If it's Friday, all eyes are on Iowa, where the Republican field of presidential hopefuls and the abortion issue are colliding today.

As a cattle call of candidates address the summit of Christian conservatives, and Iowa's governor decides to use the event to sign a new six-week abortion ban into the state.

Plus, no end in sight for that historic heat wave,

the scorching temperatures, challenging local and state officials,

and what could be the hottest week in history for some communities.

In Hollywood and a standstill, actors have joined the writers,

setting off the first industry-wide shutdown in more than 60 years.

As workers demand better pay, protections against AI and more.

This is the Canary and the coal mine on AI.

Happy Friday. Welcome to meet the press. Now I'm Chuck Todd reporting from Washington.

As Republican presidential hopefuls descend on Iowa, addressing social conservatives and evangelical voters at what some believe is a critical conservative Christian conference.

Where moments ago, the governor of Iowa,

Kim Reynolds, used the event to sign into law a six-week abortion ban. The event is drawing attention,

welcome or not, to two of the field's biggest challenges, the issue of abortion and the issue of Donald Trump. On abortion, Governor Reynolds signed this six-week ban, despite public polling

in our own state suggesting that Iowans do not support this, notweek ban, despite public polling in our own state, suggesting

that Iowans do not support this, not even close.

According to a recent survey from the Des Moines register, a solid 60% of Iowaans say abortion

should be legal in most circumstances, all or most of the time.

They have a four-part question.

But it is a winning issue for certain parts of the Republican

base, particularly the Christian conservative voter base in Iowa's caucuses. According to our

poll, most recent NBC poll, 53% of Republicans say they would be more likely to vote for a

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