the retaliation president obama promises that the united states will take action against russia over interference in the u.s. election. all but two states in the lower 48 are below freezing and more snow is on its way. >> china flexes its military might with the first of its kind testing of it aircraft carrier. >> say good-bye to one of sports most colorful and courageous figures. >> "rogue one" is starting off out of this world box office numbers. >> good morning. i'm ayman mohyeldin. >> i'm frances rivera. if you haven't been out yet, you better bundle up. that's portland, maine, where the temperature is negative one

with the windchill, a cozy negative 22. how about this? a shot of a beautiful morning dawning in washington, d.c. how gorgeous is that? how it feels, though, may be different. a red sky above the white house before the president heads to hawaii. also, much of the country waking up to the coldest morning since february. widespread negative windchill temperatures adding to the pain, but it's not just the dangerous cold. also plenty of snow causing trouble, too. ron mott starts us off. >> bitterly cold air, snow, and ice, and a harsh reality getting around suddenly a whole lot tougher. at least 50 vehicles involved in this pennsylvania pile-up. in oregon, scary moments when this school bus lost control. fortunately, no serious injuries. upstate new york, blizzard conditions. the brutal blast from the north sent windchills plummeting. 17 below in chicago, 12 below in minneapolis. cleveland, 10 below.

all but two states in the lower 48 below freezing somewhere. >> well, that was ron mott reporting. your full forecast will be just ahead, but first, breaking news this morning. a police standoff with a lone gunman holding out in mt. vernon, washington, just north of seattle has come to an end after a shoot-out that lasts for hours. the suspect, we understand, is in custody. at least one officer has been shot in the head and is in serious and stable condition. >> the 30-year veteran of the force was conscious and alert when flown for a medical center. while his name has not been released, he was responding to calls of shots fired when he was immediately injured himself, just before the suspect took in several hostages. however, police now say it does not appear if any hostages were held. that's still being investigated. police say the suspect is a violent offender, has been well known to authorities and may have been streaming the entire incident on social media. dozens of shots were heard coming from the home. this morning after flash bangs

ran out and police stormed in, putting an end to a several-hour-long standoff. >> this morning, president obama vows to strike back against russia. president vladimir putin for his alleged interference in the election. telling npr that he's set to take action against russia. >> i think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections, that we need to take action. and we will at a time and place of our own choosing. some of it may be explicit and publicized. some of it may not be. but mr. putin is well aware of my feelings about this because i spoke to him directly about it. >> now, that comes as the president prepares to hold his final press conference of the year later this afternoon. however, president-elect donald trump may be signaling that he is in fact giving some credence to that russian hacking link.

while raising questions about why the house didn't act more boldly on its findings about putin earlier. we have this report from cynthia mcfadden. >> reporter: president-elect donald trump seems to be pivoting a bit after our nbc news exclusive report last night that vladimir putin personally directed a russian clandestine operation to interfere in the u.s. election. tweeting, if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act? why did they only complain after hillary lost? this, a far cry from what he's been saying for months. >> anything that goes wrong, they blame russia. russia did it. they have no idea. >> it also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. >> they don't even know it's russia. who knows? >> personally, it could be russia. i don't really think it is, but who knows. i don't know either. they don't know and i don't know. >> i wonder whether the tweet that president-elect sent out

today is the beginning of his pivott. the beginning of his acknowledgment of the intelligence that russia has been hacking our institutions. >> james stavridis, the former commander of nato, met with the president-elect last week. >> i think it is a legitimate question, and i think given the stakes add the national level, the question deserves an answer. >> nbc's andrea mitchell pushed hard to get that answer from the white house. >> i think it was a powerful thing to have the intelligence community in that statement verify russian meddling in the election, approved by the highest levels of their government. >> the statement he's referring to was a one-page release on october 7th, which outlined the intelligence assessment that russia's senior most officials were interfering in the u.s. election. no direct mention of putin. though a month earlier at the g-20 summit, president obama privately confronted putin. the white house confirmed today. so should the administration have come out bolder and sooner with the hard intelligence they

possessed as donald trump suggested? should they have pushed congress to enact sanctions against the russians, making the public understand this was serious? >> in retrospect, it seems as though it was a mistake not to call the russians sooner and respond to them in a very forceful way. >> high-level intelligence sources tell nbc news the administration didn't take such actions because they didn't want to appear to interfere in the election. and they thought hillary clinton was going to win. and they didn't think it was worth the potential risk of getting into a cyber tit for tat. last friday, president obama asked for a full review. as for the russians, mr. putin's spokesperson called the idea he was personally involved in the covert operation, quote, laughable nonsense. >> our thanked to cynthia mcfadden for that report. >> staying on the political front, donald trump was back on the road, swinging by hershey, pennsylvania. it's his latest stop in the

post-election thank you tour. while he didn't bring up the russian hacking scandal, his most recent political appointment has him wading into controversy. he chose a banking ambassador as his ambassador to israel. david freeman has been nominated for the post. even the announcement came with controversy, with friedman saying he would work to strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two countries and advance peace in the region and look forward to doing this from the u.s. embassy in israel's eternal capital, jerusalem. >> friedman himself was involved in pushing anti-clinton conspiracy theories accusing huma abedin of being associated to the muslim brotherhood. it's the latest in a series of announcements by donald trump after the transition team said it would add another general to its ranks, this time, picking keith kellogg for the national security council.

they always chose dr. monica crowley as senior director of communication. meanwhile, vocal anti-imknrnt proponent sheriff joe arpaio is doubling down on his birther claim, saying parts of obama's birth certificate were copied from another stoiflt. arpaio said he would turn this new evidence over to the feds. >> sad news for sports fans. longtime nba sideline reporter craig sager has died at the age of 65 after battling leukemia. known for his colorful personal and even more colorful wardrobe, he was a fixture on the court for decades. tributes have been pouring in from around the nation. steve kerr skipped the moment of silence and led a whole basketball arena in a moment of joy. >> join me in applause for a great man and a life well lived. thank you. >> craig sager, dead at the age of 65. to charleston, south

carolina, where a jury convicted dylann roof on all counts for killing nine black worshiper at a south carolina church. one of the survivors of the m massacre testified at the trial how she watched roof murder her son. she wasn't surprised by the verdict. >> i wasn't expecting anything less. i knew it was going to be guilty, guilty, guilty. completely. >> all the way through. >> all the way through. >> when you heard the final one? >> music to my ear. >> 18 of the 33 charges were capital offenses and roof now faces the death penalty. the jury will break for christmas before returning in january for the sentencing phase of the trial. roof told the judge that he still wants to represent himself in court, and felicia sanders says she plans on testifying again during this penalty phase of the trial wrarb. >> an e-cigarette caused a major scare for passengers mid-air. an american airlines flight was forced to divert after a passenger's electronic cigarette

caught fire midflight. crews were quick to act, extinguishing the flames. the indianapolis-bound flight landed safely in little rock, arkansas. the report has been reported to the faa. >> a new sfisk breakthrough that could reverse the clock on aging. gr good news. >> first, bill karins and the details on the sipolar express. >> there's cold like in new england, then the storm across the country which is now in california and another cold front behind it. we had rain overnight in los angeles. we had about an inch of rain, san diego, still lightly raining. phoenix had light precipitation, and now the storm is affecting places like salt lake city, too. we're expecting a couple more hours and the possibility of isolated flash flooding. we had a couple warnings out there, but that's the only issue. as far as the additional rainfall, it should be light wrfrbfter the a of the cold air

still remaining in northern nevada and through idaho. the complete weekend when we come back. a little warm-up for the west coast. >> nice to hear, bill, with all the cold air out there. thank you. just ahead, one of hollywood's hottest couples immortalized. details in two minutes. you're watching "early today." can make this... feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief brand. tylenol® when you have a cold, pain from chest congestion can make this... feel like this.

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given him his favorite role to date, that of a proud papa. >> leading the news, a budding superpower is flexing its military muscles. china has launched its first ever live fire drills in the east china sea. the show of force comes in the run-up to the inauguration of president-elect donald trump. tensions between the two nations has risen since trump's recent phone call with the leader of taiwan. testing weapon performance and training levels, dozens of ships took parts in the missions and striking their targets. >> for those in search of the fountain of youth, from "the new york times," their reporting that scientists now believe that aging is likely reversible. aging of the biological clock, that is. using genetic engineering, scientists have managed to reprogram the genes of mice and lengthen life spans by 30%. don't get too excited that this is something we can do just yet. it can't be applied on humans.

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want to play like that? >> time for today's quick hits. the trailer for the fate of the furious, the eighth film in the fast and furious franchise, is already breaking records. it's become the largest trailer debut ever, setting a global record with 139 million views in the first 24 hours and the film isn't due to come out until next spring. >> meanwhile, instagram breaks it own record, racking up 600 million users. that's nearly double the number of people living in the entire u.s. >> a law of pictures of food and cappuccino. >> a proposal of galactic proportions after a man surprised his longtime girlfriend by getting down on one knee at an advanced screening of a star wars film. he said it wouldn't have been the same without the help of darth vader. and rogue one has already earned $30 million in preview shows last night. nothing more romantic. >> that movie will be a blockbuster. >> stock futures are higher with the dow on its sixth straight

week of gains, but it's mcdonald's that has many consumers excited. landon dowd ay is here to make sense of it. >> good friday morning to you. wall street will try to end the week on a positive note. stocks rising yesterday, but closing well off their highs. the dow is less than 150 points from the 20,000 mark, and is on pace for its sixth straight week of gains. investors will be watching for data today on the housing market. general motors plans to expand production and testing of self-driving cars in michigan. it will start testing cars on public roads and drive the next generation self-driving vehicle at the same plant that makes the chevy bolt, and it will allow them to see how driverless cars perform in snowy weather. a challenge for cameras and sensors. >> mcdonald's will soon deliver that big mac and fries to your door.

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a new study from the pew research center found fake news is causing confusion about current affects. only 11% said fake news caused not much or current confusion. facebook is now cracking down to stop the spread of fake news on its site. >> talking about fake news. >> fake news story. >> fake political news. >> impact of fake news. >> facebook wants to put fake news out of business with your help. after months of public pressure, the social media giant announcing new preliminary measures to weed out stories that are intentionally false and spread for financial gain. to make it easier for its 1.8 billion users to report a hoax, they can click the upper right-hand corner of a post to flag content. if enough people mark it, the story will then be reviewed by facebook researchers. and passed on to independent

journalists to fact check. if determined false, the piece will be marked disputed on facebook, demoted in your news feed, and the creator will be banned from promoting it on facebook's advertising platform. >> facebook is censoring to the extent it will cut off some. >> if you look at that site, if you think that's a real news story, you know, i think that's on you. >> he welcomes facebook's new measures and does not think it hurts his right to free speech. facebook's announcement said, quote, we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves and it's targeting the worst of the worst. a controversial experiment, facebook asking users to police fake news, trusting them to call it when they see it. jo ling kent, nbc news. >> just ahead, your weekend weather forecast. that's next. per roll

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well, the forecast this weekend is really going to be dominated by the snow storm in the next two days and then the cold moving in behind it. watching the storm moving through the rockies, exiting areas of the west coast. saturday, pretty calm and clear, but nothing compared to the midwest. how about this? in chicago on sunday, a high of negative 1. there's an outdoor football game, too. >> man, i got to feel for them, but not really feel for them. >> a tough weekend for the athletes out there. thanks. >> the entire university of minnesota football team just announced it is boycotting all football activities, possibly including the holiday bowl game. the players are demanding to know why the university suspended ten players earlier this week. some were accused of sexual assault. however, police declined to

charge any of the players. administrators say they can't share all of the facts due to student privacy laws. >> a new scientific report says global warming has its fingerprints on many weird weather cases around the world. they say climate change was a factor in 24 out of 30 strange weather events over the last year. some of these include unusually high heat waves in the uk, also the alaska wildfires and the odd sunny day flooding in miami, florida. >> incoming first daughter ivanka trump is wading into public policy with reports she's calling republican members of congress to get an uearly push n legislation. a high level transition official tells nbc news the main focus of her advocacy will relate to women's role in the growth of the economy, jobs, and small businesses. the issue was the focus of her rnc speech back in july and central to many of her campaign stops in the general election

with her father. >> may be a hint of what's to come with donald trump heads to the white house. >> apparently, she's house hunting. >> i think in washington, d.c., reports of that. >> apparently, shared experiences often define what it means to be american. a new pew research survey asked people to name the most significant historic events of their lifetimes. 76% rank the 9/11 terrorist attacks as number one. the election of barack obama came in second, followed by the tech revolution, with the internet, smartphones, and social media in one category, and two defining moments for baby boomers. the assassination of john f. kennedy and the street war ranked fourth and fifth on the list. fascinating from generation to generation. >> i think all americans can see that 9/11 was perhaps the most defining moment, and it's interesting, the remaining four are divided generationally. thank you very much for joining us. i'm ayman mohyeldin. >> i'm frances rivera. have a great friday, an even

better weekend. see you back here on monday. "clinging for life" on a cliff.

a man finds himself stuck in san francisco, as the beach below him disappears in the high tide. the rescue efforts to save him... pray a man finds himself stuck in san francisco as the beach below him disappears in the high tide. rescue efforts to save him. a sprawling crash in the sunset district of san francisco. a multicar accident is so extensive, it leaves one of the victims and his car a block away. screeching winds lead to a scarry situation in palo alto. a tree topless onto two cars below. the mess is still being cleaned up this morning. "today in the bay" starts right now. very good friday morning to you. thanks so much. we're drying out from the rain. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> we have stories about fallen trees and mudslides. at least it's over for