NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Monday, April 20, 2026

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

Trump "unlikely" to extend ceasefire as deadline for deal approaches; Deadly shooting at Mexico pyramids; Close call in the air and bomb scares on board leave flyers on edge; and more on tonight’s broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight, the final hours of the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran and the confusion tonight. Will there even be talks to make a new deal? President Trump says J.D. Vance is ready to head to the negotiations, but Iran isn't committing as we get new video of a dramatic confrontation at sea. U.S. Marines seizing an Iranian flagship and the new polling tonight. The pressure the president may be under to end the conflict. global outrage after an Israeli soldier is seen smashing a statue of Jesus. Will he be held responsible?

Also breaking the cabinet secretary who just resigned amid an ongoing investigation. Deadly shooting at a popular tourist spot doesn't sent running for their lives as gunfire erupts at pyramids near Mexico City. The terrifying close call at Nashville's airport, two jets narrowly avoided colliding. plus the airplane bomb scares sending passengers scrambling down emergency slides. Shake up at one of America's biggest companies, Tim Cook, stepping down as CEO of Apple. So who is taking over? FBI director Cash Patel suing over a report accusing him of drinking excessively. Did his team almost have to knock down his doors because he wasn't responding?

Are these missing or dead scientists linked? Most of them work with NASA and nuclear research. Now the FBI is investigating. Our new reporting on Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico Ranch, Hallie Jackson on the ground there, as victims' families come face to face with the infamous site. Rodeo horse stampede chaos as horses trampled through a huge crowd, what set them off?

A violent dust-nado spinning across a baseball field, sending kids scrambling for cover. And there's good news, tonight the hero principal who took a bullet while tackling a school shooter, Crown Prom King, for saving countless lives. Nightly News starts right now. This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. And good evening. We begin tonight with the chaos and the confusion surrounding the U.S. Iran ceasefire. The true steel now in its final hours, and it's unclear of both sides will even meet to try to extend the peace. One major issue, the straight-of-hormuz, you see it right here, as Iran shuts the vital waterway back down.

The U.S. seizing an Iranian ship there saying it ignored this warning. Motor vessel, Tulsa, we're prepared to subject you to the sable and fire. And this is what happened next. Sailors firing at the ship. You see the smoke there, eventually taking out its engine, U.S. Marines then chopering to it, repelling onto the deck, taking control of that vessel. President Trump says Vice President J.D. Vance will head to Pakistan to meet with Iranian negotiators, but at this hour, Iran says it will not show up. So if there are no talks and there is no deal, what happens when the ceasefire deadline passes? Garrett Hake is at the White House asking those questions.

Tonight, just hours until the fragile two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire, President Trump saying in a new interview, he's, quote, highly unlikely to extend the truth. Maybe I won't extend it. But the blockade is going to remain. That blockade resulting in this dramatic confrontation in the Gulf of Oman. Between the U.S. Navy and an Iranian-flagged cargo ship under U.S. sanctions called the Tuscka, a U.S. destroyer sending this warning to the vessel for six hours. Motivasa Toska.

Vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room. We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire. And then, firing a deck gun to disable the vessel. which was then boarded and seized by U.S. Marines. Sentcom says 27 other ships have complied with orders to turn back. The U.S. blockade costing the Iranian regime an estimated $435 million per day. All of it happening after Iran reversed its own pledge to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by firing on two European ships Saturday.

But tonight, the prospect of peace talks in Pakistan remains uncertain. President Trump says Vice President Vance will lead a. U.S. delegation, while a top Iranian official says they won't negotiate under threat. We're talking to them. They wanted to close up the straight again, you know, as they've been doing for years, and they can't blackmail us. It comes as NBC News, new polling shows that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of Iran. Today, oil prices rose to around $89 a barrel, and stocks closed lower, with the NASDAQ snapping its 13. day streak of gains.

Garrett Hake joins us live from the White House, and Garrett, there's late word tonight of another shake-up inside the Trump cabinet? That's right, Tom. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Daremer, tonight becomes the third cabinet secretary to depart the administration in less than two months. Derrimer resigned today, saying she was going to the private sector, but she was also facing a misconduct investigation for which she was supposed to sit for an IG interview this week. Tom? All right, Garrett, thank you. Also in the Mideast tonight, outrage after an Israeli soldier appeared to have damaged a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer.

Molly Hunter joins us now, and Molly, the Israeli military is responding to that image? Tom, that's right. And this photo shows an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus after it has been torn off the cross. Now, the Israeli military says the photo is real, adding, the soldier's conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops. Now, here's a picture of the statue before it was desecrated in the crime. Christian village of Devil in southern Lebanon, and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, posting rare criticism of Israel, writing swift, severe, and public consequences are needed. And tonight, a State Department official and an Israeli official tell NBC News, a second round of direct ceasefire

talks between Israel and Lebanon. Tom, are expected on Thursday. No confirmation yet from the Lebanese side. Tom. Molly Hunter for us, Molly, thank you. In Mexico today, a gunman opened fire at a famous archaeological site that's very popular with tourists. One person was killed and several others injured. Priscilla Thompson tonight with the video as the shooting happened. Gunshots ringing out at a busy tourist site near Mexico City. People running frantically and jumping off the tail to Wakon Pyramids. As a barrage of bullets rained down. Now he's climbing up. Witnesses filming a man seen here pacing atop a pyramid, appearing to hold a gun. Oh, they're shooting at him.

The shooter fired multiple times, investigators say, killing a Canadian woman before turning the gun on himself. Six other people were injured. Authorities say they recovered a gun, bladed weapon, and live cartridges at the scene. Mexican President Claudia Shinebomb saying the attack deeply pains us, promising a thorough investigation. Officials say the popular tourism hotspot visited by more than a million people every year is now secure after a terrifying and deadly afternoon. Priscilla Thompson, NBC News.

And back here at home, we're learning about a new close call in the air. This one over Nashville. It comes after multiple bomb threats over the weekend created chaos in the skies. Sam Brock has this one. Tonight, jarring details about a near miss at Nashville's airport. I don't know why they did that help for 5-0-0-7. The confusion clear on air traffic control, which indicates controllers gave an arriving Southwest flight

permission to execute a go-around Saturday, aborting the landing and bringing it directly into the path of a departing Southwest plane. Pilots in both aircraft taking evasive action. The FAA says the crews responded to on-board alerts to avoid a collision course. Southwest says the arriving plane approached in gusty winds and landed uneventfully at the same time. Get away from the plane. A series of bomb scares, sewing chaos from Pittsburgh to Denver this weekend. Passengers scrambling through the cabin

and rushing to the wing sliding down to the ground, while another aircraft searched front to back. People in bulletproof vests and helmets. They opened all the overhead bins, and we're looking inside all the overhead bins. The latest incident, stopping a plane in its track Sunday night in Denver. The advice, we're currently on the phone with a bomb threat. These still images show the rush of late-night emergency crews as the FBI Denver said no dangerous materials were located on the aircraft.

I was terrifying the whole experience. They put us on buses and they didn't take us away from the plane. Just 24 hours earlier, this alarming mid-air warning came from a pilot on the United flight from Chicago to New York. We got an issue up here. We're getting a sequential D-D-spected item on board. There were no reported injuries. United saying only that the plane landed in Pittsburgh to a address a potential security concern. Scary moments in the sky there. Sam, Brock joins us now live in studio. So, Sam, let's go back to that near miss you mentioned in Nashville.

You said there were on-board alerts. What are they? Technology is the absolute last line of defense here, Tom, and it's saved the day. All of these planes are equipped with collision avoidance systems. If the proximity gets too dangerous, they're activated, that's what happened in this case, and the pilot was able to take action. Glad they worked. Okay, Sam, we thank you for that.

Now to that $250 million defamation suit, followed by the FBI director, over a report accusing him of excessive drinking. He dismissed it as a hit piece designed to drive him out of his job. Kelly O'Donnell has the late details. Tonight, a battle over reputation and reporting. You want to attack my character? Come at me. Bring it on.

I'll see you in court. Today, FBI director Cash Patel filed a defamation suit, seeking a staggering $250 million against the Atlantic Monthly Group. After its April 17th story, citing anonymous sources reported that bouts of excessive drinking and erratic behavior have put his job on the line. NBC News has not independently verified that reporting. The story claims on multiple occasions the director's security detail had difficulty waking Patel and states that a request was made late last year for breaching equipment to gain entry.

Patel's lawsuit calls that claim pure fantasy and states that breaching equipment. is provided to all FBI protection details. Patel had faced criticism for this moment when he partied with U.S. men's hockey winning Olympic gold. He responded that he was extremely humble to celebrate with the boys. The director's lawsuit alleges the Atlantic story contains false and obviously fabricated allegations and ignored the FBI's response before it was published, while the Atlantic says we stand by our reporting on Cash Petel.

Tom? Okay, Kelly, thank you. Now to a story that's erupted online and drawn the attention of President Trump. The FBI now says it is looking into whether cases involving several missing or dead American scientists are all connected. Here's Gabe Wittierrez. Retired Major General William Neal McCaslin was last seen in his home in New Mexico in late February. My husband is missing. Tonight, his case is at the center of swirling online conspiracies over the dead. or disappearances of at least 10 scientists that have caught the attention of the White House. I just left the meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff.

An FBI spokesperson now confirms the Bureau is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. So far, there's no evidence linking the cases, but among the disappearances fueling speculation online, Monica Reza, a former NASA scientist who vanished this past summer while hiking in California. and Alabama-based anti-gravity researcher Amy Catherine Eskridge, whose death in 2022 was ruled a suicide. Others have ties to nuclear research, aerospace programs, and classified projects. That's definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into. McCastlin's disappearance has drawn a lot of attention because at one point he worked inside an Air Force base in Ohio,

long rumored to house extraterrestrial debris despite repeated Air Force denials. and his wife wrote on Facebook, it seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him. Also today, the House Oversight Committee said it would conduct its own investigation, formally asking for a briefing from the Defense and Energy Departments, as well as NASA. Tom? Gabe Gutierrez with that strange case tonight, Gabe, we thank you. Now to the disturbing shooting in Louisiana, a father killing eight young children, most of them his own and a community now left devastated.

Ryan Chandler is there with new details about that shooter. Tonight, new details on gunman Shamar Elkins, who shot and killed seven of his children and their cousin. Say he may have shot them all. The shooter's brother-in-law, Troy Brown shocked. Telling NBC News, 31-year-old Elkins recently sought mental health treatment through veterans affairs. He stayed there a week and a half. He came home. He was happy.

Elkins left the Louisiana Army National Guard in 2020. after they say he served for seven years as a private. He loved his kids. He loved his wife. I just don't know what happened. You never know what a person's going through. The horrific act of violence happened inside this home early Sunday. The kids all between three and 11 years old. Authorities say the gunman also shot his wife and a woman believed to be his girlfriend before he fled in a stolen car. Home security video capturing the moments officers caught up to him and exchanged guns. fire. He was later pronounced dead. What is it like to return to this scene today? It's just unreal. I can't believe it. It is tragic what is going on and this has affected everyone.

Another urgent question tonight, how did Elkins have access to a firearm? Authorities say he was a convicted felon. Family members noting he was also going through a divorce. Tom. Ryan Chandler for us, when we return in 60 seconds inside Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico ramp, are Hallie Jackson with victims, families at the gates, her investigation to what happened there next. We're back now with our inside look at Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico Ranch where several women say they were sexually assaulted. It's never been searched by the feds,

but now the state is reigniting its investigation. Hallie Jackson reports from New Mexico. Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch stretched for miles. Its centerpiece, the enormous mansion he built, with its pool and library stables nearby. None of it searched by federal investigators after Epstein's 2019 arrest to the shock of Hector Baldaris.

At the time, New Mexico's Attorney General. Do you think the feds should have searched the ranch back in 19? Absolutely. By 2019, Balderas had opened a state investigation into the ranch, but says he was asked to stand down by the feds so they could build their case. We assumed, with their reputation for being aggressive, that they were going to be aggressive,

and then share that evidence with us. It was a very simple one-to-punch. And that's happened before in other cases? Absolutely. But it didn't happen here. It didn't happen here. Now, New Mexico is trying to make up for lost time, opening a new state investigation.

I think what bothers me the most, knowing the extent of what happened, why nothing was done. New Mexico lawmakers this spring also established a bipartisan commission to investigate Zorro after the release of the Justice Department's Epstein files. At this point, we don't have the full

story and what we understand is that most information was provided to the federal government and has not been provided back. The DOJ declined to comment on those specific materials but says they welcome New Mexico undertaking additional investigations of Zorro. And if those uncover potential federal crimes, they stand ready to work closely together to prosecute. Outside the ranch now, a memorial with signs, pictures, and crosses. This is the main driveway leading up to the ranch, but this is as far as were able to go. You can see the no trespassing signs that have been put up around the property. The ranch was purchased in 2023 by a Texas real estate developer who wants to turn it into a Christian retreat, renaming the road here, San Rafael, after the patron saint of healing.

I don't think that you could turn this space around with the horror that has happened here. We believe you. Amanda and Sky Roberts, the family of Virginia Roberts, Joufrey, who died by suicide last year. She's one of at least 10 girls or young women who say they were groomed or assaulted by Epstein at Zorro. We have to give survivors and victims of space to come forward and let them feel heard. This is their time. Hallie Jackson, NBC News, New Mexico. And when we return tonight, the singer David charged with murder by prosecutors say he killed a teenager. Plus a massive dust devil storm.

Look at that across a baseball field, sending players fleeing. That's next. Back now with that major shakeup at Apple, the company announcing CEO Tim Cook, who took the helm in 2011, is stepping aside in September. He'll be replaced by John Turnus, Apple's a senior vice president of hardware engineering. Cook will stay on as executive chairman. He took the reins from Steve Jobs, you remember, and helped grow Apple's dominance with the Apple Watch and with the AirPods. Also today, L.A. prosecutors charging the performer David with first-degree murder and more. It comes months after the body of teenagers, Celeste Rivas was found dead in the trunk of his Tesla.

David has pleaded not guilty. Now, the DA accused him of having a sexual relationship with Rivas and murdering her to protect his career. He could face the death penalty. And a South Carolina rodeo turned into mayhem over the weekend. Look at this. We see the fireworks going off and then suddenly horses stampeding through a huge crowd. Police say multiple people were trampled some badly injured. several others were arrested with some throwing beer cans and other objects at police officers.

And in North Carolina, a massive dust devil sweeping across the field of a youth baseball game. You see it here, the dust natal blows through the fence and spins across the diamond in Wake Forest, the huge funnel of dirt sending players, coaches, and the umpire scrambling for cover. Okay, when we come back here on nightly news, the principal who jumped into action to stop a gunman that walked into a school and the incredible way his students responded, crowning him, prom king. That's next. Finally, there's good news tonight. Last week, we told you about a hero principal who took down a gunman at his high school.

Well, this weekend, he was honored for his heroism at the prom. Watch this incredible moment at Palm's Valley High School in Oklahoma. That's the school's principal, Kirkland. more being crowned prom king. Students cheering and clapping all around him, celebrating the man they consider a hero. This is him earlier this month, tackling a former student who entered the school armed with a gun. Moore was shot in the leg, but still managed to subdue the gunman and has been credited with saving countless lives. I could not be more thankful for him. He really is just a savior for our little town.

Come on. That moment of bravery honored on the dance field. It was ecstatic in there. Like, we wouldn't, I'm so glad they did it that way. I don't think any of us would have had it any other way. He's just amazing person. He deserves, like, all the love and praise. This principal turned prom king, celebrated by his students,

forever grateful for his heroism. That's nightly news for this Monday. I'm Tom Yamas. Thanks so much for watching. Tonight, and always. We're here for you. Good night.