supreme court. we re going to go through the arguments on both sides of the case. good morning and welcome to way too early on this tuesday, february 28th. i m jonathan lemire, thanks for starting your day with us. many of the republican party s biggest names will not be attending the annual conservative political action conference in maryland this week just outside washington, d.c. potential 2024 candidates will not be at the annual gathering. rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniels, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and house speaker kevin mccarthy are also sitting out this year. this year s conference comes as cpac s chair faces a lawsuit that alleges he fondled a male aide to then senate candidate herschel walker back in october. his lawyer says he denies those allegations. none of the politicians that have said they are not attending have cited the allegations as the reason for their absence. however, several republicans who spoke to nbc news anonymously have said the al
it s 10:00 a.m. here in washington. i m garrett haake, and we are following breaking news in kentucky. new details this morning about a deadly crash overnight involving two military helicopters during a training exercise. right now at least nine people are reported to be dead according to the new york times. and we re expecting an update momentarily. an american journalist detained in russia. russia claiming the wall street journal reporter was caught red handed. the paper vehemently denies the allegations. what the white house is saying about this latest escalation. another fiery train derailment, this time in minnesota forcing evacuations of a nearby town. some of the roughly 22 cars carrying ethanol. this just weeks after that toxic disaster in east palestine, ohio. we ll have the latest on the continuing efforts on the ground. and a wild story from the halls of capitol hill, sources telling nbc news a food service worker was arrest ds and accused of recording au
just remind them to keep an eyen eye on their drinks. for linda, that most were gay adds to her family s pain. to see a group of people who have been persecuted just for being themselves, targeted, just really hurts it angers me it grieves me. reporter: she s hopeful her son s story will be a warning that may save people lives stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york we have a lot to cover in our second hour of chris jansing reports. let s get right to it. at this hour, up in flames, a training carrying ethanol derails and catches fire in minnesota forcing people earlier today to flee their homes. what we know about this latest derailment. also, an update on the health of pope francis who the vatican says is progressively improving in the hospital. we ve got a live report from rome. plus, an investigation underway after nine soldiers were killed in an army helicopter crash in kentucky what we just learned from pentagon officials. and any minute now, we re expecting
david is with us. the highlight of the president s announcement, three objects shot down since friday not tied to any enemy nations but private companies, bringing up the possibility that the administration may have over reacted after the chinese spy balloon in february. i gave the order to take down these three objects due to commercial air traffic and because we could not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities. white house officials and all the way to the president insist there will be changes in the works. whatever you want to call them, he said he ll share with congress the policy parameters when they re done but that ll remain classified so we don t give a quote, road map to our enemies to evade our defenses going forward. i expect to be speaking with president xi and i hope we ll get to the bottom of them. i make no apologies for taking down that balloon. you can see right here this exchange when a reporter asked him about chinese business
is amazing. cnn continues now. translator: a year ago on this day from the same place around 7:00 in the morning, i addressed to you with a brief statement, we are strong and we are ready for anything. we will defeat everyone. this is how it began february 24th, 2022. i think everyone will attest to this, it s surprising that we are still here in this war that ukraine is still hanging on and still fighting back. as we know vladimir putin thought, hey we go into ukraine and it will be done zip zip zip. that is not happening. that is what we are talking about as we mark this one year. good morning. ukraine stands defiant and unconquered on this anniversary. it s now entering the second year. what is next for russia after a year of heavy losses. we will be joined live from moscow. and china is now stepping up and taking a more active role. can beijing help to broker a peace deal or will they get involved more on russia s behalf. and we know now that the engineer tried