right now, we may actually have a dry forecast in san francisco by tomorrow. we'll just have to wait and see. >> thank you jeff. thanks for joining us here at 5:00. brian williams is next. >> goodnight. on our broadcast tonight, new video of the terrorist attack in france showing in detail how brazen the attackers were on the very day the victims are laid to rest. panic in the tunnel as a commuter train grinds to a halt and smoke begins to fill the cars while passengers are told they must stay put. american sniper as portrayed by bradley cooper. lester holt looks back at his conversation with the real-life inspiration for the story of heroism that has come to the big screen. and the brotherhood. good news for a pair of siblings we've come to know after their incredible story of endurance that touched so many. "nightly news" begins now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york this is nbc nightly news with brian williams.

good evening. as the victims were laid to rest today, what happened in france has clearly become the terrorist attack that has reverberated around the world. new video just out today shows the suspects as they went about their awful task, including a shootout with police. and french authorities still say this group had help and there are more people out there. it's where we begin tonight with our chief foreign correspondent richard engel in paris. >> reporter: from this angle, it's even more terrifying. new video showing the kouachi brothers just moments after the "charlie hebdo" massacre. we have avenged the prophet muhammad, they shout, and calmly reload. police arrive. the brothers open fear sending the squad car into reverse. the brothers drive at the police and escape. three police officers were killed in last week's terror spree. today they were given the

country's highest honors. in pakistan today, very defrt praers different prayers. at a symbolic funeral for the killers embraced here as heroes. blasaphemers are the enemy of all muslims, said a local politician. but "charlie hebdo" is sticking to its freedom to offend. the cover of its new edition out tomorrow has a cartoon of the prophet muhammad. the press run, an unprecedented 3 million copies. counterterrorism officials here warn they can't prevent every future attack without becoming a totalitarian society, but france is starting to reconsider some of its traditional freedoms. these attacks could change the way policing is done in france. there's already talk about introducing a french version of the patriot act and reforming the prison system in this country to prevent islamists from becoming further radicalized behind bars. the french parliament voted to

continue to bomb isis in iraq. then, after a moment of silence, first one -- ♪ -- then everyone sang the national anthem. france is especially tense ahead of the release of the new edition of "charlie hebdo." several muslim leaders around the world have encouraged the publishers not to print it. brian? >> richard engel starting us off from paris tonight. richard, thanks. the events of this past week involving islamic extremism are only reinforcing what many jews have come to question about france right now, whether the country is a safe place for them to live and work. the sentiment perhaps summed up best by a pillar of the jewish community in france who remarked on this broadcast last night that in world war ii, the optimists went to auschwitz and the pessimists went to new york. our report on that tonight from nbc's bill neely. >> reporter: murdered in paris,

buried in israel, the four jews taken hostage and shot in a kosher supermarket. the son of one said his french father had always wanted to live in israel. he is here now, he said. in paris, where the men were murdered, jews debate their future and their security. france has the largest jewish population in europe, half a million. it also has the largest muslim population, 5 million. many jews feel under threat. some feel radical islamists want to wipe them out. you don't feel safe? >> i don't feel safe. >> reporter: jacqueline cohen says it's a war here. >> we're feeling a war here. when you're going in the street and you see all the police. >> reporter: they have good reason to worry. a jewish school was the target of a muslim extremist three years ago, an attack that killed seven people. another french muslim murdered four people at a jewish museum

in brussels last year, a year when jews were attacked more in france than anywhere else in europe. the year israel took in more jews from france than from any other country. >> in paris, there's this feeling they have to be very careful not draw attention to themselves as a jew. >> reporter: but not every jew here is afraid. you feel safe here? >> i do. i do. and i'm a new yorker. so i know what safety in a city is all about. >> reporter: today french troops and police patrolled synagogues and jewish schools, trying to reassure frightened children and a traumatized people for whom france now feels less safe a little less like home. bill neely, nbc news, paris. in this country, in our nation's capital, the evening commute took a very sudden, very frightening turn for hundreds of people last night. the metro system train they were all riding on came to a grinding halt. then over the next 45 minutes,

the cars filled with smoke with everyone trapped inside. we get our report from nbc's tom costello. >> is everyone okay? >> no! >> reporter: inside a d.c. subway car, fear and panic as smoke first filled the tunnel, then the train itself. >> please stay calm. >> reporter: a train operator urged calm but inside hundreds of passengers struggled to breathe. choking on thick, acidic smoke. soon some passed out. >> we need a medic! >> make a hole! make a hole! make a hole! >> reporter: it happened at washington's metro station just as the evening rush hour was getting under way. >> a lot of smoke. and people could barely breathe. no electricity. no visibility or nothing. >> reporter: firefighters waited before going down to the tracks to be sure the electric rail had been shut off. in all, more than 80 people sent to area hospitals for smoke inhalation. one passenger, a woman, never made it out alive. >> it was pitch black smoke everywhere. they kicked everybody out. >> reporter: fire or smoke on a subway is every commuter's

nightmare. survival can depend on knowing the train's emergency phones and exits, listening to instructions and never touching an electrified rail. washington subway system has been under intense scrutiny after 9 people were killed, 70 injured in a crash six years ago. since then, several workers have been killed on the job. the ntsb said monday's incident was likely caused by an electrical arc on the third rail. the full ntsb investigation could take months. you know, those passengers were told to stay inside the train because that was safer than getting out on the tracks but part of the investigation will also look at why it took firefighters so long to get down to them, as yet again, the d.c. metro system is under scrutiny. brian? >> tom costello outside that metro stop in d.c. tonight. tom, thanks. investigators are blaming speed and, quote, driver behavior for a deadly pileup on an icy michigan highway a few days back. car after car, truck after truck slammed into one another

creating a twisted mess that shut that highway down for two days. now, for the first time we are hearing the calls for help from those trapped inside it. we get our report tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> oh, my god! there's more coming at me. i'm trying to get out of the way. >> reporter: a deadly winter whiteout chain reaction along a stretch of the i-94 in michigan. >> okay. i want you to shut up and i want you to listen to me very carefully. i'm at the 95 yard line interstate 94. eastbound side is completely shut down. >> reporter: panicked drivers inundate 911 with emergency calls. >> i'm in an accident on i-94. i'm like under a semi. >> reporter: while several vehicles catch fire. one, a semi loaded with 40,000 pounds of fireworks, explodes. operators dispatch rescue crews, and calm frightened drivers. >> you're not hurt, and that's all we care about. okay? everything else can be replaced in this world except for you

guys. >> reporter: 193 vehicles including 76 semi trucks slammed into one another shutting down both sides of the interstate for two days. twisted metal piled up for a half mile in each direction. this trucker managed to stop just in time. quite likely saving mika's life. he was in the car ahead. >> the road was nothing but a sheet of ice. they just kept coming. they kept coming full speed. >> reporter: michigan state police now reconstruct the crash. car by car, truck by truck. >> drivers have to adjust for the weather conditions. and you have to leave space, and you have to leave reaction time. >> reporter: even in blizzard conditions, police say, it is each driver's responsibility to slow down. and when they don't, the results can be deadly. kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. late word coming in to us of a disturbing story out of ohio. it involves an alleged threat made against the life of house speaker john boehner back in his

home district. the feds have filed criminal charges against a former bartender there, accusing him of threatening to kill speaker boehner by scheming to either poison him, poison his drink, or shoot him. the feds say the man is disturbed. speaker boehner's office tells nbc's luke russert the speaker is aware of the situation and is thanking authorities for their efforts. the race for the white house has suddenly gotten very hot and possibly very crowded as the gop attempts to win back the oval office. many potential republican candidates, including at least one who's been there before, who seemed on the fence or had ruled out a run completely now seem like they may be on the verge of going in. our report tonight from nbc's peter alexander. >> reporter: already the 2016 race is looking as crowded as it is unpredictable. at times today new jersey governor chris christie sounded like a man who would rather be giving a state of the union address instead of a state of

the state. >> i heard it from farmers in kansas and from teachers in colorado. i felt it from veterans in maine and from workers in arkansas. >> reporter: a pair of competing political dynasties will collide if jeb bush and mitt romney dive in. both men were expected to take a pass, especially romney, after a stinging 2012 defeat. >> i'm not running for president. i said that so many times. >> reporter: now get ready for romney 3.0. a romney adviser telling nbc news today, i'd be surprised if he didn't run. and bush is aggressively courting donors. >> go to right to ride pac.org. >> skeptical republican voters are looking for the shiny new car. and they don't see it in another bush, and they probably don't see it in a romney third race. >> reporter: still more conservative republicans believe the party needs to break away from its moderate wing. it has potential candidates revving their engines. romney's running mate paul ryan tells nbc news he's out. but kentucky senator rand paul,

and tea party favorite ted cruz, look like they're in. cruz taking a swipe at more moderate republicans for running to the, quote, mushy middle. today paul dismissed romney as yesterday's news. >> i think he's had his chance and i think it's time for fresh blood. >> reporter: mike huckabee is preaching to the party's right wing in his new book "god, gun, grits and graev" skewering the first family's parenting skills. >> this republican field is shaping up to be more diverse, more fascinating, than we ever thought would be the case a couple of months ago. this could be anyone's ball game. >> history is on the republicans' side, only once since world war ii has either political party held on to the white house for three straight terms. brian, democrats feel confident with hillary clinton still their presumed front-runner. >> we should add, it's early. peter, thanks. still ahead tonight, the real-life navy s.e.a.l. whose memory and life story inspired an oscar contender. his story in his own words. also, how life has changed for the better for a pair of brothers we first met during one of the toughest challenges of their lives.

there is a movie in theaters right now going into wider release this week that tells the story of an american who became a modern-day military legend. it's called "american sniper." it stars bradley cooper as navy s.e.a.l. chris kyle, the man known as the deadliest sniper in u.s. military history. kyle spoke with our own lester holt after he returned from the battlefield to the home front where he could not ultimately

leave danger behind him. >> reporter: through a rifle scope, as in life chris kyle saw a world divide by good and evil. he told me he went to war to protect the good guys. >> i was brought up extremely patriotic. so if my country's going to go to war, i definitely want to be there. and it's not for blood lust. it's to make sure i can protect anyone that's out there. >> reporter: kyle's story was made for hollywood. a navy s.e.a.l. sniper with 160 confirmed kills. a headline he was quick to deflect. >> if i could figure out a number of people i saved, that's something i would brag about. >> reporter: they called you the devil of ramadi? >> yes, sir. >> i've got a military age male on a cell phone watching the convoy. over. >> reporter: it was a natural war film except director clint eastwood saw something deeper. >> it was accompanied by the stress of departing all the time and coming back, getting

refamiliar with his family and then going back into combat. >> you're home? >> i guess i just needed a minute. >> reporter: to play kyle, bradley cooper put on 40 pounds. he learn to shoot and got to know kyle's widow taya. >> once it's humanized, it's much more complicated and layered. and then there's just so much source material there's just so many videos. we had all done e-mail exchanges while on the four tours. >> reporter: the film also explores the anguish and toll his repeated deployments took on chris and taya's marriage. >> he had such a humility and such a heart of service. he chose war because he knew that he was protecting people. >> reporter: even hollywood couldn't have written the ending to chris kyle's story. three years after leaving the navy and one year to the date after our interview, he was shot to death, murdered on a texas gun range allegedly by a fellow veteran who was trying to help. a tragic irony and ending for an american hero who stared down

evil with unflinching clarity. >> the biggest thing i communicated was, you have to make sure he is humble in the film because that's how he was in real life and he never wanted the attention or the fanfare. >> reporter: lester holt, nbc news, new york. we are back in a moment with a man overboard from a giant cruise ship. is it possible no one realized he was missing until the ship was docked?

a royal caribbean passenger who went overboard on a cruise off the coast of mexico has been rescued by a passing disney cruise ship. the passenger was 22 years old. he was onboard the "oasis of the seas," the largest cruise ship in the world. the ship docked in cozumel apparently not knowing they had lost a passenger en route. he was believed to be in the water for several hours, when in a great stroke of luck he was spotted by a passenger on the passing disney vessel.

they lowered the lifeboat. in college football, it's all over but the arguing over the new play-off system. for now the only championship game there was, the ohio state university defeated oregon 42-20 in arlington, texas. the buckeyes were so strong, they pulled off a blowout with a third string quarterback. a lot of future nfl names on that texas turf last night. the game scored the highest cable rating ever. over 33 million homes watched the game. side bar, the ref that looked so much like bob newhart, that bob newhart turned to twitter to deny rumors he lost a bet to rickles and was forced to ref the game. bad news for the buckeyes? folks back home in columbus. cops had to use tear gas and pepper spray to put down the post-game rowdiness after the victory. the awful wildfires in south australia continue to take their toll on acreage and wildlife. last week we told you the call had gone out to volunteers to

make mittens for koalas who burned their paws clinging to burning trees. now the international fund for animal welfare are asking folks to make pouches for kangaroos who have been orphaned and rescued, because the baby joeys need a safe and warm place to sleep. when we come back, an update on one of our most talked-about stories, a pair of brothers and their amazing journey inspiring people all across our country.

finally here tonight, we want to revisit what's been one of our most talked-about and inspirational stories over these past couple of years. it's about a pair of brothers who share an incredible bond. the older sibling helping his younger brother who has cerebral palsy overcome some big obstacles even if it means carrying him on his back. we get the update tonight from our national correspondent kate snow. >> reporter: 8-year-old braden ghandi has always been his big brother's biggest fan. hunter's in high school now, a freshman, already wrestling varsity. last june, hunter carried braden for 40 miles to raise awareness

about cerebral palsy. it wasn't easy for braden. sore with blisters, hunter had to cradle him in his arms. but they made it to that finish line. how much has changed since that day? >> a lot. >> reporter: braden threw out the first pitch at a detroit tigers game. they stood in front of more than 100,000 fans at the university of michigan's home opener. and a team of engineers designed a better walker he can be strapped into to go hands-free. >> i can play catch with my friends out at recess. >> reporter: braden has been trying out all kinds of sports. this winter it was sled hockey. >> there it is. there we go. >> reporter: and now he's taking on his brother's sport, wrestling. >> i want you to try as hard as you can, okay? do the best as you can.

>> reporter: the last-minute advice braden crawled out on the mat for his first match on sunday. this time it was hunter cheering his little brother on, and braden did better than anyone expected. >> good job, guys! >> i know i did my best. >> yep, you did. >> reporter: hunter says we could all learn from braden. >> you know he just inspires me and makes me think about it that if my 8-year-old brother can push through stuff, you know, i can, too. >> people think, oh, he has a disability, so he can't really do much. but if you put your mind to it and try hard enough, maybe you actually can do it. >> reporter: a lesson in courage for all of us. >> way to go, bud. >> reporter: kate snow, nbc news, temperance, michigan. that's our broadcast on this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we certainly hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

. nbc bay area news starts now. >> it only needs to happen once. and that's the concern that we have. >> right now at 6:00 a new plan to shuttle toxic cargo through a south bay neighborhood has some asking are we flirting with disaster? good evening, everyone. i'm jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. a major oil company wants to transport millions of gallons of crude oil through the heart of the south bay. trains would pass through morgan hill and san jose. so what is san jose's response? nbc bay area's robert handa near the tracks where many homeowners

are anxiously awaiting a decision. robert? >> reporter: well, raj, this stretch along monterey road in south san jose is just one ran why so many people are concerned about derailment especially if the cargo is toxic crude oil. you can see that a fence is the only thing separating these homes from the tracks. right now homeowners say their only protection could be a letter from the city. sergio jimenez heads up a homeowner's association south san jose concerned about a worst case scenario. but members are worried the expansion of a phillips 66 refinery operation in santa maria will bring mile-long trains into their area carrying millions of gallons of what they call dangerous toxic crude oil. >> our concerns are what would happen if a derailment occurred? and in particular the loads the trains are carrying? >> reporter: he agreed and agreed the city take a stance with a letter opposing the transport trains. >> coming right through our