This is nbc nightly news with lester holt. Good evening. It is not where most of us imagined we would be seven months after the first highly effective vaccine became available in this country, yet here we are tonight talking about a fourth covid wave, doing exactly what the first, second and third waves did, inundating hospitals in their path with a surge of very sick patients while infection numbers accelerated by the delta variant are now climbing virtually everywhere, this wave is crashing over the most vulnerable states and communities, places with low vaccination rates and yes, deaths are starting to climb, too. Miguel almaguer leads us off tonight. Reporter: tonight inside a growing number of hospitals across the country there is little doubt our nation has already entered a fourth wave, an explosive summer surge in covid cases few predicted, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, now accounting for 83% of all new cases. The u. S. Is already averaging 26,000 new infection
And touchdown. Welcome back new shepard s first human crew. Welcome to earth. Congratulations to all of you. You ve watched all of it unfold live here. Billionaire jeff bezos and his crew, check it out, popping open the hatch of the rocket and popping some champagne, too, first unpiloted suborbital flight all civilian crew landing successfully on the 52nd anniversary of the lunar landing. We re gearing up to hear from the crew members during a news conference and that includes 82yearold wally funk, involved in the mercury program who became the oldest person to go into space. Look at her popping out of the capsule there, about seven hours away from the launch site in south lake, texas. A wally watch party her family and friends cheering her on as she made this historic flight, tears, emotion, joy, all of it. We are here with you for the next couple of hours for a special coverage. I bring in nbc s morgan chesky and van horn in texas and all astronaut panel of experts with us, mike mass
Some of the employees, their father worked here. They retired from here. The son is working here. They are proud of working here. So why not prepare generation after generation in sunderland as a part of the family and this is what we are going to do. A royal reunion princes william and harry have come together to unveil a statue of their mother, diana, princess of wales, on what would have been her 60th birthday. Borisjohnson has said he hopes life in england will return to as close to its pre pandemic state as possible onjuly the 19th. The prime minister said he d set out in the next few days what the final step out of lockdown would look like. But he warned that some extra precautions might still be needed and called for patience over the possibility of scrapping isolation for children in school bubbles. Here he is talking more about the 19th ofjuly. I know people are impatient for us to open i know people are impatient for us to open up i know people are impatient for us to op
ready for betty white to give up her crush on robert redford for him. she was beloved and only weeks away from her 100th birthday. which was on january 17th. so let us take a moment to celebrate the remarkable life and career of betty white. here is nbc s miguel almaguer. ladies and gentlemen, betty white. reporter: may 8th, 2010, betty white making history at the age of 88 becoming the oldest person to host saturday night live. this after half a million people on facebook petitioned the show to give her a shot at hosting. the campaign to get me to host saturday night live , i didn t know what facebook was. [ laughter ] and now that i do know what it is, i have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. [ laughter ] reporter: betty white born in the chicago suburb in illinois certainly never wasted her time in the 1940s, fresh out of high school, she began working in radio appearing on such shows as nbc s the great gildersleeve . merry christmas. i didn t
said he was still holding out for her, waiting for her to giving up her crush on robert redford for him. she was beloved and only weeks away from her 100th buried january 17th. let us take a moment to celebrate the remarkable life and career of betty white. here s miguel almaguer. ladies and gentlemen, betty white! reporter: may 8th, 2010, betty white making history at the age of 88, becoming the oldest person to host saturday night live, this after half a million people on facebook petitions to show to give her a shot at hosting. when i heard about the campaign to get he to host saturday night live, i didn t know what facebook was. now that i do know what it is, i have to say it sounds like a huge waste of time. [ laughter ] born in oak park, illinois, she never wasted her time. in the 19.40, fresh out of high school, she appeared on nbc s the great guildersleeve . merry christmas, mr. guildersleeve. i didn t go to college. i just went into show business. i