to those hit hard by the pandemic. the post-holiday travel nightmare. tonight, chaos at airports across the country. thousands of flights cancelled just since christmas eve. passengers left scrambling, now racing to get home. major airlines blaming covid-fueled staffing shortages and poor weather conditions. tonight, that dangerous winter blast. the powerful system slamming the west. in washington, cars getting stuck in whiteout conditions. feet of snow shutting down highways like i-80 in california. tonight, as millions take to the roads for their return home, when is the best time to travel? remembering a legend. archbishop desmond tutu, the nobel prize winner who helped bring an end to apartheid in south africa. the tributes coming in tonight. a deadly christmas day house fire killing a father and two children. authorities point to the lights on their tree as the likely cause. tonight, how to keep your home safe this holiday season. it s also gift return season.
when they return to work. that s a change out of necessity that we ll probably see more cities and states follow. think about it. as hospitals fill up, what happens when so many doctors and nurses get infected themselves? there aren t enough health workers to keep up. in the same vein, airlines have had to cancel some 2 million flights worldwide because of shortages. the biden administration will lift restrictions on eight african countries on new year s eve, given that the variant has now spread around the world. omicron cases, numbers are blowing past anything the u.s. saw with delta, more than 250,000 cases yesterday alone. that number is sure to be higher today, and by some estimates, we could see a million u.s. cases every day before the end of the year. i m joined now by gadi schwartz at lax, kathy park in times square, and josh letterman at the white house in washington. gadi, dealing with holiday travel is stressful enough. now that people are dealing with fears aroun
tiger woods announced he s returning to golf in a tournament with his son ten months after that horrific car crash. the question is could an official tour be next? it s way too early for this. goo morning and welcome to way too early, the show that loves a good comeback. i m jonathan lemire on this thursday, december 9th. we ll start with the news. former trump white house chief of staff mark meadows is now suing house speaker nancy pelosi and the committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol. the lawsuit came just hours after the committee said it will move forward with plans to hold meadows in contempt for ending his cooperation in the investigation. meadows, who was a no-show for another scheduled deposition yesterday, argued the lawsuit and overly broad subpoenaed should be invalid. quote, mr. meadows flawed lawsuit won t succeed at slowing down the select committee s investigation or stopping us from getting information we re seeking. the committ
currency is it working? and the female coach who just made mlb history. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, everyone from the mayor of new york city tonight, we got him. and with that, millions of anxious transit riders breathing a sigh of relief after word of an arrest in yesterday s terrifying rush hour subway shooting spree in brooklyn that left ten people shot. a massive and roughly 30-hour manhunt ending this afternoon in this moment, frank robert james led away after being taken into custody on the streets of manhattan s east village neighborhood nypd detectives releasing video of james yesterday morning as he entered the subway in construction attire before the shooting. a video trail part of what they call significant evidence gathered that includes a gun left at the scene that authorities say they were able to quickly trace back to james. police say james fired over 30 rounds on a subway car after setting off two smoke canister
trains are actually running this morning, there is a still a heavy police presence. a couple of police officer standing by behind them is the command center. and over by the subway, they are more police officers. i can tell you for sure police officers are on the platform below. we were down there. but the focus of the investigation this morning is this aggressive search for frank james, who authorities are still calling a person of interest. the police say it was 62-year-old frank james who rented a u-haul canal associated associated with the shooting that left ten people with gunshot wounds and several others entered from the chaos that ensued. the keys were brought to the scene with a fireworks come a hatchet, and detonated smoke grenades and also recovered a 9-millimeter with extended magazines and to code detonated smoke grenades and castling. chaos began during yesterday s morning commute around 8:30. as the train pulled into the station. when witnesses say a man wearin