Top Story with Tom Llamas - Jan. 27 | NBC News NOW

tonight millions of americans bracing for what could be a monster snowstorm salt trucks and plows ready to deploy along the east coast one massachusetts city offering to pay up to 200 an hour for plow drivers alerts in effect up the i-95 corridor cities like philly and new york could be digging out from more than a foot of snow al roker joins top story again tonight also tonight president biden speaking to the leader of ukraine after russia issued an icy response to a diplomatic letter sent by the u.s the kremlin saying it is not optimistic putin's demands will be met are richard engel inside the snowy trenches with ukrainian troops who are now preparing for an all-out war supreme court vacancy president biden officially announcing the retirement of supreme court justice stephen breyer so who's on the short list to fill the scene we take a closer look at a trailblazing potential nominee who is already backed by one of the president's closest allies stormy versus avenatti the disgraced attorney cross-examining his former client adult film star stormy daniels who has accused him of stealing her book money after the two famously teamed up to take on then president donald trump the testimony taking a bizarre twist when daniel said in court she could speak to dead people crash and grab new video showing thieves ramming a stolen suv into a jewelry store one then using an axe to break the glass cases and the undelivered letter from the holocaust found at a flea market here in the states the woman who tracked down the sender's family and delivered it 77 years later top story starts right now [Music] and good evening we begin top story tonight with that nor'easter taking aim more than 30 million americans under winter storm watches from the carolinas all the way to new england east coast city is making sure their salt trucks and snow plows are ready to go with the snow expected to begin in just over 24 hours franklin massachusetts get this facing a plow driver shortage now offering up to 200 an hour to get some help the heaviest snow expected from eastern long island through coastal new england and with powerful wind gusts the region could see blizzard conditions forecast models are not agreeing on snowfall totals at this hour but cities like boston philly and new york could see about a foot of snow or more in addition to the storm arctic temperatures this weekend will spill all the way down to south florida let's get right to nbc's emily aquetta who leads us off tonight from right here in new york tonight tens of millions are under winter alerts as a storm closes in on the i-95 corridor but are we talking a blockbuster event depends who you ask as the u.s and european forecasting models continue to wrestle over what's in store and the difference could be a matter of inches or feet of snow so even though they're disagreeing to some degree on the amounts of snow the general idea is still the same saturday will pack the most powerful punch dumping snow on major cities like philadelphia and new york while bringing fierce winds to coastal regions up to 60 miles an hour new england is expected to sustain the biggest blow preparations there already underway i live alone and if there's a storm i don't want to be without anything to eat in the town of franklin massachusetts there's a call out for all snow plow drivers offering as much as 200 dollars an hour we don't have enough trucks we get 220 plus miles of road in town so we hire outside contractors residents bracing for up to two feet of snow running into the supply chain crunch at hardware stores i usually have a lot more than this in stock and this year with you know the supply chain issue that didn't happen communities from north carolina to maine revving up their severe weather response teams to face a nor'easter packing snow wind and unpredictability we are getting the plows on the trucks we're putting the salt on the back we are gassing them up all right emily aquedu joins us now from a chili central park here in new york city so emily as we count down the hours to what might be a blizzard what should people keep in mind who are going to be sort of in the path of that storm hey there tom so with this weekend more bitter cold on the way so fire officials are urging people to check the batteries on their smoke alarms and their carbon monoxide alarms remember january is the leading month for home heating fires plus there's the risk of treacherous roadway conditions just here in new york some 1 600 snowplows at the ready tom all right emily aquetta leading us off tonight on top story with the different forecast models leading to a wide range of expected snowfall totals let's bring in our friend al roker to help bring some clarity on what we should expect so emily asked it there at the top of her story is this going to be a blockbuster event well we're still waiting to see the the jury's still out in a sense tom and i hate to equivocate but we would only want to let you know what we know we do know right now 40 million people under winter weather advisory storm watches winter storm warnings from the appalachians all the way to the carolinas up into new england now friday here's the european model model slower stronger closer to the coast bringing heavy snow with major impacts for new england however the american model is faster a little weaker and further to the east so that's light snow with the exception of some heavy activity along down east maine's coast but we do expect to see some sort of bombogenesis that's where the storm intensifies rapidly we expect a 30-plus millibar drop in 24 hours that's explosive deepening of this storm and we also know we're all going to be seeing from atlantic city up to portland even inland albany strong winds the threat for coastal flooding and power outages with this system the potential there stretches from bangor all the way down to the delmarva peninsula from scattered to even some isolated and widespread power outages out the eastern end of massachusetts so the storm impacts blizzard conditions we expect possibly across new england but depending on the track of that storm it could move a little further south the impact's uncertain as you get down to washington dc uh baltimore and on into philadelphia airport delays boston new york for sure philadelphia washington maybe and it's an i-95 event so the roads from philly up to bangor will be a mess i-90 from boston to buffalo will have some problems as well tom okay we know you'll stay on top of all this al thank you for that we want to head overseas now to the growing crisis in ukraine a kremlin spokesperson saying there were few reasons for optimism after the u.s said it wouldn't give in to key russian demand this as president biden spoke with ukraine's president to reassure him that the u.s embassy in kev is staying open and more help is on the way nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel reports from a front line military position in eastern ukraine this may be russia's way of showing it didn't like the united states written answers to russia's demand that nato leave eastern europe and bar ukraine new live fire drills near ukraine more jets into belarus and naval exercises in the baltic sea president biden called ukraine's president zielinski who's receiving u.s weapons but president biden has said repeatedly no american troops are heading his way on the call president biden pledged additional economic support on ukraine's front line in the east the troops are remarkably calm on watch but many here seem to be following their government's line that there's no great reason for concern we're in good spirits and we have no problem says valentin ukraine has already been in a low-level war out here in the east for eight years emptying out so-called front line ghost villages there used to be three thousand people here we found three women all russian speakers none wants putin to invade we live in ukraine we don't need russia says tatiana yet russia continues to mass in force upwards of 120 thousand troops now and significantly more intelligence officials say coming next week nato is trying to show a united front in support of ukraine but there are divisions germany refuses to send combat weapons instead is sending 5 000 helmets the mayor of kiev expressed outrage asking what are they going to send next pillows tom tensions are no doubt high all right richard we thank you for that staying with the standoff over ukraine while russia's foreign minister told reporters he's hopeful for the quote start of a serious conversation it's unclear what a diplomatic path forward would look like let's bring in nbc news political contributor ben rhodes he's a former deputy national security adviser to president obama ben you were part of the team that prepped president obama to meet president putin russia wants to guarantee ukraine won't be a part of nato that's a non-starter what can biden tell the russians at this point to stop war well it's very difficult and the reality is not only does russia want a commitment that ukraine won't go nato but also they want commitments that nato will essentially pull back from other eastern european countries not have any nato presidents in places like poland and the baltics that are already members of nato i think what president biden has tried to do in his diplomatic response it says have a broader conversation about arms control can we have discussions around transparency if nato is doing military exercises in eastern europe there might be a process by which we could notify russia try to reassure russia that nato is in no way a hostile or offensive military force that they need to be concerned about but rather a defensive alliance that is focused on securing the european continent russia has rejected that conversation and has stuck to putin's demands that essentially nato get out of its backyard ben at this point does putin even have an off-ramp you know peacemaker is not part of putin's brand if you will right if he if he does not invade does he come off looking as weak to his own people yes i mean part of the challenge that we faced with putin and i was in many hours of phone calls and meetings with vladimir putin through the ukraine crisis in 2014 is that his politics back home is dependent upon him looking like a strong nationalist leader who is restoring a sense of greatness that was lost when the soviet union fell apart and when russia lost control of countries like ukraine the economy is not good in russia the coveted response has been a disaster in russia what putin has is this mix of nationalism and militarism and frankly what we've seen in russian state media if you watch it is kind of people being stirred into a frenzy that ukraine might be planning to invade russia or that russia is going to resolve the historical calamity essentially of ukraine and russia being separated he's been ginning his people up for weeks if not months now and even as you've had these diplomatic conversations ongoing you've seen this steady deployment of now 000 russian troops encircling ukraine even in 2014 when he moved some forces into crimea part of ukraine and some of those eastern ukrainian regions that was special forces that was russian support for separatists in those regions we never saw anything like the deployment that he has encircling ukraine right now ben do you think there's a dangerous domino effect here and what i mean by this is that putin goes into ukraine he tests president biden and nato and really the rest of the world and then we have china looking over at taiwan watching all of this saying let's see how the americans react to this how do they meet this power how do they meet this invasion what happens to president biden right now i mean because this is a very important point in his presidency i think that there's two ways of looking at this i do not buy the argument that somehow if the united states was still in afghanistan or if the united states had a greater military role in ukraine that that would be more relevant to china's calculus on taiwan because frankly the way that we demonstrate that we're going to take that threat seriously in taiwan and we're focused on china is to not necessarily be entering the third decade of a war in afghanistan or to not have a significant amount of american military involvement in the conflict in ukraine on the other hand if vladimir putin is allowed to just roll into ukraine have an invasion the likes of which we haven't seen in europe in decades and there's not a very significant response in the form of international sanctions that impose a deep cost on russia then you are sending the message that you can essentially violate a nation's sovereignty potentially topple its government without paying a cost and so i think what we have to do is thread the needle between the united states getting involved in wars that could be incredibly calamitous and frankly diminish our capacity to respond to another contingency like something in taiwan but at the same time have a united front with our allies to show that look vladimir putin is going to suffer if he does this course of action his economy could be cratered by sanctions he could be uh overextended in ukraine in a way that will hurt him significantly in the long run uh this could you know for putin in the short term he may achieve a military victory in ukraine but in the long run he could bring about the collapse of the russian economy and the overextension of the russian military there and so president biden has to walk this very fine line between getting overextended but also having a firm response that imposes a clear cost and that's the bet there for putin right whether whether this short-term victory as you mentioned is worth it versus the long-term and whether those sanctions work ben great to have you on top story tonight i'm sure we'll see you again turning now to washington we want to focus more now on the white house and the high court fake and see justice stephen breyer appearing at the white house alongside president biden today after officially announcing his retirement at the end of this term now the process of choosing a nominee to fill his position is officially underway nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander has more tonight president biden honoring justice stephen breyer's judicial legacy for the president a poignant close to a personal chapter noting he ran the confirmation hearing when breyer was first nominated this is sort of a bittersweet day for me uh justin brown i go back a long way and now describing who he will pick to replace him the person i will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications character experience and integrity and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the united states supreme court it's long overdue in my view thought to be atop the short list judge katanji brown jackson on the powerful federal appeals court here in washington a 51 year old harvard law graduate who was confirmed with bipartisan support just last year and 45-year-old california supreme court justice leandra krueger breyer hand delivering his retirement letter to the president today saying he will serve until the end of the court's term the president's supporters hoping it's a chance for a political reset with his legislative priorities stalled but republicans are pushing back they're trying to use this to distract from what is their failed agenda the american people are all concerned with inflation and crime and covet president biden promises to reach out to senators from both parties for advice as well as his vice president and others indicating he's looking for someone in the mold of justice breyer i think he's a model public servant in a time of great division in this country with breyer pulling out a copy of the constitution pointedly talking about the challenges still confronting this country and reflecting on the american experiment it's that next generation and the one after that my grandchildren and their children they'll determine whether the experiment still works and of course i am an optimist and i'm pretty sure it will all right peter joins us now from the white house peter walk us through the timeline for the next month or so yeah well we heard from the president saying that he wants to announce that selection before the end of february at least that's his intention we know the president says he's also already reviewing candidates their backgrounds their writings the white house they've been vetting the top contenders for more than a year now so behind the scenes this process is well underway i would note that the president did make a point of saying that the vice president kamala harris is going to be actively involved in this process he described her as an exceptional lawyer of course she served recently on the senate judiciary committee so her relationships with those on that committee could be significant the democrats have to keep everybody in line here to get any nominee confirmed and also the chief of staff ron klain tom is going to play a central role he served as a top lawyer in both the clinton and obama administrations and help behind the scenes with ruth bader ginsburg's process getting confirmed all right peter alexander with that update from the white house peter thank you for that president biden as we just heard re-upping a promise to nominate a black woman to the supreme court peter offered some names but there's also another judge down south that some say could be the pick nbc's dasha burns takes a look tonight the spotlight on the short list of names to replace retiring justice stephen breyer the president's promise to name a black woman starting on the campaign trail i'm looking forward to making sure there's a black woman on the supreme court to make sure another name among the leading contenders south carolina district court judge jay michelle childs who has the backing of one of the president's most influential allies representative james clyburn my buddy jim clyburn you brought me back who resuscitated the president's flatlining campaign in early 2020 helping clinch a critical victory with his endorsement in the south carolina primary the king maker speaking out today on behalf of his preferred contender there's nobody sitting on the supreme court today that can tout the background the experience of and profession that michelle childs will bring to the court it's just that simple childs could bring the most diversity of experience to the court with a blue collar upbringing and law degree from the university of south carolina not the typical ivy league pedigree what could the nomination of someone like j michelle childs do for the supreme court and for the democratic party what message would it set j michelle chiles shows that this is a party that is not necessarily the party of elites childs was nominated to the federal bench by president obama in 2010. in federal court i would approach only cases and controversies before me but she could face some roadblocks it's been more than a decade since she's been tested in front of the senate as she's currently awaiting confirmation for another biden nomination but she has recently issued decisions on major topics that the court will take up in the coming terms including a decision to protect voting rights striking down a rule requiring witness signatures for male and absentee ballots ahead of the 2020 election whether child's or another contender her story will make history this is just as important as the first jewish justice appointed by president wilson 1916 or the first woman by president reagan in 1981 or the first black justice by president johnson in 1967. this is a historical moment on a par with all of those all right dasha burns joins me now live from here at 30 rock so dasha you know we know whoever biden nominates at least in his opinion won't be changing up the ideological makeup of the court right that's what the president hopes happens but whoever he picks will will shape the court in a different way and that's why someone like the woman you were just profiling here may shape the court that way that's right tom justice breyer was of course among the liberal wing of the supreme court and this new justice will be too but new faces always have an impact on the overall character of the court the experts i've been speaking with emphasized that with this nomination the liberal wing will now be made up of three women two of them being women of color and as melissa murray put it this will absolutely change the intellectual energy and dynamism of the court and it'll be interesting to see tom how this new justice may build coalitions persuade her colleagues and perhaps even sway some rulings tom it will be interesting as the list gets more and more narrow all right dash a great reporting again tonight for us here all right we want to turn now to the pandemic and a lot of people have been talking about a new strain of the virus that has emerged as the omicron wave appears to be easing the number of new covet cases and hospitalizations look at that right there it continues to drop nationwide that's great news the country is facing a grim new milestone though the u.s nearing 900 000 lives lost the virus health officials around the world also keeping a close eye on a new sub-variant of omicron the newest strain has been found in 49 countries including the u.s and could possibly be more transmissible than the original omicron joining us now is infectious disease physician at boston medical center dr sabrina assume you doctor thanks so much for joining us tonight here on top story so first things first tell us about this new sub-variant i know it's also being called a stealth variant which sounds really scary so so walk our viewers through this so first of all what i'd like to underscore is that we're very early in the process and scientists are working very hard to get some answers so first i'd like to orient everyone so armor crown the variant has four sublim four lineages and the ba1 is the one that's responsible for the current search that we're going through in the u.s and it's making up approximately over 99 of the cases this new one the va ii is making up a higher proportion of cases in places such as the uk denmark or india so when you're looking at variants there are three areas that we as infectious diseases and public health officials always worry about we're like is it going to be more transmissible and so far it seems that it's either going to be as transmissible as a ba1 or a little more transmissible is it going to cause more severe disease and right now it seems that in terms of disease severity it's very similar that to the ba1 and then the last thing is we worry that it may evade immunity so meaning that our vaccines are therapeutics may not work as well and so far it seems that um the ba2 is very similar to the ba1 who's been that we've been seen in the u.s so it's even more important to get vaccinated and get boosted doctor can you clear something up for us because there's been some reporting out there and i want to make sure we're clear here on top story can this new stealth variant can it be detected by pcr test or take-home test or both of them so first of all the the slight difference is that for if you're looking at pcr testing that we do let's say at the hospital the usual testing we usually um we're able to to sequence the virus and see if it has um if it's one of the variants so but with this va1 what you need to do is you need to do genomic sequencing that you can do usually at all the different hospitals you can detect and know if you have star scooby too so you can diagnose coven 19 but you can't tell which variant it is because this one is slightly different than the ba1 and it doesn't have what we call the s-gene dropout which was a very significant signature that would allow us to rapidly identify this particular variant okay dr assume we thank you for your time tonight and for your analysis still ahead the manhunt in houston three police officers shot in a residential neighborhood the warning for residents in the area tonight plus the black man found dead after an overnight trip with four other people including potential co-workers while his family has now hired their own medical expert and michael avenatti cross-examining his former client stormy daniels during his own criminal trial the shocking testimony when daniel said she can speak to dead people including a haunted doll we are not joking here stay with us just getting started on top story [Music] back now with the family demanding answers after a black man was found fatally shot after an overnight trip more than a month ago no charges or arrests have been made even though four people were detained and questioned only to be released now the family hiring a world-renowned pathologist to try to get to the bottom of all this nbc's clay essenwa has the latest a man found dead after an overnight trip with four other people in december tonight the family demands answers and action peter bernardo spencer was a 29 year old jamaican immigrant his mother says they came to the u.s for a better life now she's mourning the end of his life recalling the moment she learned of his fatal shooting i shout out and i fell on my knees the december 12 incident happened at a rocklin township residence during an overnight trip including a former co-worker according to the family lawyer the lawyer says spencer worked as a contractor and was dropped off at the gathering by carmela king his fiancee carrying spencer's unborn child the fatal shooting happened around 2 30 a.m according to police who say spencer was found dead in the front yard one suspect and three individuals were detained and questioned but released an autopsy was completed on december 14 and no arrests or charges have been made according to police we know how many times he was hit it was nine times there may be as many as seven shots to the back police have not confirmed how many times he was hit but say multiple firearms ballistic evidence and controlled substances were seized from the scene i worked on jfk rfk mlk o.j simpson this remains among the most puzzling as to what in the hell took place the family hired their own medical expert world-renowned dr cyril wett to examine spencer the delay is being caused by the d.a and or the police this is not acceptable what additional information do you need given that you've already examined the body i need the original autopsy report and i need the photographs taken of the body at the autopsy according to the family the coroner has not released autopsy photos to their medical examiner sharing autopsy photos with a medical examiner is not a controversial thing they have made controversial decision after controversial decision and it leaves us with no other option but to assume the worst leaving the family with more questions than answers i just want to know why that's really all i want to find out at this point the venango county coroner did not immediately respond for comment the identities of the four individuals originally detained and questioned have not been released the family alleges they were all white in a statement the d.a said in part quote the office also takes seriously any possibility that a crime may be fueled by hatred toward a person because of their race all this spencer's family holds on to his memory he said i love you mom you never left the phone office phone without saying i love you come and give me a hug he never just said mom he said madre all right we're hearing from the family there at the end of the story zinc clay you know as you mentioned the family is still waiting for more information there's a lot of questions surrounding this case so far what are they hoping hoping happens with these potential lawsuits yeah tom so i asked the family if they plan to sue their lawyer did not go into specifics but did say that they're at the initial stage of the investigation and a lawsuit is likely to come meanwhile the police in a report urged the public to quote remain patient the county d.a even said the ongoing investigation could take four to six weeks prior to making a charging decision so really this is something we're going to have to track and see tom okay zinc clay we thank you for that back in new york adult film star stormy daniels taking the stand in the criminal trial against her former lawyer michael avenatti today telling the jury that avenatti stole her money from a book deal and lied to her about it but the real fireworks coming when avenatti who was representing himself we should mention cross-examined her tom winter has more tonight michael avenatti and film actress stormy daniels going head-to-head in court as i learned a long time ago to thy own self be true prosecutors accusing avenatti of stealing nearly three hundred thousand dollars in book advances from daniels representing himself cross-examining his former client do you still think he's an american hero the attorney trying to undermine daniels getting her to admit that in the past she has said she could speak to the dead and that she has conversations with a haunted doll named susan who has her own instagram account the two had famously teamed up in 2018 to take on then president donald trump they immediately made headlines ultimately the american people and others that are far more educated and powerful than us will decide whether the president is fit to remain in office daniels hiring avenatti to get her out of a non-disclosure agreement preventing her from talking about an affair she says she had with trump an affair trump denies do you think you've got the president of the united states running scared he's not smart enough to run scared what is he uh an egotistical lunatic at this point it's about the deception it's about the lies and deceit that have been told relating to this agreement and what mr trump knew and when he knew it and what they've done to cover it up it was after daniels wrote her autobiography full disclosure that the relationship soured when questioned by prosecutors today daniel's telling the jury he quote stole from me and lied to me she told jurors that not only did avenatti take her third and final payment but he then spent it avenatti says he's innocent the attorney pouncing on cross asking she had any email text or recording stating that he wouldn't take any money from the book deal daniels replied no an unconventional case that may have another twist when avenatti begins his defense have you decided if you'll take the stand in your own defense and who will question you or if you will question yourself i have not decided that it's a decision i'll make probably over the weekend culminating in monday after consultation with a lot of people that i trust and respect federal prosecutors are expected to rest their case as soon as friday if avenatti is convicted tom he could face up to 20 years in prison 20 years in prison all right tom thank you for that when we come back horror unfolding in afghanistan the situation so dire since the taliban control took over some residents are selling their organs to survive you heard me correctly i'll look inside the country tonight and crash and grab the stolen suv plowing into a jewelry store a thief exiting the vehicle armed with an axe stay with us [Music] all right now to top stories news feeding we begin with the manhunt in houston after three police officers were shot police say the suspect fired at the officers in broad daylight during a police chase through a residential neighborhood residents asked to stay inside and nearby daycares were placed on lockdown the three officers were taken to the hospital but all are expected to survive that's great news a 25 year old is facing several charges after dragging a police officer for five blocks with his car surveillance video shows an suv crashing into a parked car several parked cars in philly the officer hanging out of that suv after the driver attempted to flee a traffic stop the officer suffered minor injuries is expected to be okay and the search tonight for the suspects wanted in a smash and grab robbery near san diego take a look at this surveillance video shows a stolen suv plowing into the jewelry store you saw it there masked men one using an axe then broke display cases inside they stole an undisclosed amount of jewelry and cash before fleeing and there is outrage tonight after a tennessee school board banned the pulitzer prize-winning graphic novel mouse the book published by cartoonist art spiegelman is based on his parents experience in nazi germany and concentration camps the mcminn county board removed it from an 8th grade curriculum citing some profanity and one image of a nude woman who was spiegelman's mother he spoke to cnbc and called the vote quote orwellian ben roethlisberger is retiring after 18 seasons with the pittsburgh steelers the 39 year old quarterback announcing his decision with a video on social media drafted by the steelers 11th overall in 2004 he's finishing his career with two super bowl wins and the fifth most passing yards in nfl what history and investors need to know from the business world and beyond the commerce department reporting that the us economy grew 5.7 percent in 2021 the fastest pace since 1984. the data showing that growth accelerated even faster in the final quarter of the year cnbc's morgan brennan co-anchor of squawk on the street joins us now so morgan my first question to you is i'm really glad you're on tonight to explain this we get all these mixed signs from the economy right record high inflation the market's all over the place and now we have this somewhat of of good news for the economy break this down for our viewers all right so yeah it is good news it's actually better than expected uh versus what economists were anticipating for this first initial reading on gdp not only for the final three months of 2021 but also for the full year this is a very strong rate of growth it's actually the strongest rate of economic growth for the year of 2021 that we've seen in nearly four decades but you have to put it in context as well because it is basically coming after a year of recession in 2020 when the pandemic and all those subsequent lockdowns caused the economy to shrink and shrink significantly so 2021 still a year of fitness fits and starts we had different variants of coronavirus that we were navigating labor shortages supply chain challenges but it was very much a year of recovery you saw consumers spending more and just as importantly in those final three months of the year you did see businesses moving to stock up on inventories after all the shortages that they were affected by as the year went went on the one other thing i would note here tom is that the rate of growth is expected to moderate this year so economists right now are expecting to see a growth rate for for gdp that's going to be closer to four percent for 2022 as the world hopefully gets closer to normal and hopefully keeps coronavirus at bay that's as federal stimulus goes away and as the federal reserve potentially moves to raise interest rates to counter inflation i'm curious you know you mentioned at the top of your remarks how big of a number this was it surprised some did inflation play a role for that did it fuel part of that it absolutely did so if you've got the highest read for gdp in nearly 40 years we've also have the highest rate of inflation in about 40 years as well that did absolutely help fuel this higher gdp reading and if you actually adjust for inflation this is particularly true in the final quarter of 2021 the economy grew actually much more slowly just under but very close to those pre-pandemic levels and i think this matters because consumers are feeling the pinch in their pocketbook higher prices for everything from autos to rents to food to gasoline and even as we are seeing the strong data you do have some americans and this is based on some recent polls we've seen not feeling so upbeat about the economy despite the fact that we are seeing this really strong economic data all right we thank you and cnbc for all of that turning now to the americas a look at the stories coming out of the u.s and across latin america tonight the coast guard calling off the search for survivors in that horrific boat accident off the coast of florida four more bodies were found bringing the death toll to at least five but 34 people are still missing the mother of the lone survivor now speaking out nbc's blaine alexander has the details tonight the desperate search for survivors from a capsized boat off the coast of florida has been suspended unfortunately we've come to the most difficult time in any search and rescue case and that is the point at which we decide when to cease actively searching the coast guard says the boat headed to florida from the bahamas was likely a human smuggling venture 34 people are still missing five confirmed dead officials say their nationalities are unknown the only known survivor this 22 year old man found clinging to the capsized boat he managed to survive in open sea until rescue crews reached him tuesday morning his mother says he was making the journey with his 18-year-old sister her daughter she says is among the missing you according to the coast guard the survivor says none of the passengers wore a life jacket we do suspect that that this is a case of human smuggling this event occurred in a normal route for human smuggling from the bahamas into the southeast u.s for decades countless migrants have risked everything trying to reach the united states by sea last spring three people died and dozens were hospitalized when their boat broke apart off the coast of san diego officials believe another case of human smuggling and coast guard numbers show in just the last three months of 2021 nearly 600 cuban migrants attempted the dangerous trek to the u.s by sea a number far outpacing the previous year tonight the lone survivor remains in a hospital under immigration custody his mother is pleading for mercy lord and that was blaine alexander reporting for us now to top stories global watch we begin with the historic inauguration in honduras ciumara castro sworn in as the country's first female president vice president kamala harris was in attendance there you see her right there the u.s has strongly backed castro seeing her as a potential ally to fight corruption in central america and hoping she will help tackle the root cause of mass migration out of that region prince andrew is demanding a jury trial in a sex abuse lawsuit against him in new court documents the prince formally denied that he was a co-conspirator of convicted sex trafficker jeffrey epstein he's also calling for a jury trial in a civil lawsuit from virginia dufres she has alleged that prince andrew sexually abused her at the homes of epstein and maxwell and a rocket will unintentionally crash into the moon for the first time ever a piece of spacex rocket launched in 2015 is set to hit the moon by march 4th the four tons of metal is traveling at 5 000 miles per hour and is being sucked in by the moon's gravitational pull astronomers say will make a new crater but won't damage the moon by turning out afghanistan where there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding families struggling since the taliban took over desperately needed food in need of food and money and with a lack of foreign aid residents in one city are making extreme decisions for survival sky news special correspondent alex crawford takes us inside there all sold their kidneys to survive the organ trade isn't new in afghanistan but it's just got more desperate every single person here is hungry and poverty is driving already poor people to even more extreme measures this man tells us we've no choice we've already sold our kidneys now we've got to sell our children and they're suffering terribly the taliban takeover meant a massive cut in aid and these are people with few options we've taken efforts to conceal their identities for their own safety it's a highly conservative society but i'm allowed into a room with the women [Music] they agree to me filming their scars some just a few months old the women have sold their kidneys for less than the men around fifteen hundred dollars an organ there's a lucrative trade with many organs going to iran but the money's still not enough most of these women are still teenagers with multiple babies but few rights and now they're being forced to sell their children so they all have a better chance of survival no one can tell me to sell my children but we're struggling to keep them alive she says and that's why we've thought of selling them maybe better for them and we get food for the others it is a tragic situation and one they see no quick end to there is a lot of women there who've sold their kidneys and now thinking of the last option which is selling their children too the aid is fought over what's here is far outweighed by the huge need it's really very hard in afghanistan right now she says and there are too many people like me who don't have a husband or a father to support them for women who aren't allowed to work under the taliban and aren't even allowed to complain about that it's misery on misery she's crying telling us her bag of flour has been stolen i don't know what i'm going to do she says foreign aids not feeding into the country while politicians wrestle over dealing with a taliban regime holding power because they're holding the guns you can ask everyone here they're happy this fighter says security's good yes security's good but we don't have any money or food back at the community outside herrat where whole families have already sold their kidneys we're with the village elder who's urgently trying to persuade this family not to sell one of their babies i urge the world please don't leave us alone he says stop this tragedy when people are selling their children or part of their bodies but both parents have already sold their kidneys they've already lost a child who starved to death and they still have eight little mouths to feed i've already lost one i can't see them all lose their lives she says at least someone else will feed them these are decisions no parent wants to make but hunger can break even a mother's bond with her babies alex crawford sky news herrat and our thanks to alex crawford for that devastating look at afghanistan tonight we'll be right back all right back down with the countdown to the winter olympics members of team usa boarding their flights from los angeles to beijing today now preparing for rigorous coveted protocols once they land in china nbc's steve patterson was there to see them off tonight team usa packed pumped and ready to compete in the winter olympics speed skating start brittany beau with a final farewell to mom before a 17-hour love flight but with covid complicating everything from training to qualifying it's already been a long trek it's been such a crazy ride i'm just fingers crossed we got to get on this plane and get over there safe and sound this is it nearly half the u.s team is boarding this flight after a lifetime of preparation but first they're gonna have to deal with some pretty strict protocols once they make it to beijing they'll be tested daily they must remain in a fully closed loop no interaction allowed with the chinese public and if an athlete tests positive they'll be immediately isolated or hospitalized i've tried to like not get so frustrated in my head and just take it day by day like so many invasive like nose tests the chinese government's zero covet policy upping stress it's definitely like adding a nerve wracking part to it but still like i'm just focused on racing and competing my best that mindset echoed by the whole team i think that if we just do our jobs we're going to do amazing a lifelong dream undeterred no matter the obstacle steve patterson nbc news los angeles we thank steve for that we will be rooting on all those olympians when we come back a priceless artifact found at a flea market it's an undelivered letter written by a holocaust survivor in 1945 the new york city decorator now making sure it was delivered to the sender's family nearly eight decades later stay with us finally tonight on this international holocaust remembrance day we want to share the story of a letter penned by a holocaust survivor back in 1945. that letter was lost for over 75 years until a new york city decorator found it on many weekends interior decorator chelsea brown can be found visiting new york city's flea markets combing the aisles for the perfect vintage find over the years she's found treasures and built sources that's how she heard about a priceless historical artifact that might go to auction a vendor that i know from one of the flea markets i go to he mentioned that he had collected holocaust documentation from 30 years ago and he said he was going to sell it for thousands of dollars that document a handwritten letter sent from berlin by holocaust survivor isla lowenberg to her sister carla loewenberg writes no one is alive anymore my pain is unspeakably big another document included with the letter revealed ila's harrowing story jumping out of a moving train on the way to auschwitz and escaping back to berlin determined to deliver this letter to the family chelsea got to work over the next few weeks i persuaded him to bring those documents in to let me see them and then finally i persuaded him to let me buy three three documents out of all of them with the documents in hand chelsea kept digging online learning that the sisters reunited after the war and spent the rest of their lives in new york city after a month-long search chelsea got in touch with ila's niece jill butler well first of all jill thought i was scamming her she was like this person is just looking for money um but we had like a two hour phone call that day and um yeah once i persuaded her i was a real person and i was actually going to return these documents we both were just over the moon so overjoyed the family telling us in a statement what it means to get that letter back quote we all loved our great aunt isla and are thrilled beyond words to read her thoughts in her own handwriting after she emerged from the depths of the european inferno while this letter is finally heading home chelsea says she's just getting started i return heirlooms quite frequently and one of my main missions has been to return more holocaust documentation because of how people profit off of them my main goal is to get these off of the market into the rightful families and i can guarantee that's not the last we've heard from chelsea brown we also want to thank the loewenberg family for sharing that very sensitive story we thank you for watching top story tonight i'm tom yamas in york i'll see you right here tomorrow thanks for watching our youtube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the nbc news app

Channel: NBC News

Views: 263,032

Keywords: NBC News NOW

Id: IKaesvpksRg

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 28 2022