the air national guardsman accused of stealing and sharing classified documents appears in court. and the government says he has a history of threatening to kill people. then, dozens of americans trapped in sudan, begging the u.s. government to help them get out. why do u.s. officials say they can t help, even though other countries are carrying out evacuations? plus, tears, smiles, and laughs. brittney griner holds her first news conference since her release from a russian prison. never going overseas unless i m representing my country at the olympics. what the basketball star had to say about her famgame and th other americans still being wrongly detained in russia. welcome to the lead, everyone. i m in for jake tapper. we start today with our national lead. this afternoon, the man accused of leaking classified u.s. intelligence on the internet appeared in court where a judge decided that the suspect will stay behind bars, at least for now. prosecutors argued th
are accused of doing with sensitive data. president biden taking on bank executives and questions about bonuses paid at silicon valley bank hours before the collapse. violent demonstrations in paris. the changes to france s retirement age triggering outrage. the american citizen and great grandmother kidnapped in mexico. the fbi now asking the public for help. he s famous for the wire and the john wick series. remembering actor lance e reddick. andnd we rere inn swift city, the place that literally renamed itself after taylor swift kicks off her first tour in five years. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, thanks for being with us on a friday night. this is a mostly symbolic act, an arrest warrant was issued today for russian president vladimir putin now formally charged by the international criminal court for war crimes. the court says putin bears individual responsibility for the unlawful transfer of children from occupi
as high as commercial aircraft but lower than surveillance satellites. the size of three buses. two flights were diverted for safety. military leaders considered but ultimately decided against wthe president s decision to shoot it down. but the idea that was under conversation shows how seriously u.s. officials and the president were taking the idea of a chinese spy balloon floating over the u.s. you mentioned what it was flying over. right. montana. the air base, has icbms there. something that china would naturally be interested in taking a closer look at. it happened before? it happened over u.s. territory before. here is something i want to note in terms of surveillance capabilities. this was not a big jump in what china is able to do. why? because china is flying spy satellites over the u.s. after 90 minutes as they orbit the earth and they have at least equal surveillance capabilities. they are highly advanced. in terms of what china could gather from this ballo
these were homes, neighborhoods , communities and here and elsewhere. the staggering loss of property is secondary. at least 25 people are now confirmed dead in mississippi. another person was killed in alabama for perspective. these past 24 hours have seen more tornado deaths than all of last year. many are just thankful to have survived. mcafee unity. and . thank god we re alive, but also were so devastated by the loss. the whole trailer park behind the building is gone and we don t know where everybody is . we don t know who s alive and who s gone. cnn s nick valencia is enrolling fork, mississippi nick just heartbreaking to hear these accounts. what are you hearing from people? it is and it s just awful to see this and we apologize for having to go live from our satellite phone. but it s a testament how much damage is here. in sharkey county and rolling fork, mississippi felt hours have been heavily damaged here, which is why we re not being able to go live on air. but wh
president biden ordering the u.s. military to take down another high altitude object that was hovering over the u.s. we re told it was flying about 40,000 feet making it a threat to commercial airplanes. this coming less than a week after the u.s. shot down that chinese spy balloon. i want to bring in cnn national security reporter natasha ber trn, military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. great to have all of you. natasha, tell us what your latest reporting is on what happened today. yeah, alisyn, this was a big surprise by u.s. officials today. white house official john kirby he came to the podium and went through all his talking points and in the middle of the briefing he kind of sprung on everyone this had happen. essentially what happened off the coast of alaska on thursday night there was an object that was spotted, and it was unclear what that object actually was, but it was flying at a very concerning altitude, around 40,000 feet, just at that