Top Story with Tom Llamas - Jan. 25 | NBC News NOW

tonight the country trying to keep up with covet's rapid pace pfizer now moving forward with a vaccine to specifically target the omicron variant but health experts suggest the virus is evolving faster than our tools against it the treatment now said to be ineffective to fight omicron plus two antiviral pills approved to treat the virus so why is it so hard to find them and tonight our jacob soberoff rides along with emts waiting for hours to drop off patients at overwhelmed hospitals and now in need of help themselves also tonight moscow conducting a wave of military drills and missile tests as washington delivers a 200 million dollar shipment of weapons to ukraine president biden now warning sanctions against vladimir putin if russia invades but saying for now u.s troops nor nato forces will enter ukraine our richard engel again back on top story tonight senator fallout arizona democrat kirsten cinema censured by her own party in her home state after her vote on the filibuster derailed voting rights legislation is her seat in jeopardy leanne caldwell traveled to arizona to find out transplant withheld the 31 year old father denied a life-saving heart transplant because he's not vaccinated against covet 19 hospital policy requiring several vaccinations to qualify for the procedure his mother joins top story tonight with where her son's fight now stands under app control the technology we use every day that could be commanding the way we think and act and bye bye number two pencils s-a-t going digital the college entrance exam will soon be online and an hour shorter what's driving the change after nearly 100 years top story starts right now [Music] hey good evening we begin top story tonight with the fight against omicron the cdc today saying their data shows the variant does cause less severe disease than previous mutations but it's still causing a record surge in cases and the sheer number of those sick overwhelming so many hospitals us deaths from the virus topping 2 100 a day the highest level since a year ago dr fauci today saying it's unlikely the virus will be completely eradicated but some relief may be on the way flies are now pushing forward with a vaccine specifically aimed at omicron and several u.s cities now seeing cases from the variant drop at a rapid pace that's great news millions of antiviral pills though approved to treat the virus are ready to ship out however there is some concern tonight it's not enough to meet demand they're hard to find and there's also a battle brewing over another type of covet treatment after the fda said it's not effective against omicron so let's get right to ellis and barbour who leads us off tonight tonight omicron continues to rip through large parts of the country 16 states are still dealing with spikes in new infections but there are promising signs that the worst of the surge could be behind us in parts of the northeast cases now dropping as quickly as they skyrocket it but a world without a single case of kovit the nation's top doctor is reiterating a reality check you can get a degree of control you might be able to eliminate it or you could even eradicate it i don't think there's a chance that we're going to eradicate this drug manufacturers are scrambling to keep up with omicron's rapid pace today pfizer began clinical trials for an omicron specific vaccine they plan to test it on vaccinated and unvaccinated people this vaccine will be ready in march i don't know if we will need it i don't know if and how will be used but we'll be ready regardless experts believe it can provide vital protection if omicron remains the dominant strain i think it's prudent to at least prepare for the possibility that this may be a persistent variant that we may have to face even though it's at a very low level the aggressive variant now rendering some treatments useless the fda revoking authorization for two of the most common monoclonal antibody treatments saying they are quote highly unlikely to be active against the omicron variant this site in florida offering regeneron now forced to shut down just one week after opening governor ron desantis slamming the move people have a right to access these treatments and to revoke it on this basis is just fundamentally wrong and we're going to fight back some treatments that are authorized are proving difficult to find the doctor just basically said good luck finding it brett robinson says it took him three days and calls to 12 different pharmacies to find covet antiviral pills for his immunocompromised mother kelly for it to be as effective as it can be needs to be taken within the first five days of symptoms and those days were running out waiting on waiting on clearance and a prescription and information roy nawazier also struggled to find the pills for his 80 year old father it was shocking to me that when i called the pharmacy that in the middle of covid and an omicron surge that they don't even know that there is a pill for covid two antiviral pills have been authorized to treat covet more than 3.3 million courses are expected to be delivered to the u.s government by the end of the month but that supply is not yet meeting the demand for people like kelly who is now on the mend the hunt to find those pills felt impossible she says without her son's help she would have given up i couldn't physically or mentally do the leg work so i really felt discouraged and i thought i'm not going to get any treatment that will prevent this from getting worse all right allison barber joins us now live so ellison you know i can remember when these pills came out the news broke it was breaking news all over the world but it seems sort of useless if people can't find them is anything being done to alleviate the stress of finding these coveted pills it's really challenging speaking with representatives from both of the companies that manufacture these pills pfizer and merck they are adamant that they think within the next six months by the end of the year they will be able to get closer if not meet the demand that they're seeing for these pills one thing that uh one person speaking with me about this within pfizer pointed out is they said hey look the emergency use authorization that we got came out a little bit earlier than expected so we've already ramped up quicker than expected but both companies they remain adamant that they will be able to meet this demand as they continue to ramp up production they say this simply is a complicated thing and that it takes time i know also there's some major news from the body administration tonight announcing plans to withdraw its vaccine mandate for certain businesses of course the supreme court shot that down what more do we know yeah this comes on the heels of the supreme court's conservative majority blocking those controversial rules this withdrawal will go into effect tomorrow the original mandate it had the potential to impact roughly 80 million americans but tonight it seems that the biden administration is signaling legal defeat when it comes to this particular mandate they say again that this withdrawal will go into effect starting tomorrow and what that means is that any sort of outstanding legal proceedings withdrawals related to that supreme court case those will drop tom all right alison barber leading us off tonight on top story here ellison thank you and tonight amid that omicron surge we were just talking about many ems services are faced with another crisis staff shortages crippling er response crews all over the country ambulances lined up at hospitals for hours waiting to drop off their patients we wrote along with emts in sacramento as they tell us they're reaching a boiling point jacob sober off tonight from sacramento in california's capital the first responders citizens turn to for help are now saying they need it too we're with sacramento metro fire and we're on our way to a call for a 34 year old that's supposedly coughing up blood once these emts get there they're able to treat this patient there's no guarantee that patients can be able to get into the hospital we pulled up to find a patient having a medical episode that wasn't life-threatening captain parker wilburn is with sacramento metro fire what would seem to be an emergency for them is obviously not an emergency to us essentially all we're going to be doing is giving him a ride to the hospital and you think he's going to get in right away when he shows up absolutely not no no we're going to be this ambulance will then be out of service for at least one hour we're getting called out because people can't you know they're they're unable to sleep you know at two in the morning i can't sleep i want to go to the emergency room and we try and we try and educate in those moments but sometimes we get repeat offenders where they call us multiple times sometimes in one day hospital delays aren't new but the omicron wave crippling staff shortages in an extremely high volume of non-emergency 911 calls has made it worse wilburn says in the county ambulance turnaround times that should be 15 minutes averaged over an hour last month they're sitting inside the hallway of the hospital we call it wall time because they're sitting on the wall waiting for bed soon another call comes through we've got a rollover vehicle accident we head out to meet a team from another station this is horrific she doesn't look like she has life-threatening injuries is there any guarantee she's going to be seen right away if she goes to the hospital there's no guarantee she's going to be seen right away how much of it is covered covets brought a light to an issue that was already here at minimum there is a 10 percent gap in the number of providers clinicians needed to staff ambulances and to do ems work not even 10 o'clock in the morning yet so it's uh 9 29 9 29 and we got we'll have three ambulances stacked up before noon we'll probably have five or six this is every day and this is every day so last week we had 18 ambulances that were stuck at a hospital in the sacramento area they're constantly asking us can you clear the hospital how much time what's your eta and we really don't know we can't we i write to dispatch a lot no bad new eta for emts stress exacerbated by a pandemic may now outlive it how much longer can you all keep going like this i'm really unsure people are overworked we're working as much as we can i don't know much longer we can do it under pressure and unsure when relief will come all right jacob joins us now live from sacramento so jacob you know we heard there in your story about the 10 shortage even before all this happened how bad is it right now with those critical staffing shortages we've seen all across the country it's bad tom and actually the metric that they use here in sacramento and across the country is what you heard described as wall time by that uh emt right there outside the hospital emergency room that's the amount of time people are sitting literally up against the wall because they cannot get a bed in a hospital and that's not necessarily because they don't want to treat those patients they not only don't have the staff to treat the patients not only do they not have the beds to treat the patients but they've got a lineup of ambulances outside in that waiting area that can't go pick up other patients in order to come to get the life-saving treatment that they might need and that's what they're trying to fix here in sacramento and hopefully for their brothers and sisters on the front lines across the country and jacob while i have you here we know that some ems workers actually are asking the government for help they appeared before the california state assembly yeah that's exactly right and some of the things that they want to see tom have to be legislated like fines for ambulances or hospitals that don't turn around those patients in a quick amount of time in order to get new patients in they also want to make sure that there are enough ambulances out on the street and that of course would take increase in funding tom all right jacob sober off for us tonight jacob thank you the other major headline we're following tonight the u.s and nato ally sending russia a powerful new message to stay out of ukraine president biden warning of enormous consequences if russia invades nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel has more from ukraine tonight with diplomacy failing nato and russia are both mobilizing for a potential war tonight more american weapons part of a 200 million dollar 90-ton package arrived in ukraine to help defend against a possible russian invasion president biden saying he's close to deciding whether to mobilize additional u.s troops already on high alert to eastern europe although not inside ukraine what would lead to that is what's going to happen what putin does or doesn't do and i may be moving some of those troops in the near term just because it takes time and saying he might sanction president putin himself if he invades if he were to move in with all those forces to be the largest invasion since world war ii it would change the world nato allies big and small are also moving east spain deploying fighter jets to bulgaria and warships to the black sea denmark sending jets to lithuania and france vowing to defend romania all of eastern europe is a potential front while russia denies it will invade with new military drills today it keeps the world guessing tom ukraine's president is telling people to remain calm he's been consistently saying that to the point that some in this country are criticizing him accusing him of downplaying this crisis he says he's seeking a diplomatic solution but here in the east some volunteers are already signing up in case they need to fight tom richard engel reporting again for us tonight from ukraine richard thank you for more analysis on this let's bring in evelyn farkas she's a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia ukraine and eurasia you know evelyn you were one of the obama administration's top pentagon officials for russia and ukraine the bodied administration has put troops on heightened alert to assist our nato allies but what exactly does that mean and i ask you that because this is what the president said earlier today we have no intention of putting american forces our nato forces in ukraine but we uh you know as i said they're going to be serious economic consequences if he moves okay so no intention of putting forces in ukraine or nato forces in ukraine either should point that out so it sounds like they're standing by to standing by what exactly is the president doing here and is there anything else you would advise the president to do now right well first thanks for having me on tom what i would say is the president right now is actually making a really strong move to try to deter vladimir putin from launching another war again in ukraine or actually pouring fire on an existing war because there's there's a war that's been going on since 2014 in ukraine in in an area called the donbass now putin is threatening to do something else and we don't know whether it's going to be an aerial bombardment whether it's going to be a cyber attack whether it's going to be seizing another piece of ukrainian territory but he's intimidating the heck out of not just ukraine but the transatlantic community in the world and he put troops into belarus and that's why president biden and the nato leadership decided they had to deploy troops to poland lafay and lithuania because those countries share a border with belarus so what russia did was in effect not just threaten ukraine but kind of threaten the nato countries and you know we we need putin to know that if you put a toe into a nato country the whole alliance is going to fight to protect the sovereignty of that country that you put your toe into right evelyn but publicly the leaders of nato have been presenting a united front but there is some uncertainty when it comes to germany the country has significant economic ties to russia we know this and it's heavily dependent on their fuel germany has already said it will not send arms to ukraine a move countries like the u.s and britain have taken so what kind of message does that send to president putin if all these countries aren't on the same page well i think president putin needs to think about what would happen if he did actually make another military move against ukraine because i think what he'd find is that we're very united and at that moment we will be more united than we are today so yes the german government it's a new government it's a coalition government the major party in the coalition has a history of accommodation with russia in fact many of its former leaders are working for major russian energy companies on their boards so they have this close relationship with russia that makes them uncomfortable the not providing arms to ukraine that's actually more in keeping with the traditional german policy i would argue in this case it's actually the one case where they should provide arms because because because it's a case where one country is running over the sovereignty of another country and grabbing its territory and that's exactly where germany could be helpful but leaving that aside i do believe that germany will be with us on sanctions if putin is foolish enough to attack ukraine again so the body administration also announced today that the u.s is working with gas and oil suppliers overseas on a plan in case russia cuts off supplies to europe and white house press secretary jenn saki said today a russian invasion of ukraine is likely imminent it sounds like everyone is preparing for the worst richard engel's first line in his story that we just ran there was quote diplomacy is failing why do you think diplomacy is failing well i would just say that diplomacy hasn't failed yet i mean he's right it looks like it's going to fail but you know as as someone who was a defense diplomat and as someone who believes our defense capabilities are there to provide the muscle so the diplomats can prevail i still think all of these moves that have been made right now by president biden and by nato the the threat of sanctions the detailing of actions that we can take to help those countries that are being blackmailed over energy issues right those things all actually strengthen diplomacy if they are strong enough so i don't think diplomacy is dead but i would agree that there's no sign yet that putin's going to de-escalate or that he's going to turn to a diplomatic solution the key senator facing fierce opposition in her party arizona democrat kirsten cinema censured by her home state this coming for her refusal to end filibusters nbc's leanne caldwell's in arizona tracking the attacks and seeing where she still has support tonight arizona democrat kirsten cinema under attack from her own party officially censured in her home state the first time senator with a fierce streak of independence refusing to relent to pressure she cast a key vote that would have eliminated the filibuster and paved the way for voting rights legislation to pass the senator from arizona taking to the senate floor in a public display that critics say undermined president biden i share the concerns of civil rights advocates and others i've heard from in recent months about these state laws and while i continue to support these bills i will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country the fallout swift former allies now openly saying she should face a challenge in her party's primary i know it's a couple years away but would you support her campaign next time around absolutely not and i think ultimately we've seen a lot of organizations who helped get her to the point that she is today to be able to demonstrate that we're serious on this one particular issue on protecting our freedom to vote even before this weekend's censure polling obtained by nbc news showed democrats view her unfavorably cinema no stranger to controversy from green party activist to a centrist democrat we need hounded in a bathroom by activists after demanding president biden's 3.5 trillion dollar immigration and social policy bill be scaled back the chamber of commerce backs her focus on the business community and republican voters have a newfound respect for her i love her yeah she stands up for what's right for the people and she's not playing politics i vote for it i didn't vote for her last time either but i would do it this time for sure democratic state congressman cesar chavez bucking his own party says he will stand with her i think that the majority of democrats in this case are going to look at what's that 99 percent that she's done for our party for our platform but most importantly for arizona and that one percent push it aside all right leanne caldwell joins us now live from phoenix so leanne i have to ask you know to get a sense of what the temperature is like there in arizona i know you spoke to voters and you spoke to some democratic elected leaders so does does the support from both republicans and the democrats that are still with her offset the democrats that appear to be leaving her now tom she could absolutely form some sort of coalition to get her reelected when she's up for re-election in 2024 this is the john mccain model independents republicans democrats to push someone into office but the problem with senator cinema is first she has to get through a democratic primary the state is turning more and more blue the democratic activists are becoming more and more impassioned and at this point in time even though the election is just three is still two to three years away they are motivated to find a primary opponent to run against her and that's going to be her biggest challenge tom yeah the question will be will this haunt her down the road all right leanne great reporting love to have you on top story still ahead tonight the urgent manhunt authorities in houston looking for the suspect they say ambush a deputy during a traffic stop the massive reward now being offered for his arrest plus the deadly stadium crushed during africa's top soccer tournament the investigation into whether security caused the chaos and transplant withheld the 31 year old denied a heart transplant because of his covet vaccination status the policy from the hospital and what his mother is now telling top story stay with us we're just getting started [Music] all right back now on top story what what is likely to be our most talked about segment in this broadcast a boston man in desperate need of a heart transplant but his mother says he won't get one because he refuses to get the covet 19 vaccine and he's not alone nbc news correspondent dasha burns has more tonight tracy ferguson speaking out because her 31 year old son d.j can't he's waiting on a heart transplant but is being denied because he won't get the covet vaccine my son's in the hospital and he needs a heart transplant she says dj has been fighting for his life at brigham and women's hospital but she says he's been told he's not eligible due to hospital policy i couldn't believe it and then he said to the doctor so you're going to let me die she says her son is concerned about the side effects of the vaccine he's not an anti-vaxxer or whatever they call it but you know he's compromised the mayo clinic listed on their website the myocarditis parakititis and blood clots in a statement brigham and women's hospital saying like many other transplant programs in the united vaccine is one of several vaccines and lifestyle behaviors required for transplant candidates in the mass general brigham system in order to create both the best chance for a successful operation and also the patient's survival after transplantation dr arthur kaplan the head of medical ethics at nyu grossman school of medicine says this is a common type of requirement for a transplant before kovit if you hadn't had all your shots they wouldn't do the operation on you they'd make you wait they're trying to make the expensive procedure with a lot of rehab involved successful this isn't some new issue about oh my goodness he won't vaccinate we're going to discriminate against him and when it comes to the family's concerns about side effects whatever the risks associated with the shot are lower than covet so what you want to do is prevent coven dj isn't the only one denied a transplant because of his decision not to get vaccinated in october a colorado woman was denied a kidney transplant because she refused to get the shot for religious reasons and another man who was waiting for a transplant told his surgery was on hold because of his donor a new policy at the cleveland clinic now requires both organ recipients and donors to be covid vaccinated sue is not medical religious and also freedom ferguson a father of two with another child on the way remains in the hospital his mother says he was in the o.r for a separate surgery as we were speaking to her if his life is on the line do you think he might change his mind about the vaccine knowing that he might he could wake up after his surgery today and say all right i'm willing to take my risk do you hope he does i would want the pain i would want the doctors to treat the patient and not the policy all right dasha joins us now live here on top story dasha we know dj is not alone there are a lot of people who are unvaccinated who are waiting possibly for an organ this is not something that's happening just in a vacuum but i have to ask you do these patients have any other options or this is it it's get the vaccine to get the organ right now tom those are dj's options there is the possibility if he is strong enough to move to a different hospital that they could try that option but tom the experts i've been talking to say at this point a lot of hospitals across the country have similar policies so we are going to be hearing more of these stories and tom the reality is that these types of organs are so scarce people die every day waiting for them and doctors have to make tough decisions about patient priority all the time there's also tom a much more controversial debate going on as well about whether unvaccinated patients should be placed in the back of the line for other types of health care like icu care and it's a growing debate as hospitals are overwhelmed and some have already had to resort to rationing care tom yeah uh incredibly incredibly complicated uh topic but a very interesting story dasha we thank you for that when we come back time to ditch the number two pencils the sat is going digital and even getting shorter but with more and more colleges no longer requiring the tests could soon be gone for good and inside beijing a look at the extreme lengths the chinese government is going to try and contain covet 19 just 10 days before the winter olympics begin stay with us [Music] now to top stories news feed and we begin with the manhunt in texas 51 year old oscar rosales is accused of fatally shooting a deputy charles galloway during a traffic stop near houston over the weekend rosales is now wanted on a capital murder charge a 60 000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest a tragic update on that ambush of police in new york city we told you about last night a second nypd officer 27 year old wilbert mora the partner has succumbed to his injuries maura and two other officers were responding to a domestic call on friday when a suspect opened fire with an illegally modified handgun 22 year old officer jason rivera died shortly after the city saying maura made one final sacrifice his body moved to a different hospital before his death so his organs could be donated new orleans pelican center jackson hayes is now facing a dozen charges following an arrest in july body cam footage from la police show hayes trying to prevent them from entering a los angeles home as they responded to a domestic violence call he was later tased hayes was arraigned this week on 12 misdemeanor counts including battery against an officer and elton john forced to cancel performances after testing positive for covid 19. american airlines center in dallas announced tonight and tomorrow tonight and tomorrow's shows will be postponed the singer who is vaccinated and is boosted is experiencing mild symptoms and is okay the farewell yellow brick road tour was set to kick off in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic all right next up a makeover for a classic test the sats are going digital and becoming shorter college board the college board announcing these changes are and more saying the test will now be easier to take rahima alice reports it's the test that looms so large for millions of high school students like natalia casio oh yeah i've definitely felt a lot of pressure taking sats now the s.a.t will move from pencil and paper to digital today the college board which administers the sat announced a change it hopes will relieve some of the stress as of 2024 students will only take the standardized test on laptops or tablets at testing centers the test will be shorter two hours instead of three reading passages will reflect a wider range of topics to make the test more culturally relevant on the math section calculators will be allowed why do this now there are a set of changes benefits and improvements that we've been hearing from students and educators that we can only deliver if we're a digital test nearly 80 percent of u.s colleges and universities will not require a ct or sat scores for admission in fall of 2022 and during the pandemic fewer students have been taking the s.a.t do you worry that that time may be outpacing the need for the sat the data shows that students still really want to take the sat and see how they do that gives colleges another data point and one that they want to make sure we keep making available to students while many schools were moving away from the sats before kovit even more have taken that turn now the shift in the sat doesn't mean the sac goes away it just means the sat becomes a part of a more robust picture of who a young person is and we should all be thankful for that natalia took part in a pilot program for the digital s.a.t i preferred the digital sat version compared with the written sat version because it was a lot more clear and concise a standard test changing for the times rehema ellis nbc news all right we thank rahima for that now to the americas a look at stories from across the u.s and latin america we turn to the texas border with mexico where the debate over governor greg abbott's operation lone star is heating up the program allows local and state authorities to arrest migrants who they suspect are trespassing a judge has ruled it unconstitutional but some state officials are already defined that decision nbc zinc clay essenwa has more tonight a legal battle in texas operation lone star deemed unconstitutional this month by a texas county judge now an appeal against this ruling has been filed the lone star program launched by the governor in march 2021 allows state and local law enforcement not just federal officials to arrest migrants the bite administration's open border policies have created an open season for human traffickers for drug smugglers for cartels and gangs you can see some of those lone star arrests here according to the texas department of safety which screen their footage at lone star briefing these are dps encounters with migrants on this operation lone star the program received 38 million in state funding just this past december and faced increased scrutiny when it came to light the militia group patriots for america also known as pfa was engaged in the lone star effort my name is samuel hall i'm the founder and president of patriots for american militia we've been working a lot in kennedy county working very closely with the sheriff code and the residents in that county for the last two and half almost three months the aclu of texas and civil rights groups filed formal complaints about the program with the doj ultimately the state deployed thousands of national guard texas public safety officers and other state resources to the border there's no you know date when we're going to this is going to we're going to conclude this operation but now the travis county texas judge jan soyfer has ruled the operation must conclude the county d.a supporting the decision saying the policy is in part quote an impermissible attempt to intrude on federal immigration policy kinney county attorney brent smith disagrees in a recent appeal to neighboring travis county in a statement to nbc smith said in part that his county will not recognize the recent ruling for jurisdictional reasons and quote unless ordered differently by a higher court the case that triggered this legal battle gusman kuripoma vs state of texas where ecuadorian asylum seeker jesus alberto guzman curipoma was one of those arrested under the policy in september 2021. he was charged for criminal trespassing allegedly found at a railroad yard in kinney county the initial charges were filed in kinney county the dismissal was issued by a travis county court after a hearing on the writ of habeas corpus presented by defense counsel he pled not guilty they had no authority over the body of our client and transported them himself themselves over to customs and border patrol which is unprecedented angelica cagliano and addie mural represented him what impact will the ruling on this case have for your client but also potentially other migrants who are arrested under this policy she's dismissed our client's case while it's not binding precedent on any other other court in texas it's very persuasive precedent as for texas governor abbott in a statement to nbc his office called the ruling in part flawed adding there is no doubt that this will be overturned all right clay joins us now from here in 30 rocks so zinc clay you know have you reached out to the governor because clearly there's a lot of issues going on here including those militia members working with what appears to be some local law enforcement officials yeah tom so we did reach out to the governor and ask that very question if they plan to take legal action in response to this being declared unconstitutional they referred us to the texas attorney general we have not yet heard back from the a.g and as you note there's a lot of back and forth there's a lot of nuance there's the militias the travis county da's office did not did confirm excuse me that they have filed a motion to actually dismiss dismiss smith's notice of appeal brent smith you'll remember is the kinney county attorney who basically said we aren't following this judge's order declaring lone star unconstitutional and we don't have to do so so tom it really is yet another chapter in this very long ongoing saga okay sinclair we thank you for that we want to go down to our top story global watch we begin with the investigation into a deadly stampede in cameroon at least eight people killed while trying to enter a stadium during africa's top soccer tournament witnesses say the crush happened after security directed fans to a gate that was closed and then suddenly opened it organizers say people were also jumping over fences to avoid vaccine checks the rest of the tournament's games have been relocated from central africa to western africa burkina faso's military has seized power in a coup the army making the announcement on state television here saying it has detained the country's president dissolved the government and suspended the constitution the borders are also closed the u.n says it's concerned about the president who has not been seen it's the fifth african country under a coup in the last 18 months all right staying overseas in china less than two weeks before the start of the winter olympics dozens of cases in beijing prompting authorities to test millions of people including anyone buying cold medicine but more than three thousand people have already arrived for the games since the beginning of the year testing the country's zero-tolerance covet policy janice mackey freya reports tonight china's government going to more extreme lengths to contain covet cases 10 days before the winter olympics abruptly sealing off neighborhoods in beijing officials say they'll mass test 2 million people there's nothing we can do to get rid of it he says the entire city caught in a dragnet over a handful of reported cases and ramped up fear anyone buying cold medication recently ordered to take a test to prove they aren't infected as more people are being told they have to get tested sites like this are popping up around the city beijing's first cases of the omicron variant testing china's rigid zero tolerance for kovid as world attention turns to china for the olympics chinese leaders had hoped to showcase success in managing the virus beijing faces a dilemma right that might also explain why so far they've refrained from imposing a city-wide lockdown with beijing under restrictions athletes and officials are confined to a closed loop of walled off hotels and venues accessible only to them already games officials report 93 covet cases inside the bubble while outside chinese fans can no longer buy olympics tickets it's a pity but there's no way he says chinese officials are so fearful of crossover drivers were warned to avoid olympics vehicles even if there's an accident the city now in full emergency mode days before the games begin all right janice mackey freyr joins us now live from china tonight janice you mentioned their officials in beijing hesitant to enter a full lockdown it sounds like they're going into a lockdown is there any indication whether or not they would enact if enact that if any of the case numbers go up tom i could give you a whole grocery list of the the measures that are currently in place that are impacting daily life here remember this is a time of year when hundreds of millions of people would typically be traveling for the chinese new year but for weeks now the government has been urging people to stay put if someone does leave beijing they face the risk of quarantine where they're going and this is for domestic travel they face the risk of lockdown of not being able to come back of their health code changing and because of all of these risks a lot of people need to get permission from their employer to even leave the city plus you've got deliveries impacted you need a prescription to get ibuprofen so it may not be the hard lockdown like what we saw in xi'an for 31 days but there are a number of measures already in place here in beijing that are limiting freedom of movement so it's against this backdrop that people are arriving from outside to beijing for the olympics we effectively have two bubbles now tom one for the olympics and a secondary bubble that has sealed off beijing a lot of bubbles and a lot more than we had in tokyo all right janice mackie freyr reporting in from beijing tonight janice thank you coming at the power of a.i we're becoming more reliant on technology but is it starting to control our minds nbc's jacob ward he's got a new book he's going to join us live with his remarkable findings that's next all right back now with an in-depth look at the growing power of artificial intelligence as technology evolves humans are becoming more reliant on ai and it's changing the way we think behave and interact with one another it's the subject of a new book by nbc news technology correspondent jake ward of course a good friend of top story it's titled the loop how technology is creating a world without choices and how to fight back jake ward joins us now live so jake first off congratulations on the book it looks fascinating it draws on years of research into behavioral science and you're reporting on tech companies so talk to me about the most alarming link you found well for me it really has been most alarming to discover the places in which technology experts who are building the apps that you and i use every day have in fact been learning the lessons of the last 50 years of behavioral science and those lessons tend to show us tom that essentially we make most of our decisions using instinct and those instincts have predictable patterns to them feed those patterns into a pattern recognition piece of software like ai and you can make all sorts of predictions we're talking here not just about the kind of stuff that you and i are used to where social media predicts what we'll like next what movie we'll like on netflix what song we like on spotify but instead it can also predict things like you know art that we might make it is choosing who gets a job who gets bail i mean all these sorts of patterns and decisions that we make in our lives it turns out can be fed into a system like this and not only automated but in the end shape the decisions that we make as well very alarming stuff so the title of the book comes from the way that technology is beginning to change and limit our behavior which you refer to as the loop and it's a pretty scary idea and if you think about just our daily lives you know the app waze tells us how to drive and where to go we could maybe one day we want to eat meatloaf and instead of like going to a cookbook that someone wrote down a recipe for us we're going to google the best meatloaf recipe it changes little things like that but there's also bigger ways that it changes our lives too right that's absolutely correct i mean we're seeing it in the short term change things like for instance the way that divorced couples communicate with one another there's an app called co-parenter that actually mediates between warring couples and interrupts their text exchanges to say hey don't say that you'll wind up back in court that's how predictable the way humans fight are but you also can extrapolate out all the way to things like communication between friends and you know lovers we're seeing systems that are going to start predicting that stuff ways of of trying to predict just who it is in video footage looks the most suspicious right that kind of pattern recognition stuff is going to begin shaping our stuff and at the very extreme end time we're already seeing cases in which for instance right wing politicians in europe are seeing what does well on facebook and are actually changing their positions in real life so that they will do better on the platform right all of this is part of this cycle of analysis and behavior that i'm calling the loop and that i'm hoping we'll spend a lot more time thinking about in the future far right and i'm sure communist oppressive countries as well doing it on the far left controlling their populations as well you know especially with you know censoring all of social media and different internet outlets i do want to talk about social media and adults because we talk so much about the dangers with children what impact have you found with adults who use a lot of social media well this is certainly the thing that we see even inside social media companies right i mean the facebook papers which were turned over to a select group of journalists and nbc was one of those outlets you know they showed that there is tremendous effect on the the you know the ability of people to focus on all sorts of of outcomes when it comes to our interactions with one another and you know i don't know about you tom but for me you can just sense it in your daily life and so i spoke to people who were being affected in just sort of the minor ways i spoke to people who lost fifty thousand dollars a hundred thousand dollars their entire life savings being addicted to certain kinds of online casino simulators i mean you are just seeing the way this stuff that literally again is just reading the patterns on our behavior making predictions about them and then building ways to make money off of that that kind of loop is really going to i think define whether or not we retain the ability to make choices for ourselves in the next few decades jacob ward the book's called the loop you can get it now uh jacob love having you when we come back special delivery the six-year-old getting through a cancer battle with a little help from the mail i was local post office surprised him when he returned home from the hospital stay with us all right finally tonight a special little boy who just beat cancer has always dreamed of becoming a u.s postal worker with some help from his local post office he's now on his way to delivering letters on his own van singletary has been delivering the mail to the residents of laguna niguel in southern california for more than 30 years there's always been an excitement for seeing the postal trucks come in but never actually saying that i would like to be a mailman but that all changed when he learned about six-year-old jacob hayward jacob was diagnosed with kidney cancer in he has gone through about give or take 50 treatments of chemotherapy eight treatments of radiation two major surgeries living for months in the hospital there was one thing that kept jacob going the mailbox outside of his hospital room his big thing before this has always been the mailbox so it was excitement for him every day to check the mailbox and get his own personal mail in the hospital jacob ended up beating cancer and was able to go back home hopefully forgetting about this tough time in his life but his local post office didn't forget about him we wanted to do something special for this young man for his courage positive attitude so that's really what brought us here today we wanted to make him a honorary letter carrier for the laguna city come on out jacob a special delivery just for jacob his very own male vehicle complete with a postal uniform to match [Applause] so as a family that's gone through something for the last 22 months where to have something like this it's just so appreciated and we're so thankful so what is the city's newest mailman think about the surprise i'm feeling like so good and i cannot believe this is happening so i'm so shocked that this has happened a special delivery jacob and van will always share you don't get moments like this where you can experience this like excitement of a child and his uh and all that he's gone through and it just was priceless we love van and his new co-worker jacob we want to thank our los angeles affiliate our own station kmbc for their help with that story thanks so much for watching top story time i'm tom yamus in york i'll see you right back here tomorrow have a great night thanks for watching our youtube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the nbc news app you

Channel: NBC News

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Length: 47min 53sec (2873 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 26 2022