tv NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt NBC February 1, 2017 5:30pm-6:01pm PST
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big change is rain fall totals half inch to one and half inch on average. south bay closer to half inch average. we'll be tracking it through 6:00 p.m. tonight, the white house putting iran on notice. national security adviser michael flynn accusing the iranians of defying the u.n. did they do it? the trump administration not taking military options off the table. breaking ranks. critical republicans abandoning the president's pick to lead the nation's school her nomination in jeopardy. go nuclear. after a primetime surprise, president trump tells republicans to take drastic measures if needed to get his supreme court pick confirmed. buyer beware. the new way thieves are trying to invade your privacy and steal your money. new fertility tests, medical advancement to help struggling couples get pregnant. and shaking it up. an elementary school teacher inspiring america. "nightly news" begins
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right now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. good evening to our viewers in the west. the white house tonight is putting iran on notice and taking no option off the table in response to iran's test this week of an unarmed ballistic missile calling it a violation of a u.n. nuclear accord, a provocation and destabilizing. but the tough and surprise warning delivered by the president's national security adviser today threatens to put the administration at odds with other members of the u.n. security council, which contrary to the white house, has not thus far declared the missile test a violation. white house correspondent kristen welker has late details. >> reporter: a surprise at the white house briefing.
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president trump's national security adviser michael flynn unleashing a stern warning to american adversary iran. >> as of today, we are officially putting iran on notice. >> reporter: at issue, a series of provocations, including iran launching a ballistic missile test on sunday. flynn accusing iran of violating a u.n. resolution on ballistic missiles even though the u.n. is still assessing the situation. late this afternoon, a senior administration official says they are considering retaliating and wouldn't rule out economic sanctions or even military action. >> iran continues to threaten u.s. friends and allies in the region. the obama administration failed to respond adequately to tehran's malign actions. the trump administration condemns such actions. >> reporter: iran said on tuesday it wasn't a violation and would never use its ballistic missiles to attack another country. the state department telling nbc news it was informed about flynn's statements ahead of time but not fully briefed. the diplomatic drama happening an hour before president trump's new secretary of state was confirmed. national security experts warn, escalating tensions
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with iran could have serious consequences. >> i just think that while we need to be very tough-minded and contain iran, there are more ways to achieve this objective than starting out the administration on such a bellicose, threatening way. >> reporter: as a candidate, mr. trump railed against the obama administration for not being tougher with tehran. today's actions could be indicative of a new tone. >> the statement is a signal of that rupture, that change in policy towards a more confrontational, a more aggressive stance towards iran and its activities. >> reporter: late tonight, military officials tell nbc news the military has not changed its posture in response to iran testing a ballistic missile. the white house giving no indication of how long its review process will take or when it could decide to take action. lester? >> kristen welker, thank you. as all of that played out, president trump left the white house today for a time today accompanied by his daughter ivanka to travel to dover air base where the president paid his
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respects and witnessed the somber final homecoming of chief special warfare operator william ryan owens. the body of the navy s.e.a.l. from peoria, illinois, returned to the u.s. today, just days after he was killed during a military raid on an al qaeda-affiliated base in yemen. his death the first known u.s. combat casualty since president trump took office. tonight, the full-court press is on for the white house to get neil gorsuch confirmed in the supreme court. democrats are promising a major fight and perhaps a filibuster. today, president trump said if democrats do that, republicans should take drastic measures. our justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> reporter: now the hard part, neil gorsuch began looking for support today in a fractured senate. >> because this president has started out in such a fundamentally undemocratic way, we have to examine this nominee closely. >> reporter: president trump said today it's
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fine with him if republican leader mitch mcconnell allows gorsuch to be confirmed by a simple majority instead of a filibuster proof 60 votes. votes, a profound rule change called going nuclear. >> it's up to mitch, but i would say go for it. >> reporter: the trump administration labored to build suspense for last night's announcement. >> was that a surprise? was it? >> reporter: to maintain secrecy, a clandestine mission. gorsuch met the white house team in a supermarket parking lot and drove on backroads to an airport for a flight to a military base outside washington. he stayed monday night with a friend to avoid being seen at a hotel. >> i pledge if i am confirmed, i will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of this great country. >> reporter: neil gorsuch is married with two daughters and would be the first protestant on the current court. conservatives like his record siding with the hobby lobby owners saying that obama's contraceptive requirement violated their religious freedom. a study by three
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scholars concludes he'd be further to the right on the court than justice scalia was but a conservative leader who advised president trump on the nomination disagrees. >> he is fair-minded, impartial in the sense that he grounds his judicial decision making in the text of the original meaning of the constitution and the laws. >> reporter: the gorsuch confirmation hearing will begin in six weeks. >> if confirmed, it will be whisker close whether justice gorsuch gets to the supreme court by vet last oral arguments of the term where several high-profile, maybe four to five cases are waiting for him. >> reporter: gorsuch aide says one of his first calls after getting the nomination was to merrick garland, the federal judge here in washington who was nominated by president obama to succeed scalia but never got a hearing. lester? >> pete williams at the supreme court, thank you. let's turn now to a cliffhanger over president trump's pick to lead the nation's schools. betsy devos today losing support from a pair of critical republicans. her nomination to be
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education secretary now appears to be in jeopardy and vice president pence might have to step in to keep it from going down in defeat. kasie hunt is on the hill for us. >> reporter: president trump's pick for secretary of education suddenly in jeopardy tonight. >> i will not, i cannot vote to confirm her. >> i cannot support this nominee. >> reporter: republican senators susan collins and lisa murkowski announced they can't support michigan billionaire betsy devos to oversee the nation's school system. >> i have heard from thousands, truly thousands of alaskans who have shared their concerns about mrs. devos as secretary of education. they've contacted me by phone, e-mail, in person. >> reporter: the announcement sent republicans scrambling on capitol hill because without these two, they have just 50 votes. so with 46 democrats and 2 independents expected to vote no, for the first time in history, they could have a tie. vice president mike pence would be forced to break. >> i was trying to get to yes. i couldn't. >> reporter: devos spent millions of her
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personal fortune promoting vouchers and charter schools. >> you never attended a public school, k-12 school, did you? >> correct. a >> and your children have not, correct? >> correct. >> and you've never taught at a k-12 school, correct? >> i have not but i've mentored one. >> reporter: and reports that she plagiarized her answers to senators raising new questions about her qualifications. the white house says that is character assassination and they are 100% certain she will get confirmed, but republicans have had to delay the confirmation of jeff sessions as attorney general because they are going to need his vote as senator to confirm devos. lester? >> kasie hunt for us, thank you. the swift and dramatic remaking of policy by the new administration is shining attention on a member of the president's inner circle who was often seen but rarely heard from publicly. chief white house strategist and former breitbart ceo steve bannon is raising eyebrows now with a move to join the president's top foreign policy advisers. and late today the white house responded to the controversial
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past remarks about islam. andrea mitchell has details. >> reporter: he's at the president's side in nearly every photo op. right there at the signing of those executive orders he helped craft. chief white house strategist steve bannon, aside from the family, first among equals in president trump's power circle. >> what bannon wants, nothing short of a revolution, a populist nationalist revolution in the united states. republican in name but trump in style. >> reporter: bannon's influence stretching from politics to foreign policy. the former head of the controversial website breitbart whose published headlines like birth control makes women unattractive and crazy. now on the national security council principles committee. >> he's got a tremendous understanding of the world in the geopolitical landscape. >> reporter: surprising a retired general who served both presidents bush and obama. how unusual is it that steve bannon has a seat at the table? >> i think it's unprecedented in at least over the last two administrations. >> reporter: bannon often described as brilliant but his power alarming, critics cringe at his past descriptions of
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islam as dark and his warning to the media to keep its mouth shut, his fingerprints on much of what the president has done so far. that extreme vetting order? listen to bannon on breitbart radio in 2015. >> we need to put a stop on refugees until we can vet. >> why even let them in? >> reporter: his anti-islam rhetoric. this afternoon prompting the press secretary to say the president does not agree. >> he understands that it's not a religious problem, it's a radicalization problem. >> reporter: people close to the president say behind bannon's influence, he and president trump share the same instincts, the ultimate outsiders now on the inside. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. we are keeping a close eye on a tense standoff playing out this evening at a state prison in delaware where inmates have been holding a number of guards hostage for hours. at one point smoke was rising from the prison and a local paper received a call from a man claiming to be one of the hostages who relayed demands. authorities have that prison surrounded.
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there's a new alert tonight about identity fraud with a leading cybersecurity group warning that i.d. theft jumped to a whopping 16% last year. while those new credit cards with embedded chips have helped cut down on credit card fraud, determined criminals have just found new ways to steal. here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it happens every second of every day in america, someone's personal identity is stolen. last year, 6 out of every 100 consumers were victimized. while new chip credit cards have cut down on in-store fraud, criminals have simply changed their strategy. >> they went from targeting the retailer and their brick and mortar stores to the retailers' dot-com sites. >> in florida, thieves stole jerry's social security number, then racked up thousands in fraudulent charges. >> using my information, they attempted to open almost 30 accounts, 10 of which they were successful at. >> reporter: so-called account takeover fraud was up a whopping 61% last year.
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a criminal hijacks a victim's account information, then orders new credit cards. also in 2016, a 40% jump in card not present transactions with criminals using stolen credit cards to make online purchases. because so many people use the same user names and passwords, cyberthieves will steal that from a social media site and try it on online banking and shopping and credit cards. >> so don't reuse a password. don't use the same password for your bank as your retail shopping and e-mail. >> reporter: more advice, use long passwords, song lyrics and numbers and even mixing languages. sign up for transaction and fraud alerts offered by your bank and use two-step authentication log-ins that text you verification codes. >> i constantly check my credit reports. >> reporter: geri uncovered leads to track down her thieves but an overwhelmed police department told her it doesn't have the resources to go after the thieves. tom costello, nbc news, washington.
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is helping doctors get the timing just right and it's showing promising results. nbc's kristen dahlgren has details. >> reporter: every time jessica looks into these big, blue eyes, she can't believe it. there was a time she thought she would never be a mom. >> i was never going to have the only thing i always imagined i would be. >> reporter: on paper, everything looked great for ivf treatments. >> everybody kept on telling us, you're perfect and then it didn't happen. >> reporter: four failed treatment cycles. she and husband todd lost hope. and almost $100,000. >> i was seeing her get hurt every single time and i was just like, i didn't want to go through it again. >> reporter: that's when this doctor told them about a new test, an endometrial receptivity analysis, or e.r.a., that determines the best time to transfer an embryo into a woman's uterus. >> there's a 12-hour window either way. the goal is to focus on each woman's window of implantation to
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maximize the chance for any embryo to stick. >> reporter: doctors say the test isn't for everyone but can help up to 20% of patients having frozen embryo transfers. each test can add up to $2,000 to the cost of an ivf cycle. jessica's test showed they had been transferring her embryos about 24 hours too late. and so doctors adjusted that and got not just one baby but two. >> her bottom teeth are about to come in. >> reporter: twins, t.j. and parker, thanks to a new test with perfect timing, they now have their perfect family. >> the missing piece of the puzzle has finally come together. i'm happier than i've ever been. i'm living my dreams. >> reporter: kristen dahlgren, nbc news, stamford, connecticut. we're back in a moment with exciting news for a superstar who had double the surprise for fans today.
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just four days until super bowl li and this year two guests of honor will help kick it off. former president george h.w. bush and wife barbara bush will perform the coin toss at nrg stadium in their hometown of houston. they were both recently hospitalized. the former president just released on monday. he tweeted out today, saying he's getting fired up for sunday. more than 100 million are expected to tune in to super bowl li. as always, there will be plenty of competition for your attention off the field, the much buzzed about commercials. as our kevin tibbles explains, one ad running this year already viewed by millions is causing quite a stir in these politically charged times. >> you don't look like you're from around here. >> reporter: the fabled story of the american dream selling that american football staple, beer. >> welcome to america. >> reporter: budweiser's super bowl ad portrays the journey of the company's co-founder
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adolphus busch who left germany for the united states in 1857. making his way to st. louis and meeting his future partner, eberhard an higheuser. >> thank you. but next time, this is the beer we drink. >> reporter: at a time when immigration is on the minds of many, this american tale struck a nerve on social media. "well-done budweiser. i can't watch your commercial without crying." for others, it fell flat. "this bud's no longer for me. it's activists juice." but budweiser says the ad was a year in the making adding, "we did not set out to create a piece of political commentary, however, we recognize that you can't reference the american dream today without being part of the conversation." >> i do not think you're going to see a lot of politics in the super bowl this year. people would really like to sort of take a break and enjoy the super bowl and enjoy some ads that they find either humorous
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or nostalgic. >> reporter: another brand, weathertech, will once again air an ad touting its made in america products, another issue in the news. but from the brewery that gave us singing frogs, puppies and, of course, clydesdales, a taste of the past with a present day twist. kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. one of last year's super bowl performers had not one but two surprises for fans today. beyonce posted a picture on social media showing her with a baby bump and a message saying, "our family will be growing by two." a hint that she and husband jay z will soon welcome twins and daughter blue ivy is about to become a big sister. when we come back, how lebron james helped inspire a teacher to shake things up with the fifth graders in his class. next at 6: two new storms taking
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shape off the coast. ==raj/vo==we'll tell you how mu expected -- and the areas under the biggest threat of flooding. ==jesvo== and, google ies againt apartments. ild hundrs of the decisiononight that cld move plans forward. ===jess/next clo=== next. finally tonight, we've got a great story about a teacher in north carolina who's found a pretty
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amazing way to relate to his students and many are taking note of his big heart and even bigger memory with his story viewed on social media more than 21 million times so far. our gabe gutierrez has our "inspiring america" report. >> let's get it. let's go. >> reporter: at charlotte's ashley park elementary, attendance is quite the show. >> personalized handshakes. we pride ourselves on high expectations in the classroom and meaningful relationships. >> reporter: one after another after another, at least 40 handshakes, each is unique with the students. >> it really just started with me wanting to bring some joy to my students and now it's blown up. >> reporter: how do you remember every single one? >> at this point, it's muscle memory. we do it so much every day, i may do it with them at lunch, at recess, they do it every day when they come to my class. >> reporter: white may have a famous name but he's one of a kind.
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he grew up in queens, new york, yet he's a huge cleveland cavaliers fan and got the idea from watching lebron james pregame handshake rituals. this is more about a handshake. >> it's definitely about more than just a handshake. it's about impacting the student in a positive way. >> reporter: the students here are mostly lower income. he's just making sure they get a fair shake. >> they come from situations that may not be ideal. >> i felt so inspired because i felt like i'm welcomed in his class. >> you come in and get excited and do a handshake and then you can be all ready. >> reporter: in white's second year teaching, he seems to have found his calling. >> i feel like this is probably the number one job in america. >> reporter: a few moments with him, and you notice a lesson for us all. >> never underrate the value of relationships with anyone. >> reporter: a true educator with just the right touch. gabe gutierrez, nbc news, charlotte. >> give him a hand, america. pretty good. that's going to do it for us on this wednesday night. i'm lester holt.
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for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and good night. we're in a microclimate weather alert. aook at our li sallite radar. 're just hours ao right now at 6:00, we're in a micro climate weather alert. a live look at our satellite rye dare. another round of rain hitting the bay area. >> the news at 6:00 starts right now pop. >> things are starting to pick up at this hour. i want to take you outside, a live look at the bay area. what can we expect over the next 24 hours? >> things will definitely pick
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up after the most recent break we had in the wet weather. you can see the batch of rainfall just off to the south. storm range or our mobil doppler radar, mainly finding light rain um to the north bay. just a few light showers now toward the south bay, also, some hit and miss activepy. we don't think things will look that much different by 11:00 p.m. tonight. we'll likely see things pick up once we hit 5:00 in the morning, with pockets of heavier rainfall developing. a key change in the timing. we want to give you a live look at storm ranger. we'll have another update in 15 minutes. >> highway 17 near vine hill road, you may remember the
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