Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, December 22, 2022

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

A treacherous winter storm creating a holiday travel nightmare with more than 2,000 flights already cancelled, Sam Bankman-Fried released on $250 million bond after returning to the U.S., jury deliberates in the trial of Tory Lanez — the rapper accused of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, a convicted murderer known as "The Serpent" set to be freed in Nepal and a new program giving Native American students a chance to attend university free of charge in California.

Tonight, a treacherous winter storm creating a holiday travel nightmare. More than 100 million Americans under winter weather alerts, white-out conditions wreaking havoc on the roads, traffic slowing to a crawl, cars sliding off the sides of highways. Strong winds and snow threatening to take down power lines and tens of thousands stranded at airports. More than 2,000 flights already canceled and a bitter Arctic chill setting in. Bill Cairns is standing by to time out the dangerous days ahead. Sam Bankman Freed released on $250 million bond after returning to the United States, where the man who once sat atop a crypto empire will now be forced to serve his house arrest as he awaits trial. Verdict Watch in the trial of Torrey Lanes.

The rapper accused of shooting Megan the Stallion in the foot, the case igniting a firestorm online with some bloggers attacking the rap superstar. The closing arguments made on both sides as the jury deliberates. A convicted murderer known as The Serpent, set to be freed in Nepal, why authorities are letting the notorious criminal whose violent past inspired a Netflix series walk free after decades behind bars. Plus, the dramatic rescue in California, a cyclist pinned under a car, and the Good Samaritans who rushed in to lift it off in. And leaving Hoopa Valley, a new program giving Native American students a chance to attend university free of charge in California. We'll bring you the story of one inspiring young woman leaving everything she knows behind

for the promise of a better future. Top story starts right now. Good evening, I'm Jake Ward in for Tom Yamas tonight. That dangerous winter storm that we've been warning you about all week, well, it's here, and it is creating a travel nightmare for millions of Americans. This video posted by the Wyoming Highway Patrol showing just how treacherous conditions are right now.

Millions across the Great Plains and the Midwest are under blizzard alerts. Similar scenes in Kansas City, as this system barrels east, the wind and snow making it nearly impossible to see in cars skidding off the side of the highway. The runway was barely visible at the Denver International Airport, crews working around the clock to try to clear the snow. But those high winds, grounding flights from coast to coast, more than 2,000 flights canceled, 5,000 more delay.

Tens of thousands of passengers stranded just days before Christmas. The greatest threat from this storm, though, the potentially life-threatening wind chills. Alerts extending from Washington State all the way down to Florida, with wind chills as low as negative 70 a possibility. NBC's Maggie Vespa is in Chicago for us tonight where that snow is already coming down. Maggie? Hey, Jake, as you can see, and as you said, the snow and the wind, there it is, hitting here in Chicago, just in the last. six, seven hours or so. They bring with them the potential for black ice on the roads, which is why you see traffic going slower on I-90 here, and also those plummeting temperatures.

Today's high in Chicago was 33. Tomorrow's is two. Brunal conditions sweeping the country, of course, in the holiday home stretch. Tonight, a withering white Christmas, courtesy of a monster winter storm, delivering brutal winds and dangerous flash freezes during the heart of the holiday season. I mean, it's cold, but when it's negative 20, it's just another level. It sucks. I hate it. The system forecast to transform into a bomb cyclone overnight. Coast to coast, 105 million people, nearly a third of the U.S. population, are under winter weather alerts. With blizzard warnings now in 10 states, states of emergency, declared in 6.

I encourage everyone, everyone, please heed the local warning. It's not like a snow day, you know, when you're a kid. This is serious stuff. But folks, if we don't take it seriously, we will lose loved ones. Winds expected to approach 100 miles per hour, knocking out power in parts of Portland, Oregon. Outages stacking up from the west coast to the plains and the south. This as a bone-chilling Arctic blast sends temperatures plummeting. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, dropping from 42 degrees to 2 in one hour.

This is an absolute whiteout. Elsewhere, roads are the big concern. In South Dakota, 100 drivers rescued and taken to shelter near Rapid City. In Wisconsin, drivers being urged not to travel tomorrow. NBC's Shaq Brewster is in Michigan. Conditions on the road continue to get more treacherous into the evening, and it's not just the snow and wind leading to low visibility, but those plunging temperatures are creating conditions for dangerous black ice.

With flurries falling in Chicago, final holiday grocery runs merge with last-minute prep. Snow we're used to. It's the temperature dropping so fast and the ice and then black ice and all that. I don't want to come out of you. You're not messing with them. Not at all. The next chapter in this Arctic system's harrowing holiday saga. So, Maggie, we will obviously get to air travel in just a moment, but I have to assume you drove there.

Tell us about the driving conditions that you face. We did. We drove here and we drove here very carefully because, again, as you can see, and Jake, you were just in Chicago. You know, this is the Kennedy Expressway. This is obviously a major thoroughfare. And keep in mind, this is a workday ahead of a holiday. and this is the tail end of rush hour. People are already taking it slow on the interstate

knowing this storm is arriving and changing conditions in real times. It's already getting messy out there and it's only going to get worse, Jake. Just an entirely different world than I was seeing just a week ago. That is extraordinary. Now, of course, we could start seeing

these conditions in the northeast as well as we get closer to the holiday. What are officials most concerned about when it comes to the roadways? Yeah, a couple of things because, you know, these winter storms tend to get highlighted or sort of headlined with snow. And this one is definitely bringing snow. But they were talking

way more, as you heard in our piece and as you've seen throughout the day about the winds, which could quite possibly knock out power. And then as those temperatures drop, they call that a flash freeze when they drop like 30, 40 degrees in the course of a couple of hours. If that, they can freeze whatever is on the road really quickly. And that can lead to the potential of black ice. And that's been a big warning here in Chicago. It's a big warning out east, something that drivers are taking really seriously. And officials are just hoping that people heed these warnings and, if possible, hunkered out at home. Jake.

Maggie Vespa with a tough assignment for us tonight in Chicago. Thank you, Maggie. The wild winter weather becoming a nightmare for travelers nationwide. Nearly 8,000 delays and more than 2,300 flight cancellations for flights across the country. And that, of course, is less tens of thousands stranded during the holidays. All of this as millions brace for freezing temperatures and high winds. NBC's Tom Costello is tracking the travel chaos. All of that snow, the high winds, and deep cold are stalling and freezing airport operations.

Tens of thousands of holiday travelers delayed or stranded. I'm going to have to stick it out here until 8.30 night and see if I can make to Indiana. Denver International de-icing and a wind chill of minus 17 degrees. A quarter of all Denver flights canceled and thousands stuck. There's literally just people sleeping all, I mean in our terminal all over the place. We have teams out in the airport right now, handing out blankets and pillows or anything that passengers who may be stranded at the airport may need. For days, airlines encouraged passengers to reschedule ahead of the storm. Tonight, Chicago O'Hare and Midway topped the list of cancellations.

I was freaked out because I've never been in like a blizzard or like snow or any weather I got before. Highlighted in red on Flight Aware's misery map, today's aviation choke points, ground delays. in Denver, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and Washington, rippling across the country. Here in New York, LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark make up the biggest airport system in the country, and a quarter of all-air traffic flies into, out of, or through New York airspace. Here in Chicago, at the United Airlines Operations Center, United's biggest hub, system-wide, they're going to be averaging 8.3 million passengers through the holidays. That's about half a million passengers for United every day.

Airports here in Washington affected greatly by what happens in Dallas, in Atlanta, in New York, and in Chicago. Now the East Coast is bracing for those high winds. Tomorrow, Friday, Boston will likely experience winds of 50 to 60 miles per hour until about 6 p.m. Tom Costello joins us now from Reagan National Airport in Washington. Tom, how are those projected high winds going to affect travel tomorrow? Well, we are expecting high wind issues in Cleveland, for example. all two airports, Midway in O'Hare and Chicago, all three in New York, Detroit as well, and then Boston, with those extreme high winds projected.

So that makes it extremely dangerous out on the ramps and runways and very cold for the ramp workers and the runway workers that are out there. By the way, we have 2,000 flights projected to be canceled already just for tomorrow, Jake. Getting worse and worse. Tom Costello for us. Thank you, Tom. For more on this winter wallop and where it is. headed next. NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens joins us now. Bill, we are already seeing

severe weather conditions, and this is the part that I just can't believe. Are we really just getting started here? We haven't even really had the high impacts, you know, the power outages, the winds knocking and doing damage, coastal flooding and maybe even river flooding. That's all stuff that we have to look forward to in the next 24 to 36 hours. So the storm itself, the cold air today dove all the way to South Texas. Now we're watching the snow and the backside of it from Chicago through Michigan. Rainy weather, a little bit of snow today from Pennsylvania, New York. Tonight, these two storms combine into what will be a bomb cyclone tomorrow morning. If I never heard that term before, it just means a rapidly strengthening storm. Pretty rare for

the Great Lakes. And that's why we're going to have such unusual events with this, with the high winds, the flash freeze tomorrow in the Ohio Valley heading to the east coast. But these winds tomorrow will be the issue that I'm most concerned with because of people losing power in such cold temperatures. And look at this wind gusts predicted in western New York Buffalo. 72 miles per hour. hurricane strength. And you get winds that strong, you're going to get power out of it. We're very concerned from Cleveland along Lake Erie and also northern New England. And Jake, on top of all of that, can you imagine a Buffalo's 72 mile per hour winds and possibility of two to three feet of snow. Bill, you mentioned yesterday, you know, that in the west we were seeing

incredible temperature changes. Denver dropped something like 70 degrees in 24 hours. That bomb cyclone now that it's going east. I mean, is that going to do the same thing over there? How severe are those temperature drops going to be? It won't be as the extreme. And by the way, Cheyenne Wyoming dropped 47 degrees in one hour. That was the highest total we saw in one hour anywhere. So, I mean, over half of the country right now is under windshield warnings or advisories from areas of the northwest all the way to south, North Florida here on Jacksonville. And the temperatures right now have been bottoming out, especially from Dallas southward. Look at Dallas. Negative 5. Chicago's negative 12, St. Louis, negative 21. This is all coming to the East

Coast. And Jake, yes, you'll feel it. this cold front goes through the eastern seaboard. That's why we're worried about anything that's wet becoming ice. Bill Karen, stay on top of it for us. Thank you so much, Bill. Turning now to new health concerns tonight, the CDC issuing a new warning about an increase in cases of invasive strep A in children. This comes as flu and COVID cases are also rising. Gabe Gutierrez has the latest. At Hackensack Meridian's Jersey Shore University Medical Center, they're bracing for long winter. Have you ever seen numbers like this before? Unprecedented would be the word I would use. Unprecedented volumes. David Clark works in the ER. He and his colleagues are seeing first hand

the impact of the so-called tripledemic, RSV, flu, and COVID. It is something that we have not seen in the past. I have been in and around emergency departments for well over 30 years and have not seen anything along these lines before. The big unknown for us at this point is what kind of a COVID season are we going to have? Obviously, we had two very difficult winters the past two years, and I think we have to brace for that. While RSV cases seem to have peaked across much of the country, flu and COVID cases are up. Six-year-old Juan Carlo Aguier and San Diego came down with the flu and spent 10 days in the hospital. It's the worst feeling that a mother can go through, seeing your child just intubated in a bed. Health officials in Chicago are preparing to hit what they

call a high risk level for COVID by next week and may soon recommend an indoor masking advisory. Public schools in Passaic, New Jersey are already reinstating a mass mandate for students and staff. There's a lot of people that are wishing while she with the vaccination, so I feel like that's probably the safest bet. Sixty-year-old Dorrie Greenberg was hospitalized with COVID twice. When you can't breathe, it's the most scariest thing in the world. She credits the vaccine and booster shot with saving her life. I really feel that I would have been much, much, much worse without it. Also today, the CDC issued a new health advisory,

warning of an increase of a rare bacterial infection, invasive strep A among children. Jake? Gabe Gutierrez, thank you so much. For more on this tripledemic and that new health warning, let's bring in NBC News medical contributor Dr. Uche Blackstock. Dr. Blackstock, tell us a little bit more about this invasive strep A, especially in children, that is causing so much concern among people in your field?

Well, Jake, thank you so much for having me. So what we're seeing is actually cases of this group A strep. In Colorado, we've also seen some cases in the UK. Typically, this bacteria is the same bacteria that causes a sore throat or pharyngitis and also causes scarlet fever. But now we're seeing these cases where the bacteria is getting into the bloodstream and causing bacteremia and fessus. It's causing very complicated pneumonia, and also causing very significant and serious in infections.

And so the thought is that, you know, we're seeing it actually in children who have had previous respiratory illnesses, who have had flu, who have had RSV, and then because their immune systems are suppressed, they get this bacterial infection on top of that. And so what's very important for parents out there to look out for our, you know, high fevers, difficulty breathing. If your child seems lethargic or low energy or if you're seeing very bad rashes, pick your child to the pediatrician or to the closest ER. As someone who saw just a cross-current of these cases

go through his own household. I can't believe this. I just have to ask me. Last week we saw flu cases, in theory, leveled out, and we're about to get the newest numbers tomorrow. This is the question. I think every family wants to know. Should we expect to see a spike?

Or do you think we could be at the peak right now? Right. No, we really, really don't know. We know the flu season started early. It could still plateau, but there's a chance to get still go up. We know family members are coming together. Love ones are coming together. Kids are getting out of school. So that's going to increase socialization. People are socializing actually indoors with this cold weather that you were just discussing. And so there is a chance that we may see that increase in flu cases. It remains to be seen. But again, I just want to remind people, it's not too late to get their flu vaccine for all. ages. And Dr. Blackstock, I mean, with the holidays coming up this week, what is it, how do you say when you're talking to people about, how do you navigate the conversations that you need to have about protecting vulnerable people in your family as quickly as you can? Yeah, such a good question. But I say if you are sick or feeling you're coming down with anything, stay home. If you are living with other people who are immunosuppressed or elderly, make sure you wear a high quality mask. Please test for COVID before any family gatherings.

and also make sure to keep that gathering space well-ventilated, open doors, and get air purifiers in there and get vaccinated and boosted. May we all stay safe this holiday. Dr. Uj. Blackstock, thank you so much. Next to Capitol Hill and the January 6th committee's final report expected to be released today. This week, the committee calling for criminal charges against former President Trump, though the recommendations have no legal weight. Let's bring in NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitale. As we wait for this full report to be released, the big headline today is surrounding transcripts released of Cassidy Hutchinson's interview with the committee, including new details about her deposition and information that she was texted about President Trump. Tell us about that. Yeah, that's exactly right, Jake.

We're getting new transcripts from Cassidy Hutchinson, even as we're waiting for this longer final report. In these transcripts, though, and these are only a snippet of the interviews that Hutchinson did with the committee, because these are just her September depositions. But in them, we see confirmation of something that the committee's been teasing for a while now. The idea that there was witness tampering and further bolstering of the idea that former President Trump knew and was talking with AIDS about the fact that he had lost the election. On the witness tampering front, we know that Hutchinson was receiving text messages from people in the former president's inner orbit, telling her that they know that she's loy. that she'll do the right thing in her testimonies with the committee. All of that viewed as an attempt to pressure her into protecting the former president, not telling the full truth of what she knew.

And then on the other piece of this, there's also confirmation in her transcripts and interviews of the fact that she was having conversations with people like Mark Meadows and other top officials in the Trump administration about the fact that they had had conversations with former President Trump talking to the fact that he had lost the election, that he knew that, that they were going through the steps of transmitting all of the materials that were legally necessary to the National Archives, even potential for setting up presidential libraries, all things that you would do if you had lost an election and you were not going to be in the White House anymore. That's something that this committee's worked really hard to do, establish that the former president knew he lost and undertook the actions that he did that led to January 6th anyway. And, Allie, the day is slipping away from us.

Have we heard any new information about why this report hasn't been released yet? This has been the question that we've been asking now for two days, Jake. This is how I put it to Congressman Raskin. Can I just ask, where's the report now? Well, the report is very much on its way. I don't know what time exactly it will arrive. I think you will have the report today. And I believe it's on writ.

Remember, we're just dealing with a skeleton crew now. We're overwhelmed with what's going on on the floor. The staff is working real hard to get it out today. And I've got confidence that they'll get it out today. So look, there's still some hours left in today. Raskin could still be right. Other members of the committee said the same. But at the same time, whether this is the most famous printer jam in congressional history

and they're just waiting for the report to be printed or if they're waiting for some other reason, either way, they are past the deadline that they set for themselves. Ali Vitale for us on Capitol Hill. Thank you so much, Ali. For more on this pending report release, let's bring in congressional correspondent for the New York Times, Luke, thank you so much for being here. Now, Luke, what are you going to be looking for inside this report? I know you've been watching it closely. Right. Well, we know the rough outlines of the report will basically mirror the findings of the public hearings the January 6th committee had this summer, where they walked through the various steps of the plan to overturn the election. from putting forward false slates of electors to perpetrating lies about the election outcome

to pressuring the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence. So I think we'll see more details of each one of those various aspects of the plan to overturn the election, but with additional information. Obviously, you can do a lot more in an 800-some-page report than you can during a two-hour meeting. So, you know, I expect a lot more evidence on the bone, but I don't expect there to be necessarily any huge changes in the thinking of the committee. I think we know roughly what they're going to say. And you mentioned pressure on the former vice president. In these transcripts, Cassidy Hutchinson says she felt pressured by the former president,

President Trump. But perhaps more importantly, Trump seems to have known he'd lost and he continued his efforts anyway. How significant is that to you, do you think? Right. Yeah. So, I mean, one theme that the January 6th, tried to develop throughout their investigation was demonstrating that Donald Trump was told

again and again that he had lost the election and that Donald Trump sometimes seemed to accept that and other times he would go back on it and he had a sort of team of advisors telling him different things. Most of this, I would say, responsible people were telling him the facts and the evidence and saying, Mr. President, you really should concede. But there were another group of people who were behaving irresponsibly and telling him things that were lies that he had a chance to win still, that there were all sorts of fraudulent votes coming in from China or Italy or all sorts of crazy things. And, you know, he chose to side with those people time and time again. And so I do think these transfers that came out today that Allie was just talking about

are illustrative because they do show several people had conversations with Donald Trump and he indicated to them he actually knew that he lost. And so that does bolster the committee's case. And we, of course, have not yet seen the report released. I think everybody is waiting on Twitter Hooks right now, despite repeated reassurances that it's coming. And it feels, I don't know, it feels symbolic somehow of the slow pace of this process. I guess I'm wondering, do you feel that this committee has proved the former president criminally plotted to overturn his 2020 election? Right. Well, that's, that was their goal, right? And so they did a criminal referral to the Justice Department stating just that. Now, it will,

be up to the Justice Department to see whether a congressional investigation has produced enough evidence to reach that conclusion in order to bring about a charge. And they will want to do their own investigation. And then, of course, if they are to charge, then it will be held to the standard of a court, which is beyond a reasonable doubt. So right now, we've seen a lot of evidence that the congressional committee has amassed. But again, they're a legislative body, not a court of law, totally different scenario. And it will take more than just what the congressional committee has done to get this to the level of a criminal charge. And it sounds like you'll be spending your evening checking your phone for this just the way

the rest of us will. Luke Broadwater from New York Times. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. We turn now to the case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He is back now on U.S. soil after being extradited from the Bahamas. With his empire in ruins, the man once known as the Crypto King made his first court appearance today on charges that he cheated investors out of of billions. Ron Allen has our report. Tonight, disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Freed, released from federal custody, wearing an ankle monitor to await trial on fraud charges that prosecutors called a crime of epic proportions, alleging $8 billion of customer funds missing. He's indicted on eight

counts that could send him to prison for life. Bankman-Freed posted a $250 million bond, co-signed by his parents, and secured by their home in Northern California, where where SBF will be under house arrest. Prosecutors called it the largest ever pretrial bond they were aware of. His alleged victims looking at this are not going to be happy that he's freed. The thing is he's not free. He's on house arrest, which is essentially jail, just jail at home. In court, the former FTX CEO only heard saying, yes, I do, when the judge asked if he understood the consequences of not following the rules, a warrant for his arrest.

Prosecutors said Bankman Freed's decision not to fight extradition, and to return to the U.S. from the Bahamas where he lives, factored into their decision to offer him bail. Overnight, investigators turning up the pressure, announcing two top business partners agreed to plead guilty to multiple fraud charges and cooperate with the investigation. And the U.S. attorney had this message to other employees of Bankman Freed's companies. If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it. We are moving quickly, and our patience is not eternal. Ron Allen joins us now from outside the courthouse in New York. Ron, with SBF now posting bail and under house arrest, where does the case go from here? There's still a lot of moving parts.

He has not yet entered a plea. His next court date is January 3rd. The U.S. attorney is suggesting that there may be more charges as the investigation continues. There are still civil charges pending from the SEC. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the big question is whether any of this will result in any of the people who claim they lost a lot of money, whether they'll get any of that back. Jake? Ron Allen for us in New York.

Thank you, Ron. When we come back, an update on a kidnapping in Ohio that we've been following. An arrest made late today as police continue their search for a missing five-month-old, where they tracked down the woman who drove off with him and his twin brother. Plus, verdict watch in the high-profile court case involving Megan the Stallion as the case gets handed over to the jury. And the surprise release overseas, a notorious murderer known as the serpent, about to be let out of prison. Why authorities are letting a man suspected of killing up to 20 people walk free. Stay with us.

We're back now with an update. on the high-profile trial surrounding the shooting of Megan the Stallion. Both sides are finished with closing arguments. We're awaiting a verdict from the jury, but much of the trial has played out in the court of public opinion, too, with loud internet voices drowning out the facts. Naila Charles has the story. Tonight, two stars head-to-head in a shooting trial now waiting on a verdict.

The case is in jurors' hands. They will decide if musician Tori Laines is guilty of shooting rapper Megan the Stallion, real name Megan Pete. The Canadian hip-hop star who pleaded not guilty, known for his hit single, Say It, is charged with the 2020 shooting of the Grammy-winning rapper, known for her sensual rhymes. On the stand, Megan said Tori Lane shot her after telling her to, quote, dance, following an argument inside an SUV. They had just left a party at Kylie Jenner's home. Megan, phasing intense scrutiny on social media and from hip-hop bloggers questioning her account. She testified, I don't want to live.

I wish he had just shot and killed me if I had to go through this torture. Have you seen a lot of misinformation about this case being spread on social media? Absolutely. Particularly, again, with bloggers who don't have legal backgrounds, they want to receive engagement. They want people to talk. They want people to speculate. And you can only hope that the jury is insulated enough, but the practical reality is lawyers know that somehow, some way, information finds its way into the jury room.

even if you can't prove it later. The district attorney referencing the commentary during the trial Wednesday, saying, why would she lie? She's been subjected to a stream of hate for what? For coming forward as a victim of domestic violence? The trial full of surprises. One unexpected turn when Megan's former best friend Kelsey Harris testified, recanting her interview with investigators about the incident in which she identified Torrey Lanes as the shooter,

saying parts of the interview weren't accurate, according to the Associated Press. Then, Megan's lawyer stated that her former bodyguard, another witness, was missing after he didn't come to court for his testimony. Instead, he was at the World Cup in Qatar seen here on his Instagram. The L.A. District Attorney declined to comment on their witness that failed to appear. Now, Lane's facing up to 22 years behind bars if convicted on counts of assault with a semi-automatic handgun, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. He declined to testify. testify the defense calling Megan the Stallion a liar.

Ultimately, defense's goal was to confuse, to hyper-sexualize Megan, and ultimately, it was a strategy that was all over the place. Naila joins us now from Los Angeles. Naila, have we heard from either side tonight and with Christmas just days away? When do you think we could expect a verdict? Jake, jury deliberations will continue tomorrow. We reached out to Megan the Stallion's attorney. back, but Tori Lane's attorney tells me in response to that final perspective we had there

on the piece that he isn't hyper-sexualizing Megan the Stallion and that he's confident his client will be acquitted on all charges. Jake? Naila Charles Forrest in Los Angeles. Thank you, Naima. Turning now to Nepal, where a French serial killer known as the Serpent is about to be set free. He was serving time for murdering an American backpacker in 1975, and that is just one of several of his victims. NBC's Valerie Castro has more on why this notorious criminal is being given his freedom. Tonight, convicted murderer Charles Sabrage, better known by his nicknames, The Serpent and

the Bikini Killer, is set to be released from prison in Nepal. I am happy. I have a great respect and response for my judiciary, Supreme Court. One of his attorneys speaking to reporters Thursday. Most publicly, I'm in immigration my landing position. The 78-year-old Frenchman gained notoriety throughout Asia in the 70s and 80s, suspected of killing as many as 20 people. His alleged victims, often backpackers along the so-called hippie trail. Last year, the BBC and Netflix jointly produced a TV series dramatizing his crimes called The Serpent.

Are you a dangerous man? The question first is whether I committed murder. The race to bring him to justice depicted in books, serpentine and on the trail of a serpent. Next, two bodies were pictured lying on the sand. Charles bent over one of them. Saraj earning that nickname for being a talented disguise and escape artist, and bikini killer for the six women he was accused of murdering on a beach in Thailand

in the mid-1970s. Before he could stand trial on those crimes, he was jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in 1976. He famously escaped 10 years later, drugging prison guards. with cookies and cakes laced with sleeping pills. In 2003, he was arrested in Nepal, accused in the 1975 murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronsage. He was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years.

Several years later, he was also convicted of killing her Canadian friend, Laurent Carrier. The Frenchman eventually admitted to killing several Western tourists. Now a Supreme Court judge ruling, after serving 19 years of his 20-year sentence, Saraj is free to go, citing him. his age and health concerns, including heart disease. In an interview with the New York Times, Sir Roger's attorney says even though his client's release has been ordered, he'll likely stay in Nepal for at least a week before heading back to France. He'll undergo a medical evaluation. And his attorney tells the Times that

documentary film teams are making their way to Nepal from Paris to document his first few days of freedom. Jake? Valerie Castro reporting. Coming up next, the bystanders who stepped in to save a cyclist here in California. A high-speed chase ending with him trapped under a car. How Good Samaritan's pulled off an incredible rescue. Stay with us. Back now with Top Story's news feed, and we begin with an update to a story we brought you earlier this week. Police have tracked down 24-year-old Nala Tamiko Jackson late today, arresting her on two charges of kidnapping.

Jackson allegedly drove off in a stolen Honda Accord with two five-month-old twins inside on Monday while their mother was inside a pizza shop picking up a DoorDash order. One twin was found safely at the Dayton Airport. Jackson was ultimately found in Indianapolis, but the second twin was not with her. Police are now offering a $10,000 reward for any information. Life expectancy in the U.S. is falling to the lowest number in 26 years. New data released today by the CDC shows life expectancy. Propheasancy dropped to 76.4 years in 2021. That is down from 77 in 2020 and 78.8 in 2019.

That drop is roughly equal between men and women. Researchers cited both the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing opioid crisis as the two major factors. Good Samaritans helped pull off a heart-stopping rescue in Santa Cruz County, California. Police say they were chasing down a stolen car when the driver jumped out, letting the vehicle. roll forward. The car pinned a 65-year-old cyclist underneath. Body camera footage shows bystanders rushing in to help lift up that car as police pulled the man to safety. That cyclist is in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery. And if you are looking for a last minute stocking stuffer, we've got an idea, a mega million's ticket might be the way to go because that jackpot has climbed to $510 million ahead of Friday's drawing. That total is

already the highest, sorry, excuse me, the second highest of the year. The winning numbers will be drawn at 11 p.m. Eastern on Friday, but to win, you might need a holiday miracle. Your odds are just one in 302 million. Now, to an update on a story we've been following for months, the residents of Jackson, Mississippi have been dealing with constant water boil notices for years. The water often deemed unsafe to drink. In a city where the majority of residents are black, the EPA is now launching an investigation into accusations of racist government policies that could have led to this crisis. Here is NBC's Zinclai SMOA. 35-year-old Danica Samuel is a mom of six and lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi,

a city plagued with a decades-long water crisis. Today, water in the city is deemed safe to drink, but many residents still don't trust it. You just see my mama do the same thing that I do now for my kids. Every morning we come downstairs when we get us a big tall bottle of water, they put it on the their town. They wash their face and they brush their teeth. The water crisis, triggering an endable ACP complaint in September, alleging racist policies by Governor Tate Reeves and the state of Mississippi, claiming federal money was allocated to smaller majority white communities instead of Jackson. Governor Reeves previously said his administration is committed to ensuring all federal

funds are made available on an objective and race-neutral basis. The Environmental Protection Agency now investigating if Mississippi violated the Civil Rights Act. No city in the United States of America should have a fragile system that leaves 190,000 citizens without clean water to drink. EPA administrator Michael Reagan says the federal government has not adequately invested in communities. Why do you think that a city that's over 80% black is facing a decades-long water crisis? Environmental justice is a serious issue. in this country, which is why the president has made it a priority. We know black, brown, tribal communities, low-income communities have seen a lack of investment,

but also on the front lines of the impacts of these lack of investments and climate change. Jackson was the first city Reagan visited following his 2021 appointment. I saw porta-potties lined all along the school, and I thought that was due to construction. But that's what the students have been using for years because they've been dealing with low water pressure. The White House says new bipartisan legislation will invest at least $50 billion in the nation's infrastructure, including expanding access to clean drinking water. It's my hope that the people of Jackson now get the type of relief that they've been looking for for decades. Denika Samuel hopes that relief comes soon. I want my six kids to have a wonderful

future. I want this to go somewhere, so my kids won't have to wear about unclean water. MOA. NBC News, Jackson. Now to a major development right here in San Francisco, a new piece of artificial intelligence technology will write term papers, software, legal documents, all in a matter of seconds. But it's raising alarms about the value of human creativity. We take you inside how it works and what it could mean for the future of technology. Amar Reshi asked a computer program to write a book. I think it was write a children's book about.

a young girl who creates her own AI. And in a weekend, Alice and Sparkle was finished. Sparkle was a magical AI that Alice created. Wow. Chat GPT is technology, accessible and free to anyone on the web, that impersonates what it's read on the Internet. Type in a request, and it can write legal documents, software, even school essays. People are predicting it will wipe out whole industries.

Attorneys, realtors, are we going to be out of a job? But chat GPT as an AI system may pose ethical risk. to users who are unaware of how the technology works. It in no way is reflecting the depths of human understanding or human intelligence. What it's really good at doing is mimicking its forms. In fact, remember what I said earlier? But chat GPT as a... Well, I asked ChatGPT to write that line for me.

Then I asked for a knock-knock joke. Knock-knock, who's there? Chat-G-T. Chat-G-T-T-K-T, careful. You might not know how it works. What parts of our society could this show? change. The valuing of work of human creativity. There are concerns around deception and potential uses for fraud, but I think that that's sort of only the tip of the iceberg here. The company that makes ChatGBT, OpenAI, was co-founded by Elon Musk and is now primarily backed by Microsoft. The company declined our request for an interview. The kids Amar made the book for

seemed to like it, but writers and illustrators on social media did not. There's some super concerns from these artists. After all, chat GPT could wipe out his job too. Literally my line of work, you know, apps, design work, your product design work. And now he wants someone to solve this problem. What are mechanisms we can still compensate artists? That's the lesson to you here. That's definitely the lesson. Now new reporting from the New York Times suggests that Google has issued a so-called code read internally about this product because of the threat it might opposed to its search business.

Meanwhile, teachers across the country are reporting that student essays possibly written by CHATGPT evade the most common plagiarism detection software. We have entered some very strange times. Now, two top stories, Global Watch, and the growing backlash after the Taliban banned women from attending university in Afghanistan. Women taking to the streets to protest the ruling which went into effect on Wednesday. Leaders from around the world have condemned the decision the Taliban minister of higher education defending the ban on Thursday amid the uproar, saying strict Islamic

dress codes had not been followed, but saying the policy could be reviewed later. And in Peru, a grad party gone wrong when the dance floor collapsed. New video shows teens dancing together when the floor breaks underneath them. Others at the party rushed to help them out. A few were rushed to the hospital, but no one was fatally injured. The cause of that sinkhole is still under investigation. When we come back, leaving Hoopa Valley, the new program making higher education accessible to a whole new group of students. One woman's journey from her reservation to one of the nation's top universities.

That is next. For generations, many high-achieving Native American students have been kept from attending prestigious universities simply because they do not have the money. It's a bitter irony, as some major state schools are built. state schools are built on unseeded Native American lands. But here in California, a new program is trying to make amends and may be making the dream of higher education possible for native students. Gioro Sotile has our story. Tucked in the mountains of Northern California is the Hoopa Valley Reservation, where the

Hoopa people have lived for more than 10,000 years. It's the place Jada McCovey calls home. She is a Hoopa tribal member, and also Uruk. At the community's heart is the Trinity River. And that's where we met Jada in this canoe, handmade by her grandfather. No matter what I do or what pathway, I decided to go down, like being indigenous comes first. McCovey is preparing to soon leave her beloved home to go to school at the University of California at Davis, nearly 300 miles away.

I always wanted to go to UC Davis, like, since I was really young, and I just didn't know how it was going to happen financially or whether I had the tools in my pocket to make it happen. In the next few weeks, she will join the first class of the University of California's Native American Opportunity Plan, a program that began this semester. It ensures that in-state tuition and fees are covered by grants and scholarships for California students who are from federally recognized Native American tribes. How'd that make you feel? It was amazing. It felt for the first time, like, while we're really being recognized and seen and not only seen, but value. Jada interned for her tribe's environmental program and hopes to study environmental science and Native American studies when she transfers to UC Davis in January. This is just one of our traditional houses.

And, she says, she'll bring that knowledge right back here to Hoopa Valley. There's just a higher sense of comfort and belonging here. Is that something you think you have to give up going to Davis? It's almost something I have to sacrifice, at least temporarily. In the plan's first semester, 200 Native American students were able to enroll in University of California campuses, a step forward in what is currently a sharply underrepresented community across the prestigious and expensive university system. Michael Drake is the president of the UC system.

This is your university, and this is a way of us, one of the ways that we can help to demonstrate how much we want to have you here. Among the great institutions of learning. No doubt having more than $15,000 in tuition and fees covered is a huge leg up. But consider this. Dozens of universities across the country were funded by taking Native American land, 11 million acres of it. including 150,000 acres that funded the University of California. How do we support Native Americans when we built our institutions on stolen land? I think that's something that the entire nation really is confronting as we look at and confront our past challenges to try to recognize that, to acknowledge that,

and then I think figure out what we can do moving forward to create a better and more inclusive future. And across the UC system, American Indian and Alaska Native students report feeling less, less respected on campus than other groups. And they have lower graduation rates than all other students at 77 percent. Staying close to my community was a big thing that almost helped me back, but I knew that if I came, I was going to make a bigger impact on my community. Dawn Julia Grant is Uruk and Karuk. She grew up on her tribal land in Northern California.

But a lack of resources and a turbulent home life growing up. this prestigious campus feel out of reach. I was couch surfing, like all high school mostly. Now, at age 17, she's a first year student at Berkeley, studying architecture and living in the dorms. Everything I have here is everything I have. Yeah, so I have nothing to go back to. With everything on the line, Grant says this program is a step in the right direction.

Seeing people around me in my community fall into the cycle of drug abuse, alcohol abuse and I didn't want to fall into that cycle. I wanted to break it. I'm very grateful for the tuition lever, but there's more that can happen. This is from my site visit. Perhaps the only thing more daunting for these students than leaving home is the fear of failure. There's always this worry in the back of my mind. What if I don't have enough to fully support myself? There's not really like a backup plan for me. Leaving behind what will always be home for the promise of what's ahead. I think it's a new opportunity for me to really push myself and see what I'm capable of doing. Those fears shared by both Julia and Jada are understandable, given what's at stake for these students.

But UC President Drake says there is counseling available to Native students, like for all students in the UC system. And some campuses, including UC Berkeley, also have Native American community centers. Getting to a UC is one thing, but having the support. to succeed is quite another. Kiaro Sertili with fears and dreams. Thank you, Kiarra. When we come back, baseball transcending borders. The Japanese superstar who just signed a monster deal

to play in the States as his country celebrates 150 years of excellence on the diamond. That is next. Finally, tonight, celebrating Japan's national pastime. 2022 marks a special anniversary of baseball in the island nation. And with an increasing number of Japan's biggest stars playing here in the majors, there is also a lot of Americans who can learn something from the Japanese perspective on the game. He's a three-time All-Star, a five-time league champion, and an Olympic gold medalist.

He may be Major League Baseball's next multimillion-dollar star, but you'd probably never even heard of him before his big introduction this week. Hi, I'm Kodai Senga of the New York Mets. This year celebrates 150 years of baseball in Japan. And Senga's signing helps mark the biggest off-season spending spree on Japanese players. Now, let us look back 150 years ago to 1872, when Horace Wilson, an American teacher from Maine, introduce this sport to Japanese schoolboys,

it would eventually become Japan's national pastime and also a mighty bond between the two countries. In 150 years of yaku, as the locals call it, we've witnessed iconic moments from Babe Ruth's first home run in Japan to the start of Ichiro Suzuki's remarkable career, inspiring countless teenagers with dreams of playing baseball in both Japan and America.

MLB All-Star and World Series MVP Hideki Matsui was part of the Ichero generation. If I ever had a chance to play in major league, I wanted to be wear the pinstripes at Yankee Stadium. He headlined a panel event on the 150 years of baseball in Japan, noting the cultural differences between yaku and American baseball. In Japan, children who play baseball first run the importance to respect to baseball. On the other hand, I also love the culture of fun, of the enjoined men that exist largely in American baseball. That perspective recently amplified for American audiences by dual-threat superstar Shohai Otani. Otani bringing his deference for baseball to the front of MLB's 2022, The Show, video game. This special anniversary for baseball in Japan is a chance to reflect.

I got so much from baseball myself, as I said earlier. To be able to give back is really something that I'd love to do. These Japanese players sharing their love and respect for the game, something American players and fans can learn from. To any of, he's been playing in Japan for a long time. wanting to play here. That was his big goal. So he just wants the fans to understand and know that he's very blessed to play here and play in the States. And that, of course, he still does want to put up good numbers as well. Thanks for watching. For Tom Yamas, I'm Jake Ward in San

Francisco. More news now is on the way.