NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

A new wave of explosions sweeps Lebanon after deadly pager attacks; Sean 'Diddy' Combs denied bail again; NASA's 'Hidden Figures' honored; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the second wave of deadly explosions involving wireless devices targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. The new blasts across the country as a funeral was held for a Hezbollah member killed in the first wave of attacks. Another 14 people killed, 450 others injured on top of the thousands hurt. Tuesday, Israel saying its war effort has moved to a new phase. Did it booby trap those devices with tiny explosives? Also tonight, the Federal Reserve going big with its first interest rate cut in more than four years. What it means for your money. The race for the White House after both candidates courted the Teamsters,

the powerful union making a surprise move today, something it hasn't done in nearly 30 years. Harvey Weinstein back in court, seen for the first time since emergency heart surgery, the new sex crime charge he faces. Also back in court, Sean Diddy Combs, why a second judge denied bail in his sex trafficking case as his lawyer slammed his jail conditions as horrific. The accident on a children's field trip to an apple orchard, the wagon ride overturning dozens injured, and their story was immortalized in a hit movie. Today, the special honor on Capitol Hill for the hidden figures who helped America

land on the moon. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. For a second day in a row, a wave of explosions from booby-trapped wireless devices rock Lebanon, striking both fear and anger, and calls for revenge by Hezbollah, which blames Israel. The latest explosions, killing at least 14 and injuring hundreds. It follows yesterday's attacks in which pagers rigged with hidden explosives appeared to target Hezbollah members who were known to carry the devices. Two U.S. officials telling us they were made aware by Israel that it was going to do something,

but American officials say they had no details and were caught by surprise when the reports came out, denying involvement or knowledge in the operation. Today, simultaneous explosions were traced to walkie-talkies, the unprecedented attack striking at the heart of Hezbollah's communications network and recasting the nature of the Mideast conflict. Raf Sanchez reports from Israel. Tonight, a second wave of explosions tearing through Lebanon. Yesterday, it was pagers belonging to Hezbollah members.

Today, it's walkie-talkies detonating simultaneously, according to Lebanese state media. This blasted a funeral today for a Hezbollah member killed in yesterday's bombings. The Lebanese army blowing up one walkie-talkie in a controlled explosion outside a hospital in Beirut. The Iranian-backed militants unable to stop what U.S. officials tell NBC News is a vast Israeli covert operation targeting Hezbollah's personnel and its communications network. Lebanon's health ministry says at least 14 people were killed in today's blasts, on top of the 12 killed yesterday, two of them children. And hospitals struggling with an influx of more than 3,000 injured people. Doctors involved in treating the wounded in

the Pager attack say they saw many injuries to the face where people were looking directly at the device, as well as the side where it was clipped to a belt or in a pocket. Israel refusing to say if it was involved. But tonight, the defense minister says the war is moving to a new phase, with troops shifting from Gaza to the fight against Hezbollah on the Lebanon border, as Israel vows to make it safe for thousands of its civilians displaced by the fighting to finally return home. The New York Times, citing two officials, says Israeli agents planted tiny explosives inside the pagers, which detonated after receiving messages that appeared to be from Hezbollah

leadership. Many of the destroyed pagers bear the logo of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, but that firm says the specific model was made by a different company in Hungary. Hungary's government saying the company is an intermediary with no manufacturing or operational site. Meaning it's still not clear where in this shadowy supply chain these consumer devices were turned into deadly bombs. Former FBI official Clint Watt says this was a highly sophisticated attack. The key point of all of this is this was a very coordinated attack against a very specific target. It's not something to be easily undertaken just by an individual or just by random groups of criminals.

With Hezbollah now vowing revenge, Israeli forces on high alert after a chain of blasts that could be the sparks for all out war. And Raph, what are we to make from U.S. comments so far that they were aware that something was happening? Well, Lester, it's probably not a surprise that Israel wouldn't share the specifics of an operation this sensitive. Two U.S. officials tell NBC News they were aware Israel was planning something in Lebanon, but they were caught off guard when those pagers started exploding. And they stress the U.S. was not involved in this attack. Lester. All right. Raf Sanchez tonight. Thank you. We turn out of the long awaited move by the Federal Reserve, finally cutting its key interest

rate by half a point. It's the first cut since the covid pandemic and comes as the Fed has spent years trying to bring down inflation. Christine Romans now and what it means for your money. The Federal Reserve today delivering a jolt to the U.S. economy, a half percentage point cut to its benchmark rate as inflation is making progress toward the Fed's target of two percent. Fed Chair Jerome Powell today saying the economy is in good shape. It's growing at a solid pace. Inflation is coming down. The labor market is in a strong pace. We want to keep it there.

And Powell indicated rates are likely to come down further this year and next. The Fed's campaign to rein in inflation, which hit 9.1 percent in June 2022, drove borrowing costs for homes, cars, and credit cards to their highest levels in decades. For families like Ben and Haley Williams, the hope is lower rates will help the household budget. They have almost $11,000 in credit card debt, some with interest rates over 30%. We never had credit card debt prior to this. This was buying a house in Indiana last December with a mortgage rate of 8.1 percent. I know we maxed out our housing budget, but we kind of had to because anything under the $250,000 mark here was selling quickly or they were getting cash offers and we just couldn't compete with that.

Are you hoping that within the next couple of years, you'll be able to refinance then? Yeah. Yeah, that's the goal. They feel house poor. About half of their income goes toward their home. Only $176 went to principal last month. And so over $2,000 was interest in taxes and insurance. Mortgage rates were already falling in advance of the Fed's rate cut. the average 30-year fixed rate down nearly two points from last October. Also falling gas prices below $3 a gallon now in 16 states. Nationwide, a gallon a regular almost 70 cents cheaper than last year. And Christine joining us here in the studio. As you know, there was a lot of conversation. Would they go for a smaller cut? They went big. Was that a surprise? What do you

think the thinking was behind it? You know, Chair Powell said he sees inflation moving in the right direction. So the focus now is increasingly shifting to the strong job market. And the Fed is forecasting the unemployment rate to take up in the coming months. They just don't want that to get out of control. All right. Christine Romans, thank you. Now to the race for the White House after both Vice President Harris and former President Trump courted the Teamsters, the powerful union today making a surprise move, refusing to endorse either of them. It's something that hasn't happened since 1996. Here's Garrett Haig. Tonight, in a blow to Vice President Harris, the powerful Teamsters union announcing it will make no endorsement in the 2024 presidential race. Harris becoming the

first Democratic nominee not to win the backing of America's largest union in nearly three decades. The union releasing an internal poll showing 58 percent of its members support Trump, 31 percent back Harris. In a statement writing, it was, quote, left with few commitments on top Teamsters issues from either candidate and found no definitive support among members for either party's nominee. Mr. President, any reaction to the Teamsters decision not to endorse? No, they were. It's a great honor. They're not going to endorse the Democrats. That's a big thing. Big difference in those big industrial states, you think? Are you going to make a difference? I think it will. Yeah, I think so. The Teamsters carry a lot of weight.

Harris has won the backing of other labor groups, including the United Auto Workers. The Harris campaign saying, quote, Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor. It comes as we're seeing signs of new tighter security measures for Trump. The FBI director saying he's devoting the, quote, full force of the agency to investigate the two attempts on Trump's life within just two months. Trump overnight thanking Vice President Harris for calling him. Today, a little while ago, I got a very nice call from Kamala. It was very nice. Meanwhile, Harris, in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, blasting Trump's call for mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward. They have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How's that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?

And Garrett is here right now. Some good news for the vice president in terms of battleground polling. That's right, Lester. Quinnipiac putting out polls of those three blue wall states, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, all showing Harris with narrow margin of error leads. But holding those three states, which Joe Biden won in 2020, still her clearest, easiest path to victory. All right, Garrett, thank you. Also tonight, Harvey Weinstein appearing in court for the first time since undergoing emergency heart surgery last week. The former movie producer pleading not guilty to a new sex crime charge. We get more from Anne Thompson. More legal troubles for Harvey Weinstein tonight, already serving a 16-year sentence for a rape that occurred in Los Angeles. The one-time movie mogul returned to a New York courtroom today to face a new indictment.

Charged with a criminal sexual act in the first degree, accused of assaulting a woman at a New York hotel in the spring of 2006, the 72-year-old pleaded not guilty. Mr. Weinstein has been very consistent from the time of his investigation. He never forced himself on anybody. Weinstein will also be retried on the sex crimes, including rape he was convicted of in 2020. That guilty verdict, a landmark in the MeToo movement, was overturned this year. The state's highest court ruled it was wrong to allow women to testify about allegations against Weinstein that were not part of the case. Weinstein sat in a wheelchair with officers behind him. Just last week, he had emergency surgery to remove fluid from his heart and lungs.

Louise Godbold is one of at least 80 women to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault. Justice looks like him being in prison and not able to hurt any more people. Both sides will be back in court next month to argue if these charges should be tried together. Ann Thompson, NBC News, New York. And also back in court in New York today, Sean Diddy Combs, a judge denying bail again in his sex trafficking case. Chloe Melas is with us. Chloe, a major blow to the music mobile. It is. That's right, Lester. This is now the second time that Sean Combs has been denied bail in his federal sex trafficking case. In court, prosecutors arguing that Combs is a danger to the community, and they said that they feared Combs would intimidate witnesses if released on bail. Now, Combs' attorneys argued today that the Brooklyn jail where he is being

held, which once housed Michael Cohen and Ghislaine Maxwell, had horrific conditions that were not appropriate for a pretrial detention. But tonight, the judge was not persuaded. And now Combs will remain behind bars until trial, which is likely not to begin for at least a year. And if convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars. Lester. All right, Chloe, thank you. A terrible accident during a field trip to report to an apple orchard in Wisconsin. Authorities say a group of children and adults were on a wagon ride when one wagon lost control going downhill and abruptly overturned. Twenty five people were injured. At least one was airlifted, but no deaths are reported.

In just 60 seconds, U.S. intelligence sounding the alarm about foreign interference in the 2024 election. The stunning thing Iranian hackers allegedly did with material stolen from Donald Trump's campaign. Just in tonight, America's intelligence agencies revealing Iran hackers sent the Biden campaign material stolen from Trump campaign emails. It comes as top tech company officials were grilled about Iran and other countries' efforts to undermine the election on their platforms. Here's Ryan Nobles. Tonight, the Senate Intelligence Committee warning the overseas efforts to interfere with the 2024 election is already underway from Russia, Iran, China and others.

Other nation states who figured out that it's easy to spread misinformation and discrimination and try to interfere in elections. are using artificial intelligence to create web pages that mimic traditional news sites, pointing to one example falsely claiming there were three potential shooters in the assassination attempt to former President Trump in Pennsylvania. The main goal of these false posts, senators warn, is not to push for a particular candidate, but to sow dissension and raise doubt in the American political system. And they say the tech companies need to do more to stop it. You don't need to have a big, expensive operation to pursue some of this. I think we should anticipate that in the years to come, and it's happening already. The tech platforms argued they've made great strides in detecting false posts,

sometimes with the help of AI. Just this morning, we saw a Russian group put online an AI-enhanced video putting into Vice President Harris's words at a rally words she never spoke. That post was taken down. And late tonight, more evidence that Iran's efforts to interfere in the election continue. The FBI says they've discovered that Iran attempted to send stolen digital materials from the Trump campaign to the Biden campaign. But there's no evidence the Biden campaign used any of it. Lester. OK, Ryan, thank you. And with the spread of misinformation and disinformation top of mind, we're back in a moment with a new high tech way to fight conspiracy theories. Can an AI chatbot actually change people's opinions? We put it to the test.

Let's explore these concerns together. We have new reporting on the growing threat of conspiracy theories and the quest to debunk them. Our Hallie Jackson puts a new high-tech solution to the test. Conspiracy theories about everything from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to what really happened on January 6th. Persistent in politics and beyond. But now new tech may point toward a potential breakthrough. Meet DebunkBot, powered by OpenAI and created by researchers at MIT, Cornell and American, who say it can help reduce people's beliefs in conspiracies significantly. Let's go in that direction. We tried it out with one of the brains behind the

bot, Thomas Costello, with a conspiracy that decades of debunking hasn't eradicated. I believe the moon landing is not real. I don't believe that. I don't actually believe that. The bot asks us to elaborate on the belief. Why is the flag waving? And to rate how strongly we feel about it. I'm going to say 99% true. Then in a series of screens,

the chat bot presents facts, lots of them. How can you be sure that what it's telling me here is accurate? So absolutely. We found that it tends to be quite accurate. We hired a professional fact checker to go through some of the conversations in our study, a subset. And in 99.2% of cases that we looked at, the fact checker rated the AI's claims as true. At the end, we reassess how strongly we feel about the belief now. And it's here where researchers found something that surprised them. On average, people reduced their belief by about 20 percent.

And consistent across a wide range of conspiracies on topics from Princess Diana to vaccinations, they found one in four participants disavowed the belief altogether. I think if you gave the facts to a semi-competent lawyer, the lawyer would make a much more persuasive case than the AI does. It's just that the lawyer has to do all this background research and the AI can conjure it up in 12 seconds. But in reality, getting folks to engage at all could be tough. What makes you think that somebody who believes in a conspiracy theory is going to go on here and type it in so that their minds can be changed? Yeah, well, so I would say that a lot of conspiracy theorists end up being motivated by truth and accuracy. Going to a chatbot interface that

provides factual information seems like a good way to do that to me. Like most technology, it can cut both ways. You could imagine a version of this that spreads conspiracy theories. The DebunkBot team now working on refining the tech, hoping it helps shine a light down conspiratorial rabbit holes. We can use facts to open up the top of the rabbit hole to begin to crawl out. A belief worth further research. Hallie Jackson, NBC News, Washington. And when we come back, there's good news about the women who indeed helped NASA blast off into space and land on the moon. Now, decades later, they're getting high honors here on Earth.

Finally, there's good news tonight. A high-profile honor for the NASA heroes best known as the Hidden Figures. Here's Gabe Gutierrez. For decades, their names were in anonymity, though their contributions were out of this world. Their legacy will send us back to the moon. Today on Capitol Hill, a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the pioneering women of NASA from the 1930s to the 1970s, who helped launch the space race, including 82-year-old Dr. Christine Darden. Although we call them hidden figures, we shouldn't think of them merely as supporting characters

in the American story of space exploration. They were the engineers and mathematicians who actually wrote the story itself. Their story inspired a book, then... There's no mathematical formula for that. An Academy Award-winning movie, Hidden Figures. Among them, three trailblazers honored posthumously today. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson. To see the impact that she made on the world, I just wish she was here to see it.

Their work on the Apollo space program led to this. That's one small step for man. And as Johnson told us in 2016, John Glenn had even insisted she verify the computer's calculations before his first orbit around the earth. He knew that if I had done it, it was right. Tonight, her daughter is in awe. She would have said, what's all the fuss about? I was just doing my job. Because she was very humble, her work was important to her, and she did the best that she could. A generation of women, hidden no more. Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News, Washington.

And that is nightly news for this Wednesday. Thank you for watching. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night. We have a liftoff. 32 minutes past the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11.