NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Trump speaks with European leaders ahead of Putin meeting in Alaska; Deadly flooding and severe storms hammer parts of the U.S.; Trump announces he will host Kennedy Center Honors, hand-picked nominees; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, hours before that major summit, the president's warning to Vladimir Putin. President Trump warning of severe consequences if Russia doesn't end the war in Ukraine. As world leaders meet, President Zelenskyy warning Putin is bluffing. As Russia intensifies its assaults are Richard Engel on the ground in Ukraine tonight. Also, Chattanooga recovering from flash flooding, three feet of water drowning areas, rescuers loading people into rafts in the dark as a man helped save a driver stuck in water up to his neck. Now the new round hitting the northeast and the flood emergency in Alaska. Entertainer and Chief President Trump taking over the Kennedy Center honors announcing he's hosting

and that he personally selected this year's honorees including Kiss, Gloria Gaynor and Sylvester Stallone. The rash of armored truck heist, robbers carrying AR-15s going directly for bags of cash. In one case, stealing more than $2 million. Are they all connected? We take you inside underground cartel tunnels, big enough to traffic drugs and people, the crackdown, and the exclusive video we obtained showing a possible human trafficking operation. The young aviators stranded in Antarctica after a flight into history ended in an icy detour. This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. And good evening.

Tonight the countdown is on for that high-stakes summit in Anchorage, Alaska, between President Trump and Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, ahead of talks to end the three-year Russian invasion. Putin's army still pummeling Ukraine's front lines. President Trump joining a call today with European leaders and Ukrainian President Zelensky, who urged Trump not to be deceived by Putin or his demands. The president warning if Russia doesn't end the war they would face very severe consequences. though he didn't specify what they would be. It all begs the question how much can be accomplished in Alaska at this historic meeting.

We begin tonight with Richard Engle, who's in Ukraine, as the clashes continue. Russia has been intensifying its assaults on Ukraine. Ukrainians say it's an obvious and callous attempt by Russia to strengthen its hand before Friday's key summit between President Trump and Putin in Alaska. Today, President Trump listened to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies, who told him what they hope will come out of the Alaska meeting and what they hope to avoid. On the call, Zelensky, along with the leaders of France, the UK, NATO, Italy, Poland, Finland, and others said they advised President Trump not to make

any sweeping peace deal with Putin that changes Ukraine's borders without Ukraine in the room. Zelensky was not invited to Alaska. How were your calls this morning with European leaders, and was it your call not to invite President Zelensky to your meeting with Putin? No, just the opposite. No, no. We had a very good call. He was on the call. President Zelensky was on the call. I would rate it at 10. President Trump said another meeting could follow Friday's summit with Putin and didn't rule out Zelensky, joining that one. There's a very good chance that we're going to have a second meeting, which will be more productive than the first. Adding if Putin doesn't agree to end the war, there will be very severe consequences.

After more than three years of fighting, Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine. A peace deal could see Ukraine forced to surrender some or most of that territory. German Chancellor Frederick Mers said Ukraine is willing to make territorial concessions. He didn't say where or how much. We want the negotiations to proceed in the right order. A ceasefire must come first, he said. President Zelensky remains deeply skeptical. He said he told President Trump today that Putin is bluffing, playing for time,

and that he still wants to occupy all of Ukraine, even if he agrees to meet in the name of peace. Richard joins us tonight from Ukraine. You've been covering this war for three and a half years now, Richard. What's the feeling there tonight? Well, there's a lot of apprehension on many levels. I mean, just look behind me. I'm in the city of Nipro, which is a major city in central Ukraine. And the reason it's dark is not because there is a blackout.

Every night, people here turn off the lights. And they do that in many cities all across Ukraine because of the constant Russian drone attacks. People here desperately want a ceasefire. They want it right now, but they don't want to see President Trump and Vladimir Putin carve off 20% of the country. Richard Engel, back in Ukraine for us. Richard, we thank you. Now to the severe weather back here at home. impacting millions across the country, with storms hammering cities and flash flooding putting parts of the southeast underwater and taking a deadly turn.

We get details from Aaron Gilchrest. Tonight, punishing rain and deadly flooding for a second day in a row in parts of Tennessee and Georgia. Tennessee officials blaming severe flooding and saturated ground for four confirmed deaths, including a man in Chattanooga. Authorities say he was swept away by a swollen creek during Tuesday's storm. We did not expect, especially the gravity of what occurred, to hit us in such a short period of time. This incredible video capturing a man in neck high water, rescuing a woman from a submerged vehicle caught in flash flooding. Anderson Stout got stuck there too and captured the video. After it had happened, I like kind of came to and I was like, wow, that was serious.

Like, that was scary. The Chattanooga area saw just over six inches of rain on Tuesday marking its second wettest day ever. There were 25 to 30 cars that were broken down, not moving. Nobody was in it. I mean, it was surreal. Meanwhile, out west, wildfires still raging. Today, red flag warnings are in effect for 7 million, including people in Washington, Utah, and Colorado, as heat and winds pick up. And in Juneau, Alaska, residents are breathing a sigh of relief.

The Mendon Hall has crested, and it is starting to go down. The worst appears to be over in the capital city after record flooding related to the Mendenhall Glacier forced evacuations and school closures. Police say the barriers are holding with no significant water incidents. Back in northern Georgia, this week's powerful storms forcing nearly 100 people to evacuate their apartments, many by boat, leaving their lives turned upside down. You see, it's pretty bad. I mean, everything, it's total loss. And in the Northeast tonight, severe storms hammering cities with rain and forcing airport delays and cancellations. With that, Aaron Gilcrest joins us tonight from Chattanooga, and Aaron, the flood threat there isn't over just yet. You're absolutely right, Tom.

Let me show you something. This is the Chickamauga Creek. This is one that is about six feet higher than it's supposed to be. We're told by folks that live here, there is more rain possible for tonight. There is a flood warning in effect for this body of water, and there are thunderstorms in the forecast. yet again tomorrow. Tom? Aaron Gilcrest for us. Aaron, thank you. Let's head to Washington. President Trump today announcing he's putting his stamp

on another American cultural institution the Kennedy Center honors. The president says he'll host this year's event and handpicked the honorees this year. Here's Gabe Gutierrez. Already a near constant presence at wrestling matches and NFL games.

Tonight President Trump is expanding his role in American pop culture at the latest battleground of the culture war. We ended the woke political programming, and we're restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country. After naming himself chairman of the board earlier this year, President Trump is now declaring he'll lead the Kennedy Center's award ceremony in December. I've been asked to host.

I said, I'm the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you'll get much higher ratings. The Kennedy Center has been home to dazzling performances since the 70s. Today, President Trump announced this year's honorees, which he says he personally selected. I would say I was about 98% involved. I turned down plenty. They were too woke.

I had a couple of wokesters. The winners include rock legends Kiss. Disco Queen Gloria Gaynor. Blockbuster action hero Sylvester Stallone. Sly is a pillar of the really American pop culture and one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, the only one that's a bigger name of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump. The president also ordering a review of the Smithsonian's museum exhibitions, a White House letter stressing the iconic institution should ensure alignment

with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism and issue corrections where necessary. Critics say it amounts to rewriting history. It's downright Orwellian. It's something you'd see in an authoritarian regime. At the Kennedy Center tonight, portraits of the president, first lady, and vice president greet visitors, as the commander-in-chief reshapes much more than politics.

And in Congress, a Republican-sponsored bill proposes renaming the Kennedy Center. after President Trump. Tom. All right, Gabe, we thank you. Police in Pennsylvania are looking for the pair wanted. In an armored truck robbery, it happened in broad daylight in a shopping center, one of several recently in that area. Here's Aaron McLaughlin with that video.

Tonight, a brazen robbery caught on camera. You see an armed brings truck parked outside a supermarket near Philadelphia. The driver, who police asked us to blur this video, is quickly followed by two armed men. They pointed their firearms at the driver, ordered the driver to turn over their handgun. and then took the two bags of money. I think it was about 15 seconds total, start to finish. You see the suspects make a run for it. One armed with an AR-15-style firearm,

police saying the duo got away with two bags of cash believed to be worth more than $700,000. Seconds before the robbery happened, you can see a bystander walking into the store. The risk of violence to all the bystanders was very, very high. But also how easy it was? Correct, correct. Yeah, I mean, it was out in the open. There was really nothing to prevent that from occurring.

Tuesday's heist, the latest in a series, targeting armed trucks across Pennsylvania this summer, including this one back in June, where prosecutors say gunmen took off with more than $2 million after robbing another Brinks driver outside of a Home Depot. Tonight, they've announced three suspects arrested in that heist, one of them a former Brinks employee. Brinks directed all questions to law enforcement. Police say they're investigating whether any of these robberies are connected. It's really early investigation, so it's tough to say, but we're going to look at every angle possible to solve this. crime. Aaron McLaughlin, NBC News. All right, now to a trip around the world gone wrong. A 20-year-old

has been stranded in a remote part of Antarctica for nearly seven weeks after being accused of flying there without authorization. He spoke to our Liz Kreutz tonight. It started as a do-good mission. I'm attempting to become the first person ever to fly all some content solo. 20-year-old pilot and influencer, Ethan Guo, promoting his trip around the world while raising money for childhood cancer research. Along the way, I faced extreme weather, mechanical challenges, vast oceans, and isolation. But what he didn't predict, legal troubles and getting stranded for weeks in the remote Chilean Antarctic. After local authorities say he provided false flight plan data and flew to the continent in his single-engine Cessna illegally. I've maintained from the very beginning that I'm innocent.

In an interview with NBC News from the military base, where he's been for more than a month, quotes that he had planned to fly here in southern Argentina and then to Antarctica. but diverted to this airport because of mechanical issues and weather and that he got permission to land. What do you say to people who are looking at the map and it looks like you sort of bypassed Argentina and went straight to Antarctica? The options available in South America were not great options because it's pitch black and I don't have instruments. That means I cannot land at these airports safely because they're in the middle of these mountains. This week, a judge dropped charges against Guo in exchange for. him donating $30,000 to childhood cancer research and leaving as soon as weather conditions allow.

It's quite frankly insane, as in, they say I'm free. They say the plane is free, but they won't let me leave. They won't let me fly it out. And so, for now, he remains. Liz Kreutz, NBC News. All right, back here in the States to our rare access inside the dark, narrow tunnels under the southern border that cartels use to smuggle drugs into the U.S. Here's Borganski. Steps from the U.S. Mexico border, there's a hidden battle below. Coming down. We went underground with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for a closer look, and how they say they're hitting cartels where it hurts.

So we've made it about 20 feet down, but this is where this system really opens up, stretching back this way. We followed Agent Lance Lenore through a tunnel that CBP says was designed by smugglers, one of dozens intercepted by his team. When you get down in a tunnel like this one and you shine your life, and it just keeps going. I mean, what are you thinking? There's nothing that really surprises us too much anymore.

We found a bounce house blower, modified to pull in fresh air, and metal rails, allegedly used for moving large quantities of drugs. For every one of these tunnels that you cut off to a cartel, how hard is that hitting them? Oh, significantly, that's a year's worth of hard labor down the drain. And the profit from pushing drugs through? I would imagine that's pretty crushing to the people who actually constructed this. But with the border crackdown above, business below may be changing, with human smugglers trying to take advantage. Video obtained exclusively by NBC News shows an adult and child crossing through a tunnel big enough to walk through.

The message written in Chinese characters is clear. Get into the U.S. without getting caught. Another claims to show a different group of migrants running into the U.S. And these people sharing in Mandarin, the exact date they say they entered. Second, 2025. Neither NBC News nor CBP were able to verify the authenticity of these videos. CBP doesn't deny human smuggling is taking place underground, but the agency says it's not uncommon for smugglers to falsely advertise safe passage for profit. Back above ground, agents take us to an area between the border wall known as no man's land, where the tunnel team made their latest

discovery. Eight inch borehole in there, hit it dead center. First try. First try. A nearly 3,000 long-foot tunnel running 50 feet beneath where we stood. If the cartel had their way, this tunnel would have popped up? Yep. Where? Pick any warehouse in this area right here. And illicit empire worth billions, feeling a never-ending fight underground.

Morgan Chesky, NBC News. All right, and we're back in a moment with this truck barreling into a family's home. Look at this. Incredibly, no one was hurt. Nightly News, back in a moment. Welcome back. Take a look at this new video out of North Texas. A pickup truck crashes right into the living room of a home. The family of five inside at the time, feeling very lucky to be alive. They say the truck missed their bedrooms by a couple of feet. The driver who had outstanding warrants was arrested at the scene and charged with driving while intoxicated.

That's nightly news for this Wednesday. I'm Tom Yamas. Thanks so much for watching tonight. And always, we're here for you. Good night. Thank you.