fewer ngos. north korea and its people are more isolated today than arguably they have ever been in their entire history of 70 plus years of the existence of north korea because of the all foreigners were forced out during the pandemic. the government has imposed incredibly stringent measures to try to prevent people from fleeing to the south. they bolstered border security. they ve tightened the surveillance state apparatus already incredibly strong. and so people inside north korea are literally living in this black box of isolation from the rest of the world. it s a difficult time to get a message in or out. there s email, there s phone. those things still work. people welcome using back channels trying to find way to talk about this american and how to resolve it. i can guarantee the north would like to resolve it as well. this is a pain in the neck for them. not something they asked for. they had this thrust upon them. will ripley for us in taipei. priscilla alvarez on the north
when it happens abroad. so this is a situation that we can imagine the white house is closely monitoring and is aware of, but again, we have reached out for comment to see what more they can tell us about this situation. so far all we know again is this tweet from the united nations command that a u.s. national is in north korean custody. phil? priscilla alvarez, stay close by. keep us posted. this is fast moving. you have people to talk to on the phone. we ll shift over to will ripley live for us in taipei. will, i want to start with what you ve heard at least up to this point in these early moments about what actually happened. but also, some context given your experience in that area of where this actually is, what may have actually happened here based on when you ve been down there. reporter: it is really fascinating to think that we are now in the year 2023 and you have this apparent u.s. national crossing the military demarcation line and this very almost like a cold war re
after the kremlin says a brokered a deal with its leader yevgeny prigozhin. russian president vladimir putin. before i go on, please consider the source. the russian government no stranger to disinformation or propaganda. the kremlin says it will not charge prigozhin in exchange for him calling off his rebellion, and moving to belarus. the kremlin did not specify what he will be doing in belarus. wagner group fighters who participated in the attempted rebellion will not be prosecuted, at least that s what the kremlin is claiming. we re told those troops would be given a chance to sign a contract with the ministry of defense. if they don t, who knows what happens to them. again, all of these claims have yet to be verified by nbc news. joining me now, and b.e.t. news chief correspondent richard engel. he is live for us in taipei. richard, give us a primer here. what is the wagner group, who is their leader, what do we need to know? so, the wagner group was born out of necessity. vladim
check out the podcast this week pretty good also check out from the kitchen table, we are covering the five stories no one is talking about because the trump indictment that you need to know about. but i ll be right back here for pete tomorrow come check us out tomorrow. happy easter. evident saturday. neil: is china preparing for combat? those are the claims china s liberation army as u.s. lawmakers continue to meet with taiwan s president in taipei. china holding military drills to send a clear message it is not happy with that meeting. we have never seen drills or activity like this, like ever. more than 70 chinese aircraft detected crossing of the taiwan strait. several chinese ships surrounding the island as we speak of. how support affairs committee
aishah hasnie more on all this where it is 4:24 a.m. in the morning. it s either eric, good to see you. china is flexing its military muscle right now less than 100 miles away from this very small island. and video was just released today from the ccp showing the people s liberation army launching three days of military drills. taiwan is spotting at least 71 army jets and nine naval vessels in just one day. forty-five of those jets crossing the median line in the taiwan strait pet and also into taiwan s air defense identification zone. this is all course happening presumably in response to that meeting with the president tsai ing- wen and kevin mccarthy earlier this week with all the bipartisan delegation visit with tsai ing- wen in taipei during the three-day visit to the island house foreign affairs