Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, November 30, 2023

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

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, the terror attack in Jerusalem threatening a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Security cam footage capturing the moment two gunmen opened fire on a bus stop during the morning commute, killing at least three people, including a pregnant woman on her way to work. Hamas quickly claiming responsibility for the attack. But a truce between Israel and Hamas extended in a last-minute agreement as more hostages are released. Among them? Mia Shem. The first hostage who was seen on camera while in captivity, the emotional moment she was reunited with her mother after more than 50 days. Refusing to resign and battled New York Congressman George Santos defending himself on the House floor one day before a third

vote to expel him from Congress. Santos debating several of his colleagues and accusing them of bullying, one calling him a, quote, total fraud. Are there enough votes this time to get him out of office. Von Miller wanted an arrest warrant issued for the Bill's linebacker and one time Super Bowl MVP after he was accused of pushing and choking his pregnant girlfriend. Miller not at the home when officers arrived. The details just coming in from police and how the league is responding. Holy mess, a new provocative music video from pop star Sabrina Carpenter sparking outrage after the revenge fantasy scene was filmed inside of a New York City Catholic Church. The swift action now taken against the priest who allowed it. Paid to chat? Why AI may be taking some jobs, but it's also

creating some. A look at the people who are designing AI tools, including chat GPT, plus what's needed to land that job that could make up to a quarter of a million dollars a year. And Miracle in the Andes, our interview with a survivor of the 1972 plan. crash in the Andes Mountains, the extreme measures he and 15 others took to pull through 72 agonizing days in brutal conditions and how he feels about the story being put on the big screen in a new Netflix film. Top story starts right now. And good evening. A fragile truce between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding, but can it survive escalating tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Disturbing new surveillance video. You see it right here showing the moment a gunman opened fire on a bus stop in Jerusalem. A second person firing shots from another direction. Moments later. At least three people killed and several others hurt Hamas claiming responsibility. That attack 24 hours after Israeli police raided at refugee camp in the West Bank, two Palestinian children killed, including an eight-year-old. But, Just in tonight, new video of six more hostages being released, transferred to the Red Cross at Egypt's Rafa border crossing as a pause in fighting appears to be holding in Gaza. Released earlier in the day, 21-year-old Mia Shem, you see her right here. This is the moment she was reunited with her mother after nearly eight weeks.

And you may remember the French-Israeli woman was seen in the first hostage video released by Hamas in the days that followed the October 7th attacks with an injured arm. Shem asking to be reunited with her family, and tonight she is. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also back in Israel, and meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken urging Israel to protect civilians in Gaza should fighting restart. And Israel, adamant, it's not if fighting will resume against Hamas, just when. So let's get right to Richard Engel, who leads us off again from the region tonight. The latest Hamas attack was deadly and quick.

According to Israeli police, two Palestinian brothers get out of a white car at a bus stop on the edge of Jerusalem and open fire, killing three Israelis, including a 24-year-old teacher, reportedly expecting her first child. They're shot dead by off-duty soldiers and an armed bystander. The Hamas attack didn't break the ceasefire, but every day it's closer to collapse. The Israeli military says the truce will extend at least through tomorrow, to allow more of the 140 remaining hostages to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. Six more hostages were released tonight. Mia Shem's mother got the news she's been desperate for.

Mia was kidnapped from a music festival near Gaza, where Hamas massacred at least 260 people. Her mother, Karen, spoke to Lester last month. This is the worst nightmare for every mother in the world. Today, Mia was back with her mom in a reunion, 55 days in the making. During this truce, Hamas has only freed two Americans of the roughly eight its holding. Liat Benin was released last night. Today, the kibbutz where she lived confirmed her husband Aviv was killed by Hamas.

Hirsch Goldberg-Pollin is another American citizen also kidnapped at the music festival. His arm was blown off during his capture. Tonight, his parents worry, without medical care, his injury could be fatal. We don't know if he's alive, but also the more that get released, the more hopeful we are that Hirsch could be one of them. I saw you have a sign on your door already. Welcome home, Hirsch. Is that the, you're leaving it there?

Our neighbors put that up, the first. week we'll leave it and it'll be a talisman so it's been there for you know since week one so yeah well well really hope that it's soon and soon and seen Richard Engle joins us tonight from Jerusalem Richard I want to start where you started in your report talk to us about that Hamas claimed terror attack what's the latest and if you could explain to our viewers why something like this didn't affect the ceasefire. No one wants more war, but this is clearly a terrorist attack. So I think this shows how important this truce is also for Israel, because it is producing

results. As painful as it is, the hostages are coming out. They are being reunited with their families. It is politically important for Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister. It is important for Israeli society, and it is vitally important for the family. So I've been meeting every day now with families of hostages, and they are all waiting by the phones. They are gathered in Tel Aviv. There's a hostage square where they are meeting in solidarity. So as long as it produces results, and it has been producing results, the Israelis do want this to continue. They want to keep the pressure on Hamas, but they don't want something even as severe as this attack in Jerusalem was today when three people were killed. They don't want it to derail the process. But it is something

that the Israeli security forces are trying to deal with. When you walk around the streets of Jerusalem, there are checkpoints, there are stops by police all the time. If you are a Palestinian walking around the city, particularly near the old city or here in East Jerusalem, you will be stopped by police. They will ask to see your phone. Security is extraordinarily tight. So it is not that the Israelis aren't paying attention to security. If anything, the Palestinians say they're being very heavy-handed. But this attack still happened with two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at that bus stop. I also want to get to some new reporting. I understand you have about Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin's meeting with Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? So the Secretary of State came, and he went to the West Bank. He went to Israel as well. And according to readouts, he told Prime Minister Netanyahu that the offensive, which is expected to resume whenever this pause, this truce breaks down, that it can't look like what it has looked like in the past. Israel is expected to focus when it resumes its military campaign. And Prime Minister Netanyahu told Secretary Blinken that the military offensive will resume once this pause is over.

It is likely to focus on southern Gaza instead of the north. And Secretary Blinken told the prime minister that what happened in the north can't be repeated, can't have the same level of loss of Palestinian life, can't see the same number of displaced Palestinians. Palestinians. But he said that Israel does have the right to continue this operation and does have the right to make sure that Hamas doesn't have the ability to carry out another October 7th attack. Richard Engle leading us off tonight from Jerusalem. Richard, thank you for that. Back here at home into Washington, the House is expected to vote tomorrow on a rare resolution

to expel New York Congressman George Santos. But he's not resigning or going down without a fight. Ryan Noble's reports. Tonight, the House is on the verge of a final judgment on the future of Congressman George Santos. If I leave, they win. If I leave, the bullies take place. This is bullying. While the vote won't happen until tomorrow, debate on the resolution began today, with many of Santos' fellow Republicans calling for him to go. I would ask that all members vote to support the expulsion of Representative Santos. There is momentum to expel Santos, but his future is still in doubt. Every Democrat is expected to vote Santos out, meaning that more than 70 Republicans will have to join them.

And some, including the House Speaker, are still not saying how they will vote. I'm concerned about a precedent that may be set for that. A concern echoed by other members like Florida's Byron Donald's. I think it sets a different tone, and this place gets way more petty than it is right now. If Santos is expelled, he'll join only five other House members. forcibly removed from office. Three of the members expelled were booted for fighting on behalf of the Confederacy. The most damning feature of this farce is the total perversion of the priorities of this body and this conference.

While Santos has not been convicted, he is facing a 23-count criminal indictment, and he was also the subject of a scathing House ethics investigation. But despite the heat, Santos said he will only leave if he's forced out. The House is expected to take up the resolution to expel Santos tomorrow morning. If the vote passes, Santos will be forced to leave Congress immediately. Tom? And we know you're going to be covering all of it tomorrow. All right, Ryan Noble for us, Ryan, thank you.

Now to a new development in one of former President Trump's ongoing legal battles. New reporting by ABC News in the New York Times cites a lawyer for the former president who says she testified that she told them it would be a crime for Trump not to comply with the federal subpoena in the special counsel classified. documents case. The report says we're going to put a portion of it up on the screen for you here. Not long after federal prosecutors issued a subpoena last year for all the classified documents that former President Donald Trump took with him from the White House to his estate in southern Florida, one of his lawyers told him in no uncertain terms that it would be a crime if he did not comply with the demand according to a person familiar with the matter.

The lawyer, Jennifer Little, this year, related the account of her discussion with Mr. Trump to a grand jury overseen by the special counsel, Jack Smith. She is one of several witnesses who prosecutors were told have advised Mr. Trump to cooperate. Because of this reporting, we've invited Angela Senadella on our legal analyst here to explain this. Angela, I'm not a lawyer, but when I saw that report, I said this cannot be good for the president. If this is true, if one of his lawyers testified to the grand jury that she told the former president, hey, this is going to be a crime if you don't comply, what does that mean for his case? It is very damaging any way you spin it, and that's because it goes to the issue of intent.

So the hardest part of these charges to prove an obstruction of justice is that he knew it was wrong and did it anyway. But if you have his lawyer, who is still currently actually his lawyer in Georgia, testifying that he not only knew that it was criminal, but still went ahead and did it and ignored her advice that goes to intent. So it's damaging, though, to a jury, if it's your former lawyer, you obviously have fired this person. There's some bad blood there, maybe. He has different lawyers now representing him here. She was still his lawyer at one point. I mean, will a jury, how will the defense handle that? So, Tom, this is the luxury of having enough resources to have a ton of lawyers.

And because you're right, he could always say, well, she told me that. But guess what? So many other lawyers told me otherwise. So it doesn't nail down intent. I wouldn't say it's a smoking gun. But also, it does have to do with whether or not at the trial, the judge would also admit this as evidence. So it was admitted for the grand jury. That judge said it was okay, even in light of attorney-client privilege.

But that might not apply for the real trial. We're going to have to wait and see. If he is found guilty in this case, what is the penalty? Possibly decades and decades, an aggregate over 100 years behind bars. Now, it's obviously unlikely that a judge would give him that full amount, but decades in prison is possible. Finally, if you could be brief here, I know some legal scholars are saying that of all the cases, the federal indictment, None of that's going to happen before the election because of the calendar, because of the timing, because of the legal arguments being made by Trump's defense lawyers. Do you think that's true?

I think it's possible because the D.C. judge insists it's going to happen in March. And when a judge is that strong-willed, it's possible. But he's not going to do jail time, even if he's convicted because of a possible appeal. But you think these trials are going to happen next year? I think this D.C. trial, this judge is determined. So obviously, the defense has delayed tactics. But when the judge says she is picking a jury starting in February, I mean, it is possible. And that's about overturning the election, that case.

Yes, that's the D.C. Okay, Angela Snedadella, always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for that. We turn now to more power and politics in the 2024 race for the White House. At the New York Times Deal Book Summit, CNBC's Aaron Ross Sorkin, sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris. During their talk, Sorkin pressed her on one of the biggest challenges facing the Biden-Harris administration, bipartisan concerns about the president's age. Here's part of that exchange. Kevin McCarthy was here this morning.

And he was, in very stark terms, effectively said that he did not believe that President Biden was the same President Biden that he used to talk to. Went so far as to say that when they were having the debt negotiations, that he didn't even think he was negotiating with him, that he thought he was looking at cards and that if the information effectively wasn't on the cards, he wasn't able to do it. With all due respect. when anyone who has had the experience that he has most recently had. I don't think he's a judge of negotiations. But that being said, that being said, that being said, to the point, because it is a point that has been made. First of all, I would say that age is more than a chronological fact.

I spend a whole lot of time with our president, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room, and in other places. And I can tell you, as I just mentioned, not only is he absolutely authoritative in rooms around the globe, but in the Oval

Office, meeting with members of Congress, meeting with leaders in industry, meeting with community leaders, I will tell you that he is in front of, often, everyone in the room in terms of thinking about how we can resolve

issues, negotiate in a way that is about concession where necessary, but for the sake of accomplishment and actual work. Let me ask you a more complicated way. I think there's a lot of people would say she can't say anything else. She couldn't tell, if there was a problem— I'm not lying. If there was—

I'm telling you a fact. But if there ever is a problem, do you think that you could go tell the American public? Do you think in your role that you're in a position to do that? of course if necessary but there's no need for that I don't there is a political argument that is being made that is not based on substance I am suggesting to you that it is important we not be seduced into one of the only arguments that that side of the aisle has right now on this issue in a way that is intended to distract from the accomplishments All right, for more on this, I want to bring an NBC News White House correspondent Mike Memole in Washington. Mike, let's give our audience a quick reality check here, though, when it comes to voters. The vice president is saying this age question is a Republican distraction, but it is a real concern for many voters, right?

In a recent New York Times-Syana College poll, here it is, 71% of registered swing state voters said Biden was too old to be president. And in our own NBC News poll earlier this fall, 74% of registered voters said, They have a major or moderate concerns about his physical and mental fitness for the Oval Office. So, Mike, I guess I've got to ask you, how concern is the White House about voters' views of the president's age? Well, Tom, I think it's so important that you played so much of the Vice President's exchange yesterday because this is really the most fulsome exchange answer we've gotten from the highest levels of our government about what you rightly point out is a top concern for voters heading into 2024. Now, when I talk to White House officials, when I talk to people at the highest levels,

of the Biden campaign. What they'll say about this age issue is two things, really. The first is, there's nothing we can do about it. As one top official put it to me, other than inventing a time machine, the president's age is just a fact we have to deal with. Now, the second point that they'll try to argue is, with age comes wisdom and experience. And you heard some of that from the vice president. They'll say, look at how much the president was able to accomplish working through a closely divided Congress, his first two years in office, significant legislation. Look at how he's been able to tackle these major challenging foreign policy crisis more recently. He's only been able to do that because of the wisdom and experience he brings to this office.

That's going to be part of the message to voters next year. And then, Mike, especially given concerns about Biden's age, how much is the Biden campaign planning on using the vice president out on the campaign trail? And what should voters expect from the president next year as the campaign heats up? Well, this is one and the same, because that's another interesting part of the vice president's answer there. They know that Republicans are going to be saying next year essentially that if you vote for Joe Biden as president, you're really voting for Kamala Harris as president. Now, she's saying there, I'm ready to be president.

And you know what? The Biden campaign, the Biden team is putting the vice president front and center now because what do you usually see when a president is seeking reelection? The biggest advantage that they have is that they are the president. They don't want to be seen as a candidate. So I was just traveling with the vice president recently on Air Force 2. She went to South Carolina. She's been traveling across the country holding campaign style events speaking to key

voting groups like young voters, like women voters, like African-American voters that are going to be key for Democrats next year. We'll see the president campaigning much later on next year. Mike, family for us. Mike, we always appreciate your reporting here on Top Story. Thank you for that. Still ahead tonight, the arrest warrant for Vaughn Miller, the current linebacker and one-time MVP accused of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend at a home in Dallas. The breaking news just coming in.

Plus, the moment a school bus with students and a truck slammed into an ambulance causing it to roll over, what local authorities want other drivers to know about this accident will tell you. And the Catholic Church outraged over a provost. new music video by pop star Sabrina Carpenter, the new fallout for the priest who allowed her to film it inside a New York City church. Stay with us. Top story, just getting started on this Thursday night. We're back with breaking news out of Dallas tonight, an arrest warrant issued for high-profile NFL linebacker Von Miller after his pregnant girlfriend accused him of assault. We have some new

developments in this story just coming into our newsroom right now. NBC news is Mara Barrett joins us now with the late detail. So Mara, get us up to speed here. What exactly happened and what exactly went down? Well, Tom, an arrest warrant was issued by the Dallas police for the two-time Super Bowl champion, Vonnie Miller, for assault against a pregnant woman, which police say is a third-degree felony. And just in the last couple of minutes, we've learned that Von Miller did turn himself into police. He is now free on bond, as according to our NBC affiliate in Dallas with that reporting. But this comes after nearly 48 hours, almost two days in which Miller was not speaking

with police. When his pregnant girlfriend had called the police for a, quote, major disturbance, Miller had left the home before police arrived. And so in the last couple of days, we've learned some detail from police via the arrest warrant affidavit. Police were able to speak with the woman at the home. and she described allegations of a verbal argument that then turned physical. She said that Miller had thrown her into a chair and put his hands around her neck multiple

times. Police observed bruises consistent with that description. She also said that Miller pulled her hair, yanked her hair to the extent that he pulled a chunk of hair out of her head. So obviously, very violent descriptions here that detectives were hearing. Now, I should point out that we reached out to the player, his attorney, and his agents, we haven't heard back from any of them in terms of any comment or reaction to this arrest warrant.

Okay, but it sounds like he's turned himself in, so this will move along. I do want to ask you, has the league reacted to this? Yes, so we have heard from both the NFL and the Buffalo Bills. His team, they say they're aware of the incident, they're investigating it. But in addition to the legalities with the police, Miller will have to face repercussions with the NFL, most likely. If a player is accused of domestic violence, they are ineligible to play while that investigation plays out. And this is not the first time that Miller has faced this. He was

accused of domestic violence back in 2021, but was not charged at that time. Tom. Maura Barrett with a lot of new reporting for us there. Mara, we thank you for that. Here in New York City, a Catholic priest is being chastised and removed from administrative duties after allowing pop star Sabrina Carpenter to film a, quote, provocative music video in his 160-year-old church. The diocese slamming the video for what it calls a promotion of violence But the former Disney Channel star seemingly unbothered, even joking about it. Here's Stephen Romo. In her latest music video, pop star Sabrina Carpenter held a funeral at this New York City church for all the guys not worth her time.

Now the church's pastor disciplined by the diocese and the church itself getting re-blessed. Carpenter's music video feather dropped on October 30. showing her dancing at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Annunciation Church in Brooklyn with four pastel colored caskets in the background while wearing a short black skirt and veil with 12 million views so far it's a hit with her fans while others called it blasphemous upsetting and disgusting you get me carpenter who got her start on disney channel's girl meets world has moved away from her family friendly image Instead, embracing a sexy pop princess persona performing to sold-out stadiums as an opening act for Taylor Swift on her wildly successful ERAs tour. But now the rising star catching the attention of the Catholic diocese of Brooklyn. This was the glorification of mass murder. The story behind this is a woman who murders several of her boyfriends with one after another and then the mocking mourning of it.

It's truly horrific. Robert Brennan telling NBC News, he was, quote, appalled with the feather video, saying that while the production company failed to depict the entirety of the scenes to the parish, these clearly portray inappropriate behavior. The church's pastor, Monsignor Jamie Gigantzello, who approved the shoot, apologizing to his congregation, saying he wanted to strengthen the church's bonds to young creatives in the community. Adding his general search of the artists involved didn't turn up anything alarming. The Brooklyn diocese allowing Monsignor Gigantzielo to remain as a pastor of the church, but relieving him of his administrative duties. For her part, Carpenter doesn't seem too concerned,

telling variety, quote, we got approval in advance, and Jesus was a carpenter. All right, there you go with that. Stephen Romo joins us now in studio. So Stephen, you got to assume she paid to use the space. How much should she pay? And what did the church use with those funds? Yeah, they ended up giving $5,000 to the to film this there. And the pastor involved in all of this, the priest saying that he's going to give that money to the bridge of life. It's an anti-abortion group. That's where he's saying that money is going to go. Still, a lot of people talking about this one online, Tom. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people are going to watch the video now as well. All right, Stephen Romo for us. Stephen, thank you. When we come back an alarming attack out of Washington, an FBI employee carjacked at gunpoint. The surveillance

image is just released as police search for the people responsible. Stay with us. All right, we're back with Top Story's news feed. We begin with the armed carjacking on an FBI agent in D.C. New security camp video showing two suspects who police say are accused of stealing an FBI agent's car at gunpoint. No one was hurt. Authorities later recovering the vehicle but are asking for the public's help, identifying those involved.

A shocking rollover crash caught on camera at an intersection near Gainesville, Florida. Take a look at this. The new video shows the moment a small bus and a pickup truck slammed into an ambulance that was responding to a 911 call causing the ambulance to turn on its side. At least 15 people hurt. The bus was carrying students at the time, authorities reminding all drivers to yield to emergency vehicles when their lights or sirens are on. And an update, a federal court in Texas now allowing for the removal of razor wire at the border. The judge rejected a bit from the state of Texas to block federal authorities from cutting down razor wire fencing near Eagle Pass, as we have reported Texas Governor Greg Abbott

originally placed the wire at the border to stop migrants from coming in after crossing the Rio Grande. The Biden administration and critics say it poses a humanitarian and national security risk. Okay, next tonight, the world is remembering Henry Kissinger, the powerful former Secretary of State, who had his hand in America's foreign policy for more than half a century. NBC's Andrea Mitchell has more on his respected and divisive legacy. was consequential and controversial. The only person to serve as both Secretary of State and National Security Advisor at the same time. I think we made further progress. Tonight tributes from Washington to Israel, Moscow to Beijing.

President Biden saying they often disagreed and often strongly, but his fierce intellect and profound strategic focus was evident. And this from the current Secretary of State. I was very privileged to get his counsel many times, including as recently as about a ago. The praise not only from America and her allies, Vladimir Putin calling Kissinger a wise and far-sighted statesman in a message to Kissinger's wife, Nancy. A message of condolence from Xi Jinping calling Kissinger's normalization of relations with China, a brilliant strategic vision benefiting both countries as well as changing the world. Revereed in Beijing for that 1972 breakthrough, meeting Chairman Mao, learning how to use chopsticks from Joen Lai,

easing tensions with the Soviet Union. But it was a legacy stained by Vietnam. His critics called him a war criminal for expanding the war to Cambodia and Laos, declaring success just before the 1972 election, years before it was over. We believe that peace is at hand. Two members of the Nobel Committee

resigned when he received the Nobel Peace Prize two years later. Jewish and born in Germany, the young Kissinger came to America with his family as a teenager, fleeing the Nazis to return with the U.S. Army in World War II. Later in the White House, his influence and charm making him an unlikely celebrity, nicknamed Super K on a Newsweek cover.

After leaving office, he became even more influential. How would you rate the crisis management by this administration? Oh, I would say that after the first few days of confusion, the administration has handled it properly and calmly. Counseling presidents from both parties for decades and visiting foreign leaders, even traveling to China at the age of 100 for a red carpet meeting with President Xi, setting the stage for President Biden's recent summit. He never stopped looking for the next challenge, recently writing about artificial intelligence, which he feared could be an even greater threat than nuclear weapons. We thank Andrea Mitchell for that look back at Henry Kissinger's life. For more on this diplomat's complicated legacy, I want to bring in American history.

historian Michael Beschloss. Michael, thank you for joining Top Story tonight. You have studied so many people in American history, right? And Kissinger may be one of the most polarizing. You just open the internet right now, any new site, and you have lots of strong opinions that are very different about this man and his legacy. I want to start at the beginning, though. How did Henry Kissinger come to D.C. and reach the pinnacle of not only politics, but power in this world? Richard Nixon hired him as a Harvard professor in 1969. And it was because Kissinger was such a great partner to Nixon, a brilliant diplomat. They both made a lot of successes and mistakes together, that he's this larger-than-life figure that,

Tom, here we are, almost 50 years after he was Secretary of State. And just as you're saying, people are still, you know, having almost fist fights over. You know, it's interesting because as the, I think it was the AP, article pointed out, looking back on his life, depending on the decade, there was a different opinion of Kissinger, right? If you go from the 70s to the 80s, a lot of people thought he was a war criminal. From the 80s to the 90s, the world's greatest diplomat, right? And then after the 80s into now, again, you have a lot of criticism. What do you think is his legacy? Well, I think if you look at his receipts, the kind of things that he did, this is someone who was

responsible for the opening to China after a generation of silence between the United States and China. That was 1972 with Richard Nixon. This is also someone who opened the idea of the Middle East peace process after the Yom Kippur War of exactly 50 years ago this past month. And at the same time, this is a guy with these enormous flaws. He and Nixon secretly bombed Cambodia without telling Americans or Congress. There was probably upwards of 100,000 civilian casualties led to a regime that committed genocide against its own people, killed 2 million people.

So ultimately, you have to say, where did these policies go? And he was so aware of his legacy and his reputation, right? I know you had some personal interactions with him. You would write a column. You'd have an opinion out there about him. And then you actually heard from him? Right. You know, it was not even one of my books, although he would be in touch with me about those two, saying what he liked and what he did not. But I, for instance, expressed the opinion, which I still have, that the Vietnam War settlement that Kissinger and Nixon made in January of 1973 wasn't much better than if they had tried to do it four years earlier before the deaths of an additional 20, 30,000 Americans and untold Vietnamese. And he immediately fired back a singles-based, long letter telling me that I was wrong.

Other historian friends of mine tell me they have had exactly the same experience. You know, something interesting about the history of Henry Kissinger is that a lot of the new reporting over the last, I'd say, 10, 20 years, has come from stuff that's been declassified, transcripts, where we sort of learned about, I don't want to say the real Henry Kissinger, but we got to hear his words with President Nixon and the things he was doing, especially in places like Latin America. Exactly right. Latin America, where the United States was revealed who have been involved in coups. In other authoritarian states, Kissinger and Nixon were justly criticized

for not being concerned enough about human rights and very willing to tolerate dictators. And we didn't know that for sure until we got into all of these tapes, just as you're saying to him. And his letters and his diaries and his, memoranda. That's the way that history works. And the other thing is that now with a half-century retrospect, we can really see, did these policies work or not? In some cases like China,

they did. In some cases like Cambodia, they opened a huge human tragedy. Historian Michael Besh lost for us tonight here on Top Story. Michael, we thank you for your time. Now to Global Watch, and we begin with the drastic move by Russia's top court, effectively outlawing outline LGBTQ activism. The Supreme Court labeling what it calls the LGBTQ movement as an extremist organization banning any activity connected to the cause. This ruling the latest in a string of restrictions on gender expression and sexual orientation in the country, which has become increasingly conservative under Vladimir Putin's rule. A Catalonian kayaker riding a 65-foot glacial waterfall, setting a world record. Check this out. The video shows annual Sarasol

taking that plunge off an Arctic island. There he goes in Norway, then popping back up to the surface. He and his crew accessing the waterfall using a ladder first to scale the ice cap, then to climb across the rapids, the adventurer naming the waterfall Phillips Ladder in honor of his crew. Who knew? We want to turn out of some news coming out of the Vatican and concerns over Pope Francis's health. The Pope announcing he's suffering from acute bronchitis and will no longer be traveling to Dubai for the UN climate conference. conference. Doctors recommending against the travel to avoid the changes in temperature.

For more now in the Pope's condition. NBC News correspondent Ann Thompson joins us now. And how big of a concern is this? He's 86 years old, and we know that he has only one and a half lungs. Right. Well, and he's going to turn 87 next month. So anytime he's ill, it's always a concern. But as he said, he's getting better. He no longer has a fever. He has been meeting with people all week. And the really good news here, Tom, is that they did a scan of his lungs over the weekend and there was no sign of pneumonia. Pneumonia is what cost him part of his lung when he was 21. So that's the good news here. And as he joked today, I'm still alive.

Right. And as he's joking, he's also working a lot, right? At the Vatican? Oh, very much so. Today, in fact, when he made that joke, it was a meeting of health care professionals. He had nine meetings today. But the thing you want to watch for is on Sunday, he reads the Angelus. He recites the prayer, and then he gives greetings to the crowd.

Last Sunday, because of this bronchitis, he had a priest read the Angelus and then made some remarks at the end. Everybody's going to be watching to see if that happens again, or can Pope Francis do it on his own? And there's all these headlines about respiratory illnesses spreading all over around the world. So you know he's going to be careful. I want to turn to some other news, a big headline coming out of the Vatican and here in the state of Texas. But put this up for our viewers, the AP is reporting that the Pope has punished one of his highest-ranking critics, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, by, quote, revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary. Sounds like a lot of drama here. And explain this.

It does. Raymond Burke, who was the Archbishop of St. Louis in the early 2000s, has positioned himself as France's, almost right from the beginning of this pontificate. He thinks the Pope is too liberal. Absolutely. And Burke sees himself as the leader of the conservative traditional wing of the U.S. Catholic Church. But I think what really blew this up was the Pope, as you know, had this synod on synodality where he's looking at the future of the church. The day before that synod started, Cardinal Burke held a press conference in Rome to criticize it and to say that any of the topics they were talking about, such as outreach to LGBTQ people, and ordination of women, that was going against church doctrine, just even talking about it. And I think that was the last straw for Francis. These two men could not be more different in their

vision and in their style. Cardinal Burke likes elaborate ritual and elaborate garments. Francis is very simple and very humble. It's a clash of styles and it's a clash of visions. And a quick correction on my part, Ann, I said Texas meant to say Wisconsin. We thank you for that and all your reporting. Coming up, the AI revolution, everyone has been talking about the jobs. It's taken away. But now there's openings for a six-figure salary gig.

We'll tell you what it is and whether you could snag it. That's next. All right, we're back now with a fascinating story that caught our eye in the Wall Street Journal. With lots of reporting on how artificial intelligence is taking away jobs, now a new type of opening created specifically for AI. They're called prompt engineers.

and in some cases can make as much as $250,000 a year. But the role basically requires you to talk to a chatbot all day to make it more effective. Companies pay these engineers to figure out the best questions to ask chatbots to get the most helpful answers for the company. Joining us now is the author of that article, Joanna Stern. She's a senior personal technology columnist with the Wall Street Journal. Joanna, thanks so much for being here. So people might be like, why, this is like blowing my mind.

I don't really understand this. It's like, in the most basic way, explain to us what these people do. Okay. Use chat chippy T before? Yeah. When you type in that prompt, you get a response. Right. There's an input and there's an output.

The idea with this is that if you perfect that input, you will get a better output. One of the best ways somebody explained this to me is this is programming in the English language. You are putting in the English words, right? Use natural language to communicate with these. You put that into the prompt box. You want to make sure you've got the right word. So you get the right answer. Give me an example of when that chatbot needs help, right?

A lot of times those answers that the chatbot gets back, they can be unwieldy. Maybe you say something general, like, I'd like to go someplace on vacation. Pick a place. Well, you're going to get a lot of random, big unwieldy answer there probably, right? You want to be more precise. And obviously, this is a very, very basic one I'm giving you as an example here. But you can see that if you were using this type of tool for some really advanced work, whether it be summarizing big data files, whether it's looking at big transcripts,

tons of information to get that chatbot, to be able to get exactly the answer you want, you need to be precise. And you need to ask the right question. So that leads me to my next question. My next question, talk to me about the three things you picked up after sort of like working with these companies to figure out how to get a better answer from the chatbots. Yeah. So actually, I worked with one of these companies. I applied for one of these roles. But I also, in my spare time, I have so much of it. I went to a Coursera class called Prompt Engineering, taught by a professor at Vanderbilt University.

And what he was teaching, there were a couple of different ways. I mean, a lot of different ways. This is a six-de-courses. There's universities teaching this now as courses. Okay. Part of the computer science programming, right? But it's not, again, as I said, it's not computer programming. You're using English language.

So I could immediately become part of this course. I didn't need to have any coding knowledge for this course. And so I learned a couple of different prompts. one of the ones he really teaches in the first week is called the persona prompt. And you're going to tell the chat bot, you need to act like a persona, like in this sense. Say, for instance, I want you to be a financial analyst. Act as a financial analyst with expertise in the financial industry when you answer my next question. That helps prompt that bot to know what kind of answer you would want,

a more sophisticated answer than say you would give a five-year-old. And you could even say, pretend I'm, act as you're a. teacher to a five-year-old. And then what else did you learn? You have two more, right? Two more. The other one is a new information, but a lot of these large language models like ChatGPT have only been programmed to a certain date in time. So 2021, for instance, is one of the ways that ChatGPT only knows up until. So the last two years, it doesn't really hasn't picked up on it yet. Depending on the model you're using. They've improved it since, but this is a good place where it might not know what happened yesterday, right? It might not know what Elon Musk said

in an interview yesterday. So you could feed a transcript of that Elon Musk interview and say, here's some new information. Here's the transcript of the Elon Musk interview from yesterday. Summary it into five points for me. So that's the new information prompt. You're telling it new information and you're not actually having to do all the work of reading that information. And the last one? The last one is more of a question and answer prompt. It's telling it, hey, I need to know the best way to ask a question. So next time I ask a question, tell me the best way to actually ask it. I'll ask it. the question is, where should I go on vacation next week? But when I ask you that, tell me a better

way to ask that question. And then it will feed you back a more precise way to ask that question. So you spent hours essentially training a chatbot when you would before AI train a human being. What was the interaction like when your partner is a piece of technology that has no soul? Well, that is your opinion. Maybe it has a soul somewhere. Maybe it's deep in there. this is the future if you really ask most people and if you look at what's happening in the industry people are using these chatbots to work alongside them as their peers as their new colleagues it is a little weird when you're sort of saying hey be my assistant and do these things but you will save time i mean that's one thing i really did discover is that once you learn more of these prompts you're

going to save more time you're going to get better answers without toiling away and clickety clacking to get the other stuff out of the machine we have some video that we want to show it's you essentially doing the interview to get one of these jobs? Could a go-getter reporter with your education, could you really get one of these jobs because they pay up to $250,000 or do you need a computer background? So what I really discovered is I probably could have gotten a job that paid less than $250,000 with my background is pretty good with words, right? I have good math. Entry level. Entry level. But what that job was looking for actually and why I fell short is I didn't have coding experience. And so while some of this doesn't involve coding.

They do want some people that understand that back-end technology really well. So for that 250K, I was told, sorry, reapply when you've learned some coding. But you have a job. So you're good to go with the Wall Street Journal. I'm feeling good about it. I mean, you know, yeah. Hopefully it stays, keeps going. Joanna Stern, thank you so much.

You can find the story on the journal's website. Coming up, the miracle survivor, the crash in the Andes more than 50 years ago, the survivor reliving the heroin measures to make it home as the story is now coming out in a new film on Netflix. I sat down with that survivor what he told me about living 72 days in an Arctic hell and surviving a plane crash

with his rugby team. Coming up after the break. Finally tonight, a new look at one of the most remarkable survival stories in history. More than 50 years ago, a plane carrying a rugby team from Uruguay crashed in the Andes. 16 people survived after spending

more than two months in freezing conditions with nothing to eat. I spoke with one of the survivors whose heroic actions saved so many of his teammates and who says if you want to get a sense of just how it felt to do anything to survive, you have to watch this new film. Tonight we have film of what very nearly amounts to a real miracle. Survivors of a plane crash in the Chilean Andes, the plane went down 10 weeks ago. The 45 people aboard were given up for death. When the news broke in 1972, the world could I didn't believe in. Some were injured or suffering from exposure and had to be carried out on stretchers.

Others walked right off the rescue choppers to smiles, hugs, and so many questions. How did 16 young men survive a plane crash and more than two months stranded in the mountains surrounded by snow with nothing to eat? A new Netflix film, Society of the Snow, revisits the terrifying and later grim event. Starting with the crash that tore off the plane's tail and wings and turned the fuselage into a toboggan, racing down the side of a mountain. What do you remember about the crash? About the crash that I thought I was going to die. I mean, this is it.

Roberto Canesa was just 19 years old when he and his rugby team boarded that doom flight to Chile. Was it hard to watch the movie? Yeah, because. I was like immersed in that place again. I was back to the fuselage. Though films like Alive from 1993 have told this story before, Proverto says never like this. The viewers are transported to the actual site of the crash, experiencing it through the eyes of passenger Numa Turcari, who admits this is a place where living is impossible, where the only thing that doesn't belong is us. The production actually setting up a base camp, everyone living in those extreme conditions.

Just to get to the location, it took us three days to get used to the altitude. We were shooting at 12,000 feet, exactly in the same place where the plane crashed at the same time of the year. Director J.A. Bayona and star Enzovo Greensick told me the cast and crew also relied on these photos from the actual disaster, from a camera. the survivors had found on board. And every time you see one of those pictures, you think about who were they, what happened to them. It's a small example of what the whole film is about,

which is retelling the story again to make the audience ask the same question. In building his character, Vogrenzik lost 50 pounds. Eating just a can of tuna and a tangerine a day. Vogrensik tells me the fasting and the on-location shoots helped him understand the decisions the survivors had to make,

including eating the flesh of the passengers who had died. Talk to me about the moment that you guys decided as a group that you're going to have to eat your loved ones, your teammates, your friends. What was that like? It was like a process. I mean, when they first said it, people were all very, very excited, very dubitous. And for me, I was medical student second year, and I thought protein, fat,

The good thing about the story is that I was there, and I can tell you what I felt. I don't know if it's good or bad, but I was there, and that's the way I felt. So I thought, this is what I'm going to do if other people would want to come to me. For me, the big thing was that I couldn't take advantage of my dead friends, but on the other hand, I thought if I would die, I would be proud, and my body would be used for someone else. In the ultimate act of selflessness, Roberto eventually hiked out of the mountain range with teammate Nando Pardado and announcing to the world they were alive. You hiked the Andes for 10 days, if not more. What kept you going there?

I mean, how did you keep going? How did you keep climbing those peaks? Well, we knew that there was a definite distance to civilization. And we knew that to the west was Chile and we knew that sunsets to the west. So every step I gave, I was getting closer to a real thing. You told yourself that. Yeah, and I thought 70 kilometers is 100,000 steps. If I am able to give 100,000 steps, I will be, and my friends will be safe.

And this was a driving idea, step by step. That teenage hero grew up to become a renowned pediatric cardiologist, who says the time in the mountains took so much away from him, but also gave him something he keeps forever. Why should people watch this movie? Because it's about them. It's a unique chance of being in the fuselage and about how to overcome difficulties in life, overcome when all things are against you

and to have faith in yourself. Those are the formulas in this film. Jay, finally, what did the survivors and their families tell you after they saw the film? They sat down together, they watched the film, and they talk about it. They cried together, and they were able to share that pain that for 50 years was not possible. Society of the Snow hits theaters in December, and it's on Netflix in January.

We thank you so much for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yamis in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.