tonight evacuation orders and dangerous pileups as a major storm pummels the Pacific coast the massive fiery crash in Oregon and white out conditions more than 100 cars trucks and semis shutting down a busy Interstate First Responders having to go car by car but much needed rain from the same storm turning burn scars into mudslides after those historic wildfires Al Roker is tracking it all the Revolt at the doj top Justice Department lawyers quit when Trump officials told them to drop the Eric Adams corruption case in New York after president zinsky raised concerns president Trump saying
Ukraine will be part of peace talks to end the war and he's asked does he trust President Putin Horror in Germany a driver plowing into a large crowd dozens injured all of it less than a mile from where world leaders will soon gather Robert F Kennedy Jr confirmed how he is poised to reshape the nation approach to health and Health Care the asteroid that NASA says has a 2% chance of hitting Earth in 2032 Tom Costello on the case this is NBC Nightly News with Lester Hol good evening and welcome just weeks after fleeing fires
that Rampage across Southern California residents of burned out communities are facing imminent new Danger tonight ahead of a dangerous mudslide threat the west coast once more in in the path of an atmospheric River bringing heavy rain wind and Mountain snow white out conditions contributing to a more than 100 car pile up along a major Interstate in Oregon some injuries reported there back in California charred hillsides that were weakened by January's fires now primed for potential disaster from February's floods debris flows forcing new evacuations and warnings as virtually the entire country rides through these backto back
storms Morgan chesy starts us off tonight from Los Angeles yeah Lester good evening and unfortunately this atmospheric river is already causing mudslides up and down the Pacific Coast Highway and that Landslide risk only going up as this River moves in tonight a massive winter storm system blamed for this frightening scene outside Portland Oregon more than 100 cars and trucks piling up in snowy conditions some catching fire there on fire in the westbound it is fully inol it's nasty Rescuers reporting injuries and multiple victims stuck inside vehicles in a collision that shut down Interstate 84 entirely
in Southern California that same system unleashing an atmospheric River of rain near Los Angeles charred hillsides from the recent wildfires facing a new threat evacuation for this resident officers going door too following mandatory evacuations stretching from from vulnerable neighborhoods in Altadena to Malibu we expect these heavy rains to last through Friday morning which puts burn areas at particular risk for landslides mud flows conditions so bad the EPA announced they're halting crucial cleanup efforts until the rain subsides fire Crews have spent weeks Shoring up vulnerable areas to keep hillsides and dangerous runoff in check but the
real test Lies Over the next 24 hours with rock slides already shutting down parts of the PCH for those who call this area home a new wave of anxiety setting in definitely nervous my main concerns if there are landslides on the PCH that could possibly like jail Us in here Burns own fears amid a new weather nightmare Morgan chesky NBC News Malibu all right let's turn down to Al Roker and now the next few hours could be punishing that's right Lester 32 million people out west in California looking at Heavy Rain another several inches falling
before it's all over that's storm redeveloped Saturday making its way through the midsection of the country heavy snow and ice from the Midwest to New England tornadoes down to the south then Sunday a wintry mix along the coast heavy snow from Chicago Cleveland on into Buffalo we're looking up to a foot of snow in parts of Northern New York and on up into New England also anywhere from 4 to 6 Ines from Memphis to Charleston flooding possible and the risk of severe weather from Atlanta all the way down to Houston for high wind gusts and
tornadoes we'll have complete details coming up tomorrow morning on today Lester okay I we'll see you then thanks in New York a dramatic set of resignations by top federal prosecutors after the Trump justice department ordered the criminal corruption case against mayor Eric Adams be dropped Laura Jared and Tom waiter joined me Laura what led to all this well Lester we obtained this letter from the now former acting us attorney the top federal prosecutor in m in Manhattan Daniela Sasson who reveals her office was prepared to seek additional charges against Adams but says she recently attended
a meeting with top doj brass where the mayor's lawyer suggested that Adams could help the Trump Administration with immigration matters if his criminal charges were dropped now she refused to go along with this and multiple other prosecutors have now quit within doj the justice department not commenting tonight but the top doj official who originally ordered the charges dropped Amel bovie says here in this letter that suon was insubordinate and has now put at least two other prosecutors involved on administrative lead to Tom now what are Adams and his lawyers saying about all this right Lester
well Adams's attorney says the idea that there was a quidd pro quo is a quote total lie and Adams says tonight that he did nothing wrong and suggested the charges against him were weaponization of the justice department punishment for speaking out against former President Biden's immigration policies however prosecutors recently disclosed that the investigation started before Adams was even elected mayor Lester all right Tom and Laura thanks to you both we turn out of the Fallout over president Trump's announcement that both Ukraine and Russia have agreed to start peace talks president Trump was asked today does
he trust Russia's President Putin to follow through here's Garrett H tonight president Trump saying Ukraine's president zalinsky will have a seat at the table in upcoming peace talks to end the Ukraine war of course they would I mean they're part of it we would have Ukraine we have Russia and we'll have other people involved too but the Ukraine war has to end cuz I'm sure Putin overnight president zinski cautioned quote we cannot accept any agreements made without us some NATO allies reportedly blindsided by news of yesterday's Trump Putin call according to a European official and
frustrated over defense secretary Pete heith appearing to make concessions to Russia before talks began heg today saying he was just being realistic about a war stuck in a bloody stalemate the borders won't be rolled back to what everybody would like them to be in 2014 is not a concession to Vladimir Putin it's a recognition of hard power realities on the ground president Trump was asked if he trusts the Russian leader I believe that he would like to see something happen I trust him on this subject and he called for Russia to rejoin the so-called G7
group of the world's most advanced economies Russia was expelled after annexing Crimea in 2014 I think it was a mistake to throw him out look it's not a question of liking Russia all you talk about is Russia and you they should be sitting at the table all of it as the White House closed out its buyout program for federal workers overnight after a judge allowed the cost cutting effort to go ahead the White House says 75,000 federal employees took the offer short of their goal of roughly a 100,000 workers Tony Yang an IT specialist for
the Department of Agriculture took the buyout saying he wouldn't return to the office 5 days a week as president Trump required do you feel like this process has been respectful of the work you've put in in your career absolutely not uh me being a veteran a disabled veteran at that you no we put our whole entire life into public service and all of a sudden one man comes in and throws it all away now Elon Musk says his Department of government efficiency should take dramatic steps to slash spending further we do need to delete entire
agencies as opposed to leave part of them behind if you don't get remove the roots of the weed then it's easy for the weed to grow back deleting an entire agency would require an act of Congress meanwhile Hamas has now backed down saying it will release more hostages Saturday Hamas earlier threatened a releases which sparked sharp warnings from both Israel and president Trump Lester okay Garrett heck thanks Ukraine will be a primary focus for leaders of the Munich security conference tomorrow but on the eve of the summit a suspect rammed a car through a nearby
crowd injuring dozens Andrea Mitchell is in Munich tonight Andrea good evening good evening Lester security here in Munich is always tight for the annual security conference but now everyone is on even higher alert after what happened earlier today less than a mile from here this was the chaotic aftermath moments after a car plowed into a crowd in unit victims lying on the ground First Responders rushing to help officials calling it a suspected attack this witness says it seemed to me the car accelerated before it drove into the crowd the suspect was driving that white Mini
Cooper that you can see behind me when he plunged into the crowd you can still see the debris on the street including a stroller officials say at least 30 people were injured including children according to police an officer fired a shot at the Mini Cooper before they moved in and arrested the driver police say the suspect is a 24-year-old Asylum Seeker from Afghanistan who lives in Munich and may have an extremist background the interior Minister says he had a previous criminal record related to drugs and thefts there is no indication of a motive but the
suspect drove into a crowd of 1500 protesters rallying for higher wages the police say there's no indication so far that the attack is linked to the security conference those attending include vice president JD Vance who arrived with his family just hours after the incident while security is tight public spaces are soft targets for car ramming increasingly common with 14 people killed in New Orleans on New Year's Day and five at a Christmas Market elsewhere in Germany in December Al tonight Germany's chancellor saying the suspect in today's incident must be punished and he must leave the
country Andrea Mitchell NBC News Munich president Trump's controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has been confirmed after overcoming initial Republican skepticism Ryan Nobles is on Capitol Hill Ryan this happened on a largely Partyline vote that's right ler but the lone GOP vote against Robert F Kennedy Jr was the former GOP leader Mitch McConnell Kennedy was quickly sworn in he will now preside over a $1.7 trillion budget that oversees important departments like the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration now Kennedy says that he'll focus on ending what
he calls the chronic disease epidemic he did face Fierce Democratic push back over his past criticisms of vaccines next up cash Patel who is Trump's pick to run the FBI he's expected to get a confirmation vote next week not one Republican has come out against him Lester okay Ryan thank you president Trump once again waiting into the global trade War today the ammunition tariffs but they are not without setting off alarm Bells including within his own party Christine Romans explains tonight president Trump ordering his administration to investigate imposing tariffs on any country worldwide it deems
to be employing unfair Trade Practices they charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them Mr Trump's Focus on foreign Nations fees like value added taxes or Vats the eu's been very nasty it's just been they haven't traded this properly today's move comes even as there is growing concern within the president's own party over the tariffs he has already announced including on steel and aluminum Imports all goods from China and 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico which are paused for now Republican senator Mitch McConnell writing in an oped the president's aggressive proposals leave big
lingering concern for American industry and workers industry leaders also concerned Jim Farley the CEO of Ford blunt in a call with analysts this week let's be real honest longterm a 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border would blow hole in the US industry that we have never seen that worry Rippling through smaller businesses around Detroit as well every single manufacturer will be affected in some way by an increase in tariffs at glasman Auto George glasman Sells foreign made vehicles and Deals every day with foreign auto parts what do tariffs mean for your customers higher
prices no doubt no doubt when these reciprocal tariffs go into effect if at all remains unclear that uncertainty creating a challenge of its own for businesses here in the US and their customers trying to plan ahead Lester Christine Romans thanks we'll be right back in 60 seconds with an asteroid that could be on a collision course with Earth but How likely is it to hit Tom Castello is tracking it [Music] next tonight the world's top astronomers have their eyes trained on an asteroid that could be on a collision path with Earth in 2032 here's NBC's
Tom Costello in the vastness of the Galaxy a single Rock asteroid 2024 yr4 is getting a lot of attention NASA's asteroid trackers say it has a 2.3% chance chance of crashing into Earth around Christmas 2032 more than the 1% chance they gave it last month give us the reality check is is this asteroid going to hit Earth up-to-date calculations say that it has about a 2% chance of hitting Earth in eight years which is a 98% chance that it's not going to hit Earth in 2022 NASA's Dart Mission successfully slammed into an asteroid named dimorphus
7 million miles from Earth pushing it into a slightly different orbit and we have impact a critical first test of a planetary defense to push future asteroids away from Earth y4 could be 300 ft long not as big as the dinosaur killer but bigger than the meteor that exploded over remote Russia in 2013 causing massive damage but no deaths if yr4 hits Earth it'll likely be in an empty ocean in the southern hemisphere out of all the asteroids known it's the only one now that could possibly impact Earth but there's a 98% chance it won't
Lester I'll go with the 98 Tom thanks we're back at a moment with our NBC News investigation the new lawsuit that claims a link between hair dyes and Cancer all right we're back now with alarming allegations a new lawsuit saying ingredients in hair dyes used by thousands of hairdressers could be giving them cancer senior National correspondent Kate snow has our story Hector Cora spent his childhood helping his parents work the fields in California's Central Valley we out there work in the hot sun and I remember asking myself that question is what I'm going to do
the rest of my life his answer was to go from cutting crops to cutting hair hair would always grow I wouldn't be out of a job but he says coloring hair for more than four decades took a different toll on his body in 2023 he was diagnosed with bladder cancer he remembers this conversation with his doctor he says what do you do for a liing and I said I'm a hairdresser hm that explains it he said that explains it yeah and in that moment did you think oh he's seen this before in hairdressers Cora is
the plaintiff in a new lawsuit against 13 companies attorney Alan Smith alleges Cora's repeated exposure to chemicals in their hair dye products caused his cancer he's seeking damages these are known chemicals that cause cancer Smith made Millions for clients when Johnson and Johnson settled claims that its baby powder caused cancer he says he plans to file multiple other hair dye cases soon what are you accusing these companies of doing I'm accusing these hair dye companies of number one manufacturing a product that's unsafe I mean at a minimum I would want these manufacturers to provide a
warning Smith points to a substance that's formed when hair color ingredients are mixed together we spoke with a half dozen researchers and doctors who say while there is not strong evidence of a link to cancer for clients who get their hair dyed numerous Studies have found a link between repeated work exposure and an increased risk for bladder cancer the FDA says under the law cosmetic products and ingredients generally do not need FDA pre-market approval and notes the industry reformulated products after some hair dyes were found to cause cancer in lab animals in the 1980s but
the lawsuit alleges Dy are still dangerous there are definitive studies that have come out decades later showing the manufacturers did in fact not do what they said they were going to do are you alleging that the companies that make these products are misleading the FDA and the thousands of salons and workers and people who use these products 100% NBC News reached out to every company named in the lawsuit one company Cody says they no longer make or sell hair dye products in the US adding the claim claims against Cody are unsubstantiated and without Merit Bristol
Meer squib says it has no liability for products manufactured by clarol which it sold in 2001 clarol and other companies named in the suit like L'Oreal had no comment some saying they do not comment on pending litigation H babies Hector had his bladder removed a new one created out of his intestine what are you doing he spends a lot of his time now caring for his grandson I pray to God that gave me some more time to see him grow you know but I still have that thought in my mind that you know this thing
can come back you know you still worry a little bit yeah he says he'll never work in a salon again how are you Kate Snow NBC News exor California that's Nightly News for this Thursday thank you for watching I'm ler Hol please take care of yourself and each other good night thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media