friday afternoon so after work i take a train to philly. i have a stationary bike there andi i've already planned to do that. these numbers look wrong to me. how is it these three northeastern states consume more food than other places? >> it is about people who is recording this. people who record what they eat. people in other states might not. now we have millions of people who log what they eat. i get it. you're saying maybe somebody in a far off state that is just sitting and eating and sitting and eating. >> not telling anybody and telling their fitbit or anything. >> more of us are paying attention to the food we put in our bodies and in new york and d.c., a lot of food. you know, ali, i thought you were going to tell me you were biking to philly. >> not so much. thanks very much. you have a great weekend, i'll report back to you on monday and we're back into our normal slot 11:00 a.m. eastern time. stephanie, have a great weekend to you and your family.

>> good afternoon, everybody. i'm ali velshi. >> breaking news in egypt. >> this is a brazen attack on worshippers during friday prayer. >> men in four off road vehicles opened fire on worshippers inside the mosque during a ceremony. >> those numbers have been going up all morning and expected to rise even further. >> now there is new drama surrounding his one-time ally. >> major news about former national security adviser michael flynn tied to the russia investigation. >> flynn's lawyer notified the president's legal team wednesday night that the retired general's defense team would no longer share information. >> i think it indicates that there's serious legal jeopardy for the president of the united states. there's only one person higher up the chain than the national security adviser, that's the president. >> if michael flynn did something wrong by not disclosing the relationships he had with turkey and other governments, he should be held accountable. >> already up early and

tweeting, perhaps the president is trying to take a holiday from the investigation led by special counsel robert mueller. >> it is a trial that has captured the attention of the entire world. >> this morning it took just minutes for a judge to more than double the jail sentence for oscar pistorius. >> the double amputee olympic sprinter who was convicted of killing his girlfriend back in 2013. >> the verdict was unanimous and unp unpected. the previous sentence of six years was shockingly lenient. >> the stories themselves may not be moved to a high security jail to move the rest of his sentence. >> breaking news this morning. reports of gunfire and explosions at a mosque through an egyptian coastal city into chaos. new video shows ambulances rushing back and forth as onlookers gather outside the mosque in the town. hundreds are reported dead. state officials say dozens of ambulances were needed to carry the more than 100 injured to hospitals and the images from the scene that i want to warn you are very graphic.

they show the carnage as officials work to tally the increasing number of killed. now over 200 and attend to the survivors. in nearby israel, tel aviv city hall lit up in the image of the egyptian flag. tweeting a picture along with his condolences and president trump tweeted about the attack horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers in egypt. the world cannot tolerate terrorism. we must defeat them militarily and discredit. here with me in studio, rami and live on the phone from cairo, journalist jacob. before i get to jacob, i want to get from you, what is the latest information we got on this attack? >> well, ali, the details are still coming in, but worshippers attending friday prayer this morning were massacre. the egyptian state tv is reporting at least 235 people have been killed. about 130 others injured and a

gun and bomb attack in the packed mosque which is in the village of the same name. the numbers have been going up throughout the day, ali, and they are expected to rise even further. you showed images of those ambulances. we got reports that about 50 ambulances that ferried casualties from the scene to nearby hospitals after the attack, which seems to have been very well organized and heavily armed attack by the perpetrators. now, egyptian officials say militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and opened fire on worshippers. the gunman also started shooting at people as they left the mosque and ambulances that were trying to evacuate the injured. nobody has claimed responsibility for this attack yet, but it seems to be one of the deadliest, if not the deadliest in egypt so far on civilians. ali? >> no claim of responsibility you're saying. >> no claim of responsibility there but egypt has been no stranger to islamic state

insurgencies. they have killed hundreds of police and soldiers there over the years and also just getting reports from reuters that we can't confirm right now that the egyptian military has started airstrikes in the area around that mosque in the mountainous area where they believe that some of these militants may be hiding out. but we've yet to confirm that ourselves yet. >> all right. stand by, ali. let's go to jacob. he is on the ground in cairo. jacob, what are you hearing from where you are? >> what we are hearing is that this is a very strategic attack. if you look at where the attack is, ali, it's basically between the palestine egypt border and gaza and the capital of cairo itself. and it's an attack on a mosque. it's the first big attack on the mosque in decades in egypt. and it's actually a sectarian kind of war fare coming to egypt. not only against christians which we've seen basically over

the past few years, but now it looks like the jihadists are targeting muslim with a different approach to islam. >> what are we hearing about security activity? this is always tricky for cairo for egypt in general, which has had to react to attacks like this in the past. are you noticing security increase in cairo where you are? >> as you said, this is very complicated to report. but what i can tell you is this. 100 million people here. egypt has the largest army in the middle east and it has a domestic police security service who is also patrolling in the sinai. the army has been busy today in sinai near this attack. they also, as you reported, there have been air strikes at what are thought to be islamic state bases inside the sinai peninsula. but those have not been by the

state. went on air tonight and he said this is a war and it's a war. and the enemy, not only of this particular egyptian administration, but the entire egyptian nation which is composed, by the way, of two big faith groups of the islamic religion and the christians and, if anything, i think the feeling that sadness and mourning here has united those two groups and all kinds of extremism needs to be targeted. >> jacob, stand by, thank you. let me just bring you in. egypt is the birthplace of what we today think of in many cases as the extremism that has affected us in the west. it's always been a strain in egypt, as jacob was saying. it's often targeted at the coptic christians in egypt. but they have when talks about the enemy, about half the country is the enemy because he's made the muslim brotherhood illegal. there was a group operating in the sinai that became an

affiliate of isis. i think they called themselves the isis in the sinai now. so, the ejinggyptians know ther an extremist group around there. they haven't claimed responsibility but it makes sense they are connected to this group. >> been active for some years. they were one of the first groups to give allegiance to the islamic state. but this has a tradition going back to the days when the small strain of violent who broke away from the brotherhood include now head of al qaeda. number two to bin laden. so, there are many linkages between al qaeda, islamic state and the local insurgency and the northern sinai is where the headquarters of this group is or several smaller groups linked to al qaeda, by the way. but the main one islamic city. >> this is the same group responsible for downing that russian jetliner. the group we're talking about. nobody has claimed responsibility. but it is an active extremist

group. >> it's the affiliate of the islamic state and based in northern sinai and the problem in northern sinai is particularly difficult because they have had an active anti-insurgency approach which isn't working because they keep doing these anorms attacks and this is the worst one ever and they are musk away from the base on the sinai towards the west. so, this is a problem. to come out and say we have a major new military campaign is probably going to make things worst. these are problems that are anchored and social and economic and other mechanisms and dynamics. and they need to be addressed in their totality to stop the violence. that's not happening. and about a year or two ago was proclaiming a big, the united front with american support to the terrorists and this is their response. it's also a problem because the islamic state has been driven

out of its home bases in iraq and syria. and this is probably one of their responses to the next stage. >> there's always been a lot of egyptians involved and if they're given driven out, many experts say, look, it's like stepping on a ball of mercury. they're going to go to other places and egypt is a welcome place for some of them. >> a base of disgruntled citizens. you're talking about 100 million egyptians total. about 50, 60 million total who are living on the edge or in poverty with very little political power at all. virtually no political right. so, there is a very fertile ground in egypt for disgruntled people and hopeless and helpilous people to join such groups. >> it's what happened in iraq. fertile ground was created for people who didn't share beliefs necessarily with al qaeda or isis but somebody who was fighting the government. >> absolutely. the book i'm working on, i identified 65 different reasons why people like or support isis.

most arabs don't, the overwhelming majority guys reject these guys as terrorists. the 42 million who like them, there is 50, 60 different reasons. this is why it's so difficult and needs a comprehensive policy and military, et cetera. >> to what you're saying, this is a little bit different than just a group that has surfaced somewhere and is doing something. much of this is rooted in a very complicated politic in egypt and it has been that way since the 1930s. >> right. a politic, economics, foreign invasions, foreign milterism is really american, british, iranian, all kinds. so, there's many reasons political, economic, social and others why individuals who are normal middle class people suddenly join these groups. it doesn't happen whimsically and not a radical ideology they pick up on the web. most of the counterterrorism approaches in the arab world and in the west have failed because they have failed to acknowledge the many linked underlying

causes and address them all. it's really hard. it's not easy to do that. but, you know, the violence in northern ireland stop the violence in south africa and columbia stopping now because they address the underlying causes. it can be done. >> i'm glad you were here to help us through this. jacob in cairo, as well. and ali for us in london. ali, we'll stay close to you throughout the course of the day as more information comes to us on this story. turning back home, lawyers for president trump are waking up to a new kink in their defense strategy courtesy of michael flynn. news breaking late yesterday in "new york times" that an early trump booster would stop discussing the special counsel's investigation with him. this could indicate that flynn is now cooperating with prosecutors. flynn has long denied the campaign's links to russia's efforts to undermine the u.s. election often deflecting the issue. president trump's attorney said the former general and his lawyers have their own path with the special counsel.

flynn's legal representatives have declined to comment. spoke with the then campaign surrogate just over a year ago and tried to get his thoughts on vladimir putin. let's listen. >> when i think about vladimir putin and what a dangerous man he is. i ask you, how would you describe vladimir putin in one word? >> you know something, stephanie, we just cut a deal. the united states of america just cut a deal with russia, with russia's direct involvement to give the leading state sponsor of terrorism in iran a nuclear weapon. >> flynn's son, michael jr., tweeted just a short time ago a pick of 30 rock tracy jordan yelling, everybody calm down. calmly joining me now john harwood and legal analyst danny savalos. danny, first of all, thank you for being with us. what i told my audience about the shift with potential strategy with michael flynn and

the white house. what does it mean? >> michael flynn leaving signals a common interest agreement among the, i won't call them defendants, but suspects or targets of a grand jury probe. ordinarily the way it works is when people have a common interest, it allows them to share information and even privilege communications with their group of lawyers because they have this common interest in defending themselves. when one of the parties decides to leave and this is why defense attorneys are really skeptical. this is why they're very risky propositions these agreements because you have to trust everybody in the group to not leave and cooperate with the government. and if that's what's happening here, it's possible that flynn has left this common interest group and maybe either cooperating with the government or negotiating for a cooperation agreement and a plea deal. and the reason that's so scary is, there isn't a whole lot to stop him from disclosing information he may have learned

from his cohorts. >> how will we ever know this? will we only find out if, in fact, there was a deal? >> we will find out if there was a deal. the easiest way to find out is when they plead, the court will typically seal that information, but ultimately, years later and this may not be the answer you're looking for that you want, years later after that person has testified the cooperator has testified or has leaded guilty, the court will unseal that information. but for now, in the here and now, when we want to know, we may not be permitted to know. the government likes to keep this information sealed, if it can. and confidential if it can. because it only helps their investigation. >> got it. john, let's take a listen to what cory lewendowski said this morning. >> is the whole russian collusion thing about to come clumbling down on michael flynn and this white house? >> if michael flynn did something wrong by not disclosing the relationships he

had with turkey and other governments, he should be held accountable for that. this goes no other to michael flynn and his son. people like manafort and if they've done something wrong, they should be held accountable. >> the list of people who have done something wrong and have to be held accountable is getting longer and longer. cora i think we're now up to 12 people around the president who were pretty clear on the fact that they never had contact with russians and never did anything wrong and then we found out they did. >> corey later had his memory refreshed and said he had done so. but, look, we have had a cascade of officials belatedly acknowledging conversations with russians that they did not initially disclose. the most critical of those, of course, was that summer meeting

at trump tower that involved donald trump jr., jared kushner, paul manafort and meeting with russians who had offered dirt on hillary clinton and in that meeting they discussed an issue that was linked to u.s. sanctions against russia. so, the underlying question for bob mueller is we know that russia interfered in the election. why did they do that? did they get help in interfering and do they also get a promise of some policy shift after the election? mike flynn is somebody who would have very good knowledge of that possibility and, of course, he lost his job after lying about his conversations with the russian ambassador after the election. so, this is a very serious development and, if, in fact, michael flynn is negotiating to cooperate or is now actively cooperating, that indicates real jeopardy for the president of the united states. because, remember this, ali, what is a plea deal? what is cooperation? cooperation is the prosecutor

saying to a potential defendant, we're going to cut you a break if you tell us something that helps unfold the larger issue involving people higher up the chain. well, who's higher up the chain than national security adviser? that's the president. >> funny how michael flynn's son is tweeting. donald trump jr. boy, he likes to keep himself on the front lines at this. he is tweeting everything, including correspondents wikileaks in the infamous trump tower meeting. does he not have lawyers? >> i wonder if carter page has lawyers and i know they do, but they keep tweeting about this stuff. >> one of the most frustrating things as a lawyer. you want your client to follow your advice. and we have to give his attorneys the benefit of the doubt because they're probably telling him lay off the twitter. there's nothing that can come from it. in our modern era everything that we write and post online are words that can be used

against us at any time. they can establish facts that the government may not actually have established on their end. i can't tell you how often defendants both, white collar down to street level defendants incriminate themselves by posting things online and even if you may not think it's incriminating, it may be inconsistent with a position you took earlier. and that can all come back to haunt you. >> it is one thing if you really just have a need to be on social media and talk to people and use instagram and post pictures of what you ate for thanksgiving. john, a former russian broadcast gave a talk in the netherlands and it was fascinating where he discussed the kremlin's desire to push negative stories on hillary clinton and positive stories for trump when he was a candidate. it just continues to steam roll this idea that the trump administration wasn't in with the russians on at least spreading dirt on hillary clinton. >> no question about it. look, the russia media got instructions to go after hillary

clinton. at the same time, that was going on, donald trump and his aides, you never heard a bad word about vladimir putin even when it would be in his political interest to say so. why is that? big mystery. bob mueller is likely to get to the bottom of it. >> john harwood and danny, good to see both of you. thank you so much for joining us. we have breaking news right now. we are seeing police activity at oxford station in london. right now police are telling people in london in the vicinity of oxford station to shelter in place. i need to go back to ali in london who is just getting what he can on this story. ali, what do we know? >> that's right, ali. police have responded to what is said to be gunshots in oxford circle. they are treating it as a terrorist attack. they're not confirming it is. but they're treating it as a terrorist attack. we heard multiple reports from witnesses about the gunfire. other witnesses said they have run away from the scene and they

warned other people there to avoid oxford and we heard reports of people from galleries and they heard multiple gunshots and hit the floors of their offices. unclear what the situation is now. as you know a lot of terrorist attacks in london and the police here are not going to take any risks. police have responded to the scene there as the situation is still unfolding. as i mentioned, ali, oxford circus is a major shopping center and especially crowded at this time of year as we're approaching christmas. >> we have police, we have a statement from police right now to say police were called at 16:38 hours on friday, 24th november to a number of reports of shots fired on oxford street and underground at oxford circus tube station. police have responded as if the incident is terror related. armed and unarmed officers are on the scene and dealing with along with colleagues and if you are on oxford street, go into a

building and stay inside until further direction. avoid traveling to the oxford street area at this stage police have not located any casualties. you've got some video that we're seeing now coming in from the area. it is now about 5:00, am i right, 5:22 in the afternoon in london? >> exactly, 5:22. this is a normal working day in london. so, it would be an otherwise busy time. 5:22 in the afternoon. it seems like a lot of the traffic has been cut off in this area. can you see the pictures that we're seeing? >> yes, i can, ali. >> what are we looking at? >> oxford street. a long thoroughfare and that would be packed with cars and buses and people. they, obviously, evacuated the area. i don't know what the building is that we're seeing right now, but a lot of offices above those shops, as well. people hit the floor with the sound of gunfire and it doesn't

seem to be a scene of pa pandemonium there. no reports of injuries or an assailant being caught. this is one of the busiest parts of london and attracts a lot of tourists and a lot of shops people would do their christmas shopping is based there. a reason for concern. we don't know if it is a terrorist attack, but police are saying they are treating it as one, obviously, because they don't want to take any risks. >> london police, as you and i have talked about many times have become quite adept at dealing with these urban-style terrorist attacks because they had so many of them to deal with in the last little while. london, as a result of prior attacks, has sort of hardened itself against certain attacks. but there are pedestrian thoroughfares and streets like this. vehicular traffic and lots of pedestrians and a time of year where people are out. it's after work on a friday afternoon. and arguably there is only so much you can do in a city.

but reactions tend to be very quick and forthcoming and active from london police. in other words, they seem to know what to do when these instances occur. they also have roming heavily armed and armored units all over the city which could react in short order to shots of gunfire and anything that rises to the level of potentially being a terrorist attack. >> that's right, ali. also, i have to point out to you that the gunfire in the uk is very rare. guns are very hard to come by in the uk. that's why a lot of the terrorist attacks we've seen here have been using vehicles and then they've been using knives to stab people that have been running around on the streets. when you hear about an attack with guns in england, that's not unusual at all. it's almost impossible to get a gun in this country. so, it's not something you hear about very often. >> yeah, which means when you hear multiple shots of gunfire in new york, your thought, your mind goes to something different than what it would in chicago or

new york or a place like that. multiple shots of gunfire in london, the police do have an ability to trigger what we are seeing in front of us right now. you see a lot of heavily armed police on oxford street in london but they seem to be gathered with each other. so, it's unclear yet, ali. you don't have any information and neither do i. i'm checking the twitter account for the police on whether they have got somebody in custody or whether they identified victims. >> no. as far as we know, they don't have anybody in custody and we haven't heard any reports of any victims. so, it's really, it's really unfolding as we're speaking right now. but, again, like you said, it's a major cause of concern. any small thing here that could be related to terrorism would set the police straight into motion and, as you mentioned there, they're very adept at this. they become very use to adapting to any sort of incident whether it's terrorist or not.

they're not going to take any risks and straight in there treating it as a terrorist attack until they know exactly what happened. >> i'll just read you a few of the tweets because a little bit of contradictory information. british transport police say they're on the scene alongside met police. continue to avoid the area of circus and if you're on oxford street go into a building. officers are on scene and dealing more info when we can. different police organizations are saying different things. transport for london says bond street station is closed to prevent overcrowding, which seems to be a few minutes ago, but it doesn't make any reference to this gunfire. metropolitan police tweeted eight minutes ago, if you're on oxford street go into a building and avoid traveling to oxford street and then, finally, the london fire brigade has tweeted two minutes ago. we were called to an incident at

oxford circus. two, three fire engines and 15 firefighters are there, please, avoid the area. they said to people if you're in the area, get inside a building. we are also seeing people being evacuated from buildings at the same time. nbc producer on the ground. katie is on the ground. where are you and what do you see? >> hi. i'm standing at oxford street at the moment. three different, separate stores and stampedes and keep moving people as you were saying a moment ago from those shops. there is a lot of confusion. still a lot of people on the streets despite them saying people should get indoors. and literally i was in the tube station in oxford circus. i was going down the escalator and i heard people screaming and

people turned around and started running up the escalator i was on that was going down. so, there was quite a mass crush at that time. people were really panicking and peep police are telling me to go back right now. >> a lot of movement of people. did you hear anything? did anybody say what they were running from? there's reports of gunfire but no reports of anybody seeing a victim. >> no, i haven't actually heard any gunfire. i've been here since this incident started and i haven't heard anything. i haven't heard an explosion or gunfire. multiple times and they will not confirm anything at this time. >> ali, do we have any reports of any casualties anywhere here? >> no, we're just getting reports now from our news desk that there are no reports of any casualties by the police. the police reported that no known casualties at this point

and, ali, looking at the pictures, it does seem relatively calm. we've seen these scenes unfold many times before and you've seen the streets cordoned off and the police being fairly aggress wv tive with the pedest there and telling them to run for cover or show their hands and that's not a scene we're seeing here. so, the latest we're getting from the police right now is that there are no known casualties. >> no known casualties which doesn't mean that there aren't any. this is kind of unusual. we don't have the police chasing a suspect, as far as we know. there are multiple reports of gunfire and katie montaro tells us she was in the subway and saw people running up an escalator that was going down. people are reacting to something. if you're in the subway it's not news reports you're reacting to. people have heard something, katie, is that what you can glean? >> for the people on the ground, they are, i mean, everyone seems

to be reporting different things, as usually happens in these kinds of incidents. but, what seems to be happening is every time the police tell people to move back and there are a lot of people kind of fresh wave of panic starts and people start screaming and running in the other direction. so, it's very difficult to tell when you're in the midst of it what people are actually running from. yeah, it's very difficult to tell whether it's just mass panic or there is actually an imminent threat here. >> are you at marvel arch right now, catie? >> i am probably about 100 yards away from the station right now. >> what does it look like to you? does it look like -- does it look like a state, something that is under control? does it look like it's still uncertain? is it still very active? >> it does seem to look, it looks more under control now than it did earlier.

seem seems to be a lot more relaxed. no one's running any more. no, it's definitely, it's definitely calmer than it was. being pushed back further now. >> no all clear from any of the police agencies? so, just to recap what we have. at about 11:30, 11:28 or 38 eastern time police received multiple reports of gunfire in the oxford tube. and in oxford circus. they deployed all sorts of police and fire brigads to the area. you can see people running. so people had reported hearing something. but ali, just to be clear, as of now be about 5:30 in the afternoon in london, we do not have any known reports of casualties. nobody injured or killed. >> no, we don't. and our news desk was just informing us right now that about a multiple fire brigades

have been dispatched to the location but no reports of ambulances being dispatched to the location, which is an indication that there are no known casualties as they have been reporting. if there were multiple casualties, that place would be swarming with ambulances right now. we're not hearing reports of that at this stage. >> catie, tell me what this area this point on a friday afternoon, what would be happening? would they be shopping and going home from work, what would be happening? >> both, ali. this is obviously a major -- >> i was shopping and it is black friday here, as well. and it was exceptionally busy. i mean, i could hardly get into a store. there were like hundreds and hundreds of people. so, it was particularly busy day for something like this to happen. the tube station was actually so full that i could barely get down the escalator.

people were cheto get down. and that gives you an idea of how bad the crush felt when people started panicking. there was really no place to move. >> in fact, we had a report from transport for london which said that bond street station, close by, was closed to prevent overcrowding. so, there seems to be, obviously, a lot of people in and out and then in addition to being black friday, the end of a working day for some people. so, it would have been heavily krou crowded. not all trains are stopping and all the various london authorities are tweeting about this or talking about it. but, again, no confirmation on whether police were able to find the source of the gunfire that resulted in many, many reports just about exactly one hour ago. numerous reports from oxford circus and the tube station about gunfire. in fact, london fire brigade says that they were called at 4:43. that was about five minutes

after police first received their calls. it's now 5:34 in london. so, again, this is an unusual one, ali, given that you and i have covered numerous of these attempted terror attacks across europe and, in particular, in london. normally by now we have some sense of something. this is unclear. there are fire brigades, there are police. there are people moving around. there are some people running as catie moniero says on the ground it seems to be calmer than it was earlier. we have no news of arrests, injuries and casualties. >> no, ali. getting one report in from the british transport police saying one woman has minor injuries. now, it's unclear how she sustained those injuries. it could have been in a stampede while they were leaving the tube station. that's the only report we're getting right now that one woman

sustained minor injuries and no other casualties. and, obviously, we haven't heard any reports of any suspects being apprehended. any sort of suicide attempt going on there. so, it seems to have calmed down right now. but, as you mention, it is a very unusual situation. by this time we usually have a little more clearer picture of what's happened. what was being done on the scene. but something happened and it seems to have calmed down fairly quickly. >> we're looking at live pictures on both sides of your screen. it is 5:35 p.m. on the afternoon, friday afternoon which is both black friday and a working day in london. so, this would be about the height of activity of people either shopping or going home from work. two live pictures. this happened just over, in fact, it was almost exactly one hour ago that police received numerous calls of gunfire. at this stage, as ali said, british transportation police are reporting one woman a minor

injury. and nbc producer on the ground she was in a tube station. were you at oxford circus, catie? >> cati snerx. >> i'm losing you there. >> were you in oxford circus? is that where you were? >> i was at oxford station when all of this began. i was heading down the escalator to the victoria line when people turned around and started screaming and running back up the escalator that was going down to try and evacuate the station. very loud alarms went off. it took actually quite a while for them to turn the escalator off. there was mass panic as people were trying to run up the escalator as it was moving. i did not hear any gunfire when i was in the tube station when it started. i haven't heard gunfire since. but, yeah, like you said, we're still hearing multiple reports.

shots being fired. >> so, catie, with british transport police reporting reports of a woman minor injuries. that makes sense to you. she might have been going down and people were going up or she may have fallen. a surge of people trying to get out of that station at rush hour. >> oh, definitely. i think it's very likely. it was incredibly crowded in there and people were really panicking. honestly, i felt like i was sustaining injuries running up that escalator, as well. yeah, it was very, very crowded and people -- >> and we've got live pictures up, catie, of various parts of the area around london. 5:37 p.m. in the afternoon. can you describe to me the scene around you? >> people are still making their way towards -- police keep

pushing me back. people don't seem to be panicking any more at this point. as it looks now, the police look like they have it under control, at least where i am. there's just -- they're just really pushing people to safety. i don't really see many people in stores any more. everyone is just trying to move along the street. >> ali, looking at the calmness that we're looking at on the screen and that catie is describing, it does appear that london authorities have a playbook about this. unfortunately, they've gained much of that playbook because they had to deal with terror attempts. they were able to clear out. it's kind of remarkable looking at these pictures. particularly the ones on the left side of the screen. this is london. at rush hour on a friday night. on black friday and you are seeing entire city streets cleared out. this is a testament to their ability to do this.

>> absolutely, ali. they've become unfortunately very used to dealing with situations like this and they could act very quickly. they go into motion almost immediately. they have armed response units. the london transport police, all of them are working very closely in conjunction with each other. the pictures that we were seeing a moment ago, the aerial shots of oxford circus which have been completely emptied out. i mean, that is usually packed with cars and buses. you can see it on the bottom right-hand side of your screen now. that's a place that is packed with traffic. you can't get right, left or up or down there because so many buss and cars. they, obviously, evacuated and very quickly and in a very organized and efficient way because they've become so used to dealing with this. they, obviously, have a playbook to deal with a situation like this. they'll go through the motions until they know exactly what's happened. until they know the situation is safe and it is or isn't a terrorist attack.

they're not going to take any risks and deal with it as if it was a terrorist attack until they know the place is secure and safe for pedestrians and residents to go back to. >> all right, let me go to nbc alexander smith, he works for nbc.com. alexa alexander, where are you? >> i'm close as you can get to the scene right now. police have, obviously, cordoned off quite a sizable area of central london. it's clear officials are taking this pretty seriously, even though it might not be clear. it is actually what it is at the moment. the mood is fairly calm. it's, obviously, clear, a fairly big operation is going on. a lot of the shops are closed, which is quite unusual for friday. people are sort of milling around taking photos on their phones. there isn't any panic or such in the crowd at the moment. >> it looks like whatever has happened we do not know where the sound of gunfire came from.

but it did appear to be multiple reports. ali points out the sound of gunfire. let's be fair, the sound of g gunfire to most of us is unusual. highly unusual because of the strict prohibitions on guns and we don't know where the gunfire came from, but we know people in the oxford circus subway started running out of the subway when something was heard because catie our producer was there and she was headed down into the subway and was sort of pushed up by the wave of people who were leaving. since then we have no reports of casualties, but ali is covering this from london. ali, what do you have? >> ali, we're just getting reports from our news scotland yard saying no evidence of shots fired or any assailants have been arrested. that is the latest we're getting from them. as you mentioned, a lot of conflicting reports and scotland yard which is the main branch of the police here in the uk saying they have no evidence that shots

have been fired. so, the situation is quite fluid, but it seems to have calmed down and it's not apparent what those gun shots were if scotland yard is saying no evidence of shots fired. >> ali, you're on this story. you're on the story of the attack in egypt in which more than 200 people are dead. so, please stay on top of it for us. it does not appear that we're able to chase down why those people were leaving the subway, but thanks to alexander smith of nbc.com and catie montiero on the ground. be assured if we learn anything else about what is going on in london we'll bring it to you. you're watching msnbc. we'll be right back. when you've got...

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it is absolutely not news when president trump plays golf. it is when he admits it. that's what the president did this morning. he tweeted that teeing off with pro golfers tiger woods and dustin and we'll have to take him at his word because they had no access to the president during the golf outing although some members of the club did take chickppictures of the pres. i'm joined with roland martin. happy thanksgiving. hope it was good for you. great to see you. >> always great family day for me. >> we have seen evidence of the president golfing several times in recent months. he and the white house never acknowledged doing that. why now? does it have something to do with the fact that he's playing with tiger woods?

>> no, with the fact that he's trying to sell his golf course. that's what he's doing. this man has done nothing but try to sell as much as he can. maybe because he's playing with tiger woods, might as well call it black friday. the bottom line is here. donald trump is about using the white house to promote his business interest. that's why he keeps going to his hotels. why he keeps touting all of his businesses and that's what this is all about. doesn't matter it's about work. also this is the same guy who lied to the american people who said, i'm going to be so busy, i'm not going to have time for golf. all he had time to do was play golf as president. >> the president has also had time to continue his feud with the nfl. he tweeted this morning as you probably saw. can you believe that the disrespect for our country, our flag, our anthem continues without penalty to the players. the commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league and i think i find this last line very interesting, roland. players are the boss. so, taunting the owners and the commissioner about the players

being the boss. this appears to be in response to one of the new york giants kneeling during the national anthem before last night's game. talk to me about this. what is the end game in this donald trump continue d unprovoked set of tweets about nfl players? >> there is no end game for it because he's making race-based appeals. just the other day, i had charlie sykes, big-time conservative on my tvone show talking about his book, really, how conservatives lost their mind. and he said point blank that the president is making race based appeals to his base by going after the players. now, i would say this to trump, how -- when are you going to tweet about the 15 people in chicago who were released, exonerated because of corrupt cops in chicago. upwards of 500 cases. how about the cop in l.a. planting drugs on a particular suspect. see, that's why the players are kneeling. they're kneeling about police

brutality and they're kneeling about criminal justice reform. he won't address that because he's weak. he wants to be mr. law and order and not deal with the real-life issues these players are talking about. so, what he's doing. he's pushing his little buttons for his largely white supporters in pennsylvania and wisconsin and in, of course, michigan, ohio, saying look at these ungrateful black players out there making all of that money. they care about the issues of police brutality. he doesn't. and it's abundantly clear. >> what is this all doing to his legislative agenda? if he wants to be powerful and be able to prove that he's done stuff. pass legislation and get key things done that you can point to in an election or a re-election. >> in order to pass legislation, you have to know how to read and how to talk to people. all of this, oh, i can make great deals. no, you can't. you don't know what you're doing. this is a grossry unqu rry unqu

individual and i don't want to hear say about affirmative action or quotas or anything along those lines. if you at its best, it's donald trump. he can't pass anything. he can't achieve anything. you have a tax reform bill that is grossly going to help the top 1%. look at the graduate students that will be impacted. look at the folks in the middle class and lower class who are going to be impacted. this is what i need. i need broke white people in america to wake up. to wake up in arkansas and mississippi and alabama. i need them to wake up and be against the affordable care act when they are the sickest people in america. what you have is trump who pushes the buttons. howard dean said in '04 god gave guns and in 2017 it's about illegal immigration and players and the flag. people are going, yeah, trump is

our guy. they're the ones getting screwed. i'm going, you all might want to wake up. hashtag we tried to tell you. >> you have yourself a great thanksgiving weekend. thanks for spending some of it with me. >> i'm going to make my tee time. i'm not president so i can do that. >> all right. we're taking that break. we'll be right back on msnbc live. every day, on every street, in every town, across america. small businesses show their love to you.

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here are the top stories we're watching right now. a bomb attack in egypt killing at least 235 and injuring another 125. i want to warn you some of the images coming in are graphic. multiple gunmen took part in an attack that happened during friday prayers. president trump has con defdemn it. michael flynn's lawyers cut ties with president trump's legal team in special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. it's a sign that flynn could cooperate with mueller. the u.s. navy called off the search for three sailors missing after plane crash off the crash of japan wednesday. 8 of the 11 sailors were rescued and are in good condition. a 46-year-old woman from texas has been charged with mailing homemade explosive devices back in 2016. court documents show abbott opened the package but the device failed to explode. if it had, it would have caused

severe burns and death. to a bombshell ruling in the case of oscar pistorius. >> good morning. what a legal jsaga this is. this morning it took just minutes for a judge to more than double the jail sentence for oscar pistorius. this was a shock. pistorius wasn't even in court to hear the judge say that up to now, he's been treated with shocking leniency. the verdict was unanimous and unexpected. south africa's supreme court calling pistorius's original jail sentence inappropriate and raising it. >> imprisonment for a period of 15 years and five months.

>> reporter: pistorius turned 31 on wednesday wasn't even in court to hear the judge say the previous sentence of six years was shockingly lenient. pistorius, he said, doesn't demonstrate any genuine remorse and has failed to explain why he fired the fatal shots. pistorius shot his girlfriend four times through a locked door at his home. her parents watched the verdict at home on tv. afterwards, they told nbc news their trust in the justice system has been confirmed. reeva can now rest in peace. but there will never be complete closure. they still love her and miss her every day. pistorius always claimed he shot his girlfriend on valentine's day because he thought she was an intruder. he was convicted of manslaughter and later even allowed home to serve his sentence. that was changed to a murder conviction. pistorius has now got the minimum sentence for murder.

many in south africa say a poor black defendant would have got this sentence from the very beginning and only pistorius's fame and his background protected him. his brother has posted on twitter saying shattered, heartbroken, gutted. pistorius himself may not be moved to a high security jail to serve the rest of his sentence. >> thanks, bill. it's time for our monumental americans. people that may deserve a statute of their own. today it's buck jones. jones was born in indiana in 1891 and served in the army in philippines and raced cars and began working as a cowboy in oklahoma. he got married and got a more reliable jobs. a hollywood stuntman. in the '20s he began starring in films. on november 28th, 1942, buck jones was one of the 492 victims

of the coconut grove nightclub fire in boston. the deadliest fire in history. reports said he went back into the building multiple times to save others and died two days after the fire. he was just 50 years old. john wayne himself said buck jones was his personal hero. if you have a monumental american, tweet us. that's it for this hour of "msnbc live"." i'll be back at 3:00 this afternoon. check us out on social media and connect with our show on twitter. craig melvin picks up our coverage right now on msnbc. it's fun we don't get to be out on set very much. >> this is nice. >> good to see you. >> be well. enjoy your weekend. craig melvin in new york with breaking news out of egypt. a major attack has happened. a warning here, some of the photos that we are about to show you of bodies and blood may be disturbing.

gunmen opening fire at worshippers at a mosque during friday prayers. at least 235 worshippers are reported dead. a short time ago the white house condemned that attack. let us start in london. we'll get to egypt in just a moment. update us on that scare in london last hour. what more do we know there? >> hi, craig. there was a scare in london about an hour or so ago. there were reports of gun shots fired. the metropolitan police are now saying that there was no evidence of gunfire and things seem to be returning back to normality there. craig, you have to remember london is a city on high alert. it's been hit by a lot of terrorist attacks. the smallest spark here could set off panic. at this stage, it does not seem to be a terrorist attack. things seem to be going back to normal on that very busy