meteorologist on why it feels, quite literally and figuratively like a turning point on climate change. this is american voices. as the battle for control of congress heats up ahead of the 2024 election, republicans are showing up how they plan to govern if they win. case in point, they are attacking civil rights under the guise of military readiness. on thursday, the house passed a new defense spending bill, going after anything they deem as quote, woke. republican amendments to the bill include ending diversity training, limiting health care for trans service members, that bill would also rollback a pentagon service policy covering travel expenses for military members. who must now travel out of state for abortion access, following the overturn of roe v. wade. this legislation made possible by a far-right faction of the house that demanded these controversial amendments to negotiations with house speaker kevin mccarthy. and this week could be a preview of the battle over
president was in helsinki standing side by side with vladimir putin defending the russian leader. we ll take you there live. also, right now, wild weather coast to coast from tornados in chicago to flooding in the northeast, and more than 100 million americans under the thumb of a historic heat wave. we have your forecast. plus, setting the stage for another hollywood strike, first writers, now actors, what it could mean for all your entertainment. good morning, it s 10:00 eastern. thanks for being here. i m ana cabrera reporting from new york, and we begin in helsinki where we are just minutes away from a joint press conference with president biden and the president of finland, nato s newest member. let s go there now with nbc news white house correspondent, monica alba. walk us through the presidents day there in finland so far. reporter: well, ana, this is really a historic cap to a week of critical meetings for president biden overseas, and he s here in finland m
t the lead starts right now. ukraine is pushing, pushing, pushing. cnn is live as the 31 nations meet. and why special counsel is accusing donald trump s right-hand man of trying to delay the prosecution of him. and the once in a thousand year rainfall behind devastating flooding in parts of america ears noamerica s northeast, trapping drivers in cars and on roads and forcing some to swim to safety. we start today with our word lead. the president in lithuania with one goal on his list unity. ukraine will be the main focus of the two-day meeting but for a group that has been, frankly, stunningly united, there are public fractures in the alliance starting to emerge, ones president biden will have to fix over the next few days, mainly overs decision to send cluster bombs to the front line, one that has been banned by most of the allies who will be sitting around president biden at that table in lithuania. they will have to decide when and how they will let ukraine join
it is sunday, july 9th. i am ali velshi. the field of republican presidential candidates is growing. a date has when lockdown for the first republican primaries and caucuses. yesterday, the republican party of iowa announced that it will hold its first in the nation caucus on january 15th of 2024. momentum will pick up next month when the party holds its first primary debate in milwaukee, august 23rd. there is going to be a problem for the country to receive most or some of the candidates together. at least one dozen republicans should be competing in 2024 but only five of them declared candidates have met the requirements to qualify for the first debate. ron desantis, nikki haley, revak wamah swami, tim scott, and donald trump, the undisputed front runner in the race right now. it s difficult to overstate how unusual this race is turning out to be. the republican party has been impeached twice already. he s running for that position again. he is leading the pack. he has been
now, we do have new reporting on where yevgeny prigozhin was shortly after. the story keeps getting weirder. the only sort of bright spot for vladimir putin is ukraine s counter offensive has been slow. will cluster munitions change that, and how much blow back will president biden get for that. one nation against it is the uk, we have the latest on the president s stop in london this morning. there s a lot to get to. let us start with the reporting. joining me now, nbc news correspondent ali arouzi, and from kyiv, nbc news foreign correspondent kelly cobiella. let s get to lithuania, the president has just gotten there. what s the agenda for tomorrow? what s on the table? reporter: well, the summit really kicks off in earnest tomorrow, and president biden will be meeting other leaders of nato countries. he ll be very various bilaterals. there will be a nato family photo, and then a dinner at the presidential palace, where they will be able to discuss various issues that th