Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, September 17, 2026

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

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

Tonight the fiery F-16 fighter jet crash in Michigan, and now the homes around it evacuated. Flames and thick-block smoke pouring from the crash jet, just feet from a home. The pilot ejecting just before going down, the urgent evacuations over concerns of a hazardous chemical leak. Mid-air emergency, the fire shooting out from a plane engine, the passenger flight forced to turn back to Las Vegas. Life-threatening flash floods, neighborhoods washed out in Indiana, first respond to. in Arizona using a helicopter to rescue drivers trapped in those rushing waters. The bombshell accusations against King Charles involving Princess Diana. Her brother said he sounded elated soon after her death, how the palace is firing back.

A Florida Republican breaking with President Trump over immigration enforcement while she says he is betraying Hispanic voters. Pencil jailbreak, an inmate caught on camera, busting out of his cell with the help of a tiny writing tool. Going Rogue, Open AI, revealing several new ways its tech exhibited concerning behavior. Plus, is all the AI doomsday talk similar to the Y2K scare? We'll speak with an expert. And is paramount, ready to leave Los Angeles, the three states the iconic movie studio could be considering as it battles an antitrust lawsuit in California.

Top story. It starts right now. And good evening. We begin tonight with that breaking news out of Michigan, an F-16 fighter jet going down in a fiery crash. evacuation orders as dangerous smoke fills the air. Video capturing the moment a wall of flames erupted right next to a home after that fighter jet plummeted into this backyard. The huge plume of smoke scene for miles, officials say just one pilot was on board and he ejected safely. Almost before his jet actually hit the ground, he's now recovering in the hospital. The wreckage littering this lawn and tonight investigation is underway to figure out what went so wrong. residents within a one-mile radius of the crash ordered to leave their homes due to what officials call a hazardous chemical spill.

Our Courtney Kubi is tracking this one and leaves us off. Tonight new video showing the fiery aftermath, an F-16 fighter jet crashing just feet from a house, the jet still in flames with pieces of wreckage strewn across someone's yard. It was going down. I mean, there was no doubt about that. Authorities tonight ordering an evacuation around the crash zone. And I was like, I need to get my girls like out of here. Cole Conrad shooting this video saying the kids first noticed the military jet above them. I hear a big boom and then I see a colorful parachute and the sky floating down from the sky.

Tonight Texas military officials saying an F-16 jet from the Texas Air National Guard crashed during a routine training mission and that the pilot successfully ejected. Michigan officials saying the pilot is in stable condition in the hospital. His shoot never fully opened. It was like a mushroom. While tonight, authority, ordering everyone within one mile of the crash site to evacuate due to a hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash. All as new audio reveals another pilot telling air traffic control that the F-16 may have hit a bird. All right, with that, Courtney Kubi joins Top Story Live tonight. So Courtney, do we know more about why they're evacuating that one-mile zone? We don't know. Authorities aren't saying,

and they're also not saying exactly how long this evacuation could last. Keep in mind that one of those eyewitnesses who we spoke with said that this is a residential area and it's basically a subdivision where the aircraft went where the aircraft went down but what we do know is that aircraft like f-16s in addition to having fuel and other potentially dangerous things on board there's a hazardous chemical on f-16s called hydrazine now it is both toxic and very flammable and if in fact it's released it could pose a danger not only if people come in contact with it but even to the air around it if people are breathing it in. That may be one of the reasons that authorities are taking such extra precautions here

and calling for this one mile evacuation. But again, we don't know exactly how long that will even last, Tom. Courtney QB leading us off tonight. Courtney, thank you. On another mid-air scare, flames seemed bursting out of the engine on a flight heading from Las Vegas to Mexico, forcing the plane to turn around. Tom Costello has this one. Tom?

Yeah, Tom, this was a Valerous flight from Las Vegas to Guadalajara, Mexico. The plane had just taken off from Vegas when the right-side engine began spitting bursts of fire. The FAA says the pilots reported a possible engine fire, then returned safely back to Las Vegas. Aviation experts say this looks like a classic case of a compressor stall shortly after takeoff, almost like a car backfiring when the airflow is disrupted. And in this case, it may have happened after the engine ingested one or more birds. It can be rather scary for passengers looking out the windows, seeing those bursts of flames. Typically, as in this case, pilots just shut down that affected engine.

They then returned safely to the airport. And the FAA says it will be investigating this. Tom. I'm Costello. Thank you for that. Now to the deadly helicopter crash in L.A. that killed two beloved members of our NBC News family, as well as one person on the ground. Federal investigators now on the scene working to determine what caused that fatal dissent. NBC Steve Patterson spoke to the NTSB late today. Tonight, piece by piece, federal investigators slowly removing the wreckage of News Chopper 4, hauling it to a secure facility in Phoenix.

We just spoke to NTSB spokesman Peter Knudsen. What specifically would help you when you're looking at the physical aftermath of the wreckage? Sometimes even, you know, small things like a bolt or a cable that's overstressed or, you know, shows some wear. All of these can be important data points. This dash cam video showing the chopper falling, with the NTSB asking the public for any new images they might have. The accident happened Tuesday during breaking news coverage in L.A. Photojournalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marcenu were in the air covering this deadly accident where a car ran into a bus. Avoid the intersection of Nordaf and Soto for the next several hours.

When something suddenly went wrong. The NTSB says this video shot in the chopper before the crash will be key evidence. We're going to be able to get a lot of information with that sound spectrum analysis and all that video information to determine just what kind of emergency the pilot was dealing with. A third victim, 29-year-old Eddie Gutierrez-Mahia, was killed on the ground. His family telling Telemundo, he was just visiting for a couple of days from Guatemala when tragedy struck. And tonight, there's new video of that deadly accident that perceiving. seated the chopper crash. You can see a driver speeding toward the intersection before slamming

into the bus. Two people on the bus were killed. Now prosecutors charging the driver of the car, 36-year-old Bailey Rios, with murder. And tonight, new tributes for our colleagues, including Moreno, who is just engaged. Her family writing, we find comfort in knowing that Eliana left this world doing the very thing she loved. We are infinitely proud of her. Steve Patterson joins us now from the location of that crash. Steve, it is so terrifying to hear that alarm going off in that cockpit of the helicopter there. We now know when we think the NTSP will have a preliminary report. Tom, they're saying in about 30 days or so, but a full report, not for another year and a half. Meanwhile, we watched the remnants of that chopper being trucked away. I can tell you the damage was

thorough. It is immense. But the NTSB tells me they are confident they will come to a conclusion despite that. Tom. Okay, Steve Patterson for us. Steve, thank you. Turning out of relentless storms triggering deadly flash floods. Neighborhoods completely inundated and first responders repelling from helicopters to rescue trapped drivers. Millions still at risk right now. Our Morgan Chesky is tracking it all. Tonight, torrential rain creating havoc across the country. In Indiana, the Wabash River swelling to flood stage. This aerial view showing a neighborhood south of Fort Wayne underwater. People working together to push this vehicle. to dry land. Rosanna's daughter's basement inundated. She probably lost everything in her basement,

her furnace, water heater, all the things. To the west. This is crazy. Parts of the Phoenix area receiving more than a third of their yearly rain in just a few hours Wednesday. In Maricopa County, flash floods trapping two people in their 80s inside their vehicle. First responders on the ground unable to reach them. A sheriff's helicopter finally swooping in to bring them to safety. Rising waters the Phoenix metro area so hard. First responders even use their vehicles to push stranded drivers out of the floodwaters. And in northern California, a different kind of battle. Crews racing to contain a growing wildfire near Lake Tahoe. The Florist in fire prompting officials to issue evacuation warnings for families in parts of two California counties. And authorities shutting down part

of Interstate 80. Tonight, the California Highway Patrol saying there is no estimate on when it may be safe enough to reopen. Morgan Chesky, NBC News. All right, I want to bring in Bill Karens now. Bill, let's start with the flooding. What are you watching right now? Looks like it's moved a little east of New Mexico. Yeah, a little bit of a break in Arizona. So yesterday at this time, we had like over 20 flash flood warnings. Now we only have a couple, one located down near Rudioso in New Mexico. And then we're still going to watch her isolated flash flooding for about 10 million people. We're not done with the storm system yet. It's actually going to make it all the way to the northeast by the time we get to Sunday. So as far as tomorrow goes,

heaviest rain is going to be over areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Then as we go into the nighttime hours, thunderstorms erupt rolling through Chicago early Saturday. We get a little bit of a break as we go through Saturday night. But then another line of heavy storms will come through. So we could get this training effect of storms. And that's why the rainfall totals in the days ahead could equal well over three inches. Southern Wisconsin, Milwaukee, all the way down to the Chicago area. By far, that'll be the area to watch Tom next. All right, Bill. And while we have you here, I'm not a meteorologist. I think we, do we still have a few days left to summer because I know you're tracking some heat. We have too many as far as a lot of people are concerned in the middle of the country.

It hasn't stopped feeling like July. This is the warmest September we've ever experienced in so many areas. And we put little red dots on the map to show you every city that's experiencing the warmest September up to this point. And it's everyone from Kansas to Colorado through Texas all the way through the south, even a few spots here in the mid-Atlantic. It's been hot, it's been humid. We've had numerous 100-degree days.

Dallas, by the way, today, you finally broke your streak of 10, 100. degree days in a row, you only hit 98. It's still extremely hot. And that continues as we go throughout the upcoming weekend. We still have about 19 million people under heat advisories. Every red dot on this map, we expect record highs as you go throughout your upcoming weekend. And tomorrow, Dallas, 100 again. St. Louis, 96, Little Rock, 100. Tom, in some of these areas, the kids have been back in school for over a month, and it still feels like the middle of summer. It does. All right, we thank you for that, Bill. We're going to turn out of politics. President Trump tonight facing criticism once again from within his own party,

and this time it's over immigration. Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, a strong ally of the president on many issues, today urging him to pull back in a new campaign ad, watch. Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. The same Hispanics who help you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today. That ad marking a major shift for Congresswoman Salazar, who just two years ago had this to say about the president.

The most important thing that President Trump needs to do immediately after he swears in is to create that deportation army to go after the Tenderawa. And everyone who has a criminal record that it happens to be undocumented. So what could be driving this change of heart? The answer may lie in the latest polls. And NBC's Sahil Kapoor is on the big board. for us to break it all down. Sahelahzhar represents Florida's 27th district. It covers parts of Miami-Dade County,

roughly three-quarters of the population there, of course, is Hispanic. And we have some new polling about how the president is doing with that demographic. That's right, Tom. Let me begin with the top line here. Overall, just 30% of Hispanic voters nationwide

say they approve of the job President Trump is doing. That's according to a recent New York Times, Sienna College poll. It's consistent with our recent NBC News decision desk poll. This is the issue breakdown in what is driving Hispanic voters. The economy tops the list, no surprise there. Inflation at 7% a close cousin of that. 8% cite foreign policy and 8% immigration.

We can break this down a little bit further. What percentage of Latinos approve of the job President Trump is doing on the economy? It's only 20% on immigration. What is that number? 28% of Latinos approve of the job President Trump is doing on immigration. Now, of course, these are nationwide numbers. Salazar's district, a disproportionate number of Cuban Americans who, as you know, have different political attitudes than, for instance, Mexican-Americans.

But these are the national numbers. And if Salazar is seeing anything close to this, it explains why she feels they need to get some distance from President Trump. Yet, if we go back and look at 2024, Latino voters were part of a coalition that helped the president win re-election. But new polling suggests they could be backing away? Absolutely right, Tom. I'm going to give you four demographics that were critical to President Trump's 2024

They moved toward him from 2020, but are now souring on him. We'll start with Hispanic voters. He gained 14 points with this group nationwide. Absolutely critical to his victory in core swing states. What do they think of him now? 30% job approval rating. That is not good for Republicans on the ballot. Young voters under 30.

He gained seven points. A lot of these voters, looking at the economy, looking at the cost of living, not happy, said, we'll decide to give Trump a chance. What do they think of him now? Not happy. 21% approve of him. Voters making five-figure incomes he gained with them as well. Up to 51% unusual to see a Republican get a majority with this group.

Now his approval is all the way down to 31%. Finally, non-white voters who didn't go to college. He lost this group, but he didn't lose it by as much as he usually does. He peeled away some of those voters, which is how he won in 2024. What do they think of him now? More than a double-digit drop from his margin in 2024. This is the dynamic that Republicans all over the country are dealing with with Trump on the ballot. Sahil, thank you so much. Great job there. We're going to turn out to our new series,

the data center debate, the facilities that power the artificial intelligence boom, and how they've become a lightning rod issue for politicians and the big tech companies behind them. Tonight our Stephanie Goss travels to West Virginia to see why some people there say a new data center is destroying their neighborhood. Project Monarch broke ground in Mason County, West Virginia back in April. It's set to be one of the largest data centers in the country, just feet from Randy and Marsha frame's backyard. Construction equipment rolling right through the view from their porch. It used to be a soybean field. What has this done to your neighborhood? Destroyed it. It is basically destroyed it. I'm looking at you, Randy, and your heart looks broken to me. Oh, yeah. It is.

The first phase of this project will generate two gigawatts of power, but the company says it will have the potential to expand to four times that amount. So what does that mean practically? That's enough electricity to power the entire city of Los Angeles in the middle of the summer. The neighbors started leaving after the flood in May. Nearly five inches of rain in two days, submerging yards and crawl spaces. The data center company, Enscale, says their fencing on the construction site failed. Did you have water come through here? It came through at silk fence.

Enscale paid for the flood damage and has bought or is offering to buy the 56 homes in this neighborhood at more than their market value. But the frames who have lived here for 42 years don't want the deal. Why are you still here? Because it's our home. You know, they look at it as a house. We're going to buy your house. It's not a house.

But this is a home. Jason Bechtel is from this county, too. He was raised here and now works for N-scale as the Data Center site manager. To be able to stay home and to work on a project of significance like this, It's a great thing to be a part of. N-SKale says the project will boost West Virginia's economy with more than $80 million in tax revenue, create hundreds of jobs, and electric bills won't go up because the data center will generate all of its own power. Why should the people who live in this neighborhood be happy about this? Can we look at those benefits from a community perspective, from what we are going to bring to this area?

NScale says it is spending over a million dollars in community outreach, including donating money to the county sheriff's department, ambulance service, and school system. But the distrust in tech companies and AI runs deep. A recent NBC News poll found that 69% of Americans opposed data center construction in their local area. Empty, empty, empty. All of these houses are empty. Empty. Jim Pio lives down the street from the frames. Yeah, the company said we want to be good neighbors to you. Well, I had a whole lot of good neighbors already, and they're gone. This small neighborhood is caught in the middle of a global race to master AI. Those who are still here say they feel like the collateral damage.

Stephanie, one of the concerns with data centers sometimes is the noise. Do they know if this is going to make a lot of noise? I mean, it seems like it's going to be literally right in their backyard. Yeah, I mean, they have. concerns, right? So the way that they're powering and getting that energy is they're burning natural gas in power generators. And those generators can make a lot of noise, but the company says they're going to put walls around it. They're also going to create land barriers to block that noise. But you heard in the spot there, the people in that neighborhood don't really trust the company

right now. And they are waiting to see if what they say about that noise is true. The company has also extended its offer to buy out those homes until 2028, Tom. Do we know when they say they're offering overmarket value. Is it a lot over market? Or is it kind of competitive? I asked several times. I did not get any actual prices. But what the frame said to me...

But a lot of people sold, right? Yes, a lot of people sold and left. What the frame said to me is that it wasn't really an offer that they could take. And they also raised on the issue that there's no place in their community to go. That there's no affordable housing where they could take that money and buy another place. So they have concerns about it.

It's not a house. It's their home, right? So the midterms are coming up, obviously. Do we know if this is going to play a factor? I mean, we know it's playing. We've seen other politicians sort of change your tune on data centers. So is that happening in West Virginia? Well, it is really becoming a topic of conversation around the country.

In lots of states, you have Texas, South Carolina, obviously in West Virginia, also in Pennsylvania. And our NBC team sat down with Governor Josh Shapiro exclusively today and asked him this question. Take a listen to what he said. You know, I'm not paying attention to the polls. I'm paying attention to what people. actually tell me when I shut up in Archbald, Pennsylvania, which is up by Scranton, and they showed me that this one developer wanted to place a data center literally on the left field

line of their Little League field. I said, hell no. I have also seen communities that have said, you know what, this is a lifeline for our area. All right, he's got it both ways there. Exactly. But that is the tension, right? So a data center comes into town. There is real economic benefit. But how does it come into town? What do they tell the people who live there and what impact could it potentially have? There are concerns about not just noise, but for these data centers that are tapping into the power grid, in some places, has meant people's electricity bills have gone up. And people are concerned about water, too. It reminds me a little bit.

It's obviously much smaller. But when cell phone towers went up, right? And people were like, not in my backyard. And then they went up and they sort of dressed them up like trees. And then people sort of moved on because everyone used. their cell phones, they need them. These deadies centers, what you were just shown us in your report, and I wanted to ask you, I mean, this is massive.

This looks bigger than a few developments. Yeah, exactly. This is not just putting up a cell phone tower. And I think that has surprised people. When you think about the size of this complex, and you can see it in the arials there, it is, when I was driving into town to get to that neighborhood, it just seemed like it went on, the construction went on forever.

And the people who lived there didn't know really what was going in when they started. And that has happened. That's a story you hear in a lot of different places, Tom, around the country, where the community didn't know what was being built. And then suddenly it is this thing. Usually a project like that, maybe it would be a store. Maybe it would be a mall or something, and you would know what it was. And it's the secrecy surrounding it that is problematic for people.

And a lack of transparency, transparency. And there are some people who are thinking, you know, there's a little bit of this information out there as well, that their electricity bill is going to fly up, and maybe it will a little, or maybe it won't at all. So... Do we know yet, like, when the developers look for these data centers, is there like a sort of a prime real estate that they like?

Is it just sort of like open fields? Is it near a river? Or is it just kind of wherever they can get the property and put these massive centers? Well, I mean, they need power. So if they aren't going to generate it themselves and they need to be close to the grid, if they are generating that power,

they've got to have the space, right, to have the generators to do it. In some places, there are states that have given the data center companies incentives to go to the state. West Virginia is one of those states. So that might be part of the equation as well. But I think what you're going to see are data center companies, re-evaluating how they go into communities, what they tell them, and actually where they put some of these centers. All right, Stephanie Goss, great reporting you and the team.

We thank you for being here. Still ahead on top story, yet another IVF mix up. The legal battle now unfolding when parents discovered their daughter had a different. biological father. Plus frightening moments, a school bus full of kids crashes into a parked car an update on the students and the driver tonight. And Nick's tickets, mayhem, sky high prices to see the NBA champions sparking outrage. A thousand dollars for nosebleed seats? So what happened? We'll explain. Back down with another unthinkable mix-up, an IVF clinic at an IVF clinic, a Florida couple suing after realizing their daughter had the wrong biological father. Kate Snow has a story.

Natalie and Joshua Strong were thrilled when their second round of IVF worked, but what happened the day after their daughter, Ava, was born, was devastating. I mean, this is going to affect us for the rest of our lives. We got to figure out how we're going to tell Ava one day. A nurse told them Ava's blood type was B positive, but her parents' blood types are both negative. It was the best day of my life, and then when that hit us, it took all the happiness away. A DNA test later confirming there was a probability of 0% that Joshua was the biological father. The Strongs say they've heard nothing from their clinic, Brown fertility in Jacksonville. They don't know who the biological father of their child is.

They're now suing that clinic. We just wanted answers. We wanted to figure out how this could possibly happen. NBC News has reached out to the clinic for comment but has not heard back. The Strong's attorney says this is happening more than anyone knows. There are more laws and regulations at the local hair salon than there are in these fertility clinics, and something has to change. This law firm also part of a high-profile case involving a different fertility clinic in Orlando, where a couple gave birth to a baby who was not biologically theirs. The Strong's daughter is 15 months old now, walking and running. Joshua, breaking down at the press conference today, he says every day he struggles with emotions.

You do have sadness and anger, and in the same day, you also have joy and love. It's just a lot to deal with, but we love her very much. And with that, Kate Snow joins us now. Kate, you can't imagine what that couple and that family is now going through. We've done a lot of these stories recently here on Top Story, and the lawyers for this couple say this is happening more often and there's a reason why? Yeah, well, they're saying we just don't know how often this is actually happening, Tom, because they say a lot of people, you can imagine.

imagine they don't want to file a public lawsuit. They want to go on with their lives and try to raise the kid that they have, or maybe they settle. So they're saying that. They're also saying that Florida, in their view, is a hotbed for this because of lack of regulation. Oh, okay. Good to know. Kate Snow, we thank you for that. All right, coming up, the bizarre jail break cut on camera, how an inmate used a pencil to escape from his cell and new pushback from Paramount after rumors mount over their exit from Hollywood. So is the major movie studio leaving for good? We'll discuss. But first, top story's top moment

and the emotional birthday surprise going viral. 12-year-old Antoine, he's a Bruno Mars super fan. So when the pop star was in town on his global tour, mom knew they had to be there. You're an incredible son, and we wanted to gift you an early birthday present and for all the accomplishments that you've made, drop the beat.

You're going to Bruno Mars today. What? Yeah. Today? Yes. Like, it's 15 minutes. Drop the beat. Mom tells us she kept the secret for months,

and that was an incredible core memory for the whole family. I'm sure it was. Happy birthday, Antoine. Hope the show was awesome. Stay with us. More top story after this. We're back now with the uproar over ticket prices to see the world champion New York Knicks. Fans logging into the general sale on Wednesday,

finding ticks to the home opener against the same. Sixers listed at $1,000 a piece. Sounds like a great deal. Not. And that's the face value price for the worst seats in the house with better seats going for a lot more. Now tonight, Madison Square Garden Sports,

which manages the NICS suspending ticket sales due to what they call a mistake in our pricing. Hmm. Adding they will restart sales with new prices shortly. I want to bring in NBC Shaquille Brewster all the way from Chicago on this one. So, Shaq, I hear you one of the people. Is this right?

to shell out our grand to see the Knicks, and now you and other fans are going to have to get a refund? Yeah, Tom, that's right. Let's, you know, say there's no timing on that refund. And to defend myself and some of these other fans here, let's explain it a little bit, because this is opening night for the NBA season. The Knicks will be playing. This is not just the first game, Tom. This is the game where the team will get their rings, where that banner will be hoisted up into the air, hang up in the rafters for eternity for the first time in 53 years. moment for fans who missed the parade or couldn't go to a finals game. At least that's how I explained it to my fiance when I told her how much I spent. So imagine the shock when you had many of the fans going on, Ticketmaster, and seeing that the team was now charging them more than $1,000 for the cheapest tickets in that arena. The team now saying that this was a mistake, as you just mentioned, they have suspended all ticket sales for the entire season at this point for at least a week. And then, They say they will resell or reprice the tickets at last year's prices, just an increase of 12%. You see the headline there on the New York Daily News.

It caused a lot of anger and outrage and frustration for fans who felt like they were being priced out of a big moment. You know, this could be studied in universities, in finance classes. I mean, this is just so crazy because the demand was there and people paid like yourself, people who know what's going on, but you still paid for it. And if I'm sitting back there and selling these tickets, I'm going to be thinking, wow, what can we really get for these tickets? And I'm sure every stadium is thinking about this and every sports team owner. So the demand was there.

It was going to be $1,000 for a ticket. Do you know why or do you know when if you'll get the same sort of slot to get the same tickets you were trying to get? Or is it all up in the air again? You have to wait in line and try to figure it out. Well, they say you'll keep your ticket, but you'll be refunded the difference between the new pricing and the current ticket. The MSG in that statement, and we'll pull up a little bit more of that statement.

They're insisting, look, they're not trying to take advantage of fans. And the statement they say our intention was to never overcharge our loyal fans. And we thank everyone for their support of the NICS and their patience as we get this right, Tom. But one thing for many fans that doesn't pass the smell test here is that while general mission and general tickets went on sale on Wednesday, there was a pre-sale for loyal fans. They have a fan first program that started on Monday. in Tuesday that had the same exact ticket prices. So this was the third day that you saw

the sky high ticket prices. I got my ticket on Tuesday as part of that program. It was only after that headline and that front page that you saw them kind of walked this back. But it was a pretty big walkback. We haven't seen the team really do this before. Even as we know, the NICS have been criticized over their prices, going back to the finals.

Yeah. Thousands that people paid to walk in the building during that. I don't think it's just the NICS. And just to be clear, the tickets sold out. at those prices? There were still a couple of tickets left. I literally checked this morning. There were still a couple of tickets left a handful.

If you're James Dolan, you're like, oh my gosh. You know, that was a regular season game. That was a first game, a thousand bucks. I still can't believe it. Anyway, Shaq, good luck. I hope you get your money back. I hope you get to see the next, man, all right? All right, for sure.

All right. Thank you. We're going to turn to Hollywood now, where tonight's speculation is mounting over Paramount's threat to leave L.A. In July, California filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Paramount. Skydance from merging with Warner Brothers' discovery. The move, angry in the top brass at Paramount, prompting CEO David Ellison to threaten to move the studio out of California entirely.

In a statement to NBC News, California's Attorney General calling rumors of a move a, quote, threat, saying, quote, will continue to apply the law without fear or favor. Paramount has declined comment. I want to bring executive editor at Deadline, a good friend at Top Story, Dominic Patton. Dominic, always a pleasure to see you. Is this real? It's the only question. Are the Ellison's real?

move out of Los Angeles? I think the way to look at it, Tom, is this. They've put a deposit on the moving trucks. I think that they are very clear that this is one of the cards they're going to play. They want to see this lawsuit, the antitrust suit from a dozen attorney, Blue State Attorney Generals. They want to see this resolved. They have given, quietly, an October 1st deadline.

Interestingly enough, that October 1st is when a $7 million a day ticking fee to Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders. kicks in. That fee will be paid with either the deal doesn't close or what happens down the line. That $7 million a day equals $635 million a quarter. And if you do the math a little more, that's two quarters to get to the March 2nd, 2007 trial date that has been set. So among a calendar that's full of also, it's September 24th hearing on the $1.88 billion bond that Paramount wants from the State AGs in the Writers Guild of America, and a September 25th deadline for the state AGs

to respond to a motion put before the Supreme Court by the Attorney General's of very red state, Iowa, and Montana. It is getting very crowded on the calendar. Yeah, and we also should give some more context here. Oracle, right, which is sort of backfunding all of this. The stock is down 50%. David Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, going to play the bank in this situation.

in some ways. His stock is down 50%. So the numbers have changed a little bit. Let's pretend we're writing this screenplay and figure out how this movie ends. This summer, I was in your beautiful city. I was dining at the smokehouse. And I was looking at the Warner.

I think it was the Warner Brothers lot that's in front of that restaurant just down the street. So much history there. And I was thinking today, I was like, it's going to take so much time to build studios, to get space, to do all the sort of the things you need

to shoot movies and TV shows. This is going to take a while. can't just pack up and move. Yeah, well, I mean, look at that. Look, this is a game of chicken. You know, Rob Bonta, the State Attorney General of California, who's basically leading the Blue State Coalition, was in New York today.

He talked at a festival. He spoke on some other networks, et cetera, et cetera. And he said, look, we're not going to tell them what to do and we're not going to play this game with them. We are going to what we think is a very straightforward anti-trust law case. He has referred to previous efforts by Paramounted Trollies in the Court of Public Opinion as essentially blackmail. There's also, on October, mid-October, the two sides are supposed to sit down for what are court-ordered settlement talks.

Now, they might just sit around for 90 minutes and play wordle, for all I know, but they have to sit in a room together on two particular days and talk. The question is here is, if you're looking about moving a studio, moving to studios, you're not, this doesn't happen, as you said, Tom. It doesn't happen overnight. It's like a war. It takes time to build it up, build up the resources. We have talked to people in Nashville who said that they have received phone calls and inquiries about, commercial space. We know that there is commercial space available in Atlanta, which is Georgia is also one of the states under consideration, as well as Austin and Texas. So to find the place

to move to, you're going to have to not only find the space, you're going to find the employees, some are going to want to leave California, some aren't. You're also going to have to find the money to do all that. Now, what's particularly interesting, and you mentioned Oracle. Let's talk about two things there. One, Oracle does have, Larry Allison does have a tradition in Tennessee, and he had floated this idea long before the lawsuits and what have you. So there is something to that. There's a family connection. But the other thing you pointed out very carefully, follow the money. Larry Ellison, who at one point was the richest man in the world, and sometimes the fifth or six, depending on what day it is, he has seen a vast decrease in the stock that he holds in Oracle.

So what was equivalent of backing his son to, say, 80 or 60 million billion dollars before, that's a lot different when you have $500 billion as opposed to $200 billion. We also saw today that the federal government approved the foreign ownership on this. So 25% of the new, what we call it, deadline para brothers, will be owned by a series of Gulf states. Again, a big shift. So a lot of political movement here. Let's also remember, Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of California, doesn't want to end his

career being the Attorney General of California. So he is definitely also playing to the Democratic base. But this is a between two men, David Ellison and Rob Bontor, and neither of them seem to be fraternity. Before we go, we're out of time, they're going to kill me for this question, but I'm curious, but what does Hollywood want, right? We know it's a left-leaning town, but we know it's been hit so hard over the last few years ever since the pandemic.

There are not a lot of jobs to go around. If a giant studio, two studios, as you point out, get up, pack up, and move out, what does that do to that town? Well, recently there was the Economic Development Corporation, which is a nonprofit corporation, published at leaked, rather, a report to the powerful L.A. County Board of Supervisors talking about these massive job losses. Also talking about big job gains in an industry that's seen over 50,000 jobs lost in the past six years, talk about big job gains of Paramount and Warner Brothers meld. Also, should be remembered that Paramount were behind that study.

So there's a lot of numbers there resembled what we'd heard from them before. But the fact of the matter is, if Paramount was to leave Hollywood, corporate headquarters, the Melrose Lott, the famous lot, and Warner Bros. Sleep, too. It would be a devastating blow to the local industry in what has always been the home of Hollywood. Yep. Dominic Patton, we thank you always love to have you on. We're going to turn now at Top Stories News Feed, starting with the White House withdrawing President Trump's nominee to lead ICE. Oklahoma State Troopers Lance Schroier's nomination was revoked for an unspecified reason, but we do know it comes after his nomination failed to advance in the Senate.

The acting ICE director will remain in charge for the United. time being. In Texas, a school bus filled with kids crashing into several cars, doorbell video from Odessa capturing the out-of-control bus, ramming into a parked vehicle and continuing to drive. Police say the driver was hurt and cited for failing to control speed. Luckily, none of the children on board were injured. And a surprising jail break on camera, here's the video of what authorities say shows a South Carolina inmate using a pencil to escape from his cell. We're told he was able to then walk outside, look him there, and just scale a barbed wire fence. He was soon captured and returned to a cell, Sands Pencil.

Now at an NBC News exclusive, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaking out about an alleged Russian murder for hire plot. The Justice Department inditing five people claiming they plan to assassinate a prominent Russian dissident in our nation's capital this summer. Tom Winter joins us now and said, I guess Tom, the first question is, why is the Southern District of New York handling this if this was in D.C.? Well, it's a good question. But in these type of spy and spy operative cases, it's not necessarily weird. it is going to occur, but how you know it is going to occur. So in New York, when we talk about

financial transactions, which are central to that indictment, well, the prosecutorial office that's based near the banks, they have a lot of experience with it. But the FBI, New York field office in their Russia squads, has put a lot of points on the boards over the years when it's come to these types of cases. Now, we've got a new threat and an escalating threat, and that's something that the U.S. attorney spoke about. Tom, we're certainly seeing an enhanced threat environment. We lay out a of communications that took place overseas on encrypted messaging applications. We have those communications. We've laid them out in the indictment. It's important for bad actors or would be bad actors in the United States or abroad to know that we can and will infiltrate their network.

And that's what they say is the key. Their ability to infiltrate the network because it's not just Russian spies running around New York City anymore. The fact that they're hiring people to conduct those plots. They say if they can get inside those networks, they keep it in the indictment form and not an actual murder. Is the U.S. attorney warning that there's an increase in these types of crimes, or is this sort of a one-off? Yeah, Tom, this is deeply concerning, and they're talking about it. And I think the reason why they're being so public with us is they want everybody to know. By the way, it's not just Russia. You and I have talked about the threat from Iran and from hiring people to conduct attacks or murder for hire plots here. They're very much focused on this.

And what foreign countries are trying to do, McDonald's says he has a plan. We're now seeing an increase in threats from state actors to try to commit violent acts in the United States. But one of the things that we've seen in is going to be a real priority for us is following the money, terrorist financing, following the foreign influence to the extent that it's infiltrating American activities. Tom, they think if they can find that money and see where it's going, then they can be able to disrupt future plots.

And I think unfortunately we're going to see more of this. OK, Tom Winter. Thank you for that. When we come back, King Charles's fiery response to new accusations from Princess Diana's brother who says the king was, quote, giddy in a phone call shortly after Diana's death. Plus, Open AI releasing more examples of, quote, concerning behavior from its AI agents. But just ahead we'll talk to an expert who argues the talk of Doomsday is meant to distract us. We're going to explain.

We're back now with renewed calls to slow down the development of AI over fears it could destroy humanity. Within just the last 24 hours, open AI revealing six new incidents of concerning behavior from its artificial intelligence models, some going completely rogue. It comes amid a reckoning in the AI world over the past week we've reported on doomsday concerns that the technology could wipe out all of humanity within a decade. But some are making the argument. It's all smoke and mirrors. This wired article caught our eye. Its headline says one of AI's fiercest critic says all the doom talk is meant to distract us. It features a conversation with former Google employee Tim Neat Gabrew, whose departure made headlines in 2020. She says she was fired from the company's ethical artificial intelligence team after a dispute over her work, and she's been a vocal critic of these tech companies in the years since.

We reached out to Google for comment, but have not heard back. Joining us now is Tim Neat, Gabru. She's also co-founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, which studies AI ethics. We thank you for being here. Tim Neat. Thank you for having me. Yeah, great. Why do you think that this recent AI doomsday talk is meant to be a distraction?

Let me just first say that it's not just recent. This AI doomsday talk has been happening at least since 2012. Elon Musk said that AI is summoning the demon. Peter Thiel in 2013 said that AI is a higher risk, existential risk than climate change. In 2023, Sam Altman said the same thing. we wrote a statement. So this is just a cycle that happens over and over again. And so the question we should all ask is why are the biggest funders of these AI industries and companies and the CEOs telling us that their models are so highly capable that they can wipe out humanity. So first,

it's marketing. They're talking to their investors telling you that they have super powerful superhuman models. And second, it's regulatory capture. So notice that right now we're not talking about the data centers that are actually polluting our environment. We're talking about a fictional super intelligent being that could kill all of humanity. Yeah, but for investors, though, why would investors be into robots and language models that can get out of control? If you watch some of the coverage, it was actually not great the first couple of days. I mean, there was some Fed news as well, but investors were actually kind of pulling back a little bit initially when these reports first came out. Look, I'm with you. I find it strange anytime a company's

about to go public and they want to put out all their bad news. I just as a skeptic, as somebody who's a journalist, it always leads me to believe, you know, they want us to focus on this. What do they not want us to focus on? So I'm with you there, but it just seems like there's a growing collection of voices and even people maybe not directly associating these companies who have said this for years. So why shouldn't we believe them now? This is very interesting. So the thing about investors that you said, right now they might have gone a little bit too far, right? But for example, that whole rogue model cybersecurity thing is speaking directly to defense contractors who are looking for these kinds of capabilities. And let me just say this whole models go on rogue thing,

it's nonsense, right? Because the models were done, were behaved exactly as they were trained, and it was actually a story of open AIs incompetence. So if you see Lena Kanchi even said that hugging face could have sued open AI. And they could still be sued, but something that is company incompetence is now being marketed as, you know, rogue models or capabilities. So in this case, this actually directly speaks to national security concerns, defense, etc. They also don't want competition from China. There's a growing set of open-weight models, and they're looking to get those banned as well. So in that way, even though this latest one might have gone a little too far,

this has kind of been their playbook every few years over and over again. Yeah, cybersecurity, speaking of stocks, cybersecurity stocks were up, obviously, because of all this news. So it was a good week for them. You know, one of the great minds that works here in Top Story brought up the issue of Y2K and all the fear and panic around Y2K, when people feared computers would stop working when the year turned 2000. We have a clip of some of this stereo during that time. I can remember it. I'm not sure how old you are.

Let's play it for our viewers. In the year 1999, America was freaking out. No, like, seriously, oh my God, freaking out. All day, store director Rick Smith watched consumers get Y2K ready. Batteries sell extremely well, the lamp oil, generators, flashlights. Y2K! And nothing happened. So how do you think this compares? I think this is kind of like how it is.

But, you know, with AI specifically, we don't even have to do that Y2K analogy. This exact doomsday story has been happening over and over again. I even wrote about it in 2015 when OpenAIA was founded. In fact, Openia was supposedly founded to stop human extinction from AI, actually. That is like their mission. Their mission is to build the beneficial kind of superintelligence and stop the devil kind of superintelligence, the kind that will render humanity extinct.

So it's kind of in their mission, and this has been their talk for more than a decade at the very least. This is going to sound like a silly question, but it's not. Just following me here. I'm going to go a little deeper. So you would think that ChatGPT and Anthropic or Claude, they would have read the screenplay to Terminator, right? That would be in sort of their knowledge capacity, right? They would know that somehow AI and the robots take over in the future. But they're ultimately killed, as another great mind here on Top Story pointed out to me,

Could that influence in any way the AI models, the stuff that they're reading and consuming, all the stuff that exists on the Internet? Some people say they watched science fiction and took exactly the wrong lessons from the science fiction, right? But what they do want is really they do think that somebody is going to build a machine god and they want it to be them. So this is actually why Elon Musk and Peter too want it. Is that the people behind the big AI companies? It's the people behind the big AI companies. the big billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who wanted Open AI to exist,

were upset that Google acquired DeepMind. And so now Google was going to be in charge of superintelligence. And they wanted to be the ones bringing superintelligence to the world. So this is even the origin story of the companies that we're talking about right now. Timney, so interesting talking to me. We thank you for joining Top Story. I'm sure we'll talk again much more. Thank you for having me.

Okay, we're going to take a huge turn here. I don't know if there's a bigger turn ever in the history of broadcasting, but we're going to go from AI and all of that to the royals across the pond. Princess Diana's brother set to release a new explosive memoir reflecting on her life in the turbulent days following her death. Early excerpts are making some headlines and some of the allegations drawing a rare response from Buckingham Palace. Kelly O'Donnell has more.

Tonight, Royal Revelations. Harry, how are you feeling about your uncle's bird? family drama exposing nearly 30-year-old wounds, early excerpts in the Daily Mail from a new book by the brother of Princess Diana that paints an unflattering portrait of King Charles. Charles Spencer writes about the dark days around Diana's death in that 1997 car crash, recounting a phone call with then Prince Charles. He sounded giddly elated, like a lottery winner I remember thinking at the time. And claims tempers flared over funeral planning and this poignant procession. William and Harry, just boys, walked behind their

mother's coffin. Spencer writes that Diana would not have approved, claiming Charles went nuts and said, that's the problem with your family. They've got no bloody sense of duty. Diana's brother described Charles' reaction to the tragedy, calling it pent-up contempt for Diana, and claiming Charles had said this. Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough. The palace usually ignores tell-all books. But not this time. His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment,

and color memory in ways others do not recognize. Spencer recounts what he calls Diana's complicated life in the memoir out next Tuesday. Tom? Still ahead tonight, the incredible surprise. for one beloved custodian, how his students rallied together to get him the gift of a lifetime. Stay with us. Finally tonight, when a beloved school janitor's truck broke down, his community rallied to get him back on the road, surprising him with a new ride. Take a look.

It pulled up with a red bow, a truck ready for its new owner. A surprise for beloved school janitor Ronald Harrison. To the kids at this elementary school in Cleveland, Tennessee, He's known as Mr. Ron. You can hear them, cheering him on as he takes in the emotional surprise. Two weeks ago, his 30-year-old truck broke down. He started asking for rides, and once even walked five miles to work. So his school community stepped in, rallying to get him back on the road, raising the money for a new ride.

That moment right there that just to know that everybody, They pulled together the way they did and they thought enough about me to do that for me. That was a huge moment. His colleagues say he goes above and beyond for the job and that he's one of the kids' favorite faces at school. I told the children, as soon as you get home, the moment you're around, your parents, please tell them. From the bottom of my art, tell Mr. Ron says, thank you. I'm indebted to you. Thank you so much.

You didn't have to do that, but you did. And I'm so grateful for that. That's a good-looking truck. All right. Thanks so much for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yammis in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.