Top Story with Tom Llamas - Monday, January 27, 2025

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

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, President Trump's immigration crackdown ramping up, and NBC News goes inside the raids. ICE agents going door to door as single-day arrests reach a record high. We have a rare look inside an ICE processing center. One man in custody telling us he's lived here most of his life and will be leaving his five-year-old behind. And this evening, we speak with Dr. Phil, who also took a ride along with immigration enforcement, what he saw on the streets of Chicago and why he was there. Also tonight, better than chat GPT, China's new AI assistant rocking the U.S. markets. The Chinese say it was made for less than $6 million, way cheaper than the billions spent on AI in America.

We compare Deep Seek with ChatGPT and show you what the Chinese version refuses to answer. Plus, a former New York State trooper claimed he was shot in the line of duty. Now, prosecutors say it was all made up how he allegedly staged the attack. Apple watched to the rescue a group of skiers left stranded after falling 1,000 feet, the SOS message that led rescuers right to them. The explosive museum heist thieves blowing up a door and getting away with precious ancient artifacts, a crisis team now hunting them down. And marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz,

we hear from some of the last living Holocaust survivors now returning to the site where they witnessed and experienced the horrors of the night. Nazis. Plus, creating an iron dome in the U.S., the new move from President Trump to create a missile defense system. Top story starts right now. And good evening. Tonight marks one week since President Trump took office. And right now, immigration enforcement operations are escalating. Agents descending on major U.S. cities, you see it right here. Rounding up and arresting people, they say, are undocumented. criminals. But the move is being met with backlash, as you can imagine. You see protest

here in Dallas, demonstrators concerned that law-abiding migrants, and those with permits are also being taken away. And this just in, ICE agents arrested nearly 1,200 people on Sunday and increased from previously released numbers. But NBC News tonight, exclusively reporting nearly half of those arrests were of people who didn't have prior criminal records. Sunday marks the highest number of apprehensions for this new administration. States are also taking action. Florida is considering ending in-state tuition for dreamers and requiring police to assist ICE. And Tennessee is debating making it a felony for communities to pass sanctuary city laws. We have a lot to get to tonight, starting with

NBC News White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez. Tonight, President Trump's promise crackdown on illegal immigration is underway. We get a firsthand look in Chicago, riding along with ICE agents at dawn. We are putting more resources towards enforcement now. The first stop in apartment complex. No one answered the door. They're not allowed to go inside, so we're moving on. It can take a team of federal officers hours to make one arrest.

I think on this team we're close to 10. Close to 10. Just going after one. That's a lot of non-power. It is. We're now heading to the northwest part of the city. Yesterday they couldn't find one particular 25-year-old from Mexico with a lengthy criminal history. But this morning, a surveillance team has just seen him at work. When we arrive at a tire

shop, 25-year-old Christopher Lata is arrested outside. ICE says he has a criminal record, including home invasion and aggravated battery. Agents lead him away in handcuffs. A resident here telling us he supports President Trump's deportations. I don't mind an immigrant, but if they're breaking our laws, they don't need to be here. A senior administration official tells NBC News, ICE arrested nearly 1,200 undocumented immigrants on Sunday. Some wanted for assault and armed robbery, but adding only about half had prior criminal records, in addition to being in the country illegally. Do you expect collateral arrests in these operations? Yeah, you know, I definitely expect it to happen. I mean, we have the laws on the books and our officers are out there.

Overnight, the president's mass deportation plan leading to a showdown with Columbia. After that country's president abruptly turned away two U.S. military aircraft with deportees. saying a migrant is not a criminal and should be treated with the dignity a human being deserves. Trump quickly threatening the country with a 25% tariff on all Colombian goods. The country's president backed down, according to the White House, agreeing to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of migrants. Back near Chicago, this woman is devastated because her father was arrested this morning. It breaks my heart, she says.

And at an ice processing center, there's Christopher Lada, the man we saw arrested earlier. He denies the charges against him. I went to school my whole life here, from preschool all the way in my senior year. Facing possible deportation to Mexico, he also says he'd leave behind a five-year-old daughter. He does have serious charges and convictions, so I understand he has a daughter, and that's unfortunate, but we still have a job to do, and we still have to follow the law. Gabe Gutierrez joins us tonight live from Chicago. Gabe, I want to let our viewers know we're going to have much more on what happened with Columbia later in our broadcast.

But I do want to talk about your new exclusive reporting. Nearly half of the people that were arrested in the raids over the weekend were not criminals or have no criminal records, we should say. Their offense was that they were in the country illegally, though the Trump administration said they would start with criminals. It seems that they're rounding up all types of undocumented immigrants. Well, Tom, these operations are very complex, and it can be difficult for some of these ICE agents to focus on just people with criminal records, although they say that's what they try to do. But as you said, a senior administration official telling us that the 1,200 people or so, of the 1,200 people or so that arrested on Sunday, nearly half, did not have those prior criminal records. Now, I spoke with Bordersard Tom Homan yesterday, and he'll say that all of those undocumented immigrants were breaking the law. So in effect, they were criminals.

But this is all very concerning to immigrant advocates here who fear that those so-called collateral arrest, people swept up in these ICE operations, that they will continue and will be ramped up. So this is something that we'll have to see how it plays out in the coming weeks, Tom. All right, Gabe Gutier is leading us off. Riding along on one of those ice raids as we saw there in Chicago was Dr. Phil McGraw, the TV host embedded with U.S. immigration enforcement officers. operation in Chicago on Sunday, defending President Donald Trump's deportation effort. Here's a clip of one of those arrests carried out with the Trump administration borders are Tom Homan.

I'm not the center. I'm not talking about lawyer. Yeah. Are you a citizen? My mom's a citizen. Your mother's a citizen? Yes. But you're not? Nope. But you've never been deported before? We've got to Dr. Phil. Yeah? How do you know? No, I've seen Dr. Phil, you know, on TV. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, this is an example of Sanctuary Cities, right? We've got an illegal family convicted of sex crimes involving children. He's walking the streets of Chicago. Again, the downfall, the problem with the Sanctuary City that people like us walk in the street rather than not the law enforcement working with federal agents, this is what we're dealing with. with you've been charged with sex crimes with children not really not really all right and with that dr phil mcgraw joins top story once again he's the host of dr phil primetime on merit tv dr phil it's great to see you again so dr phil i'm going to ask you this very plainly right everyone knows who you are you're a psychologist holof fame broadcaster you're a celebrity

what exactly were you doing there this weekend on those rates? Well, Tom, thanks for having me again. It's good to see you again. This is something that I deal with what people are interested in and how it's impacting their lives. And our viewing audience is very interested in these immigration laws and what's happening. It was one of the top issues on people's minds culturally and what's impacting their families.

And we talk about the things that people are interested in on merit TV. And what we want to do is show them with full transparency what's actually happening. And, you know, there's been a lot of talk out there about sweeping through neighborhoods, just picking up people indiscriminately. And I wanted to see that was happening. Part of my embedding within this group was to ask Tom Homan hard questions. I ask him, are you just sweeping through neighborhoods and picking up people that are here illegally? And he said, no, that's not our intention.

We have, our plan right now is worst first. We're going after those that have the worst criminal records first. And this is a surgical, tactical plan to go in and get those people. And sanctuary cities are not letting them know when they have these people in custody so they can come to the jail and pick them up. And what's happening with sanctuary cities is they're creating that which they want the least. And that is they're causing these agents, as Gabe was talking about, to go into the communities and arrest these people on the job or in their neighborhoods. And when they go in to get someone that's a violent criminal, whoever's with them, they're going to find out who those people are, and they may wind up arresting them as well. Because when they run into someone that is in the country illegally, they are going to detain them and move them for deportation.

That's not going to happen if they'll let them know when these people are in jail and being released back into the community. They picked them up right there. Phil, from what you saw were these undocumented immigrants being treated humanely? Absolutely. I was there at 4 a.m. when they had the debriefing. This was a multi-agency meeting with ICE, D-EA, A-T-F, FBI, U.S. Marshals. And their number one concern was the safety of their agents, of all the people in the community, and of the people that they were targeting. even though they're criminals, they were very concerned with their safety and getting them detained out of the community and into custody safely. They said, let's make sure everybody gets them safely today. Dr. Phil, so you heard Gabe's reporting there, my conversation with him,

of the nearly 1,200 people arrested on Sunday, nearly half of those people weren't considered people with criminal records, right? Their offense was that they were here illegally. You just said you were told the worst first. It appears, at least on this day, that's not exactly what happened. Again, as Gay pointed out, it's very complex. But does it so doubt now with Americans and maybe with the world that it is going to be around up? It's not just the worst first. It's whoever they can grab. Is that your sense? Absolutely not. But let me tell you, they're in the country illegally, and Tom Holman's intention is, if you're in the country illegally, you need to self-deport. because if they catch you in the country illegally, you could be barred for coming back into the country for a number of years.

And if they're forced into the community to arrest these people, they are going to check everyone that's with them at the time. And that's going to mean more people are arrested sooner and taken out of the country before they have an opportunity to leave voluntarily and then apply to come back in. So I'm not surprised that there are people that are being arrested, detained, and processed for deportation that are not violent criminals because they're being forced into the community to arrest these people that they could be picking up in jail and not encountering those people that aren't violent criminals. Last question here, Dr. Phil. Part of the country illegally. Last question for you. Let's combine your psychology and the politics, if you will. Will President Trump, because the polls have showed that a majority of people, do want undocumented images? immigrants to be deported, right? The polling is on his side. But if they start deporting the people who were here illegally but not committing crimes and they separate families or they're taking

people out who have children who may be born in this country are considered Americans, will Trump sort of lose the country or at least the people who are favoring deporting the people right now if they start to see those images? Look, I don't think anybody wants to see families fragmented. time. They've done a good job. They're paying taxes. They're contributing. And I think there is some legislation afoot that I'm beginning to hear about where people could have an opportunity to get work permits and to, if they self-deport, to come back in under visas and things of that nature, where they could have a way to be here and find a path back to the United States. And everybody wants that. You know, Tom, I'm very pro-immigration. We need immigrants in this country. We need

them for the workforce. We need their talents, their skills, their abilities. We need so many things that immigrants bring. Our birth rate is too low. We need immigration in this country. We're a country of immigrants. So I think there's got to be a way to work this out. And look, our immigration system is broken. When it takes seven years to get an immigration hearing where you can get into the country properly. Somebody's got to fix that system. So I think there have to be some things where we look for solutions, not just getting people out of the country, but finding a way to get them back into the country. Dr. Phil, always a pleasure to talk to you here on Top Story. We thank you for your time tonight. Thank you, Tom. Good night. We want to dig a little deeper on something we

touched at the top of the broadcast. The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, turning away U.S. military carrying undocumented immigrants from Colombia back to their homeland. Trump then threatened growing tariffs on Colombian goods. Petro eventually backed down sending his own planes to transfer those Colombians who had been shackled. We do want to give you some additional background as well. Petro is the first left-wing president in that country's history during this recent confrontation between the countries,

who we should mention, are allies. He said that he does not, quote, shake hands with white slavers in reference to working with President Trump. It's also worth pointing out that the United States is Colombia's largest trading partner. MSNBC anchor Jose Diaz-Belard, who has covered Latin America for decades, joins top story tonight. Jose, first of all, it's a pleasure to have you on our show. I wanted to set the table of what's going on, and I wanted to talk to you because you have so much experience, and you can put this into context much better than sort of the back and forth that we saw yesterday, right?

How much of this was about migrants being sent back to Colombia? And how much of this was about sort of Petro wanting to show the world that he could stand up to Trump? I think all of it was Bedthro grandstanding and trying to show the world that he is going to be that fist against the face of the United States, specifically of the Trump administration, because, Tom, Colombia has been for decades, if not for centuries, probably one of the United States' closest ally. That is until Petro took power. Just last year, for example, the Congress of the United States cut back its support for Colombia, up to 10% because of how Petro acts. And that includes Petro's close relationship with the Castro dictatorship in Cuba, with the Maduro dictatorship in Venezuela.

He has very close ties with Lula in Brazil, with the Ayatollah's in Iran, with Russia, and with China. And so this incident that really started just yesterday, in a matter of hours, threatened to have a full-blown economic war between Colombia and the United States, was about two planes that the Colombian government had already agreed to receive. There were military American planes, but that in late hours of Saturday into Sunday, about three in the morning, President Petro said, we're not going to accept them. And so it's been really fragile what we have seen. Yeah, and I want to point out sort of all the reporting like

you did. Columbia had agreed to accepting the flights, right? And then Columbia sends them back. He puts out these statements and he sends his personal plane to go pick up these 80 Colombians himself. So this is actually going to cost Columbia more money. But as you know, Jose, all politics is local. How is this? plane in Colombia? That's a very good question, Tom. You know, there are those that are saying that they would be, they were willing to and starting to organize protests starting today and even going into the week. If these trade threats had materialized, I mean, President Trump said that he would be immediately instituting 25% tariffs on Colombian goods, then Petro said that, well,

If the United States was going to put 25% tariffs, he would put 25% tariffs on American incoming products and then maybe saying even 50% if that's what it took. But what the real possibility was Tom, that who would be immediately affected would be people and small and medium-sized businesses that Colombia that exist in Colombia, it has a large metal class, it has an extraordinary. hardworking and effective and efficient working force. And 100% of the flowers that Colombia exports to this part of the world come to the United States. You know, a cafe Colombiano is among the best cafes in the world. So much of their product comes to the United States, but so much comes from the United States into Colombia.

And that would have immediately affected thousands of people had this come to fruition. Pethro is not the only left-leaning leader in South America. You have Lula as well in Brazil, who you mentioned. And they've mentioned as well, they do not like the way their citizens have been treated, even though they've left those countries and went to the U.S. crossed illegally

because they're coming back shackled on these military planes. How do you see this sort of plane out, the mass deportations, if you will, along with the relationships we need to sort of foster Latin America? Look, the same modus operandi of how, people were transported into Colombia, specifically over the last couple of years, including thousands that were sent, excuse me, to Colombia in those same conditions and under those same circumstances by the United States, under the Biden administration.

Well, that was not a problem for President Petro, but this is now a matter of dignity. I think that any time you can work towards more dignity for the human class, regardless of who they are, it's a good thing. Jose Diaz-Belard, it is always a pleasure to have you on Top Story. You can watch Jose every day on MSNBC and, of course, on the weekend's nightly news. Jose, we thank you. Late today, President Trump announcing a new batch

of executive orders, some dealing with the military as confirmation hearings are held for more of his key cabinet nominees. Kelly O'Donnell with the latest tonight. Tonight from his Durrell Golf Resort in Miami, a House Republican team meeting. In a single week, I've taken over 350 executive actions.

As President Trump asserts his government makeover. I also signed an order to end the weaponization of our government against the American people. New tonight, a number of Department of Justice lawyers fired by the acting attorney general for playing a, quote, significant role in prosecuting President Trump. And new reaction after the president removed more than a dozen inspectors general, the independent watchdogs and agencies. While presidents hire and fire IGs, President Trump failed to provide required 30-day notification to Congress. Mike Ware is one of those dismissed.

We're looking at what amounts to a threat to democracy, a threat to independent oversight. New policies for the Pentagon. According to a White House fact sheet, the orders would reinstate those who were dismissed for refusing the COVID vaccine with full back pay and benefits. Another tout's restoring merit and abolishes any remnant of the diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracy. Citing military readiness and order affecting transgender service members would prohibit males from using or sharing facilities designated for females, and ends use of identification-based pronouns. Also knew the White House released in black and white this official portrait of First Lady Melania Trump. Donald at the White House and Kelly, more news tonight. There's another headline involving

President Trump's cabinet. They're building out the cabinet, Tom. The Senate was able to confirm very easily the new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bassett. And then this week, we expect some of the more controversial figures to have their key moment in the spotlight with Robert Kennedy, Cash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard. And a White House official tells me that the orders that we talked about in that report are likely to be signed by the president tonight while he's on Air Force One, coming back from Florida to here in D.C. Tom? All right, Kelly. Also great to have in the show. We thank you for that. For more on those military-focused executive orders announced by President Trump,

I'm joined tonight by our Pentagon correspondent, Courtney Kuby. Courtney, good to see you, too. President Trump said he plans to direct the U.S. to build its own version of Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. What more do we know about this executive order? And, Courtney, it's somewhat interesting, right? We both have sort of seen the Iron Dome in action in Israel, but Israel's surrounded by by enemies at times.

The U.S., it's a little different. How would it work here? Yeah, so I think by calling this Iron Dome, it's really more symbolic than it is exactly what this architecture would look like. And by the way, Tom, the U.S. already has this layered space architecture that exists for missile defense, and it utilizes land-based radars and assets as well as space architecture, but it's already being expanded right now. I suspect that this executive order is really more about accelerating the process that's already underway.

So, accelerating the building of this space and land-based air defense architecture. And the real reason is the ongoing threat from ballistic missiles and specifically those hypersonic missiles, Tom. And then also the other big headline, Trump's saying during that news conference, he wants to, quote, get transgender ideology out of the military. What more do we know about this? Yeah, so this is not a surprise. we were expecting this. What we do know so far is that this will involve no longer providing medical care for dependents of service members who are transgender and who are going through any kind of transitional surgeries or medical treatments. This will stop that. That's something

that's been in place since President Biden came into office four years ago. What is unclear is what this will mean for currently serving transgender service members. Now, if they are involved in any kind of transitional medical care that makes them not ready for deployment, then they may be in danger of actually being forced out of the military here, Tom. All right. Courtney and QB, always great to have you and to sort of explain these issues involving the military. We want to turn now to the new Chinese chatbot sending shockwaves through the American tech market. It's called Deep Seek, the artificial intelligence model outperforming American offerings from companies like meta and open AI, despite costing just a fraction of

the time and money to develop them. NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung shows us how exactly it works. It's the breakout star of the AI world. What we can call the deep seek sell-off is still really pressuring tech. That just put Wall Street on notice. Today, these fears from China's DeepSeek AI sparking the sell-off in the market. Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek sending American tech stocks into a nose dive as their new open source AI tool has become one of the most widely used and highest rated in the world, unseating OpenAI's ChatGPT as the top free app in the U.S. Apple App Store. Side by side, the competitors look and feel very similar.

Both can help you plan a five-day getaway vacation or even provide an easy-to-make dinner recipe. But here's where they diverge. DeepSeek's integrated deep-think feature gives users a glimpse into its thought process. We asked both chatbots to tell us a joke that was safer work, 10 words long, and wasn't cheesy. Chat GPT replied, why did the scarecrow succeed? He stood out in the fields. Deepseek replied with time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. We'll give you a second to think about that one. Deepseek also showed its chain of thought, sharing jokes the AI thought about making but decided didn't meet our criteria, including a scarecrow joke very similar to chat

GPTs that it deemed too cheesy. Deepseek would not provide answer to some topics deemed sensitive in China. When we asked it, what happened in Tiananmen Square, the AI declined to answer. Instead, saying it was designed to provide helpful and harmless responses. ChatGPT did provide answers to the same questions. DeepSeek says they trained their model in just two months for less than $6 million, seemingly leapfrogging its American competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, who have spent millions training their models and doing it despite U.S. efforts to block high power AI chips from the Chinese market. They were able to really do this on what some people would call a shoe string budget. Thank you. Less than a week ago, the Trump administration rolled out a

$500 billion AI initiative called Stargate. What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country. China is a competitor and others are competitors. We want it to be in this country We're making it available. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, which is participating in Stargate, issued a warning about China's AI capabilities in an interview with CNBC from the World Economic Forum. To see the DeepSeek new model, it's super impressive. I think we should take the development out of China very, very seriously. But Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, seem to suggest Deep Seek's product is a derivative of his own. Posting after the chatbots launch last month, it is relevant.

relatively easy to copy something that you know works. It is extremely hard to do something new, risky, and difficult when you don't know if it will work. DeepSeek has not responded to NBC News request for comment. Brian Chung joins us tonight. Brian, we now know where you get your comedy material. But on a serious note, is DeepSeek actually made in a much cheaper fashion than ChatGPT? Do we know the answer to that? Yeah, well, look, when it comes to that 5.6 million figure, that is self-reported. from this Chinese company. So take that as you will. Now, when it comes to the scale of it, though, I want to point out that is so much cheaper than how much it costs the other companies. Open AI, it cost them about a $78 million to train their models. And Google, it cost them

almost $200 million to train their Gemini. So again, $5.6 million is just really a drop in the bucket compared to those other figures, although I didn't realize you thought my jokes were that cheesy thought. I mean, Brian, the news triggered a massive stock sell-off, right? Of Navidia, which everyone had been falling all day. It makes many of the chips. that power American AI models. Navidia shares look at this dropping nearly 17% today, more than $24 a share. This graph doesn't really do it justice. That translates to a loss of nearly $600 billion in market cap.

What Bloomberg is reporting is the biggest market value drop in U.S. stock market history. And some of the indices, a large part of which are tech stocks also took a hit. You see them right here. The question to you, Brian, how worried should investors and people who have a lot of tech stocks in their 401KB right now? getting more questions about what's going to happen to my Nvidia stock than I got actually about DeepSeek today. But look, it's colossal when you consider that just the market cap loss that that Nvidia took today, that's the equivalent of like an Exxon mobile, the entirety of that

company. So it's really big here. But I think one argument here is that Nvidia stock has basically been going to the moon over the last two years. So this may have been one excuse for those that wanted to sell to ultimately sell. But I do want to point out that Nvidia is such a key part of this story because they're the ones that manufacture the chips that really drive AI. So if you do it a lot cheaply. You don't have to buy as much of it. So that's maybe one reason why the stock went down today. Brian Chung, always great to have you on. For more on the impact of Deepseek could have on the AI market and the future of technology, I want to bring in Matt Sheehan. He's a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He's done

extensive research on China's work in artificial intelligence. Matt, you're a great guy to have on tonight to explain this. Is Deepseek better than Chat, GPT? Deepseek is essentially on par with what OpenAI released in September of last year, which is the 01 model. That's their own reasoning model that takes the time to think through its steps as was demonstrated there. So you could say in some sense that DeepSeek is just a few months behind OpenAI. It's important to keep in mind, though, that OpenAI has already sort of released a private demo of 03, their updated model, which appears to be performing at much higher levels. So China's really, Deep Seek specifically, has really closed the gap, but it's hard

to say that it's an exact equivalent. Is Sam Altman, right? Did China basically do what they've done with luxury goods, what they do with pretty much any product that America manufactures, they make a copy of it and sell it cheaper? Is that what this is? It's not so much a copy as it took inspiration from what Open AI did. And what Sam correctly pointed out there is that when you sort of know the destination, you know what you're trying to create. It's much easier to get there, even if you're the second person trying to sort of hoe that road. But they're saying it costs them less than $6 million to make. They did this in two months. Tech companies are saying it costs billions to invest in AI infrastructure here.

They're asking for billions from the government. So, I mean, is this a cheaper model that does the same thing? The $5.6 million number is really not capturing the whole picture. You have to spend a lot more to essentially up your skills and develop your training day and a lot of things before that $5.6 million number comes in. What they've done is very impressive and they have done it much more efficiently than a lot of the U.S. competitors. But to just look at that number and say sort of the game is over. over, they're way out ahead, or we don't need to invest, is just not right. Deep Seek is, from what I understand, is working with inferior chips, right?

And this is part of the crackdown that the U.S. put on competitors. But by doing that, did they essentially force China's hand to make something maybe more affordable, maybe better? That's exactly right. U.S. chip controls have big picture just constrained the total volume of compute. In China, they've made it more expensive. So when you're sort of backed into a corner and you have to deal with these constraints, then you're going to put all your energy into efficiency.

paid off for them. U.S. companies essentially have the luxury of just throwing more and more compute at the problem, and so that's the route that they've gone down. That might pay off big time in the long run, but it has forced Deep Seek to be more efficient, and that's probably going to pay dividends when it comes to serving the model globally. In the AI race, what happens here now? In the big picture, the U.S. still has a pretty strong lead, and I think this might lead the U.S. government to really double down on a specific area of chip controls that could hamper China, that's controls on the inference chips, the chips you use when you're running the model as opposed to training the model. If the U.S. does that, that will be a very unfortunate knock-on

effect for DeepSeek and for China in general. Big picture, I would still be betting on the U.S. long term. The compute advantage is durable, and no matter how efficiently they're able to work with the limited compute they have, they just don't have as much that is going to pay dividends for the U.S. over a one, two, three-year span. We've got about 15 seconds. Should people be concerned about what they put into Deepseek because it is controlled by the Chinese government? If you're using the app, excuse me, if you're using the app, then yes, that data is going to deep seek. If you download the open source model and run it locally, then that all stays on your computer. All right, Matt, pleasure to have you. Thank you for all of that. We really do appreciate

it. Still ahead tonight, the driver striking a group of Philadelphia Eagles fans after that big game. The scary moments just as crowds were celebrating the big win, what we've learned about that driver. Plus, the trooper accused of faking his own shooting during a traffic stop by prosecutors say he did it. And video showing the moment a group of skiers are rescued after plunging 1,000 feet, the Apple Watch feature guiding crews right to them. Stay with us. Okay, we're back now with an alleged shot for sympathy case in New York. If you're not sure what that means, here's what happened.

Police say a former state trooper who reported getting shot in the... the leg during a traffic stop, actually shot himself to gain attention and support. NBC's Valerie Castro has more on the investigation that led to his arrest. Just months after he received a hero sendoff from the hospital. Former New York State Trooper Thomas Messia turned himself into authorities, accused of fabricating the shooting that had landed him there. Shot fired. A shot fired. I'm hit. Westbound, Florida State, right before exit 17. Last October, Macya radioing in that he had been shot while approaching a vehicle parked in the median of a Long Island highway.

His fellow troopers temporarily shutting down the highway, searching for a suspect Macya described as black or Hispanic, according to police. Tom's assailant remains at large and is an extremely dangerous person. But police now say there was no assailant and that Macya staged the shooting scene to gain attention or sympathy for himself, according to charging documents. placing 22-caliber shell casings on the ground hours earlier, then shooting himself at another location before returning to the highway to call in the fabricated attack. The shooter that we were all looking for only existed in Macias' head, in his imagination. Why did you do it? The five-year state police veteran resigned on Friday and has been charged with falsely reporting a crime, evidence tampering, and official misconduct. After combing the scene of the alleged shooting for any shred of physical evidence, those searches all ended the same way.

Nine shell casings but no projectiles found at the scene. No tire marks. Not a single video that showed the Dodge Charger, Massia claimed, belonged to his shooter. His parents, whose home was searched late last year, were also arrested, charged with criminal possession of a firearm. All of them pleaded not guilty and have been released as they await trial. The Messia's attorney, Jeffrey Lickman, telling NBC News, this case is a tragedy that was caused by unseen and untreated mental health issues, and now an entire family is suffering for it as they usually do in such situations. His selfish act wasted extraordinary resources across several police departments. He failed his brothers and sisters in law enforcement. And he failed his oath as an officer. The district attorney says this incident set off a huge response. and even law enforcement from Delaware initially thought they were involved in a real manhunt. The DA emphasizing this pulled away resources from true emergencies

and potentially put members of the public in danger. Tom. All right. Valerie, we thank you for that. When we returned the mid-air scare, passengers violently jolted from their seats after an emergency on a United Airlines flight. Dozens of people left hurt and some sent to the hospital. What we're learning tonight.

Okay, we're back now with Top Stories News Feed in that dangerous accident after the big game in Philadelphia. Video showing the moment a car sped up and struck a crowd of Eagles fans celebrating their team's win over the commanders. Police arresting that driver and charging her with aggravated assault and reckless driving. It is not yet clear how many people were injured or what their conditions are. Let's head to Florida now where a police chase on a highway in Tampa ended with a shooting. aerial footage of the chase showing police using what's called the pit maneuver to stop the fleeing vehicle, sparks flying off the car as it spins out of control. Police saying the suspect appeared to reach for something as he got out of his car, prompting them to fire, killing that

driver. According to investigators, the driver was initially involved in what sounded like a road rage incident that started at a Dollar General. We're also tracking the news from the air, 38 people injured after a United Airlines flight from Nigeria to D.C. experienced problems mid-flight. Passengers capturing the heroin moments after the emergency, the shaking causing objects to fly all over the cabin. You can see food from meal trays covering the ceiling. United Airlines saying the aircraft experienced unexpected movement after a technical issue. They're not calling it turbulence. Six people ended up in the hospital with serious injuries. And rescue teams in Washington State's Cascade Mountains using an SOS alert from an Apple Watch

to locate three backcountry skiers. New video of the rescue last Wednesday, showing air support teams finding two of the skiers injured in an area with no cell phone service. Officials saying the Apple Watch sent the alert via satellite informing them that one of the skiers had fallen a thousand feet. All three skiers were hoisted to safety. Okay, we want to move overseas now to Israel, where tonight four more hostages are back home after more than a year in captivity under Hamas. The new release still part of phase one of the ceasefire agreement as displaced Palestinians are allowed to return to northern Gaza for the first time.

Here's Ralph Sanchez with more. Tonight for Israel, hope and fear side by side. Four female Israeli soldiers released from Hamas captivity over the weekend. Into the wading arms of their parents after 477 days. And six more hostages slated to be freed this week, including Arbel Yehoud, a civilian and potentially American Keith Siegel. But also today, a painful reminder. Not every story will end happily.

Israel says of the 26 hostages still waiting to be freed in this stage of the deal, eight are already dead. And growing dread over the fate of the youngest hostages, Kaffir and Ariel Bibas, along with their mother, Shiri. We spoke to the boy's aunt last week. What is it like to not know what happened to them? It's paralyzing. Not knowing so hard that sometimes I just want to scream.

Just tell me, even if it's the worst thing, I just want to know. Starting at dawn, Israel finally allowing displaced Palestinian families to return to northern Gaza, a river of humanity making its way back. We want to return, this girl says. Return to a Gaza city in ruins. The UN says 90 percent of houses are damaged or destroyed. But that won't stop the Akela family, who walked 10 miles to be here. The children tied securely together as they push into the surging crowd.

last leg of the long journey home. And Ralph Sanchez joins us tonight from Tel Aviv. Raf, I want to go back to that family you mentioned being held hostage by Hamas that has yet to be released. Do we know how Hamas is deciding who gets released and when? So Tom, the ceasefire agreement establishes a system for the priority in which hostages come out. And the basic principles are this. Living hostages come out before dead ones. women and children come out before men, and civilians come out before soldiers. So that's why we saw three civilian women released on the first day of the deal. And that's why over the weekend we saw Israel accusing Hamas of breaching the agreement

by releasing four female soldiers while still holding civilian women. And what, of course, is so worrying about the situation with the Biba's family is that a civilian woman and her two young children should have been at the absolute front. of the line, the fact they have not come out yet is raising concerns that they may not still be alive. Now, Hamas said back in November, 2023, that Shiri and her children were killed in an Israeli air strike. Israel has never confirmed that, but they have said that they are deeply worried.

And their extended family said over the weekend that their world collapsed when for a second weekend in a row they did not come out. Now, Tom, we are also learning in just the last couple of minutes, according to a middle Eastern official that Israel and Hamas have now begun preliminary discussions on phase two of the ceasefire. Now, that would see a complete end to the war, a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in exchange for the release of all living hostages. Those talks have now begun big, big question marks about whether they will be able to get to a final agreement. All right, Ralph Sanchez, with a lot of new reporting there for us. Raf, we thank you for that. And coming up, we're going to

have more international headlines here. on top story, including an explosive museum heist, thieves blowing off the door of a museum in the Netherlands, stealing ancient artifacts that date back centuries, the manhunt now, for those involved. Stay with us. Back now with a heist sending shockwaves through the art world, a group of burglars blowing up the entrance of a Dutch museum and running away with solid gold artifacts on loan from Romania. Romanian leaders now questioning why the precious pieces were in the Netherlands in the first place. Here's NBC's Megan Fitzgerald with that story.

Under the cover of darkness, a group of thieves caught on camera blowing up the entrance of the Drenz Museum in the Netherlands, stealing priceless archaeological artifacts that date back centuries. Police say the museum in the city of Assin was hit with heavy explosions at around 3.45 a.m., shattering windows and damaging surrounding buildings. 30 minutes later, police responded to reports of a burning vehicle nearby and believed the suspects in the heist could have been involved with the incident and switched out getaway cars. Here are the four items police say they got away with. This golden helmet that dates back to 450 BC when the region of Romania was known as Dacia. The well-preserved helmet is thought

to have belonged to a Dacian king or noble and was discovered by a Romanian child in the 1920s, according to the museum. And three Dacian royal bracelets, also made from gold and dating back to 50 BC. The museum calling the burglary a dark day, saying in part, in its 170-year existence, there has never been such a major incident. This expert saying, it's simply unsellable.

The whole world knows it, so they likely went for the gold to, I almost dare not utter the words, melt it. Art experts estimate the gold from the helmet, is worth roughly $90,000, but the value of the piece, Romania says, is incalculable. Controversy stirring now over why these pieces from the National History Museum in Bucharest were in the Netherlands in the first place. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Cholakou says their government never actually authorized

the transport of the items. He now plans to organize a crisis team within the government to locate the artifacts. I guess it's, you know, weighing the risk. and rewards? Is it worth lending these very precious objects that have, you know, again, a high monetary value? Can you trust another country with something that might have a monetary value to them, but not a historic value to them? As a multinational effort to recover these precious pieces and find the suspects has only just begun. Megan Fitzgerald, NBC News. Back, the liberation of Auschwitz 80 years later,

our Jesse Kirsch on the ground in Poland as survivors returned to the death camp, what they witnessed and what they want the world to know on this Holocaust remembrance day. Finally tonight, a day of solemn remembrance in Poland. Dozens of Holocaust survivors returning to Auschwitz 80 years after the camp's liberation. The survivors, along with world leaders,

honoring the roughly 6 million Jewish people, and millions of others who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. On this Holocaust remembrance stay, Jesse Kirsch traveled to the former death camp for this report. The world may never see another moment like this. Eyewitnesses to genocide, returning eight decades after they were liberated. Eva Umlouf was too young to remember. But Nazi Germany's unspeakable horrors are embedded in her skin. She was tattooed before her second birth.

You are just a number, but this number is not only on the skin. Death is deep. Auschwitz was Hitler's largest extermination camp, a place where roughly 1.1 million were killed, most of them Jews. But victims were also Poles, gay men, Roma and Sinti and Soviet POWs. For those who were not killed, humanity was stripped away. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were brought here on cattle cars like these. They were given no food, no real bathroom, and when they arrived, families were torn apart.

Some were chosen for work, but most were murdered. This was called the selection in an area known as the Jew ramp. Children, the elderly, and the disabled were singled out for gassing. The Nazis looked for twins for human experimentation. became slave laborers. Entire families vanished. I held on tightly to my mother's hand in the dark kettle car

for countless hours while the cries and the prayers of so many desperate women permeated my soul and haunted me to this day. Tova Friedman arrived here when she was five. At one point, her mother hit her among corpses, so she wouldn't be killed. I recall thinking, I will never, I will never let them know how much they are hurting me.

The Nazis tried to hide proof of their crimes, but the evidence is still here. Piles of shoes, glasses, suitcases. Often two people would be sleeping in just one bed on these basic bunks. And in a block building like this one, 700 to 1,000 people would be crammed in at one time. This gas chamber still standing. We're asked not to speak as we walk through. What could you even say? Now the Auschwitz Museum is preparing for a future without eyewitnesses by thinking about what people ask the elderly survivors. They ask about emotions and art carry emotion.

The museum planning in art gallery. featuring pieces by prisoners and survivors. For now, these survivors speaking to a crowd including King Charles and President Zelensky at a time when anti-Semitism is surging. In 2018, 58 percent of Americans thought something like the Holocaust could happen again. Today, 76 percent think it's a possibility. We will never, never, ever allow history to repeat itself. Jesse Kirschirsch from Auschwitz tonight, and Jesse will have much more from Auschwitz throughout the week.

We want to thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamerson, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.