Nightly News Full Broadcast – March 24

tonight the U.S launching airstrikes inSyria after a deadly attack on Americansthe U.S hitting multiple targets after asuspected iran-link drone attack killedan American contractor and wounded fiveU.S troops at a base in Northeast Syriaour reporting the key radar system thatwas down at the time did not leave thebase open to attack also tonight thescare at the office of the Manhattan D.Ainvestigating Donald Trump thesuspicious powder and threatening letterdiscovered police hauling Hazmat bagsfrom the building it comes as Mr Trumpwarns of death and destruction if he'scharged for a hush money payment and thenew blow for Mr Trump and the specialcounsel's January 6th investigationsevere storms more than 30 million underthe threat of a potential tornadooutbreak and heavy flooding from Texasto West Virginia we're tracking itPresident Biden and Canadian PrimeMinister Justin Trudeau announcing amajor immigration deal will it stem therecord surge of migrants at America'snorthern border when it's Paltrow takingthe stand at a Utah trial the man suingthe actress over a skiing accident andour series AI Revolution the rapidlydeveloping technology that can literallyread your mindthis is NBC Nightly News with LesterHoltgood evening and welcome we begin withAmerican warplanes in action over Syriaconducting what officials call Precisionairstrikes in response to a drone attackagainst Americans that killed one U.Scontractor and wounded five servicemembers President Biden ordering theretaliatory strikes U.S officials sayingthe targets were linked to Iran'srevolutionary guard Corps the U.S sayingthe base for the Americans wereoperating in eastern Syria was struck bya one-way drone believed to be ofIranian origin tonight three defenseofficials telling NBC News one of TheRadars used to warn of incoming threatswas down for maintenance at the time ofthe attack the U.S meantime calling aseparate rocket attack against anotherCoalition base this morning ineffectivewith no American casualties PeterAlexander is traveling with thepresident in Canada tonightnew details about that deadly droneattack that killed an Americancontractor on a base in Syria launchedby pro-iranian forces and now a newinvestigation looking into how it couldhave happened with NBC News learning oneof The Radars used to detect incomingthreats and protect the base was downfor maintenance at the time of the Dronestrike according to three U.S defenseofficials it's not clear whether thatfactored into the Drone reaching apopulated part of the base the Pentagonsaying U.S intelligence believes theDrone was of Iranian origin sixAmericans were wounded five of themservice members the raining backmilitant groups used an unmanned aerialvehicle to strike one of our facilitiescausing several American casualtieswhile aboard Air Force One PresidentBiden ordering U.S retaliation with whatthe Pentagon describes as Precisionstrikes by two f-15s on sites used bygroups affiliated with Iran's Islamicrevolutionary guard including a U.Sdefense official says buildings housingdrone and Aviation assets and vehiclesused by those groups the United Statesdoes not does not emphasize seekconflict with Iran but be prepared forus to act forcefully protect our peoplethat's exactly what happened last nightroughly 900 American troops and hundredsof contractors are stationed in Syriahelping Kurdish forces in the fightagainst Isis those Americans underconstant threat 78 attacks on baseshousing U.S and Coalition troops in Iraqand Syria over the last two years manyof them U.S Central Command says carriedout by Iran or iranian-backed groups andjust hours after the U.S retaliatedanother attack on a separate Coalitionbase 10 Rockets but U.S officials say nocasualties this rocket attack was donein an effort to retaliate from lastnight's attacks again they did not causeany damage at the Coalition facilityand late tonight we just learned thatseveral more Rockets were fired atanother Coalition base in Syria injuringone American Service member Lester andPeters we said you're traveling with thepresident he just announced a newimmigration agreement with Canadayeah that's right the deal is designedto deter the record number of migrantsCrossing into the U.S from Canada at thenorthern border it's significant becauseit allows both Canada and the U.S tosend back illegal border crossers butLester to be clear the number ofmigrants Crossing through Canada palesin comparison to the number crossing thesouthern border Lester all right PeterAlexander thank you also developingtonight a letter containing a deaththreat and white powder sent to theManhattan district attorney as heconsiders criminal charges againstformer president Trump Ken delaneyanjoins me now Ken what more do we knowabout thisLester the FBI has joined the NYPD ininvestigating a letter containing athreat to kill Manhattan D.A Alvin Braggofficers today were at his office Braggis overseeing that investigation intoformer president Trump regarding thathush money payment police say the letterwas postmarked Tuesday from Orlando andcontained white powder that authoritiesdetermined was not dangerous all this isMr Trump has been ratcheting up therhetoric on social media overnightwarning of a potential death anddestruction if he is charged he alsoshowed images of him holding a baseballbat near Bragg's head those posts comingbefore the death threat was mailed butthere are still concerns tonight asenior New York law enforcement officialtelling us Bragg has received a coupleof dozen serious threats and Kenmeantime Mr Trump suffered some setbacksin that special counsel that separateinvestigationyeah Lester a judge ruled that Mr Trumpcould not use executive privilege toShield his former Chief of Staff MarkMeadows and seven other former aidesfrom testifying to the grand juryexamining January 6th and that samejudge ordered Mr Trump's own lawyer totestify today in the case about thoseclassified documents found at Mar-A-Lagoa significant blow to Mr Trump's legalTeam all right Ken Delaney and tonightthank you a potentially dangerous nightof violent storms ahead for millions inparts of the South and Southeast aturbulent morning Northwest of Dallastoday as a possible tornado sweptthrough while in Missouri more flashflooding today after two people werekilled in a flood last night Bill Cairnsis here now Bill how severe is a threatwe're looking at yeah good evening lastyear we're going to watch the next fourhours being the peak of this possibletornado event we have a tornado watchuntil midnight this means we can havestrong tornadoes even after Sunset whichof course is extremely dangerous we'regoing from Memphis all the way down toJackson Mississippi back to Monroe andthrough portions of eastern Arkansas thenasty line of storms just went throughthe Little Rock area this area in red iswhere we're targeting the greatest riskof not just tornadoes but potential ofone or two strong tornadoes that couldbe on the ground for a long time thoseare the ones that do the most damagethey're the most destructive andtypically the most deadly that's whatwe're hoping to avoid this evening andon top of all of this the flash floodingis horrendous right now in Little Rockand areas of Northern Arkansas this willcontinue along the Ohio river and thenfinally the worst piece of this we stillhave a snowstorm Lester our friends inMilwaukee are going to wake up to eightinches of snow possibly tomorrow morningall right if they don't want to hearthat I'm sure no they don't Bill thanksvery much in Park City Utah late todayactress and business Mogul GwynethPaltrow took the witness stand defendingherself in a lawsuit by a man who claimsshe crashed into him in a skiingaccident and severely injured him here'sKaylee Hartunghi Gwyneth Paltrow taking the stand in aUtah courtroom facing accusations ofrecklessly crashing into another skieron the slopes of the Posh Deer ValleyResort seven years ago allegedly causinghim permanent brain damage and otherserious injuries Mr Sandersoncategorically hit me on that ski slopeand that is the truth and I'm sure thatthat's what you believe I'm not sayingbecause it's the truth the actressturned lifestyle Guru and 76 year oldTerry Sanderson a retired optometristhave completely different accounts ofwhat happened that day I was skiing andtwo skis came between my skis forcing mylegs apart and then there was a bodypressing against me and there was a verystrange grunting noise Sanderson is notyet testified his legal team leaning ona neurologist and biomedical engineerwho claims by the laws of physicsPaltrow is to blame there's only onescenario that would accountor enough Force applications crackingthose ribs and that would be this outrostriking Mr Sanderson from behind andthen falling on top of them down towardsthe right side ontothe right side of this torso the defensesearching for what they call the mostimportant piece of evidence the night ofthe incident sanderson's daughter Sheawriting in an email I can't believe thisis all on GoPro but now she claims itnever existed I've never seen GoProvideo and it does not exist as far as Iknow through four days of proceedingsPaltrow's attorneys claiming Sandersonis now exaggerating his injuries andfaking for gain we are defending a falseallegation and we need your help webelieve it to be utter BS butsanderson's legal team refuting thatthis has completely changed his lifephysically emotionallybiologically psychologically andsocially Paltrow maintaining thatSanderson has always been responsibleand says he knows it too I said youskied directly into my effing back andhe said oh sorry sorry I'm sorryKaylee Hartung joins us now Kayleebeyond the he said she said part of thetestimony what's at stake herewell Lester ultimately it's up to thejury to decide who has the more crediblestory here and as for what's at stakeSanderson initially sued palatro formore than three million dollars but thecomplaint was amended and he's nowasking for at least three hundredthousand while Paltrow has countersuedfor one dollar in Damages Lester allright Kaylee hard time thank you stayingin Utah now for our next story withsocial media playing such a big role inthe lives of our kids the state wantslimits groundbreaking new legislationwill try to curb their time on certainplatforms and require kids to give theirparents access other states May soonfollow here's Miguel almaguerwhen it goes into effect next yearchildren and teenagers in Utah couldlose access to their social mediaaccounts or face a barrage ofrestrictions aimed at shielding themfrom platforms some call addictive anddangerous the law just signed by Utah'sGovernor is expected to face legalchallenges because of the wide-rangingimpact on companies like tick tockInstagram Snapchat and Facebook inaddition to requiring age verificationand giving parents access to theirchildren's accounts the law prohibitskids under 18 from using social mediabetween 10 30 pm and 6 30 a.m nicolenePeck is a mother of four I think it's amove in a really good direction thatempowers parents to have hardconversations with their children aboutwhat's going on online and helps them beinvolved you may not care that your datais being accessed now but it will be oneday when you do care about it aslawmakers raise security and privacyissues concerning Tech Giants severalstates are following Utah's lead tolimit harmful effects of social media onTeen Mental Health it could be difficultto enforce the law some of it I I don'tthink will be we have some really strictparental control tools with some callingthe legislation unconstitutional and aninfringement on Free Speech meta whichowns Facebook says it's committed tokeeping teens safe and will work withpolicy makers tonight groundbreakinglegislation and the social experimentwill it work Miguel almaguer NBC News in60 seconds with a surge in summer travelexpected there could be one big problemfor many Travelers but wait time for anew passport will tell you what you needto know right after thisif you're hoping to travelinternationally this year and you don'talready have a passport be warnedgetting one could take months here's TomCostellocountdown to Vacation 2023 and apost-pandemic surge of Americans goingInternational but if you don't have avalid passport beware the statedepartment reports an unprecedented fivehundred thousand passport renewalapplications each week 30 to 40 percentmore than last year and that means bigdelays we're looking for a regularpassportum about 10 to 13 weeks and for anexpedited passport about seven uh tonine weeks flag that regular passportrenewals can take three plus months ifyou expedite it can take more than twomonths why the backlog passport demandtanked during the pandemic so the statedepartment reassigned or laid offpassport staff now they're Staffing upand adding extra offices to meet demandwe are receiving frantic calls andOutreach from a lot of our constituentsCJ Leonard bought her ticket to visitfriends in Ireland and use the onlineportal to renew her passport two monthsbefore departure then waited and waitedthen spent hours on the phone and gother congresswoman involved her expeditedpassport arrived just in time until Igot on the plane I really didn't think Iwas going because of all this so it wasreallyexciting to get to get the passport theadvice from the travel pros I wouldn'tbook your vacation until you've actuallygot the passport the state departmenthas been testing out a new online portalfor renewals but that system has someglitches and now it's offline state ishoping that it will be up later thisyear all the more reason to get yourpaperwork in early Lester all right Tomthank you for that up next the closeapproach of an asteroid described as thesize of a skyscraper plus usingartificial intelligence to read yourmind it's already here in our series AIRevolutionforeign[Music]visitor in the skies this weekendscientists say an asteroid roughly thesize of a skyscraper will be visible asit passes our planet halfway betweenEarth and the Moon its size andcloseness making a glimpse with atelescope possible no need to worryscientists tell us it will still be morethan a hundred thousand miles away and asurprise show in the sky the northernlights that usually occur in the Arcticappearing overnight in the lower 48.dazzling as far south as Virginia andArizona they were brought by thestrongest solar storm in more than fiveyears and out of our series AIRevolution and the astounding speed atwhich artificial intelligence is growingJake Ward on the research showing how AIcould actually be able to read your mindon the campus of the National Universityof Singapore Professor Helen Zhao and ateam of researchers say artificialintelligence is letting them see well aversion of our thoughtsthis subject demonstrated the processour colleague Eric right now is insidethe scanner using a database of fmriscans the AI first got to see whatpeople's brains looked like as theyviewed more than 1 000 photos then itwas shown only brain scans as thesubjects looked at new photos using aspecial language of brain activity theteam developed an image generator calledstable diffusion then tried to recreatewhat each new photo had shown wow so aslong as I have seen it and you know thepatterns of my brain then the AI willread that out of my brain yes yes yesexactly scientists have pursued this foryears but AI makes the difference here'sa giraffe shown to a subject now readyhere's the image the AI created and itis sometimes very different betweenpeople here's the original image of agrassy field now here's three differentversions generated from three differentpeople's brain activity now what you'reseeing is a recording of previous scansnot a real-time demonstration and thisprocess is slow it requires an expensivemachine and it has to be individuallytailored so unless you have taken a longtime to train the model on an individualit doesn't work yes at least at thisstage but we're trying to generalizeacross subjects in the futureand that future is upon us at theUniversity of Texas another team islearning to pull word sequences using asimilar technique and a multi-universityteam last year founded in fmri teststhese regions of the brain reliablypredicted whether a subject leanedliberal or conservativeit is all part of a grand scientificambition to decode and maybe eventransmit thought to restore lost sightand hearing to observe Consciousnessitself but research is one thing I worrythat it quickly leaves that realm ofwell-meaning scientists tocommodification of deeply personalinformation about peoplethe last 30 years have seen an explosionof new brain tech companies and patentapplications now as AI makes the textsmaller and more powerful Duke lawprofessor Nita farahani worries it'll beused to not just read minds but judgethem this is a world in which not justyour brain activity is being collectedand your brain States from attention tofocus is being monitored but people arebeing hired and fired and promoted basedon what their brain metrics show evenfor the team leader in Singapore theprospect of a corporate use of thistechnology without privacy laws in placeis too risky are you the kind of personthat would want to wait for bettergovernance before you let somebodydecode your brain I might be the personwho want to try I think once it is acommercialized product for example thenwe I would like to wait on the scriptmind reading with all its Unthinkablepromise and Peril made realJake Ward NBC Newsthings moving quickly we'll keep up withit coming up honoring a pioneeringAviator thanks to one third grader intheir determination[Music]finally they are inspiring America anaviator who broke barriers and the thirdgrader who wanted her classmates to knowall about her hero here's yamicheAlcindornine-year-old Alex Williams got anassignment for Black History Monthdescribe a hero she chose Bessie Colemanthe first African-American woman to earna pilot's license in the United Statesshe flew in the sky and she got to doeverything that she wanted because eventhough everybody was like no you can'tdo that you're you're a girl and you'reblack you can't do that but her thirdgrade teacher told her Coleman nicknamedBrave Bessie was not a hero I was madbecause I took all that work in my andmy mom she already got the she alreadygot the board Alex's mother who works atthe FAA pushed back that's when Iswitched into mommy bear mode and saidwait a minute and so I grabbed my phoneand I emailed her and she in turn didsay to meum no she can't do her she's not a heroand I was like I beg to differ but shesaid the teacher suggested morewell-known figures like Harriet Tubmanor Maya Angelou and when it came time topresent Alex was not called on she criedshe's very upset her mom decided to takeher to fa headquarters where shedetailed Coleman's life to agencyofficials including the DeputyAdministrator was known as Queen BessBrave best Bessie Coleman would walk onthe wings of airplanes and parachute outAlex was also presented with a copy of anewly minted coin commemorating Colemanalong with a Coleman Barbie doll what'sthe lesson for you Alex not to take youknow for an answer because there's abig gigantic yes at the at the end ofthe road yamiche alfandor NBC NewsWashington that's some great advicethat's Nightly News for this Fridaythanks for watching I'm Lester Holt takecare of yourself and each other goodnightthanks for watching our YouTube channelfollow today's top stories and breakingnews by downloading the NBC News app