current white house and deal directly with president-elect trump. >> and treacherous travel. a nasty winter storm sweeping across the upper midwest, churning out blizzard conditions with winds up to 60 miles per hour. we'll get to all of that in just a moment, but we start with the world mourning the sudden passing of '80s pop star george michael, who died on christmas day at the age of 53. ♪ got a body like you, but i got to think twice ♪ ♪ before i give my heart away >> michael, the british pop icon, was a teen sensation as part of the group wham, before he went solo, he sold well over 100 million albums worldwide. also won numerous grammys. he made headlines in a career that was at times controversial, but it spanned some four decades. nbc's steve patterson is covering the sudden death of george michael for us.

there in l.a. steve, what do we know at this point about the cause of his death? what are they saying? >> hey, craig. good morning to you. the 53-year-old died in his home in england yesterday. police responded to the scene at about 2:00, saying at the time that the death was unexplained, but not suspicious. then his longtime manager tells the hollywood reporter that michael died from heart failure. all this while tributes have been pouring in, obviously, from all over the world for a music legend. ♪ freedom i won't let you down >> it's music that made an entire generation move. ♪ baby >> those catchy melodies mixed with social commentary. all tied together by glossy unforgettable hooks, became mega hits. ♪ i don't need your freedom

>> and turned george michael from teen pop singer into an international icon. a career spanning four decades, spawning ten number one singles, selling more than 20 million albums in the u.s. alone. ♪ i will be your father figure put your tiny hand in mine ♪ >> michael rose to fame in the early '80s as one half of the british pop group wham, with songs like freedom, careless whisper and wake me up before you go go. ♪ wake me up before you go go >> the group became one of music's biggest acts in the world before they split in 1986. ♪ i gotta have faith >> the following year, michael's debut solo album "faith" won critical acclaim including a grammy and generated four number one hits. michael, who wrote and produced nearly every element, also became a world famous sex symbol. ♪ like the sun going down on me ♪ >> in the '90s, he had even more

chart success, including a smash hit live duet with elton john. in 1998, the singer made headlines after being arrested for exposing himself to an undercover police officer in an l.a. public restroom. after the incident, michael came out as gay and became an advocate for aids prevention and gay rights. but the song writer who achieved so much success in his mid-20s said the attention was too much. he told matt in 2004, he wanted his private life back. >> so freaked at the amount of attention that was being pointed directly at me. >> more recently, the artist suffered a series of health scares including a near fatal bout with pneumonia in 2011. >> the hospital in australia that they rushed me to was absolutely the best place in the world i could have been. >> tributes on social media from friends and famous fans began pouring in almost immediately sunday night, including his wham partner who tweeted, heartbroken at the loss of my beloved

friend. forever loved. the last christmas for a man who will forever be remembered as a music legend. ♪ last christmas i gave you my heart ♪ ♪ the very next day you gave it away ♪ >> officials at this point are saying there are absolutely no signs of foul play, and that an autopsy will be conducted in due time. in the meantime, his publicist said he passed away add his home peacefully. >> humming his hits all morning here. steve patterson for us in the los angeles bureau this morning. thank you. back to politics. in the next 24 hours, it will be jam packed for the trump transition team as it prepares for donald trump's inauguration on january 20th. israeli settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem have become an issue for the president-elect this weekend after the united states declined to block a u.n. security council resolution condemning israeli

settlement policy. hallie jackson is in palm beach where president-elect trump is spending the holiday weekend. are we expecting details on any other key issues toold from the president-elect or his team, hallie? >> hey, craig. i think it's going to be a fairly quiet start to the holiday week here in south florida. the president-elect, of course, spending the holidays at his mar-a-lago property just down the road from where we are. i think the israel issues is one that you saw president-elect trump tweet about over the weekend. we may see more tweets from him, possibly today, but notable that he waited on an issue that has created friction between benjamin jett netanyahu and pret obama. it's not typical we would see an incoming president get so involved in international foreign policy, not just on saturday talking about the security council resolution, but even earlier, issuing his own statement about what he believed

the u.s. should do. a senior official telling us at the request of israeli officials. he has big cabinant vacancies still to be filled, not as high profile as the state department, but v.a., secretary of agriculture, director of national intelligence. those are the outstanding positions yet to be chosen, at least, by the president-elect. he may be sort of doing some work on that over this week, but if there's movement, i suspect we won't see it until later this week. >> what can you tell about about how he's going to wind down his charitable office. >> this was a little bit of a christmas eve surprise. the president-elect announcing he wants to dissolve the trump foundation which has come under fire and investigation for the way it spends money. the trump foundation, currently under investigation from the new york attorney general's office, and the a.g. is saying the president-elect can't shut down his foundation until our investigation is complete. trump has called that

investigation partisan, essentially, you remember the new york a.g. is a democrat who has tangled with trump before. all of this is meant to, at least in the eyes of donald trump, try to untangle some of the potential conflict of interest issues or appearance of conflict of interest, which is y he says despite his foundation doing good work, he's going to be winding it down prior to the inauguration. questions of how that really will work. questions that the president-elect has promised to answer after the new year in a press conference, but as you know, his promised press conference for this month never materialized. >> one was promised on december 15th, a thursday, and it never happened. it's been almost 200 days now if i'm not mistaken since the president-elect has decided to answer questions from members of the media. meanwhile, russia's president, vladimir putin, as you know, criticizing democrats in this untry over charges that russia tampered with the u.s. election. has there been more reaction from president-elect trump on that? >> over the last 48, 72 hours,

craig, he basically, president-elect trump, agreed with vladimir putin, talking aboutthosis remarks that putin made at the press conference, the lengthy press conference friday morning, talking about essentially it being humiliating for democrats at this point, and president-elect trump tweeted, so true, over the weekend, or i believe on friday afternoon as well. so some more -- i guess you could call it symmetry, perhaps, or signs of agreement between donald trump and vladimir putin. something we'll likely see more of come the new year. >> what's the temperature down there? how warm is it? >> beautiful but windy, my man. love for you to come hang out. >> looks nice. >> stuck in the studio. >> thank you, hallie jackson. talk to you soon. josh is an msnbc contributor, al a senior editor at business insider. also has a fantastic radio show which we'll talk about in a moment. niles is the associate editor at the hill. good to see you both. thank you for being with me. let me start with you, josh.

this ongoing conversation we're having about donald trump and his relationship with vladimir put putin, what do you think it is going to portend for this country and its relationship with russia moving forward? >> i mean, there are a number of important areas. one is we have imposed these sanctions on russia related to what it's done in ukraine, retaking the crimea peninsula in ukraine, a jet shot down over ukraine, widely believed to be a piece of russian military equipment, shut it down, very little apparent punishment for russia. certainly, they would like donald trump to thak those off. that seems like something he might well do early in his administration. we have been at odded with them in syria. it's likely we will no longer be at odds with him, as we stand by as they support the assad regime. so i think there's a lot that u.s. policy could be shifted to be more favorable to vladimir

putin and i assume that's part of what he's hoping for. >> that's russia. let's talk about israel, the effect of the latest conflict with israel on the relationship between the incoming trump administration and benjamin netanyahu. >> well, clearly, the trump administration was the place to which the netanyahu people appealed when they realized that this resolution was going forward. the obama administration's decision to abstain had the effect of allowing that resolution to pass. so what we're seeing, clearly, is both donald trump saying that he would change things, that things will be different at the u.n. after january 20th, as he put it in a tweet, but also i think you're sealing the israeli administration put in a lot of faith in things are clearly strained between netanyahu and obama. that's been the case for years. netanyahu looking forward to the inauguration of trump, i think.

>> what are you hearing from your sources on the hill? from lawmakers on a macro level about how the transition is going? >> well, i think it's fascinating, you know, in terms of the republican party, they are obviously happy that they have the white house. a lot of republican lawmakers did not expect that to be the case. but when you speak to people on background, where they have not been identified, there's still quite a lot of republican consternation of a trump. they know he's not by any stretch of the imagination a traditional republican or a traditional politician. at least in some republican quarters, there is a wariness about people tying themselves too closely to the trump administration in case things, you know, new controversies could erupt that would damage everyone associated with them. >> is that what you're hearing as well? >> yeah, i think -- and then you can see this also publicly with some of the picks that have come out. i think there's been generally a

desire to stand with their president-elect from their same party on his nominees, yet, for example, with the rex tillerson nomination at secretary of state, you have seen some quite public doubts expressed by certain republican members of the senate. i think that stuff is likely to intensify as we go into confirmation hearings. this transition has been actually fairly efficient in terms of nominating people, but part of that seems to be they're being a little more casual than you have seen in the past about vetling nominees. some of these people have less government experience than is typical, so there wil be unknown unknowns that come out in confirmation hearings. people say things that are unexpected, so i think there will be further opportunities for things to drive wedges between republicans and especially in the senate, and president-elect trump. >> one of things that continue to fascinate me, two, one being how quickly some folks have come around on the president-elect. just two or three months ago, some of the things they were saying about this man. and folks like chris christie,

folks like rudy giuliani, folks who were by donald trump's side long before a lot of the so-called establishment had made their way to be by his side, nowhere to be found in his administration so far. does that seem odd to you? >> not really. we're also hearing this at the staff level, people with the campaign from early on who expected to get good jobs. they're not getting phone calls yet. there was a call with one of the incoming deputy chiefs of staff in the white house with one of the trump veterans and one of the things he said is you don't want to work in the white house, the hours are awful and the pay is not good, you don't get to see your family on the weekends. i think donald trump's band of misf misfits and newt gingrich and chris christie and rudy giuliani, this isn't the team he had because it was who he wanted. it was who was willing to be with him. trump cares about loyalty in terms of people being loyal to him. i don't find it surprising now that everyone in the republican

party is calling, wants to work with him, some of those people he finds tempting to pick rather than the people who were so desperate to work, they went to work for him 15 months ago. >> thank you for your time. the radio show, what's it called? >> left right and center. out of los angeles. >> there you go. >> do you have a radio show? >> sadly not. i'm working on it. maybe josh can have me on one day. >> you get a radio show, come back and we'll promote it a day after christmas at 9:15 in the morning. >> happening right now, some 3500 people searching the waters of the black sea near sochi. they're looking desperately for victims of a russian military plane that went down on christmas day. the russian defense ministry saying this morning that two fragments of that plane's control mechanism, as it's called, two fragments were pulled from the sea floor. 92 people were onboard that flight, including members of a beloved military choir. lucy kafanov continues to follow the latest on this story for us

from london. lucy, what more do we know at this point about the investigation? >> reporter: hey, craig. good morning. well, as you say, the divers found several pieces of that tu-154 plane this morning at the bottom of the black sea. they were able to drag those parts onto land. russian officials saying today that the investigation is focusing on pilot error or technical problems, not on terrorism. this has developed now over the past 24 hours. authorities scrambling to figure out why this plane went down on christmas day. it's an around-the-clock mission to piece together a deadly puzzle. thousands of emergency workers scouring frigid waters, salvaging what they can of what remains. no survivors, all 92 onboard dead. the plane departed from sochi, bound for a military base in syria, but just two minutes after taking off, it plunged into the black sea in near

perfect weather. most of its passengers, members of its world renowned military choir heading to spread holiday cheer in a new year's concert for russian servicemen. this young couple, dancers with the ensemble, were planning a wedding. also onboard, a beloved charity worker known simply as dr dr. leeza, taking much needed medicine to a syrian hospital. war is a hell on urthd, she once said. but kindness, compassion, and mercy are stronger than any weapon. reality is now beginning to sink in for those who loved and lost their dearest. onboard a christmas day flight to a war-torn country with a tragic end. and craig, singers, dancers, also nine russian journalists, some of them very young, among the dead. 11 bodies recovered so far, but critically, the plane's black boxes have not yet been found.

russian president vladimir putin declaring a national day of mourning across the country today, as that investigation continues. craig. >> lucy kafanov for us this morning from london. thank you. threats of new fallout following the u.n. security council's stinging rebuke of israel's settlements in the west bank. is benjamin netanyahu finished with the obama administration? done dealing with them all together. >> also, kremlin connection. what vladimir putin hopes to accomplish by tapping into europe's far right fringe network and what it could mean for russia's relationship with the trump white house. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line.

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there's a new investigative story out that says there is still a chance future u.s. elections could very much be vulnerable to hacks. the associated press reporting that due to lack of funding and old machines, the digital ballot machines that 1 in 5 americans used last month are not secure. the report goes on to say that a future election could be rigged and authorities might not even be able to detect it. i'm joined now to be a bit of a deep dive into the russian cyberattacks by msnbc's terrorism analyst malcolm nance. thank you for being with me this morning. you have called this russian hacking during our election, you have called it watergate. have we not made enough of a big deal about what potentially happened here? >> well, you're absolutely right.

actually, i called it watergate 2.0 because the first watergate under richard nixon, he sent in burglars to break into the dnc to put wire taps in and steal folders. they were not successful. they were caught by a policeman. this watergate 2.0 was done by russian intelligence, they broke into the dnc, took everything over a period of a year, including the opposition folders on donald trump, and selectively made those materials public in order to damage hillary clinton and elect donald trump. so that's the difference. we are very vulnerable to this. this was a national level cyberattack on the electoral infrastructure of america. >> moving forward, what more do we need to be doing that we're not? what more can we do? >> well, you know, during this election season, as many as 25 state voter registries were scanned, which means an attempt at hacking by what's believes to be russian military intelligence, the gru, at least

four of those were penetrated and voter registration rolls were taken. in florida, arizona, among others. they need to work in a public-prieskt partnership wit dhs and many have in order to get very high levels of security onlt their internet services. it's not the voting machines that are going to be hacked. it's the actual state rolls where they tally up the votes. if you add two rolls to each precinct or two fake votes to each precinct in those tallies, you can win an election by, let's say, 80,000 votes. not saying that happened, but i'm saying those are so negligible, but it's so easy to do, and we haven't taken enough effort to stop this type of hacking. >> i want to ask you about the new article in "the new york times," saying that basically, russian authorities may be indirectly, perhaps even

directly involved with t-right groups in eastern europe. we try not to yooz that term, alt-right, white supremacy groups essentially what these groups are. what doou think russia's goal is here? >> this is very interesting. actually, the best authority on this is nina, at the new school, an expert on russia. but the use of funding, white supremacist group neonazi groups in the united states, even this california right wing secession group that wants to detach from the northern counties of california, to actually give them money the way they give money to the marie le pen foundation in france, right wing extremists, is ordered to sew chaos in the western democratic system. they have never supported it. russia is an autocracy on its way to a solid dictatorship. they view any democratic

political process as a threat to their ability to foster greater russian imperialism. it's as simple as that. in the 1970s, they would fund terrorist groups from the left, combative in belgium, red army faction in germany, and they would create that mayhem. russia has since learned as a capitalist system, it's better to get the crazies funding, and they with the modern internet bullhorn can destabilize nations. >> and an attack on modern democracy. >> it is. >> malcolm nance, always enjoy jour insight and persctive. thank you. >> my pleasure to be here. >> long lines, lousy weather, making it tough for some folks to get home for the holiday weekend, from the holiday weekend. we have an update on the cond update on your forecast as well.

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here's a look at some top stories this morning. russia's president vladimir putin declaring today a day of mourning following yesterday's plane crash in the black sea that killed all 92 people onboard. russian defense minstare officials say search teams have recovered fragments of the fuselage, including parts of the plane's control mechanism. officials are ruling out terrorism at this point. but the russian transport minister says a technical problem or a piloting error likely caused the plane to crash just minutes after it took off for syria. it included dozens of singers from russia's world renowned military choir. nine russian journalists and a russian doctor known for her charity work in war zones.

>> fans of pop icon george michael are in mourning this morning. the superstar launched his career with the '80s duo, wham. he died on christmas day. he was just 53. his passing follows a four decades long career with more than 100 million albums sold, and 11 number one uk hits. his manager says he died from heart failure. quote, in bed, lying peacefully. >> and star wars actress carrie fisher still in stable condition after suffering a heart attack on a flight from london to los angeles friday. the 60-year-old fisher, best known for playing princess leia in the star wars franchise, she reportedly went into full cardiac arrest shortly before the plane landed and was placed in intensive care. her mother, actress debbie reynolds, tweeted sunday night, cary is in stable condition. if there's a change, we will share it for all her fans and friends, i thank you for your prayers and good wishes.

>> a white christmas in several upper midwest and plains states means the big dig-out starts this morning. most of the dakotas have to deal with what's become a slippery mess of freezing rain and ice praurch prompting highway closures and widespread power outages as well. now, the day after christmas, the weather may cause travel delays. we've got your covered on the weather and holiday travel around the country. we start with nbc's ron mott in chicago, where again, chicago not dealing with snow. at last check, it was almost 50 degrees there. but parts of the midwest not so lucky today. >> yeah, hey there, craig. we're not complaining here in chicago. after all, we went through a cold snap here about ten days ago, 15, 20 degree below zero windchills. today, 50 degrees, and you can see, we have clear skies coming in. we think the rain we have seen is going to be done for the day. temperatures will start falling. different story to our west,

especially in the dakotas and upper plains. the nice thing about a white christmas is you get a whies christmas. the not so nice thing is you have to drive through the white stuff trying to get out of those areas. that's going to be trouble today. not only do they have more snow in some of the dakotas falling today, but they're experiencing 60-mile-per-hour winds, so that is blowing all that stuff around, making visibility very difficult and dangerous there. going forward, the trouble spots today in the northeast, especially, snow, some freezing rain, some rain expected there late this afternoon into the evening, and so that could complicate things for people trying to get home to those areas or out of that area to get home. o'hare, which obviously is one of our nation's busiest airports. operating pretty smoothly at this point. just a handful of cancellations. surprisingly, more cancellations down south at midway airport. they had about 27 at last report. so always good to check your airline, especially if you're heading out to the west, to make sure that your flight is still a go and is going to leave on

time. all in all, can't complain about wearing a light rain jacket on december 26th in chicago. >> ron mott for us there in the windy city. ron, thank you. >> let's turn to nbc's gabe gutierrez. ron talked about down south. gabe is at atlanta's hartsfield jackson international airport. how busy is it this morning? >> hi, there. good morning. well, as you know, if you are traveling to this part of the country, chances are you might be connecting through atlanta. let's look at one of the big boards here. things are going pretty smoothly so far. a few delays. i see one flight to oakland, slightly delayed. another one to peoria, also delayed. but as you can see, the line, the tsa line, it's pretty much free and clear. this is an area that usually would be busy. if i have our cameraman spin around, everything is moving pretty smoothly. the lines, the wait times less than 15 minutes here at the main

checkpoint. the soukt checkpoint also has automated tsa screeners that the tsa is hoping will cut down on some wait tykes. here in atlanta's hartsfield jackson, they expect more than 4 million travelers and aaa expects a 2.piev% increase in holiday air travel this year. the busy days expected later on the week on december 30th andian 2nd. thankfully, as you can see, things moving smoothly so far, but the airlines are telling people to arrive two hours before they flights just in case those problem spots in the other parts of the country as ron was mentioning, the midwest, the c dako dakotas, the pacific northwest could see rain and the northeast, and that ripple effect could have an effect on atlanta later on in the day. back to you. >> gabe gutierrez for us in atlanta. there's a bliz zard warning in effect for some upper midwest states. bonnie schneider is tracking that for us. what are we seeing, bonnie? >> right now, we're seeing

airport delays in minneapolis, 45 minutes. not really surprising, weather related for that. the rest of the country doing okay. as you hurt from the previous reports, there will be a trickle down effect. the blizzard warning we have been watching has been in the northern plains where we had terrible, terrible travel conditions across north and south dakota with just blowing and drifting snow. wind gusts as high as 70 miles per hour. causing a complete white-out situation. that will improve as we go throughout the day. as the low works its way to the east, we'll be watching for more nasty weather. the rain coming in to pennsylvania, parts of upstate new york, we could see that change over to ice at times, so be careful driving. the winds will also pick up in this area. it's going to be a little treacherous for traveler. another spot that will be troublesome will be the pacific northwest. another system coming in from the pacific will bring rain and snow. very gusty winds, especially in bellingham, the winds to gust high, maybe up to 50 miles per

hour later on today and tonight, and for the cascadcascades, thid be 2 to 3 feet of fresh snow. the blizzard we were speaking about to the north, the tail end of the front, will trigger the storms through the south and even heavy downpours like in memphis later on today. if you're driving through the midsouth, were rr likely to encounter those. along with the front, watch for gusty wind and rain all the way towards atlanta and into the carolinas. with the jet stream all the way to the north, it has been so mild. i know last christmas we were talking about how warm it was. this one as well, we saw records shattered in many locations including tampa, florida, louisville, kentucky. lucky to see the numbers broken through much of the day into west virginia as well because the numbers are soaring. look at this, high temperatures into the upper 70s for new orleans today. 49 in washington, d.c. today, but by the time we get to tomorrow, talking about numbers near 60. that is unusual. it stays very cold across much of the western states.

but that colder air will push a little further to the east for tomorrow. so minneapolis, your high tomorrow is only 22 degrees. 31 is the high for chicago. but that cold air is sort of hugging the northern tier of the country. much of inu.s. is facing these very pleasant, very mild conditions that you know won't last because we're wrapping up the end of this year, moving into a new one where the weather pattern will change and a lot of cold air to the north will spread east. realary expecting that through much of mid to late january. >> bonnie schneider, thank you. less than a month to go in the obama presidency, and the tense relationship between his white house and benjamin netanyahu, it's soured even more. we'll talk about that. ♪ lend him a helping hand. ♪ put a little love in your heart. ♪ ♪ take a good look around... ♪ ...and if you're lookin' down, ♪ ♪ put a little love in your heart. ♪

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we are now less than a month away from donald trump's inauguration, but controversy surrounding his children's charity work causing headaches. they role in the administration, business holdings, it's unprecedented. they're also raising questions about possible conflicts of interest. hallie jackson with a look at the dust-up over the trump children. >> this season of giving changes to trump charities, including donald trump's own. the president-elect now promising to dissolve his namesake foundation, but the office of the democratic new york attorney general says he

can't. not until its investigation into the nonprofit is over. an investigation trump has attacked as partisan. the president-elect not the only trump trying to shutter his charity to avoid conflict of interest issues. eric trump now shutting down his nonprofit, which raised money for st. jude children's research hospital. t"the washington post" said he did it to shut down any question of selling access to the president-elect through donations. as unfortunate as it is, i understand the quagmire, tee hold "the new york times." you do a good thing that backfires. his is not the only nonprofit being separated from the trump name either. a foundation created in texas that considered auctioning access to the president-elect now backtracking. the photo op with donald trump and a hunting trip with his sons called off. eric and donald jr., originally listed as directors of the newly created charity, now removed from its leadership. a transition official said they were named in the filing without

their knowledge. in another incident, a charity auction to win coffee with ivanka was ultimately canceled. >> it doesn't matter whether the money raised is for something people think is good. the problem is you're not supposed to sell access to the government for any reason. >> former first daughter chelsea clinton raised eyebrows in the 2016 campaign for plans to continue on with her family's foundation even if her mother won the presidency. the transition now can be a time for trump's children to tackle any potential conflict of interest issues. >> they're all going to do whatever they need to do under the law. >> the trump children highly involved in their father's election, and now his transition to the white house. >> we need to create policies that champion all parents. >> already, ivanka trump has telegraphed she wants to focus on child care issues. it's expected donald jr. and eric will stay in new york. >> we'll take care of the business. i think we'll have a lot of fun doing it and make him very proud. >> well, the already strained relationship between the obama

administration and israel's prime minister has taking another turn after the united states declined to veto a resolution in the u.n. security council friday. it condemned -- the resolution condemned israeli settlement policy on the west bank and east jerusalem. before friday, the united states had vetoed similar resolutions. kelly o'donnell is in west palm beach where president-elect trump is spending the holiday weekend. here was the tweet that newt gingrich sent out a few minutes ago. why is the obama team waging war against israel? why are they taking steps to isolate and then kill a democracy and an ally? is this the kind of response that the u.s. abstention -- the kind of response we're going to see to that abstention from conservatives? >> reporter: very much so, because the protection of israel is a core principle, certainly for conservatives, and much more broadly. the u.s. has had a strong ally

in israel, and we're committed to their protection. and over the years of the obama administration, there has been consistent and persistent criticism of the president's relationship with israel, and especially with what we have seen in body language and in words a tense relationship with prime minister netanyahu. the obama white house also says there is no problem, that the u.s. in every way, financially, politically, supports israel. but when it comes to an issue like the resolution where the u.s. had power to block this resolution, it did not. and it did not for reasons that were laid out in great detail by u.n. ambassador samantha power. however, the effect of the u.s. position not to use its veto and then to abstain from voting, the net effect of that was that there was a sanction against israel. and there is a strong belief in israel that the u.n. has had a long history of anti-israel sentiment. so this is an open rift.

we saw it from benjamin netanyahu, who just yesterday let his feelings be known. >> over decades, american administrations and israeli governments have disagreed about settlements, but we agreed that the security council was not the place to resolve this issue. as i told john kerry on thursday, friends don't take friends to the security council. >> reporter: and so part of what you see here is that israel acknowledges that the settlements are an issue in the notion of a two-state solution. israel being its own state, as it is today, and palestine having a state. the settlements that encroach into areas that would be part of a palestinian state, it is a hot topic. at the same time, israel says the u.n. is not the proper forum because of this long history of anti-israeli sentiment. and donald trump has positioned himself opposite president obama

and much closer to israel. in advance of that vote, he was asked by israel to make some phone calls, to try to lobby. he did so. he also used his favorite method of tweeting before the vote, and then after the vote, donald trump tweeted this. the big loss yesterday, referring to friday, for israel in the united nations will make it much harder to negotiate peace. too bad, but we will get it done anyway with the notable exclamation point that so often follows a donald trump tweet. so he is taking the position that after january 20th, treatment in the u.n., the u.s. approach to the u.n., will be different. this is a sharp divide. not terribly surprising, given the history with the obama administration, but donald trump is trying to seize on this. as you pointed out, other conservatives are jumping in on it as well. >> kelly o'donnell for us in palm beach, florida. thank you. dangerous connections, what you need to know about using that free wi-fi when you're on the road or when you're in an airport.

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ifbe ow ony geee ldbemir ch but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. there's a new travel scam that will make you think twice before plugging your phone in in an airport charging station. more on this as we hit the peak of travel season. >> reporter: at the mall, on the beach, and at the airport. free wi-fi and charging ports are everywhere. these public places are popular

targets for hackers. how hackers do it. he set up an unauthorized insecure wi-fi network at the airport and called it airport wi-fi. within minutes 15 travelers around us logged on not realizing it was an unofficial insecure connection. >> we have a malicious hot spot here. you're punching in what you think is going to be a safe user and password. >> seems innocent. now it says i've been hacked. >> just like that your data is gone. those helpful charging stationers also prime targets. it's called juice jacking. when you plug your phone into a usb port a prompt comes up asking if you trust the connection. so many just say yes. but beware -- >> unbeknownst to you this usb port is connected to a system where a cyber criminal is looking at your device. >> i realized somebody was trying to enter my computer. >> jerome phillips was hacked at the airport. his first worry, his financial data. >> you don't know what the

bank's response is going to be, and your mind races. >> so how can you protect your self? experts say don't charge any usb port. use a plug. be wary of pop-up prompts, be skeptical of generic network names and use a virtual private network. >> less is more. slow down, be more cautious. >> dare to be disconnected. putting your phone down to keep your defenses up. jolene kent, nbc news, los angeles. the post holiday rush kicks into gear today. millions hitting the stores to return unwanted merchandise costing retailers big bucks in the process. national retail federation says last year americans return more than $260 billion in merchandise. nbc's morgan radford outside of walmart in new jersey. what's it like now? >> well, craig, these lines are starting to pick up. they have been out here since early this morning. finally people are starting to trickle in. we expect to see a lot more people as the day continues.

that's because holiday sales up big this year. estimated number, $1 trillion, that's up 4% from last year. even if you just look at november sales alone, that was also up 5%. craig as you can imagine, lots of people didn't want to wait in lines like this, so they went online shopping. the bulk of those online shoppers, that was about a billion dollars spent just this holiday season alone. that was up 16% compared to last year. a lot of those online shoppers this year they were procrastinators, so of course they got the benefit of a lot of decreased prices. they even got some of that free shipping. today is the big day if you want to return those items. you're not feeling, don't like the way it looks. a few tips if you are headed out to the stores today. one, be sure to call the store ahead of time. it actually will save you some of that time because each individual store has a different return policy, especially when it comes to things like electronic, television, drones, all of those things can have a separate return policy, even different from the other items inside the store. but secondly, be sure to also

bring your photo id. people are starting to want to see more ids not just receipts this time of year. and if you were one of those last-minute shoppers, you should not be here last minute to return. like i said, craig, we expect these lines to pick up here and throughout the rest of the country today. >> are you returning today? any returns? >> i mean, i kind of got this scarf, which i think as my son said is chic according to my mother. i'm very pleased. good to me this year. >> a surprise, considering i heard you were on the naughty list. >> that's right. >> morgan radford in new jersey for us. morgan, thank you. we have much, much more news ahead here on msnbc. i'll talk to rolling stones anthony decurtis about the life and legend of george michael. what's the best way to get

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good monday morning to you, i'm craig melvin. it is 10:00 on the east coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. it's 3:00 in the afternoon in london where people continue to gather outside the home of george michael. the '80s superstar died yesterday at the age of 53. the cause of death still not known but authorities have classified it as umbrella explained but not suspicious. also today recovery teams searching through wreckage from friday's plane crash while investigators search for the cause of that crash.

officials, though, say they do not believe the crash, which killed all 92 on board, was an act of terror. back here in the united states, a perfect storm of chaos with the blizzard blowing across the high plains just as millions travel home after the holiday weekend. we'll get an update on the forecast and go live to one of this country's biggest airports in just a bit. but we start with reaction pouring in from around the world to the sudden death of '80s superstar george michael. he died on christmas at the age of 53. ♪ ♪ >> the singer songwriter and music producer became one of the world's biggest selling artists, first with the group wham and then solo career as well. his manager said he died of heart failure peacefully at his home in england.