top of the hour this thursday. i m jim sciutto. i m erica hill. we begin this hour with the new reporting of the chinese surveillance balloon, and the state department is confirming that this device was capable of monitoring u.s. communications. that is likely one of the new details that lawmakers are learning this morning. the biden administration is giving classified briefings on the issue on capitol hill a short time ago, and we will give you more of what we are learning in a moment, and with reclosely following what is happening in europe. the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is calling on the european allies to step up the assistance and talking about specifically what they could do in his mind game-changers. fresh off of the sales pitch in wisconsin, president biden is headed to florida to expect to drive home his pledge in particular to protect social security and medicare, and we will have more on that message from the white house ahead. first of all to nat
reporter: that was the theme song for butch cassidy and the sun dance kid and took home another oscar for a movie. between me and the moon and new york city reporter: and he teamed up with ron eisley. raindrops keep falling on my head reporter: and he paired with british rocker elvis costello for the song grace of my head. and that gave me strength reporter: in 2012, president obama paid tribute to him for the most highest music award the
faster. absolutely, look, coming back with the throttles. can you pull out or is it too late i got 8,000 feet, i just hit the mountains. there s your reason. think how many seconds we had. you couldn t pull this out you just don t have enough strength reporter: the plane s black boxes could answer critical questions, did the plane suffer a critical mechanical or structural error, did the crew respond properly, and even, was the crash intentional. investigators got to look at the background of this flight crew and what was happening in this cockpit to rule out whether an intentional act was involved here we still just don t know the boeing 737-800 with a stellar safety record is not a 737 max, but three years after two fatal max crashes, boeing is again under scrutiny, tom costello, nbc news washington. up next, inside a
the storm came, and then all communication was lost at that time nothing nothing reporter: right now flooding is among the biggest concerns with cars submerged at police as dorian dumps foot after foot of rain. we fear for our head quarters as dorian dumps foot after foot of rain. we fear for our lives reporter: tonight the prime minister tells me help is on the way but stresses he s never seen such a powerful storm. it s saddening. it s as if we re fighting a war with the enemy having all the weapons at their disposal and we it s as if we re fighting a war with the enemy having all the weapons at their disposal and we have have absolutely nothing. we re hopeless the only thing we have to us is god. so, we can pray to god and ask god to bring us strength reporter: and again the prim now responsible for at least five deaths here in the bahamas. he went on to tell me minister confirming dorian is now responsible for at least five deaths here in the bahamas. he went on t