♪♪ good morning. i'm ryan nobles. thank you for joining us. this morning for the first time, the public is getting a firsthand look at six years worth of former president donald trump's taxes. our nbc news team is reading through the returns page by page, combing for news. we'll break down what's inside these highly anticipated documents ahead. with tiktok now banned on house-issued devices, could congress ban it on your phone next. we'll ask a congressman about that. and fliers are making backup plans before they fly. a live up diet from newark airport. an update on pope benedict after he's still in serious condition. we'll find out the latest from

rome. and with just 37 hours to go until 2023, organizers in new york city will conduct a test of the famous ball drop. we'll take you live to times square. breaking news. officials say they have arrested someone in pennsylvania in connection with the murders of four students who attended the university of idaho. we just got word that the police department in moscow, idaho, will hold a press conference in just a few hours. we're going to have that in a few minutes. but first we're going to track back to our original top story. the american people now getting a chance to look at the tax returns that donald trump promised to release as a presidential candidate back in 2016. the house ways and means committee put out redacted versions of six years of trump's personal tax returns as well as returns from some of his

businesses. texas congressman kevin brady who is the top republican on the committee put out a statement confusing democrats of weaponizing personal information. he also said, quote, this is a regrettable stain on the ways and means committee in congress and will make american politics even more divisive and disheartening. in the long run, democrats will come to regret it. with us to start off our coverage this hour, antonia hylton is live outside trump tower in new york, hans nickels and david k. johnson. he's the author of "the big cheat: how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family" and joyce vance who is a law professor at the university of alabama. great panel here to talk about this. what are we hoping to learn from these returns?

>> reporter: good morning, ryan. well, these returns number in the thousands of pages and they really represent six years of critical insight into donald and melania trump's affairs. while reporters are pouring over these thousands of documents, tax experts are doing the same today. there are a couple of key questions and elements that people are looking for right now. of course, looking into the health of his many, many businesses. things like his taxable income. but also questions about, say, how much tax credits was the former president taking advantage of. what happened in 2020? what kind of hit did his businesses take during the start of the pandemic? and then, of course, you know, donations to things like charities, to non-profits. did he actually donate any of his presidential salary? is there evidence of that? are there foreign entities listed as sources of income. these are all going to be critical questions that give us a better understanding. of course, as you describe, this comes after years of legal battles. these are the documents that he

refused to release as he was running for president in the 2016 campaign and all through his four years in office. just minutes after all of these documents were released, he shared a statement with nbc news that i'll read with you now. he says the democrats should have never done it. the supreme court should have never approved it and it's going to lead to horrible things for so many people. he then of course said the trump tax returns, once again, show how proudly successful i have been and how i've been able to use depreciation and various other deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises. while he sees it as a violation, he's arguing that it really backs up his claims about how successful of an entrepreneur and businessman he's been. i should share, though, that he also shared a video this morning in which he urges republicans who are about to take over the house to act in retaliation and to look into president biden and his family's finances in return, ryan. >> thank you so much for setting

the table. let's now go to david. you've covered donald trump for a long time. what are you hoping to learn from these returns. >> we know from the congressional report and the returns back this up, that in -- 26 times during the years he was a candidate or president, donald reported he had businesses with no revenue, zero revenue, but he took hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses. that's important because in 1984 he did this. it resulted in two tax trials at his request and judges ruled in both case that is he had committed civil tax fraud against new york city and new york state. that means he was on notice that -- creating a business with no revenue and taking deductions is improperly, evidence of criminal intent, and if a prosecution were brought in manhattan, were trump to get back into the white house, he couldn't pardon himself out of

that, nor could any other president, because presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. >> obviously, you've studied him as a businessman. does this give us more insight into what type of businessman he was? is he just smart when it comes to filing his taxes or just not the businessman he makes himself out to be. >> he's not the businessman he makes himself out to be. he had $154 million of positive income but report today the government he had negative income of 53 million. a lot of the techniques he used are lawful, but not all of them. he's in businesses where we have records as with his golf courses in the united kingdom that show huge losses. this is what happened to him throughout his career. he would shave off fees for himself, but the businesses themselves would lose money. and there's plenty of evidence of that in these tax returns. >> donald trump likes to delay

things as much as possible, right? whether it's handing over his tax returns, sitting for depositions, turning over information to the january 6th committee. a lot of times when he does it, once the information actually does come out, it's been built up so much, it sometimes doesn't live up to expectations. is that a strategy on his part and could that play out in this particular situation? >> he clearly likes to delay. that's long been part of his strategy. he likes to play for time. we all do. i think you raise an important point. as these specific tax returns, i don't think we're learning that much, right? there may be criminality. most of it is legal, that's a heck of a thing. i think most of his taxes are legal. you don't get credit for 80% legality on your taxes. it's the criminal intent and david is going to be much better than joyce did to speak to this, were there any potential crimes. the overall theme of the taxes that donald trump used depreciation aggressively, did

he use every possible tax loophole aggressively, i think everyone on this panel will be surprised if he didn't do that. so in the aggregate, i'm not so sure we've learned anything new. yes, these are significant. i think the question really isn't for panelists like us, it's for prosecutors around the country. and that is, was there any -- as david said, criminal intent or is there any criminal exposure. with that, i'll toss it over to the real experts in that matter. >> it's a perfect segue for joyce. what in your mind could they be looking for? >> it's interesting that james has had most of trump's taxes for some period of time and other than criminal charges against the company, there have not been tax charges brought against trump personally. that suggests that there may not be anything here, at least stateside, that merits prosecution. of course, it's hard to know

until you look at nonjust the returns themselves, but the backup details. tax prosecutions require willful behavior by the taxpayer. one would expect that trump might try to use a defense if there is something wrong or fraudulent in his taxes, a reliance on his preparers. while that can be a defense, there can also be charges that can be brought based on the underlying knowledge that the taxpayer has, ultimate control what goes into the forms. at this point i would say with this big release, it's very murky. i think the irony here is that four years ago, this committee sought these tax returns which they were entitled to get. the regulation says shall be turned over. and so as you pointed out, it's in many ways a delay game, a game of minimizing any possible misconduct, but here the ultimate issue may be less about trump and more about the irs and

why he wasn't subjected to that same mandatory audit that every other president goes through. >> yeah, so obviously there could be a political cost to this. donald trump already fund-raising off the release. playing himself out to be the victim here. i feel as though many voters kind of already have made up their minds about donald trump as it relates to something like his taxes and the lack of disclosing those tax returns. does this move the ball at all in terms of his 2024 bid? >> it depends what sort of audience you're looking at. for the fund-raising audience, this will undoubted help donald trump. he likes playing the victim. we saw that on the raid in mar-a-lago and that bolstered him with some voters. just as we're all pouring over this, so are potential primary challengers, and i'm not suggesting that there are republican opposition researches around town that get paid a lot of money to dig up dirt on other republicans. but there are.

and you can suspect, you can take it to the bank that they're going to be doing that with this. the issue politically here is, we're going to jump short term for the base, but this does have a road map for republicans that want to criticize and question trump in a way that they may be couldn't have in 2016 which is point out which -- which we kind of all know. and that is he's not as wealthy as he pretends to be and he uses a lot of smoke and mirrors. but joyce's point about tish james having these tax returns and not taking any criminal liability. for everyone that was hoping for donald trump to be, you know, in an orange jumpsuit by the end of 2023, if what joyce is saying is true, everyone should start drinking right now out of disappointment. that means nothing is there. it's not new year's day yet, but, joyce, isn't that everything? she's one of the most aggressive

prosecutors out there. wouldn't she have gone for this if she had it? >> joyce, would she have already? >> you know, i try to never day drink when i'm reading tax returns because they're always very difficult to parse and understand. so i appreciate that we don't have permission to do that just yet. tax charges are in some ways straightforward. and i suspect if she was pursuing them and she would likely be doing that with the district attorney because of the way new york's prosecutions work, i think that we would see signs of that. i think we would have seen a convened grand jury or other proceedings. perhaps it's not too late to see some signs that there will be a tax investigation. but it seems to me that we would have seen at least the tip of the iceberg by now. >> david, let's get back to you, then. what should the american people take away about donald trump's tax returns and his finances? >> welt, first and foremost, why

did he fight so hard to keep from disclosing them since every presidential candidate and richard nixon when he was under audit have made their tax returns public? and their website that you can go to like the tax history project and see all of these returns. secondly, the irs did not audit trump even though there's a statute requiring this. both biden and obama said they were audited every year. that's misconduct by the current irs commissioner who was a tax lawyer specializing in helping people caught cheating the system. and congress really needs to look seriously at that and we need to understand that there is no serious effort in this country to go after high-level tax cheating. we get about 500 to 600 convictions a year. they're principally drug dealers, not people who cheat at

a high level because it requires enormous resources to audit these people. you need the business records behind the tax return to do an audit. >> that is such a great point, david. and it is at least part of the recommendation of the committee, the purpose of this, the legislative purpose was to reform the presidential auditing system, making it mandatory under statute as opposed to agency policy, but the timing of this right up against the end of the congress, republicans taking back over, it means that that legislation is going nowhere fast. regardless, this is information we didn't have before. thank you for that excellent conversation. we appreciate it. more on that breaking news we mentioned at the top of the hour. a suspect in custody in connection to those murders of the university of idaho students. we're going to have more on this when we come back. we're going to have more on this when we come back.

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and there's now a suspect in custody in connection to the november murders of four students attending the university of idaho. we're going to hear from the police department there this afternoon, but right now, our tom winter joins us on the phone with the latest. tom, this has been a mystery that's been ongoing for weeks. what can you tell us? >> reporter: as you said, this has been going on now for over a

month. this is an investigation that has spanned across the country. the arrest made at some point in the last 24 hours. the suspect who is a man -- we don't have a lot of other details about this individual at this point. was presented in court in monroe county, pennsylvania, earlier today in connection with this quadruple homicide of these four university of i.d. students. it's not clear to us what the specific charges are and what this individual's connection to the case is and whether or not they have any sort of connection to the university. we're still reporting those details out. i don't want to put out any information that may be inaccurate. obviously, a tremendous relief, particularly this time of year and after what these families have been through to now have a -- an arrest in this case. it is our understanding as police have been briefing on this investigation over the past several weeks that the fbi was

involved. they said they were helping them out. it's our understanding that the fbi was involved in some way in the arrest this morning in taking the person into custody. it's unclear whether there will be federal charges or state charges. i did talk to the moscow, idaho, police department while we were in commercial break. they're not yet confirming any details on it but did point us to this press conference that's being held at 4:00 p.m. today as you referenced. presumably we'll get more details then. presumably we'll get more details on any potential charges and obviously we're continuing to report this out, the first lead came on this from deanna durante in philadelphia. they're working on the details here confirming this arrest. as far as the specifics, how they were able to get onto this individual and if in fact this individual is responsible solely for the homicides, those are all details that are going to come i think into more focus in the

coming -- coming couple hours. >> tom, i know you don't want to speculate. but just the fact that the arrest was made in pennsylvania, thousands of miles away from idaho, that in itself at least gives us a little bit of insight just as to how vast this investigation must have been. >> correct. and so, you know, was it any sort of information where police have been asking for, urging for, any sort of tips or information from the public, did they get a tip-off to this individual? was there travel involving this individual to your point, the fact that this arrest was made in the northeastern part of pennsylvania. so was there any sort of -- we know, obviously, in this day and age it's tough to make it across the country without being picked up at a toll booth, was there information on travel that helped lead to this person or was it something we haven't thought of yet.

those are details that will come out at the press conference and the core paperwork, when we get it, and hopefully that will be soon. >> okay, tom winter, excellent work by you and your team to break this story. an arrest made in the murders at the university of idaho. we're going to have more. stay here. f idaho. we're going to have more stay here. o hide from the world. for years, i thought my t.e.d was beyond help... ...but then i asked my doctor about tepezza. (vo) tepezza is the only medicine that treats t.e.d. at the source not just the symptoms. in a clinical study, more than 8 out of 10 patients taking tepezza had less eye bulging. tepezza is an infusion. patients taking tepezza may have infusion reactions. tell your doctor right away if you experience high blood pressure, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath or muscle pain. before getting tepezza, tell your doctor if you have diabetes, ibd, or are pregnant, or planning to become pregnant. tepezza may raise blood sugar even if you don't have diabetes. and may worsen ibd such as

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it is 25 minutes past the hour. a reminder of our top story this morning. the house ways and means committee has released six years of former president donald trump's personal and business tax returns. this after a long legal battle that went all the way to the u.s. supreme court. trump and republicans blasted the move accusing democrats of weaponizing personal financial

information. and with us now to talk about this and other headlines is illinois congressman. thank you so much for being here. from your perspective, why is it so important for donald trump's taxes to be made public? >> i'm not thrilled about anyone's tax returns being made public, whether it was the republicans doing it to 50 private not for profit entities in 2014 or donald trump's returns being released today, but in donald trump's particular case, we have to recognize that the presidential audit program was completely broken. it was supposed to mandatorily audit the president's tax returns every year, but it only did so once and only after chairman richie neil took over the committee in 2019 and it was for a year before he became president. and then secondly, the irs is just not equipped to deal with sophisticated taxpayers like donald trump. i think the internal records have revealed that.

the irs didn't feel that it could properly audit the 400 sub returns that were indicated on trump's main 1040 tax return. and so i think it all speaks to the need for the irs to get the resources they need to audit sophisticated taxpayers like trump and, of course, now we'll be looking at those tax returns for other issues as well. >> let's move to a different topic, and that's tiktok. i'm not going to ask you to do a dance, unless you feel compelled to -- >> your ratings might plunge at that point. >> or go sky-high. but the house chief administrative officer moved to ban all apps from devices. is this a significant move that it's no longer going to be allowed on house devices? >> it's a significant move. your viewers know the problem,

but i'll summarize it, tiktok is owned by bytedance and it's a chinese company that has to abide by two laws that the chinese communist party put in place, it must provide all data to the chinese communist party at their request and, two, every company in china, including bytedance and tiktok, must have a chinese communist party cell embedded within its management structuring directing its overall policy. in this case, in bytedance, bytedance's case, the secretary of its ccp internal committee is the very editor in chief of bytedance who has said that all the content on tiktok, as well as all of its products must abide by, quote, correct political direction.

and so that is why folks like myself and numerous others are concerned about user data being accessible to the chinese communist party from the 140 million americans who used tiktok, and, two, that the algorithms that generate the content on tiktok are really dictated by the ccp. >> you mentioned, though, an important statistic. 140 million americans who use tiktok right now, but you have suggested that this ban should go beyond government devices. you signed onto a bill that would ban the app in the united states. how practical is that? there are people watching this right now that are scrolling through tiktok at the same time or at least their kids are. is it really possible to ban the app completely in the united states given how popular it is? >> here's what we have said in legislation which is that for any social media company that's controlled by a foreign anniversary such as the chinese communist party or the russians

and a handful of other countries, those social media companies, u.s. operations, need to be controlled by americans or other friendly interests because we want that user data that is harvested from americans not to be going into the wrong hands. so what we expect and actually the biden administration is currently negotiating with tiktok and bytedance to potentially have the u.s. operations separated from bytedance and controlled by others. i don't necessarily think it's going to go dark in the u.s., but the user data should be controlled by americans. ultimately it's about this, if the shoe was on the other foot, americans companies have to abide by chinese communist party rules to operate in china, and here we're saying, our house, our rules in america. they have to abide by our rules

with regard to user data. >> we've run out of time, congressman. otherwise i was going to have you to do that dance. >> next time. >> all right. thank you, i appreciate it. at any moment now, a special prayer mass is set to begin in rome for benedict the 16th. the vatican saying his condition remains stationary and the retired pope was able to celebrate mass in his room yesterday. well-wishers in his homeland lighting candles and praying for the retired pontiff. what is the latest on pope benedict's condition? >> reporter: we're not getting that much information from the holy press office. it's either come from pope francis himself, wednesday, he said that the former pope was very sick, and we've gotten very short statements from the press office yesterday. as you mentioned, they say he's stationary. we're understanding that as

stable, which is exactly what they said yesterday. right now, 5:30, i'm looking down at my watch, it should be starting right now, a mass in honor of the former pope. we have a team outside there talking to people who are lining up. they say several hundred people have lined up to go inside for this special mass. we have heard from pope francis on wednesday and again from his twitter account and in his statement, he's invited the world's faithful and people right here in roam to extend their prayers for the former pope. we understand that there will be special prayers for the retired pontiff at the beginning and at the end of today's mass. i'm reading one of them. at the beginning we understand that one of the prayers will be may the lord support and console him with his presence in this last stretch of his pilgrimage so he may be a witness to christ who is victorious even in suffering to offer himself for the good of the church. it sounds like the church here is preparing to send the retired pope off. we were out in st. peters square earlier today. we were talking to a lot of tourists, people about their

feelings as we get information about the former pope. take a quick listen to what eileen from scotland told us. >> he's carried his rule for as long as he saw fit. but, yes, i think he's still entitled to a state funeral and i think you'll be recognized for the people loved him or loathed him. i think it's his right to have a proper people funeral. >> reporter: one of the big questions, of course, ryan is what exactly the funeral and the burial of a former pope might look like, and we're talking to eileen about this. she was here at the funeral of pope john paul ii. millions of people came to rome for that. she said it was extraordinary. we do not expect that for when the former pope benedict passes. she says she is a believer. she follows this news closely and certainly other people

agreed with her, that he deserves a big state funeral. >> it's been centuries since we've had a situation like this. it will be interesting to see how the evacuate handles his death if it ultimately comes. thank you for being there. appreciate it. i wonder if you can think back on everything that happened in 2022. the end of mask mandates, the start of the war in ukraine, the death of one royal, and another one's very first days. when we come back, joe fryer looks back at the most consequential moments across nearly 365 absolutely jam-packed days. inary eggs when they can enjoy the best? eggland's best. the only eggs with more fresh and delicious taste. plus, superior nutrition. which is now more important than ever. ♪♪ [ marcia ] my dental health was not good. i had periodontal disease, important than ever. and i just didn't feel well. but then i found clearchoice.

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so healthier can look a lot like...you. cvs. healthier happens together. as we round out 2022, joe fryer reviewed the most memorable moments of this year from seismic supreme court decisions to major international developments. take a look. ♪♪ >> reporter: the headlines that defined 2022 were seismic and historic. europe's largest armed conflict since world war ii. a supreme court decision that overturned more than four decades of precedent, the death of a monarch who had reigned for 70 years. yet in its earliest days, 2022 seemed more like a copycat. mimicking the worst qualities of

the two previous years. >> now to the staggering new covid numbers, daily cases surpassing 1 million. >> reporter: as the new year began, the fight with covid raged on. >> a lot of them are sick. >> reporter: with the rapidly spreading omicron variant killing 60,000 americans in january. with time, the pandemic did loosen its grip. >> the transportation administration will not enforce masks at u.s. airports and on board aircraft. >> reporter: the mask mandates vanished. >> thank you. we can breathe again. >> reporter: but new threats emerged. >> there's growing concern about another virus called monkeypox. >> reporter: monkeypox, flu, and rsv. >> it's a serious illness with him being this young. ♪♪

>> reporter: overseas it was a different battle that rattled the world. russia stormed in ukraine with high expectations only to be met by a resilient foe and its inspiring leader, president zelenskyy, refused to flee. the strikes pushed ukrainians to bomb shelters and to the country's swollen borders. >> you hear the families who have come with their belongings. people are hugging and saying good-bye and not sure if they will have come back. >> reporter: millions of ukrainians suddenly became refugees. but as the year progressed, ukraine's military took back land that had been lost just months earlier. steady progress in the long war now entering the dark days of winter. ♪♪ >> reporter: in america, winter stormed in early. >> we've seen over 50 inches of snow in under 24 hours. >> reporter: record-breaking snowstorm dumped nearly seven

feet of snow on the buffalo region. in florida, hurricane ian pummelled the coast with winds that reached 155 miles per hour. >> you can't with stand this kind of stuff. >> reporter: just shy of a category five. >> these cars were nicely parked and they're off-loading freely. >> reporter: it would be florida's deadly hurricane since 1935. ♪♪ >> reporter: gun violence continued to devastate communities across the nation. >> we all ran to the back. he was shooting at the milk. >> reporter: ten were killed in a supermarket in buffalo, seven at a fourth of july parade in highland park, illinois, five were murdered in colorado springs and at an elementary school in uvalde, texas -- >> can you tell the police to come to my room? >> reporter: -- 19 young children and two teenagers lost

their lives. >> how did he get in there? >> reporter: adding to their grief, questions over law enforcement's delayed response. ♪♪ >> hand off! >> reporter: emotions were high across the country when in june the supreme court overturned roe versus wade. >> i feel like i got punched in the stomach this morning. >> reporter: for some, there was anger and fear. >> we're not going to be treated as second-class citizens. >> reporter: for others it was a celebratory moment decades in the making. >> it's an amazing victory. >> the right to life has been vindicated. the voiceless will finally have a voice. >> reporter: abortion was one of many issues dominating politics in 2022. so was inflation which reached 40-year highs. >> in every aspect, it's higher.

but your wages don't go up any higher. >> reporter: in the spring and summer months, the national average for gas soared. >> $5 a gallon is crazy. >> president biden's approval rating dropped and democrats were able to fend off a red wave in the midterms. >> we are predicting that democrats will maintain control of the senate. >> reporter: holding the senate while losing the house and speaker nancy pelosi announced she was stepping down from leadership just weeks after her husband was attacked in their home. >> for me, the hours come for a new generation to lead the democratic caucus that i so deeply respect. >> reporter: the dust from the midterms was still lingering in the air when the 2024 campaign began. >> in order to make america great and glorious again, i'm announcing my candidacy for president of the united states. >> reporter: former president donald trump declared his candidacy, running again amid a

laundry list of investigations, that includes a raid of his mar-a-lago estate where the fbi seized thousands of documents, some marked classified. back in washington, the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection held televised hearings. one of the star witnesses, a 25-year-old former trump white house aide named cassidy hutchinson. >> he didn't look up from his phone and said something to the effect of, there's a lot going on, but i don't know. things might get real, real bad on january 6th. ♪♪ in london, queen elizabeth celebrated her platinum jubilee marking 70 years on the throne. she was flanked by family including prince louie and it would end up being her final

times on the storied perch. >> queen elizabeth ii has died. >> reporter: in september, the queen died at the age of 96. her son charles immediately ascended to the throne. >> as i stand before you today, i cannot help but feel the weight of history. >> reporter: for the uk, it was a year of transition with one prime minister resigning. >> i want you to know how sad i am to be giving up the best job in the world. >> reporter: and then just weeks later, another. >> i'm resigning as leader of the conservative party. >> reporter: three leaders in a single year. >> i will unite our country. >> reporter: change was on the minds of protestors in iran. they took to the streets angered by the death of a young woman who died after she was arrested for violating the country's strict dress code. while in russia, american basketball star brittney griner

spent most of 2022 behind bars, convicted on drug charges. >> this has been very traumatic experience. >> reporter: before she was released in december in a prisoner swap. ♪♪ the world gathered in beijing for the winter olympics where chloe kim captured gold again. as the flying tomato came in for a final landing. shaun white retired after barely missing the podium. >> this is i think my last run. >> no matter what, this is it? >> i think so. >> reporter: seven-time super bowl champ tom brady retired and 40 days later unretired before announcing in the fall the end of his 13-year marriage to gisele. and serena williams seemed to step away, but later she

proclaimed, i am not retired. >> who is your best friend? >> reporter: her childhood story was featured in the movie king richard starring will smith win was overshadowed by this, the slap heard around the world. smith later apologized for the moment which stole the spotlight from the best picture "coda". >> good morning, aviators. >> reporter: big screen blockbusters came roaring out with top gun topping a billion bucks at the box office. that was not the only sequel making headlines. bennifer is back. j.lo and ben affleck tied the knot 20 years after their figures engagement was called off. >> and liftoff. >> reporter: artemis's launch

was called off a few time. the unmanned mission is paving the way for astronauts to some day return to the moon. twitter got a controversial new owner, elon musk, while the supreme court got a history-making new justice ketanji brown jackson. she replaced stephen breyer becoming the first black woman to sit on the high court. >> in my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the supreme court of the united states. [ applause ] ♪♪ >> reporter: along with hellos, there were notable good-byes with the deaths of bob saget, naomi judd, sidney poitier, and grease star olivia newton-john. ♪ hopelessly devoted to you ♪

>> reporter: timeless memories of the past as the world looks ahead to 2023. joe fryer, nbc news. >> how did all of that happen in just one year? our thanks to joe fryer for that look back. let's take a live look now at new york's times square. in 36 hours it's going to be filled to the brim with partygoers ready to ring in 2023 and what looks like to be relatively good weather. we'll go there next with a look at preparations. the nreext wit at preparations. 's the subway se! 12 irresistible subs... like #11 subway club. piled with turkey, ham and roast beef. this sub isn't slowing down any time soon. i'll give it a run for its money. my money's on the sub. it's subway's biggest refresh yet. power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools, and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are.

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we're going to see how much you weigh, and how tall you are real quick. ♪♪ mama. hey, claire. [ laughter ] ♪♪ [ male announcer ] families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food, so they can focus on helping their child live. when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt you can wear to show your support to help st. jude save the lives of these children. i experienced life at st. jude. every dollar that goes to st. jude goes to a good place. it's keeping families together during the hardest thing they'll ever face. ♪♪ the first thing i'm going to do when i get home is pet my dog. ♪♪ [ woman ] st. jude saved my daughter's life.

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we do have breaking news about the halls of congress in the new year. the house sergeant at arms announcing moments ago that starting january 3rd, the house side of the capitol and house office buildings will reopen to tours and official business visitor access. the statement the sergeant at arms said the decision was made with congressional leadership and the attending physician. it was closed to visitors in 2020 due to covid restrictions. final preparations are under way in new york as the famous times square new year's eve celebration is set to kick off

for the first time in two years with no covid restrictions. this is a live picture. in the next hour, they will run a test of the iconic ball drop. on saturday, an estimated 1 million people are expected to see the countdown in person. nbc's kathy park is live from times square ahead of the festivities. tell us about the preparations. what's going on down there? >> reporter: we are now hours away from ringing in 2023. we are expecting large crowds here in times square. roughly a million people. of course, a billion people worldwide will be tuning in for the iconic ball drop. this is a big contrast, big difference from what we saw over the past two years. in 2020, the streets of times square practically bare. a select few were invited to take part in the celebration. tomorrow, the festivities get under way around 6:00 p.m.

they will raise and light the ball. 11:59 is when they will start dropping the ball. it takes 60 seconds, but there's a lot of fanfare leading up to the moment. lots of performers on deck. duran duran and chelsea cutler. 3,000 points of confetti. preparations are under way. you see the barricades going up. this will only kick off in the next couple of hours. around 1:30 this afternoon, we will get details about all the other security measures that will be in place. if you do plan on heading into this area, keep in mind, it's first come first serve. once you are in the designated area, be prepared to stand on your feet for several hours. once you are in, you are in. there are no public bathrooms. also, you can't bring in large bags, backpacks, coolers. there is rain in the forecast, unfortunately. the weather is supposed to be

mild, but you can't bring in an umbrella. >> in you are heading to times square, stop drinking right now. that's the advice you are giving our viewers. >> reporter: pretty much. >> thank you so much. we appreciate it. that's going to do it for me after a busy two hours. we want to wish you and your loved ones a very happy new year. alex witt picks up with more news after a short break. ♪ ♪ you've done the hard part. you quit smoking. now do the easy part and get scanned for lung cancer. if you smoked, you may still be at risk, but early detection could save your life. talk to your doctor and learn more at savedbythescan.org (bridget vo) with thyroid eye disease... i hid from the camera.

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