Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, May 21, 2026

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Breaking tonight, the tornado warnings going off right now. Storms across the country wreaking havoc on the busiest day of Memorial Day weekend travel. And it's expected to get even worse. This truck in Tennessee skidding down the highway, drivers escaping the floods from their sunroof, torrential rain from Atlanta to New York, long lines at some of the biggest airports, and that sinkhole at LaGuardia, the runway, get this, still shut down. Breaking right now, legendary NASCAR driver, Kyle, Bush dead at 41. What we know about is sudden death. Also tonight, the Ebola outbreak and the

chaos in Africa. Angry crowds setting hospital tents on fire. New images of that American doctor fighting for his life in a biocontainment unit, plus the planes rerouted away from the U.S. over fears of the deadly virus. A U.S. aircraft carrier and warships arriving in the waters off of Cuba. The dramatic escalation as pressure mounts on the island nation. Is this the most controversial sports competition? The enhanced games allowing athletes to take performance enhancing drugs. We speak with one of the events leaders. Stephen Colbert's late show finale marking an end of an era are Chloe Malas at the famed Ed Sullivan Theater ahead of the final curtain.

Countdown to Lift Off, SpaceX's largest and most powerful rock. rocket ready for launch. Could it change the course of future missions to space? We're going to explain that one. Plus, a new report on the 2024 election just released by Democrats. What it says about what went wrong and what it leaves out. Top story starts right now. And good evening. As we come on the air, a new round of storms firing up and tornado warnings going off just as millions head out for the holiday weekend. Take a look at this dash cam video shows the terrifying moments this truck flips over on a Tennessee highway, sliding across lanes and sending sparks flying. And this was the scene in New York City, people navigating neighborhoods swamp with floodwater.

This car almost fully submerged. You can see the passengers. We'll show it to you here trying to come out at the top. It's how they do this. They had to come out of the windows to escape. And this all just to start with more wet weather expected through the weekend. Our Bill Cairns is standing by with the timing, but it's not just the weather. Gas prices are still way up due to the war with Iran, with the national average at $4.56, up more than 40% from this time last year. But the higher fuel prices don't seem to be slowing people down. AAA projecting 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home today through Monday, and TSA lines at airports across the country already starting to build.

Tom Costello starts off our coverage from Reagan Airport tonight. On a rainstone highway near Chattanooga, a very close call this afternoon as a semi-tips over on I-24, sending sparks flying as it skids down the highway. While America's biggest city continues to dry out from the deluge that flooded streets, highways, and intersections snarling traffic. New Yorker is waiting through knee-deep water, with high winds bringing down trees and power lines Wednesday. A Waymo taxi flooded out in Atlanta and heavy traffic today. Meanwhile, one of New York's critical high-density runways remains closed tonight. 422 is closed for a sinkhole over there. After a sinkhole opened up on LaGuardia runway 4.

The tower just called us and said they cannot take any more airplanes. As the weather led to a cascade of delays and cancellations at all three New York airports, one Newark passenger says he was stuck on a plane for hours. We ended up just sitting on the tarmac for seven hours. America's two busiest airports, Chicago and Atlanta, packed today. Come early and just prepare for anything. And the start of more record-breaking passenger levels this summer. For its part, American expects to carry a record 75 million passengers between now and Labor Day.

That's 500 customers every minute. And Americans are paying more. Domestic Airfares now averaging $441 round trip. up 53% from a year ago. On the nation's roads, the national average now 4.56 a gallon, up from 318 a year ago, with the war pushing gas prices above $4 in all 50 states. It's definitely a problem because we are headed to South Carolina, so this is a long trip. Still, despite higher airfares, the TSA says we're still looking at more than 18 million people traveling through TSA checkpoints this weekend alone. And even more over the,

the summer as Americans and international travelers come for the World Cup and the America 250 celebrations. We're looking at record travel between now all the way through Labor Day. Tom. All right. We want to get right to NBC News meteorologist Bill Carrance right now because the weather is popping off, including tornadoes. Bill, I'm going to hand it over to you. What are watching? Yeah, this is Nebraska and Colorado. So these are mostly rural, especially the one in Colorado. It's kind of common this time of year. This is out on Interstate 70, pretty far from the Denver airport even, But this is a rural area. As we go a little further to the north, though, this is a tornado that was just spotted near Kimball, Nebraska. This is just in the north side of Interstate 80 and not too far from the downtown area near Kimball. So we'll have to wait and see if we get any reports of any damage out of that. This right now is what we're calling a radar indicated tornado as that has slightly weakened. As far as airports go, today was a lot better. Yesterday was the biggest nightmare. Atlanta and all the big airports from D.C. to the New York City area, just because of that sinkhole. We still have some delays there at. LaGuardia, mostly volume delays, but the light rain has not caused many travel problems, at least at the air in the air.

As far as the flash flood warnings go, in between Junction and Austin, this is where the life-threatening weather will likely be through the holiday weekend. A lot of heavy rain, rounds of thunderstorms. Some areas could get three to six inches of rain, especially around the Houston area to Shreveport, Alexandria. And then look how wet almost all of the eastern half of the country is going to get. It's not going to rain all holiday weekend, but there will be periods of rain. So this is on Friday with the storms tracking from Nashville, southwards to New Orleans. Very heavy rain southeast, Texas on Saturday. And what an ugly Saturday. Probably the worst Jersey Shore Memorial Day weekend.

It's like 48 degrees and breezy. And then by the time we get to Sunday, still damp in the northeast, getting a little bit better in the Great Lakes. The flood risk shifts to areas down to the south. Then finally we wrap up our holiday weekend with, you guessed it, more rain in areas of the southeast. It's less than ideal. We'll just call it that. nice. Rough Memorial Day weekend. Okay, Bill, we thank you for that. We're also following some breaking news out of the sports world. NASCAR legend, Kyle Bush, has passed away at the

age of 41. His family says he had been in the hospital with a severe illness. Bush was a two-time Cup Series champion and over his more than two-decade career. In a joint statement with NASCAR and Bush's racing team, they described him as a future Hall of Famer and a once-in-a-generation talent. Okay, we turn to politics now into new opposition to President Trump and Washington from lawmakers inside his own party who are criticizing as nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Garrett Haik has this one. Tonight, as President Trump touts his winning streak with Republican voters, he's facing new opposition from Republican lawmakers on two of his high-profile priorities.

This is bad policy, it's bad timing, and it's bad politics. The Senate abandoning a planned vote today and leaving town amid GOP-in-Feing. over his $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which would pay out compensation to Trump allies who say they were unfairly prosecuted by the Biden administration, possibly including January 6th rioters pardoned by President Trump. These people don't deserve restitution. They many of them deserve to be in prison. President Trump recently defending the fund. The Biden administration was horrible in terms of what they've done to people is incredible. And some GOP senators also moving to pull a billion dollars in White House ballroom security funding, all as Trump-induced

candidates just had a clean sweep winning GOP primaries. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez with the president. Are you losing control of the Senate, Senate Republic? I don't know. I really don't know. If Congress doesn't sign off on the security money, sir. Then the White House won't be a very secure place. And as he negotiates with Iran, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. The president was asked, will he attend the weekend wedding of his eligible? his son, Don Jr. He'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private affair, and I'm going to try and make it. I'm in the midst.

I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. Okay, Garrett Haig joins us tonight from the White House. And on that thing, on what he was just saying, there are the other things Cuba. We know there's now an aircraft carrier that has been moved near the island? That's right, Tom. We've got the USS Nimitz now in the Caribbean. yesterday. The president today said it wasn't meant to intimidate the regime, but it did call

Cuba a failed state. All of this, I think, designed to send a pretty clear message to the Cuban government that the U.S. can be on their doorstep very quickly. All right, Garrett Hake at the White House first. Garrett, we thank you for that. Now to the deepening divisions within the Democratic Party and the long-awaited release of the so-called 2024 election autopsy. The report was commissioned by Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin. Its purpose to help the party understand why former vice president Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump. Martin got an independent consultant to write it, but then put off its release saying it was badly done. After pressure from other Democrats today, the DNC chair published the 192-page draft that he says is still littered

with typos and inaccuracies. The paper argues that Harris rode off rural voters and failed to attack President Trump with the sufficient negative firepower. The DNC adding disclaimers that the autopsy doesn't reflect the committee's views. Our political PROS are here to discuss. Ashley Etienne is a former communications director to VP Harris, and Corbyn Trent is a former aide to AOC and Bernie Sanders. I thank you both for being here. Ashley, you were one of the people pushing for this report's release. And just hours ago, you told our good friend, Kristen Welker, that Ken Martin should step down. Explain why. Well, I think this is a complete failure of leadership. Ken Martin really has two jobs,

really is to raise money and to win elections. He chose to, instead of releasing a forward-looking that lays out a vision on how to rebuild this party, how to win elections going forward, from the state level to the national level. Instead, what he released is a pre-decisional document with critiques in it to cover his hide. That's really what's at play here. Unfortunately, we've got a situation with democracy on the line.

We've got the party is having struggles, fundraising, it's polling at 28%. And Ken Martin made this entire autopsy, debate about himself rather than about the party, about how to rebuild the party, and how to bring back what we're seeing, a bleeding support among the party's base vote voters. So do you think that publishing this document was unfair to your former boss, Vice President Harris? I mean, it is called an autopsy, and Democrats lost the election, so it was going to be tough regardless, wasn't it?

Well, I think she's vindicated in this document, and she wrote a book about, you know, the 107 days, And in the book, she made assertions that she didn't get the level of support from the campaign, that the campaign had significant failures in terms of messaging, in terms of its aggression on messaging towards Donald Trump. And that's what this document actually lays out. So she's fairly vindicated here. But let me just say this. You know, the Democratic Party, the backbone of Democratic Party is black voters. And Ken Martin and the Democratic Party owes an explanation to black voters who have been substantially destroyed and attacked from our political power to our economic power by this particular administration. Over 600,000 jobs we've lost. 8.5% unemployment.

And we've in the past two weeks have lost, we've seen 400 years of black political progress undermined with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. The party has to explain what happened to the money. That's what's missing from this actual report is what's happened to the money. And my understanding, and I said this on Meet the Press, a couple weeks ago, is that decisions were made to line people's pockets rather than win the election. And I take a particular offense to that. That's an incredible statement. Give me an example. A good example of that.

And this was also reported in the New York Times, is that decisions were made by campaign leaders. to throw money on television. The way that campaigns work is when you put money on television, you get a kickback from putting the money on television. They decided to put the money on television so they could get a kickback from it rather than investing the money to turn out voters in Pennsylvania on the ground. I mean, these things are documented, but the party failed to put that in the actual autopsy. And that really is a challenge, is how are we spending our money? We're getting outmatched by Republicans on the ground. They're building modern-day information ecosystems.

We're not making those investments. And part of that is because I've been in the party for 25 years. The same five to eight people have been making all of decisions and been making all of the money. And it's at the expense of building the infrastructure of the Democratic Party and innovating in a way to really modernize how we engage and turn out voters. Corby, what about you? What did the autopsy tell you about the DNC in this moment? I think the autopsy sounded a lot like what I just heard. which is that we need to have better plumbing,

we need to have a better way of messaging it. What they were doing in this autopsy is talking about how Bidenomics didn't resonate because it was too tied to Joe Biden. They didn't recognize in this autopsy, they didn't recognize in any of the last decades that I've been involved in this process, is that the Democratic Party's policies aren't working.

What we've been doing isn't working. People have been suffering from a lack of affordability. Our country's been suffering from a lack of accountability, and our democracy, it's not that we need to save our democracy. It's something we're going to have to restore. The reason to save our democracy argument didn't work is because people fundamentally realize that the thing's broken to start with.

People don't believe in the outcome of the 2020 election. A lot of people didn't believe in the outcome of the 2024 election. I mean, you know, we've got things that are the depth of the problems that we have in this country were not seriously thought about in this autopsy, but they're also not been seriously dealt with since then. Because if you look at the New York Times, their poll that they did with Sienna that shows that 55% of Democrats are unhappy with a Democratic Party, we're not making the steps toward solving the problems that led us to the loss in 2024. We're not making steps toward solving the ones that almost lost us the election in 2020, that lost us in 2016.

These problems have been deep and systemic for a long time. I live in Tennessee. We used to have five representatives from this state that were Democrat out of nine, five out of nine. Now, we got zero. Now, some of that is due to gerrymandering. Some of that's due to the destruction of the VRA, right? But a lot of that is due to the fact that the Democratic Party got in bed with Wall Street and got out of bed with working people.

And that's just the way it is. And we've got this party is consumed by this idea of neoliberalism and that everything's actually fine if you squint right. But it's not. Things are not good. In this autopsy, it doesn't do anything to have a little bit of like a come-to-jesus moment. There's none of that. You know, Ken Martin, you say Ken Martin's covering his butt.

If this is him covering his butt, then he definitely needs a different job because he's not even good at that. It's not, you know, it's an embarrassing report. It's embarrassing that they did it. It's embarrassing that, you know, it's foolish. And, I mean, you can argue that the Democrats' biggest mistake was letting President Joe Biden run for re-election. It made it very hard for Vice President Kamala Harris to run an effective campaign. But the candidate is the soul of the campaign. So Corbyn and Ash, I ask you both, how much of this is on Kamala Harris as well?

Corby, you want to go first? I think it's all ultimately on Kamala Harris. She was the candidate. But the problem is that she wasn't running in a, let's change this thing completely kind of campaign. She wasn't running in a transformative way. The funny thing is that Democrats keep looking back and seeing how they can be more like Donald Trump. They keep saying we need to move to the center, move to the right, be more Trumpian, be more like the Republicans in some ways, right? But what they don't understand is what drew people to Donald Trump

was the fact that they thought they'd found somebody that was willing to tear down institutions, willing to go at the very fabric of what was making their lives hard. And he didn't do that, obviously. That's not what that never was his game plan. But the Democratic Party thinks that they can get some sort of technocratic better management system in there and that people will magically do better.

The systems are what need to be changed, and she was in no way a systems changer. Ashley? No, I think the failure is the systems within the Democratic Party that don't allow for innovation, that aren't bringing more voters to the table to engage as partners in how we message, how we do turnout, how we engage. You know, I think she does bear some responsibility, but if you've got a broken system with a broken infrastructure and we've been divesting in it since 2012, it's really not her fault. And that's really why I think this report is so damaging and disappointing, is that,

Ken Martin had an opportunity to make recommendations on how we rebuild this party so that we can start winning again and in a sustained fashion. And he failed to do that. So I think the party and the system within the party is broken. This report does nothing to call that out and makes no recommendations on how to fix it. Ashley and Corbyn, we thank you both for this conversation. I'm sure we'll talk about this a lot more in the days ahead. We're back in a moment with the fast-moving Ebola outbreak, angry crowd setting fire to a hospital tent in the Congo. what U.S. officials are now planning to stop it from spreading here. Plus, countdown to liftoff, SpaceX gearing up to launch its most powerful rocket.

We'll show you that live. We're back down with the new plan from U.S. officials to stop the fast-moving Ebola outbreak in Africa from arriving in the U.S. It comes as protesters in the Democratic Republic of Congo are upset over the burial of a suspected Ebola victim. They set a medical clinic on fire. Here's Maggie Vespah. Tonight, our men, we're hospitalized. Outrage amid Africa's Ebola outbreak. New video showing a medical clinic engulfed in flames.

Authorities say protesters were angry. Officials wouldn't release the body of a loved one likely killed by the virus. Here beds burned to a crisp. Experts stressing safe burials are critical because Ebola can spread through contact with infected remains. This as the race to contain the outbreak wreaks havoc in the skies. With an air France flight to Detroit diverted to Canada Wednesday, day after U.S. officials say a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo boarded in error. Customs and border protection not clarifying whether the traveler had recently been in the DRC

or was exhibiting symptoms of Ebola. Debbie Mister was on that flight. I'm very concerned. I have friends that have, you know, immune problems. Why was this person allowed on this plane? How did they slip through? The U.S. now sending all passengers who have visited affected countries in the last three weeks to Washington Dolos International Airport, where the CDC will conduct enhanced public health entry screenings. Meanwhile, chilling new images of Dr. Peter Stafford, the American surgeon infected with Ebola, in a fully enclosed biocontainment pod earlier this week. The doctor saying, before I was evacuated, I was feeling really concerned I wasn't going to make it. And now I'm cautiously optimistic. But experts say, with cases soaring in Africa, global spread is like

Would you be surprised to see cases in the U.S.? I would not be surprised to see cases in the United States. However, we do have a network of hospitals that are prepared to deal with it. It gives us an advantage over other countries. Okay, with that, Maggie Vespah joins us live here on Top Story. So Maggie, this outbreak has put a real spotlight on government cutbacks. I know there's some finger pointing going on now. Yeah, Tom, finger pointing is exactly right.

NBC News has actually spoken to a dozen former federal employees who say the Trump administration's gutting of U.S.AID funding last year now has slowed America's response to this Ebola outbreak. And in short, they say it's allowed case numbers and deaths to climb higher, in their opinion, faster. Tom. Okay, Maggie Vespa first. Maggie, we thank you for that. Coming up, the bizarre rescue, a man trapped in a wall, stuck for 10 hours. And guess what? When they freed him, they put handcuffs on them. Why? We'll explain. But first, Top Story's top moment, and you know we love our humanoid robots here.

Well, this is a robot dancing to Michael Jackson's Billy Jean when things suddenly took a weird turn. Take a look. Looks like all that moonwalking took the robot out, and after a few seconds on the floor, a handler eventually comes to haul the humanoid bot off the stage. It's a pretty funny moment. Anyway, stay with us. More Top Story on the way. We're back now with Top Stories Newsfeeding. We start with the Memorial and prayer services in San Diego. The three men who were killed at that shooting at a mosque earlier this week were remembered. Community members there hailing them as heroes. Police say the men died trying to stop two teenage gunmen who opened fire outside the Islamic Center. And terrifying

video from New Orleans showing a car plowing into a restaurant. Look at this. The vehicle slamming through the wall, almost hitting a group of diners sitting around a table. Remarkably, workers there say nobody was hurt. We don't know how this happened. It's unclear what caused that crash. And a wild scene in California, first responders cutting open a wall because a man was stuck behind it. Police say it all started when officers heard a faint call for help while at a coffee shop. At the end of their graveyard shift, they knocked on the wall and got a knock back. Officers then tore apart the wall to get him free. They believe he was involved in the construction.

No, I'm just joking. They believe he was trapped for nearly 10 hours. He was later booked and arrested for burglary. All right. We are just moments away from the launch of SpaceX Mega Rocket, the Starship V3. It is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built. You're looking at it live. One that SpaceX and Elon Musk hope will one day take astronauts to the surface of the moon.

This launch is the 12th ever Starship launch, but the first test of this new prototype. You'll remember some earlier Starship launches did not go quite as planned. Back in 2025, a booster rocket exploding over the Caribbean, streaks of debris painting the sky. guys. Tonight, the stakes are high for SpaceX. Why? Because we revealed this week, it will go public next month. The IPO could be the largest in history and could make Elon Musk a trillionaire. Monitoring this launch with us, former astronaut Jose Hernandez, he's been a good friend to Top Story, and NBC's Alley Canal, who covers Musk and SpaceX and all things business. Jose, I'm going to start with you. Walk our viewers through why this test and this launch are so

exciting. It's so exciting. First of all, you mentioned that next month there's a possible IPO that could value the company for over one and a half trillion dollars. But more importantly, they are set up to help NASA with the fourth launch where they would want to land people on the moon. And if there's a failure here, it's going to cause quite a delay that Blue Origin is waiting in the wings. with their Blue Moon Mark I lander and their new Glenn rocket to take their place. So there's a lot of competition involved in, so they want everything to go flawlessly. Okay, we're going to actually listen in here because I think we have less than 90 seconds before liftoff.

Let's listen in and see if we can get some countdown action. The test flight is a massive step forward in our developmental program. All right, and we're coming up here on T-minus one minute. So let's go to the pad and let the rocket do the talking as V3 fully comes alive. T minus one minute. All right, so we did hit the hold at T minus 40. Again, this is something that is built into the timeline. Not surprising as we are doing this first flight off of pad two.

Sounds like we might already be clear. We held for a second just to make sure that the quick disconnect vents were basically ready for their final throwbacks. We'll hang tight for a couple of seconds. I think we're about to reset and reset is in. Counting down first flight of Starship V3. Syke back to rapid recycle. All right.

So hold here for a second. Looks like we're still managing some pressures in the ship. Quick disconnect. All right. Still going to hang out. If you're still with us, can you walk us through what's happening here? Yes, they're trying to get the go from all the system managers. And apparently there's some pressures that they're monitoring that are of concern. So they're holding, see if those pressures come up to the levels that they expect and to continue the countdown. Okay, Jose, it looks like the countdown's continued. We're at 30 seconds. Now, let's listen in once again. to rapid recycles, so we're going to hold a T-minus 40 again. Hang-tight for a second.

We'll see what tripped this last one. As a reminder, we can hang out for quite a few minutes at T-minus 40 if we need the extra time. You're not actively loading propellant onto the vehicle anymore, so the main thing you're kind of keeping an eye on is all of the temperatures inside those propellant tanks. Jose, you know, we want to remind our viewers, this is an unmanned rocket.

This is Star Base, Texas, where this is happening right now. As you mentioned, the stakes are pretty high here because of the IPO that's going to happen with SpaceX. So they want to make sure there's no mistakes here. And it looks like they're being incredibly careful, as they always are. And these things tend to happen, right, Jose? We're continuing to hang out here at TMN. Yeah, that's correct, because there's tolerances in different systems that they measure that if there's out of tolerance, even by little, it clicks a hold. And until that gets resolved, then they push the go button again to.

keep the countdown going. And apparently that's what's happening. And they want to err on the side of caution as opposed to take any chances. Even though it's unmanned, you know, there's a lot of millions of dollars at stake here and perhaps billions if you look at next month. SpaceX, Ali, Ali Canal here, who covers business for us and covers SpaceX. SpaceX, they're going to have this IPO, but they haven't turned a profit yet, right? Even though it's going to make Elon Musk all this money, SpaceX itself hasn't turned to profit. But the hopes are that in the future, it will. Yeah, and that's why they're choosing to IPO right now. Getting to space is expensive, right? It costs a heck of a lot of money. And this IPO is really about funding the future of this

company. Starship alone has cost an estimated $15 billion to develop. There's also AI infrastructure. There's data centers in space. So this is why this IPO debut is so important. This is why this Starship launch is so critical when it comes to the company acquiring the funds that it needs to all these different initiatives. And ultimately, one goal for Elon Musk is to get people into Mars as well. So all of this is going to cause a heck of a lot of money. But SpaceX, also, we should explain to our viewers here, also helps with Starlink. And Starlink does bring in a lot of money, especially for Elon Musk.

Yeah, satellite-based internet. And that's the thing. SpaceX has a big foothold when we think about rocket ships, rocket launches, and satellite-based internet and infrastructure. And that's why the data center and space element, this company is so important because that's another way to just create more interconnectivity when we think about the future of technology and artificial intelligence. And SpaceX has certainly been at the cutting edge of all of that. Jose, this is one of those rockets that will be able to

land back on its own. Is that the technology that's being used here? That's correct. That's correct. It's fully reusable, first stage and second stage. And in the second stage, you can take up to 100 tons into orbit. In this particular one, they're taking 20 dummy Starlink satellites as a payload just to do a demonstration.

And the stakes are high also because they're in line to also utilize a lunar lander that they're building to take to the moon, and they would like to take it in this starship. And if they have some type of failure, as I

mentioned earlier, Blue Origin is waiting in the wings because they also have a contract to develop a lunar lander as well. And both of them want to be the first ones to do it. And right now, SpaceX is in line to be the first one. But if there's a hiccup, Blue Origin is waiting in the wings. Yeah. And as we look at these live pictures here, Jose, we know there's about a 90-minute launch window. They're in Star Base, Texas.

We've only been at this about an hour and five minutes. At what point do they call it and say, okay, let's try on another day? Well, I think as they get closer to that 90-minute window, it's going to be a combination of getting closer to that 90-minute window or realizing that whatever anomaly they see cannot be fixed in the perceived time window that they have left. So they may call it a lot earlier. And I think the great Bill Carrens was forecasting some terrible weather over Texas. So we'll have to wait and see if it doesn't happen tonight. And that may play into their factors when this eventually would launch, right, Jose? That's correct.

And it's not only the weather in Texas, is the weather over in the Indian Ocean, where the boots are supposed to be coming down. And so everything needs to be, or the upper stage needs to be coming down. Everything needs to be perfect for so that they can have the landings that they want to have and recover everything. I'm being told by our mission control here at 30 Rock that at some point, something is going to happen soon. They're either going to call this or this rocket is going to launch. And I think they're trying to figure that now, obviously, over there at Star Base in Texas and with SpaceX. And, Ali, I mean, regardless of this rocket takes off today or if it doesn't take off, I mean, the IPO is going to come no matter what. Yeah, next month is when shares are expected to go public. And seeking a really high valuation here, nearly $2 trillion.

If that happens, Elon Musk is going to be in a league of his own. the world's first trillionaire. So a lot of stake for this company, a lot at stake for Elon Musk. And it's also going to be a big test on investor appetite for Musk as a leader. He's been in the midst of a lot of controversies, both politically, and then also with all the other businesses that he runs from Tesla to X, to the startup XAI and GROC. All of those things are going to be a factor here once those shares go public. And then Jose, you know, Elon Musk has had this dream of landing and colonizing Mars at some point, and each of these rocket launches in his mind would bring him one step closer. But that is a mission that is many years away.

Yes, if you listen to Elon Musk, he can go next year and do it. But there's a lot of technical hurdles we need to solve before we embark upon sending humans to the surface of Mars. This is why we need to develop a long-duration lunar outposts to develop and test these technologies and how we're going to mitigate the effects of zero G on the human body over a nine-month trip, and then wait nine months there and return for another nine-month trip. I mean, there's a lot of technical hurdles that we need to solve. And, you know, I believe we're a good 10 years away, if not 15,

before we can send humans and expect to bring them back home safe and sound. Now, we can do it sooner and probably do it one-way trip, but I'm not sure there's a lot of people that are going to sign up for that. But when you talk about that lunar station, are you saying these rockets eventually would land on the moon and then take off once again? Yes, they wouldn't land on the moon per se. They would have lunar landers to land people on the moon, but they would orbit around the moon, refuel,

and then head off onto Mars. And then there's probably some gas stations along the Mars path that are going to be, staged so they can keep fueling and get there. You know what, let's see if we can listen in and maybe SpaceX can share. Oh, there's actually nothing to listen in, so it's radio silence over there. So I'm sure they're getting down to the nitty-gritty here and what types of problems they're having. Jose, when they cut the sort of cut the feed like they are right now to say that we can't publicly hear what

they're discussing because SpaceX is usually pretty much out there. And they like for their fans and for people at home to kind of watch and listen to these feeds, which started out on the internet and they really got very popular. But when they do something like that is because they have work to do, right, Jose? Exactly. They want to focus on the work at hand and they probably don't want to worry people

or have people second-guessed them in terms of when they say something, certain key words that people are going to say, oh my God, the sky's falling. This isn't going to work. So they want to keep a lid on everything until they're able to explain it in a concise manner

and accurate manner and doesn't get a life of its own. You mentioned Blue Origin a lot, Jose, in this sort of private space race, right? The commercial space race. Actually, we just got some breaking news. It looks like there's not going to be a launch for now. SpaceX has just canceled this test flight. Again, SpaceX cancelling the test flight for right now. As soon as we know when they will reschedule, we will let you know.

Ali, just any reaction to this, as obviously there was a lot of excitement over this launch and eventually that IPO. My first reaction was that if these shares were trading right now, we would see a huge nose dive in after I was trading if that flight was canceled, if it was opening up. So I do suspect that that's going to give investors a little bit of pause when they think about whether or not to invest in this company next month. Is it too soon at this point in time? I mean, Starship really is the main focus point for Elon Musk when he thinks about the future

of this company. Of course, like I said, they have other things that they do, like AAI infrastructure, like satellite development. But I mean, Starship has to work in order for this company to be a long-term success. It is a great point. Ali, Jose, stand by. We thank you for all of your help during this aborted launch. But I'm sure it'll happen at some point. We're going to be right back. Stay with us. All right. Now to the controversial sporting event that allows athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs. This weekend, the first ever enhanced games will take place in none other than the city of Sin, Las Vegas, where dozens of athletes will compete in track and field, swimming and weightlifting events,

most of them taking drugs approved by the FDA, but banned by the world anti-doping agency. The competition has drawn in some big-name athletes and even bigger name investors, including PayPal billionaire founder Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. among others. For more, I want to bring in Enhance Games chief sporting officer, Rick Adams. Rick, thanks for joining Top Story. I'm going to start in a very simple fashion with a very simple question. Why? Well, I think the main reason is that, you know, we're interested in athletes pursuing their human potential and their limits and doing it in a medically rigorous fashion, enhanced and non-enhanced athletes, and, you know, we're confident that this

will capture the globe's attention. What is the purpose here? And why are people putting up money so this happens. I can get the general interest, right? As soon as I started reading the script, there were people here in the studio that looked up to the monitors. I mean, it sounds very interesting, but what is the gain here? How do you make profit off this? Well, ultimately enhanced is a direct-to-consumer business that sells enhancements, sells supplements, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ENHA, the sports side of the business, which is what I oversee is a proof of concept that, again, legal, well-researched substances can benefit generations of people. And we think that, you know, expanding the list of those substances,

as opposed to what other sport organizations have come up with, we think that is a, that is something that will be ultimately viewed in the world as a new way to see sport. Is it essentially to see what humans can do on drugs while competing? Like how far we can push the limit? Is that what it is? Well, there's a part of that. And, you know, I think what's important to note is that for decades, athletes throughout sport have done many, many things in order to lift more, swim faster, run faster.

You have things like high-affitude training centers where athletes can go in there and spend a couple hours, and it changes certain. aspects of their blood, for example. So this idea that athletes have not been pushing themselves through a variety of measures, you know, that is something that is well documented. What we're doing is taking that an additional step in saying these legal, well-researched, FDA-approved substances can be used safely for purposes of sport. Yeah, there are some big names competing here, including some former Olympians,

but you have to acknowledge there's reputational risk here to competing in the enhanced games. And it could mean giving up competing in major sporting competitions for the rest of their careers. What's the incentive for them, do you think? Well, I think there's a number of incentives. First and foremost, these athletes, many of whom have spoken openly about this, this is the best they felt in their lives. Many of them have been a part of a clinical trial, again, under strict medical scrutiny,

and they feel the best that they felt, oftentimes in their careers. From a legacy perspective, I think it's important to note that the athletes who are in the enhanced protocols have all retired from their governing bodies. So they're no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the anti-doping agencies.

And that was an important step for us. We wanted to make it clear that we believe, and I spent over a decade with Team USA and had the great privilege of being the chief of sport. And I think it's critical that athletes, coaches, administrators follow the rules where they are, and our athletes are doing that. I want to take a look at some of the drugs these athletes are taking,

a majority using testosterone. More than 40% are using EPO, the blood-boasting hormone treatment tied to cyclist, Lance Armstrong's doping scandal, and nearly 30% are using steroids. Is this really serious, safe as safe as you're putting it out there for our viewers? Well, I think that is determined best by the medical experts in our independent

medical commission, which is compiles, you know, of great, well-respected doctors and experts, and they're confident that this is all being done from a dosage perspective, from a monitoring perspective that it is being done safely. And we're excited to show that Sunday night here in Las Vegas. What would you say to some people watching this saying, are you essentially turning these athletes into lab rats? Well, I think that's a, you know, I certainly don't agree with that narrative. What I think the message is that enhancements are to be taken seriously. there to be done only under strict medical supervision, and they should be combined with a comprehensive health assessment protocol.

And if you do those things, then the message that we're sending to me is the message that should be sent to all of sport and to people, athletes and non-athletes, to say, instead of engaging in the pursuit of this in an unregulated fashion, do it in a regulated fashion, do it with experts, and make sure that you have everything monitored. And for us, we think that message is both strong and important to enhance.

You held, as you mentioned, senior roles with the U.S. Olympic Committee for the Tokyo and Beijing Games, but the International Olympics Committee, along with a number of other major sporting organizations, I'm sure you're aware of, have condemned this event. And they're saying it, quote, undermines the integrity of socials, sports and sends a dangerous message to future generations of athletes.

What's your response to that claim? Well, again, I think you need to uncouple the Olympic and the Paralympic positions. And again, I'm incredibly proud and worked six Olympic games and have enormous respect. But what we're doing is something different. So, you know, the idea that only substances that are permitted in the Olympic Games, should be used in some fashion. We think that topic should best be left to the medical experts. So creatine is an example for a long time was not permitted, and now it is permitted.

And it's used frequently by athletes. So we certainly respect their view. But again, if you take the time to be intellectually curious and learn what we're doing and more importantly what we're not doing, we think that narrative will quickly change. And look, sometimes in the sporting world, insurgent sports like the UFC can pop up and they have millions and millions of fans that want to watch and it shows that maybe the mainstream was a little out of touch at times. But I do want to ask you, why is it more exciting to see somebody at these enhanced games that is on steroids or testosterone swim faster than Michael Phelps? When you know that Michael Phelps put the time in the pool, he worked really hard and he did it naturally? Well, these athletes have also put the time in, and they've also worked very hard.

And I would, you know, I would just query what the word. But why does it make the sport more exciting? I'm trying to understand, I can get it with bodybuilding, right? You create a body that, I mean, you just can't do it without the drugs. But like on a sport, like swimming, why is it more exciting to see what you guys are going to do than what Michael Phelps does at the Olympics? Well, I think it's, again, well documented. that people want to know how fast can the human body cover 100 meters on the track? How fast can the human body cover 50 meters in the pool?

There are different organizations who establish rules for the athletes in that organization, whether it's a collegiate model, a club model. Their rules may be different than an Olympic model. The question that we're answering, and the reason it's more exciting, is that we believe what people want to know is who is the fastest. And on Sunday night, if one of our, or one or more of our 50-meter freestyle swimmers covers that pool in less than 20.88 seconds, then the answer is that individual has covered that distance the fastest. Yeah, but on these drugs, though, it's not exactly the same. They're doing it under a different set of rules.

Right. There are many non-tested events that are broadcast on your network or other networks. They're non-tested or their testing protocols are different. The protocols for collegiate sport, those testing protocols are different. So we have our own set of protocols. We have rigorous health assessments. So, again, I think you have to uncouple what we are doing and not juxtapose our rules to anyone else's. I hear you.

And Rick, you know what? We'll find out this week. And if people tune in and it's a monster success, you guys are going to be up to something. And I'm sure more people will want to tune in. Rick, thanks for coming on. Thanks for answering all my questions. I really do appreciate it. Great. Thanks for having me.

Yeah. Coming up tonight, it's the final curtain call for Stephen Colbert. The late show canceled after decades on the air. What we know about tonight's final episode and what Colbert is planning to do next, Chloe Malas is standing by. We are back now with the end of an era. Colbert saying goodbye as the late show comes to a close after more than three decades. For the past few weeks, Colbert's hosted a star-studded parade of guests, and now there's

just one final show left. Our entertainment correspondent, Chloe Malas, reports. Tonight, Stephen Colbert's final late show farewell, ending an 11-year run that delivered some of the most talked-about moments in modern late night. What's my name? What's my name? Final week of farewell tour full of big moments and big laugh. All right, Stephen, you go first. The original late-night host, David Letterman,

returning to help Colbert hurl watermelons and his desk chair off the Ed Sullivan Theater route. Former Daily Show pal John Stewart also joining in on the fun, kicking back with Colbert for a laid-back chat in recliners. Get ready for the ride of your fucking. Plus a parody of celebrity friends turning the tables for a special Colbert questionnaire. What is the best sandwich?

This is one of the toughest questions, and we start with this one. Thank you. Oh, thank you very much. Could I get a fresh coffee free? These final weeks becoming part celebration, part protest. Is there anything that we have not touched on before we move on to this? I'm curious. The outrage that your show is being thrown off the air?

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel even calling for a CBS boycott as questions continue over whether Colbert's criticism of President Trump played a role in the show's end. Last year, CBS said the decision to cancel the show was purely financial. But some fans are still disappointed in the network's decision. Regardless of where you're at on the aisle, this is a tragedy. It feels like a political hit job. Still throughout the week, Colbert has kept the focus on the laughs,

including looking back at some of his most viral and heartfelt moments. You can't deny it's like Christmas in July. Like his Christmas and July musical at the 2016 Republican National Convention. I wanted to give people hope. His emotional interview with Joe Biden about grief. If you want him, come and claim him. A playful Lord of the Rings reenactment with Liv Tyler. Is the song, Hey Stephen, about me?

No, Stephen. And Taylor Swift denying her song, Hey Stephen, was about him. From show-stopping musical performances, to political satire. God bless freedom of the press. God bless the Democratic National Committee. Colbert transformed the late show into a digital era powerhouse,

racking up millions of views online and becoming the top-rated show in late night. We have only one more show left. And tonight, after more than three decades of the late show on CBS, one final good night for a franchise that helped define American late night. Chloe Malas joins us tonight

from outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. The final taping wrapped up a little while ago. Do we know what's next for Colbert and did you get any intel on what happened? So here's what I do know. Stephen Colbert has given a couple interviews lately, Tom, in which he says that one of his brothers is actually getting married. And so he's really excited to not have the spotlight on him in the immediate future. But guess what?

He has actually teamed up with the one and only Peter Jackson, who was actually in the audience tonight, to write. Another Lord of the Rings movie with his son. So clearly that's going to take up a lot of his time that movie is expected to hit theaters in 2027. That's a massive project. I think when it comes to late night television, who knows what the future holds for Stephen

if he would ever do something on streaming. But remember, he does have the Strike Force Five podcast with his other late night hosts. So we don't have any indication that that's going away, Tom. But I do think that Stephen's going to enjoy being with his family. I interned for him in 2008 when he was, was at the Colbert rapport. And I think he's really looking to get back to his roots and spend a lot of time with his loved ones. Chloe Malas outside the Ed Sullivan Theater for us.

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