full swing across several states. and overnight fierce debates, candidates in ohio, georgia, iowa and utah going toe-to-toe in heating rounds. feature policy arguments and personal jabs. and a new pledge, president biden promising to keep abortion rights front and center if democrats could keep control of the congress for another two years. let s begin this hour with cnn s jeremy diamond at the white house. so let s pick up there. you have new reporting about how president biden is hoping to take action on abortion while also keeping the economy front and center. what is the white house saying? reporter: yeah, exactly. bianna. with three weeks left until election day, president biden is trying to push those issues. the democrats view is it is favorable to them in voter s minds and today we re expecting according to a democratic official for the president to make a new promise as it relates to abortion rights in a speech this afternoon at howard theater here in washington, d
residents. officials fearful people living alone without power may not have survived. buffalo police cracking down on looters. mona kosar abdi in buffalo, rob marciano standing by timing out a major rainmaker for new year s eve. news just coming in from the cdc. the u.s. imposing new covid restrictions on all travelers from china, as the country faces a surge of new covid infections, pushing hospitals to the brink. urgent concerns tonight for the health of retired pope benedict. the vatican revealing today the 95-year-old former pontiff is, quote, very sick. marcus moore at the vatican, where pope francis is asking for prayers tonight. growing frustration at the southern border. after the supreme court extended the trump-era immigration policy known as title 42. will carr reporting on the urgent need for more facilities to cope with the crush of people. new details tonight on congressman-elect george santos, already facing accusations he lied about much of his biograp
in a digital world, why film cameras are suddenly flying off shelves again. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, everyone it is not only been one of the race s most critical to the control of the u.s. senate, but also one that has generated some of the biggest personal controversies and surprises. tonight, with 22 days left until the midterm elections, early voting is under way in georgia, where republican hopeful herschel walker sat down for a wide-ranging interview with nbc s kristen welker, making news on a subject walker wants to put behind him, the accusation that he paid for an ex-girlfriend s abortion over a decade ago. the former football star acknowledging to kristen that he had indeed written the check the woman says backs her claim, but that he can t recall why. walker also talking about why he thinks the economy will win the day for him over incumbent senator raphael warnock. and the reason why he says he carries a sheriff s bad
the united states and around the world. it s monday, october 17th. i m christine romans. we begin in ukraine s capital where rescue operations are under way right now after russian forces attacked just a short time ago using kamakazi drones. that s according to ukrainian officials. the city of kyiv hit at least four times. i want to get straight to cnn s clarissa ward. she is on the streets of downtown kyiv. clarissa, what are you seeing? what do we know? reporter: so, christine, we re here at the sites of one of those four explosions that woke kyiv up this morning. and i think you can see behind me this is an on going rescue effort. this is quite clearly a residential building. we have already seen one body being removed from here. we also saw another elderly woman being rescued from the rubble, actually from the balcony on the neighboring building. we just spoke with the head of the ambulance services who says they don t know for sure but they do believe it s likely that
rescue operations are under way, two people killed, four others injured. the mayor urging people to shelter in place. let s get to clarissa ward live for us in kyiv with the very latest. reporter: good morning. we are standing right near the site of one of those blasts that woke up kyiv residents at about 6:45 this morning. they ve actually now pushed us back from the site because this is an ongoing rescue operation. ukrainian authorities saying they ve rescued 19 people at least three people have been killed. and they believe there may be more people in the rubble back there. i want to stress, this is a residential building that was hit this morning by these iranian drones. ukrainian authorities saying that one of the drones had written on it, on the debris that they discovered in russian [ speaking non-english ] essentially saying it was in revenge for attacks on the russian side of the border that the ukrainians have not officially claimed responsibility for. there had b