. sharing the pacific up close and personal with a friendly beast thanks to an apparent wrong turn. he soaked up the sun in dana point harbor this week. captain put his drone to work. >> this lady on the front just dives into the water and swims over to this whale. everybody is kind of stunned and then a whole bunch of people kind of helped out and they were actually able to get the whale out of the harbor. it's not something i would normally recommend doing. >> reporter: the orange county sheriff's department also captured the stunning encounter as good samaritans tries to shoo the young whale out to sea. but the whale took a couple more detours, first laguna beach and then newport beach. this time of year, gray whales have usually made the 6,000 mile trek from their winter homes near baja to the bering sea. whether this whale was simply lost isn't immediately known. wildlife officials are monitoring its whereabouts and health saying there's no cause for concern. finders keepers it's not though probably a handful of weepers perhaps thanks for showing the way. ron mott, nbc news. >

holding a folded flag, he's carrying a promise. a vow made in the south pacific 73 years ago. it's here during world war ii that strombo, a marine, came across the body of a dead japanese soldier, tucked inside his uniform near his heart was a flag covered in calligraphy. the kind of souvenir often discovered on the battlefield, but strombo struggled to take this one. >> because i knew it meant so much to him. >> reporter: but he realized if he didn't, someone else might. >> and i promised him at that time i would return the flag some day to the family. >> reporter: now 93 years old, strombo recently reached out to a society that helps veterans return japanese flags to the families of fallen soldiers. they learned this one belonged to yasua, signed by 180 members of his village, including seven who are still alive today. one of them, his 89-year-old brother. he said the family never received yasua's remains, but today they got his flag. strombo traveled 10,000 miles to fulfill his promise in person. >> i never did think i owned the flag, it was always theirs. >> reporter: the flag

south pacific, according to officials. this comes after north korea tested two of its own icbms last month including one on friday which analysts say could strike a wider range of the u.s. mainland. >>> now to an nbc news exclusive, revealing president trump's growing dissatisfaction with america's military strategy in afghanistan. just today two u.s. service members were killed when their nato convoy came under attack reportedly by a suicide bomber. the taliban have claimed responsibility. tomorrow the national security council is scheduled to meet and discuss changing the u.s. strategy in afghanistan. but the last time they met, things got very heated. the president blasting his own advisers. nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has an inside look at what happened in that room. >> reporter: tonight an exclusive look behind the closed doors of the situation room at an increasingly frustrated president, agitated with his military on afghanistan, even as he delays a decision on a new strategy in a fight his top generals describe as a stalemate. senior administration

kim jong-un? >>> historic find. the wreckage of an american warship is discovered deep in the pacific, more than 72 years after the japanese torpedoed her in the final days of world war ii. >>> and dance dreams. how one summer camp is making a difference for hundreds of kids with lessons that go far beyond the stage. "nightly news" begins now. >> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with jose diaz belart. >> good evening, kate snow is off tonight. an american icon has died. jerry lewis passed away in las vegas today at the age of 91. he was a beloved star of the screen and stage but may best be remembered for those annual telethons to raise money for the muscular dystrophy association. lewis was passionate about that cause and the children he helped who called themselves jerry's kids. tonight, the mda said his decades of devotion can be summed up in a motto that lewis would often quote. "i shall pass through this world but once. any good, therefore, that i can do or any kindness that i can show to any human being, let me do it now. let me not defer

coast to coast. >>> disaster at sea. another crash involving a u.s. navy destroyer in the pacific. ten american sailors missing. >>> war plan. president trump addresses the nation on america's mission in afghanistan. are more troops headed into harm's way? >>> courthouse ambush. a gunman opens fire on a judge. the judge firing back and survives. tonight, the suspect's connection to a case that made national headlines. >>> and under pressure. doctors sound the alarm about a silent condition hitting a growing number of kids. >>> "nightly news" begins right now. >>> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc "nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening, todd our viewers in the west. thanks for being with us. things were looking up all across america today as the united states found itself in a celestial sweet spot, a front row seat for a total solar eclipse that swept its shadow from oregon to south carolina in just 90 minutes. there were cheers and some tears of joy as day turned to twilight in its direct path and eclipsed pilgrims who traveled from far and wide to ex

wreckage of a navy destroyer. a growing investigation in the pacific. >>> chicken health warning. a spike in people getting sick as more and more families invest in a backyard trend. >>> preventing a sudden killer, the leading cause of death for people over age 40. for the first time doctors say they may be able to predict who's at risk and stop it before it strikes. >>> and to serve and protect, how a policeman doing double duty as the ice cream man is inspiring america. >>> "nightly news" begins right now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening to our viewers until the west. and thank you for joining us tonight. after enduring one of the roughest patches of his presidency last week over the violence in charlottesville, president trump is off to a busy start this week rallying supporters at an event in arizona this evening on the heels of last night's primetime speech in which he announced an open-ended american commitment leaving a lot of unanswered questions. meantime, tensions are high in phoenix

, kristen. >>> the navy says it's suspending search and recovery efforts in the pacific to find nine sailors who remain missing after the "uss john mccain" collided with a tanker near singapore. they will continue to search the flooded compartments inside the ship itself. the body of a tenth sailor has been recovered, all ten have now been publicly identified. >>> now to a hostage drama that played out for hours today in charleston. authorities say it started when a fire dishwasher shot and killed a chef in a crowded restaurant filled with tourists. he then locked the door to the restaurant and told diners to get down on the floor. all but one managed to run out another exit after a three-hour negotiation, the suspect was shot and wounded by police and the lone hostage was freed. >>> tonight a massachusetts mom has come forward to claim one of the largest jackpots in american history. one ticket worth a whopping $758 million. nbc's rehema ellis has the lucky winner and what she plans to do now. >> reporter: mavis wanczyk couldn't believe her own eyes when she checked her power ball ticket af

destroyers involved in collisions in the pacific. >> there are too many coincidences here to demonstrate anything other than the fact that we are not training sufficiently, we don't have enough people, we don't have enough time and we don't have enough resources. >> next month, congress will hold a public hearing to determine if some of these accidents are related and whether or not they stem from budget cuts. hans nichols, nbc news, washington. >>> in london, police are trying to determine whether an attack outside of buckingham palace was carried out by a terrorist. it happened last night and kristen dahlgren is in london and has details. good evening. >> reporter: good evening. tonight, people here in london are being urged to be alert yet not alarmed as police investigate an act of terror. metropolitan police say on friday night a man drove a car directly at a police van. when officers confronted him, they say he reached for a four-foot sword, repeatedly shouting allah akbar. three officers were slightly injured. they we -- believe the man was acting alone. no members of the royal fa

, a 14-minute journey into the pacific ocean. kim jong-un's provocation prompting an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council. >> i think enough is enough. >> reporter: japan's prime minister calling it an unprecedented threat. and a rebuke from president trump, who said, all options are on the table. but when pressed how the u.s. would respond -- but the u.s. has been preparing for an even bigger danger than a missile test. we're now heading to a secure bunker. it's carved right into the heart of a mountain outside seoul. if north korea ever were to attack, u.s. and south korean forces could continue to operate from here. a place of last resort. >> we've got to be able to command and control on the peninsula. >> reporter: colonel chad carroll giving us rare access to what is effectively the doom's day bunker commanders would use to survive an assault and launch a counteroffensive. a lot of people work here? >> enough to get the job done. >> reporter: u.s. and south korean war planners expect the north would use chemical weapons, so they may have to stay in here for a lon

pacific northwest. third straight day of triple digit temperatures, highs there reaching 20 to 30 degrees above average. not helping matters, smoke from fires in british columbia polluting the air over washington state and oregon. even animals at the oregon zoo are struggling to beat the heat. 14 million people are under heat advisories or excessive heat warnings through tomorrow. >>> tonight officials in minneapolis say they found a second body in the rubble after a natural gas explosion ripped through a historic academy during summer school. two employees, a receptionist and a janitor, were killed, several others were injured. authorities are still working to pinpoint what triggered the blast. >>> tonight there's news that every parent or grandparent of a teenaged girl will need to hear. word of an alarming rise in girls taking their own lives, suffering from depression and often not seeking the help they need. federal health officials are now shining a light on the warning signs you should be on the lookout for. we get details from nbc's rehema ellis. >> reporter: 15-year-old k

pacific. but the system cannot be counted on to be 100% accurate. while this is just one intelligence assessment, fear is north korea is on track to solve the technical challenges sooner rather than later. >> the north koreans, if they proceed on their nuclear program, will figure out how to miniaturize the nuclear device. which they have shown they know how to detonate. minu miniturizie it. >> reporter: tonight north korea threatened guam while some lawmakers are slamming the president's comments. dianne feinstein recommending diplomacy. republican john mccain said he can't think of any other president who would have used that kind of rhetoric. >> whether president trump is prepared to back up his vow to meet with fire and fury, the statement certainly reflects the narrow and risky options the united states has to try and halt north korea's nuclear advances. our national correspondent peter alexander takes a closer look. >> reporter: locked in an escalating standoff in a regime and its erratic dictator. tonight president trump is facing the first foreign policy showdown of his young

preparing military plans to strike the american pacific island of guam. it's a sovereign u.s. territory, the size of chicago, home to 160,000 u.s. citizens, and much closer to north korea than to the u.s. mainland. the threat was unusually specific, mentioning the b-one bombers stationed there at andersen air force base. the island's governor dismissed north korea's threat. >> there is no threat to our island. >> reporter: not everyone is convinced. >> it is scary. >> reporter: anxiety too in hawaii. if a ballistic missile was launched from north korea, it could reach this state in less than 20 minutes. officials here in hawaii say they are working on an emergency plan. they say the threat is real, but the risk is low. >> reporter: it's a crisis growing fast. in just five weeks north korea has tested two long-range missiles that u.s. officials now believe could reach as far as chicago. >> this is the highest tension i've ever seen on the korean peninsula. it's a very grave situation, close to being a crisis. >> reporter: well, here in seoul, south korea's president is trying to calm ner

off the california coast, a whale of a tale, sharing the open pacific up close with a beast. this gray whale soaked up the sun in dana point harbor this week. out on a whale watching tour, he put his drone to work catching a woman who got a tad frenzy's. >> she dived into the water and swam over to this whale. everybody was stunned and then a whole bunch of people helped out and actually were able to get the whale out of the harbor. that's not something i would normally recommend doing. >> you're good. >> reporter: the orange county sheriff's department captured this encounter, shooing this young whale out to sea. but his travels were just beginning. the whale took a couple more detours, first laguna beach and then newport beach. this time of year, gray whales have usually made the trek to their summer home in the bering sea. whether he was simply lost, it's not known. wildlife officials are monitoring his whereabouts and health saying there's no cause for harm. a handful of weepers who missed seeing a whale spouting grace and thanks for showing the way. ron mott, nbc news. >>> an