Top Story with Tom Llamas - Friday, March 6, 2026

Episode Date: March 7, 2026

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Breaking tonight as we come on the air, a new wave of strikes pounding Iran as President Trump demands the country's unconditional surrender. And our new reporting, the president seriously considering ground troops. Explosions rocking Tehran sending smoke and debris, sky high, dozens of Israeli fighter jets destroying the late Ayatollah secret bunker. And the late reporting about possible boots on the ground, plus is Russia helping Iran? We'll explain. Also tonight, growing economic fears, oil prices spiking. a record rate as stocks plunge. Today, the CEO warning that airfares are about to go up. Right now, deadly twisters tearing across the country, this tornado shredding a building,

sending debris flying. Severe storms threatening millions from Texas to Michigan. Our reporter in the storm zone and Bill Carrance, tracking it all out, was a Wi-Fi jammer used on the night of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. The potential new clue as investigators asked neighbors if their internet was disrupted. Our experts standing by to explain how that tech works. Bodyguard beat down. The mayor of San Francisco's security team attacked in broad daylight. What happened next?

The wild emergency landing, a small plane landing on a busy highway, managing to avoid hitting any cars. And heartwarming homecoming, a father stranded in the Middle East, finally make it back to the U.S. to celebrate his son's first birthday. We'll show you his journey. Plus, our new reporting on the DOJ's plans to possibly bring charge. against the Cuban regime as President Trump warns Cuba is going to fall.

Top story starts right now. And good evening. We begin tonight with the fast-moving developments in the war with Iran. President Trump setting a new goal for the war and unconditional surrender by Iran. And our new reporting at this hour, in private conversations, the president is considering sending a small contingent of ground troops into Iran. Tonight, the U.S. and Israel unleashing an all-out assault. explosions like these erupting across the country. Israel releasing this video showing dozens of fighter jets

pounding the late Ayatollah's secret bunker. And the U.S. sharing the moment they decimated an Iranian drone carrier in the ocean. The conflict spilling into dozens of surrounding countries, Hezbollah forces under siege in Lebanon rocked by Israeli strikes, and this fiery scene in Kuwait after an explosion near an airbase. And here at home, U.S. crude oil prices topping $90 a barrel today, That's a 35% surge just this week. The biggest weekly jump ever recorded.

It's causing gas prices to skyrocket up 34 cents a gallon since the war began. And the stock market taking some major hits this week, the worst on Wall Street in a year, will break down what it all means for you. And another big question tonight. What role are Russia and China playing in this conflict? And could they be helping Iran? Our new reporting and military analysis in just a moment. But we begin tonight in Tel Aviv, where Richard Engel leads us off.

More waves of U.S. and Israeli military strikes against Iran tonight, including 50 Israeli fighter jets targeting a secret bunker under the late Ayatollah Khomeini's compound. The Israeli military says it was being used by Iranian officials. And U.S. forces destroying a large Iranian drone-carrying ship. The Pentagon says Iranian drone attacks have plummeted. President Trump posted there will be no deal with Iran. except unconditional surrender. As we have new reporting,

the president has privately expressed interest in the idea of a small contingent of U.S. troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes inside Iran, according to two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official, and another person with knowledge of the conversations. In a phone call with NBC's Garrett Haake, President Trump said he's not considering

a U.S. ground invasion of Iran at this time, dismissing it as a waste of time, saying they've lost everything. They've lost their Navy. They've lost everything they could lose. And the White House seems to be rubbing it in, posting memes overnight on X. You want to see me do it again? Mixing combat footage with action movie clips.

Several former senior U.S. military officials expressing outrage to NBC News, calling the posts undignified and disrespectful to everyone involved in the war. All as Iran is. still unleashing attacks. In Bahrain, the government says Iran struck a hotel and two residential buildings, no injuries. And the president of Azerbaijan is now threatening to respond to what he called an Iranian terror attack Thursday, drone strikes on an airport and near a school. While in Israel, high school volunteers this morning were cleaning up debris after this building

was hit. It's scary, but it's meaningful that we're here, that we're helping here and not sitting in our house without doing anything. Though Iran still has a major ally, Vladimir Putin. Russia is providing intelligence to Iran on the location of U.S. forces in the Middle East, which could help locate American targets to hit, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter. Tom pressing Iran's foreign minister about Russia on Thursday. And they're actively helping you in this war? Well, they have always helped us.

All as Americans stuck in the Middle East are returning home. The State Department sending in charter planes as several airports are resuming commercial flights. I booked like three flights trying to get out of Dubai. This one's stuck. And so I'm finally home. Richard Engel joins us tonight from Tel Aviv. So Richard, the White House now responding to our reporting on that potential small contingent of ground troops. So our reporting is that no decision has been made. And the White House responded in a statement saying the story is based on anonymous sources, assumptions from anonymous sources who are not part of the president's national security team and are not read into these discussions.

Richard Engel leading us off here on top story, Richard, thank you. We told you last time about those mass evacuations ordered in Beirut, Lebanon. Tonight, Israel bombarding the city, targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah. Embassy's Danielle Hamamjan is on the ground there. once again for us tonight. Tonight, devastating explosions in a Beirut suburb. As Israel targets Hezbollah, a paramilitary group backed by Iran, the U.S. labels a terror organization. So we are getting a first-hand look of the aftermath of one of the Israeli strikes on Beirut.

It's in a densely populated area as part of a bombing campaign that is for now only escalating. Half a million people already uprooted across the country of just six million trying to escape the violence, fleeing Hezbollah strongholds in the southern suburbs, seeking refuge in central Beirut, with not much more than the clothes on their back. Israeli forces send out evacuation alerts online, with no timeline before a strike.

A moment captured by Leila Sharul, who has 30 displaced relatives now crammed into her three-bedroom home. We met Leila and her granddaughter in central Beirut. When, when, when we finish, when? We want that. You want peace? Of course. Of course we want peace.

The new round of clashes began earlier this week when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, following the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Now the fighting is intensifying far beyond the capital to southern Lebanon. And their growing fears this war will drag on no matter what happens in Iran. Danielle joins us now live from Beirut, Lebanon. Daniel, you heard explosions earlier. I understand you're seeing some tracer fire maybe tonight as well. Yeah, I don't know if you can hear it, but we certainly can.

That's the sound of gunfire behind us, possibly warning that strikes could be coming soon. The IDF, meanwhile, Tom, has said today that they have struck 500 targets across Lebanon this week, among them command centers and weapons depots. And I'm also told now there is more tracer. fire behind me. Again, also possibly a warning that strikes could be incoming. Okay, Danielle, you and your team, please get to safety. We thank you for your report. Back here at home, the impact from the war with Iran is taking a toll across markets and at the gas pump. We've now officially hit the biggest rise in oil prices in a single week ever.

NBC's Christine Romans has that part of the story. One week into the United States war with Iran and the cost to the average American is skyrocketing. U.S. crude oil prices topping $90 a barrel today, surging 35% this week, the biggest weekly jump on record. Gas prices up $0.34 a gallon since the war began. Drivers feeling it across the country. I don't even want to fill it up because I know it's probably going to be in the 90s. Markets today down again, the Dow Jones Industrial average above $50,000 just one month ago, now down more than 3,000 points since it's high.

And more pain is expected. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby today telling CNBC that higher airfares because of fuel prices will, quote, probably start quick. The Trump administration asking for patience. Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the surge in prices will be short-lived. Yeah, I think it's of order weeks. I would say in the worst case, but it's weeks, not months. For now, the critical straight of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world's oil moves through, is practically. practically empty. This animation showing how active the strait was before the war and what it looked like today. Ships anchored outside the strait refusing to pass through. Also today, a shocking jobs report showing a loss of 92,000 jobs in February. Unemployment ticking up to 4.4%. All right. And with that, Christine, I'm going to join us now here at the Big Board. Christine, what steps is the administration taking

to try to sort of quell those high gas prices? Yeah, they're trying to clear all this up, this rate of Hormuz and get some ships going through there again. And they're saying they'll offer some risk insurance that could take some time to get that through there. Maybe having the Navy accompanied ship, that again, we have to wait to see how that pans out. And also in the near term here, actually allowing some sanctioned Russian oil, Tom, to be sold to India to get some oil moving on the market. And that's a big deal because the U.S. policy is changing with Ukraine and Russia because of the war now with Iran. They were trying to strangle Russia by not letting it sell oil. Now they're going to let it sell oil back to India. That's how they make money. That's how they fuel the

war in the Ukraine. I do want to ask you, because this is sort of a domino effect, right, with the oil prices, because it's oil prices, cost of living goes up, trade is hard. Explain to our viewers. So this is the trade route that is now not moving so that oil is not going through there. Now you're having oil prices rising so quickly, as you pointed out, the biggest one-week jump in oil prices. That sent the stock market down on all these worries about inflation and a new inflation shock. And so the stock market down big. These inflation fears feeding into what's the Fed going to do next. We had a jobs report today that wasn't good, as I just reported to you.

Will the Federal Reserve maybe have to cut rates to support it? But can they cut rates if you've got high oil prices and inflation? And what does that mean for confidence for small businesses, costs for small businesses, and for consumers? Consumers had been tolerating other affordability problems because gas prices for falling. Now those gas prices aren't falling anymore. All right. Christine Romance, thanks for explaining that. Also tonight we're learning more about wartime.

between Iran and one of its only allies, Russia. As we just mentioned, Russia is feeding intelligence to Iran to help win this war. And just today, state media in both countries reporting that Vladimir Putin called the Iranian president, though the specifics of what they discussed, have not been disclosed. Here to break down the impact, senior national security correspondent, Courtney Kubey. So, Courtney, we know Russia is providing intel to Iran. What do we know about what they're sharing? And could it prolong this war? Yeah, so at this point, officials do not believe that they're providing actual targeting information. So they're not helping Russia to target on U.S. ships or U.S. personnel or U.S. aircraft.

But they are providing them with some sort of intelligence that could, as you said, help them in this conflict. It could be things just as simple as open source satellite imagery, but even that could help Iran in this war with the United States and Israel. And then Russia is now five years deep into a war with Ukraine. What do they have to gain by getting it? involved with Iran here, or is this sort of maybe payback for the U.S. assisting in different ways Ukraine? It could be payback. It also could be the fact that Iran has been helping Russia with the war in Ukraine by providing them with drones. It could also be just an effort to sow additional chaos throughout the region, which we have seen Russia do before, where they are trying to inflict chaos

on potential adversaries, frankly, like the United States. And then finally, the other major ally for Iran is China. The Iranian foreign minister told me yesterday that China is also helping the regime. What military assets, intelligence, or otherwise could China be giving Iran? So far, it seems as if China is not really interested in jumping in. But if we look at how they've supported other allies recently, they could do things like provide them with additional money, financial assistance, they could provide spare parts and things. So non-lethal aid that would help Iran with this war, but that way China couldn't be accused of actually helping Iran to fight or to win the war. We've already seen them do that with Russia and Ukraine, Tom. Okay, Courtney

Kubey, a lot of new reporting tonight. Courtney, we thank you. I want to pick up right where we left off there and the idea that the world is watching this conflict, maybe even our enemies, especially China. Our NBC News, military analyst, Colonel Steve Warren, joins us now live. So, Colonel, if China's just sort of watching this from Beijing, what can they learn from what they've seen so far in our attacks on Iran? Well, certainly any time the military operates, anyone who could see is collecting intelligence, right? So the Chinese are beginning to learn how do we respond to missiles, how do we respond to drones? How rapidly are we able to conduct the types of attacks that we're conducting? So they're continuously collecting and they're continuously learning.

Does this put us on, I don't want to say a back foot, but do we sort of explain? what we have on the battlefield? Well, we do expose a little bit of what we have. Now, of course, the U.S. military has a lot of practice protecting our own information. And we've done this against the Russians during the entire Cold War. Of course, we fought a 20-year-long war

in the Middle East with the Russians and the Chinese looking at us. So we know how to protect our own information very well, but inevitably, some of it will get out. We know that we've said multiple times that the U.S. has said this multiple times that our resources are not depleted. but from the sheer volume of attacks, is that true?

Yeah. So generally speaking, and I think the most important thing for viewers to understand is that the United States military will not run out of ammunition. Some of our most high-end, what we sometimes call exquisite munitions, the very sophisticated, long-range types of stealthy things, some of those things are beginning to run down. But we always have backups. We have a second backup, a third backup, and a fourth backup.

What I like to say is, you know, if we can't shoot you with this gun, we'll shoot you with that. When we talk about the military being prepared, nobody wants war, right? Sometimes wars are inevitable, and the commander-in-chief has made a decision in Iran. Is there any benefit for the military to stay active in situations because you are testing out new weapons, you are testing out military strategy? I don't know if that philosophy exists in the military, but I was curious about it. To some extent it does. We have already seen in this conflict an F-35 conduct its first dogfight. The first use of our Lucas drones, these low-cost, rapidly generated drones.

And we've also seen the first shot of a PRSM, a long-range rocket artillery missile. So this is an opportunity, quite frankly, for the military to exercise some of its newest equipment and for our troops to stay battle-hardened. Okay, Colonel, always great to talk to you. We thank you for that. Still ahead tonight on this fine broadcast. More on the widening war with Iran and a closer look at the attack on an elementary school packed with children. Did U.S. forces carry out the lethal strike? Plus, deadly tornadoes slamming the country right now, ripping a part of building, sending debris flying through the air, the path of destruction and where they're heading.

And potential new clues in the search for Nancy Guthrie, why investigators are now asking neighbors whether they had internet issues the night she went missing. Stay with us. We're back now with some breaking news, violent and destructive tornadoes ripping across the country this hour. Take a look at this monster twister plowing past a lake in Union City, Michigan, tossing up a ton of debris. A terrifying video of debris whipping past this parking lock, cars nearly lifted in those intense winds. Also right now, we're getting a first look at the damage. This image just in, homes reduced to piles of debris. You can see people in the distance trying to survey the damage. George releases in the storm zone with the latest for us tonight.

Tonight, debris flying through the air as tornadoes, flooding, and volatile, weather are on the move. In Michigan, a path of destruction. Buildings completely destroyed. This store, now a shell of what it once was. Watch as strong winds rip the roof off this building. The relentless weather, creating dangerous conditions for travelers, this car driving in zero visibility. In Indiana, floodwaters swallowing up this big rig and leaving these trucks stranded with water surrounding them on all sides. At least seven suspected tornadoes roaring across Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, where one claimed the lives of Jody Owens and her teen daughter, Lexi. Their family tells me they were trying to get home when conditions quickly deteriorated. Jody was on the phone, warning her other children to take cover. In her last moments, she was calling her family to let them know to get to find shelter for this tornado. And the last words that were heard were her trying to help other.

Officials say their vehicle was swept hundreds of yards off the road. Some of my biggest regrets in this moment is not reaching out more. It's not letting her know how much she meant to me. Many small towns across America's heartland seeing big damage. The wind's strong and severe enough to break power poles and stretch power lines like these across roadways for miles. The destruction is widespread with the threat of more severe weather. more severe weather far from over. That threat of tornado is very real, as you can hear by the siren.

And across the plains, that threat continues for some 32 million people. That number actually goes up tomorrow to about 37 million people all the way from Texas to the Great Lays. So the threat is far from over. Tom? We see that dangerous weather right behind you. We can hear those sirens. Thank you, George. I want to get right to meteorologist Bill Carrens.

Bill, this video is absolutely terrifying. What do we know about this twister because it's a monster? Yeah, so early in the season. So this is Southern Michigan. So this is Union Lake. It has ice on it. There's still ice covered on this. And you can see multiple varticities.

You're seeing homes that are just tore apart. You're also watching history in Michigan because this is easily the strongest tornado this early in the year that Michigan has ever experienced. We know from drone footage that there are numerous homes, over a dozen, maybe two dozen, three dozen, that just no longer exist. There's other video we're seeing here.

This is from that same tornado, earlier as it went through the Three Rivers area. This is the Menards. It's like a Home Depot type store that the roof was torn off of. And we don't even know yet, you know, exactly how many injuries are from that one. But when we showed you that video of the lake and the homes being destroyed on the other side of the lake, we know from the sheriff that we have fatalities. We do not yet know how many. But that area, there's at least a dozen people, maybe more, that no longer have a house. Yeah. And it's not. It's terrible. This violent system's moving across right now. Track out the rest of the nine.

and the weekend for us. We just heard those sirens in George's live shot. Yeah, and this is still just the beginning. So George is located here near the Tulsa area. And Tulsa, by the way, is under a tornado warning, a new tornado warning just south of Interstate 44. So in Tulsa, everyone is in their shelters, sirens are going off. If we have a tornado, it's on the west side of town. You notice this purple here and you see this little hook. That would be where we have the possible tornado. Other areas are still at risk later tonight. From Omaha to Kansas City, all the way back down, the Springfield, Missouri, including Oklahoma, to Dallas. All those areas are under tornado watches for the rest of this evening.

Conditions will be favorable for isolated, strong tornadoes, just like we've seen last night and just like we showed you earlier today. We do south of Chicago, we have some strong thunderstorms, not tornadic, but we're just worried about more lightning and wind damage. And then tomorrow we're not done. Another 37 million people at risk areas from Pittsburgh to West Virginia, Ohio, and then this large area between Dallas heading toward Houston and all through the southeast. So kind of a three-day outbreak. here and just seeing this strong of tornadoes so early in our tornado season. And this is just the beginning. Yeah. And right as we're getting into spring there, I'm also seeing that hail

somewhere in the forecast as well. Is that all up and down as well? Is that certain parts? Yeah. So the tornadoes will be more isolated with the strongest of these storms we easily, especially tomorrow, could get some very large hail, you know, type of hail that would just put dense in hoods and, you know, shatter windshields as possible. We call it up to like, you know, baseball-sized hail. That'll be possible with these storms too, Tom. So, you know, it's not. Tornadoes always get the headlines because of the amazing footage, but they actually hail monetarily-wise. Does more problems than anything. It'll take out your car. All right, we thank you for that. Coming up, the shocking scene out of San Francisco, the mayor's security team attacked while on

the job. What happened? Plus, the remarkable highway landing, a small plane touching down in the middle of a busy road, will show you that video ahead on Top Story. We're back tonight with our NBC News investigation. It may be the most horrific incident of the war, a strike on an Iranian elementary school. No one has claimed responsibility in the Pentagon says it's investigating, but we have new reporting tonight suggesting the U.S. may be behind the attack. NBC's Molly Hunter has the details. Tonight, it looks increasingly likely that a U.S. munition was responsible for striking an Iranian elementary school, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the preliminary findings of the U.S. investigation. Iranian officials say the strikes

killed more than 170 people, mostly children. Until NBC News, the U.S. is still looking into whether the strike could have been the result of bad intelligence or poor targeting. NBC News has geolocated and verified a new satellite image that shows at least seven impacts, direct hits on the school and a medical clinic on the same compound. In the first hours of U.S. Israeli operations Saturday morning, airstriks hit the Shahri Taibe Elementary School in Manab, Iran. NBC News spoke with a mother on the phone who said her seven-year-old son, So hell, was killed in the strikes.

By the time we arrived, she said, the entire school had collapsed on top of the children. People were pulling out children's arms and legs. The school was built by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on a compound once home to a military base, but multiple people on the ground, including a former principal tell NBC News it hadn't been an active military base in more than a decade. Weapons expert Jeffrey Lewis says the satellite imagery shows the strikes were deliberate. When you look at these buildings that have been destroyed, do they look targeted to you? The buildings on site were targeted individually and with incredible precision.

Also tonight, Human Rights Watch concludes the weapons used were highly accurate guided munitions. The Pentagon says it's investigating. And at a briefing this week, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Cain pointed to the area where the school is located, a strike symbol near the city of Manab. Now, down the road from the school, rows and rows of tiny graves, and no official claim of responsibility. Molly Hunter, NBC News.

Okay, back here at home now to the new clues in the search for Nancy Guthrie. Investigators now asking neighbors if they had issues with their internet the night she went missing, suggesting they may be looking into whether the suspect used a high-tech device known as a Wi-Fi camera to scramble security cameras. Liz Croyd's reports.

Tonight in the search for new clues, several of Nancy Guthrie's neighbors tell NBC News, investigators return this week asking them about any potential internet issues the night of Nancy's disappearance. The homeowners say the agents told them several neighbors mentioned glitches with their internet that night. One of those neighbors tells us when they checked on their ring cameras, this one here, the one closest to Nancy's property, said not available during the overnight hours of the abduction. Here in their backyard, you can actually see Nancy's home. It's that brick house there. Experts tell us it would likely take a professional grade Wi-Fi jammer to knock out Internet all the way to the back of this property.

Here's the jammer. Turn it, hold it up here. You turn it on. Security Tech Consultant Ted Neerhouse showed us how a Wi-Fi jammer can interfere with internet signal and home surveillance cameras. And you will see it go out. So that's what it looks like. It'll say not available or something along those lines. But Neerhouse says he's skeptical a Wi-Fi jammer was used in.

Nancy's abduction. If they turned that thing on when they pulled up, you'd never have any video on any camera. So that's why I don't think anything was jammed. Some online sluice have pointed out it appears there could be something in the suspect's pocket. We asked the sheriff about that earlier this week. Did he have a Wi-Fi jammer, a walkie-talkie? Have you been able to figure? I've not looked at it that closely. But yeah, I know that my team has looked at it with the FBI, every angle. And Tom, neither the FBI nor the sheriff's department have commented on any potential internet issue in the neighborhood. They also haven't said why investigators are asking neighbors

this line of questioning. NBC News has also reached out to ring. We have not heard back. And separately, two of the homeowners we talked to say that the agents yesterday again asked them about video from January 11th in addition to video footage from the night of the abduction. Authorities have still not said why they continue to be interested in that January. 11th date. Tom. Okay, Liz, Quartz for us. Liz, thank you. I want to bring in our panel on this tonight. Guy Cohen is a cyber security expert and founder of Los Angeles-based home security company Secure at Homes. And Chip Macy is a former FBI special agent and hostage negotiator. Thank you both for being here. Guy, I want to start with you. We touched on this briefly in Liz's

report, but right down for our viewers, how exactly Wi-Fi Jammers work and how criminals use them to break into homes. So essentially, thank you for having me on. Essentially, the way Wi-Fi Jammers work. They disrupt the signals in the air between the router and the device that is using the Wi-Fi signal, and it creates enough noise to where the device cannot differentiate between the legitimate signal and the signal that is disrupting the air. How widespread are these? They're very common. Anyone can go online and do a simple Google search and purchase one. They come from overseas, and unfortunately, they slip through the cracks of our postal system, and people can get them pretty easily for a few hundred dollars. Yeah, I want to show a couple of Wi-Fi

Jammers here. What would the range on each of these be? You can see your screen now. And just how easy. You mentioned people get them from China, but they are illegal. Absolutely, they're illegal. The one on the right with the antennas, that's about a 6 to 10-watt jammer. That's good for about 40 meters or so. The one on the left, the CM3, that's about a 2-4-watt jammer. That's good for maybe 30 feet, 50 feet. feet at most. So the one on the right could potentially take out a house and the house next to it. The one on the left can only take out a single house. And then let's take another look, if you can, of the image from Liz Kreutz's report showing the suspect's pocket. Guy, does this look like

an antenna of a Wi-Fi jammer to you? I know it's tough to tell. What do you think? It's hard to tell. It looks like a wire. It's really tough to tell. I don't want to speculate on that. It's hard for me to tell. These Wi-Fi jammers, do they screw up alarm systems as well? So there's different antennas that you can incorporate onto a jammer that can then take out all kinds of levels, 900, 800, 800, 400, 500, and then you get into the Wi-Fi bandwidth, the 2.4 gigs, the 5 gigs. So depending on how you configure the jammer when you purchase it, it can disrupt different

things that are Wi-Fi-based or radio frequency-based. Chip, does this look like the work of a jammer to you? You know, it's hard to say. But one thing we do know is that they're asking questions about that day, right? And they're asking questions about the neighbors. And the neighbors are saying, yeah, there's got knocked out. Not available, right? So what I love about this is that the agents are going forth and they're asking these questions.

And they're asking people to remember something. Hey, on January 11th, did you see anything suspicious? And that's the kind of thing that we want people to start to do. That's several weeks before Nancy disappears. Do you have any sort of theories on why it was so early? You know, that's one of the things is that if, in fact, this guy was scouting, if he was looking for different areas, like that jammer signal, let's say that's in effect, that's going to give us a digital footprint. We're going to be able now to go back and see where was it activated. What other areas could he have been? Was he at a gas station? Did somebody see him there? Was the car related to that? All kinds of things are coming together. Guy, in your experience, if this person has a Wi-Fi jammer,

could we have gotten the images off that camera? So that's the question. Is her doorbell hardwired to the Internet, or is it Wi-Fi-based? If it's Wi-Fi-based, then the chance that he was using a jammer is slim because we wouldn't have had this footage. So it all depends on how her doorbell camera is wired. Oh, that's a good question. And I think, you know, it looked like it was ripped out of the wall at some point.

It was obviously not there anymore when they were showing images of the front. there. Chip, you know, going back to them questioning the neighbors and going back and seeing, hey, January 11th, it's now been more than a month, right? It's been so far. We're probably closer to March 11th. We're on February 11th. What does this tell you? I mean, can you sort of get memories back and you get data back from those dates? Yeah, this is, again, a great thing, because it's forcing investigators, not that they need any reason to, but it's getting them back in the neighborhoods, asking about that specific date. Like if I asked you, hey, what, anything happened last week, you'd come up with something, but if I ask you a specific January 11th at 1.30 a.m.,

do you, anything weird, that's going to produce a recall, a signal that someone is going to pull forward in a way like we call forensic listening. More than a month later, going back and now asking these questions, I mean, Wi-Fi Jammers have been around for a while. That is not something new. What do you think about that? Yeah. So bad guys use bad things all the time, right?

So if this guy has a jammer, he's also leaving a digital footprint wherever he activated that. And that's going to give us information. Guy, if you buy these jammers online, is there a way to trace the bad guys or not really? I mean, they're coming from overseas and we're not going to find them. Yeah, at best, I think the authorities can locate the person who purchased it and then go after them if there's some kind of digital footprint with the shipping. But I'm saying if you're buying this overseas and it's coming there, how do you even figure out? out who bought what? I mean, you're right.

How are you going to trace it all the way back to China and find out who's selling it? But I think their best case is trying to locate the people here. We're receiving them. Yeah. And then, Guy, this is pretty widespread. A lot of people, bad guys are getting news? I mean, we see it almost daily. We go to about 10 burglaries a day in the Los Angeles area as a company.

And I would say it's pretty prevalent. Most of our clients are affected by jammers on a daily basis. Wow. All right. Guy, great to talk to you. Chip. Always a pleasure to see you. We thank you.

at Top Story's news feed and we start with an update on Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez. He's announced he's dropping his re-election campaign after admitting to having an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzalez has faced growing pressure from his colleagues, including Republican leaders, in the House. He says he plans to serve out the rest of his term in Congress. Really crazy video to San Francisco of two men fighting with officers assigned to the mayor's security detail. Here you can see the mayor walking away as the attacker goes down on the pavement with the bodyguard. Police say the officers were injured

and that two suspects were arrested. And remarkable new video just into our newsroom tonight showing a small plane making an emergency landing in the middle of a road in Florida. Authorities in Jupiter confirmed the incident. The plane doesn't appear to hit any cars as it touches down on the highway. It's unclear if anyone was hurt.

And thousands gathered in Chicago today for the funeral of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Several prominent religious and political leaders attended the service, including former President Biden, Obama, and Clinton, who all spoke about Jackson's life and lasting impact. He was a protege of Martin Luther King Jr. and a two-time presidential candidate. Jackson died last month. He was 84. Okay, coming up on top story tonight, is Cuba on the verge of collapse? The new warning tonight from President Trump. Plus the rise and fall of Christy Nome, what we're learning about her firing, and the apparent missteps that may have

sealed her fate. That's next. We're back down closely watching the situation with Cuba. President Trump ramping up his pressure campaign. Telling CNN in a phone interview this morning, Cuba is going to fall pretty soon, adding they want to make a deal so badly. I want to get right to NBC News Justice reporter Ryan Riley, who has new reporting tonight. Ryan, it sounds like the way to Cuba, maybe through the Justice Department for the Trump administration. Explain this to our viewers. Yeah, so what's really fascinating here is sort of the intertwining between the Justice Department and potential military action.

here. Typically, you see those two things separated. But in this instance, what the Justice Department, according to our reporting, is exploring is whether or not there are any viable criminal charges to bring against either members of the regime or the Communist Party over there. And so that would essentially bring these two issues together, and whether or not you would use a justification from pending criminal charges to be involved in some sort of military action would be something that, you know, a lot of people within the Justice Department and have some little bit of concerns about whether that's bringing those two entities too close together. The indictment of Nicolas Maduro and of his wife and of his son, really, too, because they were all mentioned,

really, it reads like a movie script because it talks about drug deals, it talks about interactions, it talks about meeting points. Is the same thing happening in Cuba? Because Venezuela and Cuba are a little bit different when it comes to sort of the issues of drug trafficking. Are there other sort of crimes they could be looking at when it comes to Cuba. Yeah, Tom, that's such a great point because I think with Venezuela, what you had is what a pre-existing indictment. So that criminal case predated anything. It was already sort of in the works.

And then they went about and took that military action to take him into custody for the purposes of prosecuting him in the United States. So that was a unique moment in American history to begin with. But when you're talking about, you know, targeting an entity, that's not traditionally what the Justice Department does, right? They focus on crimes. They're supposed to focus on crimes and not necessarily focus on any. You're not supposed to find the man and then find the charge.

You're supposed to find the crime and then arrest the man who committed said crime. So that is sort of what you're talking about here. And when you have sort of an open-ended investigation looking for various charges, that raises some concerns within the Justice Department community about whether that's, you know, a proper use of their authority. You know, there was a shooting down of three brothers to the rescue airplanes. I think this is going back maybe 30 years now. That indictment is being brought back by some of the, the congressmen, from South Florida. Do we think that could be tied in when those Cuban fighter jets shot down those brothers to the rescue planes, which essentially were planes that were dropping water and food

during the rafter crisis in South Florida and Cuba back in the 90s? That's precisely right. And that is one of the really interesting things, because that is something that there wouldn't be a statute of limitations for. You wouldn't have to worry about anything of that nature when you're talking about such a serious crime like that, especially involving deaths and aviation. Those would be federal hooks that you could find for a very long time. And so that could be something that they're exploring. And in fact, we had several members of Congress who are from Florida, specifically asked the Trump administration, sending a letter to Donald Trump,

and copying Attorney General Pam Bondi asking for an investigation along those lines. So that's something certainly that they could be exploring here. But it remains to be seen exactly how this investigation will play out. We're kind of in the very beginning stages of this time. And on these talks with Cuba, this is what the president had to say last week. Let's listen. Cuban government is talking with us. They're in a big deal of trouble, as you know. They have no money. They have no anything right now. But they're talking with us. And maybe we'll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.

He also told CNN today, I'm going to put Marco over there and told Politico he's predicting regime change. What more do we know about these ongoing talks? And sometimes the president talks tough, but sometimes he also acts tough. Yeah, and the State Department, from what we understand, is involved with these discussions about potential charges, right? And so in other circumstances, you have had the State Department put these sanctions against countries to put pressure on them. Those, of course, already exist in the context of Cuba, but I'm sure there's more they could potentially do along those lines. But when you're talking about bringing criminal cases, that's what's really, I think, gotten a lot of interest into this matter. Because I think, you know, you have that example for Maduro, even though that was slightly different because the charges were preexisting. is that the sort of playbook that now they're trying to run in Cuba in order to overcome that regime, Tom.

Okay, Ryan Riley for us. Always great rapport. And Ryan, we thank you. We're learning more tonight about why President Trump chose to fire Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Noem. The move coming after tumultuous several months and fiery hearings on Capitol Hill. NBC's Julia Ainsley has been following this one closely and joins us tonight from Washington. So, Julia, the president talked about Noam in a phone interview with NBC News last night. What more did he say? say. That's right. He talked to our colleague Garrett Haken. He talked about how he really had a lot of confidence in Mark Wayne Mullen to carry on DHS. But Garrett pressed him on what exactly it was that made him choose to fire Christine Nome. And he did say that it had to do with the hearings, that he got

frustrated during this week, and that, of course, it does come down to her responses to a $220 million ad campaign, where we understand that this ad campaign was supposed to encourage immigrants to self-deport, but largely featured Noam and a very expensive ad campaign in front of Mount Rushmore, and he said he did not approve those contracts, although she testified three times in front of the House and Senate that she did have the president's approval on those contracts. So ultimately, it was that that led to her firing. And an administration official also tells us that it has to do with her mismanagement of staff and her responses in the wake of the Minneapolis shootings. Yeah, and then there are also reports that borders our Tom Homan and no.

had a contentious relationship. What details do we have? Yeah, you know, Tom, I've been following these factions within DHS for a long time, and we saw it come to a head after the fatal shooting of Alex Preti at the hands of Border Patrol. That was when Border Patrol in Minneapolis was in the command of Greg Bovino, who was Secretary of Homeland Security, Christyneome, sent to Minneapolis to oversee that exact strategy of this surge. When Bovino was pulled out and Tom Homan was put in, that was a signal from the White House, So they didn't like Kristy Noem strategy, and they wanted to go with Tom Homan strategy. Up until that point, Homan had been largely sidelined and kept out of a lot of the immigration policy discussions,

and Noam had really been taking most of the credit. Then after the Minneapolis shooting, that started to switch. We also know that, of course, Tom Homan reports to the president himself, and Christy Nome really had no control over his decisions, and that was really a setup that from the beginning created tension between these two people. And then I understand you have exclusive new reporting. Democratic lawmakers are now investigating no? Yeah, that's right. We have obtained letters from two Democratic senators, including Richard Blumenthal,

who sits on the subcommittee on investigations. And they are asking the three contractors who got that $220 million ad campaign for information regarding those contracts. They want copies of the contracts. And they want to know who, if anyone at DHS, may have financially benefited from, those contracts. Of course, that was really the underlying theme, the elephant in the room, during these very tense back and force between Christy Noem and the House and Senate this week about how exactly these contracts were approved. They want to know whether or not she or Corey

Lewandowski or anyone at DHS may have financially benefited. We're also out to the White House and DHS to see what their response to that will be, and we will let you know when we hear back. All right, Julia Anzley, with that new reporting, Julia, thank you. When we come back the race to return home. We'll hear from an American still struggling to escape the Middle East, and we'll have an update on that dad we told you about earlier this week trying to get home for his son's birthday. Stay with us. We're back with our coverage of the war with Iran. Flights out of the Middle East are slowly starting to pick up, but still thousands of Americans are trying to get out. Chad Cummings and his girlfriend, Natalia, were wrapping up a whirlwind

vacation and leaving Vietnam to head back to the Americas when they decided to stop for a quick layover in Dubai. They've now been stuck for more than a week. walking up to jarring scenes like this outside their hotel window, the smoky aftermath of Iranian strikes on high rises just miles away. Chad joins Top Story tonight. Chad, thanks for being here. I mean, I can't imagine what this has been like. Walk me through sort of your time in Dubai

and what you thought when you looked outside and you saw that the city was being bombed. Right, and that had shown up after we got a warning that there was going to be incoming. and that's when you knew it was real. We felt quite safe in the hotel where we're at. They've taken very good care of us, but clearly a lot more than we bargained for what we'd hoped

was only going to be a short stopover. So how hard has it to get out to try to find a flight back to the States? Pretty difficult. I'm on my fourth ticket right now, and what happens is the system, we're on Emirates, and they'll let you buy the ticket, and sometimes even check in, but then you get a notice the following night that it's been canceled. So that's happened three times.

So we're on the fourth flight this time where we're hopeful. It looks like this time we might actually get out because usually when it's been canceled, it's happened by 9 o'clock at night here. So we're into the next day. It's around 1.30 in the morning. And we're still on that flight and checked in, so fingers crossed. Have the prices been a problem for you as well, but I know you were booked to go home originally, or is this costing you more? Well, it's been great that Emirates has not raised the prices, but that's not the same for the other airlines.

And so apart from just buying a bunch of tickets, which I hope we'll get reimbursed for at some point, we have not had to pay premium pricing. But I've just looked around and a lot of other airlines are, in fact, charging a lot. I could have flown to Egypt and then back home to New York for $7,000, but I passed on that opportunity. Yeah, $7,000 a ticket. It's crazy. What has your experience been with the State Department? You know, they've gotten a lot better at the beginning, and I think that's been widely reported, that, you know, you would reach out, and there was recording that basically said, shelter in place. If that doesn't work for you, if you need to get out, you're sort of on your own.

And that was initially what was going on. And of course, they've really picked up their tempo now. And I think they're back to the regular type of State Department service. But at the beginning, it was fairly obvious, at least to me, that they were not ready for this. Yeah. I got to ask you, what's the energy like where you are as far as in Dubai are people incredibly scared? I know it's been a couple days now, but there have been

several nights where Dubai has been bombed. You know, it's interesting. If you have those instances and then it passes, and if you didn't know there was a war next door, life would appear to be normal. However, you can certainly feel it in the hotel here. There's a lot of other guests that are still stranded. I can see the numbers are going down a bit. So clearly some people are finding a way out. People are trying to be on their best behavior, but you can certainly feel attention. Okay. I hope you and your wife can get back. Okay, we appreciate you being on top story tonight. Finally, an update on another American stranded in the Middle East. Earlier this week, we told you about Cody Greena, desperate to get home for his son's first birthday. After getting

stuck in Dubai on a business trip, Keir Simmons has the sweet moment. He finally made it back. reunited with his son, Reese, and wife Olivia, Cody Green, back in Tampa with a story, stranded for days in Dubai in the middle of a war. I feel amazing. It's been a whirlwind week. Just a lot of crazy emotions and fears go through you, but just to finally get back here, it's just a weight off my shoulders, you know. He was in Dubai for work when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, Iran retaliating with a

barrage of drones and missiles. Thousands of flights were cancelled, including his. When we met him, he was on his way to the airport once again, desperate to get home for his son's first birthday. Are you nervous getting on this flight? A little part of me is, yeah, just, you know, we've got to get home somehow. People waiting to get in the queue. He sent us updates from a packed Dubai airport. All right, we're here. The mood at the airport was very tense. Security-wise, It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. So it's a line to get in the line to get in the line. He waited in line for hours, unsure if his flight would even be able to leave.

It was exhausting, but we got through, and now we just sit back. We wait for the flight. It was delayed an hour and a half, two hours, but that's a okay because we're heading home. And then taking off with the anxiety of coming under attack. The flight was very tense up until we were actually like 20,000 feet up. And then everyone realized things were okay and just a massive cheer and celebration whenever we landed. Now back with his family in time for Reese's party on Sunday. I'm even back in time to help set up for it.

So that's a little bonus points for me and my life. Well, you have a story to tell Reese now when he's older, you know? Yeah, absolutely. The time your dad almost missed your birthday party because he was in a war zone. Exactly. It doesn't get any more interesting than that, I don't think. Kier Simmons, NBC News, Dubai. So great he got home.

That does it for us tonight. Thanks for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yamos in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.