NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Friday, May 23, 2025

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

Trump threatens new tariffs on iPhones; Record number of travelers expected this holiday weekend; Judge blocks Trump administration from banning international students at Harvard; and more on tonight's broadcast.

Tonight's storm set to disrupt the record holiday travel rush. The summer travel crush kicks off a major test for America's airports, especially at Newark after the FAA reduced flights. Plus, when's the best time to hit the road and the severe weather in the forecast this weekend? President Trump's new tariff threat demanding Apple start making iPhones in the U.S. Will it impact the price you pay? And the moment his own iPhone started ringing in the Oval Office. Another escape from a

Louisiana jail, an inmate facing homicide and other charges, making a run for it after scaling a fence and the new arrests after last week's jailbreak. The action taken against 18 Army instructors after soldiers fired weapons in front of a crowd at a beach, a verdict in the Kim Kardashian jewelry heist trial in Paris, and the heartbreaking news we received about the husband of our Today Show colleague Chanel Jones after his brave fight against cancer. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Now to the kickoff to the summer travel season, Americans are

jamming the roads and packing the nation's airports in anticipated record breaking numbers. Aaron McLaughlin now with the great holiday weekend getaway. More than 45 million people an all time record are expected to travel 50 miles or more this holiday weekend, according to Triple A. It's just awful. Uh, four accidents already that I passed today. What's happening out there? I don't know. Bumper to bumper. It's very scary stuff. Despite the rainy roads and chillier than average temps in the northeast, it is 53 degrees and raining at the end

of May. I didn't want to see this jacket again until December what TSA expecting to screen 18 million passengers around the holiday all eyes on the troubled Newark Airport After a recent series of disturbing communication outages United Airlines today reported immediate improvement in arrival delays After the FAA cut back the number of flights per hour. In Dallas, long lines greeted passengers this morning, some delayed by a suspicious item that brought out the bomb squad on top of the rush of the nation's largest airports. I made it like five minutes to spare to get on the plane. Yeah, so I was rushing and it was ridiculous. New requirements for travels. The TSA says the real I. D.

Rollout has been successful. 93% of passengers are presenting a real ID or another couple from the by the and if you don't have one encourage you just to come a little early because we're giving extra screening. The record number of travelers including me on my way from New York City to New Jersey and it's bumper to bumper. This Memorial Day weekend nearly 9 out of 10 travelers are driving.

39.4 million in total, a million more than last year. Helping move the drivers along, gas prices. At $3.20 a gallon on average, well below this time last year. And for folks out west, stunning cliffside views just in time for Memorial Day. The famed Pacific Coast Highway now open, months after the devastating fires.

And Erin, for those already at their weekend destinations, any guidance for the best time to try and travel home? Well Lester, AAA says your best shot at avoiding holiday traffic like this is to travel in the morning. And if you are heading home on Monday, try to take off before 2 p.m. with peak congestion being from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Lester. Okay Erin thank you. Let's get straight to Bill Karens now with the holiday weekend forecast. Bill good evening. Lester I'd love to tell people we're gonna have a beautiful weekend with no problems. It's never that easy never that easy. Well the West Coast looks pretty good the East Coast improving especially in the Northeast all weekend long. All the big issues are gonna develop right in the middle of the country.

And these are the same people that are trying to recover from that severe weather and tornado outbreak earlier this week. We're talking areas from Oklahoma, Arkansas, into Tennessee, and eventually drifting down to areas around Dallas too. So this is in the Sunday. And then for your picnic plans and parade plans on Memorial Day, heavy rain focuses in the same region once again with some isolated severe storms

So if we're gonna get any really major flooding over the holiday weekend this area in blue is where it will happen So we're going from North Texas all the way back up into the Ozarks in the southern, Missouri And the bullseye is right here from Tulsa to Springfield Joplin southwards down the Little Rock Someone is gonna end up with almost eight inches of rain by Monday. All right, Bill Kerins, thank you. We turn now to the latest in the trade war with President Trump threatening new tariffs today, including on iPhones, unless Apple does not start making them here in the U.S. Here's Peter Alexander.

President Trump tonight is threatening to escalate his trade war, targeting some of America's closest allies and one of its biggest brands Apple. Yeah, phone if they can is selling in America I want to be built in the United States. If not the president warns he'll slap a 25% tariff on Apple's most popular product that same import tax he says would apply to all other smartphones built overseas the

president revealing his conversation with Apple CEO Tim Cook who he met with days ago says going to India to build plans to say that's OK to go to India, but you're not going to sell into you with that. President Trump's announcement today briefly interrupted. It's only a congressman his own iPhone ringing twice. The president also warning he would impose a 50% tariff on products from the European Union

beginning June 1st because trade talks he says are going nowhere. It's time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game, you know nobody they take advantage of other people representing this country and they're not going to do that any longer. The threats injecting new chaos into America's trade relationships analysts were an iPhone made in the U.S. could cost consumers up to $3500 arguing it's unrealistic that

production move stateside anytime soon. It's a fairy tale that Apple will be able to produce iPhones in the U.S. in the next 3 to 4 years. As for that other terroriff threat in Kansas City, Trent Austin sells tubas, trombones and trumpets. A third of his instruments come from the EU. What impact do the threat of these tariffs have on someone like you? I think they paralyze our future planning.

We cannot plan for the future until something is set in stone. Austin says he supports the idea of Trump's tariffs if it means more goods are produced here, but warns in the near term Americans are going to pay more. There's no way we can get around this. Everything's going to cost more. That is the absolute certainty. And Peter, a lot of moving parts here tonight. The US and China have agreed to keep their trade talks going.

Yeah, that in itself is progress. Officials from the two countries late this week, Lester, did speak as they try to hash out that broader deal. With the president's latest tariff threat against the EU, European nations could soon face a larger tariff than China after the president knocked down their import tax on Chinese goods, Lester, earlier this month. All right, Peter, thank you. Now to that manhunt in Louisiana, a week after 10 inmates escaped from a jail in New Orleans, several are still on the run and now we're learning about an escape at a

different jail nearby. Here's George Solis. Tonight, yet another brazen breakout from a jail just outside New Orleans. Authorities say this video shows 22-year-old Trevon Johnson scaling a fence with a boost from another inmate, then making a run for it. He took advantage of a vulnerable moment and seized it. It was a comedy of errors. 22-year-old Johnson is facing homicide and other charges. The sheriff said he escaped after inmates flooded a cell with water and a back door

was opened. My message to Mr. Trevon Johnson is that we will find you, and my best advice to you is to turn yourself in. Meanwhile, five inmates are still on the loose after last week's jailbreak in New Orleans. Authorities announcing three more arrests of people they say aided the inmates, one a fellow inmate. While on the outside, Casey Smith admitted helping transport two inmates to multiple locations after they broke out, according to police. And authorities say Connie Weeden was in contact with inmate Jermaine Donald before and after his escape and gave him cash via a phone app. Louisiana Attorney General

Liz Murrell says a network of family and friends may be helping the men avoid capture. We've looked at those kinds of connections and connection with all of the people from the very beginning to try and trace down those people that they might reach out to and rely on for help. So far, there's been one arrest in this most recent escape. The sheriff tonight saying this was the inmate's

second escape from the same jail in a year. Lester. George Solis, thank you. We're following also tonight the president's standoff with Harvard University. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's effort to ban international students from enrolling there. Andrea Mitchell has been following this. Andrea, what's the latest tonight? Lester, less than 24 hours after the administration ordered Harvard to stop

admitting international students, a federal judge has swiftly stepped in and granted Harvard's request to put a temporary hold on the order after Harvard argued that banning thousands of new and returning students, a quarter of their student body, would throw their lives into disarray and result in canceling countless academic programs. Harvard, in its brief, also called the Trump order a blatant violation of the First Amendment and claimed without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard. President Trump said today Harvard is going to have to change its ways. So are some others.

Lester? Andrie Mitchell, thanks. We're learning more tonight about the suspect and the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington. What authorities are calling a terror attack? Erin Gilchrist has that story. Tonight, more details are emerging in the deadly shooting outside Washington's Capitol Jewish Museum, where Israeli embassy staffers Sarah Milgram and Yaron Lashinsky

were killed Wednesday night after leaving a Young Diplomats event. Investigators alleging in court documents that surveillance cameras captured Elias Rodriguez walking past the victims before pulling a gun from his waistband and firing several shots. The documents say Rodriguez then stood over them, appearing to reload and firing several more rounds before tossing the gun and going into the museum. I go up to him and I say, are you okay? And he goes, I call the police, call the police, I'm okay.

Paige Siegel attended the event and says she became suspicious and continued to question Rodriguez before he became agitated and grabbed his backpack as police approached. He's screaming free Palestine, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. I start screaming, get him out, get him out. And I'm like screaming to the police, like check his bag, check his bag. Investigators have interviewed Rodriguez and say they're still piecing together his life, trying to talk to people who knew him. Back at the museum, a growing memorial outside to honor the shooting victims. A close friend remembering Sarah as being full of joy and compassion.

These were two beautiful souls that worked for peace and that worked to build our community day in and day out. And so to have them being taken away from us in this horrific manner, it just makes no sense. Your own listens keys remains arrived back in Israel earlier today for a short memorial service with his family and a private burial. Lester? Aaron Gilchrist, tonight, thank you. In 60 seconds, shocking video on a Florida beach. The new action taken after soldiers fired their weapons in front of a crowd. We'll have the latest on that investigation.

Tonight 18 U.S. Army instructors are under investigation after they allegedly fired a barrage of blank rounds from a boat in front of a beach crowd in Florida. Jesse Kersh now with the alarming video. The video showed an apparent, uniformed American soldier pointing a rifle to the sky and opening fire in the Florida Panhandle's crowded waters. The incident happened last Friday just near Crab Island, but now these videos are circulating widely. And tonight the US Army says those gunshots appear to be blanks, but the consequences for the soldiers are real. A military spokesman confirming to NBC News that 18 soldiers with the

Six Ranger Training Battalion were temporarily decertified as instructors after they allegedly fired blank rounds from their weapons at a public beach. My group was was freaks and they were freaked out. Charter boat captain Cameron Ellsworth says he witnessed the bizarre incident with several passengers. Ellsworth also says he took this photo, which he says shows some soldiers chugging beers. Is there any explanation that could justify that behavior? No. I mean, you could go out there and have a good time in your uniforms without shooting assault rifles into the air.

Now, as the investigation continues, the soldier's responsibilities remain unclear. Jesse Kirsch, NBC News. We're back in a moment with an update on that small plane crash in San Diego, the new details about what went wrong on the ground. Plus, the verdict just reached nearly a decade after the armed robbery of Kim Kardashian in Paris. That's next. Back now with an update on Thursday's deadly small plane crash in San Diego.

NTSB investigators saying that the weather alert system and runway lights were not working on the ground, but added that the cause of the crash remains unclear. All passengers were killed when a Cessna private jet crashed into a military housing complex. Also, tonight, the Rust movie armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, was released from prison in New Mexico. Reed was the armorer on the Rust movie set in 2021 with Alec Baldwin and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the death of cinematographer Helena Hutchins. It comes more than a year after Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18

months in prison. And overseas there was a verdict in the Kim Kardashian armed robbery trial today. Most of the suspects were found guilty on charges of planning and carrying out the robbery at her apartment during Paris Fashion Week back in 2016. Kardashian thanked French authorities, calling the crime the most terrifying experience of her life. When we come back, we're honoring a loving father and the beloved husband

of our friend and colleague, Chanel Jones. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Jones. We have some sad news to share with you tonight involving a member of our family, Uche Oje, the husband of the Today Show's Chanel Jones, has died after a courageous battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Tonight we remember Uche with those who loved him. Here's Jill Fryer. Uche Oje was a high school senior when in the 90s he paid a visit to Northwestern

University. There he met a freshman named Chanel Jones who pretended to be a tour guide so she could show the cute visitor around campus. It was a tour that would last nearly 30 years from his enrollment to their engagement who change should now became college sweethearts eventually tying the knot in 2007. They had 3 children Kai and their oldest and twins Clara and little. Uche. He loved those kids more than anything else in this world and was just so proud of his kids was he was that dad that was on

the sideline and every soccer game he was at all of the concerts, the recitals he was that guy. A guy who also loved soccer singing in the church choir and teaching his kids about their Nigerian heritage family was Uche's guiding force and Chanel his perfect match. The partnership that a couple years ago powered Uche through a triathlon and then weeks later helped Chanel finish her first marathon. The finish line merely an obstacle to her true reward.

His beaming pride abundantly clear. It's a light that refused to fade, even as he battled a ruthless form of brain cancer. Uche had a beautiful, deep, abiding faith every single day of this fight. And you could see it in his eyes. He was an extraordinary person. A quiet warrior who visited a college and found his calling in every way imaginable.

Our hearts are with our dear colleague and friend. That's Nightly News for this Friday. Thank you for watching. I'm Lester Hull. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.