and healthy night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you at-home for joining us this hour. so, there are minimalist candy bars, and there are maximalist candy bars. minimalist are the ones like, you know, a classic hershey's bar, just chocolate, or a heath bark, which is coffee in the middle and then chocolate. my favorite is a payday bar, i don't know what that is, it's basically like peanuts and grew. i don't know. but a picnic bar on the other hand is not one of those a minimalist once. it is a maximalist candy bar. it is like if you combine all the things in a snickers bar and a milky way and a crackle bar, it's got like caramel, peanuts, new get, cookie, and a whole bunch of other stuff in there. it is like the jumble area of candy bars. and they are delicious. they are not a big thing in the united states for whatever reason, although i think you can get them here. i know they are very popular in lots of other parts of the world. here, for example, our picnic bars on a supermarket shelf in russia. and you can see from the little price tag, look at the price, listed for 14 rubles each, which is almost nothing. 14 rubles is only like 16 cents in u.s. dollars. now, our picnic bar is that cheap in russia. actually, they're not. this wasn't a blowout 60 cents sale on delicious candy bars. you see that description written there in russian. if you translate that into english, it says this. it says, quote, russian soldiers did not let 14 trucks with humanitarian cargo into the kherson region of ukraine. peaceful civilians there need food and medicine. so the price tag says 14 rubles, which is not the real price. and then that description of something going on in the war, 14 trucks. that turns out to be the think. because here's another one, a price tag under tubs of instant coffee, 400 rubles. but it's not really 400 rubles, and inscription say it does not say instant coffee. it says the russian army has bombed an art school in mariupol. around 400 people were inside it hiding from the shooting. 400 people, 400 rubles. here is a price tag under a shelf of glue sticks, listed at 19.98 apiece. weekly inflation reached the maximum since 1998 due to military actions in ukraine. stop the war. these false price tax, on store shelves and supermarkets across russia, they went up early last year. it was shortly after russia invaded ukraine in february of last year. and you see the theme about how this works, every number that is listed on the price tag that looks like a price was tied to some kind of data point about the war. you can see the candy bar price, for example, that doesn't seem like the right price. what does that actually say? and then you can look at the description, and that will make you think. artists, activists made a pack of these false price labels that people can print out to take to their local supermarkets and put up on the shelves, just as a very small protest, a small form of dissent, it quiet, thought-provoking, non violent, non damaging form of speech, to try to get people to think to make a small gesture of protests against what russia was doing in starting that war in ukraine. 20 rubles, the russian army has destroyed over 20 medical establishments in ukraine. 4300 rubles, stop the war! in the first three days, 4300 russian soldiers and. why is this not being talked about on tv? eight rubles. i haven't been in touch with my sister from ukraine for eight days. i don't know what's happened to her. stop the war. at the start of the russian invasion of ukraine, russian president vladimir putin made it a criminal offense for anyone in russia to say anything negative about what russia was doing in that war. when the anti-war price tags started popping up in russian stores, security officials started hunting down the people who had put those price tags up on the shelves. and one of those people was this young woman. her name is alexandra -- she goes by sasha. she's an artist, she's the pacifist. last year, sasha printed out five of those protest price tag, five of them. and she put them up on a shelf at her local supermarket. and using security camera footage, the police identified her. they tracked her down at a friends house. and then, they arrested her. they put her behind bars under putin's new law that bans so-called fake news about russian troops. you might remember us covering this back in april of last year when it first happened, if that story finds sounds familiar, it's because we covered it back than a year and a half ago. since then, sasha has been in prison, awaiting trial. she has been imprisoned this whole year and a half since she was arrested last spring. pbs actually made an incredible documentary that followed more on the story since. it wasn't all about her, but a little slice of that documentary covered her story. it is a documentary called putin's war at home. again, it is pbs. the whole thing is online. you can watch it online for free. i highly recommend it. they just won an emmy for it. but for the documentary, for the subplot, this documentary, they followed sasha's story, and they spoke with her partner, sonia. they were able to go to one of the criminal hearings in sasha's case where the court decided to keep her in prison for the world threatening dangerous crime of her posting those five little price tags in a russian mark. e price tags i a russian mark >> [speaking in a global language] [speaking in a global language] [applause] [speaking in a global language] [speaking in a global language] >> reporter: they wait five hours to hear the judge's decision. >> [speaking in a global language] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> [speaking in a global language] [speaking in a global language] [speaking in a global language] i just want them to let her go, she says, i just want them to let her go. well, now we know the resolution of this case. alexandra, sasha the artist, has just been sentenced to seven years in a russian penal colony. seven years in a russian penal cop calling for the grave crime of placing five anti war price tags in a russian supermarket. dozens of her friends and supporters were in the courtroom when she was sentenced. they chanted her name. when the sentence came down, they chanted, shame, shame, shame. sasha then addressed the court. she said despite being behind bars, i am freer than you, addressing the judge, she said i'm not afraid to be different from others. perhaps, that is why my state is so afraid of me and others like me and keeps me caged like a dangerous animal. she said the prosecutor repeatedly declared my actions extremely dangerous to society and the state. how fragile must of the prosecutors believe in our state and society be, if he thinks that our statehood and public safety can be brought down by five small pieces of paper. they did not have to conjure up some kind of, like, phantom property damage here, right? for putting up these little anti-war pieces of paper, these little anti-war price tags. this wasn't a damaging crime. this wasn't a violent crime. she's not even part of any group. she has no criminal record. she has no record of ever being a political activist of any kind. this was just her making a personal statement of opinion. and now, she is sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for having done so. because this is what they do. in 2021, the nobel peace prize was given to journalists. one of them is this man, the editor in chief of a newspaper called novaya gazeta. it was probably the most important national newspaper in russia that was independent and critical of the kremlin. since putin has been a leader of russia, at least six journalists from novaya gazeta have been murdered under mysterious circumstances, including their star investigative reporter, and not political skier, who was murdered in her apartment building in 2006 on vladimir putin's birthday. and novaya gazeta's editor was one of two people who was awarded the nobel peace prize of 2021, shortly thereafter under the threat of having the whole staff of the newspaper arrested, novaya gazeta was forced to stop its print edition and move its operations out of the country. just a few weeks ago, the nobel peace prize laureate was officially discolored a foreign agent in russia. he's not foreign. he's russian. by declaring him a foreign agent who makes that essentially a crime for everybody in russia to work with him in any way, and likely they'll try to jail him as well. i mentioned that he was one of two people that got the nobel peace prize in 2021. the other person, a person he shared it with is this journalist. her name is maria -- she was a bureau chief for cnn, and she ended up founding an independent modern critical news organization in the philippines called rappler. and when the philippines got rodrigo duterte as the de facto dictator of that country, the same year that we got donald trump, soon after maria ressa found herself arrested and jailed and charged with multiple crimes. she won that nobel peace prize in 2021, along with the editor from novaya gazeta, in russia. and soon after she won the nobel peace prize, the philippine government ordered rappler, the news organization, shut down entirely. they're still fighting to keep that going. she's still fighting to stay out of jail. but that is true, both for her and the philippines, and for her fellow nobel laureate in russia, both of them, facing the same kind of threats. it's not because either of them has done anything other than commit journalism, but that's how authoritarian governments tweet journalists. that is how authoritarian government treat the threat of the free press. literally awarded the nobel peace prize cannot protect you. yesterday, argentina elected a new president. and it is the chainsaw guy, the guy whose followers where, make argentina great again baseball hats. he got a big congratulations from republican party leader, donald trump, when he won this election in argentina yesterday, he says that as argentina's new president, he is going to eliminate that countries currency, and abolish its central bank. he says of the 18 departments in the federal government, he is going to eliminate ten of the 18, including health and education. he has said that he wants a three, free totally unregulated market in guns in argentina. and also, a free and totally unregulated market in human organs. that said, he also wants a total ban on abortion. so, you know, freedom. but with that to do list, what are the priorities? what comes first? well, what did he talk about first after getting elected. he was elected last night. this was his victory speech last night. you can see his signature, calm, cool and collected by on full display. this is last night, and he won. and then today, first thing he told reporters that he is going to move to dismantle the media outlets in argentina that gave him critical coverage during the presidential campaign. this is what they do. this is what they do, this is what they do everywhere. as soon as jair bolsonaro got elected it was a, this was the headline even before bolsonaro took office. brazil's annexed president declares war on fake news media. that was 2018 when he was first elected. by 2020, he was publicly making a show of threatening to punch a reporter in the face. by 2023, when he was voted out of his office, and his supporters to write their own january 6th site storming of the capital, his supporters were just physically attacking the press. king the pres s.that was brazil. in poland, it was the law and justice party there, and headlines look remarkably familiar. poland targets tv channel, limits press freedom. poland's ruling party rams through media law. new freedom house report, how polish government set out to conquer a free press. in hungary, it is the authoritarian viktor orban who of course is a fan favorite of american conservatives and republican conservatives. viktor orban had headlines in hungary that looked like this, inside or bonds crackdown on hungary's free press, hungary dismantles media freedom and pluralism. reporters without borders lists viktor orban as press freedom predator. this is how they do it. they do it everywhere. it speaks different languages. it has a different accents. but it's all the same. in his 2016 campaign and in his one term in office here, former republican president donald trump, of course, made a whole sport out of that, right? denouncing the american free press as the enemy of the people and all that. now that he is running for president, again, though, he is getting more specific, saying he's going to have msnbc investigated for treason. okay, treason -- this weekend, trump advisor stephen miller suggested that criminal charges should be brought against the media watchdog group, media matters, after media matters pointed out that on twitter, that social media platform now owned by elon musk, major mainstream companies were having their ads appear lie right alongside pro nazi, pro hitler antisemitic material, and the things that flood this social media platform. now that mr. musk has taken over, and now he himself has started promoting some of the antisemitic content on the site. stephen miller says, people should face criminal charges for pointing that out, about what's happening on twitter. and, you know, it is one thing for a presidential candidate's advisor to point out something like that and say, hey, your critics and the media should be in jail for criticizing you. but it's quite another one of the republican attorney general of the state of missouri that jumps in and volunteers that his office in missouri is now looking into the matter, presumably to see if he can use the powers of his office as state attorney general to help with the jailing enemies part thing. tonight, republican attorney general of texas says he, in fact, has opened an official investigation of media matters, the media watchdog group that is pointing out what advertisers on twitter or having their ads show up alongside. totally on moderated, mostly on moderated media. and why does the attorney general of texas need to invest media matters for having criticized a right-wing billionaire -- because, make argentina great again, or something! put them in jail for seven years in a russian penal colony for the price tag protest. arrest the editors. drive their publications out of the country. this is what they do. this news comes tonight at a time when literal neo-nazis, big swastikas flags, marching in wisconsin this weekend, rallying outside a historic jewish sight in downtown, madison, wisconsin. that was saturday this weekend. and then the very next day, sunday morning, a grenade was found strapped to a poll outside a synagogue in lakewood, new jersey. today, federal charges filed against a utah man who allegedly made multiple death threats to an organization in d.c., advocating for palestinian rights. this comes at a time one of the israel hamas war feels just like an unceasing bloodbath at this point, with hamas still holding israelis hostage for a month and a half now, with the death toll inside gaza now estimated at over 13,000 people killed, with one and a half million people displaced in gaza from their homes, with nowhere to go. slim to no hope that there will be anywhere to return to at all at anytime. the moral calamity of the ongoing catastrophe in that war has caused such suffering and death, and such grief and outrage around the world. here in the u.s., it has culminated not just with grief and outrage, but with a major spike in hate crimes, committed by americans against other americans, which makes it just an extra auspicious time for the richest man in the world to be using his media outlet to tell the world, effectively, that white people have an enemy in jews. four republican political figures to say that they might like to lock up anyone in the media criticizes him for that. for the leader of the republican party, promising treason investigations for his perceived critics in the media. and also, that he is going to use the u.s. army against american civilians who protest against him. and also, he's going to build camps in america, in which he's going to lock up millions of people because he wants power again, so he can crush his enemies and root out what he calls the vermont in this country, the people who oppose him, the internal threat. untry, the people who oppose him, the internal threat it is of course never a good time for any of this. but the fact that this is all happening at once right now, it is like the difference between one morning light going off on the dashboard while driving, and all the warning lights going off all at once while driving. when the latter happens, you pull over because obviously this is serious. tonight, we are gonna be talking about a brand-new ruling from a panel of conservative federal appeals court judges, a ruling that effectively would end the voting rights act, the landmark civil rights legislation that was the high water mark for the legislative achievements of the civil rights movement in 1965, a legislation that ban racial discrimination in voting. this ruling, tonight, from the eighth circuit court of appeals would effectively end the voting rights act in a significant swath of the country. we're gonna be talking about that. that was a surprise ruling today from the eighth circuit. we are also gonna be talking tonight about and under the radar, but potentially, hugely important story, about another right-wing media takeover in our country. we've got details on that with somebody who absolutely has a totally unique and well informed perspective on this. we've also got some bright spot news tonight about people fighting hard for their rights and for good treatment, and them not only winning, but their victory for themselves as now had the knock on effect of helping all sorts of other people who are not part of their fight, but who are in the same predicament that they were in. it is a story about good news happening to people who are fighting hard. and then having ripple effect of good news for people who did not even join in that fight but you can really benefit from it. that is a rare type of good news story in our culture and in our economy. but we've got that tonight. and that story also brings with it some really good news about some of our own colleagues here at msnbc, including some of our beloved colleagues here on this show. we do have good news at tonight. we've got some really not good news too. you don't get a choice. it turns out, it all comes together. we're gonna handle all of it. stay with us. lots to get to tonight. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm 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