nearly 5 million people have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. good afternoon. i m garrett haake in washington, in for hallie jackson. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley is in kyiv. also with us nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube. and we re joined by retired army brigadier general peter zwack, who served as senior defense attache to russia. and matt, i want to get started with you. you re in kyiv. we ve got this new russian offensive really lighting up the east of ukraine while they re still trying to hold on to mariupol in the south. bring us up to speed on everything going on on the ground there. reporter: yeah, garrett, i mean, i don t know if we would call it lighting up the east. so far we ve heard from the ukrainians that the massive offensive that has been much anticipated for weeks and weeks has started in the east in the donbas region. remember, garrett, this is a region that s been at war for the past eight years. so what looks like
it is topsy-turvy live news event kind of day. case in point, in a matter of about two minutes, we expect to hear from president biden. he will address the nation live on a number of topics, not the least of which is the abrupt stepback our country took today away from fairness and progress toward intolerance and discrimination. the conservative supreme court ruled 6-3 in favor of a colorado web designer, an evangelical named lori smith who refused to work on same sex weddings. the court said that the first amendment protected her from punishment. and it is a turning point decision that will flip the state of equal protections on its head and allow business owners to likewise evade punishment under similar laws in 29 states. and in the longer term, it could again signal a threat to the landmark decision of the 2015 case establishing the case of same sex couples to marry. and if you are wondering of the same sex couple, what they are doing, after being denied basic human decen
i want wyoming to be protected and i don t feel that liz is doing that job. she stood up for what she believes in. this primary election is over, but now the real work begins. welcome, it is wednesday, august 17th, 9:00 a.m. here in london, 4:00 a.m. in washington, 2:00 a.m. in wyoming where voters have spoken handing former u.s. president donald trump and his supporters perhaps their biggest primary victory yet. just a few months ahead of the midterm elections. trump s most forceful congressional critic liz cheney has lost her house seat. well i won t back down, no, i won t back down cheney conceded to her trump-backed rifle harriet hageman, but issued a rallying call to all americans who care about protecting democracy. cheney is vowing to do everything she can to keep the former u.s. president out of the white house. and steer the republican party away from his lies and influence. jeff zelleeny was there and has that report. reporter: congresswoman liz chen
Not part of the power elite of dominant in the republican party, you don t have rights. it is not just marginalized communities before think about what has happened even earlier in the session about taking away labor rights. think about taking away student rights. if you are not part of that particular club that clarence thoms and some of the other judges are a part f decision that they want regardless of precedent, regardless of the merits, regardless of freedom, regardless of principal. that s part of what s very scary about what this court has done.