Top Story with Tom Llamas - Monday, August 12, 2024

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

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.

Tonight, a significant earthquake rattles Los Angeles. The magnitude 4.4 quake shaking the region. Scary moments as NESPN host feels her whole studio shake while she's live on air. Schools forced to evacuate. First responders rushing to Pasadena's City Hall after a pipe burst. Crews surveying for possible damage as officials warned be prepared for aftershocks. Our report is in Los Angeles with the latest. Also tonight, bracing for retaliation.

Israel putting its military on its military on its. highest alert preparing for Iran's looming attack. The rare move from the U.S. sending a missile submarine to help defend its ally as Iran doubles down on its threat. Israel facing backlash for its strike on a school in Gaza where the dangerous situation in the Middle East stands. Battleground surge. Vice President Kamala Harris leading in three key swing states the FBI now investigating after the Trump campaign says it was hacked. Former President Trump accusing Iran of interfering as he lashes out over the crowds at Harris's rallies. A brutal attack in downtown Los Angeles.

New videos showing a dangerous mob surrounding a car and beating up their driver. What we're learning about this brazen assaults. Fiery chopper crash. The helicopter slamming into a hotel in Australia. The latest in the investigation, including new details that the flight was not approved for takeoff. Stripped of bronze. Team USA Gymnastics star Jordan Childs asked to return. her bronze medal.

The International Olympic Committee ruling the appeal that upgraded her to the podium is invalid. The backlash over the decision and the proof USA Gymnastics says it has to refute the ruling. Plus, lucky to be here. MPB's longtime Calfish host, Neb Shulman, reveals his terrifying near-death experience. The horrifying bike crash slaving him in the hospital with a broken neck, his inspiring message tonight. And Blink Fitness pumping the brakes on its operations. Jim filing for bankruptcy, what it means for its members. Top Story starts right now.

And good evening. I'm Morgan Chesky. In for Tom Yamas. Top Story is live tonight from our Los Angeles Bureau, just hours after this region was struck by a strong earthquake. Home security cameras giving us an up-close look at what it was like as the ground violently shook. Though it was brief, it certainly left plenty of people rattled, including several ESPN radio hosts who were on the air when the studio started to tremble. Just take a listen.

Peppers and the tomatoes, that's an earthquake. That's an earthquake. That is a real earthquake. Whoa, that is a real one, guys. Now, this was a magnitude 4.4 quake with the upper center right in Highland Park. If you're unfamiliar with the area, it's just a few miles outside of downtown Los Angeles. And here is where it lines up on the Richter scale, which measures how large an earthquake is. The emergency crew is confirming there is not any significant damages of right now.

But we do know what Pasadena. One person was reportedly trapped inside an elevator as the quake struck and a pipe burst right outside City Hall. We have a lot to get to this evening. And NBC Liz Cricht starts off our coverage. Tonight, Southern California shaken jolted by a 4.4 magnitude earthquake felt throughout the Los Angeles area. An earthquake is happening. Everything was shaking. The epicenter near South Pasadena just east of L.A.

This home surveillance video showing strong shaking as the quake hit around lunchtime. Wow. Let me call my family. You see the stuff is still shaking right here. Oh my God, there's an earthquake. People reacting in real time. This ESPN anchor momentarily pausing the show. We're going to make sure that our studio lights, everything stays safe, everything's shaking.

The Los Angeles Fire Department going into earthquake mode, although no reports of significant damage or injuries, In Pasadena, at City Hall, a water pipe burst. One person rescued after being trapped in an elevator. What's the impact of this quake? Physically, there's essentially no impact. Psychologically, we have millions of people who felt it. And for many of them, it's the second quake in the region felt in the past week. Is there a chance that this is a sign of a bigger quake to come?

There's always a chance. We have about a 5% chance that within the next three days, we will see something larger from the same location. The latest quake to Rock, California, coming just as the world's focus turns to the city as the next home of the Summer Olympics. And Liz Kreis joins us now from here in Los Angeles. Liz's quake certainly rattled quite a few nerves, but fortunately no reports of any serious injuries right now. What are officials saying about the aftershocks here? Yeah, well, Morgan, so far there's been a few aftershocks, very minor ones, at least three of them.

We'll see if there's more to come. This was the strongest shaking, though, felt in East L.A. from an earthquake in several years. And as you heard there from that expert, there's always that very small chance that this was a foreshock of a bigger one to come. Right. Everyone eyeballing that 5% she mentioned there. Liz, you, of course, mentioned the Olympics in your story. Do we know if this quake affected the arrival of the Olympic flag here in L.A. whatsoever? Yeah, I'm happy to report Morgan. It did not have any impact on that. This quake happened just before Mayor Bass, the Los Angeles mayor and officials touched down here in L.A. with that flag. Everything went smoothly. But of course, it is a sign

that four years from now, the Olympics will be an earthquake country. An earthquake could certainly happen during the Olympics. But experts are quick to point out that Los Angeles is one of the best prepared cities in the country, if not the best prepared city, for an earthquake, Morgan. All right. Good to know. Liz, Croyd's keeping his post as tonight. Liz, thank you. Moving now to politics and the campaign trail, where the major party nominees and and their VP picks are battling it out in critical swing states. Former President Trump continuing to attack Vice President Kamala Harris' identity and crowd sizes while she makes a surge in polls in key battleground states.

Here's Garrett Haik with the latest tonight. Former President Trump returning tonight to what was once his favorite messaging megaphone, posting on X, formerly Twitter for the first time in more than a year, writing, are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. and promoting an interview tonight with the site's outspoken owner and Trump's supporter, Elon Musk. The posts come as the former president faces growing criticism from Republicans who say he's not spending enough time attacking Vice President Harris's record.

Over the weekend, Trump indulging in a baseless conspiracy theory about President Biden at the DNC. He's going to walk into the room and he's going to say, I want my presidency back. And falsely suggesting large Harris crowds were AI-generated failure. The Harris campaign mocking Trump in response, writing, quote, this is an actual photo of a 15,000 person crowd, and Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week. Low energy? Tonight, a new poll shows Harris leading Trump within the margin of error in key battlegrounds, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, prompting this public plea to Trump from an ally. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as Attorney General on crime. Question, what did she do when she's supposed to take care of the border as a czar?

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is accusing Harris of plagiarizing a signature Trump economic proposal to no longer tax tips. Harris appearing to adopt the Trump plan this weekend. Eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers. Trump has been campaigning on his no tax on tips pledge for months. When I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips. Trump posting Harris's, quote, conning the American public and we'll flip right back. And Garrett Haig joins us now from Washington, D.C. So, Garrett, another major campaign issue for the Trump-Vance ticket is, of course, abortion.

I know you asked former President Trump just the other day about the abortion pill for Preston, and he alluded to the idea of restricting access to the pill. And then J.D. Vance did multiple Sunday show interviews yesterday and spoke about those very comments, seeming to backpedal a bit. Here's what he said. This drug is used in like 60% of all abortions in the United States. In a Trump-Vance administration, would you use the FDA to block access to this drug? Well, no. What the president has said very clearly is that abortion policy should be made by the states, right?

You, of course, want to make sure that any medicine is safe, that it's prescribed in the right way, and so forth. But the president wants individual states to make these decisions. That was Margaret Brenner from Face the Nation. I'm curious. Do you think of this back and forth opens the door even a bit for Vice President Harris and Walls? It absolutely does, Morgan. Look, the Trump campaign wants to minimize the issue of abortion as much as possible. That's why Trump has tried to argue that it's purely a state issue. But any equivocation, any time he's unclear about that as he was when I asked him about it last week, presents an opportunity for Democrats to argue he's being

dishonest or he doesn't understand the policy or that perhaps he's trying to be too cute about what would constitute federal intervention on this issue. There you hear Vance do a little bit of cleanup, but something tells me this won't be the last time he or Trump has asked about this issue. And, Garrett, we know the Trump campaign has claimed a vetting document of J.D. Vance was hacked by Iran, but we have new reporting that the FBI is now officially investigating here. Yeah, that's right. The FBI is investigating, although we don't know to what degree they've gotten access to the Trump campaign servers. This might all sound familiar to people who remember the 2016 campaign, where there was some tension between the Clinton campaign and the FBI over what they

could look at, what kind of evidence might be available to them. This is another instance where we don't yet know what these hackers, if indeed they're Iranian, or whomever they might be, what all they have, and where else it might show up. This is very much a developing story. And again, something that has the potential to have cast quite a long shadow over the remaining 80-some-odd days of this campaign, Morgan. 80 days and counting, Garrett Hay, thank you. And for more on the race for the White House one from the start of the Democratic National Convention? Well, let's bring in our political pros.

Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign advisor, and Mark Lodder, Republican strategist and former director of strategic communication for the Trump 2020 campaign. Thank you both for joining us this evening. Mark, I'll start with you. J.D. Vance was asked this week

about former President Trump talking about Vice President Harris's identity. Here's what he had to say. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience. She pretends to be something different different in front of another audience. Look, Dana, she's not running a political campaign. She's running a movie. She only speaks to voters behind a teleprompter. Everything is scripted. She doesn't have her policy positions out there. She hasn't answered why she wanted to ban fracking,

but now she doesn't. She wanted to fund police, but now she doesn't. She wanted to open the border, but now she doesn't. She should have to answer for why she presents a different set of policies to one audience and a different set of policies to another audience. And I think that's what President Trump is getting at. This is a fundamentally fake person. She's different depending on who she's in front of. With respect, you changed your position on an important thing, which is Donald Trump. Of course I did. And I'm biased about it. Because, Dana, I've explained to the American people what's different. People change their minds when the facts change. So I'm curious, do you think this looks good for Vance as a running mate here? And do Trump allies such as Kevin McCarthy have a point?

Should the former president be more focused on attacking Harris on her record rather than than things such as how big her crowd size is or even a racial identity here? Well, I think you saw Senator Vance doing that in that interview yesterday, talking about the fact that Kamala Harris has flip-flopped on just about everything. She'll tell whatever audience she's in front of what they want to hear. You go to her website, she has no policy. So that's going to be the real issue. And I think as this campaign goes on and on, you're going to hear more about that.

Because at the end of the day, vibes aren't going to lower people's gas or grocery prices. or secure our border. That's what the people want to talk about. And I don't think Kamala Harris has an answer for any of it. All right, Amisha, to you now. What kind of impact of these attacks have on the Harris Walls campaign in your estimation? I don't think they have very much legs to stand on here because we're talking about a man of contradictions. J.D. Vance is someone who is anti-immigrant, but his wife is the daughter of immigrants. J.D. Vance is someone who has spoken against women working outside of the home. his wife is somebody who not only excelled in higher education, went on to law school,

but also actually clerked under who is now a Supreme Court justice. She is a powerhouse in her own right. This is a guy who has shapeshifted so many times to get approval from the Trump Manga crowd that it's ridiculous. I think that Kamala Harris is doing what she needs to do. Let's be mindful, even though the growth has been amazing in terms of the fundraising dollars, the capacity of individuals on the ground who are organizing and doing the work, it's still been a very very short time since she was actually chosen as the presumptive nominee. They just held the virtual roll call just a couple days ago. The DNC is next week. She's already said she's going to outline her policies. I expect that to come out in the next few days. She has hit the ground

running in a very, very momentous fashion. And the Trump campaign is quite frankly just running scared. J.D. Vance didn't do anything we didn't expect him to do. But quite frankly, he has a lot of his own cleanup right now that he should be worried about. And regarding doing what you need to do, Mark Harris is currently leading in Key Swings, a polling. Do you think she needs to sit down and speak to a national audience and do interviews, or do you think what the campaign is currently doing is working here? Take a look. There's the numbers right there. Well, first of all, those polls are greatly skewed,

that they oversampled Democrats and undersampled Republicans on that, so I'm not worried about any of that. But look, it's clear that Kamala Harris is going to try to run Joe Biden's basement strategy 2.0. She's going to hide from the American people, Because every time she gets off to teleprompter, she explains AI as being a two-letter word or says Ukraine is a small country next to Russia, which is a big one. She can't handle a live unscripted interview. So we'll see. But more importantly, what is she going to say about those policies?

Because people do have economic pain because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They don't like the border. They don't like the wars. And Kamala Harris has to answer for all of the problems she and Joe Biden have created and then tell the American people why she's the one that should be cleaning it up. Um, Misha, you look at those polling numbers there. slight or not, how does that campaign hold on to what they have or build upon them going forward here? The timeline getting shorter. Well, the Democratic base is large. It's larger

than the Republicans could ever hope of getting. This is a big tent, and Kamala Harris is reaching out to diverse voters, younger voters, voters who have been disengaged with the process. And I think that in large part, because there is new excitement and invigoration on this ticket, we're seeing people come home, so to speak. Governor Walts was an amazing choice, someone who is leading a state and it showcased a lot of the plans and policies that America wants to see, affordable, affordable child care, be able to not worry about children, not being able to eat in the schools that they attend, health care. Like, we're seeing this coalesced, and I think that that's extremely important. She understands what is necessary on the ground. We know that

inflation has hurt many people. We also know price gouging has hurt many people, but she's not running away from a record of achievement from the current administration that she's still a part of that brought hundreds of thousands of jobs to America. That has been sizably one of the most successful administrations in modern times, the most successful, the infrastructure package. Again, these things matter to the American people. She's hitting the ground running, talking about the things that matter, invigorating audiences and crowds, and that ain't AI.

Those people are actually there live. Mark, quickly to you, following up something that Garrett reported on, Trump campaign saying that they had been hacked over the weekend. Do we know how the campaign was able to quickly pinpoint that Iran was the source of the hacking and why it appears the target was to reveal more information about running mate, J.D. Vance. Well, clearly Iran has it has an end for Donald Trump because he actually was tough on Iran, unlike Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, who basically have allowed them billions of dollars, which they used to attack Israel. And so they've made

no secret of the fact that they've actually put out a hit on Donald Trump. They're probably targeting his campaign. But look, they take cybersecurity very seriously. I was on the 20 campaign. It was something we were very cognizant of the entire time. And I'm sure that those same cybersecurity measures immediately triggered to try to protect as much of the information with the 2024 campaign as possible. All right. So Misha Crofts, Mark Lauder, breaking it all down for us.

We thank you both this evening. Thank you. Heading overseas now to the escalating tensions in the Middle East after Israel carried out a series of deadly strikes in Gaza this weekend. Iran vowing revenge for those attacks and for the recent killings of several militant leaders. Ellison Barber is on the ground in Tel Avivore for us tonight with the very latest, and we do want to warn you. Some of the images you're about to see are disturbing. Major strikes inside Gaza this weekend, leading Iran to reiterate plans to, quote, punish Israel.

In a phone call with the Vatican this morning, Iran's new president told the Holy See's Secretary of State that Iran would like to avoid wars, according to a readout in Iranian state media. But he also said Iran has the right to respond, given the deaths of women and children in Gaza and the alleged Israeli assassination of Ishma al-Khaniyah during a visit to Tehran. Israel vowing to respond to any attacks from Iran or Hezbollah with unprecedented action. Our enemies are threatening to harm us in ways they have not harmed us before. says Israeli defense minister Joev Galant. I hope they do the math well.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rushing firepower to the region, deploying a guided missile submarine, the USS Georgia, and ordering the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to get there faster. In central Gaza, a father brought to his knees by grief, cradling the body of his seven years. year old son. Oh, my God, he sobs. Why us? Three of his children, ages 7, 4 and 1, killed in an Israeli airstrike Friday night the

next morning. An even deadlier strike on a school-turned shelter in Gaza City. Three rockets struck the Tabin school, killing at least 100 people, according to a spokesperson with Gaza's civil defense. A lot of bodies that cannot be identified, he says, it is very difficult for the medical team, even the civilians, to identify them. We are in front of a disaster. Israel admits they carried out the strikes, but say the school was more than just a shelter

for thousands of displaced Palestinians. In a statement, Israeli forces said in part they struck terrorists operating in a Hamas command and control center embedded inside a mosque in the school's compound, and that they killed roughly 20 militants using three precise munitions. A political advisor to Iran's supreme leader accused Israel of trying to ignite a regional war and said Iran has taken necessary measures to impose the harshest punishment on Israel. The White House saying the strikes underscore the urgency of a ceasefire and hostage deal. Mr. President, what's your message to Iran? For the families of more than 100 hostages abducted on October 7th and still trying to hold on to hope, Iran's threats don't change much.

I don't know there was some water in our safe room, but we're not really, I don't think, overthinking what will be. Who knows what will be? We're in the midst of a very unique, ambiguous trauma. It's pretty hard to get us more rattled. I'm sure that there are political and military leaders who are doing the right things to prep for it. As parents of a hostage, we've got other big things in our mind right now. In an interview last week, the parents of Hirsch-Goldberg-Poland told NBC News that hugging their only son at home is top of the list. 300 plus days in, it is very obvious, although seven people were rescued, but seven out of

251, it's very clear that the 105 who came out at the end of November came out because of diplomatic negotiations, and we need that to happen again. And Ellison Barber joins us now from Tel Aviv. Ellison, Powerful, reporting, we're learning more tonight about a hostage that Hamas said, has been killed. What more do we know there? Yeah, so a spokesperson for Hamas's military wing released a statement on their official telegram channel saying there were two separate incidents at some point involving soldiers of theirs. They said in one incident, one of their soldiers shot and killed instantly

a prisoner and in another incident. And again, they say this was a separate incident. They say two female prisoners were seriously wounded and are now receiving treatment. A Hamas leader later released a statement saying this, quote, what happened with the occupation's captives in Gaza is a result of the massacres and the assassination operations, the occupation, and they mean Israel, bear direct responsibility for the killing of its prisoners, meaning hostages inside of Gaza. A spokesperson with the IDF has said so far they do not have any intelligence support that allows them to either confirm or deny what Hamas is claiming here. they say they are aware of the claims on social media. They're working to gather more intelligence, more information. But right now, Morgan, they say they're not able to confirm or deny whether or not two hostages are seriously wounded, and one is now dead. Morgan. Alison, we heard the U.S. once again call for a ceasefire in your report. So where do the talk stand

right now? Well, currently they are expected to at least have a gathering Thursday, August 15th. That'll either take place in Doha or Cairo, the United States, Egypt and Qatar releasing a joint statement last week, calling on Hamas and Israel to come together and to make a deal. They say, ask them, rather, to pick up where they'd left off when they had a framework that was agreed upon. This is a framework that was more formalized towards the end of May. That being said, Israel has said they will send representatives to this meeting, either in Doha or Cairo, but Hamas says they will not. So right now, in terms of how does it look for a ceasefire, Morgan, not very good, but there's a lot of diplomatic efforts still going on behind the scenes trying to see, if anything, could possibly be pieced back together at this point. Morgan? And a tough waiting game continues. Ellison Barber, thank you so much. And for more analysis on the rising tensions in the Middle East. I'm joined now by retired United States Army, General Barry McAfri. General McAfri, thanks so much for joining us on Top Story tonight. We want to speak to you about the immediate potential threat.

here. What do we think Iran's options are for retaliation? And what message would those send? Well, I think they're in a quandary. They're trying to decide what course of action to take. They have some serious military options. They can attack Israel for an extended period of time, several months, using not only their own assets, 13 April, as an example, they fired 300 some odd drones or missiles at Israel. They can also include Hezbollah, who are alleged to have 150,000 rockets, which could, if over time, could overwhelm Israeli defenses, even though the U.S. has buttressed our own, particularly U.S. naval capability. So everyone's on The provocation of assassinating the head political officer of Hamas in Tehran, right after the inauguration of his new president, was appalling, in my view, as was probably killing the senior Hisbalah military commander in Lebanon.

So the escalation is likely to be severe in the coming days. Regarding what's happening in Iran, General, we know there are different stakeholders within the Iranian government. You have a more moderate president that some would consider to be more aggressive religious factions kind of playing off each other right now. How does that factor into the country's response here? And bigger question, who do you think is going to win out? Well, of course, the diplomatic solution is obviously the only way out of this mess. Secretary Blinken, the Foreign Minister of Jordan, the Egyptians, everyone is trying to get the Iranians to moderate their response. There has to be some response.

But it's very difficult to signal political intent using military violence. So if the Iranians, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraqi militias, if they all unite to attack Israel in the coming day, which seems likely the outcome could be devastating. You know, CENTCOM, General Eric Carilla, is in Israel right now coordinating, pulling together all the air defense assets in the region that are friendly to Israel. And that certainly includes the Brits, probably the French, the U.S., the Jordanians, the Israeli IDF forces. But it's hard to pull that off. The architecture of attack on Israel in the coming days could easily result in significant casualties.

Then the Israelis will respond, and they have significant air power to have a devastating blow on Iran. His Bala is a different question. I don't think the Israelis can deal with his Bala except by massive ground combat invasion of southern Lebanon. Last time they did that in 2006, it didn't go very well. So Israel is facing a real dilemma and should expect a massive attack in the coming days. General McCaffrey, we appreciate your time. And as always, your insight is invaluable. Thank you, sir.

Next tonight to the war in Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the defensive for the first time since the war began. Ukrainian troops pushing their way into Russian territory, forcing the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents. Now, Russia's vowing to respond. NBC's Andrea Mitchell explains. Tonight, Ukrainian troops advancing eight miles inside Russia's border, saying they've now gained control of more than 600 miles of Russian territory in Belgarad and Kursk. Russian President Putin vowing to retaliate. He says Russian forces will, quote, squeeze out and knock out the enemy of. from our territories. After the local governor in a televised meeting told Putin, Ukraine

now controls 28 Russian villages. This new video showing Ukrainian soldiers removing a Russian flag from the side of a building in the Kursk region, all this stunning and embarrassing Putin. For the first time, Ukraine's President Zelensky confirming Ukrainian troops are operating inside Russia, prompting this reaction from an exuberance Senator Lindsey Graham in Kiev today. bold, brilliant, beautiful. Keep it up. Putin started this. Kick his ass. And no objections from the Biden administration, saying Ukraine was defending itself against Russian cross-border attacks. Ukraine's incursion into Russia could give it leverage in any future negotiations with Putin, even as Russia continues to hammer Ukrainian forces in the east. Morgan?

Andrew Mitchell, thank you so much. And for more analysis on Ukraine's assault at the Russian border, bring in former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, who joins us from Washington, D.C. Ambassador Taylor, thank you for joining Top Story tonight. Since the start of the war, this is Ukraine's truly first offensive into Russian territory. President Putin said today that this is Ukraine's attempt to try and improve their seat at the negotiation table. So how critical was this attack in terms of that? This is a great critical move. This is an important move on the part of the Ukrainians, to grab the initiative. Sure. If President Putin wants to get out of this, and if he decides

now's the time that he would like to negotiate, well, he's got to convince the Ukrainians. Ukrainians are on the front foot. He's on the back foot. He doesn't have very much leverage right now, and the Ukrainians are developing their leverage. So this is a big move by the Ukrainians to gain that leverage, but also gain the momentum, gain, and gain the morale, increase the morale of the Ukrainian people and soldiers and supporters. around the world. Let's talk about that momentum. We know that there was a national emergency declared last week where tens of thousands of Russians

in the Kursk region had to evacuate, and there were even some new evacuations today. As these increase, Ambassador, do you see any impact on Putin's standing within Russia itself? Sure, sure. How can it not? I mean, he's been shown to be incompetent again. He calls all the shots. The military does what he says. has been focused one place, and the Ukrainians attacked in another place. This is Putin's

problem, and the Russian people know it, the Russian military knows it, and this is giving the Ukraine's a real advantage as Putin is on his back foot. And finally, Ambassador here, Putin ended his meeting today by saying Ukraine would receive a, quote, worthy response to the attack. I think I know the answer to this question, but what do you think that could look like? Well, he's already trying to do this. that. I mean, he's told his commanders to pull some troops out of various places, some local, but some all the way down in the southern part of Ukraine. So yes, Putin is trying to respond. It's a disorganized response. It's a response that is not designed, not very likely to have

the effect that he wants, because the Ukrainians are very well organized. Ukrainians are supporting themselves all the way into this offensive. And the Russians are discombobulated, are disorganized, and their chain of command is just waiting for answers coming from President Putin, who's not sure what the next steps could be. And, Ambassador, quickly, I know you're saying Ukraine is on the offensive here. Is there a concern that Ukraine could be spreading themselves too thin as they make new ground into Russia? You're exactly right, of course, Morgan, that they have to be able to support themselves, the Ukrainians, and they've got to be sure that the troops, the Ukrainian troops, have food and fuel

and all that they need to keep going. But right now, the Ukrainian troops are not facing resistance. So they're pushing hard, they're pushing deep. They're exploiting this surprise. The amazing thing, Morgan, is the surprise that the Ukrainians were able to achieve, and this has caused the problems for the Russians. All right, critical insight, Ambassador, we thank you so much.

Thank you, Morgan. And still ahead tonight, a brazen attack right here in Los Angeles. A group of people on bikes surrounding a car, jumping on the hood, then beating the driver. We'll hear from that man about how he tried to fight those suspects off. Plus, the daring escape in Florida, a robbery suspect jumping off a bridge to evade police, how he was eventually taken into custody. And the Red Sox player heard hurling a homophobic slur towards a heckler.

The punishment just handed down by the team. Stay with us. We'll be right back. And we're back now with a new video of a disturbing attack in downtown Los Angeles. A driver saying he had to fight for his life after a group riding bicycles surrounded his car and then began beating him. And much of the frightening encounter was captured by bystanders on video. We do want to warn you. Some of the footage you're about to see, it's tough to watch.

Yo, we're fighting this dude, bro, man. A stunning attack in downtown L.A., this video capturing the frenzy on August 2nd, when a crowd turned on Shiloh-Bakou, Friday evening. I passed the intersection, and I pulled over, and I got out to figure out what happened, and they suddenly, like, surrounded me. Ouse says when he realized someone damaged his car, he got out, and that's when others decided to join in. I managed to run away from them. And, like, I ran, like, about 200 or 300 feet down the street. And when I, like, look back, so I saw how, like, a few of them were, like, jumping on the roof of my car, on the windshield. While there's no video of what happened prior, footage from a nearby balcony shows the frightening play-by-play.

Some focused on vandalizing his car, hopping on top and digging through its contents. Another group targeted U. I, like, came up to my car to close the doors, and like some of them, like, were in my back, and they started, like, hitting me and punching me. The attack left him with a broken leg and covered in cuts and bruises. LAPD says they have yet to make any arrests. Meanwhile, Wu credits his survival to an unknown woman who pulled him away from the crowd to safety. Like, closed my head, and I was on the ground, so, and suddenly, so someone, like, pulled me out, and she a little, like, saved my life.

That terrifying ordeal. And tonight, despite that large amount of video evidence, Los Angeles police say they still don't have any suspects from an attack that placed out at 6.30 on a Friday evening. Coming up next, the terrifying helicopter crash in Australia. The chopper erupting into flames after slamming into a hotel building. Guests forced to evacuate the investigation into what went wrong. Coming up. And we're back now with Top Stories News Feed. Two people have been killed in a deadly home explosion in Maryland. Aerial footage shows the burning wreckage of what was left behind. The surrounding area was littered with debris. The home's 73-year-old owner and utility

contractor were killed, and we've learned that that worker was on the property checking out a reported gas leak. Officials say the origin of the gas leak is the focus of their ongoing investigation. A surprising attempt to evade police by a robbery suspect was caught right on camera in Daytona Beach, Florida. Take a look. This is body camera footage showing police approaching the suspect on a bridge to question him before he asks if he indeed is being detained. The man putting down his bag, then turning around and jumping into the Halifax River below, there he goes. Marine police captured and arrested that man.

15 minutes later, he was not hurt. Well, tonight, a Red Sox player is suspended after calling a heckler a homophobic slur during a game. The Boston Red Sox is issuing outfielder Jaron Duren with an unpaid two-game suspension and donating a salary from those games to an LGBTQ plus charity. Duran apologized in his statement for using the slur saying he will use that incident as an occasion to learn. And low-cost Jim ChainBlink Fitness is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The New York-based company plans to sell its business, listing its assets and liabilities for a combined $600 million. Its CEO says the chain's fitness centers will continue to operate as normal throughout the sale process.

Blink is owned by luxury fitness company, Equinox, Equinox Group, rather. Now, no, a major headline in health. According to new reporting by USA Today, federal officials are proactively prepping emergency bird flu pandemic vaccines. And this comes after 13 farm workers were infected with the virus this year alone. For more on these precautionary measures and what they mean, I'm joined now by NBC News senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres. Dr. Torres, thanks for joining us.

As we mentioned, farm workers were infected with bird. but none of them were hospitalized. So I'm curious, why are officials stockpiling the vaccines now? And how concerned should all of us be about a vast increase of cases here? And Morgan, you're right. At this point, none of these have been hospitalized. None of these patients have actually given it to any other patient. They've gotten them from either cows or birds.

But the concern is, if you go back to 2020, remember early in the pandemic, early in January, we were talking about how we weren't really that worried about it at that stage, and then all of a sudden exploded because it was a virus. that had not gotten into humans up until that point. Same thing could happen here. If it gets into humans, then it could all of a sudden change, it could mutate, and it could spread again and turn into a pandemic. And that's why the strategic national stockpile is getting these vaccine doses in there. Right now, they have a little under 5 million. They want to make sure they are ready. Again, going back to the pandemic, it caught us a little bit unawares, and we weren't

as ready as we could have been. Hopefully, we've learned some lessons, and we're using those lessons pushing this forward, saying, you know, we might never need these vials, we might never need these vaccines, which would be the perfect situation. But if we do, we at least have a start. Better safe than sorry, understood. So, Doc, I know the symptoms for bird flu are kind of similar to that of the actual flu, fever, sore throat, headaches, fatigue. I know there's some eye redness potentially involved, difficulty breathing, some GI symptoms. But it seems like in many of these cases, those who contracted the bird flu, as you mentioned. They had contact with livestock or poultry. Is that a prerequisite, or can it be contracted various ways, at least by humans?

So up until this point, it's been a prerequisite, getting it directly from the bird or the bird droppings or the animal itself, in this case the cow, and getting it into humans. What hasn't happened is that human-to-human transmission, and that's when we start getting extremely worried about it. We haven't had that yet up to this point. And so the message going out to people is, you know, essentially if there's a sick animal, whether it be a bird, whether it be a mammal, any other kind of animal, you don't want to be around that animal too long. Make sure you handle it appropriately. Wash your hands. If you're using, when you're eating your food, make sure especially eggs or any kind of meat is cooked appropriately. And then on top of that, make sure that if you're drinking

milk, it's pasteurized milk. You don't want unpasteurized raw milk because that can contain it as well because now we know it's moved into the dairy population. And so you mentioned the symptoms there. One of the other things to consider is these symptoms right now are mild, but they could turn worse. And one of the symptoms we look for is encephalitis, which is swelling of the brain. And that can become a problem as well when it comes to the bird flu, which makes it different than regular seasonal flu. And that's why one of the concerns is out there. Good advice, Doc. I know that Health and Human Services is said to have a briefing tomorrow on bird flu.

In short, what do you expect them to really touch on here? So one of the things they're going to look at is, okay, do we have the right vaccine? How many numbers do we have right now? And we do have clinical trials going on with this vaccine. What are we seeing in those clinical trials? Because up until now, the vaccine they're stockpiling has only been tested in ferrets. They're clinical trialing into humans. We need to make sure it's going to work appropriately.

The other thing they're going to hopefully talk about, or at least, they're starting to think about is, even though we're getting these batches right now of vaccines, we found out during the pandemic, vaccines needed to change as time went on. Are they going to be able to change this as well? They can be able to get a vaccine. They can do that rapidly. that's an important step. All right, Dr. Torres, thanks so much.

I want to go next to Top Story's Global Watch, starting with the man arrested for stabbing an 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman in London's theater district. Police say the mother and the daughter were attacked outside of a tea shop. The 32-year-old suspect was arrested within just a few minutes. Both victims were taken to a hospital but are expected to recover. And police say the attack appears to be random, but they do not believe that this was terrorism-related.

In Australia, a pilot is dead after a helicopter crashed in the middle of a hotel roof. The chopper hit a Hilton Doubletree Hotel and the popular tourist destination of Cairns. The crash ignited a fire, forcing hundreds of guests to evacuate. We know at least two people were hospitalized but are currently in stable condition. The company, meanwhile, that owned the helicopter, said the flight was unauthorized and that they're working with authorities on that investigation. And Britain's five-time Olympic medalist, Tom Daly, is retiring. from diving. Daly first came to the Olympics back in 2008 at the young age of 14. He now retires as Britain's most decorated Olympic diver. He returned from Paris with a silver medal he won

in the men's synchronized 10-meter event and was able to be a flag bear for his country. Daly says he plans to spend more time with his husband and two children. Coming up, another headline involving an Olympian. Team USA's Jordan Childs stripped of a bronze medal over the weekend. We're breaking what led to this controversial decision and the news just in from USA Gymnastics over that appeal. That's coming up next. And we're back now with the latest on the now concluded Paris Olympics. Questions now swirling after the International Olympic Committee

confirmed over the weekend it would strip Jordan Childs of the bronze medal she won in the floor exercise final. This decision came after the court of arbitration for the sport ruled a scoring inquiry made by Team USA Gymnist's coach happened after a one-minute deadline. The results of that inquiry catapulting Childs from fifth to third place at the time pushing Romania's Ana Barbosu out of her medal spot. USA Gymnastics saying in a statement, it has already submitted new video evidence showing the request was made within one minute of the original scores posting. And the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic

Committee has also said that it would appeal that ruling. Child's teammates and Team USA supporters have all rallied behind her in a huge way. including rapper in Olympics hype man, of course, Flavor Flav, who offered Childs a bronze clock necklace to replace that medal. Childs, meanwhile, hasn't released an official statement, but she did post some broken heart emojis on Instagram Saturday morning and said she would be stepping away from social media for her mental health. With that, and for more on the follow-out from this ruling, I do want to bring an Ashley Buehler

who worked as a gymnastics producer for NBC Olympics during the Paris Games. Ashley, everyone is talking about this story. Can you tell us more about the decision to reallocate the medal and why all of this is playing out the way in which it is? Yeah, well, it's a really tricky situation with the coaches only having one minute to submit the inquiry after Jordan's initial score was flashed. And now that they're saying, you know, at the moment they were saying that she was within the minute and her inquiry was accepted. But now after the fact, they're saying that she was four seconds too late. And because of that, they're saying her inquiry is now void. Her original score has to be reinstated, and that would put her back in fifth place and award

the bronze medal to Romania's Anna Barbosu. So it's really a devastating situation. All because they're saying it was four seconds too late. I'm curious. Do we know if anything like this has ever happened before at the Olympics? Not that I've ever seen. I've been watching the Olympics for a very long time, and I've never seen anything like this happened before. And, you know, it comes down to potentially human error. I mean, you have

one minute to see the score, process that you need to or want to put in an inquiry, walk over to the table where you do that, and then actually have them process the request. So there's a lot that has to go on in just 60 seconds. And also because Jordan was the last athlete, that's the reason why she only had 60 seconds. Normally, they have up to four minutes to do an inquiry. So Shui was in a little bit of a different situation than everybody else. And unfortunately, things did not play out well. Even though in the moment, it kind of seemed like it was playing out well for Jordan. You know, the aftermath has just been absolutely devastating.

Yeah, devastating to say the least. So, actually, we know the USA plans to appeal here. What, if anything, could come next? Any timeline in place? Yeah, so yesterday the U.S. OPC announced their intent to appeal the decision. they stated that the International Gymnastics Federation was to blame for the initial scoring error, but then also for not giving them enough time to provide evidence in the decision. Shortly after that, USA Gymnastics put out a statement that they had submitted video evidence

to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and that was to prove that this inquiry was submitted within 47 seconds after the score was published, which would make Jordan's inquiry ballot. However, just a few hours ago, the court denied that appeal, saying that they can, can't reopen the case, even if there is new evidence. So I assume that USA Gymnastics will continue to explore all of their legal options. And the U.S. OPC said they plan to appeal the course decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. But as of right now, Jordan's going to have to be, you know, she's going to be required to return that medal, and it'll be rewarded to end up a lawsuit.

The IOC said that it's been in talks with the U.S. Olympic Committee about returning the medal and the Romanian Federation about having a potential ceremony to award that medal to the Romanian gymnast. So if I heard you correctly here, it sounds like this is still an incredibly messy affair. I know you've covered gymnastics extensively. You know the sport incredibly well. You're coming off two and half weeks in Paris. If you could indulge us, on a personal level, what do you feel about this situation? Should Jordan actually have to give the medal back? I mean, I'm devastated for Jordan childs. And really, for everyone involved, the Olympics are supposed to be, you know, a joyful moment, a time of celebration. And now I fear that the experience is kind of being tainted over

a mistake that was made by officials. We've never in history seen an athlete get their medal taken away for somebody else's mistake. Historically, it's been for things like doping or age falsification. So this is a pretty historic moment, but a devastating one at that for sure. Devastating, no doubt. Ashley Bueller, thank you. Coming up, NTV's Catfish host, Neve Shulman, speaking out after one terrifying crash. Shulman saying he's lucky to be here after breaking his neck in a serious bike accident. His powerful message tonight. Finally tonight, the health scare for MTV's Neve Shulman.

The catfish creator getting into a crash while on his bike also suffered a serious spinal injury. Valerie Castro walks us through his recovery and his inspiring message. on gratitude. But we do want to warn you. This story contains images of medical trauma and severe injury. MTV's Neve Schulman, lucky to be alive. After a terrifying bike accident left him with a broken neck, the 39-year-old creator and host of the hit documentary turned TV show Catfish, sharing videos of himself lying in a hospital bed, revealing he collided with a truck on the way to pick up his son from school. But despite the brutal injury that impacted his spinal cord, Looking good, my friend.

He was not paralyzed. Shulman thanking his care staff and sharing videos of himself taking steps in the hospital while cracking jokes. I don't know. I feel like I'm in a tuxedo. Shulman has made a name for himself

as a crusader for victims of catfishing, which is when someone pretends to be someone else online. Why have you been talking to her with this other guy's picture for the last three years? He was also a finalist on season 29 of Dancing with the Stars.

Now he begins a long road to recover. that says he's found the meaning of gratitude, writing on Instagram, it's hard to feel sorry for myself when I hear from the doctors about how many people with similar injuries will never walk again. Possibly the best moment of all, getting to step into a hug with his three children. Valerie Castro, NBC News. Hey, guys. Those hugs are the best.

Well, thanks so much for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Morgan Chesky and for Tom Yamis. Stay right here. More news now is on the way. Thank you.