NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Friday, December 27, 2024

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

New tornadoes reported across the South after outbreak in Texas; U.S. intelligence suggests Russians may have shot down Azerbaijan Airlines plane; Fifth graders learn fine dining at restaurant after viral classroom lesson; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the severe weather during one of the busiest stretches of holiday travel. Tornadoes striking across Texas. The threat not over as parts of the Deep South get hit tonight. The disturbing new video just released. More than a dozen prison workers suspended after an inmate was beaten to death. How did this happen? This just in, the intense turbulence on an Alaska Airlines flight. Medical personnel called in to treat injured fliers.

Plus, our new reporting on the stowaway at Seattle's airport. The simple way she allegedly slipped past security to board a plane. And we'll show you the new changes TSA tells us they're making. The deadly jet crash, our new reporting, U.S. intelligence sources now believe Russians may have thought the plane was a drone and shot it down, killing dozens. You'll hear from the passengers tonight that survived. Remembering sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel, the new and innovative function on some Teslas. But is it safe? What happened when we tried it? The rush to return after a record Black Friday, the warning about new fees if you send something

back, and the kids from Philadelphia who got the meal and surprise of their young lives. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. And good evening. I'm Tom Yamas, in for Lester. Tonight, there is rough weather in the forecast from coast to coast, just as tens of millions of us are set to hit the road again or fly home after the Christmas holiday. In the south, more severe storms tonight. Look at this. After eight tornadoes were reported yesterday in Texas and Louisiana, the severe weather risk increases again this weekend from Texas all the way to Virginia. In the Northeast, it's going to be a washout. While in the West, more rain, snow and strong

winds are expected. And this just in, the intense turbulence, medical personnel called in to treat injured passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight. NBC's Marissa Parra leads us off tonight. Oh, my God. Severe weather on a collision course with some of the busiest travel days of the year. Tonight, twisters reported in Mississippi and Alabama. Oh, my God. Just one day after a tornado outbreak in the south. Among the eight reported across Louisiana and Alabama. Oh my God, just one day after tornado outbreak in the South,

among the eight reported across Louisiana and Texas. It's on the water right now. This one scene in Dayton, an elephant trunk tornado named for its curved and winding bend. Oh my God, another twister in El Campo, catching terrified diners by surprise.

Wind gusts, rain and hail, triggering state emergency resources, and an afternoon ground stop for flights in and out of both Dallas airports. The impacted hubs created a domino effect, leaving hundreds of flights canceled and delayed, and even more frustrated passengers in their wake across the country. Our plane was just canceled. The crowds, the lines, people's tempers.

It's stressful. But the long waits made the long-awaited holiday reunions even sweeter. It's all about spending time together. The South now drying off, but facing tornado risks this weekend as millions in the West brace for severe rain and snow, possibly putting a damper on the record-breaking holiday travel weekend with no signs of slowing. Today and Monday slated to be the busiest days for air travel. Get here early, like extra early. A busy and bumpy travel season in the final sprint of the year.

Marissa Parra joins us now live. And Marissa, I know we have late word that people had to be hospitalized after a turbulent flight. That's right, Tom. Within the last few minutes, we're learning new details about a scary incident up in the air today. Severe weather causing severe turbulence on an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Phoenix. In fact, that turbulence was so severe, apparently, that a medical emergency was reported by crew on board. And within the last few minutes, we just heard from the airlines, they say that several flight attendants did need to get taken to the hospital. The FAA is now investigating.

All right, we hope they're okay tonight. Marissa, we thank you. Now to the death of an inmate at a prison in New York after he was beaten by corrections officers. Today, New York's attorney general released body cam video and called what happened shocking and disturbing. Here's Sam Brock. And a warning. This video is graphic. Newly released shocking video shows these correctional officers fatally beating an inmate, Robert Brooks. The footage, blurred and redacted by state

authorities, shows officers repeatedly kicking and punching Brooks in the legs and chest and trying to jam an object down his throat. New York's attorney general says Brooks was pronounced dead December 10th, a day after these interactions with correctional officers was recorded. I do not take lightly the release of this video. James says the video doesn't have audio because the officers involved failed to properly activate their body cameras. It begins with Brooks being carried inside, handcuffed, and face down.

He's then raised up, face bloodied, and punched in various parts of his body. Brooks was serving a 12-year sentence for stabbing his girlfriend. His attorney says his death is incomprehensible. I was there with Mr. Brooks' son and his father and his brother. They all watched the video as well, and I think it was just the overwhelming shock. Just it was just felt so incomprehensible. NBC News has not been able to reach attorneys for the 14 people under investigation. But the president for the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, adding in a sharply worded statement, the egregious and repugnant action of the officers who committed this heinous and fatal assault

does not in any way reflect the values of the vast majority of correction officers, including my members. 13 personnel are currently suspended without pay. Another has resigned as the investigation continues. And yet, Tom, there are still questions tonight about what happened that led to the beating that we just saw. Tom. Sam Brock with that disturbing new video just released. There are new details tonight about the movements of the woman who evaded security and got herself on a Delta plane in Seattle. The second time the airline recently faced a stowaway breaching security. Morgan Chesky joins us now in studio. And Morgan, I know we've obtained new images and we have a better sense of the timeline of how this happened. Yeah, Tom, we really do. In fact, TSA says that they've already increased some barriers at SeaTac Airport. We have

some photos just in tonight. These show brand new plexiglass barriers and stanchions specifically around those ID security check areas. As for how this woman actually pulled it off, a source with knowledge of the situation says she bypassed TSA ID check, but did go through the normal security screening and then spent the night at the airport. The next day, Port of Seattle police say she got on board that Delta flight without a scanned ticket. And when Delta realized what happened, everyone was asked to deploy. Now, Tom, police tell us they used airport surveillance video to track this woman to a terminal bathroom. That's where they apprehended her and charged her with criminal trespass. Tom. All right, Morgan Chesky with some new reporting there. Morgan, we appreciate it. We now want to turn to the deadly crash of that airliner on a flight from Azerbaijan.

U.S. military officials now say there's intelligence indicating the Russians may have shot it down thinking it was a drone. Courtney Kuby tonight with new reporting. Tonight, new information and new images as the investigation into the fiery Azerbaijan Airlines crash moves forward. This video showing confused passengers, some standing in the aisle after oxygen masks dropped and something appeared to tear through the cabin, peeling away sections of the wall. This man saying he heard a loud bang and began praying. This survivor saying she felt two explosions, then saw a man injured by the blasts and panicked. The plane was headed to the Chechen capital of Grozny, but instead crashed into a field in Kazakhstan.

Dazed passengers miraculously emerging from the fiery wreckage. Now the U.S. has intelligence indicating the Russians may have misidentified the airliner, believing it was an incoming drone, and shot it down, according to two U.S. military officials. Just hours earlier, Russian air defenses shooting down a Ukrainian drone only 70 miles away. Russian air defense forces in the Norse Caucasus Federal District, which includes Chechnya, were defending against a Ukrainian military-grade weaponized drone attack, and that involved air defenses being used to shoot down drones. Holes like these in the fuselage could be the result of an air defense missile exploding near the aircraft, the officials said, sending shrapnel hurling at the plane. Russian officials initially

attributed the crash to an apparent bird strike, but Today said that Ukrainian combat drones were mounting terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the area. Today, Azerbaijan Airlines said the jet crashed after experiencing physical and technical external interference, and they've suspended flights to several Russian cities as the investigation continues. Courtney Kuby, NBC News, the Pentagon. In Gaza, chaos and devastation today at a hospital raided by Israeli forces who claimed it was being used by Hamas militants. Gaza's health ministry said the idea forcibly removed health workers. And tonight, a highly personal view of the war through the

eyes of one girl Richard Engel met more than three years ago. All Nadine Abdel-Latif and her brother Jude have ever known is war. Gaza, their home, is referred to by many as an open-air prison. And since Hamas took over the area 18 years ago, it has seen conflict after conflict. I'm 13 years old and I've lived many wars. I mean, to the point that I lost count. Isn't this your little brother? I first met Nadine and Jude in Gaza City back in 2021, after 11 days of Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas. How does it make you feel to see all of this just around the corner from your house? I'm scared. I'm hiding this from my little brother. I don't want him to know that I'm always scared.

Nadine, who learned English watching TV, told me she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. Jude said he was going to be a builder to fix all the destroyed buildings. But Gaza was never rebuilt, and this current war has turned it into a wasteland. This is my home. This is my home. Is this how any child's home should look like? Israel ordered the family, like everyone else, to move south. But there wasn't enough room on the bus, so Nadine's older brother Ahmed stayed behind. Soon after, he was killed by an Israeli airstrike. Well, we have to be strong, right? Yeah. Don't cry, okay? Don't cry. You're gonna make me cry. Hey, don't cry. I know he's gone, but he's still in our hearts, right? So, no crying. No

crying. He is my best brother. Death nearly came calling again in July, when Jude came down with hepatitis. It was absolutely the hardest part of my life, and I was definitely afraid of losing him. It's one of many diseases spreading because of poor sanitation, polluted water, and overcrowding, because Israel has crammed nearly all of the 2.2 million Gazans into a few so-called humanitarian zones. This war has been especially hard on children, who make up around half the population. More than 16,000 have been killed so far, according to Gaza's Hamas-run government. Many more are injured and limbless, And almost all of them are homeless. Nadine, Jude and their parents have been displaced five times and now live in central Gaza.

Here we have a camp. There is no school. Instead, each day is a fight for survival. The water is quite dirty, but there's no water. Nadine says Jude's mental health is getting worse. He wants to ride his scooter and play with his friends. But children in Gaza can't have a childhood. And the trauma they're going through will outlast the fighting.

I want to see my brother again. We can see him, just we have to wait and be patient. When we can see him? You gotta be patient so we can see him. Richard Engel, NBC News, Jerusalem. And we thank Richard and his team for bringing us back that story. We turn now to some sad news for sports fans. Greg Gumbel, the acclaimed broadcaster for CBS and NBC Sports, has died at the age of 78.

His family telling CBS Sports that he died after a battle with cancer. He went over fans for decades by leading coverage of NFL games, Super Bowls and the Olympics. We'll take a break. And in 60 seconds, the Tesla cars that will come right to you. No driver needed. But is this smart summon app up to the task? We'll show you. We're back now with the feature that lets a parked car come to you. No driver needed. Susan Hogan of our News 4 Washington station found this app doesn't always lead to a smooth ride. A quick trip to a Maryland mall was anything but smooth this summer for Tamara Meyer.

This is where the car ran into my bumper. She was parked sitting in her car when all of a sudden, bam! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Or more like what she wasn't seeing. I saw no one in the car. There was no driver, no passenger. It was an empty car that was driving itself into my car. And it kept going. And it kept going after impact. The car that hit Tamara was a Tesla, the vehicle scraping her car as it pulled out. What was the car owner's reaction when this all happened? He was as shocked as I was. We talked to the owner of the Model Y

Tesla. He didn't want to go on camera, but he did tell us he was trying out a new feature in an app that he's never used before. It's called Summon. And with the press of a button, the car is supposed to park itself and come to you. Tesla put out an updated version called Smart Summon, which allows the car to actually steer itself and find the driver within 200 feet using the phone's GPS. On its website, Tesla points out the apps are in beta feature, which means still in development. They're just not ready for prime time. Michael Brooks with the Center for Auto Safety says he believes releasing any

beta feature to the public is just dangerous. They're releasing them too early before they've been, you know, validated as safe, before they've been validated to work properly even. We wanted to see how the Smart Summon feature works. We traveled to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the organization known for crash testing vehicles and safety ratings, where David Ehler, the Institute's VP of Safety Testing, demonstrated for us. So I'm going to open my app. I'm going to select the summon feature. It come to me. And as long as I'm holding this button down, the vehicle will move. If I want

the vehicle to stop, I need to release the button. And first time, no problem. The car pulled right up to us. It says the summon is complete. A different story on the second try. We've got it between these rows of vehicles and if it uh... It couldn't seem to figure out which way to go. Dad, I decided to have it stop. On the third attempt, it almost turned into another vehicle. I'm gonna stop that. On our final try, it almost jumped the curb. This begs the question, why is this in beta? The whole concept of beta is that it's still learning. Tesla's still learning, right?

And it's using these scenarios to learn from that. Tesla did not respond to our request for comment, but online, the company says when owners use the Summon app, they must familiarize themselves with limitations of Smart Summon, that the app is intended for use only on parking lots and driveways located on private property, and that the operator must maintain a clear line of sight, continually monitor the vehicle to avoid close calls like the one Tamara had. I'm so thankful I wasn't standing near my car. Accidents like the one with Tamara's car are getting the attention

of the auto industry, raising questions. Who's to blame when no one is behind the wheel, Tom? All right. We thank Susan for that report. And we're back in a moment with the rush to return those holiday gifts, the new fees you need to watch out for. That's next. Welcome back with the holiday gifts unwrapped. now comes the rush back to the store for returns. Brian Chung on why some returns have never been easier and some now have a catch. After a record-breaking Black Friday weekend, many of those gifts that ended up under the tree are now headed back to the cash register. $300 worth of returns here. I want to get it back. I want the refund. Be it the wrong color.

I got a sweatshirt in black gold and I want it in just black. Or the wrong sizes, didn't want some of it. Yeah, wrong style. Some companies now offering more options for refunds or exchanges. Amazon allowing returns at Whole Foods, even some staple stores. And Happy Returns

works with a network of retailers to process returns for free at places like Ulta. You just come here and it scans through really easy. We take care of all the other stuff. And that can be anything. Did you ever think you'd be bringing scrubs to a cosmetic store? Yes, because I did this before. With what? Another pair of scrubs? Oh, you had another pair of scrubs. Yeah. But with more returns heading back into stores, retailers facing rising costs are punting some With what? Another pair of scrubs? for select items. I think retailers are looking for a way to correct our behavior, especially for those of us who buy many things at once and only keep one. Experts advise return in-store to avoid fees and wait until after the new year to avoid the massive crowds. And as always, hold on to

those receipts. And as a reminder, a lot of retailers offer extended return windows for things purchased during the holiday times at Amazon and Walmart. You have as late as January 31st to bring those goods back. Tom. All right. Some good tips there, Brian. We thank you for that. When we return, the class of fifth graders and their first taste of fine dining, the meal none of us will ever forget. Finally, tonight, they came dressed in their finest. The steaks were served on white linens. And for the group of fifth graders there to learn about fine dining, a lesson in something more. Here's Rahima Ellis.

In the city of brotherly love at one of its fancy restaurants. Hi, my name is Charis. I have a reservation for 1130. Fifth graders getting a taste of something new. Can I get you started with a Walter Preffens? Their first ever fine dining experience, and these students came prepared. They knew the right utensils to use, how to place their linen napkins. Thanks to Patrice Lamar Bay, a beloved teacher. I'm going to call you up. Who goes beyond traditional lessons with dining etiquette classes.

Where does it go? It is not just about fine dining, is it? No. Showing them that there is another world beyond their household, beyond the school. There is another world out there that you can get, you can obtain, and you deserve it. After a video of her classroom-based restaurant went viral, she decided to raise money to give the kids the real thing. What do you think about Ms. Spey?

She's the best. They had a three-course meal, including Shirley Temple's and... The filet mignon. The filet mignon? It smells so good. So it's beyond expectations. Yes, it is. Then, when it was time to go, a surprise.

We took care of lunch today. Capital Grill picked up the tab, so money Ms. Bay raised can go to classroom needs instead. Another serving of generosity, leaving a teacher overwhelmed, students overjoyed. Thank you! For Hema Ellis, students overjoyed. Rahima Ellis, NBC News, Philadelphia. And we thank Ms. Spade for having such a great idea. And we thank you for watching Nightly News on this Friday. I'm Tom Yamas in New York. Have a great night.