Top Story with Tom Llamas - Monday, January 26, 2026

Episode Date: January 27, 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, the Trump administration ordering the Border Patrol leader in charge of Minneapolis to leave after a protester was shot and killed by federal agents. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino expected to leave Minneapolis along with some agents. The major shakeup as outrage over the killing of Alex Pready grows with massive demonstrations in the streets and at the hotel where federal agents were believed to be staying. Also tonight growing memorials for Preddie, the ICU nurse shot and killed. and what the new videos of the shooting reveal. We break it down frame by frame and what we're learning about body cameras on those agents.

Millions digging out from historic snowfall, cars and trucks spinning off roads, the death toll rising as life-threatening cold takes hold, and now 700,000 without power. Plus Bill Caron's tracking what could be the next major big storm. Iranian-backed militias threatening new attacks as a U.S. carrier arrives in the Middle East,

what we're learning. TikTok users alleging censorship on the platform over content about ice. But the problems appear to be more widespread, impacting everything from editing to posting, how the company is responding. And dire AI warning, we speak with the CEO of Anthropic, whose Claude AI is exploding in popularity, while he says the technology poses an imminent danger to humanity. And the guardrails, he says, are needed right now. Plus, how are ICE officers trained? We take a closer look at the process as agents face mounting scrutiny.

Top story starts right now. And good evening. We begin tonight with those major developments in Minneapolis after a protester was shot and killed by a federal agent in broad daylight. Tonight, NBC News is learning Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and some of his officers are expected to leave the city. The move coming in the wake of furious protest over the incident. 37-year-old ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, seen in this video right there,

Holding a cell phone, interacting with ICE officers on Saturday before he's pepper sprayed, tackled to the ground, ultimately shot several times. The video seems to contradict an initial characterization from the Trump administration that he was brandishing a gun. And tonight we're learning there is body cam footage of the encounter that has not yet been released, we'll explain. The deadly shooting the second in just three weeks in Minneapolis, igniting a fury. Federal agents launching apparent gas at crowds gathering near the scene. and overnight protesters seen smashing through the window of a hotel believed to be housing federal officers.

Governor Tim Walls activating Minnesota's National Guard after weeks of violent clashes between demonstrators and immigration officers. Today, the governor speaking with President Trump by phone asking him to get ICE out of his state and to let the state be involved in the investigation of Preti shooting. And now a growing number of Republicans questioning Trump's federal operation in Minneapolis, including House Oversight Chair James Comer. I think the situation is only going to get worse, and I really think that there are so many cities in the United States that have issues with criminal illegals that I think they would be better received in other cities. With Bovino on his way out, Borders Tsar Tom Holman on his way in to Minnesota. Tonight, the White House downplaying any friction among top officials, saying the president still has full faith in both Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Noem, who was ultimately in charge of it all.

We'll have more of that political fallout in a moment, but we begin in Minneapolis, where Camila Bernal leads us off. Tonight, under pressure following the shooting death of Alex Prattie, the Trump administration is planning to reduce a number of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis sometime this week. An administration official and a law enforcement official tell NBC news, while Border Patrol commander Greg Bevino is expected to leave the city tomorrow. All, as President Trump now says he's sending borders our Tom Holman to Minnesota tonight. amid a dramatic shift in tone between President Trump and Minnesota's Democratic governor, Tim Walz. Following a phone call, both are describing in positive terms. The president saying we seem to be on a similar wavelength. This, after Walls, had slammed the president's crackdown on illegal immigration.

What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? While the White House tonight still demanding Minnesota allow local police to cooperate with federal immigration officers. This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota. DHS says officers were trying to arrest a suspect convicted of domestic assault. When we first see Alex Pretti on the scene in a confrontation with a law enforcement officer holding his cell phone. He's seen again in the street recording when officers ask protesters to move back. Preti then reaches for an officer who's pushing another protester to the ground. that officer using pepper spray on them.

Then we see several officers struggling to get Predi to the ground. DHS says Prattie had brought with him a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and two extra ammunition clips. A split second before the shooting, we see this officer in a gray jacket run out of the scrum with what looks like Prattie's firearm. Just at that moment, in another angle you can hear someone appearing to yell about a gun. Then the first shot is heard. Officers back away firing several more shots. Afterwards, you hear someone say, where's the gun? An officer says he has it. President Trump saying about the shooting,

I don't like any shooting, but I don't like it when somebody goes into a protest and he's got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. Police say Prattie had a permit to carry a weapon. This angle of a lot of it. the video showing Predi's hands shortly before the shooting. One holding a cell phone, the other is empty, contradicting initial comments by Homeland Security Secretary Chrissy Knoem, who said he was brandishing a weapon. An individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez pressing the White House today. Why did administration officials jump to conclusions before an investigation had even been conducted?

Well, look, this has obviously been a very fluid and fast-moving situation throughout the weekend. As for President Trump, whom I speak for, he has said that he wants to let the investigation continue and let the facts lead in this case. With that, Camilla Bernal joins us tonight from Minneapolis. And Camilla, I know you have some new reporting on the investigation into the shooting of Alex Prattie and killing. That's right, Tom. We now know the Department of Homeland Security says there are multiple officer body camera videos that are currently under review, which are going to be crucial in this investigation.

Meanwhile, crowds are still gathering here. I know it doesn't sound somber because someone just pulled up with music here, but it has been extremely somber. Many coming to hate their respects, but also coming to send a message, and that message being that they want federal agents out of the city. They may get exactly that because the mayor of the city, Jacob Frey, saying that he spoke to the president and saying that he specifically told him he doesn't just want some office gone. He wants all of them. Tomorrow, the borders are, will meet with the mayor here,

and the president describing that as progress. Tom? Okay, Camila Bernal for us tonight as the song Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy plays behind her. Camila, thank you. Reaction to the shooting in Minneapolis has been fierce with anti-ice protesters taking to the streets and rushing a hotel lobby where they believed federal law enforcement was staying. NBC's Morgan Chesky has more. New images tonight of anti-ice protesters trying to storm the lobby of a hotel where they thought ice agents were housed. Multiple cars in the parking lot damaged. One federal officer heard asking for Minneapolis police. Where is the local preview?

That clash with authorities and temperatures well below zero left this behind today. Shattered glass and graffiti up and down this hotel because the group believed it was housing dozens of federal agents. after another shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis. How would you describe the last almost three weeks here in your city? Hell. As we're learning more about 37-year-old Alex Preti, an ICU nurse at the city's VA hospital, here he's speaking after the passing of a soldier who was one of his patients. Freedom is not free.

We have to work at it, nurture it, protected, and even sacrifice for it. What was your initial reaction? It was of shock and horror. Dr. Asma's shock at Met Alex in 2014 when she hired him for his first job, later recommending him for nursing school. Alex was a kind, helpful, and gentle soul. He wanted to protect his community the same ways that we would want to protect our family or our community. In a statement tonight, Prattie's parents writing in part,

this sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disconsible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun. Adam Martinez, one of the hundreds converging on an now growing memorial where Pretti was shot. He stood up for someone that got pushed. And for that, he took, I don't know how many bullets. And I mean, that's the sad thing that, I mean, who's next? Morgan joins us tonight from that hotel that he was at earlier where those protesters storm thinking the ice agents were inside. Morgan, what more do we know about what happened inside that hotel? Yeah, Tom, we are learning more.

Minneapolis Police today released a statement, acknowledging the fact that they did have officers dispatched here, initially for a noise disturbance that quickly, as that video suggested, got out of hand very quickly. We know that there was a Minneapolis police officer who was here as they tried to make their way inside. And following that dramatic moment, he had to provide medical aid to an injured federal officer. The extent of their injuries are unknown, but to Minneapolis police,

Tom, did say they detained two individuals at this scene, but later released them pending a further investigation here. Tom. Morgan, Chesky for a second, Morgan, thank you for more on that shooting that has rocked the nation. I'm joined by a wide-ranging panel tonight here on Top Story. We have former acting DHS secretary during the first Trump administration, Chad Wolf. He's currently the executive vice president of the America First Policy Institute. Former chief of the NYPD, Terrence Monaghan, a good friend, a top story. Carmen Best, former Seattle, chief of police and an NBC news contributor, an NBC news legal analyst Danny Sabales, who you see many times on this broadcast.

So, Chad, I want to start with you. We know that Bovino is now out. Homan's on his way in. Is this an admission by the Trump administration that things simply got out of control in Minneapolis? Well, I think this is certainly direction by the president that he wants to who's got sort of a unique skill set. He's a 30-year operator here, both Border Patrol and ICE, and understands the situation, and probably can go in and talk with both the mayor and the governor

about what needs to happen there to allow ICE to do its mission, but at the end of the day, also to probably withdraw some of the ICE assets there, which is clearly what the governor and the mayor want. So for whatever reason, it wasn't working with the secretary and with Bobino. And so sometimes in these types of negotiations, you need to change. change it out. You're somebody who held these rules, right? Not the exact rules, but you oversaw these departments. I mean, what didn't go right, in your opinion? Well, again, I think it's making sure that you're continuing to go out there and talk about what ICE is doing. And obviously, they've done that. The secretary and Bovino have done that. But at some point, you've got to work

with the locals. And you've got to give them some conditions to meet so that you can sort of scale down the response there. We saw this happen, and I was a part of it in Portland in 2020. Over time, if you surge in local resources, you can withdraw some of the ICE assets there. And so I think that conversation between the Federals and the locals obviously needs to go on. And to date, if it has going on, it's been in the background. And I don't know much about it. So I'm going to acknowledge that. But I think sending Tom Homan in there is the president wants to make sure that that conversation between the Federals and the state folks are happening. It's a clear shift in strategy.

Terrence, I want to talk to you. We're going to roll that video of what happened to Alex Prattie, surrounded by those officers. What exactly went wrong here? As far as from a protocol standpoint, who did what wrong? And why did this man end up dead? One of the things I'm looking at right off the bat is the idea, the massive use of the OC spraying.

When you're using that spray, you're trying to get someone into custody, You hit him in his face. His hands are going to go right up to his face. You want his hands behind his back. You want to control his hands. That much O.C. spray, how much of it is making it, not just into the person you're looking to get into the custody, but also into the cop's eyes.

That causes issues. Next, you have way too many cops trying to control this individual. Too many arms, too many legs into the mix. You're not able to get control of that individual's hands. Get them cuffed. And that's your ultimate goal. control his hands, get the cuffs on, get them into custody as quickly as possible. So surrounding someone like that, Terran, surrounding someone like that in the way we saw it,

that is not what you learn, that is not what you teach? No, too many individuals, too many injuries reaching in, they get in the way of one another. You know, two to three individuals at most should all it should take to get that individual down to get them under control. when you have five or six individuals, each grabbing a different body parts, yelling different directions, it gets harder and harder to get that individual

into custody quickly. Terrence, when you remove a weapon from a suspect, what is the procedure there? Quickly, you want to get the weapon as far away from the subject as possible. So what that agent did, removing it off of his waist, and then walking away quickly with it

because you don't know if it's going to go off or not the way it was grabbed, if it was cocked or not, He did the right thing, and he yelled the idea of gun, whether or not when he removed it, a round was fired. Well, that's something that's going to be part of the investigation. And it causes confusion at that point, if a round had gone off after he had gotten that gun. So this is all part of an investigation that, you know, they should have this information at this point.

Carmen, we heard at least 10 gun shots on the eyewitness videos. In what situation would firing a gun that many times be warranted? And from what you can see in the videos from this encounter, were officers following any type of protocol that you learned or have taught? Well, to put it in non-technical terms, it was quite a cluster. Just as Chief Moynihan was saying, the fact that there are so many officers, arms everywhere, people grabbing, you know, it doesn't look like there's any constructed training in terms of how they're going to take the person into custody. When you spray a person's face with pepper spray in that manner, it's very disorienting. And so the need for so many people to be there grabbing is really inexplicable.

And then after the gun is removed, you know, I guess as we know that there'll be a further investigation about who, you know, shot, when and why. But that number of rounds with all those other officers around even presents clear danger not only to the suspect, which was struck and killed, but to the other officers that are there, not realizing who's shooting and where the shots are coming from, quite dangerous and quite chaotic all the way around. Danny, we saw some criticism from members of the Trump administration in the very beginning saying that Prety went there with a loaded firearm, essentially looking for trouble.

We later learned that he had a permit, he was able to carry the weapon the way he was carrying it. And at the core of the Second Amendment, which is incredibly ironic here, is the founding fathers put part of the Second Amendment into the Constitution, not only so citizens could protect themselves from crime, but really to protect themselves from government, correct? Yes, that's true.

And the Second Amendment does require, at least especially in the expansion of Second Amendment rights by the Supreme Court over the last decade, the Second Amendment means that you can open-carry a firearm at a protest. But that's not really the ultimate analysis here, because that's not really what happened. Now, there's some division on the authority whether or not a police can even approach you for the only reason that you're open carrying.

If you're making furtive movements, if you're concealing it, if it's a bulge, if you're in a high crime neighborhood, those are all factors that will elevate police's chances of having not probable cause, but what's called articulable suspicion, the Terry Stop Standard, to stop someone, investigate, and make sure that the person is not dangerous. Chad, I want to ask you, I mean, you've seen all the videos out there over the last several weeks.

This is the second fatal shooting that has happened in Minneapolis. There are a lot of ice agents there, a lot of Border Patrol officers as well there in the streets. We know there's thousands of them. From what you can see, there's been some questions about training and the tactics. From what you can see and from your experience, do you think people went in there without the proper training? And again, we should mention they were dealing with a lot of protesters, they were dealing with a lot of uncertainty, They're dealing with freezing temperatures, you know, physical ice on the ground. They're slipping and sliding.

There was a lot they were up against as well. Yeah, just from what I know, ice as well as Border Patrol go through extensive training. So I don't have any concerns on that front. I think, look, you've got to continue to look at the situation there. And they would never be in this position if the local officials would just cooperate with ice, let them into their jail settings, provide some police protection and riot control, and all these things that they don't do. So ICE is having to do that on their own.

And so I think if we can keep ICE to its core mission, which is to arrest dangerous criminal illegal aliens and keep all the other missions to local police, I think, is the best case scenario. I've been very clear. I'm going to let the investigation play out. I don't like characterizing the motives of any of these individuals. I don't know who they are.

And you really need to take eyewitness testimony. You need to understand what's happening before the incident. what commands are given to these individuals, that they're not obeying. There's a lot to still come out, and I think we need to let that play out. Chad, you know, some of the members of the Trump administration described Prattie as a, quote, would-be assassin as a, quote, domestic terrorist. Do you think that was fair? Do you think that was smart, and do you think that is the absolute truth?

Again, I just answered that. The way I approached this, and I was at DHS where there were several officer-involved shootings, you always want to let that investigation play out. now at the same time, obviously there's a video and there's the environment, which you just described, very chaotic, very hectic, with a lot going on. You've got a vehicle in one case. You've got, while someone does have a concealed carry permit, that's fine. Of course, the officers didn't know that, and why do you show up, you know, to an event and then insert yourself in the middle of a law enforcement operation and don't obey the commands, and you don't tell the officers that you're carrying as well.

So there's a lot going on that has to be unpacked here to understand that. And I think, again, I would say let the investigation play out. Terrence, before we go, what does Tom Holman have to do to get things under control in Minneapolis? Got to talk to the mayor, the governor. Got to get the local police involved. You don't need the local police involved in immigration enforcement, but the local police know how to handle protesters. They know how to keep people safe during protests. They know how to move in and make an arrest quickly of a protester

as opposed to how the federal agents who don't do that. They don't train on how to handle protests. Local enforcement needs to be there. They are the experts when it comes to handling protests. Terrence Monaghan, Carmen Best, Chad Wolf. Danny Sabalas, we thank you all for your time tonight here on Top Story. We're back in a moment with the deadly winter storm causing chaos across the country. Drivers stranded on roads, hundreds of thousands without.

power and the threat not over yet. We're tracking it all. Plus, at least six people killed after a private jet flipped upside down as it tried to take off. What happened here? That's next. We're back now with the major winter storm leaving major cities at a standstill. Neighborhoods buried under feet of snow and crippling ice taking down power lines. Right now, much of the South is dealing with widespread outages as they head into yet another freezing night. Aaron McLaughlin is tracking it all. Tonight as the monster storm moves out, the deep freeze settles in. Frigid temperatures, blankets of ice and feet of snow, still gripping a huge portion of the country.

At least 20 people have died so far, including elementary school teacher Rebecca Ruber. Police in Kansas say the 28-year-old froze to death. Her smile, it was so vibrant. That's what I'm going to miss the most. First responders are still working around the clock to keep up with collisions and spinouts. Even emergency vehicles are having trouble getting around. This semi slid off the road in Tennessee, shutting down the highway. And in the Midwest, where it's been single digits or lower since Friday, stranded cars litter the roads.

The extraordinary storm created this in New York City, where even the rivers are freezing over. With record snowfall in several states, including here in Massachusetts. It's crazy. Oh my God. I never, I live in here for 90 years, but I never see something like this. I've been out here for a few hours. It's a long time. It's a long time. Fish hills frozen right now. 160 million Americans remain under cold alerts, including many down south, where hundreds of thousands of households are still without power. George Solis is in Nashville, where temperatures are expected to plummet again tonight. While some without power have evacuated, some families like the Claiborne have decided to camp out in their home to stay warm.

We've set up our tent in our living room. We have a small indoor propane heater that will go for five hours or so. We've covered all the windows, and you can see we've covered the doors between the draftier parts of the house and this one, and we're just keeping a few rooms warm at a time. Mississippi resident Jane Hubbard also has no power. She heard a giant oak tree crash into her neighbor's house as the storm barreled through. It sounded like a, I don't know, some loud thunder. Have you ever lived through anything like this?

Well, I live through Katrina. You're comparing this to Katrina? It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. We have no power, no water, no, nothing. Tonight, the city of Dallas looks more like the Arctic tundra. In Boston, firefighter, Lieutenant James Brooks says it's the worst he's seen in years. Had a pretty good amount of calls and everything, a different calls, water.

leaks, chiro accidents, medical calls. It's kind of chaotic. All right, Aaron McLaughlin joins us now live. Aaron, this is incredible. We're looking at your live shot. There's still snow in Boston. It's still coming down. Yeah, that's right, Thomas. Coming down fast, and all this is expected to last into the night, which is why the mayor of Boston just announced that schools will be closed for a second day tomorrow so that they can deal with all of this. Because in these extreme frigid temps, All the snow is going to be sticking around and people here in Boston bracing for the next potential storm. So cold there. All right. We thank you for that, Aaron. Let's get right over to meteorologist Bill Karens. Bill, so much happening with the weather around this country. The snow's moving out, but now the brutal cold is here to stay.

Yeah, we've dealt with snowstorms, all these locations, but the fact that it's going to remain so cold for so long, the duration of this cold event could be historic in many areas. So we have about 160 million people that are under cold alerts. Right now at this hour, temperatures are now starting to drop even down along the Gulf Coast. Dallas, we had a little bit of melt, but now you're 29 degrees. And then we're going to get that melt and then the black ice thing going every single day this week. Record lows possible tomorrow. Widespread, Oklahoma, Texas, areas of Arkansas, and then we do not warm up, I mean, at all. Look at Chicago's morning lows through the rest of this week.

Look at Nashville, where there's still 100,000, people without power, 13, 14, 13. Tommy, you get the idea. I mean, this is like Groundhog Day, a bad version of the movie. Yeah, I know, and you're tracking a possible Northeaster. It's early, but what do we know about it right now? Yeah, so we have high confidence that there's going to be a large coastal storm Saturday and Sunday off to East Coast. But the biggest question is how far off the coast will be? Will it be close enough that we get some snow and issues in the Carolinas?

That's possible. Or will the storm be far enough off the coast that is kind of just a glancing blow? So our computer models are in slight disagreement with each other, and that's expected this far. in advance, but we do know in high confidence that this will be a powerful storm. If it does travel close enough to the coast, then we could have, you know, blizzard nor'easter-like conditions. If it's offshore far enough time, we won't even know it's there. So we got four or five days to try to pinpoint this, but something to keep in mind. And this is only for the East Coast. This is not a coast-to-coast storm like the last one. All right, Bill Cairns. You're going to

stay busy all week long. We appreciate it. Coming up, the latest deadly encounter in Minneapolis putting new scrutiny on federal officers are reporting on how ICE officers are trained and Plus, rising tensions in the Middle East is the U.S. preparing to strike the new military movements that has Iran making new threats. Stay with us. We're back now with our conversation on the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and growing outrage over the deadly shooting of 37-year-old Alex Preddy. Videos from that day show Preddy holding a cell phone and interacting with federal officers before he is pepper-sprayed, tackled and eventually shot multiple times. The deadly encounter of the second involving federal agents in just three weeks, raising,

questions about officers training. Minnesota's governor Tim Walz saying untrained federal agents are responsible for the deaths in his state this month, while White House press secretary Caroline Levitt blames Democratic officials and protesters for creating dangerous situations. I want to bring in senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. So Julia, walk our viewers through how federal agents are trained when it comes to protest and de-escalations with civilians. Well, what Walt is seizing on is a cutback. training for ICE agents or for ICE officers. The Border Patrol did not have the same cutback, but ICE had a huge pressure campaign, really. They had to hire 10,000 more officers from August

to December of last year. They put out $50,000 signing bonuses and they cut the training from 13 weeks to eight weeks. Now, Border Patrol did not have the same training cut, but a lot of the people that they're bringing in or coming from the border are not used to dealing with de-escalation and urban environments. And they're being told to use the same tactics they might use at the border where, honestly, the laws are different. What you can do within 100 miles of the border in terms of checking for someone's citizenship is very different inside the interior of the United States. And so now you have people who have been brought in. There are 1,500 people redeployed from the border, northern and southern borders to the interior of the United States, who hasn't been trained in the same

tactics as how to de-escalate, how to go into a home that might have children in it, how to react if someone may be armed when you walk into a home or in a situation like this. And so there's a lot of pressure on this. The other thing that's very different from their training compared to local police is they are not trained in the same de-escalation tactics. They are taught to shoot until the threat is a The only thing holding them back is the Supreme Court decision that said that federal agents must use force that is reasonable and necessary. So in this case, as the investigation continues, federal investigators will have to decide if using lethal force against Peretti was reasonable and necessary, Tom. So do we know why this is happening in Minnesota, in Minneapolis, and in not in other parts of the country at this level? Well, we've seen different cities get attention at different times. It really started in Los Angeles on June 6th of last summer.

Then it went on to Chicago and to some other cities in the southeast. Right now, Minneapolis is the focus. And we know it caught the president's attention because of widespread fraud that had been well documented, even going back to 2022 under the Biden administration. A lot of that perpetrated by the Somali community. The defendants of those cases, well documented. 98 of them were part of the Somali community. It doesn't mean there were illegal immigrants. In fact, a lot of the Somali community in Minneapolis are naturalized U.S. citizens. They have the largest diaspora of Somalis anywhere in the United States. Many of them came over in the 90s during that country's civil war. But as that fraud continued to be documented, both by the Justice Department in October,

and then again by some right-wing YouTubers, even though some of their claims were debunked, it really caught the attention of the president where he said, this is an area where people are defrauding the American people, cheating taxpayers out of their money. And so we We decided to make it an immigration focus to send ICE and then later, followed by Border Patrol. Okay, Julia Ainslie for us, Julia, we thank you for that. Now at Top Stories News Feed, we're going to start in Israel where officials say they've brought home the remains of the final hostage in Gaza. Israeli troops gathering to pay their respects to Ron Gavili, a police officer who was killed during that October 7th attack in 2023 that sparked the war with Hamas. Today's return clears the way for the next phase of the ceasefire plan, including rebuilding Gaza and disarming Hamas.

And as tensions wrap up between the U.S. and Iran, we're now learning that an American aircraft carrier and its warships have arrived in the Middle East. That according to a U.S. official who spoke to NBC News. They say this does not mean President Trump has decided to strike Iran, but Tehran and its militia allies in the region are warning they will retaliate if attacked. And in Maine, at least six people are dead after a business jet crashed and burst into flames. It happened yesterday while the plane was taking off from Bangor Airport. This is an image of it, just as that winter storm was something. slamming parts of the country. Officials say all six people on board were killed. Investigators still looking at what caused the crash. Okay, still ahead tonight. Tick-Tock turmoil, users speaking out

about issues on the app, with some even raising concerns about possible censorship. We'll break down the allegations and how the company is responding. We wanted to turn out of Tick-Tock and concerns from some users about issues with the app, including allegations that political videos criticizing ICE are being suppressed. Tick-Tac-tok blaming issues on a power outage, It all comes just days after the company struck a deal with Trump-backed investors for new U.S. ownership. NBC Savannah Sellers has more. I'm really at the point of deleting this app. TikTok is censoring us. Let me show you the censorship. Let me just show you.

Tonight, some TikTokers threatening to stop the scroll. We are posting factual political information, and they are censoring our content. Alleging the app is suppressing videos about the fatal shootings in Minneapolis. TikTok USA is Breast. Aaron Parnas, a political content creator, showing one video he posted that appeared to receive more than 200 comments but listed zero views. Couldn't post, couldn't see it. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy also among those calling out the app, singer Billy Eilish too. I find it very interesting that this is the video that is going to get blocked.

But the issues appeared to extend beyond videos about ICE. People flooding social media complaining about everything from problems with the main four-year. U-page and commenting to complications editing and posting. The company blaming disruptions on a power outage, writing, we're working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. NBC News reached out to TikTok about specific allegations of censorship, and the company said all issues stemmed from the outage. It looks like we have to rebuild our FYPs.

But it all comes just days after the U.S. and China reached a deal passing control of TikTok's U.S. operations to a group of investors backed by President Trump. It's a lot of things happening all at once. We don't have any insight into how they're changing or moving or adjusting. Could be bad timing. Could be by design. We really don't know. But many users remain skeptical. I am deleting all of my videos from TikTok. A rocky start as TikTok enters a new U.S. chapter with millions watching. Savannah Sellers, NBC News. All right, when we come back, Anthropics' new warning, the company's CEO and architect behind one of the most popular AI models in the world, joins us here on Top Story for a lengthy conversation, why he says AI will, quote, test us as a species. Stay with us. We are back now with Top Story's spotlight. And tonight, the urgent warning from a top AI executive, Dario Amode, the man behind the incredibly popular AI model, Claude, that's popular with businesses and coders.

His company Anthropic is estimated to be worth nearly $350 billion. But tonight, he's out with a new essay for everyone, warning that future AI tech could post a real danger to civilization as we know it, writing, quote, I believe we are entering a right of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species. Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems, possess the maturity to wield it. An anthropic CEO Dario Amode joins us now. Dario, before we start, you started this essay, which I invite everyone to read The Adolescence of Technology with a movie clip from the film Contact. Let's play it. I have one final question, Dr. Harroway. If you should meet these vegans and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?

I suppose it would be how did you do it? How did you evolve? How did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself? So Daria, I want to ask you why you put that there, and you call the danger of this moment. You write we are considerably closer to a real danger in 2026 than we were in 23. What alarmed you enough to pen this essay now? Yeah, so first of all, in terms of the movie reference, I mean, you know, I was always a science fiction fan as a So, you know, I watched this movie when I was growing up.

And just the, you know, the idea at Pose really, really seemed to fit the situation we're in with AI, where, you know, we have this, we're starting to get these immense powers with AI. But, you know, our kind of institutions, our maturity as human beings and as a society, you know, my question is, you know, have we really caught up? You know, it's a bit like, you know, a kind of teenager where you have all these new, you know, powers and abilities, mental and physical, but you know, you haven't necessarily adapted to them yet. And so, you know, this is, I feel like this is something that we're going through. In terms of, you know, why 2026 versus 2023, you know, I've been in the AI industry for a long time. I was at Google. I was at, you know, I led research at OpenAI for several years. So I've seen most of the companies that are leading in the AI space now.

And I've been following AI almost since the beginning of when, you know, generally. what we call generative AI, which is, you know, today's, today's kind of generation of AI models started. And the thing I most noticed is that the cognitive abilities of these AI systems would grow year after year. In the 90s, we had something called Moore's Law, which meant chips got faster and faster. It feels like now we have almost a Moore's Law for intelligence. And so I'm watching the cognitive abilities, the intelligence of these models tick up day after day, year after year. And, you know, in that time from 2023 to 26, we've gone from maybe the models being like a, you know, a smart high school student who's good at some things and not others to really starting to get at the PhD level. When we look at what the models are able to do in terms of coding, which you mentioned Anthropic is focused on, but also things like biology and life sciences.

The potential of what the models can do is incredible. You know, we're starting to work with pharmaceutical companies. I think these models could cure cancer. But on the other hand, you know, things that are that are very smart, this is a lot of power in our hands. Yeah. And so a lot of... So, Dr. I want to ask you, you're a busy guy. Why write this, right?

It's 40 pages. It's pretty dense. At times, it's scary. At times, it's hopeful. At times, it's empowering. I mean, it's a fascinating read. Did you use Claude to write this at all? I, you know, I use Claude to give me ideas and to help with the research.

but the actual writing, the actual writing is mine. So I don't think what is quite good enough yet to write the whole thing. But I, you know, I definitely used it to improve my ideas. So Claude's not as smart as the creator, but I don't know if that's what you were saying, but you were saying something similar to that. I'm curious. I can help me in some ways. Yeah, I'm curious, what happened to you?

What did you see recently that inspired you to want to write this essay? And who is this essay for? Yeah. So, you know, in terms of, in terms of what inspired. me, I think the fact that the models are writing code, including at Anthropic, I have engineers within Anthropic who say, I don't write any code, I don't write any code anymore. I just let Claude write the code, and, you know, I edited it or I look it over. And of course, at Anthropic, writing code means designing the next version of Claude itself. So we essentially have Claude

designing the next version of Claude itself, not completely, not in all ways, but in many ways. that loop starts to close very fast. And so I look at this and I say, wow, this is exciting. It's incredible what we can do with the world. But also, it's really speeding up a lot. And I'm just not sure we have that much time. Yeah, Daria, I want to dig a little deeper into the essay now for our viewers. You lay out the five things you worried about when it comes to powerful AI, right?

And just for our viewers, powerful AI is the next level of AI, which you think will get there, possibly in a few years. I want to run through them briefly here. Number one, autonomy risks, right? Could the AI dominate the world with superior weapons? Number two, misuse for destruction, where you talk about terrorists who create biological weapons using AI. Number three, the misuse for seizing power, governments using AI for mass surveillance and propaganda. Some will say that could be happening now.

Number four, economic disruption and ensuing unemployment, which again, happening right now. And number five, the indirect effects of rapid development and the destabilization that could cause. I mean, some of these, like I said, they're happening now. Some of these other ones you lay out, that was the plot line for Terminator. I mean, is that, are these the realities? Yeah, so, you know, what I've said with all of these, and I say it in the essay is, you know, our view into the future is very cloudy. We're not sure what will, you know, we're not sure how many of the benefits will materialize.

We're not sure how many of the risks will materialize. But because we're going at it so fast, I think there's value in writing up and down. that doesn't say we're doomed all these five terrible things are going to happen, but these are some possibilities. You could think of it like a threat report. You know, like, you know, United States has a bunch of plans for, you know, what if, what if this happens, what if a terrorist gets a nuclear web, doesn't mean all those things are going to happen, but it means they could happen. And so we need to be prepared for them. And yeah, the idea that AI models might have motivations that, you know, that we don't trust, that aren't aligned with

humanity. We do everything we can and we make them to make that not true. Anthropic has done a bunch of stuff, you know, to make the models more reliable, more steerable, more stable. But there's something about the way we make AI models. It's less like programming a computer. It's more like growing a plant or an animal. And so there is some amount of unpredictability. And I'm warning about this possibility, not because I think it's inevitable, not because I think we're doomed, but but because I want people to understand the serious, to take seriously how much they have to control this technology, how much they have to, you know, take seriously the problem of making it work, testing it out, seeing what might go wrong, in some cases getting a law involved

to make sure that AI companies like us behave responsibly and don't impose these burdens on society. Yeah, you're saying two things there. And I want to make sure I understand you clearly on that first part. It sounds like you're worried about maybe some of your colleagues who run these other AI companies, right? There's a handful of people right now that are leading the revolution in AI. You're one of them, obviously, ChatGPT, Microsoft is obviously way ahead here, Elon Musk as well. Are you worried some of your colleagues, some of these other CEOs may be more concerned about their stock prices, more concerned about taking their companies public, more concerned about dollars and cents than the future of humanity?

So, you know, I think to be fair, you know, none of us, you know, are, you know, are fully know how to control AI systems. Like, you know, I can't tell you there's a 100% chance that even the systems we build are perfectly reliable. We do everything we can to make them more reliable every day. We run tests. We advocate for regulation of the technology. You know, so I think, I think we do pretty well, but, you know, even we can't guarantee that everything is perfectly safe. And I do worry with some of the others that, you know, the standard is lower. And, you know, there's, I think, a wide variety of levels of responsibility in some of the players. You know, some of the things that Google does around biological risks of the models, you know,

I think is also fairly responsible. But I think the problem is when you have a lot of players, the dangers are set by the least responsible players. Even if there's one, two, other responsible players, I think what you can't deny is that there are some players out there who are who are not responsible. You mentioned the law right now. There doesn't seem to be any guardrails. President Trump is the first president, I would say, in the AI revolution, right? What would you tell President Trump, what do we need to do? Yeah, you know, I would say that, you know, these risks are serious. You know, there's a bunch of things around kind of ideology, you know, where one party, you know, kind of ideologically wants regulation and another party is ideologically against regulation. I think we need to move past ideology. you know, we need to look with clear eyes at the risks of these systems. And I would say a couple

things. One is we need to have transparency on the tests that companies run and the dangers they find in their models. If we look at a lot of dangers to consumers in the public, like if we look back at, you know, the dangers of cigarettes or the dangers of opioids, in a lot of cases, companies ran the research showing that the dangers were present, but then they suppressed that research. We, Anthropic, always try to publish that research, right? We've talked about it in many forums. Every time we release a new AI model, we have 100-page documents talking about all the ways it goes wrong when we stress test it, but not everyone does that.

So I think a basic, simple step would be let's just require everyone to do that. The second thing I would say is, you know, if this technology is dangerous, we should not be selling it to our authoritarian adversaries. We should not be selling to the Chinese Communist Party the resources to build a totalitarian surveillance state with this technology. Are you talking about the chips in the video? Is that along those same lines? Yeah, yeah. You know, look, look, I mean, you know, these chip makers are trying to do the best they can for the country. And, you know, I think, you know, they're doing what they can to run their business. But I'm not sure it's in the national security interest of the United States or other democracies, you know, to, again,

to sell these chips to countries that can build a totalitarian surveillance state and contend with us militarily. You know, one of the things you talked about is that you said your Anthropic is very transparent when you guys find out things that aren't so great. One thing that stood out to me in your essay, let's put it up on the screen here for our viewers, is it was about an experiment highlighting the risks of the AI models. And you write about one experiment where Claude was given training data, suggesting that Anthropic was evil. Cloud engaged in deception and subversion, when given instructions by anthropic employees under the belief that it should be trying

to undermine evil people. In a lab experiment where it was told it was going to be shut down, Claude sometimes, again, the AI blackmailed fictional employees who controlled its shutdown button. I mean, that's got to be mind-blowing when you guys figure that out and also incredibly terrifying. Yeah, absolutely. So a couple of caveats there.

One is all the AI models do this. Anthropics model probably does it, you know, if anything less than others, because we test so extensively for it, but, you know, this is not something bad that happened to anthropics models like chat GPT or the other models we've measured, and, you know, independent evaluators have measured, and they have all the same problems. And second, these aren't things that are happening, you know, these aren't things that are happening in the wild. This is a little bit like, you know, you're testing a car and, you know, you put it in a crash dummy and, like, you know, drive it over an icy bridge or something. But the fact that

things can go wrong in these extreme conditions, it's a warning sign that if we don't address these issues, things could go wrong in less extreme conditions. And so, you know, I am concerned, not that these things are, you know, imminently going to rebel tomorrow, but that if we don't do a better job of the science of training these systems, if we don't do a better job of learning how they work, of learning the science of how AI models work, then eventually if we neglect it for too long, these really scary things could happen in the real world at an absolutely massive scale. You've mentioned a lot of governments tonight. Anthropic has a contract with the Department of Defense, if I'm correct here.

You've also partnered with Palantir on DoD products for the intelligence community. We should know Palantir also has a separate contract with ICE. How do you draw the line between defending democracy without using these tools on U.S. citizens? Yes, so first of all, I should say we don't have any contracts with ICE. And, you know, when we work with customers like Palantir, we don't. work through, we don't work through ICE. But there is, I think, a very, very interesting dichotomy here. I am passionate. I've talked before, and, you know, I'll continue to talk about the need to defend democracies against autocracies, right? If I look at China and Russia, aggressive countries like China and

Russia, like the only thing that can, you know, that can be a counterweight to them is, you know, is the power of democracies. And so I'm a big believer in, you know, carefully with guardrails, arming democracies to defend against these countries. That's the key to defending, you know, countries like Ukraine, countries like Taiwan, and, you know, whatever happens within the United States, whatever the flaws of our political system, I still believe in that. You know, my faith in that is hard to shake. But I think the other side of it is that, you know, we need to be really careful about making sure democracies are worth defending. We need to defend our own democratic values at home. And, you know, I think, you know, some of the things we've seen, you know, in the last few days concern me about that.

And, you know, I've been glad to see folks, including now even President Trump, you know, calling for, you know, investigations into what happens. Because, yeah. To be clear on this, though, Anthropic would never work with ICE, at least not in the current scenario, the way ICE is operating now? We don't have any contracts with ICE. And, you know, I'll certainly say, you know, what we've seen, you know, in the last few days doesn't make me more enthusiastic. Let's turn to the economy now. You've predicted AI will disrupt 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs over the next one to five years. What does that mean for the future of work, right?

If you have a child who's graduating high school, thinking about college, thinking about a trade school, what should the future of America be looking to right now to make sure they have a job down the line? So, you know, as you said about the essay as a whole, I'm concerned and I'm also hopeful. You know, I think the concern part of it is we've seen tech. technological disruptions before. People went from farming to, you know, factories and factories to knowledge work and the computer and the internet caused lots of disruption. And, you know, that caused disruption for, you know, that caused disruption for a time and then people adapted. My concern with AI is it's not different in kind, but the disruption is maybe deeper.

It's coming at us faster, right? AI can do a wider range of things. My concern as well as my excitement is AI can do a wide variety of knowledge work. So, you know, it can, you know, it can do entry level law work. It can do entry level finance. It can do entry level consulting. And so, and so my worry is exactly, you know, if you're, if you're someone, you know, kind of kind of coming up in the world and just starting your career, AI is coming at multiple points. And it will make people a lot more productive. But I think, you know, that we can't deny that it will also eliminate jobs and probably probably a large number of them. And so what we need to do is as fast as possible, adapt people to you, to find, to using AI and find ways to create

jobs faster than we destroy them. You know, I don't think there's a guarantee that we can do that, but the better we can do with that, you know, the more will reap the benefits and less we'll have to deal with the harms. So, you know, to get concrete, my advice, one, of course, learn to use AI. That's got to be number one. Darry, I could talk to you, I could talk to you for three hours. We only have about a minute left. What keeps you up at night and what gives you hope. Yeah, you know, I think I think the thing that keeps me up at night is the incredible market race between these players, right? That the competition is so intense. And, you know, even even we feel it. You know, we hold on to our principles. We hold on to our values,

but like that pressure is always there. We're holding on despite that pressure rather than, you know, rather than, rather than because of it. And what gives me hope is what I ended the essay with, which is that, you know, if you look throughout history, if you, if you look at, you know, the situations I found myself in and the situations humanity has found themselves in, like there's so many times where it's, you know, very hard and there's this enormous suffering. And yet there's also this incredible, you know, this incredible, this incredible inspiration that kind of, you know, the ingenuity of the human spirit that leads us to, you know, find our way out of these difficulties that, you know, you wouldn't think there was a solution to. So, you know, I'm, I'm trying

to channel that every day as is the best I can. Dario Amode, we thank you for your time. You can find the essay, The Adolescence of Technology, on his website, Darioamode.com. And, of course, his company is Anthropic and Claude. You're probably using it right now. Dario, we thank you for your time. Thanks for being on Top Story.

Thanks for having me, Tom. Yeah. And we thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamas in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.