nbc's hallie jackson explains. >> reporter: as road trips go, the drive from tucson to nogales seems ordinary, cacti, traffic, big rigs. but a few minutes in you'll see something you won't find anywhere else in america. there it is. metric signs in use. the entire highway measured and marked only in meters. for the next hundred kilometers, don't look for mile markers, just a calculator. what's the conversion from kilometers to miles? >> you know, i just know it's a little shorter. >> 1.6. >> reporter: you are the first people who nailed it. >> on the map this section is metric. why? >> reporter: when i-19 was first built some 40 years ago, the u.s. was experimenting with the metric system. this highway the test case. kilometers never caught on across the country. but they never went away on i-19. problem is the 400 highway signs here have taken a beating from the desert sun and sand. it's only a matter of time before new ones will have to go up. and the state may replace metric with miles. >> we see drivers a lot of times confused by kilometers because folks aren't used to it. driver

hallie jackson, nbc news, valley center, california. >>> that's our broadcast for this monday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt in for brian. for all of us at nbc news, goodnight. . >>> right now at 6:00 a blustery cold snap pushing into the bay area. thanks for joining us everyone. i'm terry mcsweeney. >>> i'm janelle wang. temperatures are dropping in time to ring in the new year. with them could come strong winds. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking it. >> we're continuing to talk about the cold air, at least most of it across canada. drrs are below zero. minus 14 in churchill. we're going to see a small slice of this movement across california. not going to see long-standing periods of temperatures at 32 and below. no freeze warnings watches ors or advisories issued. temperatures will be dropping down. not the freezing mark. but 44 in walnut creek. 44 in -- danville 46. what we're waiting on is this upper level storm system. not major rainfall. we think over the next three mornings it's going to be blustery out there. winds 15 to 20 miles per hour and t

nbc's hallie jackson has more on the opening. >> this christmas day opening did not involve traditional presents. >> it's a gift. you know what i mean? >> it wasn't the most christmas thing we did, but it was the most american thing we did. >> from l.a. to new york audiences lined up at more than 200 independent theaters to see "the interview." at one sold-out screening a midnight surprise, the movie's codirector and costar seth rogen with an adult beverage and some adult language. >> if it wasn't for theaters like this and people like you guys, this literally wouldn't be [ bleep ] happening right now. >> sony pulled the film last week after a message claiming to be from the hackers that threatened theaters chains. president obama appears pleased about sony's change of plans. >> i'm glad it's being released. >> north korea is not. a diplomat told us that north korea calls it an unpardonable mockery to the dignity of our supreme leader. >> unfounded rumors according to this woman. russia is sympathizing with north korea calling their anger quite understandable. here at home, those who wa

hallie jackson in los angeles for us. thank you. >>> in addition to the attack on sony, president obama addressed some other major issues during his news conference today. this is likely the last time you will see the president answering reporters' questions this year. our chris jansing is at the white house for us tonight. chris, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, natalie. this was president obama's last chance this year to make the case that in spite of crises from ukraine to isis to ebola and a sweeping victory for republicans in the midterm elections, america is making progress. and what's getting a lot of attention on social media? for the first time ever the questions all came from women. >> hello, everybody. >> reporter: at his final press conference for the year it was a feisty president obama strongly defending his record. >> more jobs. more people insured. a growing economy. shrinking deficits. >> reporter: the president rejected critics who say he shouldn't open relations with cuba, even while acknowledgi

we get our report tonight from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: for hours now north korea has been cut off from the world's internet. >> means they can't communicate out and no one can communicate in. >> reporter: it could be simple like a router meltdown or more sinister. look a cyber attack. the outage comes three days after the u.s. government said north korea was responsible for hacking sony pictures, promising a proportional response. two u.s. officials familiar with the north korea situation denied an american role in the outage, though the state department was not as definitive. >> as we implement our responses some will be seen, some may not be seen. >> reporter: north korea had its own response in typical rhetoric threatening to blow up targets in the u.s., ready for what is called cyber warfare. after the u.s. asked north korea to admit it's behind the hack. >> i don't think it was an act of war, i think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. >> reporter: analysts say the cyber attack could cost sony about $100 million after the studio pull

one theater owner called it the best christmas gift anyone could give. >> hallie jackson at the foot of the hollywood sign for us live tonight. thanks. >>> with so many people in the air right now and about to fly, we are learning tonight about a stunning breach in security at the airport. a baggage handler for delta airlines has been arrested and charged with helping to smuggle guns, including an ak-47, into the passenger cabins of commercial flights. prosecutors are calling this truly frightening and, quote, a wake-up call for our nation. our report tonight from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> reporter: police in new york say surveillance video shows this man walking off a flight at jfk airport two weeks ago with 16 handguns in his backpack. guns he carried on board a delta airlines flight in his carry-on. and they say he's been doing it undetected for five years, smuggling guns into new york city where they're hard to buy. >> i hope that this is a wake-up call for the nation because we avoided a potential disaster here. >> reporter: police say the gun runner, mark hen

we get the latest tonight from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: the error messages lighting up xbox live and playstation appeared to be no mistake. a possible cyber attack downed both networks as people tried to log on with their new christmas gifts but couldn't. >> well, hack that one too or what? >> reporter: today frustrated gamers vented online. day two with no internet, no log in, nothing. rumbling past 50 hours now. anger at the real life grinches. neither xbox or playstation is commenting on what caused the crashes, but a hacker group called lizard squad gleefully took credit. they're already on the fbi's radar for previous attacks against gaming systems. sony owns both playstation and the studio that made "the interview," and xbox is one of the platforms streaming the controversial comedy. could this outage be related to the original cyber attack against sony? >> i really don't think so. i don't see any type of connection to the original attack. remember, they didn't actually steal anything. no data. all they did was turn the lights off. >> reporter: a separate group is beli

our own hallie jackson is in sydney for us. good evening. >> reporter: brian, martin place is one of sydney's most popular meeting spots. perhaps it's no surprise this is where people have spontaneously gathered over the last 48 hours, filling this plaza with bouquets and cards. australians showed solidarity and support for the hostage victims. the sea of flowers in downtown sydney grows every hour. >> an act of humanity just because of what happened. >> reporter: just a block from the cafe where the 16-hour siege ended early tuesday. many australians watching it live. the lindt cafe is so close to the newsroom of channel 7, one of australia's biggest broadcasters, that the network set up cameras facing the windows so police could watch and snipers perched in the balcony with this vantage point as the hostage crisis unfolded. one sniper watched and waited for hours along with cameraman greg parker who captured unforgettable images of terrified hostages standing at the window at gunpoint. >> it was genuinely horrible. in 20 year

lester. >> hallie jackson tonight in los angeles. and a program note, chuck todd will have much more on the state of policing in america when nypd commissioner bill bratton joins him tomorrow on "meet the press". >>> once again today north korea lashed out at the united states blaming it for disruptions in the wake of a sony white house scandal. nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing is traveling with the president in honolulu and has the latest for us. chris. >> reporter: good evening, lester. tensions between the u.s. and north korea have been escalating, but tonight they've taken a particularly ugly turn. the north's already limited internet connection went down again this morning along with its 3g cell service, pyongyang blamed the u.s. and reacted with a racest rant against president obama, words the north has used before in which the white house calls particularly ugly and disrespectful. what washington won't do is respond to charges that the u.s. is behind the cyber attacks. officials here say that's exactly what

brian. >> hallie jackson after a wild night in los angeles. hallie, thanks. >>> a terrible and sudden tragedy outside washington, d.c. today. a small private passenger jet fell out of the sky, crashing into a suburban neighborhood and setting homes on fire. tonight, at least six are dead, three on the aircraft, three on the ground below. nbc's tom costello has our report from gaithersburg, maryland. >> reporter: it was just after 10:45 this morning when the first fire units arrived on scene. >> got a working fire, plane into a house, reported three people in the house. >> reporter: a quiet suburb northwest of washington rocked by fire and explosion when a private jet slammed into several homes. >> the wing went into the front of their house and blew their window out and i guess it hit this house and caught on fire. >> reporter: on the second floor of one home, marie gemmell, her newborn and her 3-year-old. >> we have confirmed the loss of the three family members of the gemmell family in the house that burned behind us. >> reporter: the plane

hallie jackson has the story. [ chanting ] zplfrnlt d >> reporter: demonstrations in the bay area turns violent. >> a kid came in with brake fluid like he would set the store on fire. >> reporter: protests stayed peaceful in chicago, seattle and portland. protesting not to indict a new york city police officer who appeared to put eric guardi-- e garner in a chokehold before he died. >> i don't want what happened in st. louis to happen anywhere else. >> i can't breathe sported by derrick rose and reggie bush this weekend, on the heels of the controversial decision in ferguson, missouri, not to indict the police officer in the death of michael brown. >> people don't feel they are being heard, not just about the one grand jury decision but the ones that went before. so you have folks feeling quite vulnerable right now and not having their leaders hear them. >> reporter: president obama in an interview with b. e. t. says the message is loud and clear but the results take time. >> we have to be persistent. because typically progress is in steps, in increments. >> those small steps may not be

hallie jackson, nbc news valley center california. >>> that's our broadcast for this monday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt in for brian. for all of us at nbc news, good night. >>> chris rock's $70 million divorce. what blew up his 19-year marriage? >> we're tracking the breakup clues now on "extra." ♪ extra extra ♪ >> comedian chris rock drops divorce papers on his wife and he's been dropping hints for years. >> yes, i'm married, i'm married. >> plus sophia and joe engaged? the new rumor he popped the question in hawaii. then "extra" has your a-list invite to the kennedy center honors. the obamas meryl streep stain, lady gaga and tom hanks. >> this is not something you dream. >>> the new bachelor. farmer chris soles one on one. >> i'm here for nothing but to find love. >> what are these 30 women here for? plus your daily kardashian fix. bruce pumping gas with a french manicure. what khloe wants in the bedroom and why sharon osbourne's calling out kim. >> come on kim. >> now on "extra" -- >> beat that kim. >> from universal studios, hollywood, the entertainment

nbc's hallie jackson is live in glendale, california for us. >> reporter: good evening, carl. this shopping center is seeing bigger crowds today than it did on the saturday before christmas last year. anl cysts say about 15% of shoppers will buy their very last gift today, but most of us are only half finished. that's why today could be the busiest shopping day all year. it's the final scramble five days before christmas, which seemed to sneak up on shoppers this year. >> you procrastinate and then you work and you sleep and, oh, it's christmastime. >> the dads tend to wait to the last minute. the dads and husbands. so, yes, we are scurrying a little bit. >> reporter: they're not the only ones. on the last saturday before santa arrives. >> expectation is that today retailers will ring up close to $10 billion in sales. >> reporter: that would make today so-called super saturday bigger than black friday, which fell flat this year partly because more people shopped on thanksgiving day itself or even earlier. while many analysts predict holiday sales will grow about 4% over last s

hallie jackson, nbc news, valley center, california. >>> that's our broadcast for this monday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt in for brian. for all of us at nbc news, good night. how can i avoid maintenance fees? why would you want to avoid them? because i don't want to... you know what? i'm gonna bring my maintenance guy in here to tell you all about it. roddy! so, uh, without your fee your checking chamber can't run smoothly. every time you put money in it causes, uh...deposit friction. gotta get some fiscal lube on there. [ male announcer ] it's time to bank human again. [ defeated] okay. [ male announcer ] avoid monthly maintenance fees at td bank with a minimum checking balance of just $100. td bank. america's most convenient bank. >>> lights, camera, access. >>> you spun her around? you feel like you were 54? >> horrible horrible horrible. >> a debate on the single-greatest gown of the year. i'm billy bush taking in all the style expertise of o

hallie jackson is following it all for us. what's the latest?> reporter: latest is some reports from dyne research of an internet outage again in north korea coming hours after that statement in which the country blames the u.s. government for a suspected cyber attack earlier in the week that crashed north korea's internet. the u.s. government has denied any involvement. now this war of words is getting nasty. the war of words escalating again overnight and taking a nasty turn. with the north korean spokesman saying, quote, obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest and promising inescapable deadly blows if the u.s. continues its, quote, gangster-like practices. more rhetoric after the release of "the interview" which features a fictional plot to kill kim jong-un. sony's gaming division hopes to get back up to speed this morning after another suspected hack. this one blocking gamers from logging onto the playstation network. but experts say the groups taking credit appears to be separate from the hackers res

nbc hallie jackson has more. >> reporter: good morning, lester. north korea is blaming the united states for the suspected cyber attack earlier this week. u.s. officials denied any involvement, but this is getting nasty. now the north koreans are slamming the president with an ugly slur. the war of words overnight and taking a nasty turn with the north kore north kore north korean spokesman saying, bahamas goes all with monkey like words and gangster like. "the interview" was released. and then another suspected hack. this one blocking gamers from logging on to the playstation network. the group taking credit appears to be separate from the cyber attack from the studio arm from sony. >> we got the interview. >> i think this is all coincidental. i would be really hard pressed to say any connection between the two is taking place. >> reporter: multiple platforms are letting people buy or let people rent "the interview" online. box office numbers are up. comedy played at 331 theaters grossed more than $1 million on opening day. >> the currency of the

. >> that was hallie jackson reporting. >>> after a decade of combat in after fan stan, january 1st will mark an end to america's longest war. richard jordan is life in washington for us this morning. richard, president obama says afghanistan is no longer going to be a source of terror attacks. that's quite a statement. >> it certainly is. the president is sticking with the time line that was set months ago. but some lawmakers say they're not fully on board with that plan. >> hello, everybody, merry christmas. >> the president and first lady greeted service members at a marine base in hawaii. but it's those employed by afghanistan most impact bd i the message he delivered. >> afghanistan has a chance to rebuild its own country. we're safer. it's not going to be a source of terrorists attacks geb. >> the withdrawal in a few days will lead to more reunions like this. a moment many families have been waiting well over a decade for. the last year has been among the deadliest for the afghan soldiers. nearly 11,000 troops will stay in afghanistan over the next few months. >> we've got an impor

the story from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: twas the night before christmas.t the north pole, santa's gone. santa and his elves won't be back until dawn. his biggest night as he takes to the sky to deliver all of our presents in the blink of an eye. it can be dark up there for the reindeer pulling santa and his sleigh, but they can find streets like this one all lit up, even from far away. they land on our rooftops without making a peep. >> i always try to hear him but i always somehow fall asleep. >> reporter: so how are kids supposed to know just where to find santa? he could be in australia, he could be in atlanta. well, lucky for us the folks at norad are here. >> today is one of the most important days out of the year. >> reporter: they have 1,200 volunteers to track santa's flight as he takes rudolph and the gang around the world all night. it all happens at headquarters in colorado springs where they get hundreds of phone calls asking all kinds of things, like how can santa hit every town in a world that's so vast? >> i think he has super fast reindeers

here is hally jackson. >> a mother terrified as she was forced to listen to her daughter gasp for air. >> reporter: the doctor treated the 9 month old and wants to express the importance of treating against the illness with anti-biotics. >> the parents don't see the disease and they assume it doesn't exist and when they assume it doesn't exist, it can come back with avengence. >> reporter: close to 10,000 cases have been reported this year with worries it could spread. >> there is no predicting it could go, but i assure you it could set up shop in anyplace in this country. >> reporter: and many are watching what could be a rough flu season since this year's vaccine prevent against the virus. and now it is widespread in 29 states. >> the season is not over. it is just beginning. >> reporter: mumps has been prevalent. in 2013, 438 were reported. and including viruses found in the national hockey league. they share certain cold-like symptoms. the flu comes on fast with a high fever. whooping cough starts slowly, characterized by a fast cough and then a whooping sound as the patient tries

hallie jackson has the story from los angeles. >> i never heard of microsoft ever getting hacked intore. >> reporter: today gamers are hoping to log back on to xbox and playstation after a disturbing christmas outage that had many lighting up social media to complain. xbox acknowledged the service problems and stplay station sai they're investigating. one twitter account boasted we truly are the grinch. >> what the heck just happened. >> reporter: the outage happened the same day as the big screen debut of "the interview," raising questions about whether the crash is a coincidence or more. sony owns playstation and the studio that made the controversial comedy. xbox is one of the platforms streaming the movie. >> we have "the interview." >> reporter: there's no indication the christmas day outages are connected to the earlier signer atack against sony which the u.s. government blamed on north korea. that hacker group called itself guardians of peace and appeared to threaten retaliation if sony allowed "the interview" to go public but it did ina big way with sellout crowds lining up f

nbc's hallie jackson is live in tracey, california. over to you. >> hi.e are here where these new robots are in action. here they are. check it out. orange things, is a,000 of them have been placed in ten centers, ten warehouses across the country. remember, amazon acquired kiv,for $775 million in 2012. but this is the first holiday season the company is using these robots in the warehouses. instead of reggie here having to go walk through the warehouse picking up different items, the robots are actually bringing the merchandise right to reggie. it's his birthday today. happy 34th. amazon says this idea to use the kiva box which has been used in other warehouses before helps speed up efficiency. instead of taking 90 minutes on average to get the items from the shelf to the box to be shipped out it takes about 13 to 15 minutes. it also increases the storage capacity. so a facility like this which is about 28 football fields as far as the footprint, essentially increases its storage by 50% because these kiva bots as you can see, they can jam the products cl

hallie jackson, thank you so much. to the closing bell, stocks are down on lackluster holiday sales. we turn to courtney reagan to the world's largest online retailer of sports products. how's it going? >> things here are looking very, very busy. it is going to be not only the busiest but the best day fanatics has ever seen. right now sales are trending up 25% year over year for cyber monday. that's about the rate that they saw over that thanksgiving black friday weekend as well. so a very busy day. this is one of five distribution centers or fulfillment centers rather. it is the largest here in ohio. employees working 22.5 hours a day during the holiday season because the demand is just so strong for the type of apparel that is sold here. and i'll give you some of the top sellers. as you can see, this lovely, ugly christmas sweater is one of the top sellers. do you like it? it could be yours right now. >> boston red sox stuff, though. >> you can also pick up one of these nhl jerseys, a very, very popular item, as well

hallie jackson gives a look at the babies and their proud parents. >> reporter: counting these perfectsets of identical twins. >> they're just doing incredible. more than i ever expected. >> reporter: we first met the utah couple last fall. after eight years of trying to have kids they saved up enough money for in vitro fertilization then hoped for the best. what they got was a one in 70 million miracle. tyson captured ashley's reaction on camera. the pictures went viral and suddenly it seemed like the whole world was watching. >> all the diapers we got. we'll be safe for a few month. >> donations poured in. garners started a special facebook page. >> hey, garners here. >> and youtube channel to keep everyone up dated on ashley's pregnancy. then sunday her water broke and the four girls arrived c-section, india mae, evangeline scarlet. >> just kept pulling them out. >> reporter: born 12 weeks early, the twins are tiny the smallest weighing less than two pound. >> they cry when the nurses take them away from you and we cry. >> every one of the girls have been held in -- skin to skin by

hallie jackson is in sydney with the latest. hallie, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt. the australian prime minister says the gunman was not on a terror watch list and described him as disturbed. here in downtown sydney, many are choosing instead to focus on the victims. even at 11:08 at night, this plaza filled not just with flowers but with people, who came to pay their respects to the two hostages who died in this crisis, both now being remembered as heroes. just hours after this dramatic and deadly end to sydney's hostage crisis, a somber service honoring the two lives of the innocent victims killed in the downtown cafe. >> these heroes were willing to lay down their lives so that others might live. >> reporter: katrina dawson, 38-year-old lawyer and mother of three, died after reportedly shielding her pregnant friend from gunfire. 33-year-old torii johnson was killed after he tried to wrestle the gun away from his captor. >> he wasn't coming out until everybody else was. >> reporter: ending the nearly 17-

hallie jackson has this story for us. good morning, hallie. >> good morning, willie.nline showing for any movie ever for sony as "the interview" stars get behind a big pr push. all this as a different arm of the sony corporations deals from fallouts from yet another cyber attack. the most controversial scene in the year's most controversial movie. while live tweeting the fictional death of north korea's kim jong un james franco wonders how can anyone get upset about this silly little scene? seth rogen adds seems silly to me. bringing more attention to a movie that's had plenty, downloaded 2 million times since its release on websites including itunes. it's raked in $15 million onsblien $2.8 million in theaters even though it only played in 231 independent cinemas. >> had the movie opened as intended in two or 3,000 theaters it would have been a bigger result for the weekend theoretically. you combine those streaming numbers with the theatrical you have a good start. >> reporter: the u.s. government blames internet hack on north korea. pyongyang said it didn't do it. >

guys. >> hallie jackson, thank you. >> unusual case to say the least. now that the movie will be released we want to know if you are going to go see it? head to our todd facebook page to answer that question. >>> meantime, there was a chaotic scene in missouri overnight. natalie's got that story. >> right. some violent protests again near st. louis after a deadly shooting involving police. now this happened in berkeley, missouri two miles from ferguson. more than 100 protesters including some active in the michael brown protest clashed with police at the scene. after 11:00 last night police say an officer approached two men standing near a gas station, they say one of the men pulled out handgun and pointed it at the officer. the officer fired several shots at the man, killing him. a distraught woman at the gas station identifies a man as her son, 18-year-old antonio martin. police say handgun was recovered at the scene. >> nbc news confirmed isis has shot down a u.s.-led coalition fighter jet over syria. this is the first coalition jet down since air st

matt. >> hallie jackson, thank you. a lot of people talking about if you release it on a streaming service does the streaming service then become the target of a hack? >> exactly. i'd be nervous to download it myself. >> natalie is here with another tragic story out of florida. >> right. this is a horrible story. a suspect is in custody facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a police officer there on sunday. officials say a fugitive trying to evade arrest shot officer charles kondek and then ran him over as he sped away. the 45-year-old veteran officer was the father of six. there is apparently no connection to the ambush killings here in new york. >> at least seven people are recovering after lightning struck close to them. it happened sunday in a florida parking lot as fans left the tampa bay buccaneers game. one man said it's amazing nobody was killed. >>> new developments in the search for a missing college student. shane montgomery in pennsylvania on sunday a voluntary diving recovery team found his ke

hallie jackson is there, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt. the los angeles fire department call this is one of the biggest fires in this city in more than a decade. the scaffolding all that's left of this new apartment building behind me. as the wind shifted you can smell the smoke in downtown l.a., hundreds of firefighters working to put out the flames here as this brought traffic to a halt for hours. flames could be seen for miles early monday, lighting up the downtown los angeles skyline as photos and videos of the blaze quickly took over social media. >> you feel that heat. >> the fire started at the site of a new apartment complex. almost two-thirds of it was engulfed. >> at its peak we had one quarter of the on duty firefighters on scene of this fire which is 250 firefighters. >> reporter: los angeles firefighters were able to contain most of the blaze in the first 90 minutes, but not before parts of the building scaffolding fell and the threat of more collapse brought traffic to a halt. >> we're concerned about the collapse, the wood f

>> hallie jackson in los angeles, thank you very much. >>> meanwhile an alleged gun smuggling ring has been busted. natalie is following the details of that story and others. >> baggage handler for delta airlines is under arrest, charged with helping a smuggler take guns in his carry-on bag if on flights from atlanta to new york. pete williams has more on this developing story. pete, good morning. >> reporter: natalie, this was part of an investigation by police in new york, tracing the illegal flow of guns into the city. it could raise new questions about security at the atlanta airport. federal agents say a 31-year-old baggage handler for delta in atlanta, eugene harvey, agreed to help a former deltaplyy to sneak guns on to flights to sell on the street. that man has also been arrested. harvey used his airport security badge to enter the airport terminal and later go into a concourse bathroom. the former employee entered that same bathroom and walked out one minute later with 18 handguns in his carry-on, allowing the smuggler to get the guns after going through tsa screening. court d

hallie jackson is in l.a. with more. >> reporter: good morning.ony canceled tours of its lot until next year because of security concerns and it's not just the studio. what started out as a hollywood comedy has quickly turned into an international crisis. and the white house says it's now considering a, quote, proportional response. top advisers to president obama are now looking at how to respond to the hack that is sending shock waves beyond hollywood. >> we have seen that this is -- there has been destructive activity with malicious intent. the administration believes that activity merits an appropriate response from the united states. >> look at this. >> reporter: sony pulls the interview after most national theater chains canceled screening in response to a let that referenced the 9/11 attacks though officials downplayed the danger. dozens have ripped the studio for giving in to the hackers. arguing sony always knew the film would be controversial in north korea. >> we can't allow ourselves to be scared silent. >> reporter: george clooney the

hallie jackson, thank you so much. >>> joining me now, thank you both for being with us.s. >> thank you for the correction. >> what did you think of "the interview" and it doesn't matter how goofy it is. >> it's the type of film that we've seen from seth rogen before where they are sitting down with kim jong-un. it was never meant to be an act of political provocation and it's kind of absurd. it could be its own james franco/seth rogen film. >> nancy, offensive as far as north korea, would they be saying, we take so much offense to this, let's hack them. >> after calling president obama a monkey, i have no sympathy for them this morning. but it's in terms of being kind of dopy. for someone like me who may not know all of the work of seth rogen or james franco, they were playing their persona. if you're into that, it's like seeing these guys in a whole misadventure. if you're not, it's guns, war and dopiness. >> you know what, it doesn't matter if it was horrible or if it was good, it doesn't matter if the reviews were bad to begin with even before this happened and it doe

>> hallie jackson for us this morning in los angeles. thank you.the state department will hold their regular daily briefing at 11:00 a.m. it's about an hour and a half from here. if we get more information, we'll pass it along then. we vls have reaction to the situation in north korea. after the break, a lot of people on wall street with visions of sugar plum ls. mandy is setting up the santa rally straight ahead. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours, but aleve can last 12 hours... and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? aleve, proven better on pain. ♪ approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company come in. like all standardized medicare

we'll have a live report from hallie jackson in just a bit on that.he average expectation of 15 trop strategists is that stocks will rise 6.6% next year. we'll have more on that. and vladimir putin scrapping new year's holidays for governor ministers. yesterday he said cabinet ministers, quote, can't afford to go on break. >>> we are less than 90 minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. the futures right now suggesting we're going to have a positive open. the s&p would open higher by six. the dow would open higher by more than 58 points and the nasdaq by 15. europe markets closed today. a lot of markets in the world are closed. but let's see how asia traded overnight. hong kong market remains closed today. moving to retail, christmas is over but today is expected to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. dom chu joins us from the newport center mall in jersey city, new jersey? dom? >> the reason we're here is because we're waiting to see whether shoppers turn out for what's already been a relatively strong holiday shopping season.

hallie jackson is in los angeles. hallie good morning to you. >> good morning, tamron. overnight we saw reports of intermittent outages and the timing of this crash could not have been worse, people unwrapping the hottest gifts of the season could not logon to play. it doesn't look like the outages are related to the original cyber attack against sony but yet another headache for a company that has had plenty. >> i never heard of microsoft getting hacked into before. >> reporter: hoping to log back on to x box and playstation after a disturbing christmas outage that had many lighting up social media to complain. playstation tweeted engineers are investigating. a hacker group called lizard squad is taking responsibility for the network crash with one twitter account posting we truly are the grinch. >> what the heck is happening? >> reporter: the outages happened the same day as the big screen release of "the interview." sony owns playstation and sony pictures. right now there's no. that hacker group called itself guardians of peace and threatened retaliation if "the inte