigation she's leading in Mr. Trump's push to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Remember, we just talked with Laura about the federal election interference case. This is a Georgia state case. That's what Fannie Willis is leading. Now, Trump allies had claimed that Willis was having an affair with a special prosecutor who got paid to work on this case.

Willis is now acknowledging a relationship with Nathan Wade, but she denies benefiting from it financially. She said they always split travel expenses. They never shared financial accounts. They didn't share a house. They didn't split day-to-day expenses. Blaine Alexander is live for us in Atlanta now. Blaine, it is to some degree a big concession by Willis that there was some personal relationship with Nathan Wade. This is something where there's a question about that raised by the former President, his ally, lies, et cetera. Mr. Trump's out on Truth Social trying to say, Okay, that means this is all over. I mean, is it? Could she still move forward with her case against former President Trump? It's definitely not all over, Halley. February 15th is the next time that we're watching. It all comes down to what a judge decides. But in this lengthy filing today, Willis basically said, Yes, there is a personal relationship between us, but it has no bearing on this case. It's not basis for disqualification or removal, and she had no financial benefit from this. So she lays out point by point the fact that she says they never cohabitated, they don't have any commingling of finances.

And there's one point in here that I want to drive home and read to you from this filing. She makes it clear that although DA Willis and Special Prosecutor Wade have been professional associates and friends since 2019, there was no personal relationship between them in November 2021, at the time of Special Prosecutor Wade's appointment, and defendants offer no support for their insistence that the exercise of any prosecutorial discretion in this case was impacted by any personal relationship. She then goes on to say, Halley, that there are other attorneys involved in this case, defense attorneys, who have relationships, who are married couples, but they never brought that up because, again, it has no bearing on this case, citing Georgia law to make that point. Now, that's what Willis is saying. However, I also heard today from Trump's Georgia lead attorney, Steve Sadao. He has a very different take, as you might imagine. Here's a little bit of his statement. He says that the Fulton County DA's response asks the court to turn a blind eye to her alleged personal and financial misconduct. Her sole objective is to try and stop the court from holding the evidentiary hearing on the 15th, Halley.

We're also hearing from one of those co-defendants who wants to talk about the importance of February 15th, because there's a co-defendant who says, Yeah, they want that hearing to move forward. Why should we be circling that date on our calendars? Michael Roman, he's the one who launched all of this into the air in the first place with his first filing. He says that that hearing actually needs to take place, and he says that he has witnesses who will actually testify to the fact that the Willis and Wade relationship began before he was hired as lead special counsel. That's important because that's the underpinning of this entire thing. Fannie Willis and Wade say, no, they started as professional friends, and they developed a relationship over the course of working on this. But Michael Roman, through his attorney, Ashley Merchant, says that's not the case. They've got witnesses that they want to bring forward, and they want to ask questions about this, so they want to keep this hearing. Blaine Alexander, live for us there in Atlanta. Lots to juggle, lots ahead for you this month. Blaine, thank you. Tonight, federal officials are trying to figure out why a small plane slammed into a mobile home park in Florida, killing three people with the crash captured on camera.

Look at it here. Huge flames. Firefighters rushing to the scene to try to put this thing out, but the fire ultimately started spreading in clearwater. The pilot had been planning to land at an airport nearby. You see the map here, but went down in that mobile home park around 7:00 PM, killing one person on the plane, two people on the ground. First responders had to work all night to try to put out fires, try to get to those victims. You can see the damage that's all left behind. Look at that. Nbc's Marissa Para is not far from that crash site in Clearwater. Where do things stand tonight with this investigation, Marissa? Hey, Halley. Well, we're just on the other side of the fence here from where there's mobile homes are. And when it comes to answering the question of how and why did this happen, the communications between the pilot and air traffic control provide a lot of clues as to what possibly went wrong. Take a listen. I'm losing the engine. It looks like there's a structure fired, and it looks like he went to a building. I just saw him going down at an extremely high rate of We did not see any flames.

It's how his light's going down. You can imagine in the chaos, it might be a little bit hard to hear, but I want to repeat what the pilot said at the very start there, Halley, because that is so telling. He reported an engine failure. He talked about losing his engine. And this is still, of course, very early. We're not even 24 hours out from when this happened. So this is very preliminary investigation that's been started by the FAA and the NTSB. But that is obviously where they're going to be starting because the communications between the pilot and air traffic control indicate a problem with that engine. As you mentioned, just a few miles away from its destination, it was supposed to be landing at Clearwater Air Park, instead making a direct path towards the mobile home park here Hitting a mobile home, we know that the pilot, as well as two people on the ground, died as a result. But, Halley, something we're learning. As tragic as this was, this actually could have been so much worse. Not only did this happen at a mobile home park, this is densely populated area. In fact, this is the most densely populated county in all of Florida.

But we also heard that there were seven other people that were in that home, nine people total, Halley. And it was minutes before that crash that those other seven people left the home. So the fatality could have been much higher here. But really, when it comes to how the mobile home park community here is feeling, it's very tight knit. So a lot of people are trying to shake off the shock and move forward and get answers all in one. Marissa Parra, we're glad to have you there live for us in Clearwater. Thank you. Just some blockbuster news on the economy today, with twice as many jobs added last month as the experts thought. A total of 353,000. Check out this chart. Job growth has been up and down the past year, but look at the last two months. Boom. The unemployment rate has been steady at 3.7%. But if you're hoping to pay a little less down the road for things like car loans, credit card debt, this strong jobs report actually makes it less likely that the Fed is going to lower interest rates when they meet again. Brian Cheung is joining us now to unthread all of this.

Super interesting because this jobs report landed this morning and everyone was like, Whoa, what is this? It was huge. It was a big deal. Indications of a strong economy, but at the same time, the feds like, Well, we don't want things to get too hot because then we worry about inflation. Talk us through it. Yeah. Well, and by the way, I think boom was what I said when I first saw the numbers as well. Let's unpack that figure. Again, 353,000 jobs added in the month. The Economist had expected only about 185,000, so came in well above estimates. You mentioned the unemployment rate at 3.7%. That stayed below 4%, as we had seen through the entirety of 2023. Although some unemployment rates, like those for black men, did go up. We'll have to watch that in the months to come. We saw the job gains in these sectors, leisure and hospitality, real strong job gains in health care and professional and business services, white and blue collar jobs. But we also saw information adding 15,000. The reason why I bring up these two categories is because one talking The interesting point is, I've heard so much about layoffs.

Why did the jobs report look so good then? Here's some of the companies since the beginning of 2024 that have announced layoffs. But for what it's worth, these are tech and media jobs. It's not a big slice of the pie when you consider that leisure and hospitality is really one of the larger employers, I think retail as well. It's not really making a dent, as you can see in that blowout number that we had from the BLS this morning. Again, the economy and the jobs market, at least on that side, looking very strong, Halley. You and I talked before about the numbers, not necessarily not necessarily matching the vibes. And by that, I mean the numbers being what they are, but people feeling like the economy is not doing so well. There's some new polling on today showing that maybe that pessimism is starting to ease up a little bit. Talk us through that. Yeah, well, look, when it comes to economic sentiment, there's a little bit of what you would call a lagged indicator, to put in economic terms, between when you see the positive numbers and when it actually gets felt by the household.

And I want to point to this specifically right here. I think this is the biggest story when it comes to the economic sentiment coming up in terms of the consumer confidence figures that we get from the conference board, in addition to the University of Michigan consumer confidence figures as well. It's wages and inflation. Right now, from this report, wages are rising at an annual rate of 4.5% Inflation, how much more expensive are things getting at the store? 3.4%. However, wages only ever started outpacing inflation as of the spring of last year. Consumer confidence figures started going up towards the end of last year. Maybe it takes about six months for this to be felt. This also needs to be sustained for people to start feeling better. Again, just because wages are outpacing inflation doesn't mean it's caught up for the real erosion that a lot of American households were feeling when peak inflation during 2022 was really taking a bite out of wallet. So can this story hold? It's going to be a very important thread, not just in terms of the economy, but in terms of the election as well later on this year.

Yeah, no kidding, Brian. You and I will be talking about that a whole lot more in the months to come. Appreciate it. We got a lot more coming up here on the show, too, including some new revelations about Vince McMahon, the WWE founder, where we're just finding out about a federal investigation on sex trafficking allegations. Plus, it looks like Hockey's best are going back to the Olympics. We'll explain. Number one, a gas truck exploding in Kenya. Look at this huge fireball. Deadly. Three people killed, some 280 others hurt. We We suspect, of course, the number of people killed to go up in this horrific accident. The fire also burned homes and warehouses. It happened at a depot that had been demolished twice. Officials say the owner was found guilty for operating an illegal gas refilling business, but still kept going. Number two, Tesla recalling nearly all the cars and trucks it sold in this country, 2.2 million of them. Why? Because the font for some warning lights is too small, which makes it hard to read stuff you're going to need to read. It's fixable with a software update, so Tesla says it's already rolling that out.

They haven't heard of any crashes or deaths tied to this, they say. Number three, Spotify and Joe Rogan. They've got a deal. Podcasting's king is what Spotify is calling Rogan. But here's a twist. The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the country's most popular podcast. It's no longer going to be exclusive just on Spotify. Spotify is not doing as many of those exclusive deals anymore. It recently also let go of those rights for the Call Her Daddy podcast. Number five, the NHL is announcing today it's going to send players to the Olympic Games in 2026 and 2030, meaning for the first time since 2014, and only the sixth time ever, current hockey players can go play for the US team on the Olympics. Part of the issue is that the Olympics can overlap with the NHL season, but a lot of players obviously make it a goal to go. Now, the best of the best hockey players could face off depending on which team they play for. When we come back, big protests across Europe, essentially bringing one country to a standstill. We'll show you live in just a sec. Plus, it's so cold in some places in Alaska that the fuel they use to heat their houses is getting thicker.

How to fix it, next. Nbc news covers hundreds of stories every day. Because it can be tough to 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 Northeast Bureau, prosecutors say today, the Pennsylvania man accused of decapitating his father and then posting a video on YouTube, shot him first with a gun he legally bought the day before. After the murder, he allegedly wanted to mobilize the National Guard against the federal government, according to officials. He's facing multiple charges. It's not clear tonight if he has an attorney. Out of our Western Bureau, we told you about that graffiti on a high rise in Los Angeles, like 30 floors up. Turns out two men have now been arrested by police for it. The building had been under construction. These two suspects were released without charges, but police say they're still investigating. Also out of our Western Bureau, that snowy cold front in Alaska is only getting worse, with much of the state dealing with below zero temperatures. Listen, Alaska is used to the cold, but in one town, it is so cold that the actual fuel is getting too thick to be able to heat stoves and heating systems and everything else.

The snow is so heavy that officials have told a thousand businesses to evacuate because of concern their roofs could collapse. Scary stuff there. Tonight, the escalation of protests in Europe with farmers in France Brussels, elsewhere throwing eggs and fireworks at government buildings. We're about to show you here. Look at that. They're blocking off roads in their countries with tractors, even piling up pounds of manure in front of landmarks, demonstrating for more support and fewer regulations, adding to a complicated picture in the region with workers in Finland also striking. Our Megan Fitzgerald has more. Tractors barricading highways, manure dumped at government buildings, tires on fire from France to Brussels to Greece to Portugal, farmers erupting in protests across the continent. At this faith-Time is up. Think of the farmers. They're rallying for things like better pay and more protection against cheap imports as energy and fertilizer costs spike because of Russia's war in Ukraine. Tensions rising as farmers, egg government buildings, and police hose down protesters with water cannons. Eu leaders addressing the farmers at a summit with sympathy and understanding, though concrete proposals were pretty scarce. And it's not just farmers. Workers in Finland leading massive protests, angry with their government.

We are seeing the biggest political strikes and labor demonstrations for a very long time. Businesses shut down and empty airports with more than 500 flights canceled. That's what the country looks like right now as hundreds of thousands strike. So why is it happening here? The big union says Finland's right wing government is proposing social welfare changes, like cutting benefits and wages for unemployed people by hundreds of euros a month, restricting people's right to strike and making it easier for companies to fire their employees. If the political parties who take turns being in power due to the decision making, work life can become quite unsustainable, unpredictable. The Finnish Minister of Employment says the government proposed these changes to improve the economy of the country and boost its employment rate. The reaction is over scale for the changes. That reaction massive, with around 13,000 people taking to Central Helsinki for a major rally Thursday. And some schools, restaurants, post offices, stores, and more shutting down. Leaving the country in a standstill. The head of international affairs for Finland's biggest Trade Union says frustration with government cuts while prices are rising is a common denominator across Europe. The opposition to different kinds of austerity policies in different European countries in a situation where ordinary people have already seen their real income dropping, but we are not giving up.

Megan Fitzgerald is joining us now. Megan, thank you for bringing that to us because the other layer to this is that Finland is in the middle of a presidential election now. You've got the political overlay with EU elections coming up later on this year. Do we think or do experts in the EU think that there could be a political fallout then for these strikes now? Halley, it's a great question. And yes, this certainly could have an impact. These strikes are fueling this narrative that governments across Europe and the EU don't care enough about the issues surrounding these farmers. So when the EU, for example, goes up for election in June, the concern is that if it shifts to the right, it could put in jeopardy, for example, their green agenda. Halley? Megan Fitzgerald, live for us there overseas. Megan, great to see you as always. Thank you. Coming up here on the show tomorrow, the first primary of the year with President Biden on the ballot. We'll take you live to South Carolina with what some of his backers are saying now. We are now just hours away from the first Democratic primary to actually have President Biden on the ballot tomorrow in South Carolina.

The first primary for an incumbent President, for a sitting President, it's a big deal, right? Since it can seen as the first real test of how excited Democrats are to vote for the Commander-in-Chief, especially in a state that pretty much resurrected the President's near zombie primary campaign back in 2020. Resurrected, thanks to overwhelming support from Black voters, voters whom President Biden will need again come November. And tonight, our own Trimayne Lee is in South Carolina talking with a group of Black men who say nobody currently in the race is really moving the needle for them. Is there anyone that's getting you guys excited for the election? No. No. No. No. Not really. I'm not jumping on my seat for anybody. I see you're chuckling already. I am not. No, I'm not. Short answer. Trimayne is joining us Now from South Carolina with those conversations, part of his special report, Black Men in America: The Road to 2024. So short answer there from one of the guys you were talking to. And generally, we're getting the vibe of those lukewarm feelings for President Biden. You also asked if that meant, okay, so does that mean you'll vote vote for Donald Trump.

Let me play some of that here.Not right now.Not for me. Not right now. I can't personally see me ever voting for Donald Trump, especially what happened on the Capitol. I don't see a world, personally, where I would vote for Donald Trump ever. Okay, so, Tramaine, where does that leave them? What are they going to do? Halley, for a lot of those voters who have similar sentiments, it's a lot frustration, a sense of disconnection to the party, but also a disconnection from politics more generally. The feeling that people come for their votes in the last minute, the 11th hour, but don't nurture any real relationship with them. We've seen in recent years, especially when it comes to the Democratic Party, a higher percentage are drifting over to the left. Now, that is misleading because for generations, 12 to 15% of Black voters did vote for Republicans. The Obama phenomenon shook things up, and so we're returning to that baseline. But even with some of these concerns that Black male voters have, as a voting block, Black voters are still practical and very pragmatic, and so they have ideas like this. Take a listen. I feel like the stakes are too high.

Joe Biden's age aside, the choice between instability, insurrection, and erosion of our democracy, and the strengthening of our democracy, and stability, I think the stakes are too high. We connected with these guys, the art of Groomy, a barbershop in Charleston, to have this candid conversation about where they stand on the eve of the primaries. All of them to a person said they do plan on voting. But again, a couple of them said they're willing to explore their options. While for some, they're like, never Trump, some are saying, Hey, I'd explore it. We love him on business. We love him on money. He's a big, tough guy, so maybe. What is What does this mean for the potential for alarm bells ringing over at the DNC? You have to imagine that they're already on fire in places like Charleston. You think about places like in Milwaukee, especially, or Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, these swing states. For our special that's airing Sunday night, Black Men in America, The Road to 2024. We talked to guys from all walks of life. Almost to a person, they said, the Democrats don't necessarily... They don't feel that the Democrats truly care about them and that they make promises they can't keep.

They're going to have to be a bunch of bridge building between now and November. But again, as a voting block, Black folks are pragmatic and practical, and they don't see the right as a real option. Tramaine Lee, live for us there in Charleston. Tramaine, thank you so much. You heard Tramaine say it there, Sunday night, Black Men in America, The Road to 2024. That's special report over on MSNBC and streaming on PECA. We're looking forward to it. Still to come here on the show, a new report finding the same chemical that caused so many problems after that East Palestine derailment, still getting shipped through neighborhoods It's in the woods all over the country. Who's at risk if another disaster were to happen? Next. To tonight's Original Now with in-depth reporting on a topic we've been watching. And tonight, we're looking ahead at what's next after that East Palestine train derailment a year ago. Because a new report shows millions of Americans at risk every day at any moment of a similar disaster happening to them. Why? Because the same chemical gets shipped right by their homes and schools. Cynthia Cee McFadden explains. Is a toxic bomb train like the one in East Palestine running through your neighborhood?

For millions, it's a daily risk. No reason why we should be regularly shipping this extremely dangerous, hazardous cancer-causing chemical all the way across the country. Mike Shade helps run the group Toxic Free Future. And his team is out with a new report finding that 36 million pounds of a chemical called vinyl chloride is traveling on more 200 rail cars at any given moment. It's a chemical used to make a popular plastic known as PVC that's often used in building material like vinyl siding, cable coatings, or vinyl tile flooring. It's also the same chemical that spilled into the ground in East Palestine, and it can be deadly. The World Health Organization, Environmental Protection Agency, and US Department of Health and Human Services have classified vinyl chloride as a known human carcinogen. Region. And a disaster like East Palestine is exactly how you can come in contact with it through breathing or in the water, even though it can take years for diseases to develop. According to the Department of Transportation guidelines, if a train carrying vinyl vinyl chloride, catches fire, everyone within a mile radius needs to be evacuated. Oxyvinal is one of the largest manufacturers of vinyl chloride in the country.

So Shade's team mapped out one of the train routes, the dangerous Houston's travels from OxyVynal's chloride plants in Texas to factories up north, a 2,000-mile stretch. The path cuts through major cities like Houston, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Most of the people that live in close proximity to the rail route. They're not rich white folks. They're typically low income communities of color. An estimated 3 million people live within a mile of these train tracks. Also along the path, a series of schools schools, attended by 670,000 kids. Let's zoom in at one area, North Philadelphia. Sixty-thousand people live in this one mile radius. 95% are people of color, and there are 17 schools. This route alone has had two vinyl chloride spills. Shade's solution?Demand this chemical and demand this plastic once and for all. Dozens of companies have already taken that step, but Shade says the big one is construction, which is why he's putting pressure on the Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, asking their CEO in a letter to phase out their use of PVC as they have done with other dangerous chemicals. They have the power and the market responsibility to push their suppliers away from PVC plastic and vinyl chloride.

The Home Depot did not respond to MBC News' request for comment on this story. But a Home Depot official did commit to phasing PVC out of its package packaging last year. A company report says it has removed vinyl chloride from indoor carpeting in the US. It has not yet committed to phasing out the sale of all PVC products. In December, the EPA began looking into the risk posed by vinyl chloride, but it could be years before that leads to any ban. Meanwhile, communities that are still on this train path are still at risk. We reached out to OxyVy to find out if they felt that the path their chemicals were taking was a safe one. They replied as follows, OxyVinyles is committed to the safe transport of our products, and railroads safely transport our products and many others throughout the United States every day. They added that in the Ohio situation, in the derailment there, Our railroad cars remained intact, and their pressure relief devices functioned as intended during the incident. Back to you, Halley. Our thanks to Cynthia McFadden for that reporting. That does it for us for this hour. We've got more coverage picking up right now.

To tonight's Original Now with in-depth reporting on a topic we've been watching. And tonight, we're looking ahead at what's next after that East Palestine train derailment a year ago. Because a new report shows millions of Americans at risk every day at any moment of a similar disaster happening to them. Why? Because the same chemical gets shipped right by their homes and schools. Cynthia McFadden, explains. Is a toxic bomb train like the one in East Palestine running through your neighborhood? For millions, it's a daily risk. No reason why we should be regularly shipping this extremely dangerous, hazardous cancer-causing chemical all the way across the country. Mike Shade helps run the group Toxic Free Future. And his team is out with a new report finding that 36 million pounds of a chemical called vinyl chloride is traveling on more than 200 rail cars at any given moment. It's a chemical used to make a popular plastic known as PVC. That's often used in building material like vinyl siding, cable coatings, or vinyl tile flooring. It's also the same chemical that's spilled into the ground in East Palestine, and it can be deadly. The World Health Organization, Environmental Protection Agency, and US Department of Health and Human Services have classified vinyl chloride as a known human carcinogen.

And a disaster like East Palestine is exactly how you can come in contact with it through breathing or in the water, even though it can take years for diseases to develop. According to the Department of Transportation guidelines, if a train carrying vinyl chloride catches fire, everyone within a mile radius needs to be evacuated. Oxyvynal is one of the largest manufacturers of vinyl chloride in the country. So Shade's team mapped out one of the train routes the dangerous substance travels from OxyVynal's chloride plants in Texas to factories up north, a 2,000-mile stretch. The path cuts through major cities like Houston, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Most of the people that live in close proximity to the rail route, they're not rich white folks. They're typically low income communities of color. An estimated 3 million people live within a mile of these train tracks. Also along the path, a series of schools attended by 670,000 kids. Let's zoom in at one area, North Philadelphia. Sixty-thousand people live in this one mile radius. 95% are people of color, and there are 17 schools. This route alone has had two vinyl chloride spills. Shade's solution?Demand this chemical and demand this plastic once and for all.

Dozens of companies have already taken that step, but Shade says the big one is construction, which is why he's putting pressure on the Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, asking their CEO in a letter to phase out their use of PVC as they have done with other dangerous chemicals. They have the power and the market responsibility to push their suppliers away from PVC plastic and vinyl chloride. The Home Depot did not respond to MBC News' request for comment on this story. But a Home Depot official did commit to phasing PVC out of its packaging last last year. A company report says it has removed vinyl chloride from indoor carpeting in the US. It has not yet committed to phasing out the sale of all PVC products. In December, the EPA began looking into the risk posed by vinyl chloride, but it could be years before that leads to any ban. Meanwhile, communities that are still on this train path are still at risk. We reached out to OxyVinyls to find out if they felt that the path their chemicals were taking was a safe one. They replied as follows, OxyVinyles is committed to the safe transport of our products, and railroads safely transport our products and many others throughout the United States every day.

They added that in the Ohio situation, in the derailment there, Our railroad cars remained intact, and their pressure relief devices functioned as intended during the incident. Back to you, Halley. Our thanks to Cynthia McFadden for that reporting. That does it for us for this hour. We've got more coverage picking up right now. We're coming on the air after that breaking news, the US retaliating with strikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria after that deadly drone attack that killed three American service members. In just the last 15 minutes, we are getting new details in about what specifically was hit and what was next as we're live across the Middle East and live here in Washington. We're also live in Michigan, where the jury is about to have the case against the mother of a school shooter. The prosecutors putting her parenting on trial in a case that's making history inside the emotional moments during closing arguments just ahead. Then to some drama down in Georgia, where the district attorney investigating Donald Trump is acknowledging she did have a relationship with a special prosecutor she hired to to handle this election interference case. Why Fannie Willis says that doesn't mean she should be disqualified.

Plus, today's jobs report, twice as big as people expected, a huge number that shows the strength of the economy. So why aren't Americans vibing with it? We're getting into it. Plus, new details tonight on the federal investigation into Vince McMahon, the former head of the WWE, what our sources are telling us about these sex trafficking allegations later on in the show. Hey there, I'm Halley, and we are starting with that breaking news. The US hitting more than 85 targets. Targets, including three facilities in Iraq, four in Syria, in what is only the beginning of a campaign to retaliate after three American troops were killed in the region. We're learning that the US military has struck command and intelligence centers, rockets, missiles, drone storage, supply chain facilities, going after not just Iran-backed militias, but even the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, with Syrian state TV reporting a number of people are now dead. Remember, this is the US response to that deadly drone strike in Jordan. As President Biden is putting out a new statement tonight saying, in his words, Let all those who might seek to do us harm know this. If you harm an American, we will respond.

Tonight's response, of course, comes after Sergeant William Rivers, Kennedy Sanders, and Brianna Moffet were killed in that drone attack on a US base along the Syrian Jordanian border. You're looking at video just today. Their bodies returned home in one of the most difficult and solemn ceremonies for any commander in chief in Dover, Delaware. With questions now about what could come next, the White House walking this line, trying to respond forcefully while also avoiding having this become a wider, larger war. We've got team coverage tonight. Matt Bradley is live for us in Tel Aviv. Andrea Mitchell is in Washington, and Aaron Gilchrist is traveling with the President in Dover. Matt, I want to start with you who's standing by in the region because John Kirby, the top National Security Council spokesperson in just the last couple of minutes, has made it very clear in talking with reporters that while the strikes began tonight, they will not end tonight. Talk through the expectations of what's next. Next. Yeah, he said that, and I think we've been hearing from the US saying that there will continue at the time and place of our choosing. This is ominous language, but it does sound as though, and we've heard this before in the last couple of days, that this is going to be weeks long of retaliation, and this could continue outside of the bounds of that Iraq and Syria strikes that you just talked about.

We could be seeing strikes against the whole axis of resistance. These Iran-backed groups that span everywhere from the south, from the Houthis in Yemen, all the way up to Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. These are groups that if they are brought in, they would really bring this whole region to war. Now, we've already been seeing a lot of fighting, not a full-scale war, but a restrained war between Israel, where I am now, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. We've already seen quite a few airstrikes and tit for tat strikes between US and British forces in the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aden against those Houthi forces in Yemen who have been striking commercial shipping for the past several months. So we're already seeing the germ of a wider conflict that could metastasize to really bring up the entire region. And that's why this is such a dangerous moment. And that's why I think when we do see these retaliations by the US, they really are going to be calculated to really differentiate them from the strikes we've been seeing the US doing across the region for the past several weeks in retaliation to the almost daily harassment we've been seeing by Iran back groups in Syria and Iraq, differentiated from those while still putting these Iran back groups on notice that they have killed three Americans in Jordan.

That is the really narrow waters that the US is trying to navigate right now. And It is a delicate dance, and it is really going to involve a lot of diplomacy. We're going to be seeing Anthony Blinken hitting the region again for the fifth time, not just here in Israel, but he's going to be doing shuttle diplomacy to Egypt, Saudi Arabia. He's going to be talking about that hostile hostage deal to free those more than 100 hostages in the Gaza Strip right now. But you better believe that he's going to be following up on what is going on right now when it comes to these strikes against Iran. Most of those places he's visiting are countries that are very supportive of the Palestinians, but also very, very angry and essentially enemies against Iran. So again, it's not just what we're seeing, these airstrikes, this retaliation, but also the diplomacy that's going to follow. We're seeing a new Middle East being birthed out all this. Ali? What about, Matt, the retaliation against the retaliation, if you will? Because you rightly point out that these are Iranian targets, not in Iran, in Iraq and Syria, obviously. What is the expectation for a response against the US for this?

Well, we've already heard from Qatarib Hasbala and some of these other groups saying that they are not going to be striking US targets anymore, which was interesting. After they killed those three US soldiers, suddenly they were putting away their weapons. That seems like maybe just them taking directions from Tehran saying, We shouldn't be escalating this fight. We've really angered this major superpower. It's unclear exactly what their next steps are going to be, but we could see some retaliation. There are already some reports that we're hearing, unconfirmed, about retaliation against the retaliation. But I think that for a lot of these groups, they're going to be going to ground, trying to avoid what could be a very muscular response. A response that they don't know how deep and how long this is going to last, but it's one that I think is going to be infliting a lot of fear on the region and putting a lot of these groups on notice. If we do see a retaliation, it could be immediate, it could be in the coming weeks, it could be after these weeks of retaliations that we've seen. We don't really know. Matt Bradley, Live for us there in the region.

Matt, we're glad to have you. Thank you so much. I'll let you get back to I know the reporting that you have to do. Erin Gilchurch, let me bring you in here because let's get into it. We are getting new details, even I think as we speak or at least in the last 10 minutes from top White House officials and top military officials about how this particular series of strikes went down tonight. We're learning that the weather was a factor. The weather was always a factor, obviously, in any military action, but especially not having the rain, having decent weather played a part in this as the US is now talking about what went into this set of strikes. Tell us more. Yeah, Halley, I jumped off that call just to do this report. The National Security Council's spokesperson, John Kirby, along with a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the Lieutenant Generals there, briefing the press about the particulars of this strike. You mentioned the weather being a factor. The Lieutenant General on this call said that that was something that they had been looking at and that today the ideal weather conditions came into play, and so they were able to execute these strikes on targets that they said they had irrefutable intelligence were connected to the attacks on US US forces in that region.

They also made sure they were going after targets where they could avoid civilians being impacted by these strikes. These strikes lasted over the course of about 30 minutes, as we understand it. As you said, there were 85 targets at seven facilities, three in Iraq and four in Syria. At this point, the Department of Defense is still doing an assessment. It's still dark in that region, but the Department is still doing an assessment. But they do believe that they were successful in hitting all of their targets. We're told that the goal here really was to get Iran and the Iranian-backed groups to stop going after US targets, stop going after US forces and US interests, and to degrade their ability to do that. Halley, I think it was also worth noting, as I was listening on the call, that Iraq was given a heads up about these strikes happening before they were executed. We just showed it on the bottom of the screen, Erin, as our team is putting in those banners, the language that you see at the bottom there, including that the US is acknowledging these military officials that these strikes tonight happened with the understanding that there would likely be casualties.

We know that Syrian state-run TV has said that they believe there are casualties here. Do we know anything more about that? I did not hear that part of the call. I'll tell you, again, I jumped off just to do this report. But that is something that... It's something that military planners take into account. They wanted to make sure that they used the most precise weaponry munitions that they could use in these strikes and that they were able to avoid impacting civilians. Those were two primary factors that go into military planning of this nature. And so, again, as they're doing the assessments here, we'll learn whether there were individuals that are connected to the IRGC or to some of these militia groups who were killed, or if there were civilians who were killed or hurt as well, Halley. Aaron Gilchrist. Excellent reporting there as you are live, of course, from Dover, Delaware, where President Biden was today for the, of course, returning of the bodies of those US troops killed in Jordan. Aaron, thank you. Andrea, let me go to you here. Help us understand the big picture piece of it all? What's on your mind?

Well, first of all, the tightrope that they are walking, because obviously, the Hamas war in Gaza is supplied and maybe not ordered initially, but certainly sanctioned by Iran. They have clearly messaged that they are not going after Iran directly territorially. There's a lot of criticism of that, as you know, on Capitol Hill from others, such as Ambassador John Bolton. They're not going after, at least initially, Iran so far. They're going after not only Iranian proxies, but the IRGC, the Command and Control. And they're saying that they have evidence that the IRGC was directly involved in some of the attacks that they're talking about, and the attacks that they're talking about. The IRGC is the Revolutionary Guard, the Kudz Force, that is the military arm of the Iranian regime. So that is going after Iran. But they are saying that this was not directed for a wider war. They don't want a wider war. Iran itself has said today that they don't want a wider war. Ambassador Kirby has said on the call that I was just on as well, that they have not had any communications with Iran since Sunday when our troops were killed.

So they have back channel communications with Iran, although no diplomatic relations. Obviously, there are other intermediaries, but they have not communicated directly or indirectly with Iran, they say, since Sunday night. They say in terms of any civilian casualties, that one of the reasons that they were waiting for the weather was to have the cloud cover clear, to make sure that with precision weapons, and all the weapons they say that they used were precision weapons, that they Excuse me, were getting to the targets that they intended to get to, and that they were getting the casual... That any casualties would be people inside the facilities. So that is their way of saying that they were trying to avoid what would be a great propaganda value, and still might be if there were any claims in the region that they were not killing innocent civilians. The larger issue is that Secretary Blinken today was on the phone with the Saudi Foreign Minister. He is leaving this weekend for the fifth shuttle diplomacy. That was mentioned earlier when you were talking to Tel Aviv. Well, he's going to the Arab countries first, as he did when I was traveling with him three weeks ago.

He is trying to push forward on ending the Gaza War, getting the hostages out. That will be a very difficult trade for Israel to agree with the Palestinian prisoners. The initial group that was released in November around Thanksgiving time, and then the talks have failed since then, that group was three for one, Palestinian prisoners for the hostages. The expectation is that it's going to be a much tougher ask now by Hamas as these negotiations continue. And they are going to ask for more people who are terrorists, people with blood on their hands, that Israel is not going to want to give up. As you know, I talked to the Qataris about this. They were involved in those negotiations. It's very important to know that anything that is said now by Netanyahu, which has been said this week or by Hamas, Netanyahu has those right wing ministers. His coalition will fall without them. Hamas has factions as well, inside Gaza, the most militant, outside Gaza, the slightly less militant. So all of this is partly posturing the talks are going to continue, they hope, despite this action tonight and continuing action in the days to come.

That's the tight rope. Can they navigate this very narrow passage? Andrew Mitchell, we're so good to have you, of course, with your perspective and your reporting here in the region as we are hearing from military officials that at the moment, they are not tracking retaliation in Eastern Syria, at least not yet. Andrea Mitchell, thank you. We've got some other news here at home developing, including the fate of the mother of a convicted school shooter soon to be in the hands of the jury, on Monday after closing arguments have just wrapped up tonight in a case that is the first of its kind, prosecutors, putting the parenting of Jennifer Crumbly on trial, with jurors set to decide whether a parent can be blamed for their child's horrific and deadly actions. In this case, the worst school shooting in Michigan's history. You've got the prosecution and the defense in their closing arguments today, painting two very different pictures. Listen. If you just even look at what happened that day, she walked out of that school and she knew. She knew something bad might happen. This family played together. They had fun. They did what families do. The prosecution just had zero context.

It comes after two intense emotional days, crumbly on the stand, question on whether her son should have had a gun, the same one he brought to school that day, the same one his parents gave him as a gift just days before the shooting, the same gun he allegedly always wanted. It was for him to use at the shooting range. We didn't just hand him a gun as a, Here you go, son. It was something he could use When we went to the range as a family together. He consistently had a desire to obtain a weapon. I know they consistently talked about it, correct? Okay. Prosecutors trying to show that even with so many warning signs, Crumbly chose not to step in. On November the 30th of 2021 at 12:51 PM, you could have been with him. I could have, yes. And you didn't. No. That day, that time you just heard a reference, that is when Crumbly's son started his attack, killing the four teenagers you see here: Hannah St. Giuliana, Tate Mir, Madison Baldwin, Justin Schilling. Both Jennifer Crumbly and her husband, James, faced the same involuntary manslaughter charges. He's going to be tried separately next month.

Angela Senadella is standing by on the legal side of this, but let me go to Adrienne Brodas, who is covering this trial live for us. Adrienne, so much of this is about the parenting of Jennifer Crumbly on trial. The defense tried to say this is normal parenting, but the prosecution is saying there were clear warning signs right before this shooting happened. That is what the jury is going to be walking into the courtroom with on Monday before they are given their instructions and then going off to delivery. Yeah, Halley. To Today, the jury was left hearing words from the prosecuting attorney. She told them a guilty verdict will not take the pain away. It won't end the pain for the parents of those four students who were killed or even members of law enforcement who responded to that gruesome scene and still have those images seared in their memory. The prosecuting attorney in closing arguments said her team has shown that Jennifer Crumbly's actions could have been prevented and that Her actions resulted in the deaths of those four students. We're talking about her failure to inform members at the school the day she was called in over concerns, over drawings of a gun and language on a math worksheet, pleading for help.

She didn't tell school officials that her son had a weapon. Another point the prosecution pointed out was that she took her son to the shooting range and even bragged about getting him this gun as an early Christmas gift. By contrast, the defense has pushed back, saying that Ethan's actions were not foreseeable and that there's no way her client, Jennifer Crumbly, could have known. She also called this case rare, and she said it was dangerous and one that could have a range of implications for parents across the country. Hear more of both sides. Closing arguments. You find Jennifer Crumbly not guilty, not just for Jennifer Crumbly, but for every mother who's out there doing the best they can who could easily be in her shoes. We actually saw the last day he was practicing to kill four of his classmates. And there was only one person with him, ladies and gentlemen, and her name is Jennifer Crumbly. Both the prosecution and the defense really trying to appeal to members of the jury who will be back on Monday to receive jury instructions. And then the fate of Jennifer Crumbly is in their hands. Halley. Adrian brought us live for us there in Michigan.

Adrian, thank you. Angela, let me go to you here. Can you pull the thread on something that Adrian laid out, the precedentsetting nature of this trial? We just haven't seen something like this. A parent being held to a degree accountable for what their child did vis-a-vis of a school shooting like this. You're exactly right. We have never seen something like this before, and I am doubtful that we will really see this happen commonly. That's because even in this issue here, there's a convergence of such controversy. What is your standard on guns? What is your standard on parenting? And those have to be agreed upon by all members of a jury in order to find Jennifer Crumbly guilty here. Now look, some of the bombshells the prosecution dropped are certainly damning. Things like, look, he was looking at ammo in school. The parents knew the fact that they were alerted that the drawing of the gun. But in the context of what Jennifer Crumbly did on the stand is she showed that it is gun country. There was family fun day shooting at the range nearby. This That is not just an isolated situation that everyone can agree on.

Because all members of the jury have to agree beyond a reasonable doubt that Jennifer Crumbly did these things was so unconscionable, so egregious in her failures, I think this is not going to be that precedent setting, Halley. Well, so Angela, help us understand that, right? Some of this is a little bit tea-leaf reading as it relates to a jury, which is always a crapshoot. What do you think the biggest sticking point may be for this jury? Or what's the one thing they really need to be considering here in order to move forward. Well, so the question here is not just, was she a horrible parent? Would you have given your own child a gun? Because look, sitting here from Manhattan, I think that that answer is quite obvious. But the question is, would any reasonable parent in the situation with the knowledge that she had and with the information that was given to her know that this child would go to school and shoot up that school? Now, that link, I think, is so not clear that it is impossible to me to see how a A full jury would agree upon that. Even if the prosecution says, Look here, there was ammo.

There was these horrific things. The entire jury has to agree that every parent in a normal situation would have acted differently. I am not certain that jury will come to that conclusion. Angela Sanadella, thank you so much for your legal analysis on that one. We'll talk again, I am sure, next week. Appreciate it. Let's get to some other developing news here in Washington. The judge overseeing the federal election interference trial of former President Trump is wiping that trial's start date from the books. Remember, this is the case related to Mr. Trump's alleged involvement in the January sixth attack on the Capitol. Now, the trial was supposed to start March fourth. Interesting timing. It's close to Super Tuesday, but that's getting pushed off as the court considers this immunity claim. It means the next time we could see Mr. Trump in court will probably be the end of March when New York's Hush Money trial is supposed to start. Laura Jarrett is joining us now. We're showing this web of legal issues that the former President faces. It can be a lot, right? So simplify it for us. Why is it significant that the judge is essentially erasing this trial start date?

Because this determines who goes first, Halley. There had been an assumption for a while that possibly the case about the heart of the next election would be the one about him trying to allegedly steal the last election. That's the January sixth. We talk about the Washington, DC, federal election interference case. That was the one scheduled for March fourth. That was the one that the special counsel was so concerned where the trial date might slip. He tried to appeal it right up to the Supreme Court. He tried to leapfrog over everyone and take it right to the Supreme Court because this is exactly what he was worried about. Happening right now is what he was worried about. He was worried there would be delays if it went through all the appeals courts, which is still going. We've all been waiting on pins and needles for the last three weeks to find out what the DC circuit is going to do on this issue. Until they do anything, the judge in DC, the trial court judge, cannot do anything. The trial date is frozen. What's up with this immunity thing? We've been on pins and needles. You're right.

Do we know anything about anything? I wish I had any reporting to tell you about why in the world they have not come back, including the fact that they expedited this case, right? They were moving on a fast track based on oral arguments. They didn't seem to be struggling with the issues. Why it's taking over three weeks? I cannot tell you. I wish I had an answer for you. But what I can tell you is if they do not rule fast, it's very likely that the first case we will see, a criminal case against the former President, will not be a federal case. It will be a state case here in New York, Halley, having to do with his alleged interference in the last election, hiding hush money payments against Stormy Daniels. Laura Jarrett, thank you very much for this developing news here tonight from DC. I appreciate it. Just in the last couple of hours, drama down south with a district attorney in Georgia insisting she should not get kicked off the case she's leading against former President Trump. A different case than the one we just talked about, even if she's acknowledging a personal relationship with one of the people helping that case.

The Fulton County DA in this 176-page response, pretty fiery, laying into what she calls the meritless push by Mr. Trump and some of his co-defendants to have her removed from this investigation in Mr. Trump's push to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. We just talked with Laura Jarrett about this federal election interference case. This is the state federal election interference case. Trump allies had claimed that Willis was having an affair with a special prosecutor who got paid to work on this investigation. Willis is now acknowledging a relationship with Nathan Wade, but she says she didn't benefit financially. She says they always split travel expenses. They never shared financial accounts. They never shared a house or never split day-to-day expenses either. Blaine Alexander is live for us in Atlanta. It feels like one of the keys here is that the Trump co-defendants never actually came up with evidence for the allegations against Willis. She said she's giving it here, but big picture, right? How should people be thinking about this? And what do experts say about the ability for her to now take on the former president in this Georgia case based on what we've seen so far in court?

Well, I think that when people talk about this, they say that there's no question, at least according to experts, that maybe that there was a lapse in judgment. Perhaps having a personal relationship isn't necessarily the best look and certainly cast a lot of scrutiny. But when it comes to the letter of the law, when it comes to actually doing something that would get her disqualified from this case, Well, there hasn't been any evidence provided. That's what Fannie Willis is certainly arguing in this long document. She is acknowledging this personal relationship, but she says there was no financial benefit. There was nothing that impacted the case in any way. There was no conflict of interest, and therefore nothing's been presented that would cause her to be disqualified from this. In fact, she even brings forth the names of other defense attorneys who've been involved in this saying that some of them are married, but they never brought that up because it just simply doesn't matter, and that Georgia law backs that up. So when it comes to, however, what's next, we know that the judge has already scheduled a February 15th evidentiary hearing on this. Fannie Wills is trying to get it all pushed away.

She says that it's nothing but an attempt to harass her. She calls it tickets to a circus. But shortly after she filed her filing, we heard from Michael Roman, who alleged these who made these allegations in the first place, saying that he's got witnesses who will testify to the fact that their relationship began before Wade was hired, and those people need to take the stand, Halley. There's also this other piece of it that relates to where I'm sitting here in Washington, because one of Donald Trump's allies, the House Judiciary Committee Chair, Jim Jordan, is essentially subpoening Fannie Willis, making some accusations against her of misusing federal money based on what we've been talking about here. What's that about? Yeah, certainly a lot going on. The relates of Fulton County today. So the Jim Jordan piece of it all, this is almost a continuation of what has been a really nasty back and forth between Fannie Willis and Jim Jordan. It started last summer after Donald Trump was indicted, basically asking for documents to to look into the use of federal funds as relates to the Trump investigation. But this latest escalation comes after another outlet reported that there is a whistleblower lawsuit against Fannie Willis, basically saying that she had money, federal money, that was to be used for another program, and instead it was used for things like laptops and things like that.

Well, this whistleblower is now alleging that she was fired because of that. Here's what Jim Jordan wrote in the letter subpoena in these documents, basically saying, In response to the recently disclosed whistleblower allegations, and as an accommodation, we are prioritizing the production of documents concerning your office's receipt and use of federal funds. Now, keep in mind, he sent a number of letters before asking for documents. Bonnie Willis sent back saying that she hasn't provided them so far. Here's how she responded today. This is in a statement to NBC News. These false allegations are included in baseless litigation filed by a holdover employee from the prior administration who was terminated for cause. The courts that have ruled found no merit in these claims. So this is certainly her pushing back against the lawsuit in general. But we can certainly expect that we could see more back and forth between Willis and Jordan as well. Halley. Blaine Alexander, covering a lot there in Atlanta. Blaine, thank you so much. Busy day for you. I know there in Georgia. I appreciate it. Some blockbuster news on the economy today, with twice as many jobs added last month as experts had predicted.

353,000. That is a big number. Check out this chart, right? Because job growth has been up and down. But look at the last two months. Boom. Boom. The unemployment rate has been holding steady at about 3.7%. So like, okay, good news for people who watch the economy. However, if you are looking to see interest rates go down on things like a new car loan or on your credit card payments, this strong jobs report actually makes it less likely that the feds could lower their interest rates at their next meeting. I want to bring in Brian chunk joining us now. Explain how that's possible. I thought good news for the economy is good news for everybody. Why wouldn't the fed go and lower their rates? And we need to point out that good news This is good news for Main Street. Again, that's because seeing that big jobs number is certainly healthy. By the way, the 353,000 number which you talked about, it comes alongside the unemployment rate at 3.7%, remaining below 4% as it did for the entirety of 2023. If you're in any of these fields, it's looking pretty good for you because this is where we saw job gains in the month, leisure and hospitality, health care, professional and business services, and information.

But to your question, Halley, it's really all about what the Federal Reserve thinks of this. They're the ones that have been raising interest rates to try to slow this economy. Slowing this economy does not look like a 353,000 job month in terms of these types of reports. They're looking at this and going, We didn't think this was going to be happening, so maybe they don't cut interest rates, which would be stimulative to the economy until maybe later on this year. Again, as you mentioned, for those that have mortgages or credit cards, which are often tied, albeit a bit indirectly to Fed reserve rates, that could be unwelcome news because maybe those that are home buyers are saying, Okay, well, I guess I'm just stuck with these 6% to 7% mortgage rates for a little while. I mean, there's this meme going around of people having the nightmare of me needing more space, me also having a 2.75 interest rate. If you got that interest rate, yeah, right? Do not do it. I should take your advice. Here's a question for you because One of the things that comes up, and I don't want to get in the weeds of this, but it is an interesting note, is we've seen there's oftentimes revisions to the previous, previous month.

We get jobs reports and then something comes out, it's like a change to the numbers we already saw. How is that landscape looking? Yeah, well, look, when it comes to the revisions, Every month, you get a revision to the two prior months. But because it's January, they actually relook at all the numbers for 2023 as well. Now, there was some concern that, Okay, well, 2023 looks pretty good, right? I mean, there's not a single month where we saw negative growth. Maybe the revisions would tell a different story. That's not really the case. They did revise down a few months. It was March, July, and also September. But they revised up every single other month, including December. The original number for the December jobs report, if you can remember, a month ago was about 210,000 They revised it up to 333,000. That's huge. Exactly. So not only did we get 350,000 jobs added in the month of January, but we actually even got 100,000 just from a reread of the December numbers. So again, all that pointing to even that the jobs market in 2023 was even a little bit better than we thought. Super quick, just because I'm obsessed with this point, people still, some of them feel bad about how the economy is doing.

We can see the numbers that are good, but that doesn't change how people feel, even though we're seeing some new polling that I think is interesting out today showing that maybe that pessimism is starting to fade a little bit. Yeah, and that's lining up with some other figures that we get from, for example, the consumer confidence numbers in the conference board as well as the University of Michigan, showing that people are feeling a little bit better. But we have to remember that the big story has been inflation, inflation, inflation. Okay, if you have jobs, that's great. But if the store prices are going up at a faster rate than your wages, then that's not really great. It doesn't matter that you're able to hold a job down. The story, though, is that that's starting to change because this report tells us that wages are growing by 4.5% on a yearly basis as of the January to January period. Inflation over that period, 3.4%. So this story is changing, although that's only happened as of the spring last year. How long does it take for people to feel that? That's the open question, especially very importantly, going into the election later on this year.

Brian Cheung. Love to be able to both nerd out with you and also talk vibes. Thank you. I appreciate it. We got a lot more to get to coming up here on the show, including a landmark vote set to happen in Paris. We'll tell you what's behind the push to raise prices for some things. Plus, take a look why this poster of Jesus is creating some controversy in Spain. Let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. Number one, Carl Weathers has died. He's the NFL linebacker turned actor. He was 76 years old. I'm sure you recognize him. He was Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies. He was in Predator, Happy Gilmore, Action Jackson. His family saying in a statement, Weathers died peacefully in his sleep. Number two, convicted killer Danilo Cavalcante today walked back into court months after. Remember this? He literally climbed out of a prison in Pennsylvania. This was huge news when it happened. It's the first time that Cavalcante has appeared in public since he was captured after a long manhunt. His court appearance today was a preliminary hearing on escape and burglary charges.

Number three, check out what happened when Apple CEO Tim Cook showed up to that big flagship store in Manhattan. A hero's welcome for him. A lot of applause, handshakes, etc. Why? Today's a big day for Apple. It's $3,500 vision Pro VR headset is launching. Cook says more than 600 apps and games are available for it. As for the price, Cooke says it feels right, considering the value. I know you know it's Groundhog Day. I know you know it's Groundhog Day, but Pungs of Tony Phil is out for his yearly prediction here. And guess what? He didn't see his shadow early spring, folks. And If you're like, God bless this groundhog, I hate to tell you, he's only right 30, 40% of the time. Why do we do this? I mean, I love it. It's a rodent fortune telling. Let's be real about what groundhogs are. Can we just be real? All right, but whatever. Whatever you like. When we come back, I'm just a messenger. When we come back, we're going to talk about more and more protests escalating across Europe. Not just farmers. We'll tell you what's up in Finland next. Plus, how a floating sauna came to the rescue in Norway.

Nbc news covers hundreds of international stories every day. Because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all, our international teams have done it for you. Here are some of what they're watching in a segment we call The Global. Out of Norway, look at this. People on a floating sauna in Oslo rushed to rescue people whose car was falling into the water, basically. Look at this. It was a Tesla. Police have no idea how the Tesla ended up in the water, but the spa-goers, look, that little box, that's where they go to sweat it out. They ended up steering over to pull the passengers to safety. Some incredible video there. Out of France, Parisians are set to vote this weekend on a plan to triple how much it costs to park SUVs in the city. It's part of a move to cut back on air pollution caused by out-of-towners. People who live officially in Paris, if you're a resident, you don't have to pay the fee. If the vote passes, some other European cities like London are expected to propose similar rules. And in Spain, a big The controversy over this poster for an Easter Festival, setting off this huge debate with some mixed reactions.

Some critics saying it's too pretty, a disgrace, inappropriate. Online, it went viral. A whole bunch of memes behind it. The artist behind this work is defending it, dismissing people who don't like that Jesus as old-fashioned. Also across Europe, the escalation of protests with farmers in France, Brussels, elsewhere, throwing eggs, fireworks in government buildings. You're about to see it. Blocking off big roads with tractors, even piling up pounds of manure in front of landmarks, demonstrating for more support and fewer regulations, adding to a complicated picture in the region, with workers in Finland also striking. Our Megan Fitzgerald has the details. Tractors barricading highways, manure dumped at government buildings, tires on fire from France to Brussels to Greece to Portugal, farmers erupting in protest suggests across the continent. If this vape time is up, think of the farmers. They're rallying for things like better pay and more protection against cheap imports as energy and fertilizer costs spike because of Russia's war in Ukraine. Tensions rising as farmers, egg government buildings, and police hose down protesters with water cannons. Eu leaders addressing the farmers at a summit with sympathy and understanding, though concrete proposals were pretty scarce. And it's not just farmers.

We're Workers in Finland leading massive protests, angry with their government. We are seeing the biggest political strikes and labor demonstrations for a very long time. Businesses shut down and empty airports with more than 500 flights canceled. That's what the country looks like right now as hundreds of thousands strike. Why is it happening here? The big union says Finland's right-wing government is proposing social welfare changes, like cutting benefits and wages for unemployed people by hundreds of euros a month, restricting people's right to strike and making it easier for companies to fire their employees. If the political parties who take turns being in power due to the decision making, work life can become quite unsustainable, unpredictable. The Finnish Minister of Employment says the government proposed these changes to improve the economy of the country and boost its employment rate. The reaction is overscale for the changes. That A reaction massive, with around 13,000 people taking to Central Helsinki for a major rally Thursday, and some schools, restaurants, post offices, stores, and more shutting down, leaving the country in a standstill. The head of international affairs for Finland's biggest Trade Union says frustration with government cuts while prices are rising is a common denominator across Europe.

The opposition to different kinds of auster policies in different European countries in a situation situation where ordinary people have already seen their real income dropping, but we are not giving up. Megan Fitzgerald is joining us now. Megan, thank you for bringing that to us, because the other layer to this is that Finland is in the middle of a presidential election now. You've got the political overlay with EU elections coming up later on this year. Do we think or do experts in the EU think that there could be a political fallout then for these strikes now? Halley, it's a great question. And yes, this certainly could have an impact. These strikes are fueling this narrative that governments across Europe and the EU don't care enough about the issues surrounding these farmers. So when the EU, for example, goes up for election in June, soon. The concern is that if it shifts to the right, it could put in jeopardy, for example, their green agenda. Halley? Megan Fitzgerald, live for us there overseas. Megan, great to see you as always. Thank you. Coming up here on the show tomorrow, the first primary Primary of the Year with President Biden on the ballot.

We'll take you live to South Carolina with what some of his backers are saying now. We are now just hours away from the first Democratic primary to actually have President Biden on the ballot tomorrow in South Carolina. The first primary for an incumbent President, for a sitting President, it's a big deal, since it can be seen as the first real test of how excited Democrats are to vote for the Commander-in-Chief, especially in a state that pretty much resurrected the President's near zombie primary campaign back in 2020. Resurrected, thanks to overwhelming support from Black voters, voters whom President Biden will need again come November. And tonight, our own Trimayne Lee is in South Carolina talking with a group of black men who say nobody currently in the race is really moving the needle for them. Is there anyone that's getting you guys excited for the election? No. No, not really. I'm not jumping on my seat for anybody. I see you're chuckling already. I am not. No, I'm not. Short answer. Tremaine is joining us now from South Carolina with those conversations. Part of his special report Black Men in America: The Road to 2024. So short answer there from one of the guys you were talking to.

And generally, we're getting the vibe of those lukewarm feelings for President Biden. You also asked if that meant, okay, so does that mean you'll vote for Donald Trump? Let me play some of that here.Not right now. Not for me. Not right now. I can't personally see me ever voting for Donald Trump, especially what happened on the Capitol. I don't see a world, personally, where I would vote for Donald Trump ever. Okay, so, Tramaine, where does that leave them? What are they going to do? Halley, for a lot of those voters who have similar sentiments, it's a lot of frustration, sense of disconnection to the Party, but also a disconnection from politics more generally. The feeling that people come for their votes in the last minute, the 11th hour, but don't nurture any real relationship with them. We've seen in recent years, especially when it comes to the Democratic Party, a higher percentage are drifting over to the left. Now, that is misleading because for generations, 12 to 15% of Black voters did vote for Republicans. The Obama phenomenon shook things up, and so we're returning to that baseline. But even with some of these concerns that Black male voters have.

But as a voting block, Black voters are still practical and very pragmatic, and so they have ideas like this. Take a listen. I feel like the stakes are too high. Joe Biden's age aside, the choice between instability, insurrection, and erosion of our democracy, and the strengthening of our democracy, and stability, I think the stakes are too high. We connected with these guys, the art of Groomy, a Barbershop in Charleston, to have this candid conversation about where they stand on the eve of the primaries. All of them, to a person, said they do plan on voting. But again, a couple of them said they're willing to explore their options. While for some, they're like, never Trump, some are saying, Hey, I'd explore it. We love them on business. We love him on money. He's a big, tough guy, so maybe. What does this mean for the potential for alarm bells ringing over at the DNC? You have to imagine that they're already on fire in places like Charleston. You think about places like in Milwaukee, especially, or Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, these swing states. For our special that's airing Sunday Night, Black Men in America: The Road to 2024, we talked to guys from all walks of life.

Almost to a person, they said, the Democrats don't necessarily... They don't feel that the Democrats truly care about them and that they make promises they can't keep. They're going to have to be a bunch of bridge building between now and November. But again, as a voting block, Black folks are pragmatic and practical, and they don't see the right as a real option. Tramaine Lee, Live First there in Charleston. Tramaine, thank you so much. You heard Tramaine say it there, Sunday night, Black Men in America, the road to 2024. That's special Report over on MSNBC and streaming on Peacock. We're looking forward to it. Still to come here on the show, a new report, finding the same chemical that caused so many problems after that East Palestine derailment, still getting shipped through neighborhoods all over the country. Who's at risk if another other disaster were to happen? Next. So tonight's Original Now with in-depth reporting on a topic we've been watching. And tonight, we're looking ahead at what's next after that East Palestine train derailment a year a year ago because a new report shows millions of Americans at risk every day at any moment of a similar disaster happening to them.

Why? Because the same chemical gets shipped right by their homes and schools. Cynthia McFadden explains. Is a toxic bomb train like the one in East Palestine running through your neighborhood? For millions, it's a daily risk. No reason why we should be regularly shipping this extremely dangerous, hazardous cancer-causing chemical all the way across the country. Mike Shade helps run the group Toxic Free Future, and his team is out with a new report finding that 36 million pounds of a chemical called vinyl chloride is traveling on more than 200 rail cars at any given moment. It's a chemical used to make a popular plastic known as PVC that's often used in building material like vinyl siding, cable coatings, or vinyl tile flooring. It's also the same chemical that's spilled into the ground in East Palestine, and it can be deadly. The World Health Organization, Environmental Protection Agency, and US Department of Health and Human Services have classified vinyl chloride as a known human carcinogen. And a disaster like East Palestine is exactly how you can come in contact with it through breathing or in the water, even though it can take years for diseases to develop. According to the Department of Transportation guidelines, if a train carrying vinyl chloride catches fire, everyone than a mile radius needs to be evacuated.

Oxyvynal is one of the largest manufacturers of vinyl chloride in the country. Shade's team mapped out one of the train routes the dangerous substance travels from OxyVynal's chloride ride plants in Texas to factories up north, a 2,000-mile stretch. The path cuts through major cities like Houston, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Most of the people that live in close proximity to the rail route, they're not rich white folks. They're typically low income communities of color. An estimated 3 million people live within a mile of these train tracks. Also along the path, a series of schools attended by 670,000 kids. Let's zoom in at one area, North Philadelphia. Sixty-thousand people live in this one-mile radius. 95% are people of color, and there are 17 schools. This route alone has had two vinyl chloride spills. Shade solution?Demand this chemical and demand this plastic once and for all. Dozens of companies have already taken that step, but Shade says the big one is construction, which is why he's putting pressure on the Home Depot, the The Home Depot's largest home improvement retailer, asking their CEO in a letter to phase out their use of PVC as they have done with other dangerous chemicals.

They have the power and the market responsibility to push their suppliers away from PVC plastic and vinyl chloride. The Home Depot did not respond to MBC News' request for comment on this story. But a Home Depot official did commit to phasing PVC out of its packaging last year. A company report says it has removed vinyl chloride from indoor carpeting in the US. It has not yet committed to phasing out the sale of all PVC products. In December, the EPA began looking into the risk posed by vinyl chloride, but it could be years before that leads to any ban. Meanwhile, communities that are still on this train path are still at risk. We reached out to OxyVinyls to find out if they felt that the path their chemicals were taking was a safe one. They replied as follows, OxyVinals is committed to the safe transport of our products, and railroads safely transport our products and many others throughout the United States every day. They added that in the Ohio situation in the derailment there, Our railroad cars remained intact, and their pressure relief devices functioned as intended during the incident. Back to you, Halley. Our thanks to Cynthia McFadden for that reporting.

It for us for this hour. We've got more coverage picking up right now. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app, or follow us on social media.