Nightly news begins now. From nbc news World Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. Good evening. Im kate snow, in for lester. Tonight the tweet from the president elect stunned Nuclear Experts not only because of the words written, but the fact that the comment was made on as casual a medium as twitter. For years, Nuclear Policy has focused on drawing down the u. S. Arsenal, not building it up. But today donald trump and russian president Vladimir Putin talked about strengthening nuclear forces. We begin tonight with andrea mitchell. Reporter after setting off alarm bells throughout the campaign about how he would handle Nuclear Weapons, donald trump today signalled he wants more nukes, shocking Nuclear Experts by tweeting, the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability, until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. Reversing u. S. Policy since Ronald Reagan to cut the number of Nuclear Weapons. Only hours
Careless whisper and faith. Tributes pouring in for the music legend overnight. Elton john writing, quote, i am in deep shock. I lost a beloved friend, the kindest most generous soul and a great artist. Former wham bam mate Andrew Ridgely writing this heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend. He, his loved ones the world at large forever loved. Boy george writing, he was so loved and i hope he knew it because the sadness today is beyond words. Devastating. What a beautiful voice he had. His music will live on. As a testament to his talent, i cant believe hes gone. A live look outside of michaels home in london where he passed a way. Somber scene. You can see people are going to gather a little bit later. Michael was 53 years old. Russia says pilot error or technical assault is likely to blame for a military plane crashing into the sea. 94 people are confirmed dead in the christmas tragedy. They searched for the plane through the night. They had a vigil last night. The plane was car