i like it. >> fashionable. trying to take away most of us are using our smart phones. >> so archaic. >> see you at 6:00. on the broadcast tonight, the showdown in egypt, tonight a remarkable scene there and the situation that could go either way as the clock is ticking down for the egyptian president. richard engel is live tonight in tahrir square. no way out. what we're learning about the fire that killed 19 firefighters in arizona, and is still out of control. plus, a story of heroism from the wife of one of the fallen. women at risk. a new warning about the skyrocketing number of middle aged women addicted to prescription medication and the toll it's taking. and two first ladies describe what it's really like living inside the white house, and the times the building can feel more like the pennsylvania avenue prison. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening. and here is the situation in egypt tonight. where tahrir square is once again full of protesters, late at night local time. as of now, anything could happen. the new egyptian president, mohammed morsi, only in office for a year, has now rejected an ultimatum from the military that he give way to the will of the people. the president spoke on television tonight and he's not giving in, nor are the people going away. and now for the second time in recent memory, egypt is facing a big tipping point. we're watching this one unfold. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is back in cairo once again tonight, just above the protests. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we are back here in tahrir square. the crowds are very big. and as you can see from the laser light show and the fireworks, the mood in this square is festive. the protesters believe they have

president mohamed morsi on the ropes, and that he could soon be removed from office, perhaps even by force. hundreds of thousands of egyptians celebrating in tahrir square. believing they are just hours from victory. from ousting this country's first democratically elected president. across town, president morsi also has his thousands who say he won elections fairly and had three years left in his term. there's not much time for compromise. the egyptian army chief has given morsi until tomorrow to reach a deal, or else the military will, according to state news reports, dissolve parliament, suspend the constitution, and create an interim government until new elections. the army said again today it's not interested in a coup and

does not want to rule. morsi shows no sign he'll go quietly, and if the army tries to force him out, there could be clashes in the streets. a potentially explosive stand-off. president obama avoided taking sides. >> our commitment to egypt has never been around any particular individual or party. our commitment has been to a process. >> reporter: why are the protesters angry? they tell us morsi has been a total failure. the economy in shambles, streets no longer safe. islamic radicals, including the president's party, the muslim brotherhood, with too much power. >> it's only for his brotherhood. >> reporter: he's only supporting the muslim brotherhood? >> yes. >> reporter: this is a setback for the muslim brotherhood in egypt and across the middle east. when the arab spring began, it was students that toppled the regime, but islamists that took the power. here now that could be changing. anti-morsi protesters believe the army is with them, and that now is the time to reclaim their revolution, after morsi tried to

impose political islam on egypt and failed. tonight, brian, president morsi gave an angry speech. he was banging his fists on the podium, he was waving his finger. he said he is the legitimate president of the country. and that the people and the army must respect that. he said if they don't, there could be violence. he said that he is willing to die to defend the legitimacy of the presidency. >> two things here, richard. first of all, i'm glad you mentioned the lasers, between the laser light show and the laser pointers that everyone seems to bring to these demonstrations, they're ubiquitous there. and second, i'm curious, you find the mood of the crowd still jubilant, even though he said on television, in effect, no deal, i'm not going? >> reporter: he said that very clearly. it was about a half hour speech. he repeated time after time that he is the chosen president. and if there is an illegitimate process as he describes it.

a coup, that egypt will enter a dark tunnel and return to the dark days of the past of corruption. and yes, in terms of these laser lights they have become a fixture, with people shining them into cameras, on the walls. people in this square are still festive, because they believe the army is with them. they know the muslim brotherhood is powerful, it has, perhaps, a few million supporters, but it doesn't have the heavy weapons and it doesn't have the equipment of the army. >> all right. it will be very interesting to see what the situation is when we next talk to you at this time tomorrow night. richard engel above tahrir square in egypt tonight. in this country, there is late news this evening about one of the most important pieces of president obama's new health care law set to go into effect next year. this news involves what happens to employers who don't provide health insurance coverage to their workers. peter alexander at the white house tonight with late details, and peter, a development this big with the president on an

airplane heading into a holiday weekend is going to make a lot of people suspicious. >> reporter: yeah, not exactly the headline the white house was hoping to wake up to, the president expected to arrive here again tonight, brian. the white house obama care has been the president's biggest legislative achievement, but obviously it's been met with a lot of resistance from republicans. and also from some companies that say it was simply too complicated and too complex. so today the obama administration said it's listening to those businesses, that it's delaying penalties for large employers who don't provide health insurance coverage to their workers for a full year. this was supposed to go into effect this coming january, now it won't go into effect -- these penalties -- until january 2015. some people may have to wait an extra year before they get that health coverage. the white house insists this will be its opportunity to help simplify the process. >> as you mentioned, such a big part of the health care coverage process in the beginning. peter alexander from the north lawn of the white house tonight. thanks. now to the west, in arizona,

where firefighters are struggling to gain control over that huge fire burning virtually unchecked, 85 miles outside of phoenix. even as they mourn the loss of 19 of their own, 19 of their best. the so-called yarnell hill fire took the lives of a highly skilled hotshot crew. today that same fire is threatening hundreds of homes. as investigators start to look at what went so wrong, nbc's miguel almaguer remains in prescott, arizona, for us again tonight. miguel, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. the grief and heartbreak can be seen on every street corner in this small community. this fire has taken so much, and tonight it is still on the move, as investigators work to determine what happened here. these are among the final images taken sunday afternoon. the granite mountain hotshot team headed to battle a blaze from which they would not return. >> they're the toughest of the tough. yarnell is in their backyard, they fought fire in this country

for many years. for them to be overrun with fire is a shock to all of us. >> reporter: investigators will focus on the burn zone, a spot where 19 elite firefighters were overcome by flames with no place to escape. battalion chief ralph lucas, a supervisor, was on vacation when his team headed into the fire zone. >> i know those guys are like brothers, family members. i know they did exactly what they were trained to do, utilized all the knowledge they had and the tools that they had to make the right decisions. >> julianne ashcraft lost her husband andrew. her four children lost their father. she shared his story on "today." >> he was the most amazing man, best person i know. a contagious smile, a heart of gold. that's why he chose to do what he did, and work where he worked, because he wanted to protect the community he lived in and loved. and the 19 men, all of them, they really bonded together. and i want people to know that

in our time of mourning, we want people to know they were heroes. >> reporter: this is one of the last pictures julianne received from her husband. >> they loved what they did. these men worked together. they lived together. they fought fires together, and they died together, doing what they love. >> reporter: the ashcrafts are one of 19 families grieving. wade parker was 22. his parents shared their loss today. >> he was a wonderful son, and he's with jesus now. and he loves him so much. ♪ >> reporter: in this tight knit community where they're just beginning to mourn the dead, the firefight must go on. >> you have to get back on track, and they know that. and to honor the firefighters, they're going to put this fire out. >> reporter: on the fire line tonight, winds could reach 80 miles per hour, while fire crews are throwing everything they have at this blaze, we now know at least 50 homes have been destroyed and some 200 are in jeopardy tonight. brian? >> miguel almaguer in prescott, arizona at the memorial. miguel, thanks. edward snowden, the man

who's been leaking u.s. intelligence secrets, appears to be a man without a country tonight. he remains, by all accounts, inside the airport terminal in moscow. he's withdrawn his request for asylum in russia. now he's faxed other asylum requests to almost two dozen nations, china, nine countries in europe, four in latin america, most of them said he has to apply in person. some have expressed serious doubts about his request. other nations have simply answered no. president obama, as we mentioned, headed back to washington tonight. his visit to africa is over. and on his final day, he and a former president, george bush 43 took part together in a ceremony commemorating the victims of the 1998 bombing of the u.s. embassy in tanzania. the mood lightened later at a local power plant. president obama spent a few minutes kicking around a hybrid energy producing soccer ball. an invention that generates power when kicked and could help

bring power to devices in remote parts of the world. in florida today, at the george zimmerman trial, prosecutors tried to chip away at his claim that he feared for his life the night he shot and killed trayvon martin. nbc's ron mott reports from the courthouse in sanford, florida. >> reporter: today a medical examiner analyzed george zimmerman's injuries. >> could all the injuries that you observed in that photograph have come from a single punch or a single blow? >> yes. >> reporter: dr. valerie rao testified as an expert witness that his head wounds were not life threatening, and were not in line with his account of being slammed into a sidewalk over and over. >> are the injuries to the back of the defendant's head consistent with having been repeatedly slammed into a concrete surface? >> no. >> why not? >> if you look at the injuries, they're so minor, that to me, the word slam implies great force. and this -- the resulting injuries are not great force. >> reporter: but the defense got

her to admit zimmerman's injuries could have been caused by multiple impacts. >> anything that would medically exclude that the right side was hit four times? >> it's possible. >> reporter: zimmerman, who has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder, said he shot trayvon martin in self-defense while being attacked. earlier, lead investigator chris serino returned to the stand for a second day. with attorneys for both sides grilling him about his inconsistencies. >> any inconsistencies that you consider to be significant? >> none which i can challenge him with, so i would say no. >> reporter: prosecutor bernie de la rionda asked about zimmerman's use of profanity in his call to police. reporting a suspicious person in his neighborhood. >> in your opinion, calling somebody -- reference them as [ bleep ] punks -- >> that is ill will and spite. >> it is? >> yes. >> reporter: ill will, spite, hatred or evil intent are all factors the state must prove in

a second degree murder case. the prosecutor will also work to support the state's theory that zimmerm zimmerman profiled martin. >> you said following him is not legally improper, correct? >> it's not illegal. >> reporter: tomorrow the judge may decide if zimmerman's college records as a criminal justice major can be admitted. ron mott, nbc news, sanford, florida. still ahead for us tonight. a warning about an epidemic that's killing more middle aged women than ever before. tonight the problem with prescription painkillers.

big news today about a spike in the number of middle aged women who are becoming addicted to prescription pain medicines. and a warning from the cdc about the thousands who are dying from it, over 6,000 women every year. our report tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: statistics from the cdc are cause for real concern for doctors, pharmacists and hospitals. between 1999 and 2010, nearly

48,000 women died of prescription painkiller overdoses, a dramatic increase of 400%. more women now die from all types of drug overdoses each year, than from motor vehicle accidents or cervical cancer. >> i fell down my basement stairs quite a few times, concussions, blackouts. >> reporter: suzette lawford considers herself lucky. for 25 years she was hooked on percocet after surgery and a broken collarbone. then xanax for a stressful job. she became very adept at convincing doctors she needed more pain relief. >> i know what to tell a doctor to get the prescription. so i would tell them i have back pain. >> reporter: for years, doctors have been warning that americans are overusing opiate painkillers like demerol, oxycodone, hydrocodone and vicodin. now, od's are skyrocketing. >> prescription opiates now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined. they send more people to

emergency departments than heroin and cocaine combined. >> reporter: men are also abusing drugs more than ever, but doctors believe women are becoming bigger abusers, because very often they have chronic pain, they go to many doctors in search of more prescriptions, and those prescriptions can be for higher doses of painkillers. alyssa dietrich was a good student and athlete when she started using prescription pain meds. soon she was a high school dropout shooting heroin. >> heroin made me not feel, and i think that's what i was looking for the whole time. >> reporter: she became clean and graduated from college. >> now it's for myself. >> reporter: and with the help of the phoenix house recovery center, suzanne is working to get clean. >> for me it's one day at a time. >> reporter: as the cdc urges doctors to seriously consider a patient's dependency risk before ever prescribing powerful pain meds. tom costello, nbc news, washington. we are back in a moment with what's now being called the worst meal in america. we're back in a moment with

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an explosive and expensive failure for a russian proton rocket carrying a payload of three navigation satellites -- there it goes -- launched from the space center in kazakhstan. something switched the engines off 17 seconds into the mission. it veered wildly off course, only about a mile away. spilling toxic rocket fuel across a wide area. this makes almost a dozen failed satellite launches in recent years for russia. all blamed on engineering failures. some scary moments this past sunday evening in the skies over michigan, where a skydiving plane was cruising at 14,000 feet. the problem came when a spirit airlines jet came along. they were not supposed to be sharing the same airspace. and at one point the spirit plane was separated from the skydiving plane by only 400 feet in altitude. the spirit airlines airbus was forced to put the nose down and drop sharply.

1600 feet in very short order to avoid collision. crisis averted but it was harrowing for the 126 people on board the flight to dfw. one woman said every person on the plane was screaming. we thought we were going down. william h. gray iii has died, after an illustrious career in public service. as a congressman representing philadelphia, bill gray was the first black majority whip in u.s. history. he left congress to run the united negro college fund. and after attending seminary as a young man, was pastor of his baptist church in philly for over 30 years. the mayor of philadelphia remembered him beautifully today saying, "he knew the guys on the corner. and he knew nelson mandela and everyone in between." bill gray died on a trip to wimbledon with his son, he was 71. it's been a big mess in san francisco this week because of the bart strike. the bay area rapid transit idled for the first time in 16 years. it has clogged highways and roads and left 400,000 commuters

looking for other ways to get to work every day. mentioned this earlier, the folks at the center for science and the public interest sometimes affectionately known as the food police have identified what they are calling the worst meal in america. the big catch at long john silvers. it features fried fish, hush puppies and onion rings and comes in at 33 grams of trans fat. the company today called the meal a tremendous value at 4.99, and says customers have the option of healthy side orders. when we come back, two first ladies in their own words on life inside the white house. when your husband is president. arms were made for hugging. ] ♪ hands, for holding. ♪ feet, kicking. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to manage your ra,

now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz is an ra medicine that can enter cells and disrupt jak pathways, thought to play a role in the inflammation that comes with ra. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start taking xeljanz if you have any kind of infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests, including certain liver tests before you start, and while you are taking xeljanz. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common, and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you are pregnant, or plan to be.

taken twice daily, xeljanz can reduce the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe ra, even without methotrexate. ask if xeljanz is right for you. even without methotrexate. and you wouldn't have it any other way.e. but your erectile dysfunction - you know, that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat,

or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. finally here tonight, this week's rare confluence of travel means two presidents, bush 43 and obama, and two first ladies, laura bush and michelle obama, were in africa, in tanzania at the same time. both women agreed to speak about life in the white house and life while married to presidents. the moderator, cokie roberts started by quoting martha washington, who famously said

being first lady made her feel like a state prisoner. the conversation went on from there. here now, both first ladies in their own words. >> and i remember walking into that house, and i didn't even know where the bathrooms were. but i had to get ready for a ball. i was thinking, i've got to look nice? it's like, what door is this? and you're opening up all these doors, you can't find your toothpaste, you don't know where your kids are. that's day one. there are prison elements to it. but it's a really nice prison. >> with a chef. >> yeah, you can't complain. >> in these jobs when the stress is so much, and there's so much coming at them, i've come to realize that there has to be a soft place to land. >> yes, definitely. >> there has to be a place where they walk in that door and they are -- no one else but dad or sweetheart. >> i think you have to be really careful. >> tell them the truth. there are lots of advisers. lots of people who are the experts.

i pretty much let them be the advisers. i might say you need to comb your hair. >> i love my husband, but sometimes when he has like five things to do at one time, it's funny to watch it. you don't know where your jacket is right now. can't find that shoe, mr. president. i found that my husband needs time to be off. and the only time is when he walks into the doors of the residence. >> sure. >> and we sit down, we have a family dinner. the fortunate thing about having young children and girls, is that truly they could care less about him. >> they tell the truth. >> they do. they actually -- there are times when malia is like, so, what about climate change? >> not one but two first ladies in tanzania earlier today. that is our broadcast for this tuesday evening. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

nbc bay area news starts now. we begin tonight with two major stories. you're looking at live pictures in the south bay and san jose where an excessive heat warning is in effect. an automatic alert system has been triggered. hot, 90s and triple digits in many spots. we'll check in with our meteorologist in just a moment. but first breaking news out of oakland. bart trains remain at a stand still, but there is movement in

terms of negotiations in a matter of minutes, they are expected to return to the bargaining table. it will be the first time since the strike started. >> in theory, this is a positive step. nbc's cheryl heard joins us in oakland where the negotiations are supposed to be starting right about now. >> reporter: this is what everybody has been waiting for. just minutes ago, union members and negotiate greaters walked in, i'm looking at them standing at the table, getting ready to go upstairs. i talked to one of them. and they said that we are hopeful, and we're ready to get back to work. that's a quote from one of the union members. now this has been going on for two days now. everyone is ready for this strike to end. earlier today, we spoke with a union member. and right beside them they had a special guest. listen to ha they had to say. >> bart service.