Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, December 26, 2024

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight, millions at risk for severe storms just as holiday travelers returned home. A massive twister touching down in Texas as damaging winds and hail threaten the region. Flash floods leaving drivers stranded. On the west coast, a powerful atmospheric river dumping torrential rain and several feet of snow in the mountains. The cancellations and delays mounting at this hour will tell you how long this unsettled weather will last. Also tonight, the search for answers after that deadly plane crash in Kazakhstan. New images showing the Azerbaijan Airlines plane riddled with holes. Experts saying evidence points to a Russian anti-aircraft system. The growing speculation over what brought that plane down. Avalanche warning. Parts of the country

on alert. Scary video showing snow violently cascading down a mountain in the northeast, all in Utah, two brothers snowmobiling narrowly avoiding tragedy. The terrifying moment is one break, watched the other get buried beneath the snow and how they both made it out alive. A man with dementia missing for hours after going to check his mail, family members finding no signs of him calling in police for help. The technology being praised for locating him in just a matter of minutes. Delta's second stowaway, another person caught sneaking on board of flight, this time one bound for Honolulu, how they were able to make it past security and when they were eventually caught.

And Netflix's Christmas Day game changer. The streaming service making its NFL debut with a Beyonce halftime show, packing a Super Bowl-style performance. So was it a touchdown for Netflix after being plagued by streaming issues in the past? We'll explain. Plus, it is the biggest day for gift returns, but should you wait to make that swap? Top story starts right now.

Good evening. I'm Ellison Barber in for Tom Yamis. Tonight, dangerous storms are on the move as millions of Americans begin their journey home from the holidays. A scary situation unfolding in Texas as a powerful storm system unleashes tornadoes. That massive twister plowing through El Campo, Texas, roughly 70 miles southwest of here. Houston. Here's a different vantage point of what is believed to be that same tornado. Officials saying so far they have no reports of any injuries. And check out this new video. This is just north of Houston. This twister ripping through Dayton resembling an elephant trunk. More than 10 million people from Texas to Arkansas on alert for destructive winds, large hail, and flash floods. Drivers earlier today forced to navigate through streets quickly turning into rivers.

Out west, people are bracing for yet another strong atmosphere. river storm. The next system set to drench the Pacific Northwest and bring intense snowfall to the mountains. Here's a look at the areas that will feel those major impacts. We'll time it all out in just a moment with meteorologist Michelle Grossman. At this hour, flight delays, cancellations, they are climbing. We're seeing the worst delays at Dallas, Fort Worth's George Bush Intercontinental and Chicago's O'Hare Airport. We have so much to get to this evening. We're going to start with NBC's Dana Griffin. tonight multiple reported tornadoes in Texas this one touching down 70 miles southwest of

Houston a driver captures this stunning funnel on camera Wharton County officials say there's no major damage or injuries reported yet northwest of Dayton Texas this reported twister spinning through fields right next to that highway heavy rain and widespread flooding creating a post-Christmas travel challenge snarling ground and air traffic across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Hundreds of flights delayed and canceled. Today, millions are under severe storm risks in the Southern Plains. In the Pacific Northwest, communities bracing for wind, rain, and snowy conditions as another atmospheric river takes aim at the region. Some parts of the Sierra saw eight inches of snow. Cruise clearing roads as holiday

travelers return home. It came in hard and fast, actually. We had a lot of holiday traffic. And in Northern California, we're part of the Santa Cruz Wharf plunged into the ocean. The restroom is now sitting on the beach, where onlookers turned it into a Christmas Day spectacle, taking selfies ahead of another high surf warning as we head into the weekend. And Dana Griffin joins us now from Portland, Oregon. Dana, what is the latest on conditions there in the Pacific Northwest? Yeah, Ellison, so we had a system moving overnight right now. The rain has stopped. But another system is coming right behind it overnight, which will dump more rain and more snow.

And in areas like the Pacific Northwest, the ground is already saturated. So the concern is when you have more moisture, it could lead to slides and down trees. And also further south from us in northern California, you've got those high surf warnings that will last through at least parts of the weekend. And that's the area where you saw that Santa Cruz Wharf that partially collapsed earlier this week. and that restroom that was seen floating in the ocean. Well, that restroom is now sitting on the beach. But officials are warning people to be careful when they're out there on that water and on the coast

because those high waves can come in. And they've also issued several small craft advisories for people that get out in the water because those swells can also impact them. There are also two missing fishermen right now near Los Angeles County who went out when a storm was pretty bad earlier this week. Ellison. All right, Dana Griffin in the Pacific Northwest. Thank you.

For more on these dangerous winter weather conditions, let's bring in NBC News meteorologist Michelle Grossman. Michelle, Dana mentioning there that another storm system is set to move in, at least where she is. Take us through what you are seeing. What's the latest on these severe storms? Hi there, Ellison. Yeah, we're seeing these two separate systems. So in the west first, you can see on radar. Rain is falling in.

It is heavy at times and will continue to be heavy. We have that new system moving on shore tonight. We're going to see an additional three to five inches of rain. And we're going to see an additional one to three feet of snow in the mountains, the highest elevations of the mountains. That's the first thing. The second storm is a system in the south. That's bringing some wicked weather tonight. We have lots of lightning in portions of the south central states, really heavy rainfall, bringing us some downpours, which is causing some flooding.

So 10 million people at risk tonight. We're going to see winds gusting over 70 miles per hour. That could cause damage on its own, bringing down power lines, some trees. Also, how we've seen hail with these storms even since this morning, and a few tornadoes are possible. We showed you video of those reported tornadoes. They will get confirmed by the National Weather Service over the next couple of days. But still the tornado and severe thunderstorm threat is there. Enhanced risk where you see Lufkin to Livingston, Houston, and that darker orange color.

But yellow shading could see some strong storms, and that's what we're seeing right now. On radar, we are seeing lots of lightning. We have an active tornado warning that's issued by the National Weather Service. where you see that red box on the screen here. So what do you do in a tornado? You want to get to the lowest level of your house. You want to get to a basement if you can. If you don't have a basement, get to an interior portion, an interior room, a powder room, a closet. Because we're going to see the chance for more storms. You notice that pink box on the right just popped in so that tornado watch is extended now into the state of Louisiana. With this, we're seeing really heavy downpours

as well. That's causing the chance for some flash flooding. We've seen video of that as we've gone through this Thursday. Where you see the blue here, Ellison, that's the greatest chance of seeing some black flooding through tomorrow morning. Back to you. All right. A lot to watch there. Michelle Grossman, thank you. Yeah. Turning now to power and politics in the showdown between cities and the incoming Trump administration on immigration after campaign promises of deportation on a mass scale. NBC's Sam Brock one-on-one with President-elect Trump's border czar and a look at how immigration policy and enforcement could soon change nationwide. Tonight, the impending clash between the incoming administration and sanctuary

cities looks closer to combustion. After San Diego's board of supervisors approved a measure requiring the feds obtain a judicial warrant for undocumented migrants already in their jails. Bottom line is, I'm shocked to what San Diego did. And bottom line, we're still coming to San Diego and do our job. Look, it's more difficult, but we're still doing it. Thomas Homan is President elect Trump's border czar and the former director of ICE. You see San Diego's recent actions as having no legal muster and you're just going to move right through that. I think San Diego's legal action will be taken will be in litigation. It's the latest salvo in a showdown over immigration policy that also affects cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. It's unfathomable to hear

that the incoming administration wants to devastate over 28 million American families in this country who live in mixed status of households. Murad Oweuda is president of the New York Immigration Coalition. He's also concerned that Trump's controversial family detention policy may be back on the table. You need to understand it's not in a, we say detention, but it's not in a jail setting. This is actually an open-air campus, a family type facility that is open-air, right? So we're not talking about where it's wired and a penal institution, things like that, to have childcare, they have education and programs. There is no such thing as a soft detention site. There's no humane way of

of detaining children in prisons, because that's what it ends up becoming, even if it's a tent structure. President-elect Trump has promised deportation on a mass scale, starting as soon as he steps into office as concerns over family separations remain high. Do you worry, though, that you will actually be separating children from their parents and punishing children for the actions of their parents? We have no plan to separate children and parents. The parents want to have to make a decision. That's parenting one-on-one. say it again, if you choose to have a child here in the United States while you know you're illegally and you know you're on the court order to deport, that's on you. A 2023 consent decree between the Biden Department of Justice and the ACLU banned family

separations for eight years. Do you believe the decree needs to be reexamined? I think, yeah, we need to examine, reexamine that, see if it makes sense from a national security perspective. Homan also told us, Alison, the criteria that he's looking at to determine and whether or not to bring back the family detention program cost for one. Also, how many families will be impacted? He couldn't say whether it would just be the three facilities shuttered under the Biden administration or if it could be more. Allison, back to you.

Important reporting. Thank you, Sam Brock. We're going to turn overseas now to the latest on that deadly plane crash in Kazakhstan. Authorities say dozens were killed after the plane carrying 67 people from Azerbaijan to Russia went down. But now some experts are casting doubt on. Russian officials claim that a flock of birds hit the jet, saying Russian air defense fire might have actually caused the crash. NBC's Steve Patterson has the details.

Tonight, speculation and skepticism swirling over the skies of Kazakhstan as a mountain chorus of aviation experts and government officials, supported by new video of the wreckage, questioning what really happened. Moments after the crash, a shell-shock survivor, miraculously stumbling out of the plane's wreckage, while stunning video from inside the plane, as it was still in the air, shows people calm, even after oxygen masks dropped. The flight took off from Baku, Azerbaijan early Wednesday, heading to the Chechen capital of Grozny in southern Russia. Russian officials saying the aircraft was diverted due to fog and blaming the crash on an apparent bird strike. But enhanced video shows what experts say

appears to be shrapnel damage. Aviation expert Matthew Bori reviewed the full If there was a bird strike, the presence of shrapnel inside the aircraft wouldn't be a factor and the damage to the exterior of the aircraft would appear much different. The flight was likely shot down by a Russian air defense system of unspecified type and variant. The flight was in a region with significant military activity and just 70 miles away on the same day, a Ukrainian drone was shot down, sparking this fire at a mall. The crash comes after a Dutch court recently concluded that a Malaysian Airlines, The flight was brought down in 2014 over Ukraine by a missile fired by pro-Russian fighters. Tonight, a U.S. official telling NBC news there are early indications the craft may have been hit by a Russian anti-aircraft system, adding more evidence of Russian recklessness in the war

with Ukraine. The Kremlin responding that it would be incorrect to make any hypothesis before the investigation comes to conclusions. Meanwhile, a day of morning in Azerbaijan, red roses laid down. for the fall. And Steve Patterson joins us now. Steve, some airlines suspended flights in the region. Talk to me about the latest there.

Yeah, first of all, Alison, five airports in Russia shut down due to unspecified safety concerns. Four of them in Moscow alone, although they have since reopened. Meanwhile, as you mentioned, enlightened developments in Russian airspace. Israel's L.L. Airlines is suspending its operations in the Tel Aviv to Moscow route for the coming week. Alison. Steve Patterson. Thank you. For more on the questions surrounding this plane crash, I want to bring in Jeff Guzzetti and NBC News, aviation analyst, and former aircraft accident investigator.

Jeff, I do want to go back to this idea of whether or not this plane was struck by a Russian air defense system or a flock of birds. Very different things. And in my mind, not something that I would think one could be confused about if you looked at marks on a plane. So let me show you some of the damage that. we have seen in photos on the page. I mean, this appears to be holes. You are the expert, I am not. Does that look like a bird strike to you, or does that look like something more

comparable to what we would see in some sort of kinetic and or military type activity? Good evening, Alison. No, it absolutely does not look like a bird strike to me. That kind of peppering is consistent with high-energy particles or shrap. that you might see from an anti-aircraft device. Bird strikes usually, you know, takes out a ray dome. In the case of the miracle on the Hudson, it took out both engines, and there was a loss of engine power. Here you didn't have that. Here you have an unexplained loss of control, and then you see these pictures of holes in the tail section.

There's also some video showing that plane before it ultimately went down. You can kind of see the pilots kind of moving. It seems like they're ascending and then also descending. They did divert and move this plane, hundreds of miles off of their original destination and flight track. When you look at this sort of videos as an investigator, what sort of questions would you start to have based on the video alone? And where would you point your investigation from seeing something like this? Well, the main question I have is what caused this lack of control? of the aircraft. We see it not only in the video that you're showing here, but also in the recorded radar track as the airplane was attempting to make this emergency landing ostensibly. And you can see problems with the pitch control, the moving of the nose up and down, and also the rolling action of the airplane. And you see an attempt to land. Unfortunately, the nose doesn't level out. It's still pointed down a bit. And at 200,

knots, that was enough to impart this kind of damage. So I've got concerns about the hydraulic system of this airplane and what could have taken out the lifeblood of the airplane, the hydraulic fluid that operates the flight controls. And certainly the flight data recorder is going to tell the tail of what happened here. Not only the flight data recorder, but the cockpit voice recorder to see what kind of sounds occurred in that airplane during flight. Is that something you expect to become publicly available at some point or at least soon accessible by investigators on the ground there in Azerbaijan? Because it does seem like there's this different situation where when you have war nearby, different parties wanting different things released, a lot of people saw this happen and it reminded them of 2014, the Malaysia Airlines passenger flight that was shot down and later found to have been shot down by a Russian missile. Talk to us about sort of what happened in that instance, and if you see any similarities here.

There's certainly similarities between what I see with this accident, with Azerbaijan Airlines, and MH17, the Malaysian Air 777 that was shot down by Russian separatists. You see the peppering of shrapnel signatures, just like you do in this case. And also, in all of these cases, MH-17, there was a Ukrainian airliner that was shot down five years ago in Iran. The ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Authority, calls for a transparent investigation. Now, it may take a while for information to come out from the flight recorder, but aviation is a very transparent industry, and I think eventually the facts are going to come out on this case. I'm very hopeful about that because lessons need to be learned, just like some of the lessons that came out of MH17 about flying near conflict zones. I'm curious when we looked at the, when we're looking at the totality of this, I think a lot

of people, myself included, were surprised by how many people survived this crash. At least 29 people were able to come out of this alive. You see some of them they're actually walking away on their own accord, some needing some assistance, but being able to at least physically move from a crash, a lot of people think if something like this were to happen and a plane goes down, no one is walking away from it. How does someone survive something like this? Does seating or location of your seat matter? Ellison, that actually didn't surprise me that much. A lot of people are under the false impression that all airplane crashes are fatal, when in fact, that's not the case at all.

In fact, most airline accidents are survivable. And this particular accident, grant, It was fortunate and miraculous that a third of the passengers survived, but it's certainly not unusual. And in fact, it reminds me of a previous accident and a very famous accident, United Airlines Flight 232 at Sioux City, Iowa in 1989, had a similar situation. Flight control malfunctioned. They attempted to land the plane. But because of the flat attitude of the airplane and the attempt to land in a controlled fashion, about a third of those passengers survived. just like they did in this case. There's crash-worthy seats.

There's breakable fuel fittings so that the fire doesn't spread. So there's been a lot of forethought into making planes more survivable even after a crash. Really interesting context. A lot of questions still here with this incident. But a good reminder from what you've said there, that there is a reason why flight attendants give us safety advice and we should all try and follow it. Jeff Guzzetti, thank you so much. We appreciate your time and insights.

You're welcome. Thank you. Back here at home to another alarming aviation headline, an unticketed passenger was caught on a Delta Airlines flight while it was preparing for takeoff at Seattle's airport. It's the second Delta stowaway just this month, raising some serious concerns during a busy holiday travel season. NBC's Morgan Chesky has the details. Tonight at Seattle's CETAC Airport, federal investigators pouring over security protocol after someone snuck on a Delta flight bound for Hawaii. without a boarding pass. Port of Seattle Police dispatching officers to a gate on Christmas Eve after the Delta flight crew discovered an unidentified passenger, turning the plane around just before takeoff. Delta stating their staff followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger

removed from the flight and then apprehended. Tonight, TSA confirming the individual did go through standard screening and did not possess any prohibited items, but then bypass the identity verification and boarding status stations, somehow getting on the plane without a boarding pass. The incident happened on the same day that Cruz in Maui found a body inside the wheelwell of a united flight that had traveled from Chicago. And over Thanksgiving, authorities say Svetlana Dali now faces federal charges after sneaking past security checkpoints at JFK to board a Delta flight to Paris with no passport or ticket. That's Kansari. Former TSA Safety Director Keith Jeffreys tells NBC News, no security system is perfect. Do these incidents as a whole raise new security

questions? First of all, I will tell you that any time someone passes the ticket document check or location without being properly checked, that's a concern for TSA. It's happened way too many times in a short period of time. That was Morgan Chesky reporting. Still ahead tonight, the terrifying close call out west, scary moments as one man watched his brother get swallowed up by a large avalanche, how he was able to locate him buried beneath the snow. Plus, the alarming discovery after bird flu was detected in pet food, the company that's now issuing a recall, and a man with dementia disappearing after going to his mailbox, first responders using a special drone to track him down. Stay with us.

Back now with a harrowing close call in the mountains of Utah, one man getting caught in an avalanche while snowmobiling, surviving because of his brother's quick thinking, and the life-saving device they both were carrying. NBC's Adrian brought us has this story. Tonight, a warning for holiday thrill seekers, proceed with caution. Officials describing the dangers of avalanches like this one in New Hampshire's, White Mountains. The same mountain were earlier this month, a snowboarder spotted on video narrowly escaping this avalanche as the massive shelf of snow barreled toward them. Most violent thing I've ever felt. A terrifying situation, brothers Hunter and Brayden Hanson understand all too well. On Tuesday, the two were exploring a snowy hillside and the Franklin

Basin of northeastern Utah on snowmobiles when an avalanche came barreling toward them, burying Hunter. It felt like you were in a washing machine, just tumbled, and then it just compacted into what felt like concrete. Couldn't breathe. They couldn't do anything. Braden, who was higher up on the hill, watched as the snow overtook his older brother, who wasn't able to get back to his snowmobile in time to outpace the avalanche. Turned around to watch the slide hit Hunter and then just watched him kind of get tumbled and buried and then lost sight of him.

Braden activated a beacon, a device that showed him Hunter's location. Hunter had been been pushed about 150 yards from where he was just moments before. I could see his his hand, his gloves kind of poking out, waving, but by the time I got to him, he was about two feet, his head was about two feet under the snow and just cleared the snow away from his head and got his helmet off so that he could start breathing again and then just started digging his body out from there. Experts say the brothers did almost everything right, but going into an avalanche path can have deadly consequences. What are the top recommendations folks should do to protect themselves

in case of an avalanche? People need to access the avalanche forecast for the day. People need to not go alone, but also go one at a time through avalanche paths while your partners watch from a safe location. And you need to have all the right safety or rescue equipment, a transceiver, and a shovel. One wrong move almost turned a Christmas Eve adventure into a family tragedy. This new dad grateful for his brother's quick thinking. I told him I was on my last breath. I mean, I tried to hold it in as much as I could. I feel very blessed and lucky to, you know, have him, you know, with his quick thinking and hurrying down to me with his sled and his beacon and, you know, shovel and got me out of there.

Adrian brought us joins us now with more. I mean, just an extraordinary and also terrifying story. Brayden, rushing to Hunter's aid right away, and Hunter still said he was starting to struggle to breathe. He said his last breath there. Do we know really, like, how long he had under that situation? You know what, Alison, that's the common misconception. Many people think an avalanche victim would run out of oxygen, but our experts say that's just not the case. Snow actually has plenty of oxygen. The real danger comes from the carbon dioxide building up around the victim's mouth, and they're unable to expel.

this gas. And because the gas is trapped, it makes it incredibly hard to believe. To answer your question, about five minutes before a person will lose consciousness. And after 15 minutes or so, the chances of survival drops dramatically. That's why it's so important to have a trusted companion as he had his brother at his side, who likely saved his life that day. Allison? Really great reporting. Adrian brought us, thank you. Authorities using a heat-detecting drone to find a 78-year-old man with dementia after he went missing from his home in Malibu. Macaolo Medina from NBC News, Los Angeles, has this report. It's an amazing tool.

Images from a five-pound drone show rescuers where a 78-year-old man with onset dementia was lying on the ground for nearly three hours after he went missing. We used the drone to fly over the location and we were able to locate them within 20 minutes. Yeah, just 20 minutes of flying actually produced a miracle. for a worried family in Malibu. You can see these pictures from rescuers. They shared with us of the man after they found him. He had went to go check his mail around 4.30 Monday afternoon. Never came back.

His family searched and yelled for him, but nothing. This man was actually down and unable to move, unable to signal to anybody, and unable to answer anybody because of the dementia. That's when the drone came in. It was able to search for him, not just what the bird's eye view, but with an infrared lens that could see what humans cannot heat.

So the infrared technology literally shows up like a highway cone, a bright orange or reddish appearance on the monitor. That was the elderly man curled up on the ground alone but alive. He was very, very cold and shivering and really unable to answer or be clear in what he was saying. He was actually holding a TV remote with him. him. Deputies say this is the first time the technology has actually found a person. It's pretty new for them. They've only deployed it about 20 times so far. I'm extremely happily. We were able to actually find him. Glad he's home for Christmas now. McCallel, Medina, NBC 4 News.

When we return, the pet food company issuing a recall, that decision after bird flu is detected in one of their products, what pet owners need to know tonight. Back now with Top Stories News Feed. A convicted murderer who escaped a Mississippi prison is back behind bars, according to the State's Department of Corrections. Police recaptured 33-year-old Drew Johnson a day after his jail break from a Leakesville prison. Authorities had warned the public that he was desperate and incredibly dangerous. Johnson was convicted of murder and attempted murder back in 2022 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. A Christmas shooting at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport sent four people to the hospital. Police say a family dispute led to the shooting at a restaurant outside of a security checkpoint.

It reportedly started as a physical fight that escalated when someone pulled a gun. A woman and two men were shot. Another person was stabbed. The woman is hospitalized in critical condition. The other three are said to be in stable condition. At least two people were taken into custody. And an Oregon-based pet food company issuing a recall after some cat food tested positive for a deadly strand of the bird flu. Northwest Naturals, a company based in

Portland, is voluntarily recalling its Northwest Natural's brand, 2-pound feline turkey recipe raw and frozen pet food. At least one cat died after eating one of the contaminated products, according to officials. The recalled products were sold nationwide. We have more information available on NBCNews.com. Turning now to an NBC News investigation. What happens when your insurance company refuses to pay for a life or death treatment prescribed by your doctor. NBC's Stephanie Gossk takes an in-depth look at the difficult choices some cancer patients find themselves facing. Kay Sue has been battling cancer for nearly a decade. One of the hardest moments was in

2018. The cancer returned, stage four, metastatic. Did it feel like a death sentence in that moment? Absolutely. And it still does. It's just, it's on Almost like being on death row and just waiting. All of my off-label drugs. Remarkably, she was able to battle the cancer back, but her oncologist said it could return again, and PET scans were key to detecting it. How often do you have to get the PET scans? It should be four to five months.

A schedule she followed until her private health insurance changed to Cigna. And she says the company wouldn't pay for the screening. They thought it was not medically necessary. Does your oncologist think it's medically necessary? Yes. So does Dr. Ashley Sumerall from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Pet scans are all part of accepted guidelines. That means that multiple experts agree that a pet scan is appropriate.

But Cigna refused to pay for the scans, which can cost $10,000 to $15,000 each. Sue's doctor appealed and was denied. With the delay in her screening, Sue worried the cancer would return. Angela Pike understands that struggle well. Her husband Tracy was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer in 2023. He was so sick. He went from a 250-pound man to about 130 pounds. Tracy's doctors in Louisville ran out of strategies to help him. They said he needed high peck surgery, a kind of chemotherapy, that a cancer center in Houston agreed to perform.

It was about 10 or 11 o'clock at night, the night before the surgery, where we got a phone call that from the surgeon himself, that the insurance had actually. denied the surgery in the denial letter blue cross blue shield of illinois said high peck was experimental but here's what the american society of clinical oncology says hi peck is no longer considered experimental it has crossed the threshold into widely available treatments but not for the pike family whose surgeon appealed only to be denied at one point the mother of three took to tick with her guitar hoping someone might be able to help them The surgery was only $42,000. They put a price tag on my husband's life, and they decided he wasn't worth $42,000.

How desperate did you feel in those moments? It doesn't get more desperate than opening up your guitar case and standing in front of a hospital in a hundred-degree weather in Houston. He never got the treatment. Instead, his cancer spread. And roughly a year after his diagnosis, Tracy Pike died at the age of 46. Are you left wondering what would have happened if he had gotten that procedure? There are definitely a lot of days where I've thought about that. In a 2022 survey, clinical oncology professionals were asked about the effect health insurance authorization had on patient care. 87% said they resulted in denials of therapy.

80% said they resulted in disease progression. 36% said they resulted in patient death. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Pike's insurance company, declined to comment on her husband's case, adding, we are committed to increasing access to safe, appropriate, and effective health care based on the best available information and research. Sue's insurer, Cigna, tells NBC News, we strive to do our best to ensure that each person gets the appropriate care as quickly and easily as possible. We fell short for Ms. Sue. Cigna contacted Sue after NBC News reached out to the company for comment on our story.

Sue did ultimately get that pet scan this fall, she says, but only after her employer paid for it out of pocket. Your health is in the hands of an insurance company. Do you feel like they care about your well-being? No. I don't think so. As a result of me fighting for that pet scan, I found out that I have metastasis to my liver. The screening that had been delayed confirmed her worst fears. Her cancer has returned. Stephanie Gosk, NBC News, New York. Turning overseas now with Top Story's Global Watch, starting with the Israeli airstrikes in Yemen. The strikes targeting areas controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthis in retaliation for the group's missile attacks against Israel. The strikes hitting an airport in Sanao where the Director General of the World Health Organization was preparing to board a flight.

He is OK. At least four other people were killed in the strikes. And more despair unfolding in Gaza. Four infants froze to death in southern Gaza's Al-Mawesi refugee camp, according to Gaza's health officials. Aid groups have said the infant hypothermia risk is high in the besieged strip, with so many forced to live in tents this winter. The war in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians. Over half of them are women and children, according the Enclave's health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. And more chaos is unfolding in Mozambique after 6,000 inmates escaped from a high-security prison in the capital city. The police general commander telling Reuters at least 33 people were killed and 15 injured during a prison riot that's been linked to ongoing civil unrest tied to the country's disputed election.

The violence reportedly erupting after Mozambique's highest court declared the long-running party the winner of the elections in October. Authorities say they have recaptured about 150 fugitives so far. And Bosnia, security minister and six others were arrested or organized crime charges. Minister Neda Nesik and his co-conspirators are suspected of money laundering, abuse of office, and accepting bribes. Nesik led the Serb Republic's region's road management company, which was under investigation for corruption. Company leaders and members of Nessik's Democratic People's Alliance Party were also arrested in the probe. Tonight marks 20 years since a massive tsunami devastated communities around the Indian Ocean. In Thailand, crowds gathered at a candlelight vigil for what is considered the deadly,

natural disaster of this century, one that took the lives of more than 230,000 people across a dozen countries. NBC News international correspondent Janice Mackey Freyer traveled to Thailand and spoke to those whose lives were forever changed. And we do want to warn you. Some of this video is disturbing. It was the day after Christmas 2004. And resorts here in Thailand were busy with tourists. It was a beautiful day. We had gone kayaking that morning. We walked up to the beach, and it was a few steps up, about six steps. We came out of the breakfast place. I asked my son, what's the time? He said, Papa, 10.1 a.m. By then, disaster had struck across the Indian Ocean, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake under the sea

near Banda Ache, Indonesia, lasting 10 unrelenting minutes. The power of it felt hundreds of miles away in Kowla. There are resorts all along the shore, and people were doing what they do. They're at the beach or the hotel swimming pool. Unaware of what was about to happen. First, the ocean pulled back from the shore, revealing the seabed. Then a mountain of waves came crashing. in. People on upper levels of hotels shot videos that would make history.

20 years later, three American survivors, who were at different resorts in Thailand that day, still recall every painful detail of when it hit. The scene was like Niagara Falls is moving towards you. It was squeezing me, and I can't quite describe it. I heard after that the water was traveling 250 to 500 miles an hour. My body was being crushed and contorted. My right hand was essentially amputated. I mean, it was just an unbelievable.

moment to realize this is happening to you and that you're going to die instantly. Wave after wave, at times higher than 100 feet, demolished coastal areas in 14 countries. Within hours, an estimated 230,000 lives were lost from Indonesia to Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. I was calling out for my good friend Ben Abels, and I didn't hear anybody's voice. Everything was silent. Ables from Chicago didn't survive. Twenty years on, life around Kau Lak has in many ways recovered. And a shelter set up in the tsunami's wait for orphaned children is now a permanent home

for kids in need. This is a place that has given me everything, says Watanus Satirichot, who was 12 years old when the tsunami changed the course of his life. him here. Now with two college degrees, Watanah is running the orphanage where he grew up, raising 93 kids with help from donations and fundraising. I remember the goodness, he says of the past. I always tell the children, if the tsunami didn't happen, we wouldn't have this home to stay together. Survival has brought unexpected second chances.

I wondered if I'd be better off with a prosthetic hand, and they assured me that slowly but surely it would come back. And I play tennis, I kiteboard, I'm a mountain bike, I'm an avid skier, I'm the mother of three teenagers. I've had a wonderful life. I think one of the biggest things is to not blame yourself. If you have that survivor's guilt, you've got to let it go. you truly were allowed to survive for a reason. Here, every December, volunteers gather at the cemetery for tsunami victims who were never identified. They sweep, clean, and remember the day the water changed everything.

Janice McAfrayer, NBC News, Kowlaak, Thailand. When we come back, it is officially the season for gift returns. present you got is not right for you. How long do you have to make that exchange? Plus, the service allowing you to make a return without even stepping foot into a store. Stay with us. We're back now with money talks. With the holidays over and all of the gifts unwrapped Americans who didn't love what they got are headed back to the store, receipt in hand. Shoppers are expected to return 16.9% of annual sales this year.

regarding to retailers. That's $890 billion in merchandise, a huge chunk of it coming in this week. For more on this rush to return, we're joined by NBC News Business and Data Correspondent Brian Chung. Brian, so some shoppers, they might want to get their returns done early, but for those looking to dodge the post-holiday crowds, how long do they have to get everything returned? Well, I can tell you, not a lot of people are dodging the post-holiday crowds, at least here at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, New Jersey, because the lines were crazy at some of these stores. I was speaking with an associate at Lula Lemon, which, to be fair, is very popular. And they were saying like 98% of the people in the line at that time were there just for

returns. No one was actually buying anything new. But it underscores the rush the day after Christmas for people to take those unwrapped gifts and bring him back to the store. Now, one thing that is good to know for people that are doing returns is that the window to return is indeed longer for things that you'll purchase during the holidays. So if you think about Amazon and Walmart, their return deadlines are as late as January 31st. You really don't have to rush the store right now to get things back to get that refund. Although I want to point out electronics are kind of the big exception there, as is the case at Best Buy and also Apple,

the deadlines to get those things back are actually towards the beginning and middle of January. So just double-check those receipts on electronics. Yeah, so just looking at those deadline changes or I guess arguably kind of extension system, any other return policy changes that shoppers should be aware of this holiday season? Yeah, well, the pandemic kind of changed everything with the ability to just purchase, and return things as well online. So the good news is that people have more options, really, than ever, to return things. In addition to just sending it back to the retailer in the mail,

you can also do things like bring it back in store, and you can even bring it back to entirely different retailers because of companies like happy returns, which are kind of partnered with other retailers to help you do that. But the downside of having more options is that in some cases, the retailers are taking on more costs that they're choosing to punt back to the consumers. So in many cases, you're seeing retailers enforce what they call restocking fees, as well as shipping return label fees, and that could be as much as $12 in some cases.

You've seen it as a few bucks at places like J.Crew, as well as Abercrombie and Fitch. So again, just double check to make sure the way that you're returning, what types of fees might be associated with that. It's going to be a really good kind of rule of to make sure you're not getting charged any nickels or dimes as you try to bring merchandise that just didn't fit right or maybe it wasn't the right color. Back to the story. And you just mentioned the company I have not heard of happy returns. What is that? Is that a service? people can use?

Yeah, so happy returns. It's basically a company that's run by UPS, actually, and they partner with a number of retailers that's kind of mixed and match so that you can buy something from one retailer online or in store and return it at another retailer. And some examples of partnering companies that do this are companies like Ulta, companies like Staples.

So if you bought something like even, let's say, for example, scrubs from figs, it's like one of these modern scrubs companies. Well, they partner with Happy Returns. So you can bring it to a cosmetics company like ALTA and have a return even without the box or even without the shipping label. So some pretty cool tips there. If you're someone that's trying to return something, I don't know, maybe if you have

like a snowmaker or maybe like a wrapping paper cutter or something. Who would have those things on how you try to return it? Who would have those? I don't know. It's crazy. Brian, we keep the snow machine. We're keeping the snow machine. It was cool.

It was cool. Brian Chung. Thank you so much, my friend. We appreciate it. Yep. And coming up, the NFL game changer. for Netflix, the streaming service taking on a new venture allowing its subscribers worldwide to watch football on Christmas Day. And there was a halftime performance by Beyonce.

That brought in even more viewers. So was it a touchdown or did Netflix fumble? We'll explain. And finally, tonight, in between opening presents and enjoying a holiday feast yesterday, you might have also caught some Christmas football. The festive matchups have been an NFL tradition for years, but it did look a little bit different this time around. Netflix hosted this year's holiday games between the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans. The streaming giant paying a whopping $150 million to the NFL to score the rights to Wednesday's games. And that big bet paid off. The NFL announcing today that nearly one-third of Netflix subscribers tuned in to the Chief Steelers game, making it the second most popular

live title in Netflix history. Well, some tuned in for football, others tuned in to watch the Queen herself, Beyonce, of course. She was performing songs from her country album, Cowboy Carter Live for the first time with special guests like Post Malone, Shaboozy, and even her daughter, Blue Ivy. So to help us break down what these major numbers mean for the future of sports streaming, I'm joined now by Ben Bergman. He's a senior correspondent and Business Insider. Ben, thanks so much for joining Top Story. Okay, look, a lot of people were waiting to see what would happen here because a lot of people, I'm one of them, watch that Jake Paul Mike Tyson fight and noticed a lot of glitches. We could even go back and be like, yeah, we tried to watch the Love is

Blind reunion. That did not go well live either. But it seems like a lot of the kinks that people were worried about happening didn't happen in as big of a way as maybe people feared, right? Walk us through what went wrong in past streaming endeavors for live events and what Netflix got right this time. Yeah, so Netflix's been around for decades going to a four. $400 billion company doing shows like Squid Games and Stranger Things, very different than airing live events. So as you mentioned, the past two live events that had done were pretty much disasters, especially the fight, which was only last month, people complaining about glitches and holdups.

And you just could not have that with the NFL, with them spending $150 million committing to NFL rights on Christmas for the next three years. that would have been a disaster. But luckily, they worked ahead of time to do something that didn't do for last month's fight, which is to increase capacity on Internet service providers and their own servers. And it paid off. It mostly worked. You know, we look at these numbers.

We don't have specific numbers on viewership right now, but the NFL saying that they were told about a third of Netflix subscribers tuned in. End of quarter three of 2024, Netflix had about 282.7 million subscribers. So that is, it's a big number of people who were watching. Are you surprised that they had what appears to be very high numbers, or were they expected to be even more than that? I mean, Netflix and numbers are always opaque. Unlike traditional TV, they don't have ratings so they can release whatever numbers they want. And saying that a third of global viewers tuned in or they said 200 viewers at some point, I don't think is a huge surprise.

It'll be interesting to see the final numbers for the game. And I think it is a little bit surprising that it was number two to Jake Paul and Mike Tyson when you had two very marquee NFL matchups plus Beyonce on Christmas Day. I got to ask you about Beyonce because I'm a huge Beyonce fan. I obviously was just desperately waiting for the halftime show. I thought it was phenomenal. What has been the reaction to her halftime performance? Well, I think the best reaction I saw was someone on actually.

said, you know, the Super Bowl is whenever Beyonce wants it to be because this was like a Super Bowl show on Christmas or even better. And I think it was spectacular. And I know my whole family I was watching. No one was particularly into the game, which wasn't very exciting at that point. But the whole family stopped what they were doing and came. And their mouths were wide open for how amazing that halftime performance was. What do you think this means for the future of sports and streaming, and maybe NFL and Netflix in particular. Is this the future? I think it is.

For years, Netflix said they weren't getting into sports, but you've seen Amazon get into NFL, and next year they'll start broadcasting the NBA. You've seen Apple by some Major League Baseball. And it seems inevitable that Netflix, with how much money they have, how many subscribers, that they're going to be in there bidding for future rights packages. All right.

Bergman, senior correspondent at Business Insider. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time and insights. Thanks a lot. And thank you at home for watching, Top Story. I'm Ellison Barber in New York for Tom Yamis. Stay right there. More news is on the way.