Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, September 12, 2024

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

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

Tonight, tropical storm Francine continuing to slam the U.S. with heavy winds and rain as much of the Gulf Coast is underwater. Francine making landfall as a Category 2 hurricane last night, lashing Louisiana with torrential rainfall. Residents there waking up to a flood disaster, business owners now cleaning up what's left of their decimated stores. We're going to be talking to a woman whose home was flooded just after renovating from another hurricane. The storm still wreaking havoc with 11 million people. under flood watches. Are Bill Karen standing by at a time it all out? Also tonight, Inferno emergency, three major fires raging across the state of California. Crews grappling with the flames amid a stifling heat wave as investigators hit the suspected arsonist with nine charges, the long

sentence that he could be facing. The NYPD's police commissioner resigns. Edward Caban, stepping down amid a bribery and corruption investigation involving top government officials. Jonathan's Dietz interviews a nightclub owner with allegations detailing how the alleged scheme worked, including ties to Caban's twin brother and the office of Mayor Adams. Violent protests erupting. New video showing the moments that protesters in Mexico stormed the Senate building there why a new law is bringing chaos to the country. And a mayor's party excess, the self-proclaimed super mayor in the hot seat again

after spending tens of thousands of dollars on another lavish party and then live-streaming it. what she's saying about all this tonight and daredevil biker the drone video showing a man racing across the black sea yes on wheels how the thrill seeker was able to glide more than 20 miles on open water first the breaking news coming in tonight new details on bomb threats in springfield ohio the town at the center of a misinformation campaign top story starts right now In for Tom Yamas. Tonight, the Gulf Coast reeling from Francine's wrath as the tropical storm continues to drench the southern U.S. Here's a look right now at the major storm surge that hit Louisiana last night, an entire highway blocked by rushing waters. That right there is in Dulacq,

some people even having to jump into kayaks to evacuate their flooded homes. And here's what residents were facing this morning. Dron video shows entire neighborhoods completely underwater. Now, Louisiana might be in the clear, but many states, still bracing for more heavy rainfall. We're going to have Bill Cairns track out where the storm is headed next. But first, we want to get to NBC's Kathy Park, who leads us off tonight from home of Louisiana. Tonight, towns across southern Louisiana are picking up the pieces after a damaging blow from Hurricane Francine. Overnight, the powerful system slammed into Louisiana's Gulf Coast with damaging winds and drenching rain.

Power knocked out to thousands. The town of Homa taking the brunt of the Category 2 storm. A lot of wind-driven rain, a lot of high winds, which ultimately resulted in about seven different rescues during the height of the storm. Francine weakened to a tropical depression this morning. We, as of right now, have no reports of any storm-related fatalities, and we want to keep it that way. Mother Nature is unpredictable. Dan Stevens says his store survived Ida in 2021. And while Francine was a weaker storm.

They took a bigger hit. What was your reaction when you came out here? Wow. You would think a small storm like that would not do this. This tree crashed into a power line behind David Mount's home. I heard this cracking and popping, and I suspected it was one of the trees. And next door, Albert Short says a storm nearly took his life. We was prepared for it, but we was not prepared for this.

The extreme winds, knocking down trees that cut straight into his home. We heard the loud boom, all the ceiling just. that fell down. Francine packing a powerful punch, and now on the move again. All right, Kathy, joining us now tonight from Homa, looking around you, Kathy. You know, you're in that thrift store, a visible representation of what so many business owners are dealing with. How are they coping tonight?

And also, the threat isn't over yet entirely, right? Sam, good evening. You're absolutely right. As you can see, there's still a big cleanup ahead in this thrift shop. But I do want to point out something. You probably hear that banging behind me. Over there, to my left, that was a brick wall at one point. Earlier this morning, it was completely sheared off from Francine.

But as you can see, crews have moved in very quickly, and they have put up a temporary wall. So crews are mobilizing quickly throughout this community to kind of get everyone back online. But the other big headline, Sam, tonight, of course, are those power outages, tens of thousands of customers still without power tonight. And it could be days before everyone is back online. Sam? Of course, just absolutely unthinkable, and yet it's deja vu for many of these residents. Kathy, thank you so much for more on the human impact. Speaking of that, of Hurricane Francine, we're joined now by Keith and Desiree Durham.

They are residents of the Lakeview area of New Orleans, which had major flooding from Hurricane Francine yesterday. They are no strangers to the situation. Back in 2021, Hurricane Ida caused significant damage to Desire and Keith's home after a tree fell on the roof. First of all, Keith Desiree, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We certainly want to express our sorry how badly we feel for what you're going through right now. Can you just talk about what your state of mind is and how you're coping with all of us? Yes, hi. Thank you for having us. We're just beyond frustrated and overwhelmed and stressed having gone through this a couple of years ago.

And we just completed totally renovating the house from Hurricane Ida. And then we did a lot of flood mitigation efforts and sub-service drainage efforts. And to go through this, again, is just overwhelming and, like I said, just extremely, extremely stressful. And I can only imagine, you know, Keith Desire was probably thousands and thousands of dollars to have to do that renovation in the first place. As you're seeing the flood waters come in, what were you experiencing in those moments? and did it feel like retramatization to a degree? Absolutely. It's...

We have PTSD, honestly. Yeah. You know, the water was coming in, started to seep into the back door. And we got, we went and got towels, and we put towels down, and we were ringing them out in a bucket and pots. And then my husband turns around

and walks towards our kitchen. And we found out, he discovered, discovered the water started coming up through the floors, through the walls underneath our steps. At that point, our entire downstairs, which is a living area, my husband's office, a bathroom, was completely inundated with water. Seven inches. Yeah. Yeah. Seven inches came in. And it's definitely PTSD. It happened quickly. I mean, you know, I monitored the situation throughout the storm, and then when the eyewall start passing right over us, the winds really started picking up. That's when we lost electricity. And within minutes, the water, there was

no standing water on the street, and within minutes, it was just coming up, like, and it was a river. And then- Absolutely river. You couldn't see our front yard. You couldn't save the street. You couldn't see the lava close the street. It might waterfront property. And our understanding, The reason this happened is we were on the pump system, and the pumps were down again. The pumps seemed to go down more than they seem to not work more than they work. And what we later found out is there was a power failure at the pumping station, and apparently no one had a backup plan. So once again, here we go.

Yeah, infrastructure issues, certainly, and I'd have to ask you guys as well, just having covered so many storms along the Gulf in Florida as well, you know, Louisiana, other states where there's been such an issue with the high intensity of storms in recent years. It's hard to even get insurance for many homeowners. It feels like you're going through this tragedy every single year, at least the fear of it. Does that influence your opinion or your feelings in any way about staying where you are versus perhaps ultimately moving to another place? Absolutely. On the U.S. Absolutely. We've been through this. This is like the fourth, probably the fourth time that the house we're in now has had flooding from not just hurricanes, but also tropical storms or...

Or just hard rates. It's just really hard rates. And, you know, it gets to the point where your insurance rates increase every year, your property taxes increase every year. And, you know, you just can't live like this indefinitely. It just puts too much emotional, physical. And financials on a family. You know, even our, even our children, we have children that are in their mid-jave and early to mid-20s.

And they sit around and talk with their friends. They want to be here. They would love to raise families here and spend the rest of their lives here. But they're starting to feel that they're not going to be able to. Is the city even going to be here for them? It's an awful, awful situation. Yeah, it is a regional crisis, and unfortunately, a crisis that no one has any good answers for moving forward,

but certainly climate change, yet another reinforcement of how bad things are getting. Thank you both so much for taking the time to do this and certainly for projecting such strength as you deal with yet another obstacle in your lives. We really appreciate it, guys. Thank you all. For sure. For more now on Francine's lingering threat as the storm moves north. I'm joined live in studio by NBC News. meteorologist Bill Karen. So Bill, the storm is now technically post-tropical, but heavy rain

still lingering and impacting millions in the south. Yeah, it still looks like a storm on radar. I mean, just because it lost its tropical characteristics doesn't mean it's not going to cause any problems. That really just describes the winds, and there's no problems of the wind anymore. But there is a big shield of rain. We've already picked up around three inches of rain in Memphis today. There's isolated pockets here with problems in mostly urban areas where the water is collecting. And we also have this little area down here now. Alabama. So the sun was out today, and now one of the bands is coming through from what's left of Francine, and it's pausing a threat of some tornadoes. So a tornado watches up till 10 p.m. this

evening, it includes Birmingham and the Montgomery area. We've been watching this line. It was looking a little intense, but we haven't really had any reported tornadoes. Birmingham, the worst of the storms is just to your west side, and it has weakened. So that's a good sign there. Also, another one out by Tuscaloosa. So we'll keep an eye on these isolated bands for any possible tornadoes. We're starting to drop some of our flood watches, too. Panama City just got dropped out of this, and now we've dropped down to about 9 million people. But from Memphis to Central Alabama, northern Alabama,

at least isolated flash flooding as possible, especially if you get caught in any of those persistent thunderstorms over the next couple of days. You know, the Birmingham area, we're predicting you another 2 inches of rain about Memphis, about another inch of rain. So tomorrow, not as bad as today, but still some minor travel issues, too, in that region.

Yeah, still going to wreak a little bit of havoc there. I guess also widening the scope a bit, Bill. Do you anticipate any other storms coming as we look toward the weekend? As we head to the weekend, my only kind of area of concern is going to be off to South Carolina and North Carolina coast. This is nothing yet, but a little storm could try to develop. We call it subtropical. It's kind of got characteristics of what we call like a regular storm versus a tropical storm. And this is the area.

All this other stuff out here is going to stay out in the Atlantic. Our friends in Puerto Rico on the Virgin Islands, you're going to have some squally weather from this next tropical wave going through. They're not going to cause you any damage. But this area along the South Carolina, North Carolina coast, this way, weekend. Rip currents, large waves, on and off rain. Not good for a late summer beach weekend, unfortunately. No, most certainly not. Bill Cairns, thank you so much for the latest updates there. We now move west, staying with the weather, to the raging wildfires that have been devastating Southern California. Firefighters continuing to battle the flames as an emergency declaration

has been extended to two counties. The man suspected of starting one of those fires, now facing nine counts of arson. NBC's Dana Griffin talks with a survivor on the ground. High fire danger across the west. We hope the winds don't shift and, you know, we're still worried. Five million people under red flag warnings as low humidity and gusty winds threatened to spread existing fires. There's still a potential for more people to be disrupted and heaven forbid anybody to be injured or killed. Firefighters pushing back flames in four southern California counties. Governor Gavin Newsom extending the emergency declaration after touring the fire zone.

After those fires exploded overnight Tuesday, harrowing tales of survival. As the bridge fired you through Wrightwood, California. The whole south side of Mountain High was fully engulfed and had tried multiple times to call 911, couldn't get through to them. So Chris Durand says he drove to the fire department. I showed him pictures of where it was and everything, and they immediately said, okay, we're going to get right on. it. The smoke leaving air unhealthy to breathe. A weekend music festival now canceled. And today, investigators hit suspected arsonist Justin Halstenberg with nine charges, accusing him of starting the line fire. I can assure the public that we're going to go hard on this case. He has not entered a

plea if convicted. The DA says he could go away for life. His family has declined to comment. All right, and Dana, joining us now from Riverside County. Dana, we understand you have some new reporting about how the airport fire started? Yeah, Sam, it was actually an accident. I want to show you just some of the devastation here at one of the homes. We are making out just some of the items here, an inverter table. In the corner there, you've got a shower. We all know that chimneys are usually the only things that usually last in these fires,

and you've got burnt out cars that are now burned down to their frames. It was actually two or at least a crew of Orange County public workers who were using heavy equipment moving boulders that sparked this fire. And this is something that is a big no-no, especially heavy equipment under triple-digit temperatures here in California. So now the department tells us they are reviewing their policy. Sam? Wow, coincidental and just as devastating. Dana Griffin, thank you so much. Okay, we're going to turn now to the bombshell resignation from the New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban. Caban stepping down earlier today amid an ongoing federal corruption investigation

into the NYPD's nightclub enforcement. Now, one Brooklyn bar owner says that he was told his problems with the NYPD could go away if he paid Caban's brother who told him that? A worker in Mayor Adams' office allegedly tried to arrange that deal. WNBC's chief investigative reporter, Jonathan Deans, follows this trail with this exclusive report. I felt like it was like I got an ultimatum.

Like, it's either you get with this or you're going to get shut down. We're going to make sure you get shut down. Shemale Kelly says it was this man, mayoral staffer Ray Martin, who first told him he could pay the police commissioner's brother to help get better treatment from the NYPD. He just said that he was the assistant of Eric Adams, and he knew, he knew, he know people. And he dropped the Mr. Eddie Caban name because he's, I guess, the NYPD commissioner. I was having problems with the NYPD. Later, Kelly says the police commissioner's brother, James Caban, told him he could help with his

NYPD problems if he paid him $2,500 up front. The state liquor authority says Kelly's bar was not facing any charges of wrongdoing, but there were dozens of noise complaints to 311 about loud music. Kelly says he felt too many cops from the 60 precinct kept showing up, hurting his relatively new business, the Juice and More Bar, along Mermaid Avenue. And he says his police for help from the NYPD and local community board were unsuccessful. Kelly said he never expected that Ray Martin from the mayor's office would give him this advice. He went on about how he thinks that I should just close the bar.

And if I don't close the bar, there's only one way to get the police to stop doing what they're doing. And that's to speak to one of his friends, which, was the James Cabine guy. James Caban, an ex-cop, is the twin brother of NYPD Commissioner Eddie Caban. Kelly showed us phone records and text messages from August 2023, where Martin from the mayor's office

allegedly encouraged Kelly to contact James Caban. Hey, Chamel, reminder to call James. Kelly says these phone records and texts show he and the commissioner's brother discussed the issues surrounding his business, a business which was a juice bar by day, and licensed to serve alcohol on weekend nights.

James Caban allegedly wrote, spoke to the commanding officer, and the biggest complaint from the community board is that you're registered as a juice bar, and now you're doing parties there. Lots of noise complaints. If you have a license to serve alcohol, it shouldn't matter.

And I also explained them that the community board knew that it was in the summertime, so he knew we were going to do Thursday, Friday, Saturday night events. Record suggests Kelly and Caban also spoke by phone. And that's when Kelly says James Caban asked him for the initial $2,500. He said that he will immediate my issues with NYPD. He could bring them to me, have a meeting, resolve our issues is what he specifically said he could do. After he said I had to pay him for it, I felt like it was him trying to extort me. So I just was like, you know what? No, I'm good.

I'll just deal with it, how I deal with it. And it got worse. Kelly says the Ray Martin and James Caban connection bothered him. I assume that you would be like, oh, okay, yeah, let's call a meeting. Let's just figure out what this problem is. I'm not expecting for you to be like, oh, you got to pay me some money if you want this problem to go away. No, like that's, that doesn't, that doesn't fall with me. Martin did not return requests for comment. James Caban's attorneys issued this statement.

Mr. Caban unequivocally denies any wrongdoing, his work as a consultant, and acting as A liaison between the department and a private company is perfectly legal, especially given his previous career as an NYPD officer. Our client has fully cooperated with law enforcement, and once their investigation is complete, it will be clear that these claims are unfounded and lack merit. Former NYPD chief of department and NBC New York consultant, Terry Monaghan. Everything we heard from the bar owner, if those allegations are true, it's at minimal unethical and possibly criminal in the way that they were dealing with the bar owner.

I've been really, really, really, really, really, like, hurt, disappointed, stress, depressed. Kelly is not just making the allegations now. He posted his concerns on social media back in February, but at the time, few noticed. As for juice and more, Kelly closed it down in February. I don't think it was just me. I think that that's probably a thing that's going on. in New York City specifically, to be honest. City Hall late today issued this statement.

We appreciate WNBC for bringing this information to our attention yesterday afternoon. After receiving this inquiry, we immediately began an internal review and found that Mr. Martin violated the terms of his employment. Mr. Martin was terminated for cause yesterday. We expect all city employees

to act ethically and in the public interest. That staff, Martin fired and again has not returned requests for comment. We just spoke with the bar owner again, and he tells us the feds and Department of Investigation agents are with him, interviewing him this afternoon in connection with the ongoing corruption investigations into City Hall and the NYPD Sam. All right, so this is fascinating, Jonathan, because there was a document trailed it, right? You talked about the fact that there were text messages and phone records for Ray Martin. Is this the first time that there's been sort of a direct-

thread between the administration and one of these investigations. It's the first time a bar owner has come forward and publicly, by name and face, said this happened to him. And what's amazing, as you pointed out, he saved the text messages and we were able to get through his phone company, T-Mobile. They provided us the phone records with his permission, and they appear to show those conversations took place. So the implications are obviously huge. And then you have a situation where it's the third time in three years where there's been a different police commissioner in the Adams administration. Where is the next step, I guess, or steps for the NYPD? I think for the NYPD, the focus has got to be public trust and also

trying to work to keep crime down. There has been a reduction in shootings in this city, but there is a concern ongoing concern about quality of life problems in New York City. That continues, and the NYPD is under pressure on that front and now on this alleged corruption front. Yep, and a flurry of investigations. Jonathan Deans, thank you so much for some eye-opening reporting there. Appreciate it. Thank you. And moving now to some breaking news out of Springfield, Ohio tonight, bomb threats prompting evacuations in the city at the very center of controversial claims that President Trump made during Tuesday's presidential debate about Haitian immigrants. Yamish Alcindor is there with the report. Yamish? Well, the tension here in Springfield, Ohio, is palpable. People are definitely worried that these baseless claims about Haitian immigrants abusing pets are really going to impact life here.

Immigrant immigrants are very worried. Some of them are telling me that they're scared to walk the streets because they're worried that they might be targeted and that people might actually be violent with them. So it's very heartbreaking to hear their stories because they fled insecurity in Haiti and now they say that they're feeling insecurity here in Springfield. Meanwhile, there are some residents who believe these unfounded allegations and say that they're credible. They also say that they don't want this community, one person told me yesterday. They don't want this community to turn into a Haitian community. They said they want to keep it in an American community. Of course, they're critics of that who say, well, the story of America is that communities do change. You have Germans and Polish people and Irish people, all sorts of people from other countries come here and make America their home. But the other thing I should note is that there's a lot of tension here. And that also possibly, we're not sure if it's connected, but there was a bomb threat, a number of bomb threats. And that caused the evacuation of City Hall and a number of other buildings, including an elementary school. Authorities are saying that they're working with the FBI to investigate. They're not sure who made those.

and made that bomb threat, they also aren't sure whether it's connected to these baseless claims. That being said, Carriere Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, she talked about this issue. Take a listen to what she said. The Springfield, Ohio Police Department has debunked this very bizarre and very hateful smear that's out there. It is what is happening here is an attempt to tear apart communities and disrespect, let's not forget, also disrespecting law enforcement. And that is the opposite of what our country deserves. And just today, former president Donald Trump is now doubling down on those comments.

Again, comments about Haitians abusing animals and saying that there are some people that are coming here from prisons. What we do know is that these Haitian immigrants are coming legally here by the thousands in the last few years. But also they're coming here, they say, to have a better life. But it's definitely a political story that is continuing. Back to you. Yeah. Words have consequences. Yamiche, thank you so much for that report. We move now to the 2024 presidential race. Today, Vice President Harris and former President Trump holding their first rallies since that Tuesday night debate face off while they each try to flip key battleground states this November. Gabe Gutierrez is on the campaign trail for us tonight. Tonight, dueling rallies in critical battleground states on opposite sides of the country. Vice President Harris in North Carolina. While Donald Trump is trying to pull our nation backward, we are fighting for the future. Former President Trump in Arizona.

Kamala Harris showed up spewing empty rhetoric. He says Tuesday's fiery debate with Harris will be their last. Because we've done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate. But Harris wants another. We owe it to the voters to have another debate. Her campaign says it's entering an aggressive new phase and trying to flip North Carolina, which Democrats haven't won since 2008. Donald Trump intends to end the Affordable Care Act. He has no plan to replace it.

He said, he said concepts of a plan. Harris's team now ramping up its push for younger voters. Today we met this group from Wake Forest University. say enthusiasm is surging since President Biden dropped out. Having someone who looks like you, who has the same values of you on the ticket, that's just so encouraging, exciting. What do you make it for a shift to the center on some issues? I think that she's doing what politicians do, which is try to represent everyone in America.

While former President Trump in Arizona, a state he narrowly lost in 2020, going after Harris's record on the economy. I'm angry about rampant inflation, destroying our middle class and the American people are also very angry about that. Trump supporters say he delivered at this week's debate. I think Trump won because he hit all the marks. He touched on all the points that I think Americans are looking to hear about. She didn't tell us what her agenda was or what she was going to do for us.

She just talked. And Gabe joins us now from North Carolina. You know, Gabe, what more do we know about the Harris campaign and record fundraising numbers and also their future plans there? Yes, Sam, as we mentioned, the campaign says it's entering an aggressive new phase and a senior campaign official telling NBC News today that in the 24 hours following the debate, the Harris campaign raised $47 million. Its biggest fundraising hall since she became the nominee, the campaign says nearly 600,000 people donated from Tuesday until Wednesday. Now, three sources familiar with the matter to tell NBC News that next week, she'll be getting. some high-powered Democratic fundraising help.

Both Barack, Obama, and Hillary Clinton are set to hold separate fundraisers in Los Angeles next Friday, Sam. Yeah, that's 600,000 number maybe the most eye-popping there. And Gabe, the former president says he is not doing a second debate with Vice President Harris, but former President Trump says he's made these kinds of declarations before. Do we have reason to believe that this actually is his final decision? Well, Sam, as you know, it's anyone's guess.

when it comes to what the former president says. He said this before. The vice president in her speech earlier today in Charlotte, she said that she wanted another debate and expect the campaign to really be hammering that over the next couple of weeks. As of now, the Trump campaign says the one this week was the final one,

although we do have a vice presidential debate coming out. Sam. All right, Gabe, thank you so much for that report. Still ahead tonight. The new indictment for Harvey Weinstein, A grand jury issuing the disgraced movie mogul new charges months after his New York rape conviction was overturned, what we know. Plus, the so-called super mayor,

who's already under federal investigation in the hot seat once again, the allegations that she used tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund a lavish community event and party. And it ends to an era, the famous Campbell Soup Company, changing its name after 150 years, what they are changing it to and why? Stay with us. And we're back now with an update on a story that we first brought you back in March.

The mayor of Dalton, Illinois, already under investigation for misusing public funds. While tonight, those allegations continue, but this time she's accused of throwing an extravagant community party with R&B singers that may have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. NBC's Tremaine Lee has the very latest. Hey guys, this is Super Mayor. Tonight, Illinois self-proclaimed super mayor Tiffany Henyard in the hot seat once again. How do they operate, trustees? Henyard, who is the mayor of the Chicago suburb of Dalton and Thornton Township supervisor, accused in a tense public meeting of again misusing public funds, including spending tens of thousands

of dollars on a one-day community event that included performances by R&B singers Jay Holliday and Kiki Wyatt. We just had a couple of events here in the past whatever month or so that just explored this amount of money was spent unnecessarily. Henyard pushing back, calling the allegations baseless. Y'all thought that I was young, dumb, didn't know nothing, was going to let y'all come and manipulate me. I didn't do any of that. So because I didn't do any of that, you guys started this whole smear campaign. But it comes just weeks after former Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, who was hired by Dilton's Board of Trustees.

to investigate the village's finances revealed her early findings. Among them, the village's general day-to-day operating fund was $3.6 million in debt. Checks worth over $6 million had been approved, but not sent to vendors. Multiple purchases were under investigation, including an Amazon bill totaling more than $40,000 and that there had been no annual report or audit since 2021, which is the year Hennier was elected. I'm angry. Very angry because, yes, that type of money could have been some more resources in the communities, could have been so a lot of different other things. Lightfoot said Hennier's administration did not cooperate with the investigation. Calling for an investigation of Mayor Tiffany Henniard. Henniard made headlines earlier this year

when she vetoed a measure for an outside investigation into her alleged misuse of Doughton taxpayer funds, like putting up signs and billboards with her picture on them, and allegations she paid thousands of dollars to an administrative assistant who was actually her makeup artist. She denied those claims. Now we'll be victorious when all the dust clear. You see mark my words. Dolton trustees eventually voting to override that veto so the lightfoot investigation could begin. I hope someone hears us. I hope someone comes and saves us soon because the village of Dalton and Thornton Township is really in a crisis right now. According to NBC Chicago, Henyard is also at the center of a wide range

federal investigation and a number of lawsuits. NBC News reached out to Tiffany Henyard and did not hear back. Tremaine Lee, NBC News. All right, Tremaine, thank you. Clearly, another chapter to come there. When we come back, a potential medical breakthrough, a new study showing that an injectable HIV drug significantly reduces HIV infections, even outperforming daily pills. So will this drug soon be on the market? All the details. Next. And we're back now with Top Stories News Feed. The New York City grand jury has issued new sexual assault charges against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Now, that new indictment comes months after Weinstein's initial rape conviction was overturned in New York that happened back in April.

The details of the new charges have not yet been released. Weinstein is currently recovering from emergency heart surgery could face arraignment as soon as next week. Well, new breakthrough in HIV prevention is proving highly effective, that according to the manufacturing company, clinical trials from pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences showed that twice a year drug injections reduced HIV risk by 96% in participants. This outperformed pill form drugs that are taken daily, Gilead says that it now aims to seek FDA approval by the end of the year. So that's the timeline, but the price for patients is yet to be determined. And in a historic move, the Campbell's Soup Company announcing a change in its corporate name after 150 years, I will tell you, it's not a major change. The CEO says it's dropping soup from its name, and it's now going to be known as the Campbell's company.

This rebrand highlights its evolving product line, including Prego sauces and goldfish snacks. However, this change is pending shareholder approval at the annual meeting set for November. Moving now to the space mission making history tonight, crew members on board, Alarist Dawn becoming the first ever private astronauts to complete a spacewalk. The moment captured more than 800 miles above Earth, and our Tom Costello, of course, has very more. Jared now opening Dragon Resilience into space. It happens somewhere over Australia and New Zealand.

I have a feeling the crowd is about to go wild. For the first time ever, a commercial astronaut, Jared, I, Isaacmen opened the hatch to his SpaceX ship, then stepped into the blackness of space. Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect road. This was the riskiest part of a five-day mission, orbiting three times higher than the space station, and without an airlock, all four Polaristan astronauts had to suit up before opening their ship to the vacuum of space. Switching to left hand.

Though today's spacewalk, really more of a space stretch. These are the suit mobility checks that Jared is performing. As Isaacman and engineer Sarah Gillis tested their brand new spacesuits that astronauts might one day wear on the moon. Stepping in to test matrix one. Already they've climbed 870 miles above the earth. The furthest humans have traveled since the Apollo missions and the first time women have traveled so far.

conducting research and testing new technologies and posting Hello Earth on X using new laser light communications. NASA Chief Bill Nelson said today represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry. Senator and retired astronaut Mark Kelly. This expands the ability for commercial operations, and we're moving to commercialize more of especially lower Earth orbit. And just maybe the final frontier. And Tom Costello, joining us now from Washington, D.C. tonight. Tom, let's talk about the big picture here. The successive Polaris Dawn really kind of opens up a whole new chapter in the commercialization of space.

Well, I think that's right. I mean, they are working hand and glove with SpaceX, and this is SpaceX technology. It's their ship, it is their engineers, and it is their spacesuits that these astronauts are testing out. They want to know whether they've got the right technology. to maybe take this now onto potentially the moon. Make no mistake about it. When it comes to the private industry that's in space right now, Space X is owning this sector of the economy right now.

Their biggest competition is really going to be China. This is on. Tom, thank you so much. Coming up next, protesters trying to swarm the Senate in Mexico. The crowd's gathering is lawmakers passed a controversial reform to the country's judicial system. what Mexico is now doing that only one other country in the modern world has even tried. And we're back now with the Americas and the chaos rippling through Mexico as lawmakers passed a controversial bill overhauling that country's judicial system. Now, the 7,000 judges

will have to be elected rather than appointed as Mexico becomes just the second country after Bolivia to put the majority of its judges on the bench by popular vote. Our Ellison Barber breaks it all down. Protesters storming the Mexican Senate, hoping to stop a controversial proposal that would dramatically change the country's judicial system. They are betraying the people, this man says, selling their vote shamefully for this reform to be approved. It is going to lead us to a dictatorship.

The late-night vote temporarily delayed, but not avoided. A total of 127 votes with 86 votes in favor. One senator announced, therefore, we have the qualified authority to approve the reform. Under the new system, the country's nearly 7,000 judges will not be appointed to the bench. They'll be elected by the people, including those on the Supreme Court. Justice, Norma Pena, has repeatedly warned against the reforms arguing that they jeopardize an impartial justice system and put pressure on jurists to vote for what's popular. The power judicial federal no is opposition political, no is adversario.

The power judicial defiend the constitution and impart justice. One of the key issues for judges is that they focus on long-term interests. University of Miami law professor Pablo Ruida Saez, a former deputy justice of the Colombian constitutional court, agrees. And if judges become politicians, they're going to start thinking like politicians do, if they're concerned with their next election. But Mexico's outgoing president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has pushed back against criticism. He and Mexico's incoming president, Claudia, shined.

say the overhaul will help to root out corruption. It's reaffirm that in Mexico there's an authentic democracy. Supporters of the changes have taken to the streets as well. Some carrying banners that say people who have done nothing wrong do not fear the people. We believe that more democracy is needed in the judiciary. supporter says the judiciary should be elected by popular vote. People will remove those who do badly, so this is a control mechanism. But the law professor we spoke to says people should follow the money.

Elections require funding, require money. So who is going to fund these judges? Is it the cartels? Is it private interests? And if so, what is the government? outcome that you would expect. Despite the concerns, a majority of states ratified the proposal. President Lopez Obrador says he will sign and publish the constitutional changes on Sunday. Ellison Barber, NBC News. And we move now to Top Stories Global Watch, the U.N. agency for

Palestinian refugees, saying that six of its staff members were killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza. The strike hitting a school and the surrounding area inside of a refugee camp, at least 18 people were killed in all, according to Gaza's civil defense military. Israel says that they were targeting Hamas militants operating inside of that school. Anti-war protests growing violent in Melbourne, Australia, outside of a military arms convention, video showing protests setting fires, throwing rocks, bottles, and even horse manure at police. At least 39 were arrested as police responded with batons, rubber bullets, smoke grenades, and pepper spray. Melbourne police saying it is the largest deployment of officers,

in more than two decades. And a Georgian daredevil is not walking on water, but he is riding a bike on it, appearing to kind of break the laws of physics here. Incredible video shows that motorbike competitor riding a modified bike, emphasis on modified, more than 20 miles on the surface of water in the Black Sea. It's not magic.

The bike was outfitted with handmade skis, but still had to maintain a high speed to prevent himself from sinking. Good luck there. This took more than six months of training to accomplish that. When we come back, could AI help us to better predict hurricanes? We're going to talk to a software developer using cutting-edge technology

to improve the way hurricanes are tracked and predicted and to help local officials and residents better prepare. Obviously, very apropos to what's going on right now. We're going to break it all down. Coming up next. We're back now with the dangerous rescue captured on live TV during Hurricane Francine, an ER nurse racing to save a man's life at the height of the storm as his truck was being swallowed by rising floodwaters.

Here's NBC's Jesse Kirsch. With Hurricane Francine, Hamry, New Orleans, the city told people to stay home. This is why. That water is almost to the window of that pickup truck right there. NBC affiliate WDSU was live on the air as this pickup truck wound up in feet-deep floodwaters, floating and spinning with a man trapped inside.

Reporter Jonah Gilmore alerted police. Officer, they have a truck right here. My brother had texted me saying somebody had just driven into the water. Miles Crawford lives close by. The University Medical Center nurse grabbed a hammer and walked into the water. It looked like they're climbing out of the backseat right now. That guy just broke that window. The man escaped with difficulty.

Oh my goodness, he just fell in the water. That good Samaritan is helping. As the pair moved toward higher ground, the fire department arrived. Then we learned about Miles Crawford and his humility. I'm a nurse, you got to save lives, right? There's a real difference between someone being brought to you in a hospital and you putting your own life at risk in floodwater to save a life. Honestly, that was easy compared to what goes on behind those doors right here.

We just do the best that we can with the situation at hand. Be kind to others, and if they need any help, and you're able to help them, it's helping out. Kindness, exactly what so many in Louisiana could use tonight. Jesse Kirsch, NBC News, New Orleans. And as hurricanes become more frequent and intense due to climate change, a new technology is emerging that may be able to warn authorities even earlier to start preparing. It utilizes AI learning, the same kind of tech used in driverless cars,

to accurately forecast hurricanes up to an average of three days earlier than traditional. forecast. Joining me now to discuss this, the software engineer who developed that technology, Sam Lillow is a senior software engineer at DTN, the largest private weather company in the world. He also, by the way, has a PhD in meteorology. Sam, thank you so much for joining me tonight. The technology that you've created better predicts a tropical storm's possible development into a hurricane and its intensity ahead of landfall. We're going to take a look at some of those models right now. If you wouldn't mind, walk me through this. What am I looking at it? And how are these maps interpretive?

Sure, yeah. So on the left-hand side, we have a traditional model blend. This is taking into account hundreds of different ensemble members. So these are individual models that could be perturbed in different ways, might be built on different frameworks, and we like to take in all of this data, because it's important to be able to address the uncertainty in the atmosphere. This gets down to chaos theory and how, you know, the atmosphere can diverge from a particular state very, you know, very quickly.

And so having all these individual models is super important to be able to, you know, get an accurate look at how the atmosphere might evolve. The issue here, though, is that once you start blending these models together, you start to wash out the amplitude of some of the anomalies, some of the perturbations that you see in extreme events like hurricanes. When you blend these models together, that can be fine for partly cloudy in 70, but for a case like a hurricane, we want to be able to accurately represent the amplitude of these different characteristics, like, you know, of the heavy rainfall and the strong winds.

And so on the right-hand side, we have our DTN model blend. And so this is taking into account all those same models, all those 100 models that are in the blend on the left, but we use something called semantic segmentation to identify the tropical cyclone in each of these individual models. And then we optimize the weighting of each individual model and then stitch it back together in such a way that we are able to retain that detail and retain that amplitude. This is so important in cases like, you know, we're looking at precipitation here, cases like Harvey and Florence, where we had historic flooding when they made landfall, right? You know, if you're looking at the model blend of the left, it might be washed out.

You might not see that same amplitude of rainfall. On the right, our DTN model is able to accurately represent just how extreme a storm like that could be. So if I understand you correctly, then, it's less about sort of blending various models, but really moving in with pinpoint accuracy on a small snapshot of what you're looking at. and then creating a portrait based on it. I mean, explain what amplitude means for our viewers and myself included. And then also, when you're zooming in on all these characteristics of the hurricanes, and we talked about them, wind speeds and rainfall totals that can be devastating.

How are you doing that? Yeah, so the amplitude is looking at basically the largest values and the largest values in the middle of the hurricane. And when we blend these different model forecast together, If you're doing it in a not-so-sophisticated way, you end up with maybe a storm over here, storm over there, and when you put the two together, you're averaging a high number with a low number

and another high number with a low number, and it ends up kind of just smoothing it out. Now, on the right-hand side, we are realigning the precipitation field, and you see those much higher precipitation rates. near the center of the storm. You also see the eye represented really well, and you see also how it's a little bit more compact, actually. And this is all part of retaining the detail that's so important to be able to understand what impacts to expect at landfill. Sam, I know people are

going to have questions about the fact that we already have so much sophisticated technology and radar at work, whether it's the American model, the European model. How does this differ? And also, So where were you when I was covering hurricanes for the last couple of years? Really could be some of this advice. Well, like I said, I mean, it's incredible. The last few years how AI has exploded in its utilization and meteorology. And I'm very excited for what's ahead. I think we are going to be able to address a lot of different challenges through the use of AI.

Now, I should say, you mentioned the ESMBWF, you mentioned the GFS, and there are several other models just like that, too. These are definitely, yeah, these are excellent models that are run regularly and used for forecasts from the National Weather Service, from the National Marketing Center. What we're doing is we're taking that same data. You know, there's a lot of fantastic data out there and an amazing plethora of data, to be honest. Really, the challenge is how do you optimize the use of all that data? One of the biggest challenges actually is with satellite and radar, as you mentioned, we have tons of data coming in and still we're trying to figure out how to make the best use of it.

AI is one solution that is helping us to address that challenge and actually get the most out of this data. And Sam, I certainly hope, Sam, we have to unfortunately wrap it up here. But I hope that this is something that can be shared with governments as well, so that that sort of information can be disseminated to as many people as possible. But we appreciate your time, Sam. Thank you so much for doing this. And thank you for watching Top Story. For Tom Yamis, I'm Sam Brock in New York.

Stay right there because we have more news right on the way. Thank you.