as trump ally push to release surveillance of the search. and mike pence today doubling down on defending the fbi. the emotional day in court. vanessa bryant, the wife of kobe bryant, breaking down on stand, describing her pain after first responders leaked photos of the helicopter crash that killed the nba legend and their daughter. reporter: after a summer of travel chaos, the department of transportation cracking down. our exclusive with secretary pete buttigieg, the ultimatum he s giving the airlines ahead of labor day. danger in the water. two shark attacks at the same beach on the same day. and uniting for ukraine. the music with a message inspiring america. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. we are reminded again tonight just how high the stakes are in the war in ukraine as focus turns to the state of the ukrainian nuclear power plant now in the hands of russian forces. ukraine official making some pretty disturbing claims
it certainly goes further than a lot of republicans would like it to go. but there is no doubt this bill is going to save thousands of lives. ahead not next 15 minutes i ll speak with the democratic senator chris coons of delaware, a voice that worked on the deal and one of president biden s top allies. and relief at the pump, that s president biden s goal this afternoon, asking congress to pass a three month federal gas tax holiday, but it s already facing stiff resistance from democrats and republicans. why is that? we ll break it down coming up. and this hour on the hill, roger goodell is testifying virtually before a house committee. what he is telling lawmakers about the league s handling of work place misconduct allegations in the washington commanders franchise. what we are learning about the next hearing for the january 6th committee and the new revelations from the latest one. ali vitali is on capitol hill. and i want to bring in reporter kyle cheney and cha
donald trump did. and who can actually get there on day one and make a big difference because the country is sliding away from us. the pennsylvania senate race has the democrats best chance to flip a republican seat to their side. live from london, this is cnn newsroom with max foster. it is tuesday, may 17th. and in the coming hours joe biden and the first lady are set to travel to buffalo, new york where they will pay their respects to the victims of saturday s racially motivated shooting and meet with their families. the visit comes as we learn new details about the 18-year-old accused of opening fire in a supermarket. investigators say the suspect travelled 200 miles to the area two months ago and he was there this past friday for what authorities say was recognizance. just a day before the massacre. absolutely incredible someone with so much hate in their heart, so much hate in their head, traveled from more than three hours to get to this community, a commun
honk the victims, 86-year-old ruth whitfield who stopped for groceries, she had just returned from visiting her husband in the nursing home. her son spoke to omar jimenez. one of the things that we as a family wanted to ensure is that we call it what it is, it is white supremacy, it is hate, it is racism, it is bigotry. we got to call it what it is and stop beating around the bush and take it head-on because it is proliferating, it is not getting better. jasmine wright is for us in washington. and as you just heard, the families are calling for officials to confront racism head-on and it seems like that is what the president plans do today. reporter: that s right, christine. a white house official says that the president is expected to address the racial motivations that led to this shooting and he is expected to condemn them, but also call on americans to embrace diversity, the thing that makes this country really america frankly america here. so we will see the presid
Coverage. America reports thank you for joining us. Im sandra smith in new york. John im john roberts. The story starts right now with martha picking up the coverage. Martha . Martha thanks very much. Good afternoon. Im martha maccallum. Were going to go live to tel aviv in just a moment with israeli Prime Minister netanyahu to get new information on this developing scene. You can see the pictures that have just come in from gaza city and the city where they believe an israeli air strike struck a hospital. Theres a lot of questions about how all of this happened. The Israeli Military says hospitals are highly sensitive buildings and are not idf targets. General petraeus who commanded our troops in iraq and afghanistan will be with us in moments. First, we go to Senior Correspondent mike tobin live in israel with the very latest. Hi, mike. Martha, this development at the hospital in gaza city is taking all the attention right now. The Palestinian Health Ministry Says the civilian casual