janis mackey frayer there.l, just coming into our newsroom, a new york appeals court judge is denying donald trump's bid for an emergency order halting the president elect's scheduled sentencing friday on criminal charges in the hush money case. that ruling comes just hours after the president elect held a wide ranging speech from his home in mar-a-lago. among those announcements, he will ask the american government to rename the gulf of mexico as the gulf of america. scott mcgrew has other highlights. mr. trump claimed windmills were hurting whales, and that america had spent trillions of dollars on the green new deal. now the green new deal was never passed. the president elect also claims special counsel jack smith was executing people. he has not. during the question and answer phase, the president elect said he could not promise not to use u.s. forces against panama or denmark in his efforts to take over the panama canal and greenland. now, the original impetus for the speech was not whales or the special

janis mackey frayer, nbc news, seoul. >>> and up next, the troubling new numbers about cases of dementia. >>> up next, troubling new numbers about cases of dementia. for peopd by the unpredictability of generalized myasthenia gravis, season to season, ultomiris is continuous symptom control, with improvement in activities of daily living and reduced muscle weakness. and ultomiris is the only long-acting gmg treatment with the freedom of just 6 to 7 infusions per year, for a predictable routine i can count on. ultomiris may lower your immune system's ability to fight infections, increasing your chance of serious meningococcal and other infections which may become life-threatening or fatal. complete or update meningococcal vaccines at least 2 weeks before you start. if treatment is urgent, and you're not vaccinated, you should receive antibiotics with your vaccines. n't start if you have a meningococcal infection. infusion reactions may include back, belly, limb, or chest pain, muscle spasms, blood pressure changes, tiredness, shaking chills, bad taste, breathing problems, or face, tongue,

here is janis mackey frayer. >> reporter: tonight the first north korean soldiers ukraine says it has captured alive. seen in this video being questioned by ukraine's military with help from south korean intelligence. one telling interrogators he thought he was going to russia for training, not war. the soldiers providing a rare glimpse into how north korean troops are fighting with russian forces in kursk, where u.s. officials say they're taking heavy losses. roy sung-yun was a north korean soldier until 2019 when he ran across the demilitarized zone to freedom in south korea. >> honestly, it's not easy to capture north korean soldier. >> reporter: why is it not easy? >> before capture, they -- themselves. they training like that. >> reporter: he says every recruit learns a song about saving her last bullet for themselves to avoid capture. interviews with several former north korean soldiers reveal one of the world's largest standing armies lacks regular training in modern warfare. >> i think i only fired three bullets per year. when i moved to a special force, we do had more than li

janis mackey frayer, nbc news, beijing. >> so interesting. means even the tiniest mistake by a referee can change the course of a whole game. now the nfl has launched new technology this season to try to eliminate the chance of that happening. nbc news business correspondent brian cheung shows us how it works. >> reporter: the football faithful know about these orange markers used to engage for a fresh set of downs. it's a simple tool that may get retired. we got an inside look at the new system using artificial intelligence that could be taking its place. in the nfl it's all about moving the chains. referring to those orange links used in the game for more than 100 years. they've been the subject of many close calls. at times changing the course of the game and riling up fans. here's how it works. let's say you made a sweet play. to see if the ball made it ten yards necessary for a fifirst down, these orange chains come out to measure exactly ten yards. wiwith new technology these cou become obsolete. at allegiant stadium home of the las veg

janis mackey frayer joins us from beijing with the latest on rescue efforts. >> reporter: this was theded quake in years in that area of the himalayas. and a rescue operation is now underway with teams using hands and shovels in freezing cold conditions. china's government upgraded its emergency response to level one. this is the highest level priority. the epicenter of the quake that the usgs measured was located in tinro county about 50 miles from mt. everest and near one of tibet's holiest cities. 126 people have been killed, nearly 200 are injured. numbers that are changing as rescuers push further into the area. videos on social media and state television here show homes with walls that have been torn apart and are in ruins. in one rescue, a girl was shown being carried alive out of the rubble on the back of a policeman. earthquakes are not uncommon in the area. it lies on a major fault line, but the power of this quake rippled into other countries, shaking buildings in nepal and parts of india. more than 1,000 houses have been damaged and some have collapsed. china's military has

let's turn to janis mackey frayer in china. bring us up to date on the latest. >> reporter: frances, this was a strong earthquake at a remote, high altitude in the himalayas, with the rescue operation now under way in freezing cold coitions. the epicenter was about 50 miles from mt. everest, also near one of tibet's holiest cities, with the population of nearly 650,000. officials say at least 95 people have been killed, more than 100 injured. these are early estimates, as rescuers push into the area. it was a 7.1 magnitude quake by usgs estimates, about six miles deep and shook buildings in nepal and parts of india. more than a thousand houses damaged, some have ollapsed. media are showing homes torn apart and rubble area. the area is home to about 60,000 people, the chinese gateway to mt. everest. earthquakes not uncommon on this fault line. but this was the most powerful-reported quake in years. there's also jolting aftershocks. china's military has launched a rescue operation, and they're using drones to assess where help is

janis mackey frayer for us in beijing. thanks. >>> we turn to washington and the peaceful transfer of power. exactly four years after rioters stormed the catol after the donald trump 2020 election loss, quickly certified his victory in the 2024 race. the president-elect now preparing for his inauguration in less than two weeks. and also making a new push to delay this week's sentencing in his new york criminal case. nbc's capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles has all the latest on that. ryan, good morning. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. it took almost 15 hours to certify joe biden's victory in 2021. in 2025, the process to certify donald trump's win took less than 40 minutes. democrats did their part to allow the peaceful transfer of power with a very clear reminder of how different things were four years ago. >> reporter: vice president kamala harris just a few months removed from her loss in the 2024 election, presiding over a joint session of congress, to officially certify the win of her former political rival.

. >> all right, janis mackey frayer, thank you for bringing us the very latest. that does it for us today. thank you for joining me. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. i'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. soon we'll see the casket of former president jimmy carter leaving his presidential library in georgia, and then a solemn procession to our nation's capitol. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. >>> 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. jose diaz-balart, and we are watching live pictures from atlanta. happening any moment now, a ceremony is to begin at the carter center in atlanta as the body of former president jimmy carter is set to leave georgia before being honored in the nation's capitol. these live pictures of the carter center, the presidential center in atlanta where jimmy carter spent so much time and where so many people worked for so long, in a common cause of peace. more than 23,000 people visited the center to pay their respects over the past four days. later today, the 39th president will lie in state at the u

joining us live from beijing is nbc news international correspondent janis mackey frayer, who spoke toxit interview. janis, what did you learn? >> willie, ever the career diplomat, ambassador nicolas burns is very careful in his phrasing. it's been a necessary skill here in dealing with chinese officials, as he saw u.s.-china relations hit historic lows. every meeting for him has been intense. i sat down him for a wide-ranging interview at the embassy earlier this week to assess where things are at as he leaves china after nearly three years on the job. he says the relationship is more stable than it was, say, the monday morning after the balloon crisis. there are now official talks on issues like fentanyl cooperation, climate and between militaries, but the people-to-people exchanges that burns likes to call the ball last of the relationship, have not come back. he also had sharper than usual thoughts on china's behavior in the recently with taiwan and the philippines and its support for russia in the ukraine war. while burns said it wouldn't be fair to comment on how president-elect

nbc's janis mackey frayer, thank you very much, katty kay.hts on marco rubio moving on to the world stage now as secretary of state, a complicated world stage with donald trump as president. >> whichever name he goes under and whichever sanctions he may be eligible for. >> i thought. >> that was funny. look, i think one of rubio's biggest challenges may not be donald trump. it may be that there's quite a lot of diverse opinions within the foreign policy team. if tulsi gabbard is confirmed as dni, she is pretty much at odds with much of what marco rubio has stood for in the past. but he has another problem, which is elon musk. so elon musk is actually the person who has been out there during the transition, making waves on the world stage in europe, in the united kingdom, in ukraine. elon musk has complicated business relationships with china. to what extent does elon musk start representing the real voice of american foreign policy? because people around the world understand that he is the person who is actually close to donald trump, compare

nbc's janis mackey frayer in the region, joining us now. good morning. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. this is a first in south korea's history. a sitting president being arrested. yoon suk-yeol was holed up in his residence in seoul since impeached last month after the short-lived declaration of martial law. police surrounded yoon's residence before dawn. some used ladders. climbing over buses that had been parked as barriers by a security detail. yoon said in a video that he agreed to go to avoid a violent clash. that was a worry since the standoff a couple weeks ago when investigators first tried to detain him. he struck a deal today. he wasn't handcuffed. he left in a presidential motorcade. not a police car. yoon is being investigated for insurrection. he says that investigation is illegal, and he still has support among south korean conservatives. they've been showing up on his street, outside of his house every day, a lot of them waiving american flags, wearing red ball hats and carrying signs that say, "stop the steal." sound f