the suspect under arrest tonight. the warning about alexa and voice assistant devices so many of us have in our homes. how easy they are to hack with something you'd never expect and one thing experts say we can do now to stop it. dramatic rescue, a man falls on to a subway track with a train barrelling toward him. the heart-stopping last-second save just ahead. and brutal blast, millions in for the coldest temperatures of the season and here comes the snow >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt good evening, everybody. i'm savannah guthrie in for lester tonight, the fbi says it stopped a disturbing plot in its tracks arresting a man officials say wanted to bomb a synagogue in colorado taken into custody at the very moment he believed he had bombs in hand. instead, it was an fbi sting and tonight, he is charged with a hate crime part of a growing trend the fbi says of white supremacist inspired terrorism nbc's pete williams leading us

off. >> reporter: the fbi says this was the intended target, temple emanuel, a synagogue used by three dozen families in pueblo, colorado 27-year-old richard holzer was arrested after he was handed what he thought were real pipe bombs that he wanted to use to blow it up. >> mr. holzer also stated he was not concerned about any loss of life from the attack because such victims would be jews. victims would be jews. >> reporter: court documents say holzer attracted the fbi's attention with wipe supremacist facebook postings like i wish the hole cast really did happen, they need to die. >> reporter: court documents say holzer attracted the fbi's attention with white supremacist facebook postings like i wish the hole cast really did happen, they need to die he met with people he thought were like-minded but were actually undercover fbi agents he said he once paid somebody to put arsenic in the synagogue's water pipes but that apparently never happened after visiting the synagogue, prosecutors say he talked about bombing it and was arrested

after the undercover agents gave him what he thought were working bombs. the fbi said acts of domestic terrorism are mostly driven by white extremists. >> the majority of the racially motivated violent extremists domestic terrorism, the majority of that is at the hands of what i would call white supremacist. >> reporter: after he was arrested, holzer said he wanted to bomb the synagogue late at night when nobody would be inside he appeared in court to face the charges and is asking for a court-appointed lawyer he faces a maximum of 20 years if convicted. also breaking tonight, for the first time the public is getting a look at what a string of witnesses were saying behind closed doors over thst investigation including the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine revealing how she says she really lost her job. here is nbc's kristen welker. >> tonight the newly released transcripts paint a picture with a former u.s. ambassador to ukraine telling lawmakers she

was the target of a smear campaign by the president's allies including his outside attorney rudy giuliani, at issue he raised concerns about giuliani investigating the 2016 election and the bidens in ukraine and citing ukrainian officials telling her to watch her back because of giuliani she was ultimately recalled months ahead of her scheduled departure. the president pressed late today. was maria yovanovitch the target of a smear campaign? >> i really don't know her but if you look at the transcripts, the president of ukraine was not a fan of her, either i mean, he did not exactly say i'm sure she's a very fine woman. i just don't know much about her. >> reporter: on that july 25th phone call with ukraine's president, president trump called her bad news and when asked if she felt threatened,

her answer, yes. she should tweet out praise of president trump she was told if she wanted to save her job adding, quote, you need to go back or go home. another transcript released today shows michael mckinley, the former top advisor to secretary of state mike pompeo said he resigned because of a puzzling and lack of support for yovanovitch and saying he repeatedly urged officials including secretary of state mike pomto yovanovitch but they wouldn't. mckinley left his post telling pompeo this is unacceptable, he testified. meanwhile on capitol hill today, investigators subpoenaed four more administration officials but all of them refused to show up at the order of the white house. house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff with a stern warning. >> this will only further add to

the body of evidence on a potential obstruction of congress charge against the president. >> reporter: schiff said tomorrow they will release the testimony of two other top diplomats. gordon sunland and curt wilker. >> there is news tonight about another key figure that says he's willing to testify. what can you tell us >> reporter: that's right. this is significant. one of rudy giuliani's top associates in ukraine is willing to comply with congressional investigators. his attorney tells nbc news. helped look into the bgiidens t some of the coldest weather of much of the country is in for the season and snow. al roker is tracking it all. what can we expect >> reporter: savannah, winter is coming hard. tomorrow temperatures between 20 and 30 below average buffalo down to texas and on friday atlanta, memphis and louisville get involved and this storm system developing on thursday into friday

snow breaking out from the northeast all the way back into the midwest and by the time it's over friday night, new england is involved. we're talking about the possibility of some very heavy snow in interior new england savannah, we'll have more details tomorrow morning on "today." savannah. >> thank you. an urgent manhunt for two murder suspects after a jailbreak. authorities in california revealing details late today on a daring and brazen escape here is nbc's morgan chesky. >> reporter: tonight, a manhunt and a mystery. >> bol for escaped prisoner from county jail. >> reporter: how did two accused murders awaiting trial escape from this california jail? >> to the right with six windows, on the other side of the wall they worked on the escape. >> reporter: the manhunt for the 21-year-olds began sunday morning after they were discovered missing during a cell

check. >> subjects should be on foot wearing an orange and white jump suit. >> reporter: a space big enough to crawl outside the door. >> once they were able to compromise and get through the door, they were able to leave the monterey county jail and the grounds. >> reporter: authorities warning the community posting escape from monterrey county jail. both were in custody for murder. tonight, officials are searching for a duo they say is extremely dangerous. morgan chesky, nbc news. tonight, we're hearing firsthand from a milwaukee man attackring from a horrifying a stranger throwing battery acid in his face, and what officials here is nbc's miguel almaguer. >> reporter: the attack was ptrityamera. on the left says t man in the hood asked him why he invaded this country just before battery acid was thrown in his face. >> he was talking to me really

angry. really mad, back to your country, you come invade my horrifying attack. a stranger throwing country. >> reporter: he suffered second degree burns in what milwaukee officials are calling a hate crime. >> start screaming because that was burning really bad. >> reporter: he says he was first confronted by a white man about how he parked his truck outside a mexican restaurant and was then accused of being in the country illegally. police later arresting a 61-year-old suspect. >> there are people that are willing to hurt another one for no reason just for the color of skin or how you talk i'm a u.s. citizen caing the attack a hate crime. >> what i saw was horrific. >> reporter: fbi statistics note hate crimes are more frequent with a 17% increase in 2017, but tonight, he says he's more than milwaukee officials a number. >> it's happened a lot in america. that's not right we need to stop this. >> reporter: he says this is the face of a u.s. citizen, attacked

in his own country miguel almaguer, nbc news. there's a new warning about those voice assistant devices g. >> reporter: with the mayor calling the attack a hate crime. >> what i saw was like amazon alexa that so many of us have in our homes. it turns out they can be hacked quite easily and wait until you hear how nbc's jo ling kent explains. >> reporter: tonight, the smart speaker in your home may not be as secure as you think researchers discovering amazon's alexa, apple siri and google home can be hacked by laser pointers and flashlights. >> the light is impersonating the voice of a person. >> reporter: hacked quite easily and wait until you scientists from the university of michigan say by mimicking sound waves, they were able to hijack the voice controlled asanaragdoors and front doors linked to the smart speakers by shining a laser at the devices. waves, t to hijack the voice controlled assistance >> we need to be aware that these voice control assistants are not just listening to us. >> reporter: they can control a google home device from as far away as the length of a football field.

be able to pull this >> a smart teenager with $1,000 spare in their basement might be able to pull this off. >> reporter: researchers could obtain full control over major popular smart phone devices. 200 million are expected to be in use this year amazon and google did not deny the flaw, telling nbc news they prioritize security for users and reviewing the research apple declined to comment. >> if you have a smart speaker at home, what's the first thing you should do? >> first, move it away from the window look at the privacy settings and security settings and understand if there is ways to narrow the scope of what it collects, what it sends and the things that you can do with it. >> reporter: new security flaws making consumers think twice jo ling kent, nbc news, los angeles. there is now fallout afterf consensual relationship with an employee. one day after the ceo was ousted, ther the ceo of mcdonald's was fired after a consensual relationship with an employee one day after the ceo was

ousted, there is word that the fast food giant's human resources executive also left the company. this was a historic day for hundreds of inmates in oklahoma. non-violent offenders freed in what's believed to be the largest ever single-day prison story now. >> reporter: moving release in u.s. history. ron mott with the story now. >> reporter: moving day in oklahoma in more ways than one hundreds of state prisoners walking into loved one's arms today. for laurie scott, a day to behold. >> i don't want to never put him down. >> reporter: meeting her grandson jasper for the first time is there new hope you can make it this time >> yes, yes, god is not done yet. he dhe life. >> reporter: scott is just one of more than 400 inmates let out early. she served less than a year of a 12-year sentence for repeated drug possession violations, once

a felony here downgraded to a misdemeanor by oklahoma voters in 2016. until today, oklahoma had the nation's highest lockup rate with 1 in 100 residents confined at any given time. in all, more than 500 non-violent offenders had their sentences reduced. >> this is the first day of the us this opportunity to be able to go home to our families. >> just great. rest of your life. [ applause ] >> reporter: inmates were given help finding housing and jobs. >> i'm just so glad that the governor gave us this opun be le to go home to our families. >> just great. >> reporter: heading home from behind bars, eyeing a better future ron mott, nbc news, taft, oklahoma and now to an nbc news exclusive on a re-emerging threat while the president said that isis has been defeated, nbc news learned that the terrorist group found a safe haven in a lawless section of iraq. nbc's courtney reports from inside iraq. >> reporter: isis is far from defeated, instead rebuilding in

northern iraq. so isis basically has free reign to move along here. >> exactly, yeah. >> reporter: in 2014 isis controlled vast areas of land across syria and iraq with more than 34,000 square miles and 10 million people living under their control. this spring, they lost the last of their territory in syria focussing on iraq, general commands the kurdish unit that controls this area. general commands the >> they have some tunnels. they have some caves you can say the isis are there, they are living there and they are moving especially at night, they are free. >> reporter: isis is right here on the other side of that ridge. they come out mainly at night e other side of that ridge. they come out mainly at night but the peshmerga seen a but the peshmerga seen a recent surge of new foreign fighters, many coming across from syria. >> they will come out of that area at night, let's say, go down to a city, farm or village and shake them down. >> reporter: determined to survive and

destroy. just ahead for us tonight, the secret score tracking your purchasing habits way beyond your credit score and you won't believe what they are looking at. ter man falls onto the tracks, pulled to safety with in time to spare. and tainted food, our exclusive look at a potentially life-saving technology that can trace the source almost instantly. i hope you stay with us. ed to safety with in time to spare. and tainted food, our exclusive look at a potentially life-saving technology that can trace the source almost instantly. i hope you stay with us. that reduces the number of monthly migraine days. for some, that number can be cut in half or more. don't take aimovig if you're allergic to it. allergic reactions like rash or swelling can happen hours to days after use. common side effects include injection site reactions and constipation. aim to be there more. talk to your doctor about aimovig. oh, wow. you two are going to have such a great trip. thanks to you, we will. this is why voya helps reach today's goals... ...all while helping you to and through retirement. can you help with these?

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did you know you have a secret score companies tracking everything from merchandise returns to your takeout orders here is tom costello with what you need to know. >> reporter: think of everything you've ever done online or in a store, your personal information, shopping hands, travel destinations, merchandise returns, yelp reviews and takeout food orders. all of it tracked and sold more than a credit score, a kind of secret score on all of us when "new york times" reporter cashmere hill asked for her score, she got back 400 pages of activity.

>> i mea i jusdidn't know there would be this third party company that would have all of my airbnb messages and yelp orders and how often i'd opened an. >> reporter: nearly a dozen companies are in the data collection game selling mountains of information to businesses that want to know if a customer maybe a renter is trustworthy. san francisco based sift collects data and sells it to es thorough and looking at evidence to make the correct and accurate judgment. solving a crime scene being >> reporter: while aew cafornrnns with the

information collected on them, many already provide it if you ask. >> in today's world, you can't do anything online without a click pattern or some sort of record of your activity being tracked. >> reporter: a data miner's dream growing with every key stroke tom costello, nbc news, washington. coming up next for us, an exclusive look at a way to protect your family from food poisoning.

watch the incredible scene a man falls and pulled up by a transit employee who was in the right place at the right time. afterward their emotional embrace and that worker being hailed as a hero tonight. at least ten people have normally it can take weeks to find the source of contaminated food but john torres has a look at new technology than serious health problems.icansic food every year. more than 100,000 hospitalized. nation's most widespread and >> my view is one food-born illness is one too many. >> reporter: frank oversees food safety for the fda he blames an old-fashioned system that relies on paper invoices to track down the source of an outbreak. >> i'm envisioning an army of people going through papers that

leads them to one paper thatthe. six weeks to trace the source of contaminated romaine lettu now the fda pushing new technology so typicalny vegetables, how long does it take to trace them >> we're an industry leader and takes us almost seven days. >> reporter: walmart is testing ibm computer software to speed up the tracking process. >> i'm going to start with tracing these artichokes on here. >> reporter: show me the farms it came from. >> in a matter of seconds, we discovered this box of artichokes came from three farms in california and mexico a system like this, will it save lives? >> i have no doubt the ability to identify contaminated goods quickly is a life-saving measure. >> reporter: to keep our food supply safe.

dr. john torres, nbc news, silver spring maryland. a milestone in space with the sweet taste of home.

the international space station is not exactly known for home cooked meals but tonight a rocket with sweet cargo. here is gadi schwartz. >> 3, 2, 1 >> reporter: it's one small step for man, one giant leap for cookie kind. dd science experiments aboard thea these two scientists. >> spaces will become more delicious. >> reporter: their creation can be described as a high-tech easy bake oven. for years, most food is straight out of a freeze dried bag. from thanksgiving. >> we got everything from turkey to candied yams to stuffing. >> reporter: to pizza night because of pretty important missing ingredients.

>> i think about it. here on earth cookie dough is flour, sugar, eggs, maybe chocolate chips but turns out gravity is just as crucial. >> we have no idea how the cookies will bake updy kws. >> reporter: astronauts get ready to boldly gadi schwartz, nbc new earth. >> nice assignment that's "nightly news" for tonight. i'm savannah guthrie, see you tomorrow on "today."

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