Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, August 7, 2025

Episode Date: August 8, 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 sweeping tariffs in full effect upending the global economy. Dozens of countries reeling from levees as high as 50%. Businesses grappling with how they'll stay afloat, some forced to pass the cost onto consumers. The impact on your wallet with everything from cars to alcohol, expected to take a massive hit. Also tonight, Israel's new offensive to take control of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement met with backlash, and who he says would govern the enclave. The helicopter crashing into a barge bursting into flames,

killing everyone on board. What caused the chopper to go down? The new GLP1 pill showing significant results, taking a jab at the injectable version. Could this be a game changer for weight loss drugs? Instagram's new feature allowing followers to track your location will show you how it works in the new security concerns on the popular app.

Travel influencers stirring controversy over trips to Taliban-run Afghanistan. Social media videos painting a very different picture for tourists compared to the everyday reality for citizens, particularly women and girls, living under an oppressive regime. And danger on the tracks, a shocking video capturing a train colliding with a truck, how the driver miraculously walked away. Plus inside the dangerous rescue mission at a U.S. research base in Antarctica, What we know about the three Americans evacuated. Top story starts right now.

Good evening. I'm Ellison Barber in for Tom Yamis. Tonight, President Trump's new tariffs kicking into gear, reaching some of the highest rates since the Great Depression. The move deepening the global trade rift as everyday consumers brace for impact. Right now, more than 90 countries facing new fees on many exports they'll sell to the U.S. You're looking at some of the highest rates. Brazil slapped with a massive 50% tariff. Many of those costs will be shouldered by American companies,

but if history is our guide, in most cases, it's passed on to you, the consumer. Take a look at some of the items you could see dramatically rise in price. Everything from clothing to coffee to alcohol, even furniture. Japan's auto giants like Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, and Honda, all expecting to take on a 15% tariff. The Trump administration says it was a necessary step and that they are bringing billions to the U.S. A CNBC survey shows the president's overall economic approval ratings remain in negative territory despite an improvement from April. The big question tonight, what does it all mean for your wallet? NBC's Garrett Hake starts off our coverage.

This is 200 days already. Time flies. On his 200th day back in office, President Trump tonight celebrating his efforts to reshape the global economy. We have a country that's the hottest country right now anywhere in the world. The president's so-called reciprocal tariffs snapping into place on more than 90 nations overnight, setting taxes on some foreign imports as high as 50%, with an average tariff rate of more than 17%, the highest since the 1930s during the Great Depression. The tariffs likely to raise costs on products Americans use from the moment they wake up, a cup of coffee with beans from Brazil, clothes made in India, and shoes sewn in.

Vietnam, all costing more to import, forcing businesses to decide how much of those costs to pass on to consumers. The Yale Budget Lab, calculating the tariffs will ultimately cost a typical household as much as $2,400 this year. I will point out that the Yale Budget Lab is mostly staffed by Biden and Democratic the alumni, so they have a particular point of view. The White House, touting the nearly $30 billion of tariff revenue, Treasury collected in July, predicting tens of billions of dollars more to come each month.

But that money is paid by American businesses like Tennessee-based cookware maker Heritage Steel. Heritage recently raised their prices 15% to help cover some of the costs of the tariffs they pay on component parts. How much have you had to pay in tariffs so far this year? Yeah, so far this year, right around $200,000, which for a lot of businesses may not be a whole lot, but we're a pretty small one. And so that is a significant new cost that we're going to have to deal with. Company co-owner, Danny Hen, hopeful that making their products in the U.S. will give them a leg up on competitors who import exclusively. We pay the tariffs on our input costs only, right?

If you're fully importing a set of cookware in from China, you're paying the steel tariffs plus other applicable tariffs. As a small business owner, it kind of feels impossible. to figure out and to navigate. Nicole McDonald's California-based company, Sash Bag, hit both by U.S. import taxes on the products they bring in from China and tariff retaliation from would-be buyers in Canada. We sell 20% of our product in Canada,

boycotting U.S. products. The customers are constantly asking. They're scared. The prices are going to keep going up. And Garrett Hake joins us now from the White House. So, Garrett, President Trump also filled a major role at the Federal Reserve. What more do we know about that? Yeah, listen, the president says he will appoint Stephen Mirren, currently a top economic advisor,

to fill out the expiring term of another Fed governor who was due to be out in January anyway. So Mirren will only be there for a short time where he's likely to have a similar role to the one that most people know him from, which is a vocal defender of the president's economic policies on cable television, on streaming programs like this one. Mirren gives the president sort of his first 2.0 person inside the Fed and may give us a little bit of a clue about the directions he's leaning for his opportunity to ultimately replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell next year. If he chooses another loyalist or someone from inside his administration, the Mirren pick could be kind of a card tip, if you will, in that direction. NBC's senior White House correspondent Garrett Haig at the North Lawn, thank you.

For more on how tariffs will impact. your wallet. Let's bring in NBC's Business and Data Correspondent, Brian who joins us now on set. So, Brian, these tariffs are now in effect, but throughout all of this under the Trump administration, I have heard people say, the thing that makes it so tricky for the markets and

consumers and business owners is that everything can change with the social media post, right? Talk to us about that uncertainty that is still left. Yeah, I was talking with a company yesterday that said that in the same day, they've had to cancel orders and then reorder because things change so rapidly. So yes, even though today is the first day of these tariffs,

on about 70 countries taking effect, that doesn't necessarily mean that companies or the market or consumers are treating it as permanent tariffs, at least through the short-term period. But if these tariffs do stick around for, let's say, three to six months, then those prices will start to bite to American consumers. They're not going to go up by 35 or 50 percent as of tomorrow, but that risk is there as we get a little bit closer to the holiday season. But compounding on top of that, Ellison, isn't just the tariffs that were put into effect today, but tariffs that could be coming down the line, the president's signaling he's not done yet because he's signaled the intention of a 100% tariff on semiconductors as well as a 250%

tariff on pharmaceuticals coming in from abroad. Once those are final, that could add even more cost to the tariff story. All right. NBC's Brian Chung, thank you. Turning overseas now to the latest in the Middle East, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing Israel plans to take control of the Gaza Strip, a dramatic escalation as peace talks continue to stall. Here's NBC's Andrea Mitchell. Some of aerial images show the devastation in Gaza. Buildings reduced to rubble with starvation rampant. And now Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu saying Israel wants to occupy the entire territory, not just buffer zones.

Will Israel take control of all of Gaza? We intend to in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there. But the Prime Minister says he's not planning on long-term occupation. We want to hand it over to Arab forces. that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life. That's not possible with Hamas. Many in Israel's army opposed the plan, saying it's time to end the war. Some hostage families are also opposed, telling U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff days ago, Hamask

would kill the last 20 surviving hostages before surrendering. Whitkoff told them the U.S. is now pushing to get all the hostages out at once and a permanent ceasefire. Three U.S. officials tell NBC news commercial satellite images show a large Israeli military force massing near the Gaza border. And one of the American hostage fathers told me someone is being duped and that an Israeli invasion is not what Steve Whitkoff told them Israel was planning. The initial reaction from Arab leaders about a move like this from Israel is it would be a disaster.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell, thank you. We are following developing news out of Russia tonight. President Vladimir Putin says he could be meeting with President Trump as early as next week, but a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy looking less likely. NBC's chief international correspondent Keir Simmons joins us now from London. Kier, what do we know tonight about this possible meeting between Trump and Putin? Well, Alison, a Kremlin official today confirming that from their side, they also believe that this meeting could happen as soon as next week, though saying they're doing.

need to be preparations before the meeting can take place. That is something, of course, you might expect. President Putin today himself, even suggesting a venue, the United Arab Emirates, he does seem eager for this face-to-face meeting with President Trump. It is something that President Putin, frankly, always wants the chance to sit down in a bilateral meeting with the American leader. The question really now, I think, is what exactly will emerge from it? President Trump today saying, let's just listen to what the Russians have to say. And here last night we did hear President Trump say he expected a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy could actually happen soon. Putin, though, seems much less keen on that idea, right?

What are we hearing from him in terms of that and also from Ukraine? Yeah, very much less enthusiastic about potentially meeting with President Zelensky. He's never been that keen on it. He hasn't met with President Zelensky for six years. They have met each other in the past, but it's been a long time and certainly not since the Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. He says the conditions, is President Putin. He says the conditions are not right for a meeting with President Zelensky. What he means by that are the kinds of aims that he has continuously, relentlessly described in terms of his war in Ukraine, things like that Ukraine should agree to be neutral.

He has even argued that President Zelensky himself is not a legitimate leader and should face a re-election before he is prepared to sit down with him. The interesting point tonight is that President Trump was directly asked about whether or not it was a precondition that President Putin and President Zelensky should meet. in order for him to meet with President Putin, and he says it isn't. That is not something that has to happen in order for the bilateral meeting with the Russian leader to go ahead. So once again, I think we have President Trump believing that his force of personality, the power of his argument, can shift things if he gets face-to-face with President Putin. But of course, President Putin is a wily operator.

NBC's Keir Simmons, thank you. tonight the army is praising the quick response of soldiers at fort stewart who sprung into action when a sergeant opened fire the army says two unarmed soldiers tackled the suspect helping to take him down while others offered aid nbc's pria shrether spoke to them today as we get our first glimpse of the gunman tonight with one army sergeant shackled in jail awaiting charges for shooting five of his fellow soldiers six of his co-workers at fort stewart's second armored combat brigade team were honored for their brave response for exceptionally meritorious service. Staff Sergeant Melissa Taylor, a trained combat medic, says she was in her office when she heard a commotion outside. And I saw a cloud of smoke at the end of the hallway and there was a soldier laying on the ground and I heard him yelling that somebody had been shot. So I sprinted over to the soldier and immediately started rendering aid. Authorities say 28-year-old Sergeant Cornelius Radford carried out. that shooting Wednesday morning using a personal handgun. Five soldiers were

hospitalized, three have been released. The Army says they're all expected to make a full recovery thanks to the soldiers who jumped into action, including Sergeant Aaron Turner who helped restrain the gunmen. I have no feelings at that point. It was just more so the safety of the soldiers and leaders at that point. So ended up engaging with them and trying to down talk them. First Sergeant Joshua Arnold was among the soldiers who provided critical aid to the injured. I went towards the smoke and saw a showcase on the ground. Someone said that I had been shot.

I immediately helped the person onto the ground and provided pressure to the wound. Investigators say they've interviewed Sergeant Radford and are still trying to determine a motive. He joined the Army in 2018, had been stationed at Fort Stewart since 2022 and had no known disciplinary record. His chain of command found out about a DUI arrest off base in May. Tonight, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Sanford said he couldn't be prouder of how his troops responded. When we take an oath, we take an oath to do this foreign and domestic.

So seeing them immediately do that here, it just gave, it just sent chills through my body. And Priya Shrethar joins us now from Fort Stewart, Georgia. Priya, I understand we're also hearing from former co-workers about what Sergeant Radford was like. What more can you tell us? Yeah, that's right, Ellison. NBC News got a chance to speak with some soldiers who had trained with him previously. Many of them described him as someone who didn't necessarily show any signs of anger. They actually described him as someone who was somewhat goofy. But one interesting thing they did say is that he actually suffered from a severe stutter,

and he was endlessly bullied for that, essentially since the time he joined the Army back in 2018 for the last seven and a half years. And they said that it was actually so intense that it got to the point where he actually stopped speaking altogether and because he was mocked about this so badly. So this was definitely a trigger for him. But I want to emphasize that the official word from investigators right now is that we still don't know exactly what the motive is. But we are learning more about what he was like as a soldier from these fellow co-workers Ellison. Priya Shrether in Georgia. Thank you.

Turning now to Pennsylvania, where a man shot two state troopers today and what police are describing as an ambush. A police spokesperson says they were responding to a call near the town of Thompson. That's about 40 miles north of Scranton. Both troopers were seriously hurt and had to be airlifted to a hospital, but were told they're now in stable condition. Police say the suspect was shot and killed at the scene. And right now, across the country, millions are are under the threat of extreme heat, with multiple cities reaching record high temperatures today. This has dozens of wildfires rage in the west,

filling the skies with smoke and triggering air quality alerts. NBC's Liz Croyd's reports from Phoenix. Tonight, extreme heat scorching parts of the southwest, more than 50 million people under heat alerts from California to Minnesota. In Arizona, Phoenix breaking a daily heat record, the region expected to reach a scorching 117 degrees. The city of Phoenix has different ways. They're trying to help people beat this extreme heat. They're giving out waters and also closing trails like this one for most of the day, telling people if you want to get outside, do so early. This couple began their hike at 4.30 this morning. It feels like a blast furnace. It feels like opening the door around a convection of it. It hits you. The city also opening a 24-7 cooling center where people and even their pets are able to escape the sweltering weather. This saves lives. There is no doubt about it. Getting out of this, extreme weather and connecting people with the right resources makes all the difference in the world.

Over in Tempe, the fire department responding to multiple heat-related calls. What are you responding to now? A male who collapsed outside of a business. Callers are trying to cool them off. That's the type of stuff that we see pretty often. People who just weren't prepared to be outside. The dangerously hot temps, making it even harder to fight the roughly 40 fires burning across the west. Without fire making a push north.

From Colorado, where the National Guard has been brought. in to help battle two different wildfires to central California, where the Gifford fire is now approaching 100,000 acres. And tonight, a new fire igniting in Ventura County. Smoke prompting air quality alerts in Colorado and Wyoming, the haze and the heat, leaving millions this summer with little relief. And Liz Kreutz joins us now from Phoenix. I mean, Liz, extraordinary reporting. Talk to us about what it is like where you are. I understand it is about 116 degrees right now. We talk about extreme heat so much because it is a weather event that kills more Americans annually than any other weather event, right? What are the conditions like where you are right now?

And in terms of what officials are saying, what do they say residents should do as they try to endure this? Yeah, Alison, that is such an important point. It really is dangerous. I think people underestimate how dangerous heat actually is. And I just looked at my phone and yes, it is 116 degrees right now where we are. It is excruciatingly hot. Our team is just quickly coming out here and going back into our cars where we have air conditioning. Behind, you can see in the distance, there's misters there at restaurants. Of course, those are being put to use, but the reality is nobody's really using them because essentially the streets are empty. People are staying inside. And that is actually a good thing. Health officials are telling people, obviously, stay inside for most of the day. If you have to get things done, do it early in the morning. You heard those people that were out hiking at 4.30 a.m. stay hydrated. And if you have to be outside, officials say take breaks every 45 minutes, Ellison. All right. NBC's Liz Kreutz. Thank you. We appreciate it. Let's get right to NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens. Bill, I mean, all this heat, it is making the situation worse for wildfires. When can we expect to see some relief?

Areas like Phoenix, relief will come tomorrow. But this is about as hot as it gets. 118 currently at Sky Harbor Airport. As a kid, I was out there when it was 123. My brother and I, we put eggs on the sidewalk and cooked them. Remember, this is the temperature in the shade outside currently. So it's about as bad as it gets. And tomorrow will be a slightly cooler version of this. We still have this excessive heat warnings. And now we're watching everything spreading through the plains, too.

And we've got 52 million people. Even the portions of the Pacific Northwest are going to jump into this game, but not until the weekend. So tomorrow, we go to 111 in Phoenix. I don't know if you notice a difference or not. But the heat really expands in the middle of the country. This is the hottest you've been this summer. Dodge City, Kansas, up to 107 degrees. And it's pretty dry through many years.

in the middle of the country. Chicago, you have a hot weekend ahead. Phoenix, you stay hot. But I got my eyes on Portland here. When it gets up the 97 degrees in Portland, a low percentage of people have air conditioning in Portland. It's less than 20, 30 percent. But that's when you start to worry about people, the elderly, people with health concerns, Alison. You are also, I understand, building, tracking some activity in the tropics. What is going on there? Yeah, we're getting to what I call the peak two months of the season. And we have numerous areas of interest. But the key is at the Bermuda high. It's not over Bermuda. It's out in the middle of the Atlantic. This steers the storms. If this stays in the current location, all the storms will come and be fish storms and miss

the East Coast. That should happen for at least the next seven to ten days. All eyes will be on that area of coming off the coast of Africa. We could have something this time, Ellison, that we'll have to watch closely. But we'll wait and see. And B.C.'s Bill Cairns with that forecast for you. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. And we will be back in a moment with Instagram's new map feature, turning heads and raising concerns about safety. We'll show you how it works and why it has some users or read. Plus, it's the new travel trend lighting up social media, scenic road trips through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Why influencers are flocking to one of the world's most dangerous and repressive regimes. And pizza, papal merch, and a Pope-themed bus tour, the Pope Leo culture frenzy taking Chicago by storm. All right. We are back now with the new Instagram feature prompting concern online. It's called Instagram Maps. And parent company Meta says it is a way for users to stay up to date with friends. But some users are upset about the feature. One of them posting, quote, who TF is sharing IG locations? Another writing, Instagram has lost the damn mind. For more on what's sparking the backlash, NBC's Maya Eagland joins us now in studio. Maya, break this down. You have an iPhone, and we can see Instagram that's on your phone from here. Walk us through what this feature actually is. Okay, I'm going to show you how to get to it first. So you're going to click on your DMs.

And then if you scroll at the top, you're going to see this map feature, right? This is going to scroll us into New York City, where we are right now. And if we scroll in even more, we can see who's posting at 30 Rock. So let's see our colleague Kate Snow is up here posting a video. But one of the big misconceptions that people are talking about online is that, everyone's automatically opted into sharing their location. That's what I was wondering. But you actually have to go into turn on location services.

This is going to take you to your iPhone settings. And once you click location at the top, you can pick never, sometimes, or always. So if we were to change that and go back to Instagram, now we should see my little blue dot there. And you can kind of customize who has access to seeing your location or not. Okay, and I saw when you were doing that the option for, to toggle for precise location. Yes. Is that a safeguard? Like for when people are saying, okay, we're worried about this, it feels kind of comforting

to know that it's not, everybody is just in this and we have to go in and actively opt out. But I mean, this could be unsafe in some situations, right? Yeah, I think for sure. And META has said that they've added some parental controls if there's a teen account, which means that parents will have the option to see who their teen wants to share their location with or actually turn off that option for them completely. there are some major privacy and, you know, just location concerns your footprint online. So it is good to check to make sure your location settings are the way you want them to be on

Instagram. Okay. So in terms of social media getting into the location, sharing a lot of people, I'm one of them. I share my location with at least five people all the time. My sisters will text me and be like, why are you in Texas? And I'm like, I'm going, I'm on a story. This isn't totally new, right? It's not new. Snapchat's been doing this for a long time. We also have the find my friends function on Apple devices. But, you know, so many of these social media platforms get inspired by each other. And so we'll see the same functions kind of swap and exchange based on the era and kind of time we're in. So if we follow you on Instagram, are we getting

your location all the time or some of the time? I don't think so. I think I will post after the fact. That's my rule. That's a good role. All right. Good rule, rather. NBC is Maya Eagland. Thank you so much. Switching gears. Next, on Top Story, no needles, just a pill. Some patients calling it life-changing. Could this new drug be the future of weight loss and a turning point in the fight against obesity? What the scientists behind the drug and the patients who tried it out are telling us. But first, Top Story's top moment. A big birthday surprise for one of social media's most loved grandmas. Granny, as she's known online, recently celebrated her 99th birthday with the help of quite a few fans at a Lions Chargers pre-season game in Detroit.

Take a look at this. With a birthday, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready. With a birthday, oh, we're a birthday, her and all. Her and her grandson, who coordinated that surprise, have gained tens of millions of followers on TikTok for their wholesome videos together. We wish Granny an incredibly happy birthday. Stay with us. We're going to be back in just a moment.

And we're back with us. The investigation into a deadly crash along the Mississippi River. Earlier today, a helicopter colliding with a barge less than 20 miles north of St. Louis. authority saying two people died. Here's Adrian brought us with more on what happened. The helicopter blew up and fell and crashed to that barge and it's exploding right now. On the bank of the Mississippi, outside East Alton, Illinois, smoke seemed rising high in the air, and this explosion captured on camera just after a helicopter crashed into a barge, leaving the two

people on board dead. M.S requested Alton Locking Dam for a helicopter versus power lines. Wallace Meyer was fishing when he says he saw what happened. All of a sudden, it touched the line, and in two seconds, it wasn't a helicopter anymore. It just, it was a thousand pieces. Investigators with the Missouri State Highway Patrol say it appears the chopper crew was there to work on the power lines before crashing into one. There's a power line that goes across the river.

They was doing some type of work over top of that. The Mississippi River around the Alton area shut down today. One of the power lines falling into the water, no one on the ground was hurt. That's not a live power line anymore, so there's no danger to the area here or anybody that's on the water. The NTSB now leading the investigation to determine what went wrong and left two people dead. Adrian Broadest, NBC News. Now to Top Stories health check and a potential breakthrough in the world of weight loss drugs. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in the early stages of creating a pill that could become a needle-free alternative.

for GLP-1s. NBC Stephanie Gossk has more on the new drug and its game-changing potential. For people who hate needles but still want to be part of the weight loss revolution, there's some good news tonight. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly says it is ready to submit a weight loss pill for FDA approval before the end of the year. After successful results in a phase three clinical trial, Dan Skavronsky is the company's chief scientific officer. We saw not just that body weight decrease, which is so meaningful for patients. But we saw improvements in the bad kind of cholesterol. We saw decreases in blood pressure. In the trial targeting overweight adults, those given the highest dose lost up to 27 pounds over 72 weeks. Michael Bucer was one of the participants and does not know

whether he took the pill or a placebo, but he lost 40 pounds during the trial. The first thing I noticed the food noise that I've had my entire life was gone. What did it feel like when you lost? that food noise? Liberating. I felt normal. The pill, a GLP-1 medication like OZempic and Zepbound, does not produce the same amount of weight loss as the injections. And trial results

fell short of some analyst's predictions. The stock market price for Eli Lilly fell today when the data was released. But weight loss doctors believe the pill will be an important option for some of their patients. You know, not everybody needs to lose the same amount of weight. And so I don't think this should be a huge negative factor.

A welcome alternative for people like Busser who says he doesn't love needles. Was it convenient to take a pill? Yes. So I already take a pill every morning. So I just added it to that pill I already take every morning. Way more convenient than, say, an injectable. And the pill may not have the same shortage problems as the injections. It doesn't require refrigeration. It doesn't require sterile filling of syringes. it doesn't require a device for injection. The company says it is already manufacturing and has a stockpile built up to meet demand.

I got a lot more confident. Clothes finally started to feel good to wear. I enjoyed taking more pictures. I felt happier. With FDA approval, Eli Lilly says the pill could be on pharmacy shelves by next year. And Stephanie Gosk joins us now in studio. So in terms of that next year timeline, how How realistic is that? Well, it's possible. I mean, they're submitting this data into the FDA for approval. Then they've got to get it on pharmacy shelves. But the big question that remains is how much is it going to cost? Because right now, people who want to take these drugs, a lot of them can't. It's not the weight loss version of them is not covered by insurance and they can be as expensive as $1,000 a month. The thought is because this is cheaper to make without the injector, without the needles, without the refrigeration, that it could be cheaper. But you know what? The Pharmaceutical pricing is crazy, as you know, and unpredictable. So that'll be a really big question mark for people going forward. NBC's Stephanie Goss, thank you. Turning now to Top Stories News Feed,

New York City officials announcing three 9-11 victims have been identified nearly 24 years after the terror attack. Ryan Fitzgerald, Barbara Keating, and an adult woman whose name is being withheld were identified through advanced DNA analysis. Ryan Fitzgerald was working in the World Trade Center that day, and Barbara Keating was returning home to California after visiting her family in Massachusetts. And this just in, Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. Bondi accusing Maddo of aiding drug cartels.

That amount doubles the original $25 million reward. The U.S. is among a number of countries refusing to recognize Maduro as the legitimate winner of Venezuela's 2024 presidential election. And a note of passing. Kelly Clarkson's ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, has died after a three-year battle with cancer. Blackstock was 48 years old. He and Clarkson shared two children. His family saying he passed away peacefully, and they are asking for privacy. It comes just one day after Clarkson announced she's postponing her upcoming concerts in Las Vegas to support her family. And here in New York, 11 people rescued from a sinking boat at a Brooklyn pier. Take a look at this video from Citizen App. Firefighters lowering one person onto a stretcher, other passengers crawling

onto the ladder on their own as onlookers watch from the dock, the FDNY responding to a boat in distress. Here, it's partially submerged in the water. All passengers were safely rescued. And thieves in Los Angeles County caught on camera stealing thousands of dollars worth of those viral LaBoo dolls. Surveillance video capturing four male suspects, breaking in and pulling thousands of dollars worth of Labuboos from the shelves. Store owners sharing this video of the damage. The floor covered in Labibu boxes and broken glasses. They say they hope it helps to catch the thieves.

We want to turn now to a report in the New York Times about Uber and sexual assault that caught our attention. According to sealed court records obtained by the New York Times, Uber received a report of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the United States almost every eight minutes between 2017 and 2022. In its public safety reports, Uber disclosed just a fraction of serious sexual assaults during that same time period. Here with us now is Emily Steele, an investigative reporter for the New York Times who wrote that piece. Emily, thank you so much for being here.

I mean, just reading this, I kept highlighting and then taking screenshots of quotes and things I wanted to ask you about. And then I realized the list of things I'm so surprised by is so big I don't even know where to begin. Break down your reporting for us and what you found. Right. So the main takeaway from this reporting is that sexual violence on Uber is far more pervasive than what the company has disclosed publicly. These assaults, as you've mentioned, happen and have happened at a regular rate, and it is far more prevalent than what people realize. And in the course of your reporting, and I want to pull up one of the things that sort of struck my attention, and bear with me, I should have unlocked this. But one of the things, as you were gathering different documents internally, there was a 2021 brainstorming document about Uber's global safety standards.

And in it, you quoted as saying, our purpose slash goal is not to be the police. They go on to say, our bar is much lower. And our goal is to protect the company and set the tolerable risk level for our operations. Right. So during the course of this reporting, I spent months talking to people, trying to dig in. And what I learned is that the source, of all of this information about what Uber knew about this problem with sexual assault was Uber.

And so I was able to get my hands on some sealed court documents. And this is thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of records. And I spent a lot of time digging through those records. And what I found is that the company has spent nearly a decade studying this problem. The company knows the patterns that are linked to sexual assault. on the platform. The company has tested solutions that it has found effective for deterring sexual violence.

And the company largely has delayed or failed to require to implement those tools in large part because it put its business first. And when you get on an Uber app, there's different levels of Uber's, right? You have Uber X, there's Uber comfort, then there's also Uber Black. Is this a problem systemically

with all of those Uber's? or are you seeing it as something that's more prevalent with one aspect of that grouping than the other? That's a really good question. And the documents that I saw did not delve into that issue. But what I know is that this is a problem that is pervasive across the company, across the platform. And this isn't just Uber. This is a problem that's pervasive across the ride chair industry. Uber has reported thousands of sexual assaults and Lyft also. has as well. You know, so many people, and I am one of them at some point, thought, okay, this feels safer than a taxi, because at least there's some record of who I'm with, and they

know that, so probably nothing bad is going to happen. Has Uber responded to your reporting thus far? Yes, Uber has responded, and what Uber says is that it is one of the safest forms of travel. The company says that it operates on such a vast scale. There are millions of rides a day in the United States, and it says only a small fraction of a percent of a ride and in a serious sexual assault or a safety incident. And so what the company says is that this is a small problem when you look at this entire issue, and it says that it's taking steps to try to address it. Talk to us about some of those steps, because there was a pilot program that was supposed

to link more female riders with female drivers, some other things they were looking up. looking at like more cameras in the ubers, where do you think stand with that? And do you think we will actually see some of those programs or other measures implemented to get that number to zero? Yeah. So what these documents show is that Uber for years has experimented with this option to match women drivers with women passengers. Those are the two least likely groups of assaulting each other.

And just recently, at the end of July, the company announced that it was going to launch pilot tests in three U.S. cities to start implementing that service. Okay. So a lot still to watch here. Extraordinary reporting. Emily Steele with the New York Times. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Turning now to the music world, mourning the loss of a Latin music legend. Eddie Palmyri, a pioneer of Latin jazz, has died at the age of 88. Tonight he is being remembered for his genre-bending hits, fiery live performances,

and that unmistakable sound. NBC's Stephen Romo has this one. On the keys, Eddie Palmyri was a force of nature. The pianist, composer and band leader, a trailblazer, fusing Latin music, jazz, and Afro-Caribian beats, ushering in a golden age of salsa. The 10-time Grammy Award winner was born and raised in New York City. his parents moving there from Puerto Rico in the 1920s. He was able to incorporate all these influences, Latin rhythms and the rhythms of New York and jazz.

And all of this came together in his music. He went on to form the band La Perfecta, which pushed boundaries in the music scene at the time featuring trombones, a bold shift from the trumpets customary in Latin orchestras. He was perhaps best known for his hit songs like Asucar, Alainaut Palmante, and Milos Mejor, an ode to his late wife, Iraida Palmeri. In 1976, he earned his first ever Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording. Decades later, the Library of Congress adding his album, Asucar Pati, to the National Recording Registry.

It was just unbelievable. You know, it was just a wonderful thing to happen at the time that I was going to rough times. This is the man who opened the door for a lot of what we now call cross-cultural collaborations. But in his time, they were what he was surrounded with, but that not many people had been able to incorporate. into a sound.

Palmyri died in his home in New Jersey on Wednesday at 88 years old. He survived by his five children and four grandchildren who say they will carry forward his legacy of creativity, resilience, and pride. And, Alison, Palmeti actually had a very special relationship with his fans talking back and forth with them on Facebook. In fact, one of his last posts said, quote, I've been blessed to touch the 88 keys of life on and off the bandstand, and I adore all my lovely fans. You all live in my heart and pay no rent. A true New Yorker who will be missed. Ellison. Stephen Romo, thank you for that

beautiful tribute. And when Top Story continues, whiteout conditions, sub-zero temperatures, and no room for error, the daring mission to rescue three Americans from a remote U.S. base in Antarctica. Plus, the travel influencers flooding social media with dreamy posts about Afghanistan. But are these viral videos whitewashing a regime known for its brutal treatment of women and others? Stay right there. happened last night in a popular sightseeing area. Here you can see the aftermath of the collapse. It's unclear what caused that cable to break,

but we're told the government is sending a task force to investigate. And in Kenya today, at least six people died when a plane crashed near the country's capital. Local officials say the jet belonged to an air ambulance service and that it went down in a residential area. Four people on board were killed, along with two others who were inside a home.

No word yet from investigators on why the plane crashed. terrifying moment in Poland after a van got trapped on train tracks. Video shows the vehicle crossing just as the gate closes. The driver tries to move out of the way, but then the train smashes into that van, essentially ripping it in half. Somehow, police say the driver made it out unscathed. No one was hurt. Authorities say they posted the video as a reminder to always be careful out on the road.

Staying overseas with the rare and highly dangerous rescue mission just carried out in Antarctica. The Royal New Zealand Air Force conducting a medical evacuation of three Americans from a research base on Wednesday. That daring 19.5 hour rescue mission from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, performed in harsh weather conditions and 24-hour darkness. It's a mission of the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand described as, quote, nothing short of heroic. NBC's Matt Bodner joins us now from our International Bureau in London. Matt McMurdo Station, it's the main of... American community, if you will, in Antarctica, right? And that base is cut off from the outside world in the winter months there. What did it take to land that plane at that base?

Well, this is just about the hardest flight you could attempt, Allison. The nearest landmass, New Zealand, it's about 2,400 miles away. So you're basically flying the distance from New York to Los Angeles to get there. Of course, it's much more remote. And the runway, McMurdo, it's makeshift. The station crew basically has to go out and prepare the ice, by grooming it with a truck to ensure that this plane can land safely. And this was a C-130, so it's a large aircraft. There's a lot that can go wrong. The weather is generally as bad as it can be that time of year, and there's also very

little light down there. So the flight crew had to do the entire 20-hour mission with night vision goggles. Now, once they landed at McMurdo, the flight crew actually had to keep the engines running while they refueled the plane and also retrieved the researchers. The engines might actually not restart if they got cold. The U.S. representative in New Zealand, Melissa Sweeney, said this in a statement, quote, this mission wasn't just difficult. It was one of the most technically demanding operations in aircrew can face.

Only the best crews can pull off something like this. Hats off to them. So, Matt, in terms of the three Americans who were rescued, I mean, the rescue mission itself heroic, but this was a medical evacuation, right? Do we know how sick they were, what their condition was when they left and how they're doing tonight? So we don't know too much. is that three researchers needed to be airlifted off the continent. One of them required urgent medical care. Now, we don't know much about the nature of that medical emergency at McMurdo,

but suffice it to say, the station lacked the facilities to handle it themselves, and it necessitated an extreme rescue attempt. Allison? Matt Bodner, thank you. Now to a growing trend on social media, travel influencers venturing into Afghanistan, posting often dazzling videos touting the beauty and the culture of the Taliban-run nation. Critics of those trips say those videos promote an overly rosy picture of life under an oppressive regime and that the treatment of Western tourists can be vastly different from that of the actual citizens. Take a look. So can we skip to the good part?

On social media, a growing number of influencers taking viewers inside what they're calling a hot new travel destination, Afghanistan. Just trust me, you'll be fine. Some, like tour lead Zoe Stevens, suggesting limitations on female travelers in the Taliban-ruled nation are overblown. A country is not a sum of its politics. It's a sum of so much more. It's a sum of its culture, its history, its food, and especially in Afghanistan, it's people. But the situation much different for everyday Afghan women. The UN has referred to the situation in Afghanistan.

situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban as a situation of gender apartheid. Especially since the frantic U.S. withdrawal from the country four years ago. No high school, no university. Basically, the Taliban is trying to systematically erase women from public life. Other traveling influencers, young men. This is what it's like to travel Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Drawn in by viral videos like this. We have one message for America.

Welcome to Afghanistan. Yosef, an Afghan-American tour operator, made the video. He says guests are eager to learn about Afghanistan beyond the headlines and bring in much-needed business. When you travel as a tourist, for the most part, most of your money is spent in the streets and goes to the pockets of the chefs of the taxi drivers of the shepherds. Welcome to day three of backpacking Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Extreme travel influencer Eli Snyder says he went there to connect with people, not to advocate for the Taliban government.

It doesn't make you a bad person to visit a place because you're trying to learn more about the world. I asked him whether his videos should cover other more draconian aspects of Taliban rule as well, from the treatment of women and girls to laws punishing extramarital sex with whippings. Do you worry by not talking about that in your videos that you're saying it doesn't exist and therefore legitimizing it, as some critics have said? No, I mean, I definitely acknowledge the fact that by my videos, I can be encouraging people to go to Afghanistan, but I think that more good. comes from visiting Afghanistan and bad because you get to interact with local people and that brings joy to their life and you realize what kind people they are.

According to the New York Times, the unelected Taliban makes tourism a priority in their new government, saying they especially rely on bloggers and YouTubers to extol the virtues of visiting Afghanistan. This was also our first Taliban interaction and they invited us for some green tea and wanted to hear about our experience so far. While tourism can help replace income lost by foreign aid, experts say that. Taliban will also use the income to help fund its repression. Afghan women like Orzala, who was forced to leave her home country because of oppression, say influencers have a moral obligation to show their thousands of followers the totality of Afghanistan.

These random influencers visiting and they saw everything is completely fine there. Things are not okay in Afghanistan. Half of the population are denied from their basic rights. And we should note the U.S. State Department still has a do-not-travel advisory for Afghanistan, citing civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention and kidnapping. We'll be right back. And finally tonight, you have probably seen the viral videos of American Catholics delivering shirts, hats, even pizzas to Pope Leo in Rome, as the obsession with the First American Pope reaches new heights that papal frenzy also on full display in Lerner, Leo's hometown. Our Maggie Vesp is in Chicago chatting to those deeply devoted to both their Pope and their pizza.

Hype around America's first pope now reaching new heights with viral videos of shirts, hats, getting hand delivered to the Chicago-born pontiff, including two dry ice packed pies carted to roam today from Araleos. The Chicago staple going all in on papal madness, dubbing one pizza, the Poperoni, after the then-cardinal ate here last summer. You've hosted then-future presidents. You've hosted boxing legends. They don't have their own table, though. No, no, the Pope is our number one fan and number one customer. This faithful in from New Mexico. You can travel to the bean downtown, or see Wrigley Field, but this is way more special. The fanfare consuming Chicago, Pope Leo lookalikes, now regulars at White Sox games.

the real lifelong fan delivering this message. My dear friends, it's a pleasure for me to greet all of you. Holy devotion now hitting the streets. You've launched a Pope-themed bus tour. Yeah, yeah. That's like the most American thing ever. I know. Chicago Pope Tours held its inaugural trip Sunday,

taking patrons to Pope Leo's seminary, even his childhood home. I think the sense of community that happened was really important. A growing connection to America's first pontiff that sparked a Pope culture frenzy. Maggie Vespa, NBC News, Chicago. Thanks so much for watching Top Story. I'm Alison Barber in New York for Tom Yamis. Stay right there. More news is on the way.