About this transcript: This is a full AI-generated transcript of Morning News NOW Full Episode – Oct. 21 from NBC News, published October 22, 2026. The transcript contains 17,076 words with timestamps and was generated using Whisper AI.
"developing right now on morning news now the final stretch this morning democrats outpacing republicans in the first days of early voting now president trump taking his campaign push to the carolinas so i've done like about 10 rallies in about eight days i'm working like a dog plus controversy in..."
[00:00:00] Speaker 1: developing right now on morning news now the final stretch this morning democrats outpacing republicans in the first days of early voting now president trump taking his campaign push to the
[00:00:13] Speaker 2: carolinas so i've done like about 10 rallies in about eight days i'm working like a dog
[00:00:21] Speaker 1: plus controversy in the ohio governor's race over this campaign ad featuring a democratic candidate's estranged mother will bring you the latest then war and peace talks new this morning russia announcing the release of american stephen hubbard after a four-year detainment meanwhile trump special envoy steve whitkoff meeting with russian president vladimir putin just hours after talks with ukraine's president will bring you an update on efforts to end the war developing today flooding fears from coast to coast ahead of another round of powerful storms angie is here tracking the conditions the warnings and the areas most at risk and a devastating misdiagnosis for christina applegate the actress saying she is back at square one after learning she doesn't have multiple sclerosis five years after she was diagnosed the emotional announcement and why it may be more common than you think important conversation to explain that to people yeah doctors
[00:01:24] Speaker 3: will explain i think a lot of us didn't realize that it is common to have these not at all yeah so we'll dig into that good to have you with us this morning i'm joe fryer and i'm savannah sellers we're
[00:01:33] Speaker 1: going to begin this morning in the heated home stretch of this midterm election season more than 13 million americans have already cast their ballots with less than two weeks to go until election day with control of congress on the line candidates are using these final days
[00:01:46] Speaker 3: to reach undecided voters president trump heads to south carolina today last night he rallied for republican candidates in neighboring north carolina he made several new promises but they'll only come true he says if the gop holds on to power in congress in a few minutes we'll catch up with nbc news senior national politics reporter jonathan allen to talk about all that ad spending from both parties we begin with alice barr who's got the latest on president trump's rallies alice good morning good morning joe and
[00:02:15] Speaker 4: savannah and president trump's latest rally in north carolina a state he's won three times comes as democrats are gaining ground there this midterm cycle in a state they see as one of their strongest chances to flip a republican held senate seat inside the final two weeks before the midterm several key battleground states are reporting record early voting numbers with everything going on now in the world you need to come out and vote north carolina seeing a surge in early ballots with state officials saying tuesday nearly 45 percent of voters so far were registered democrats 21 republican democrats traditionally more inclined to vote early are outpacing republicans nationwide hello north carolina this is great president trump working to boost gop turnout in north carolina made another promise he said will only hold if republicans keep control of congress paying out the remaining settlements to service members exposed to dangerous chemicals at the military base camp lejeune if we win the house and the senate i am
[00:03:23] Speaker 2: directing the department of justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible if we don't win there's no money if we do win you're getting it it's going to be finally over with congress is
[00:03:36] Speaker 4: already weighing bipartisan legislation aimed at ensuring justice for camp lejeune victims the president heads to south carolina today arguing his rallies are helping republican candidates while acknowledging challenges
[00:03:49] Speaker 2: the president always loses for whatever reason the midterms that as former president bill clinton made his
[00:03:57] Speaker 4: midterms debut on the campaign trail you need to bring your friends your family making a unity pitch for republican turned democrat david jolly for florida governor and as early voting surges so is political ad spending already topping a record 10 billion dollars this midterm campaign season according to an analysis from the non-partisan ad impact joe and savannah so alice the president's schedule tells us a lot
[00:04:24] Speaker 3: about what republicans are thinking could happen in less than a couple of weeks what does that schedule
[00:04:29] Speaker 4: look like this week yeah so after clemson south carolina today president trump heads to sioux city iowa tomorrow another traditionally red state with a highly competitive senate race he's going back to iowa the sunday before election day two and a sign of how important he and his team think that state is the president spends his friday in florida and hits georgia and michigan over the weekend with one more trip to texas scheduled for next week as well remember these are largely red red states that the president has been out defending for republicans all states we've been talking about for several weeks now
[00:05:02] Speaker 1: all right alice thank you so much let's bring in mbc news senior national politics reporter jonathan allen for more on this midterm push here john good morning so as we get closer to election day some races they are starting to get kind of ugly that includes the race for governor in ohio we were talking about this a few minutes ago this is where this campaign ad includes a democratic candidate's estranged mother and this is part of a huge ad spend push um tell us about this particular ad in ohio from vivek ramaswamy's
[00:05:30] Speaker 5: campaign yeah the uh ad for mama swami's campaign that has uh democrat amy acton's mother uh saying that she's a liar but let's spend less time on that than uh than the truth here which is that amy acton the governor of ohio i'm sorry the gubernatorial candidate for the democrats in ohio um and her family say that uh she was uh sexually abused by her stepfather and that her mother who is featured in in this ramaswamy ad uh enabled that and tolerated it and that acton and her brother uh left the home when uh acton was 12 years old so this is an estrangement in this family and one uh obviously
[00:06:07] Speaker 3: caused by deep pain uh john in the battle for congress the map not in democrats favor this time around so to flip the senate they need to win states that do traditionally vote republican we've talked about texas alaska kansas i don't know if many people had mississippi on their map yet yesterday the senate democrats top super PAC announced it is going to launch a 1.2 million dollar ad campaign in the mississippi senate race what's happening there do democrats really have a shot in that deep
[00:06:32] Speaker 5: red state well there's been a lot of pressure put on the democratic senatorial campaign committee to give money to candidates who are sort of on the fringes of possibly being elected and you'd have to identify uh scott collum the democratic candidate in mississippi against uh senator cindy hidesmith as somebody who is on the fringe um i like to tell you guys sometimes that something happened before you were born the last time a democrat won a mississippi senate seat for the first time was 1947 and the last time uh the last time that senator john stennis who was a segregationist won re-election was in the 1980s um that wouldn't be a political shockwave that would be uh like the big one like san andreas fault dropping california into the pacific if democrats win that
[00:07:19] Speaker 1: state uh john also former new york city mayor michael bloomberg is offering a sizable donation this is to help democratic candidates secure seats in the house he has given or pledged 80 million dollars this election cycle let's talk through these funds how much of a difference can that make this close to
[00:07:36] Speaker 5: election day yeah dear mike please send me ten percent of that one percent of that half a percent of it look uh there's never been a campaign that's ever turned down money some of them are very desperate for these last minute ad buys it's a very quick turnaround for them to get money and then usually be able to get it on the air or at least get digital ads out things like that so you've got a whole lot of campaigns in fact i talked to one yesterday um and uh in oklahoma uh that is hoping to get on the map for democrats uh at the house level um just really needing money at the end and so bloomberg's 80 million dollars is a lot it's not what elon musk has put in but it's uh you know a pretty strong
[00:08:13] Speaker 1: shadow of that all right john thank you so much and you can dive deeper into the 2026 midterms with nbc news's polling page early vote data expert analysis and more subscriber only content scan the qr
[00:08:27] Speaker 3: code on your screen to subscribe now got some breaking news to bring you out of russia this morning president trump has confirmed the release of 74 year old american citizen stephen hubbard who's been detained in russia since 2022. hubbard was charged with fighting as a mercenary for ukraine which he denies president putin announced the release of hubbard ahead of talks earlier this morning with u.s special envoy steve whitkoff in saint petersburg whitkoff thanked president putin for the release hailing the russian leader as a quote humanitarian visit comes as the u.s renews efforts to end the russia ukraine war whitkoff met with ukraine's president zelinski yesterday
[00:09:06] Speaker 1: before today's talks with putin well this morning a new video of a violent ice arrest is sparking criticism and outrage this video we're going to show you it shows a man being handcuffed face down in a gutter by ice agents in southern california as he cries out in pain begging for help now there are calls for an investigation into the arrest because the man is an american citizen nbc news correspondent
[00:09:30] Speaker 6: steve patterson has more new outrage aimed at federal immigration officials over this gut-wrenching screams from the ragged voice of a man who a california congressman says is a u.s citizen my arm is broken video shows ricardo gonzalez of long beach california handcuffed bleeding pinned down by ice officers begging for help while bound in a gutter as a large crowd surrounds the scene the detention happened saturday afternoon during what the department of homeland security says was a targeted enforcement operation it's unclear what led up to the arrest but video moments before appears to show gonzalez on his e-bike rounding the corner and encountering an unmarked suv federal officers some wearing masks swarm gonzalez he's like i'm a u.s citizen so i
[00:10:24] Speaker 7: have no idea next thing i know he's on the ground his family saying his arm was broken and that he was
[00:10:30] Speaker 6: tased multiple times long beach mayor rex richardson says gonzalez is a former city employee residents shouldn't be put in these situations families shouldn't have to live in fear in their own neighborhoods dhs says ice officers were confronted by anti ice agitators calling gonzalez a rioter adding ice did not hit an individual on a bike an individual was arrested after he smashed the mirror of a government vehicle and we have heard from gonzalez's daughter leslie leslie saying her father is now recovering after going through some treatments that he continues to receive those treatments and that he's one of the hardest working people that she knows meanwhile there's calls now for an independent investigation both from the mayor and the congressman in that district but no word yet on whether or not we'll see that in the next few days send it back to you all right steve thank you
[00:11:21] Speaker 3: we are tracking some flash flood risks in the southwest this morning so let's get a closer look
[00:11:25] Speaker 1: with your morning news now weather and you last been joins us hey and you good morning hi guys good
[00:11:29] Speaker 8: morning to you we've got some fairly kind of rare conditions happening across parts of the southwest notice that we've got these flood watches up as we gear up for more of this moisture to kind of hang around generally speaking the southwest over the next couple of days here's the deal we've got this area of low pressure sitting offshore and we've just got plenty of moisture to tap into those ocean waters are quite warm so we've got all of this deep moisture that can kind of usher its way into the southwest and that's exactly what's going to happen over the coming days here's a look at today and to tonight you can see that rain becomes pretty heavy across parts of california stretching across the southwest we'll see the flood risk lasting through the day today into this evening and we've got the potential for some stronger storms as well you don't see this all that often an enhanced risk focused over parts of arizona stretching through phoenix to flagstaff we've got a general chance of some thunderstorms it looks like we could see some hail potentially some a couple of tornadoes and some of course thunderstorms with wind damage associated with it as we look ahead to tomorrow more of that moisture kind of rinse and repeat kind of story with some of those downpours working their way farther to the east into parts of the rockies we'll still be looking at the flood risk across the four corners region and we've still got a chance for some of those stronger storms to develop across parts of arizona and new mexico pine top tucson included in that with isolated wind damage possible as well as a couple of tornadoes and some large hail so busy across parts of the southwest not just today but into the next couple of days and by the time we get through friday we'll have picked up multiple inches of rain in some of these spots upwards of three inches in some locations excuse me meanwhile we've got this nor'easter kind of swirling offshore this isn't a whole lot of a problem for most folks across parts of the east coast but we are still looking at some breezy and even gusty conditions and the closer you get to the coast some flood risk at the beaches we're still going to kind of watch this system moving farther away as we get into tomorrow and those conditions will improve significantly even as we get into tomorrow but in the meantime 30 plus mile per hour winds ocean city seaside park you can see even nantucket 40 plus mile per hour winds through tomorrow so still dealing with the not just breezy conditions but that push of water and some inundation along the coastal areas of this region one to three feet is what we're expecting again most of that rain stays well offshore we can see a couple of showers in the nantucket area but otherwise we're going to see just the the kind of minor coastal flooding guys up and down this region as
[00:13:57] Speaker 3: that system starts to pull away tomorrow all right angie thank you so much appreciate it well after weeks
[00:14:03] Speaker 1: of anticipation it seems like jc has finally picked someone to perform at next year's super bowl halftime show himself now it hasn't officially been announced yet but according to multiple sources the rap legend does now see himself as the choice to take center stage at super bowl 61. jay-z was
[00:14:19] Speaker 3: first hired by the nfl to produce the halftime shows back in 2019 miley cyrus and justin bieber were also reportedly considered to perform at the big game reports say jay-z could make the announcement this weekend when he plays a pair of shows at sofi stadium which also just happens to be the site of the next super bowl if i were jay-z i would pick jay-z too i mean that's a pretty easy choice right there also yeah exactly we also know you too is going to be doing that thanksgiving eve show that's on netflix so now we get a whole other time oh exactly so looking forward to that more to come here on morning news now new this morning pope leo back in st peter's square for the first time since that lung cancer surgery his message to the faithful plus the latest on his recovery but up first after
[00:15:05] Speaker 1: the break feeling the heat scientists working to understand the impacts of climate change the eye-opening
[00:15:11] Speaker 3: new study next we'll be right back welcome back this past summer we saw heat wave after heat wave across the northern hemisphere sparking wildfires and causing droughts a new study from reuters finds the largest heat wave during the 1960s that lasted 46 days reached about six percent of the planet but this decade the largest heat wave swept over 85 percent of the globe during its 367 day lifespan now a group of people
[00:15:44] Speaker 1: from reuters is working with climate scientists to not only better understand this trend but also find new ways to communicate the seriousness of climate change with the public pulitzer prize-winning reuters
[00:15:54] Speaker 3: investigative journalist maurice taman is one of the people spearheading this research recently published a special report on the issue he joins us with more good morning you know we've all heard the term heat wave but in your work you've come up with something new a heat storm what exactly is that how is it
[00:16:11] Speaker 9: different from a heat wave well um if i could rewind just a little bit uh when we first started this analysis it was clear to us that uh you know over the course of time something had changed on the planet and what we might have considered parochially as a heat wave didn't seem sufficient to describe what we were seeing especially in the last 15 20 years we needed some other definition that encapsulated the severity of what we're facing and the name that stuck internally and that continued through to publication was the idea of a heat storm something that conveys something bigger than just a heat wave which
[00:16:52] Speaker 1: almost has an innocence to it are you able to predict if the frequency and intensity of these heat storms
[00:17:00] Speaker 9: will continue to increase in the coming years well um what we can do is that we are tracking as these heat waves and heat storms develop uh in the near term so short term futures now um if you look at the trend line uh it's quite obvious that what's happening that you know uh these things are are growing um sometimes exponentially especially in the especially especially it's immediately after el nino's and and we are seeing an el nino right now and they tend to have this kind of ratcheting effect on the planet's surface so if you were to look at an el nino year and the years immediately after that you see heat waves and heat storms rise rather dramatically relative to the pre-el nino year and we're going through another another super el nino period right now and we fully and i fully anticipate that what we'll see is the same ratcheting up that we've seen after every single other el nino episode these heat storms that we're
[00:18:02] Speaker 3: seeing that you're observing and researching what is it they're doing to the planet what is it they're
[00:18:07] Speaker 9: doing to the people on the planet well uh in the first story where we introduce this idea we we give you the biography of a storm we call vera and we give them names because it's so much easier to kind of quantify them and and have them uh recognizable um and in that one for example uh it lasted almost exactly a year one year and one day and over the course of that its lifetime it uh it killed hundreds of dolphins in um in in in brazil uh haj pilgrims uh were um uh died over a thousand haj pilgrims in in saudi arabia died uh students were overcome um in classes in the philippines um uh you know these things occur in the winter uh spring arrived weeks and weeks early in poland as a result of it um there are any number of consequences of this that we are only just now starting to explore um uh in our research in our stories which will come later on we mentioned this but part of this
[00:19:13] Speaker 1: also is as we understand it to change how people talk about heat waves and climate change how we understand them what is the reaction from members of the scientific community and the public do you
[00:19:24] Speaker 9: think it is starting to change the conversation well i mean these are early days for sure but um you know uh it was interesting when we would introduce the idea during my reporting i talked to scientists you know biologists whatever they might be and oftentimes you would describe what their experience with heat and dealing with it in in their own areas of research and i would say and we're calling them heat storms and a number of them it just clicked and they said yeah that's exactly what we're talking about these are storms these are different and they would start using the term uh instead of heat waves under certain circumstances now um that of course is not a scientific poll um but i'm that's my experience when talking to people who make their living studying heat and and um uh and and and and the weather uh and temperatures and also those who study the effect of heat and the weather upon different organisms and and uh systems to the skeptics out there who maybe aren't
[00:20:29] Speaker 3: looking at the research the same way you are what's like maybe one major point you could make what's
[00:20:35] Speaker 9: one thing you could point them to to talk about how severe this is so in the 1960s uh at any one you know uh you would not have seen a period of time more than a few months where there was a heat storm active on this place on the on the surface of the planet a few months they would come ago they were like popcorn if you're watching them on a map since july 6 of 2008 um enough time for a person to grow up and register to vote for the november election there has been not one single day without a heat storm on the surface of the planet at any given time and to me that is remarkable especially if you go back and you
[00:21:19] Speaker 3: look at the historical baseline maurice tam and we appreciate you joining us some important reporting thank you so much and if you want to learn more and track these heat storms in real time you can go to
[00:21:31] Speaker 1: reuters.com let's now get a look at what's making news around the world including pope leo returning to saint peter's square for the first time since undergoing lung cancer surgery last week nbc news international
[00:21:41] Speaker 3: correspondent claudia lavaga joins us now to take us around the world in 60 seconds claudio good morning
[00:21:48] Speaker 10: joe savannah good morning well that's right earlier today pope leo presided over his first general audience since he was discharged from hospital on saturday following that lung cancer surgery the pope even toured the square standing on the pope mobile waving at the faithful and blessing babies despite the rainy day he thanked everyone for their prayers but no word yet on what kind of therapy he will need following the surgery and whether it will impact the upcoming demanding 12-day visit to south america let's go to france now where french authorities said there will be massive police presence presence at the new protests planned this saturday in order to avoid a repeat of what happened last weekend when demonstrators again against poor conditions of schools the high cost of living and the rising cost of fuel turned into violent rioting stores were looted and destroyed road barricades were set alight and public buildings were stormed that in some cases burned down after protests got out of control and let's end this tour of the world back here in italy in pompeii where an ancient house believed believed to be the grandest residence in the archaeological site is being restored to its former glory the house of marcus fabius rufus rufus was modeled after rome's imperial palaces and it features four floors amid a maze of corridors and beautiful staircases the cost of the restoration around 1.6 million dollars is entirely covered by a private sponsor now the house is expected to be open to guided tours by christmas well the perfect present for history lovers guys it is incredible when you go
[00:23:28] Speaker 3: there did you see the meticulous work still going on there day after day all these years later yeah
[00:23:35] Speaker 1: thanks claudio well prince harry has opened up in a new interview with gq magazine about his fractured relationship with his father king charles and his brother prince william and said he hopes for reconciliation the duke of sex six said he wants to put the past behind him but one comment about the family rift has raised some eyebrows listen to this
[00:23:55] Speaker 11: well some people don't want it to work out i want it to work out you do of course i do that comment
[00:24:00] Speaker 3: sparked speculation that harry was taking a swipe at prince william the future king but his spokesperson insists it was not directed at william or any other member of the royal family the interview came nearly two months after harry and megan moved back to britain a move that he said was partly driven
[00:24:17] Speaker 1: by the desire to be closer to his family joining us now is nbc news royal contributor emily nash emily good morning thanks for being here so harry also talks in this about his father's cancer saying that the king is getting better and also just pointing out that after losing his mother so young he he's he really fears losing another parent he opens up about that how much urgency do we think the king's illness has brought to this effort to repair the relationship well i'd say a fair amount savannah and i
[00:24:46] Speaker 12: think with any family cancer does focus the mind there's no guarantees in life and harry's very aware of that he knows his father has been unwell and of course that's part of his thinking moving back to the uk will technically allow him to see him more although he hasn't met up with him yet since his
[00:25:02] Speaker 3: return to the uk after everything harry revealed in that book a few years ago including that physical altercation plus the netflix series what do you think it would take for the two brothers to actually
[00:25:15] Speaker 12: reconcile well they haven't spoken for four years now joe and i think it's really important that harry probably acknowledges that he's hurt people with the things that he has done and said he's talking about wanting to draw a line under the last six years um he's clearly ready to move on but i think there needs to be some acknowledgement um that not everyone is going to have moved on yet uh there are things that need to discuss and that needs to be done behind closed doors every time he makes a statement like this publicly it brings it all back to the fore and the family needs to know they can
[00:25:47] Speaker 1: trust him harry also opens up about one of his biggest regrets this involves his mother princess diana and their final phone call before her death listen to this one of my biggest regrets is that last phone
[00:26:00] Speaker 11: call i had with her um if i'd known it was the last call with her how different that conversation would be and i'm the one that has to have to live with that and the fact that as a 12 year old kid all i
[00:26:12] Speaker 1: wanted to do was go off and run and play with my cousins what stood out to you about maybe like how open
[00:26:19] Speaker 12: he was in this interview what else i mean it's incredibly moving isn't it and he has talked about this as has william actually this final call in the past they talked about it around dana's 20th anniversary but just the fact that it's a decade on nearly it still has such long-reaching consequences for them both such an impact on their lives and i think this is where they both have real power to help other people by opening up about their own grief they have this incredible platform and you know harry hasn't shied away from sharing his emotions on this i think you know that's something he can
[00:26:51] Speaker 3: definitely do to help others emily we just saw harry and megan back in the uk greeting those crowds visiting charities kind of looked like a traditional royal engagement but of course they're not working royals the palace put out a statement not that long ago reiterating that point so how is the palace
[00:27:07] Speaker 12: viewing these appearances well officially they're saying absolutely nothing you know no one wants to be drawn into any kind of tit-for-tat argument on this but i think i imagine privately there's a lot of frustration because every time they do something like this it distracts from the good work that the royal family are doing officially on behalf of the nation i mean yesterday's interview landed as the king was hosting the sultan of amman and a major diplomatic moment at windsor castle and so it's very difficult for them to choreograph these major moments when they don't know when the next interview or engagement or outing is going to land and it does cause confusion in the public's eye emily this video
[00:27:47] Speaker 1: this interview with gq was was shot in new york before they were there in the uk do you in any way see this as sort of a um a move by the prince intentionally to kind of like send a message to his father or his brother and do you think he hopes for a reply to these particular comments
[00:28:07] Speaker 12: well i think you know he's mentioned it many times before he's talked about this desire for reconciliation we have to remember this interview is couched as an interview about the impact of grief but the fact that he kind of does shoot from the hip and he does speak so openly is almost to his detriment as far as the family are concerned i think because these are the kind of conversations he should be having with them directly rather than airing it in public that's the only way i think he's
[00:28:31] Speaker 1: going to be able to re-establish trust all right emily nash thanks so much for joining us appreciate it coming up an emotional announcement from christina applegate the emmy-winning actor is saying she is
[00:28:41] Speaker 3: back at square one after learning she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis and still dealing with debilitating symptoms our friend dr akshay sayal joined us here in studio how this could happen and why may not be as uncommon as you think morning news now we'll be right back
[00:29:04] Speaker 1: we are back now with new details about actor christina applegate's shocking multiple sclerosis misdiagnosis applegate who made the announcement on her podcast has been open about her journey with ms over the years she's called it unpredictable and debilitating and now she says she feels like she is back at square one nbc news correspondent emily akeda has more christina applegate
[00:29:31] Speaker 13: emmy-winning actor christina applegate who has become one of the most famous advocates for living with multiple sclerosis revealing a shocking health update from her doctor she came into my room and she said um congratulations you don't have ms applegate explaining on her ms focused podcast with fellow actor jamie lynn sigler that after recent testing utilizing new technology she learned she was actually misdiagnosed
[00:29:59] Speaker 14: five years ago it's very unnerving and it's really confusing for me she's not alone a 2019 study at ms
[00:30:08] Speaker 13: specialty clinics found nearly one in five patients were misdiagnosed with the progressive disease of the central nervous system what's complicated about diagnosing ms there is no single diagnostic test to say yes
[00:30:22] Speaker 15: you have ms no you don't and so what the clinician needs to do is really listen to the patient think about that history perform a neurological examination obtain mri imaging i'm here apple gates deteriorating
[00:30:37] Speaker 13: health has forced her to step away from her decades-long acting career receiving a standing ovation at the 2024 four emmy awards the 54 year old along with her doctors now returning to a search for answers apple gate says she needed time to process and is still in a state of shock since her misdiagnosis but she says that she along with her team of doctors plans to start the investigative process soon looking into what the actual cause of her symptoms is back to you all right emily thank you all for more let's
[00:31:13] Speaker 1: bring in nbc news medical contributor dr akshay sile he's here on set with us um good morning dr sile so emily just mentioned there one in five here misdiagnosed when it comes to ms how does that compare with
[00:31:24] Speaker 16: other conditions so i think what you heard in that piece is is just so so worth bringing up again and that's that you know there's no single definitive test for this so you know when you think about things like like diabetes for example or high cholesterol where you can kind of do a blood test and get a good sense of do they have this with ms you're really using a combination of brain scans using a combination potentially spinal tap you know blood tests to rule out other things the patient's symptoms and you know all of these things combined then involve a doctor sort of using a criteria making a call do i think the patient has has ms and sometimes they get the call wrong and sometimes you know it's not always clear what's going on and you know you heard in that in that piece nearly one in five cases of ms can be a potential misdiagnosis so you know i think a lot of people watching who might have ms or know somebody who has ms are thinking you know do i need to get a second opinion right i would say you know only if you're not responding to treatment or if the case is less clear if your symptoms are on a classic case as your doctor says it may be worth talking to another specialist the applicant mentioned
[00:32:20] Speaker 3: how she got a new set of tests do we know much about that and how the new tests might have been
[00:32:25] Speaker 16: different from any old tests she received so technology in medicine is always evolving and as such you know the diagnostic criteria for for diseases tends to update as better diagnostics get available and so you know the it's something called the mcdonald criteria and i was actually on the phone with an ms specialist yesterday asking him about this and what he said was you know as as the mri scans get better right as the technology gets better at pinpointing subtle changes in the brain as our blood tests get better as our tests for the spinal tap get better we we update the criteria and i think you know some of those new tests that she mentioned may have just not been available several years ago when she was diagnosed but as her doctors re-ran those tests maybe she wasn't responding to treatment for example um they started to second guess for diagnosis so what now for christina or for anybody in this position so you know it's it's tough right when you spend so much time thinking you have something and then all of a sudden somebody tells you you don't it's it's a big change and credit to her for going public with this i don't think a lot of people would have done that um you know what happens now you know as somebody not privy to her medical case what typically would happen is you go back to the drawing board and you look at you know what are her symptoms and sort of what else could be causing them and you know with ms there's a lot of mimics right it could be a whole host of other sort of demyelinating neurologic diseases it could be infections it could be vitamin deficiencies it's a whole host of what we call ms mimics i think the question people are asking is did we lose a bunch of time right by not treating her for for something else really impossible to know until we find out what
[00:33:48] Speaker 3: is causing this all right dr say i'll stick with us because we've got some more health headlines for you now with your weekly medical checkup this week the silent risk that's associated with ultra
[00:33:57] Speaker 1: processed foods we're also going to talk through new research into what type of exercise will help you feel your best during menopause and also why girls are now vaping at higher rates than boys
[00:34:08] Speaker 3: let's get right into it here with dr say all the first study takes a look at the link between ultra processed food and silent stroke so first of all tell us what silent stroke is and then what the
[00:34:17] Speaker 16: connection is so so a stroke for those who don't know is caused by a problem of blood flow to the brain you can you can get brain damage when blood gets blocked if the brain's not getting oxygen and sometimes you have symptoms right i think people have heard about you get numbness or tingling on one side your face might droop and sometimes you don't have symptoms and sometimes you know we do a brain scan on somebody and we see that oh you know you may have had a stroke in the past even though you didn't have any symptoms here's how we should you know change that going forward and really what this study found was they looked at a bunch of brain scans and they look for two things right evidence of a silent stroke or evidence of what we call white matter changes or changes that could signal other sorts of you know blood vessel changes in the brain and they found that those who ate a lot of ultra processed foods you know more than 10 servings a week were more likely to see those those brain changes this is not a cause and effect this is not saying you know if you eat a bunch of oreos and twinkies it's going to necessarily cause these changes it's more so just an association and i think you know before people sort of go cleaning out their pantries just know that there's a difference between like you know greek yogurt for example which may be considered processed compared to you know processed cookies and crackers and those sorts of things and so i think you know doctor's orders just just know the signs of a stroke if you start to get any sort of changes on one side of the body and make those substantial changes cut out those ultra processed foods as much as you can my favorite tip guys i've said this on the show a million times stick to the outer ends of the grocery store i do like when you
[00:35:41] Speaker 1: say that it's a good reminder um okay let's talk about this um this new information about vaping i mean we've been talking for years about trying uh to really cut down on the number of young people who are vaping and now this new information is showing that girls are vaping at this higher rate than boys in
[00:35:55] Speaker 16: their teenage years really surprising actually when you look at it this this change you know started to take off in about 2021 researchers looked at sort of the last decade and from 2014 to 2024 you know what is going on with our kids and e-cigarettes use and you know really what they found is adolescent girls you know ages 15 to 17 are using vaping at the most amount here and you can see almost eight percent of girls age 15 to 17 compared to five percent of boys and this is a shift for whatever reason you know in 2021 there tended to be a shift from from you know boys using these products more to girls we don't know why right it could be something to do with marketing it could be something to do with peer pressure you know nicotine can be used as an appetite suppressant um and also boys may be turning two pouches right the the zin pouches and other pouches of the like they may be using those we just don't know what's exactly causing girls to to use it more um so doctor's orders guys don't forget about young girls when we were having these conversations i think a lot of us tend to be biased towards having these towards men i mean just know the risks right the risks of using nicotine as you're younger the brain is still developing until you're mid-20s so it can be really really crucial to avoid nicotine at
[00:37:01] Speaker 3: least until then let's get to some breaking news here exercise is good for you um we talk about that often but we're learning certain exercises might be better for managing menopause boosting your mood boosting your quality of life what are we talking about yes so menopause is really you know changes in
[00:37:17] Speaker 16: of women's sort of hormone levels and reproductive cycle and we sort of start to see this around 45 to 55 and and you know a lot of people know that the symptoms associated with it you know can be things like hot flashes or or night sweats or mood changes i mean and you know what we've been talking about for a while is like how do we help women navigate this right whether it's hormone replacement therapy or other sorts of you know exercise for example that can they can help boost some of these symptoms that they have i mean really what this study found was two different kinds of exercises guys aerobic based things like you know zumba or tai chi and mind body based activities more sort of like yoga and that that kind of thing um you know had different benefits for for patients in menopause it looked at about a thousand women so really i think the key takeaway is make sure you're using a little bit of both make sure you are getting the blood flowing you are going to things like zumba or pilates or walking and you're also doing some mindfulness based activities as well because really a big boost on both ends all right
[00:38:14] Speaker 3: good advice here dr sal good to have you with us thank you so much anytime well coming up tis the
[00:38:18] Speaker 1: season to make those holiday plans this year we've been telling you you may be paying a lot more than
[00:38:24] Speaker 3: usual when we come back we're going to check in with a travel expert for a look at what's driving prices up and some simple strategies to maybe save some cash don't take off morning news now we'll be right back welcome back if you are already counting down the days until you see family or friends for the holidays just know it could actually cost you a lot more to get there this year we've already seen airfares rise throughout the year in part because the war with iran has sent global oil prices soaring that trend is expected to roll on through the holidays according to booking at pop our domestic
[00:39:00] Speaker 1: flights for thanksgiving are about 31 percent higher than last year meanwhile you can expect to pay an average 23 percent more if you are planning to play for christmas or new year's let's bring in managing
[00:39:10] Speaker 3: editor at the point sky clint henderson for some expert advice on maybe how to save during the busy travel season if possible clint could have you with us about seven weeks to go until uh thanks we'll wait see for seven weeks out not till thanksgiving but um right no wait yeah are we anyway well anyway sorry we're like i think yeah we don't know the calendar apparently here but when is the best time to book flights for the holidays i'm guessing now right yeah look there's a lot going on in the
[00:39:39] Speaker 17: world so you can be forgiven but yeah book as soon as possible because you know you show those price increases that's what matches what the points guy found uh airfare up between 20 and 30 for the holidays that's been true though all year so usually our advice at the points guys you can wait till around halloween uh to book your holiday trips this year we're saying book as soon as possible because i do expect you know we showed that the thanksgiving airfare is up about 21 percent or 31 but i do expect christmas airfares to reach that level as well so go ahead and lock in those prices now remember if the price drops between now and when you book and when you actually travel you can get a trip credit for the price difference so long as you didn't book basic economy so you know set those google alerts monitor flights there's even some ai tools that will monitor your flights for you and get you an automatic refund so i've saved about a thousand dollars uh that way this year so look into all that stuff we've got articles on
[00:40:34] Speaker 1: all that stuff at the point sky you also are good by the way for those keeping track five weeks of thanksgiving about trying to do math here you also have always great tips on like which days you should fly like there are the most popular days those are going to be the most expensive if you offset that by a day or two it can be cheaper when should we do that when should we fly yeah so flexibility is really
[00:40:55] Speaker 17: key especially around the big holidays so if you fly on the holiday itself so if you fly on thanksgiving day you're going to save up to hundreds of dollars uh that's also true of christmas eve and christmas day if you can travel on black friday the day after thanksgiving a lot of people want to stay home that day but if you can travel that day you're going to save some money not as cheap as flying on the holiday but if you can time your flights you can save hundreds of dollars also that overnight flight or that early morning flight is generally going to be cheaper the days you do not want to travel are the sunday after the holiday so that's going to be when it's most popular and that's when prices are really high this year so skip that day if you can take an extra day off you know extend your work week at home whatever you can do to avoid traveling on that day when everyone else wants to too
[00:41:43] Speaker 3: you are with the points guy so we should ask you a points question some people maybe want to use their points to buy tickets um which is hard because it's so many points off to what are some important tips to keep in mind to get the most value from them look you know we used to worry about how many
[00:41:59] Speaker 17: cents per point you were getting for your don't worry about that stuff book when you can earn them and burn them is my motto so don't stockpile points they lose value over time so if you find a great points flight to get home for the holidays use them now you can always get another credit card if you need to build up those balances again but those points get less and less valuable every single year so there's no point in really holding on to them unless you're close to retirement or something crazy all right give
[00:42:27] Speaker 1: us any other big tips we keep in mind for saving on travel during this peak season look i'm going to tell
[00:42:33] Speaker 17: you something you're not going to want to hear i say you should book your spring break travel now i do think with the price of oil and jet fuel going up the airlines have said over and over again they're going to continue to raise prices they've raised baggage fees i say go ahead book spring break right now also be as flexible as humanly possible you know i mentioned the days uh around the holidays to book but that includes like being flexible with your destination and your dates it'll help you a lot and then of course uh use those credit cards uh and and with trip insurance can you book thanksgiving next year no it's too early too early for next year but i do expect the airlines are saying look higher airfare is here to stay consumers are willing to pay it so i don't think they're going to lower prices even if the cost of jet fuel drops substantially all right glenn henderson good to have you with us
[00:43:22] Speaker 1: those things so much yeah for real all right coming up the nba is back and in new york so are the
[00:43:28] Speaker 3: champions yeah we come back we're gonna take you to addison square garden where the knicks got a celebration fit for a king don't bounce morning news now i'll be right back
[00:43:42] Speaker 1: finally this hour go new york go new york go here in the city knicks fans are still basking in the glory
[00:43:48] Speaker 3: of that nba championship now last night the knicks unit did fall to the philadelphia 76ers 106 to 100 in their home opener but that didn't stop the party at msg where fans clad in orange and blue finally got to see a new championship banner hoisted high finding a permanent home in the rafters reporter chris jose from nbc new york has more on a perfect fall night in the greatest city in the world new yorkers on the
[00:44:12] Speaker 18: streets of manhattan united in orange and blue there's even a replica rings just the next winning brings the city together from hell's kitchen to msg nicks fans celebrating a historic opening night for lebron to see us raise that banner after we've been begging him for all this time we don't need him no more he knows who the real king is the banner ceremony in the world's most famous arena solidifying the knicks on the mount rushmore of nba champions emotions at an all-time high in person
[00:44:43] Speaker 5: and at watch parties emotional i mean we came so far to get to where we are now in midtown new york is
[00:44:50] Speaker 18: the canvas and jalen brunson is the centerpiece it's all about basketball i wanted to use the captain and his iconic three for paul nassar the work is poetry in motion the worlds collide a lot more than you think nassar and other artists at the gallery of nomad showing their love for the reigning champs the best way they know how for us to not be part of it and amplify it it would be a sin basketball's art and the new york knicks are the inspiration from the gallery to the sidewalk viewing party at
[00:45:22] Speaker 16: healthy market 45 and anything that could bring us together i think we need to celebrate the nicks
[00:45:27] Speaker 18: uniting a city in the biggest opening night in team history it's tough to win an nba but we're going
[00:45:33] Speaker 1: to do it though two pete is coming all right thanks to chris is a for that report well in other basketball news game three of the wnba final set to tip off tonight the atlanta dream will host the golden state valkyries with that series now tied at one game a lot of people think that one might go seven we'll have to
[00:45:49] Speaker 3: see that does it for this hour of morning news now stay with us so the news continues right now good morning i'm savannah sellers i'm joe fryer right now on morning news now race to the finish president trump rallying republicans in battleground north carolina with less than two weeks to go until election day but in ohio a viral new attack ad featuring one candidate's estranged mother now stealing the spotlight in the bitter race for governor that campaign controversy coming up also this morning a bombshell report from the wall street journal revealing elon musk ordered that slowdown of the satellite service starlink the move effectively kneecapping some of ukraine's military capabilities and its war against russia now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle demanding answers more on that in a moment plus we're going to take you behind the real estate sales slump markets once red hot now put on ice could potential home buyers be in for even more wallet woes come 2027 and hooked later in the hour our team here at nbc news diving into the potential trouble of laptops and tablets in the classroom why youtube is now proving to be an addictive mainstay in schools across america how parents can help their kids cut back on all that screen time we all know just how addictive youtube can be you can watch hours and hours of content there and a real deep dive about how it impacts school exactly exactly all right let's begin this hour with the final push to the midterms less than two weeks until election day president trump is ramping up his efforts to rally support for republican
[00:47:38] Speaker 1: candidates across the country overnight he traveled to north carolina where democrats see an opportunity to flip a republican-held senate seat but the president insists his rallies will help get republicans across the finish line in november nbc news senior white house correspondent gabe gutierrez is with
[00:47:55] Speaker 19: us with the latest hey gabe good morning good morning president trump heading to south carolina today a state he last won by 17 points and he's also fresh off that rally in north carolina as you mentioned that's a state he also won three times but where republicans are struggling to prevent big losses while in ohio a race for governor is turning ugly with that new attack ad drawing backlash overnight president trump ramping up his midterm campaign blitz this time in battleground north carolina i'm working like a dog rallying for republican senate candidate michael watley who's trailing the state's former governor democrat roy cooper in recent polls with control of the senate on the line democrats see north carolina is one of their strongest opportunities to flip a republican-held seat while the president insists his rallies are helping the party he also seems to be preparing for republican losses
[00:48:49] Speaker 2: the president always loses for whatever reason the midterms whoever it is republican democrat
[00:48:56] Speaker 19: political ad spending during this midterm campaign has already topped 10 billion dollars a record and now one of those ads shaking up one key race and creating headlines nationwide the campaign for vivek ramaswamy the republican candidate for governor in ohio now taking responsibility for a new attack at featuring the estranged mother of his democratic opponent amy acton it's not easy for a
[00:49:20] Speaker 20: mother to say this but amy has a serious problem donna arthur claiming that acton hasn't been truthful about her background she's lied her entire life my daughter needs help and she can't help you if she needs help
[00:49:35] Speaker 19: herself acton has shared details of her troubled childhood saying she has not spoken to arthur in almost 50 years and saying her mother stayed married to a man who sexually abused acton at the age of 12 for
[00:49:49] Speaker 1: severe abuse and neglect and sexual abuse my brother and i were removed acton now condemning ramaswamy
[00:49:55] Speaker 19: and i would never attack his family her brother also hitting back in a video from her campaign
[00:50:00] Speaker 21: i received a lot of abuse but amy always got the worst of it shame on vivek the controversy growing around the now
[00:50:08] Speaker 19: viral ad ramaswamy interrupted by a heckler at a town hall yesterday but ramaswamy's campaign is doubling down saying it will spend four million dollars to air the ad statewide meanwhile president trump says his political operation plans to spend more than 400 million dollars to boost republican candidates ahead of the midterms and then more than 300 million has already
[00:50:34] Speaker 3: been deployed joe and savannah all right gabe thank you very much it is the perfect time for a deeper dive into some of those early voting numbers and key voting groups so for that let's bring in nbc news chief
[00:50:45] Speaker 22: data analyst steve kornacki hey steve hey there so yeah take a look the voting has been underway now for a little bit and what it's added up to how about this 13 million people a little bit more have already voted for the midterm elections here now we expect and all is said and done somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 million ballots are going to be cast in this thing give or take obviously we won't know till election day but obviously that also speaks to first of all that there is considerable energy out there second of all the reality as we look at these campaigns in the final weeks of the campaign they are communicating these candidates to a shrinking universe with more and more people casting ballots and and sort of being done with it there's fewer and fewer voters in the pool about potentially for these campaigns to reach to change their minds to connect with so that becomes a new variable here in terms of what this is looking to i know there's a lot out there it's an advantage for the democrats here or maybe the republicans looking better there the danger with early voting of course is if one party if it looks like one party is disproportionately turning out early maybe it just means that that party is using up all of its votes early you won't see it on election day and if one party seems like a it's lagging a bit early maybe that's just made up for with a surge on election day we've seen things like that happen before so it's tough to read into exactly what it means other than to say there is a lot of energy out there uh so far based on that something else we've been looking at too here just in terms of is the hispanic vote here um something that was a huge variable in donald trump's return to the white house in 2024 this is how trump did with hispanic voters he lost them by three to kamala harris now some context here for a republican that's as good as it's ever been with the hispanic vote trump got the best numbers the republican presidential candidates ever gotten basically almost fighting harris to a draw right there that's the context for what we're seeing among hispanic voters right now this from our recent nbc news poll um which party do you want to see control congress among hispanics that's a 24 point advantage now for democrats so trump only lost hispanics by three key ingredient is returned to the white house now uh democrats with a 24 point advantage there among hispanics so if that hispanic support is receding for republicans is obviously statewide in texas key house districts in texas in florida some other places too here where republicans are really counting on part of sort of the math for a republican victory it would be to get something closer to how trump did in 2024 with hispanic voters than to get a number like this so that's a danger sign there for republicans as well just looking at the hispanic vote all right steve thank
[00:53:22] Speaker 1: you so much well while most of the focus for next month's midterms has been on the fight to control congress there are also some important battles to watch when it comes to who should oversee the
[00:53:32] Speaker 3: elections k-swing states arizona georgia michigan and nevada are all holding secretary of state elections with the results likely to be highly consequential for the 2028 presidential election
[00:53:44] Speaker 1: nbc news senior reporter jane tim joins us to talk more about this hey jane good morning so first just remind us why how we got here that secretary of state races have become more and more important in
[00:53:54] Speaker 23: these past few years yeah secretary of state races used to be sort of a sleepy down ballot maybe uh you know stepping stone to a higher office and state government um kind of election but after 2020 when president trump started trying to overturn the results of a presidential election leaning on secretaries of state like georgia secretary brad raffensperger asking him to try and help him overturn the election suddenly these races got huge spotlight in 2022 like tens of millions of dollars were spent people were so focused on them because in elections that are really narrowly divided uh you know the administration of elections can uh affect them can at least some people believe can really shape the outcome of them
[00:54:41] Speaker 3: so with that in mind let's let's focus on these four swing states here why are they especially important
[00:54:48] Speaker 23: yeah nevada arizona georgia michigan these are the states that are the biggest battlegrounds that are going to have really influential uh results in that 2028 presidential election they're also really close races uh states in general very purple states where you have back and forth so you have four very competitive races with candidates that are uh focused on the idea of whether or not they are standing up to the president from the democrats or trying to increase election integrity that's usually the republican stance um and everywhere in between on those but jane let's get into some details here on each of these
[00:55:25] Speaker 1: elections let's start in arizona and nevada tell us about the candidates yeah arizona and nevada have
[00:55:30] Speaker 23: some really interesting races you have two secretary incumbent secretaries who have made a name for themselves defending democracy cisco aguilar in nevada and adrian fontes in arizona these are they're actually distant cousins fun fact about them but they have made a career uh focusing on making sure that the elections are fairly and accurately counted and they're both taking on challengers who have made a name for themselves advancing election conspiracy theories so jim marchin in nevada and alex collidan in arizona have both were both fundamentally involved in those 2020 challenges trying to overturn those results they have both um been major players in these sort of election denialism movement let's also talk about
[00:56:16] Speaker 3: those other two states we've mentioned georgia and michigan we know this time around they're home to big senate races but also secretaries of state how do the candidates in those states differ yeah michigan
[00:56:27] Speaker 23: and georgian have a little bit more mainstream republicans anthony forlini macomb county recorder in michigan running against garland gilchrist who's the former lieutenant governor or the current lieutenant governor um and then you have tim fleming a former brian kemp aide um running in georgia against um judge penny reynolds brett penny brown reynolds um who is a family court judge and a tv judge as well as a former biden appointee um these are more mainstream republicans and the democrats are working to cast them as people who would uh kowtow to the president to his administration work too closely with them or just make it simply too hard to vote uh and these are the sort of battle lines that
[00:57:12] Speaker 1: have been drawn in these races jane something interesting here though is despite all this uh spending on these races on secretary of state races is actually down this year for both parties do we
[00:57:23] Speaker 23: know why that is yeah it was really interesting to me in 2022 democrats spent something like 71 million dollars this year democrats have spent and these are all groups all campaigns something like 15 million dollars definitely lower i think the top of the ticket is taking most of the attention and the money democrats are very keen on retaking control of congress if possible but i also think that we are further away from the 2020 election and there's less of a focus on that and less of a sort of panic about whether or not american democracy will persist all right jane tim thanks so much new report from
[00:58:00] Speaker 3: the wall street journal is suggesting it was elon musk who ordered the slowdown of critical satellite services in ukraine last week ukraine's leaders said the move crippled his country's defensive capabilities against russia nbc news senior washington correspondent news now anchor hallie jackson has
[00:58:17] Speaker 7: more new fallout this morning over that internet slowdown testing the u.s's relationship with ukraine a new report saying tech billionaire and trump ally elon musk personally ordered a starlink slowdown there according to the wall street journal citing u.s officials and people familiar with the matter ukraine's president has said its soldiers rely on the military grade version of the service for its own defenses and that the slowdown risked lives of course people will die the journal now reporting musk and president trump discussed the satellite disruption soon after ukraine's president publicly blamed the outage on the u.s some political decision has been made
[00:58:57] Speaker 24: to slow down to slow down support for us but the journal says it was musk who made the decision to cap
[00:59:04] Speaker 7: the speeds at which ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite-based network nbc news has not independently verified the wall street journal's reporting overnight secretary of state marco rubio adamant
[00:59:16] Speaker 19: the white house was not responsible we cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or not make
[00:59:22] Speaker 7: lawmakers including some republicans pushing for an investigation into the slowdown this is a very
[00:59:28] Speaker 18: very serious matter it cannot be glossed over we cannot just move past this musk has previously
[00:59:34] Speaker 7: denied any involvement in the temporary outage posting online last week any limits on speed or usage are decided by the u.s military and ultimately potus at a rally in north carolina overnight the president praising musk's system for its use there after hurricane helene in 2024 you know who is great elon because he had starlink the president telling reporters this week he's looking into who ordered the slowdown even as he's frequently voiced frustration with ukraine's leader zelinski has to
[01:00:05] Speaker 3: want to settle this war thanks to hallie jackson for that report nbc news has reached out to elon musk for
[01:00:11] Speaker 1: comment on this but has not heard back let's turn on a new developments in the cornell university alleged sexual assault case with the student behind the lawsuit saying in part she felt unsupported by the school's president following her alleged rape in 2024 the woman known as jane doe explained in her viewpoint in a letter to cornell's faculty senate last week but one professor says the university never shared that letter with faculty members calling it a possible cover-up cornell is now disputing doe's account of the president's remarks nbc news correspondent maggie vespa has the latest on this for us hi maggie
[01:00:48] Speaker 25: good morning savannah good morning yeah that student known as jane doe speaking out for the first time since her lawsuit dropped saying in that letter that the timing is no accident she writes that she knows cornell's faculty senate is considering a no confidence vote in the school's administration and she wants them to hear about another chapter in her story this morning jane doe in her own words saying she felt unsupported and disbelieved by cornell university president michael kotlikoff shortly after her alleged 2024 assault at the chi-fi fraternity house in a letter sent last week to the school's faculty senate doe describing a second-hand account of a conversation between kotlikoff and her then sorority president she writes kotlikoff's initial response was along the lines of why did she wait so long to report it doe who went to campus police roughly three weeks after the alleged assault says the comment diminished her confidence in the administration's ability to approach her experience with the understanding sensitivity and fairness she had hoped for and expected cornell calling the letter's account incorrect telling nbc news the president said why did it take so long for the assault to be reported referring to bystanders amid ongoing social media activity about the incident adding he was not questioning jane doe's reporting the president saying this last week one day after
[01:02:12] Speaker 26: the letter was sent i want to apologize again to jane doe i am sorry for all of the ways that you were
[01:02:20] Speaker 25: saying this is the case that you were saying this is the case that you were saying this is the case of the investigation into seven Kifi members, at least four of whom have publicly denied they assaulted Doe. Cornell's also banned frat parties for the school year while commissioning an independent investigation into its handling of the case. Meanwhile, some faculty members fuming over Doe's letter. This feels like a cover-up to me. Faculty Senator Professor Paul Ortiz says Cornell never sent members the letter, noting it was dated last week on the very day members were set to discuss a no confidence resolution in the administration. Cornell not responding to that claim. I think it's
[01:03:00] Speaker 27: an unfortunate, very defensive response by Cornell University. We need to be transparent. We need to
[01:03:07] Speaker 25: be honest. So meanwhile, former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, who's leading that independent investigation into Cornell, vowing in a new statement to, quote, follow the facts wherever they lead with unwavering candor and principled judgment. No word, by the way, on when we can expect the results of that inquiry. Savannah. All right, Maggie, thank you very much. Turn out of flood alerts in the
[01:03:30] Speaker 8: southwest triggered by severe storms. Angie Lassman is back with us with the latest. Hi, Angie. Good morning. Hi, guys. Good morning. We've got a pretty active pattern setting up across parts of the southwest. This is already kind of in action right now. You can see plenty of moisture kind of draped across much of the southwest, and we've got more of that on the way. We've got this area of low pressure. It's pretty early in the season for it to be like working its way down the coast, but that's what we're going to get right now. And you can see the flood watches centered across parts of the four corners as well as parts of Southern California. Those are the two main spots that we're going to see that increase of moisture in the short term. We've got really warm waters. We've got plenty of moisture to tap into, so not going to be surprised when we see kind of repeated rounds of heavy rain across this region in the coming days. Through the day today, it becomes heavy across parts of California. You can see the southwest included in that as well, and we will ramp up that flood risk as we get into the evening hours. And fairly rare kind of sight here. You can see we've got an enhanced risk across parts of Arizona. The last time we've seen that in place is way back in 2020. This is not a common situation for folks to see this kind of level of severe weather risk across this region. So we are going to watch for the hail concern for specifically Arizona. It could be very large, two plus inches in diameter. We've got a couple of tornadoes possible in this area, as well as some kind of stronger thunderstorms that could whip up some strong winds and leave us with a bit of damage. Looking ahead to tomorrow, some of those downpours are now spread across parts of the Rockies, and we're still dealing with that four-corner region with the flood risk. That's not going anywhere, at least for the next two days. And we'll, on top of that, have the potential for, once again, some of these stronger storms to ramp up across parts of New Mexico and Arizona. The wind damage, the tornadoes, the hail, all going to be on the table. We've got some additional rain, though, between now and basically Friday across parts of the Rockies, too. You can see localized mounts up to three inches, hence the reason that we are concerned about flooding. Notice that as we go through the day today, those gusty winds on the east coast will still be there, and the coastal flood risk. The impacts from this nor'easter are minor because it's sitting so far offshore, more than 300 miles, but they're not zero. We've still got a little bit of rain possible today in parts of southern Massachusetts, and we've still got the chance for some of that coastal flooding and those breezy conditions at the beaches. 30-plus mile-per-hour winds for Ocean City, Seaside Park, Nantucket, even higher than that. Those wind gusts, of course, also leaving us with some inundation along the coast. We've got some of that water kind of pushing inland. So anywhere from a foot to three feet, especially around high tide time, up and down parts of the east coast, we've got Norfolk, Ocean Pines, Atlantic City, all dealing with those coastal flood alerts. And guys, those are going to stick around through the day today, but we're going to see that system start to move way farther away as we get
[01:06:18] Speaker 1: into tomorrow. So good news there. Push it out. Sayonara, get it out. We don't want it. Thanks, Angie. Well, this morning we are hearing a stunning and emotional health update from Christina Applegate. For the last five years, the Emmy-winning actor believed she had multiple sclerosis. Now she says her doctor told her that she'd been misdiagnosed and is not suffering from that disease. NBC News correspondent Emily Aketa has the details. Emily, good morning. Hey there. Christina Applegate says
[01:06:45] Speaker 13: she's still in a state of shock since learning her mobility issues, tingling and pain over the last five years are not tied to multiple sclerosis. Now she's left wondering what is to blame. This morning, a shocking and emotional health update from award-winning actor and multiple sclerosis
[01:07:03] Speaker 14: advocate Christina Applegate. It's hard to say that she came into my room and she said, congratulations, you don't have MS. Congratulations. But that news from her doctor after recent testing
[01:07:19] Speaker 13: training through new technology provided no relief for the 54-year-old, calling her misdiagnosis unnerving and confusing in a tearful conversation with podcast co-host and actor Jamie Lynn Sigler, who herself
[01:07:32] Speaker 14: has MS. I had a reason as to why my day sucked every day, and now I don't have a reason.
[01:07:40] Speaker 13: A 2019 study at MS specialty clinics found nearly one in five patients were misdiagnosed with the progressive disease of the central nervous system. Applegate, already a breast cancer survivor, was first told she had MS in 2021, writing, it's been a tough road, but the road keeps going.
[01:07:59] Speaker 28: There's something I have to confess. I killed Steve Wood.
[01:08:02] Speaker 13: She filmed the final season of Netflix's hit show Dead to Me, while experiencing severe pain and difficulty walking, opening up about her condition progression to Hoda last year.
[01:08:14] Speaker 28: It would all happen so quickly. It was some tingling in my toes to five months later from my knees down, I can't feel and it hurts and it's awful and it's like a 24/7 thing now.
[01:08:26] Speaker 13: In recent years, the lifelong actor has been honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received a standing ovation at the 2024 Emmy Awards. Ever the Comedian. Thank you so much! Oh my God! You're totally shaming me with disability by standing up. It's fine. Okay. While Applegate says she is still in a state of shock, she plans to soon start the investigation into the actual cause of her symptoms. It's the same game with a different name. That's what I keep saying. And among the reactions overnight, Maria Shriver posting, this is one of the many reasons why we need more research on women's bodies and how certain diseases impact our lives. Adding, she's so grateful for Christina Applegate's bravery and sharing this so widely.
[01:09:12] Speaker 1: More to come on this hour of morning news now, including how Netflix is looking to reassure weary investors and subscribers alike after a tough earnings report that had the tech giant
[01:09:21] Speaker 3: seeing red on Wall Street. First after the break, is America in the middle of a real estate slump? We're going to dig into some new numbers that could spell bad news for potential home buyers. That is next. Welcome back. New data released Tuesday is painting a less than pretty picture
[01:09:41] Speaker 1: of the housing market. According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales, fell by a larger than expected 7.3% in September, month over month, and 11.3% year over year.
[01:09:53] Speaker 3: Here to discuss NBC News contributor, chief business editor of People Inc., Caleb Silver, less than pretty. That might be an understatement. We've got pending sales. We've talked a lot about that. But then we're also looking at numbers for single home building starts, single home building permits. Why are those numbers important? What are they telling us? That's just telling us that home
[01:10:10] Speaker 29: builder sentiment, and these are the people that are actually out there building the homes, is at a 14-year low because nobody's buying, and the cost of materials is very high. A lot of that is due to tariffs. Of course, you've got timber. You've got other factors when you're building a house. But the demand just isn't there. Houses that are on the market are sitting there for some 61 days. That's usually longer than normal. Now, September, not a great month for the real estate market. Usually, July and June are a little bit stronger. But still, this is much weaker than expected, and it tells you the impact of these really high mortgage rates. The 30-year fix right now averaging around 7.4%. That's out of reach for a lot of people. What are some of the main reasons for this big drop in activity? Yeah. Interest rates are a big part of it. And the fact that there is higher incomes across households, but nobody's ready to move. A lot of people are locked into mortgages below 4%. There's about 40% of homeowners that have no mortgage. So they're in no hurry to move right now. And then you're looking at people who are considering buying a home, the affordability, getting in for the down payment and servicing those mortgage costs, mortgage insurance, all of those factors. They're making that monthly payment well over $2,500 a month. There are people out there who
[01:11:14] Speaker 3: maybe they need to move. So they need to sell or people who are ready to buy. They've been saving up. They have that down payment. They're really interested in buying. What is your advice to those folks right
[01:11:23] Speaker 29: now who want to be part of this market, but it's just not cooperative? Yeah. Real estate is an emotional decision as much as it is a financial decision. So people might just want that security. If you can be an all cash buyer right now or find a creative way to use your mortgage or bring down those mortgage points, maybe by buying mortgage points, you might be able to get into that house that you want. If you need to sell for some reason, you want to downsize, now's a pretty good time. There are buyers out there that are willing to get into the market, but it's really at the very high end. The luxury market's doing great in the middle where that median home price is around $417,000. That is super weak right now. It's probably going to remain weak through the balance of the
[01:11:59] Speaker 3: year, especially if these rates stay high. I love how we tell people, save up for that down payment, and now we're like, save up for the whole house. The whole thing. Just buy the whole thing. Caleb Silver, thank you so much as always. Thanks, Caleb.
[01:12:11] Speaker 1: Well, now to an in-depth look at the evolution of Netflix. The streaming giant recently replaced several top creative executives and laid off more than a thousand employees. This is while we're seeing this increasing pressure from shareholders for the company and sagging viewership in the US. Let's bring in NBC news entertainment correspondent, Chloe Malas. She has more details. Hey, Chloe, good morning.
[01:12:31] Speaker 30: Hey, Savannah. Good morning. That's right. After pioneering the binge watch era and really revolutionizing the entire entertainment landscape, Netflix is facing new challenges to its business model, and they're doing everything that they can to stay on top of that streaming mountain. To a generation of viewers, Netflix has been must watch TV, the juggernaut behind hits like Stranger Things, Squid Game, and Wednesday. But this morning, the streaming giant is hoping new leadership can reassure anxious investors and reengage American viewers. On an earnings call Tuesday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos telling investors the company's position is strong, but said growth in the United States has been
[01:13:17] Speaker 31: disappointing. There's no need for a fundamental shift in the strategy. We do need better execution
[01:13:22] Speaker 30: in the US. Last week, Netflix abruptly laid off about a thousand employees, roughly six percent of its workforce, including several top creative executives. We have a responsibility to make hard trade-offs in
[01:13:35] Speaker 32: service and service of our members, our partners, our employees, our investors, and ultimately our long-term growth. And that was the simple thinking behind it. The moves come with Netflix's stock down more than
[01:13:46] Speaker 30: 25 percent in 2026, and more than 40 percent since last year, when it launched an unsuccessful bid to
[01:13:53] Speaker 33: take over Warner Brothers Discovery. Do they basically just need better movies and better TV shows, or is there something more secular happening to the way we consume entertainment? Like the rest of Hollywood,
[01:14:04] Speaker 30: Netflix is struggling to keep viewers from spending more and more time watching YouTube and TikTok.
[01:14:09] Speaker 33: Well, now every media company has a streaming service. What Netflix does isn't really special. And the thing that's really disrupting entertainment now is short-form video.
[01:14:18] Speaker 30: Netflix's top executives point to a wide range of new offerings, from podcasts to NFL games and other sports, along with a full slate of theatrical releases, including Greta Gerwig's upcoming film, Narnia, the magician's nephew. But this morning, some analysts wondering if Netflix still holds the power it once did in Hollywood. So Netflix reported reported their third quarter revenues of nearly 13 billion dollars, and while that's up 12 percent over last year, it's the company's lowest quarterly revenue percentage growth
[01:14:52] Speaker 1: in three years. Savannah Chloé, do they have a plan to bring in more viewers in the short term?
[01:14:57] Speaker 30: Well, you know what they have been doing is leaning into live sports and what they have that's coming up are some pretty big games, both on Thanksgiving and Christmas NFL games. And they're really hoping that that's going to drive viewership and really move things into a positive direction.
[01:15:13] Speaker 3: All right, Chloe Malas, thanks so much. Coming up, some of the shockwaves from the heated midterm
[01:15:18] Speaker 1: campaign blitz are being felt in the office. When we come back, why so-called political incivility can not only lower worker morale, it can also cost companies some big bucks. We'll explain next.
[01:15:37] Speaker 3: Back now, the closer look at what's making news in the world of politics this morning, starting with the Senate race in Mississippi, where Democrats are making a new push ahead of the
[01:15:44] Speaker 1: midterm. NBC News senior national political reporter John Allen joins us with more. Hey, John.
[01:15:49] Speaker 5: Hey, good morning, Dream Team, and good morning to all the folks across the country who are working the early shift today. We start today in a place that's not usually on the election season radar, Mississippi. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is pumping 1.2 million dollars into the Magnolia State for Scott Cullum, the challenger to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. That after progressives complained last week that the party committee had not put enough money into races featuring candidates of color. Cullum is black. Democrats say the money shows that the battle for power in the Senate has shifted into deeper Republican red turf. Republicans say they're confident they'll win in a state where the last Democratic senator, John Stennis, was a segregationist. From Mississippi, we go to the Middle East, which is causing a split between President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. In the Israeli elections later this week, Trump has given what he calls his complete and total endorsement to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative coalition. But Vance, who is widely expected to seek the presidency in 2028, declined to endorse Netanyahu in an interview with journalist Mark Halperin on Monday. Vance, who has campaigned for and promoted far-right candidates in other countries in the past, said he's only focused on American candidates right now. Vance's sidestep of a Netanyahu endorsement comes as an increasing number of elected Democrats are calling for the U.S. to cut off aid to Israel. "I'm not anti-endorsing him," Vance said of Netanyahu. "I'm not pro-endorsing him." Back home, Trump continues to promise that he'll deliver goodies if voters keep Republicans in control of Congress. The headline are, of course, $5,000 checks for everyone. But Trump has sometimes failed to deliver when he promises to send cash to Americans. And many of his own supporters say they don't believe him. More than that, guys, some of them said they'd be turned off by the idea. "I don't feel like your vote should be bought," voter Jamie Alvarez said at a Trump rally in Alaska. "I feel like you should vote for who you feel is going to do the best job." And guys,
[01:18:04] Speaker 3: that's why I vote for you in the morning. All right. We appreciate your endorsement, non-endorsement. I don't know what that is. All right, John, thank you so much. You can dive deeper into the 2026 midterms with NBC News polling page, early vote data, expert analysis, and more subscriber-only content. Just scan that QR code on your screen to subscribe now.
[01:18:28] Speaker 1: All right. As we've been reminded new, there are less than two weeks until the midterms. And a new report is showing the election is shaping more than just politics. It's changing how people are being
[01:18:37] Speaker 3: treated at work. 42% of people say they've either seen or experienced political incivility from colleagues. That refers to disrespect, mistreatment, or discrimination based on someone's beliefs. The data finds that bad behavior can cost a company nearly $2 billion a day. Experts say it can lower
[01:18:56] Speaker 1: morale and productivity for the whole team. Johnny C. Taylor Jr. is here to break it down further. He is the president and CEO of SHRM. It's the world's largest HR organization. And I gathered data for this report. Hey, Johnny, good morning. Good morning. It's great to see you again. Okay, let's just start with what is this? What does that mean? And what does it look like? Political
[01:19:14] Speaker 34: incivility at your job? Right. Pretty ugly, because it's one of the few areas where you cannot, where you can legally discriminate and harass someone. So think about it. You can't do it on the basis of race, sex, national origin, et cetera, because there's Title VII. There are laws that prevent it. But you can actually decide, I'm not going to hire you, literally, in the recruitment process, because you're a Democrat and I'm a Republican. I can also, at work, attack you for your political views, legally. Now, that doesn't mean the organization is going to allow it. Culturally, a different question. But that's, in the workplace, there are no laws that generally prohibit that,
[01:19:50] Speaker 3: no federal law in particular. When we look closer at your data, it finds 35% of workers said their manager ignored incidents of incivility. 44% of workers believe their managers can do more to prevent this. So what can lead, what can leaders do to prevent it, but also maybe just build a better system
[01:20:09] Speaker 34: of trust? Yeah, you know, basic math, that's 80% of managers are not carrying their weight when it comes to these issues. So number one is we have to teach people how to be civil, which shocks me, right? We're in a generation now where we're all raised differently. But now in the workplace, people say what they want when they want about what they want. So managers have to be taught themselves about how to deal with that. Secondly, managers themselves have to model that behavior. It's not enough to tell me what to do if you're in fact not doing it. And then finally, we have to take serious disciplinary action
[01:20:43] Speaker 1: against employees who don't model that behavior. A majority of workers say that they want their country to be, excuse me, their company to be politically neutral. How does that work? Can employers do that, especially
[01:20:56] Speaker 34: around an election? Well, it's a major shift for us because at some, at one point, just a decade or so ago, employees actually wanted you to take a position. They wanted their employer to be aligned with them. Now we're saying neutral. I just want you to stay out of it. And it's because I come to work to work, not to debate politics. And so that's, I think that's a positive trend that we're seeing is they finally want their employer to stay out of this stuff. You throw out that number there and that
[01:21:22] Speaker 3: talks about the impact of this, but walk us through what the impact of this type of bad behavior or incivility can actually be on a company and also just on the workers. Yeah. So the headline number
[01:21:33] Speaker 34: is $1.7 billion a day, right? Lost productivity. We can't retain people. And this is how it goes. Like walking to my office and literally someone hits me with an act of incivility or worst case, I see one of those acts. I witness it. It takes me 35 minutes on average to get back to myself, to get back to the level of productivity. Think about it. That happens to any of us, right? All for the rest of that hour. So we've lost that and literally half of what we just paid
[01:21:59] Speaker 1: for as employers. Wow. All right. Johnny C. Taylor, thank you so much. Great to have you with us. Thank you. Coming up, can an addiction to screen time start in the classroom?
[01:22:10] Speaker 3: When morning news now returns, our eye-opening analysis of YouTube in schools all across America, why some of its features are causing concerns among parents. That's up next. We are back with an alarming new analysis that shows what can go wrong when schools give students their own laptops or tablets to use in class. Now, many districts across the country have started using YouTube in classrooms to help teachers add variety to their lessons. But now some are struggling to restrict what their students can watch. Some administrators claim YouTube doesn't let them disable addictive features like auto play. So NBC News analyzed the watch histories of 11 students from 2nd to 12th grade. All right. And here's what we found that just last year,
[01:22:56] Speaker 1: some of them viewed thousands of YouTube videos during school hours and more than 95% of those videos were not educational. Well, hundreds of them contain profanity, sexually suggestive scenes, or references to drugs and alcohol. One student in Colorado, get this, watched 80 YouTube videos during a single 90-minute class. And this is all on that device issued by the school.
[01:23:20] Speaker 3: NBC News national reporter Tyler Kincaid joins us now with more on this. He was part of the NBC News team that analyzed this YouTube data. Tyler, good to have you with us. I mean, you interviewed more than 50 parents, students, teachers, researchers for this report. The team reviewed more than 17,000 videos. What did you find?
[01:23:38] Speaker 31: Yeah. I mean, we talked to so many people because we really wanted to get a grasp on this. If we were going to have a national sample. And what stood out was how common parents just felt like they had lost control. Like this is something that they want to decide how their kid consumes any kind of mass media or screen time at home. But then once they go to school and it's on a school issue device that they didn't buy and they don't have controls over, it's kind of out of their hands. And then teachers at the same time don't want to be turned into the screen time police at all. I mean, that makes sense. Did the parents
[01:24:16] Speaker 1: know or like understand maybe the extent to which their kids were watching this much YouTube at school?
[01:24:22] Speaker 31: Yeah. So some of them did. I mean, this project actually got off the ground because I've been talking to parents and hearing them tell me anecdotally that they had become digital forensic analysts and pulled their kids screen time and watch history and started looking at how often they'd been consuming YouTube. And that's what stood out to me that they were already doing this. We took it and went a step further to recruit some more to do a deep dive. And yeah, that kid that watched 80 videos within one single woodworking class. He viewed over 5000 videos just over the course of the school year. And that's all on his school issued laptop in class hours. We're not counting stuff that he watched at home.
[01:25:06] Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that's not a fan of woodworking. So beyond that one, I mean, that was quite the headline there. But what surprised you and the team most about the actual videos the kids were watching?
[01:25:16] Speaker 31: Yeah. So you mentioned there were some content that was mature or not, you know, let's just say R-rated. That wasn't the majority of it. The majority of it, it's actually pretty mundane. It's everything from cat videos to NFL and NBA highlights. But the point is that's not what they send their kids to school for. And, you know, YouTube has a lot of good stuff on it. It's just like kind of TV. You know, you can watch a smart documentary. You can watch C-SPAN. You can watch NBC News now. But you can also watch a lot of stuff that's just cartoons. It's silly things. It's not anything that you're going to learn. And that's really the issue here is it's like every kid back in my day has a little cable TV on their desk and they're going to look for what's fun. Wow. And a criticism by experts of YouTube is this
[01:26:02] Speaker 1: sort of doom loop. It puts you in where you're served one video you like and it just keeps on, you know, auto playing the next thing. Google here, that's a spokesperson for them. They own YouTube. They said that there is a way for schools to block YouTube entirely or restrict access to just teacher assigned videos only with no ads, no recommendations, not putting them in that loop. I just said, why aren't more schools using that option? Yeah, I mean, first schools could block
[01:26:28] Speaker 31: it on their Wi-Fi entirely, but then that creates problems for teachers. The second step is there's different kinds of a special player that Google made and some other companies licensed from them that removes all the ads and links to other videos. There's other ways that they can, especially if they have Google Workspace for Education, they could put even further limits on it. But the problem is, is if schools decide we're going to let students browse either because we trust them or we're going to let them do some research, that's where things get tricky. And even if it's filtering out the more mature and inappropriate content, it's not making sure everything's educational. And so, again, they just might go off the deep end. And this might be a minority of students who watch 5,000 videos in a school year, but it's an issue that experts said, even if it's only 1%, that's hundreds of thousands of students, you know, if it's extrapolated. So we need to get our hands around it.
[01:27:20] Speaker 3: And Tyler, I mean, if a child develops an addiction to YouTube, their grades or mental health starts slipping, what options do parents have? I mean, we only have 30 seconds left here, but do the schools need to
[01:27:29] Speaker 31: step in? Yeah, I think it's all going to be a matter of conversations with your schools. You're going to need to know what's the environment that they're on, what restrictions and policies do they have in place. And then, you know, schools are going to have to work with the kids. It's really going to take a lot of parent-to-school conversations to get things started. All right,
[01:27:48] Speaker 3: Tyler Kincaid, good reporting by you and the team. Thanks so much for joining us this morning to walk us through it. Coming up, you've heard of pumpkin carving contests, maybe even the famous pumpkin chunkin, but what
[01:27:58] Speaker 1: about the pumpkin regatta? After the break, we're hollowing out our gourds and taking to the waters of Maine for a fall affair that you'll have to see to believe that's next.
[01:28:14] Speaker 3: Let's end this hour with something gorgeous. It's pumpkin season, and while some of us are sipping pumpkin spice lattes or carbon jack-o-lanterns, others are taking their love of pumpkins to a
[01:28:24] Speaker 1: whole new level. Yeah, in Maine, they're putting the pedal to the pumpkin, or we should really say the paddle to the pumpkin. At the annual pumpkin regatta, competitors hollow out giant gourds, turn them into boats, and race to see who can squash the competition. Reporter Drew Peters from our
[01:28:41] Speaker 35: NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine has more. Big ones. His whole life, Andrew Cox has made a living on Maine's waters. She needs a new notch, no notch right there. But today, he and his buddy, Nick Bellafiore, are trading the lobster boat for a truly Maine-grown vessel. 556 pounds was our pumpkin, if I remember correctly. A quarter ton of rind and flesh ready to take on the crashing waves of the Dare-Moscata River. I'm going to use my experience as a lobster fisherman to crush the competition, crush it. Like crushing a lobster? Yeah, just like crushing a lobster. Tough talk and even tougher competition.
[01:29:30] Speaker 8: This is my fourth year, and she's a master Maine guide, and I trained with her. Jessica Goodwin
[01:29:38] Speaker 35: and Alice Andronach say they're no strangers to paddling. But piloting a preposterously plump pumpkin comes with its own stem of challenges. They're totally unforgiving because they're not balanced
[01:29:52] Speaker 14: like a kayak is at all. So you've got to have loose hips. And while the pair were able to stay dry,
[01:29:59] Speaker 35: those who aren't so lucky, those who aren't so lucky are rescued by a fearless group of volunteers braving the river.
[01:30:06] Speaker 15: I really am proud that I get to take on this couple generation of diving, and I like being in the water.
[01:30:15] Speaker 35: It's cold, but I love it. As the waters stay cold though, these motors are getting hot, revving up for a grand finale of gigantic pumpkin proportions. One part motorized marvel, the other part of feet of farming flawlessness.
[01:30:37] Speaker 36: It's just so awesome. Like who knew a pumpkin could be a boat.
[01:30:41] Speaker 35: Growers like Sarah Witte admiring the culmination of months of hard work to produce such sizable squashes.
[01:30:49] Speaker 36: I absolutely love it. I love growing pumpkins. My favorite part is being able to show them off.
[01:30:55] Speaker 35: And while some may be more seaworthy than others, Andrew and his fellow pumpkin pilots say it's the cheers and laughs that make the fleet so special.
[01:31:06] Speaker 37: Well, thanks to Drew Peters for that squash buckling story. I love that. That is so awesome.
[01:31:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. I mean, how cool do they look? And then you can just put it on your patio. Yeah, right. When the trick-or-treaters come. Fill it with candy. Yeah, that's another idea. Right. That does it for this hour of morning news now.
[01:31:22] Speaker 1: Stay with us though. The news continues in just a moment.
[01:31:28] Speaker ?: The news continues in just a moment. And the news continues in just a moment. The news continues in just a moment. The news continues in just a moment.