overcome and inspiring a new generation announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening. for the defense, accused murderer alex murdaugh taking the witness stand today in south carolina dramatic and at times tearful testimony from the man at the center of the country s most closely followed criminal trial murdaugh under questioning from his lawyers saying i didn t shoot my wife or son and addressing what has appeared to be some of the prosecution s strongest evidence murdaugh from the witness box admitting he lied about his whereabouts the night his wife and 22-year-old son were shot to death. chalking up the lies to opioid addiction and paranoia under cross-examination, murdaugh, a former lawyer, also admitted to stealing from clients. the prosecution has maintained the murders were part of murdaugh s attempt to escape accountability for financial misdeeds we begin tonight with catie beck reporting from walterboro, south carolina. reporter: after ne
we have correspondents live on the ground across the zast zozo disaster zone. we re going to speak to turkish basketball star and chef jose andres helping feed people as a humanitarian crisis unfolds. plus this where s mike pence? the special counsel is investigating donald trump and january 6. now they want to talk to mike pence. cnn is learning what he is seeking from the former vice president. also the district attorney in memphis says he is doing a deep dive into past incidents involving the five police officers charged with murdering tyre nichols. sfw we begin with the catastrophe in turkey and syria. the scope of the destruction is staggering. the pictures, devastating. the death toll, just growing. 21,000 so far, 719 people now confirmed dead after the devastating earthquake. thousands more are still missing, possibly dead or dying beneath the rubble. hope is running out to find any more survivors. the this morning four days after the quake, search teams rescue
like other ukrainian cities from bucha to mariupol, another enormous mass grave has been discovered. this time in a forest near the city of izium. authorities continue to exhumed the bodies of which there are reportedly more than 450, including civilians, children and soldiers a. like many of the bodies show signs of, quote, violent. death while several have their hands bound and show signs of torture. it is now day 207 of russia s invasion, with putin s plan to take all of three days to capture the capital of kyiv. right now ukraine continues to gain ground with a successful counteroffensive in the northeast, reclaiming several thousand square miles of territory. ukraine also continues to have success with a counteroffensive in the south. at the same, time russia is making small gains in some towns in donetsk. one of the regions that make up the donbas. to say that russian soldiers are making those gains might be misleading. as the new york times reports, the frontline ukrai
the grotesque and cynical politics behind the florida governor s migrant stunt. just like the racist reverse freedom rides of the 1960s, these migrants were lied to every step of the way, so desantis could own the libs. also tonight, new reporting from the washington post on how trump s team grossly mischaracterized the nature of the documents that he was keeping at mar-a-lago. when the national archives first asked for them back. and what a way to end the week. fresh from her triumphant victory at the emmy awards, sheryl lee ralph from abbott elementary joins me tonight. we begin with the freedom riders. the group of white and black civil rights activists who rode buses across the south in 1961 with the goal of integrating public transportation and bus terminals. one of the original 13 freedom riders was the late great congressman john lewis. it was a bold act of resistance to challenge the segregation laws and the riders encounters violence, beatings, and yale time.
what does it mean when you don t see yourself reflected in the media? when you don t see people like you on television, in the movies, or onstage. immediate has such power to create or change perceptions of the lgbtq community. not only does it help shape the world s view of the queer community, but it also guides lgbtq people as we form and nurture our own identities. while it can be an isolated experience for someone to question their sexuality or gender identity, where media representation shows them they re not along. at a time when legislative efforts seek to erase their experiences of lgbtq people, the presentation, on stage and screen, helps others understand who we are. we all deserve to have our stories told. this pride month, we want to highlight the incredible work of major talents who have given invisibility and a voice to the lgbtq community on stage and screen. like, transgender actor clyburn cox, a tony award winning creator and star of the tony award winning m