tonight, the major ramp-up and the mission to clear that collapsed bridge in baltimore. the largest crane on the east coast now joining the operation. the massive mechanical arm capable of lifting up to 1,000 tons arriving for one of the biggest salvage operations ever. plus, a fleet of tugboats, barges, coast guard vessels, and additional cranes on the way. one of the first major tasks, cutting that bridge into pieces to make it easier to remove. four workers missing and presumed dead in the water as officials race to re-open that busy port. also tonight, the atmospheric river storms slamming the west this holiday weekend. we're tracking it all. the violent chaos in haiti. the rare interview with the country's most infamous gang leader. what he says it will take to get him to the table for cease-fire talks. three presidents on one stage. inside joe biden's fund-raiser with barack obama and bill clinton. the record-breaking haul. and former

president trump, his new attempt to kick fani willis off that georgia election case. the mystery in florida. what's causing fish to behave like this and wash up dead? he became the first black man ever to win the oscar for best supporting actor. remembering louis gossett jr. and the wait is over. beyonce's barrier-breaking country album is here with her own fiery reimagining of a dolly parton classic. why some fans say it's her best album yet. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. and good evening. i'm tom llamas in for lester tonight. it will be lengthy, complicated, and dangerous as work begins to clear wreckage of the francis scott key bridge and the massive ship that crashed into it. tonight, a huge floating crane -- you see it right here. it's arrived on the scene. it's the largest on the east coast, part of an armada of barges, salvage

vessels, and tugboats on the way. a good part of that bridge will have to be sawed into pieces, so it can be lifted off the ship and out of the water. only then will ship traffic return to this part of baltimore harbor, which we observed hours after the deadly collision. it will take weeks, even months. president biden will visit the site next week as investigators look at issues on the ship and the bridge that may have contributed to the disaster, and it's where we begin tonight with nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: arriving at the site of baltimore's bridge collapse, the biggest floating crane on the east coast able to lift a thousand tons for one of the biggest salvage missions ever, just part of a flotilla now en route including the crane that lifted the miracle on the hudson plane out of the river. in all, seven floating cranes, ten tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels, and five coast guard boats. 8,000 local jobs are waiting. >> we need to clear the channel and open the vessel traffic to

the port, because the health of the maryland economy and the national economy depend on it. >> reporter: on the water, the army corps of engineers is using underwater drones and sonar to map the precise location of the wreckage then lay out a coordinated salvage plan for divers. >> how we can cut it up into the pieces we need to be able to lift. >> reporter: ntsb investigators still interviewing crew members and gathering evidence on the crushed cargo ship now trapped under the weight of twisted steel. a piece of highway lying on top. so, take a look at the front of the ship, at the bow of the ship, and you see that piece of steel that's lying across it. that's 3,000 to 4,000 tons. that is so heavy, it's pushing the bow into the water down into the bottom of the river, and then it's lifting the stern up out of the water. below the water line, the river depth is roughly 50 feet. to re-open the port, the cranes will lift

massive chunks of steel, concrete, and sunken cargo containers, some hazardous. all of it must be gone. the sand on the bottom completely clean. >> you can't leave any concrete, any steel, because it's a threat to the vessel. we're going to get it all off the bottom and re-open the channel so it provides for safe navigation. >> reporter: meanwhile in honduras, construction worker maynor martin suazo's family in a heart-wrenching wait for his body to be recovered from the river. his brother saying, we are still waiting with faith and hope that they will find his body so we can bring him home. >> and with that, tom costello joins us live tonight. tom, still four victims unaccounted for, lost underneath that water, and we see there right behind you that massive 1,000-ton pound crane they're hoping will help in the recovery? >> reporter: yeah, it's pre-positioned. it's ready to go, just part of the many ships and boats and operators that are coming in. president biden will be here next week meeting with incident commanders, we expect,

and the government has now pledged to maryland $60 million to help in the rebuilding process. that will be a drop in the bucket of what could be a multibillion dollar price tag, tom. >> yeah, they're going to need a lot more than that. all right. tom costello leading us off tonight. tom, we thank you. here in new york, three presidents helped bring in a $26 million haul for the biden campaign at that star-studded fund-raiser, and it had former president trump firing back today. here's kelly o'donnell. >> reporter: with a dramatic flourish, three presidents emerged. democratic donors posted their images of this entrance at a glitzy new york city fund-raiser, needling a fourth president, donald trump, with a twist on the sensitive issue of age in this clip released by the biden campaign. >> all the things he's doing are so old, speaking of old. [ laughter ]

and, you know, a little old and out of shape anyway. [ laughter ] >> reporter: tapping into the political skills of bill clinton and barack obama to sell the biden agenda. democrats looking for a counterpoint to polling that shows voter frustrations with president biden. >> you've got record-breaking job growth. you've got an unemployment rate that is as low as it has been. for african americans, by the way, the lowest on record ever. >> reporter: tickets started at $250, but donations soared as high as $500,000 for the star-studded night. the event raised $26 million, while outside, a large and loud protest over president biden's policy on the israel-hamas war. meanwhile, former president trump created his own contrast, joining mourners grieving nypd officer jonathan diller, who was shot and killed. the suspect, a repeat offender. mr. trump slamming president biden for

not directly reaching out to the dillers. >> they could have called. you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know even a call would be perhaps -- i'm not sure they'd take his call. >> reporter: and new in the georgia election interference case, mr. trump's lawyers are asking an appeals court to remove fulton county d.a. fani willis and to dismiss the case. tom. >> kelly o'donnell with that new reporting from the white house. kelly, thank you. we now go to haiti where tonight the notorious gang leader who many say is in charge of the capital sat down for an interview with our partners at sky news. his demand that gangsters be allowed to join the new government. here's ellison barber. >> reporter: gunfire, arson. this is life in haiti's capital city. the country's national police unable to match the firepower of gangs. jimmy "barbecue" cherizien is arguably the face of haiti's gang wars. he controls large swaths of territory and heads the powerful

g-9 group, an alliance of port-au-prince's biggest gangs. in a rare interview with sky news' stuart ramsay, barbecue says he is willing to consider a cease-fire, but seemed to suggest the newly formed transitional presidential council must include gang leaders. [ speaking in a global language ] >> reporter: in northern haiti, that divide is evident. what we keep hearing from people is that one of the big concerns in areas outside of port-au-prince is less the violence and less so worry about the gangs and more right now the concern is about how they do things like this, wash their clothes, how they get food, how they get clean water. >> it's hard right now to get everything.

>> reporter: earlier this week, the biden administration approved a proposal to send haiti's police $10 million worth of weapons, ammunition, bulletproof vests, and helmets all from the department of homeland security's stockpile, but to many it has not come soon enough. ellison barber, nbc news. and in the middle east, dozens are reported dead in syria tonight after an apparent air strike by israel, raising fears of a wider conflict in the region. nbc's raf sanchez is in israel tonight. raf, what more do we know? >> reporter: tom, this is the largest apparent israeli attack in syria in years according to a war-monitoring group. they say this strike in aleppo killed not just 36 syrian soldiers, but also 6 militants from the iranian-backed group hezbollah. now, israel is not claiming responsibility for this strike, but, remember, hezbollah dominates southern lebanon. they are aligned with hamas, but they are larger, and they are

more powerful, and earlier today, israel says it killed a senior hezbollah commander responsible for rocket attacks on israeli civilians. the militants are confirming his death, and they are vowing revenge, and all of this is raising fears that without a cease-fire deal, this war could spread well beyond gaza. tom. >> raf sanchez for us. raf, thank you for that. back here at home, an atmospheric river is taking aim at the west coast this holiday weekend. 21 million people under flood alerts from southern california including l.a. and san diego as storms push through tonight and tomorrow. areas in the mountains could see up to two feet of snow. now, to our rare interview with the cia's top cybersecurity official speaking out on election interference, tiktok, and your passwords. she sat down with courtney kube. >> what would you say is the foreign government that is, i guess, causing you the most heartburn right now? >> oh, gosh, i heard somebody make a great analogy.

they said, russia and putin right now are like a massive hurricane that can have some very long-lasting damage and impact, but the people's republic of china and the threat of conflict in the far east is like climate change, the potential for epical -- like, an epic event that could really change lives. >> reporter: juliane gallina's title may sound bureaucratic. >> i'm deputy director of the cia for digital innovation. >> reporter: but her portfolio is broad and essential. appointed in february, she's in charge of the cia's efforts to detect and protect against cyberthreats from abroad. among her foremost concerns, threats to u.s. elections, particularly russia spreading false information creating doubt and swaying u.s. officials, and with china she sees efforts to influence u.s. opinion as the biggest threat. >> if you're changing the minds of a group of people or many people, that's hard to undo. it's hard to even know

what the source was or how it happened. >> reporter: including on social media. are you on tiktok? >> no. >> reporter: neither are her kids or her parents, she says. >> i tell them, don't touch it. >> reporter: tiktok denies being owned by the chinese government, but back at cia headquarters, her biggest concern might surprise you. >> honestly, the thing that concerns me the most is worrying that maybe someone in my enterprise still has password 123 as the password. it's, you know, in other words, basic cyberhygiene. >> reporter: courtney kube, nbc news, langley, virginia. and we are marking a troubling anniversary tonight. one year since "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich was detained in russia. here's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: on today's first anniversary of evan gershkovich's arrest in russia, "the wall street journal's" front page was mostly blank, white columns where his reporting should have been and a searing story on what evan has lost during a year in jail. >> journalism is not a

crime. >> reporter: prominent journalists gathered at the "wall street journal" this week for a 24-hour read-a-thon of evan's work. a year is a long time for his parents. >> do you think they're doing enough? >> we have a commitment from the u.s. government. we know they're working hard, and we just want them to continue. >> reporter: last month the possibility of a trade was raised in an oval office meeting between president biden and german chancellor olaf scholz. two sources tell nbc news scholz considered giving up a russian assassin putin wants in exchange for alexei navalny. the u.s. wanted the deal to also include evan and paul whelan, an american businessman imprisoned in russia for what the u.s. say are false espionage charges. a week later navalny died, the sources say, before the trade was proposed to the kremlin. today president biden's message for evan and his family. >> i admire the hell out of him. we're trying everything we can so far. we're not going to give up. >> did you ever think it would last this long?

>> we knew that it was going to be a marathon, but still had hopes that it will be sooner. >> reporter: tonight congress has four leaders in a rare bipartisan statement saying, reporters are not bargaining chips and calling on the kremlin to release evan and all who are wrongfully detained. tom. >> and tonight we are all thinking about evan and his family. all right, andrea, thank you. in just 60 seconds, the mystery in the waters of south florida. why are big fish spinning uncontrollably and then dying off? the search for answers next.

all right. we're back now with a baffling underwater mystery. scientists are trying to figure out the strange phenomenon impacting fish in the florida keys causing them to spin out of control and then wash up dead. here's marissa parra. >> reporter: in the shimmering blue waters of the florida keys, long the jewel of florida's southern coast, a mystery lurks beneath the surface. fish with the spins, flipping and spinning

without stop. >> in my lifetime of dives, i've never seen any behavior from fish like this at all. >> reporter: this diver first observed it last year and soon learned the fish, including these small tooth sawfish, which can grow up to 16 feet were dying. scientists are struggling to understand why. >> it's unprecedented. they do not spin like this. they do not behave like this. this is not normal behavior at all. >> reporter: that highly unusual behavior has been seen in more than 40 species according to florida fish and wildlife. autopsies on the fish have revealed no sign of a pathogen or bacterial infection. state officials say oxygen levels, water salinity, ph, and temperature are not believed to be the cause bewildering researchers. >> it's a mystery. there's so many different possibilities, that it's really difficult to isolate which one it could be. >> reporter: 28 sawfish have been found dead, but the actual number believed to be even higher. a blow to this critically endangered species that was early

on its road to recovery. >> so, to see these animals dying could be a major setback. we want to get to the bottom of it and figure out a way, a way to come back from this. >> reporter: fisheries in the florida keys remain open, though state officials say swimming where dead fish are observed isn't recommended. why do we need to protect the ecosystem and the fish that live here? >> it's very special. future generations need to be able to appreciate it the same way i did. >> reporter: marissa parra, nbc news, the florida keys. all right. when we come back, remembering groundbreaking academy award winner, louis gossett jr. stay with us.

he won an oscar, an emmy, and broke hollywood's barriers along the way. we learned today that legendary actor louis gossett jr. died at the age of 87. anne thompson now on his life and legacy. >> every time i say understand, i want the whole group to say, yes, sir. understand? >> all: yes, sir. >> understand? >> all: yes, sir! >> reporter: movie audiences sat up a little straighter when louis gossett jr.'s drill instructor barked orders and hazed richard gere in "an officer and a gentleman." >> you ready to quit now, mayo? >> they tried to make a marine out of me in ten days. >> louis gossett jr. >> reporter: a performance that would win gossett a best supporting acting oscar, the first black man to do so. >> this is ours. thank you. >> reporter: the high point in an already impressive career. the brooklyn native started acting in high school. he made his broadway debut at just 16 and went on to perform

with sidney poitier in "a raisin in the sun," a role he reprised for hollywood. bouncing between broadway and tv, fate stepped in in august 1969. invited to actress sharon tate's house, he went home to change and saw on tv she had been murdered by charles manson's followers. >> turning any man into a proper field hand, is that what you're talking about? >> reporter: his portrayal of fiddler in the blockbuster miniseries, "roots," earned him an emmy. six years later he would win the oscar, but not bigger roles. >> people weren't ready for me to win. >> reporter: alcohol and cocaine took over his life. gossett got clean. he used his fame to fight racism and hunger. >> it nourishes our spirit to nourish someone. >> reporter: and kept performing, most recently in the remake of "the color purple," but it is this performance that will always have our attention. anne thompson, nbc news. and up next,

beyonce's landmark new country album just released. we'll tell you about it. ♪ ain't no hoedown ♪

finally, after conquering the world of pop, beyonce is back with her country music debut. >> we want to welcome you to the beyonce cowboy carter act ii. >> reporter: tonight beyonce asking the music world and all her fans, if this ain't country, what is?

♪ ya, ya, ya, ya ♪ ♪ ya, ya, ya, ya ♪ >> reporter: the 32-time grammy winner overnight dropping her eighth studio album, "cowboy carter." ♪ can you hear me ♪ >> reporter: a sweeping exploration of country sound and the genres at the heart of american music. >> genres are a funny little concept, aren't they? >> reporter: the album features some of country's biggest names, willie nelson, pioneering black artist linda martell, and country music queen, dolly parton. >> hey, miss honeybey, it's dolly p. >> reporter: who introduces beyonce's version of the iconic hit, "jolene." ♪ jolene, jolene, jolene, jolene ♪ >> reporter: dolly posting, wow, i just heard "jolene." beyonce is giving that girl some trouble, and she deserves it. beyonce, a texas native with louisiana roots, putting her powerful mark on a genre that was built by black artists but hasn't always embraced

them back. the track list artwork seeming to reference the chitlin circuit, a network of venues where black musicians could safely perform during the jim crow era. beyonce herself writing, the criticisms i faced when i first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. ♪ this ain't texas ♪ >> reporter: the album's single, "texas hold 'em," is already tauping country music charts. the album also features major pop artists, post malone and miley cyrus. ♪ i'll be your shotgun rider ♪ >> reporter: "cowboy carter's" youngest collaborator is beyonce's young daughter ruby. >> mom, can i hear the lullaby? >> reporter: the major musical project proving beyonce is an american artist in a category all her own. ♪ round, round, round ♪ >> we know what we'll be listening to this weekend. that's "nightly news" for this friday. i'm tom llamas. thanks so much for watching. have a great night. ♪ the tears i cry ♪

next on "nbc bay area news tonight," california is getting hit with some late-season storms, and our jeff ranieri is tracking the timeline. and more snow falling in the sierra right now. we'll take you live to tahoe. then hundreds of new cameras are coming to the east bay. where they're going and how they'll help fight crime. plus, students under a lot of pressure as college admissions decisions start to roll in. is there anything we can do about the stress? and later, why this headset is now headed to the baseball hall of fame.