Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, September 28, 2023

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

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

Tonight, dueling political battles in Washington, the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, as the government barrels towards a shutdown. Republican lawmakers in the House holding their first impeachment inquiry into Biden, aiming to prove the president benefited off his son's foreign business deals, saying they have mountains of evidence. But why one of their so-called star witnesses says there might not be a case here at all, and just hours left to avoid a government shutdown with no deal in sight, how federal agencies are not preparing for the war,

worst. Also breaking tonight the development in Trump's fraud case here in New York City, the former president and his three children all on the Attorney General's witness list. So will they take the stand? Another wave of looting rocking Philadelphia stores ransacked for a second straight night, an influencer now arrested after live streaming at all, while police say her actions may have encouraged others to join. Hurricane Ian one year later, today marking 12 months since the Category 4 storm slammed onto Florida's Gulf Coast, killing 148 people, and wiping out entire communities. Tonight, while some residents are still in desperate need of help

and have been forced to rebuild on their own without insurance. Plus, remembering a beloved actor who made magic on screen, the tributes pouring in tonight for the man who brought Dumbledore to life. We'll take a look back at his prolific six decades in acting. And tonight, the group that's blowing up the chart, charts, introducing a new kind of music to millions around the world. They're called Grupo Frontera, and they're opening up about their newfound success, collaborating with Bad Bunny and staying true to their roots.

Top Story starts right now. And good evening. We begin Top Story tonight with two bitter battles playing out in Washington, D.C., pitting Democrats against Republicans with American livelihoods hanging in the balance. The first, the looming specter of an impeachment of President Joe Biden related to his son Hunter's business dealings and allegations the president may have benefited from those relationships. House Republicans claiming they have troves of evidence to support those allegations, holding the first of several impeachment inquiry hearings today. But tonight, that effort perhaps already undercut by one of the key witnesses called Jonathan Turlia, constitutional scholar testifying that there is not enough evidence to support moving forward with an actual impeachment. And all of this coming with just hours left to prevent a government shutdown if Republicans and Democrats cannot reach an agreement on a short-term spending bill by midnight on Saturday, funding will run out, meaning 4 million government employees will stop getting paid.

Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Noble's falling at all for us tonight and leads us off. Tonight a potential government shutdown, once measured in days, now down to hours. And despite the time crunch, lawmakers are moving slow. Congress has only one option, one option to avoid a shutdown, bipartisanhip. The Senate advancing their version of a short-term spending bill when the House Speaker has said won't pass on his side of the Capitol. At the end of the day, do we get this done? The answer is yes. Staff Sergeant Antonio Hayes has a daughter and is scheduled to deploy this week. He's not sure if he'll still be getting paid.

Losing a paycheck would definitely be rough for me. That's something that I don't, I've never thought about it because I've been in the military this long, forced to be. And while many are planning for the worst, House Republicans kicked off their first impeachment inquiry hearing. Democrats posting a shutdown clock and arguing Republicans have yet to provide evidence President Biden directly benefited from his son's lucrative foreign business dealings. If the Republicans had a smoking gun were even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today, but they've got nothing on Joe Biden. Republicans countering they've collected evidence that is worth further exploring. Whether it was lunches, phone calls, White House meetings, or official foreign trips, Hunter Biden cashed in by arranging access to Joe Biden. A GOP witness supporting an inquiry, but Democrats asking if he would vote to impeach now.

You would vote no, correct? Before today's hearing, we pressed a top Republican about a WhatsApp message they say Hunter sent while his father. was not an office, describing the Biden brand as his family's only asset. How does that demonstrate that there's some sort of political influence being put over him if at that time he is not a political, he's not an elected official? I'm definitely not going to pinpoint one item. I think we've outlined. You presented it. It was your first thing that you brought up. So apparently you don't agree with it. So it's not that I don't agree with it. I'm asking you

to explain it. I'll take the next question. All right. Ryan Nobles join us outside Capitol Hill. I know you have some new reporting to Republicans digging even deeper. They want to subpoena the bank records for both Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's brother, James Biden. Yeah, that's right. And this is part of what they feel they're entitled to under the banner of an impeachment inquiry that may have been more difficult for them to gather if it were just one of the committees and would have to have some sort of specific legislative responsibility connected to it. Now, Democrats will point out that they've already collected thousands of bank records from members of the Biden family, so they're not exactly sure what they think will be revealed by collecting these specific bank records, but there's many that believe that subpoenaing these bank records, getting them in, finding what's in them,

will be the next step towards actual subpoenas for Hunter Biden and James Biden themselves. And then while you were watching and covering this story there and asking a lot of very tough and important questions, did anything move here? Did the needle move at all in this first initial hearing? No, and I think, Tom, it's important to kind of put this in the context of what the Republicans were promising and then compare it to what they actually delivered here today. They said that this was going to be their opportunity to lay all the evidence that they've collected over the past couple of years out on the table, had these expert witnesses, explain it, connect it all together, and then show where that link is to the president. They did not do that today, and it was their own witnesses who admitted that that specific link still does not exist. Afterwards, the committee chairman James Comer said that this was really more about them demonstrating how much money the Biden family has made over the past couple of years. They certainly at least tried to illustrate that, but in terms of finding that very specific link to the president, it just didn't happen.

And then, Ryan, let's move over to the shutdown now. What is it going to look like for the different government agencies? I don't think there's any way to understate this or overstated for that matter, Tom. Four or seven million government workers are going to go without paychecks. That includes frontline military defenders of this country, people that are deployed overseas right now. It also is going to mean that many of these government workers could go without a paycheck as soon as Monday morning. They won't end up coming into work. We already know that many of these government agencies have been sending memos to their employees

informing them that they're preparing for a government shutdown and even outlining which employees are forced to come in, which will stay home and not get paid. This is a very serious situation, and at this point, there doesn't appear to be an ex-ramed. Tom. Ryan Noble's leading us off tonight. Ryan, thank you. Next breaking also, former President Trump and his adult children will be called as witnesses in the $250 million fraud trial against Trump and his real estate empire in New York. This comes as the judge rules the trial will go forward Monday, denying Trump's motion to delay.

I want to bring in NBC's Garrett Hake who's following this for us tonight from Washington. So, Garrett, the judge today cleared the way for this trial to be given. And what happens now and when do we expect that each member of the Trump family to essentially take the stand? Well, we start 10 o'clock Monday morning, Tom. And I think the witnesses will be fairly quickly on the stand, a matter of weeks, not months here. This will move fairly quickly in part because so many of the issues of facts have already been decided. It's the same judge overseeing what's left of the trial who issued that ruling earlier this week saying that the Trump organization and the adult Trump children and the former president all had committed fraud. they'd overly valued or artificially devalued their assets.

So a lot of the kind of fact-based argument has been made here. I think largely one of the things that have is remaining is this question of damages in the $250 million. The Trump family wants to aggressively defend themselves on this. They put the same Trump family members on the defense witness list as well. So everybody's kind of headed for this showdown sometime in the next few weeks. And Garrett, we know that Trump has attacked this case on social media calling it a witch hunt. not new, and he also uses it on the campaign trail. But will this case impact him at all as he campaigns in the primary? As you mentioned, it's going to happen earlier than later, so

it won't affect Iowa and New Hampshire just yet? No, it won't affect anything in terms of scheduling or, you know, knocking him off the trail in some critical time period time. But I think to the degree this case matters, it's because it is so personal to Donald Trump. Just watching the way that he has talked about this case in interviews and public appearances, the way that he's attacked it on social media. This is different from... the criminal matters. This has to do with the business that he built, the thing that made him Donald Trump, the public figure in the American imagination long before he was Donald Trump, the politician. So he is heavily emotionally invested in this case, and to the degree that it

distracts from his focus or becomes the kind of thing that he can't let go of when he needs to be focused on other campaign-related matters. That's how I think this intersects with the 2024 race, not as a matter of keeping him off the campaign trail. He still has a fairly lax schedule compared to any of the other candidates in the field. Okay, Garrett Hake for us tonight, Garrett, thank you. As the former president prepares for his next trial, last night, his Republican rivals took to the debate stage for a second time without the party's frontrunner. The candidates going on the attack against the former president and each other.

This says President Biden also took aim with his most aggressive words for Trump today. Gabe Gutierrez reports tonight from Arizona. Tonight, the general election campaign appears to be underway. Trump says the Constitution gave him, quote, the right to do whatever he wants as president. Sharpening his rhetoric against GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and his supporters. Today, outside Phoenix, President Biden again framed the 2024 race in stark terms. Something dangerous happening in America now. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy.

The MAGA movement. This was his fourth speech, hammering former President Trump as a danger to democracy since the Capitol attack. on January 6th. But the latest NBC News poll shows voters are evenly split on whether Republicans or Democrats would better protect democracy, and also a dead heat, a potential race between Biden and Trump. With the former president in Michigan last night skipping the GOP debate and taking on Mr. Biden, Crooked Joe is siding with the left-wing crazies who will destroy automobile manufacturing and will destroy our country itself. While in California overnight, seven Republican challengers trying to break through.

Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say. And today, some took even more direct shots at the frontrunner. He owes it to the voters to defend his record. Well, you can't win if you're absent. And I think that, you know, he's got a lot of questions to answer to. Tonight, the Trump campaign confirming he will not attend the next debate in November. All right, Gabe Gutierrez joins us tonight from Arizona, where President Biden was today. Gabe, what was the president up to there?

Yes, Tom, in addition to that speech, President Biden was also here announcing federal funds for a new library for the late Republican senator John McCain. John McCain's widow, Cindy, was also here. And the first part of President Biden's speech was really talking about that relationship between him and John McCain, that they known each other for decades. He even choked up and got a little emotional talking

about the fact that John McCain died from cancer, so did his son, Bo. And he really hit that message of bipartisanship. And Tom, of course, there was a little bit of trolling going on, of course, because President Biden was here at the place where John McCain was beloved by many of his supporters. And, you know, he was essentially saying that these federal funds would go for this library and really talking about a different time in politics, that more bipartisanship is needed, Tom. Okay, Gabe Gutier is from the campaign charge.

and also covering the president gave. We appreciate it. With the second Republican debate now in the books, which candidates have a chance to emerge as a serious contender against former President Trump. I want to bring in our special panel tonight, NBC News political contributor, Steve Hayes.

He's also the CEO of the Dispatch, Democratic strategist and a friend of top story, Amisha Cross, and former Trump White House deputy press secretary, also a friend of top story, Hogan Gidley. Hogan, I'm going to start with you first. Who do you think won last night? Honestly, and this is not a cop out, I think it was Donald Trump. I mean, he took the message right to the people.

All right, Hogan, let me ask you that again. Let me ask you that again. Who won and their name can't be Donald Trump? The America First Policies. That's who won. That debate did not advance any of those candidates' future in this campaign. It didn't appear as though anyone was able to break through because debates are about creating moments and then taking those moments and building that into momentum and then ultimately

making a movement out of that momentum. and no one really stood out last night to do that. Everyone had a few moments here and there, but no one had a big enough moment to break free from the pack. When the frontrunner is up by 50 points, you can't just leapfrog. You're going to have to take it wrung by rung by rung to get to the top of the ladder.

And right now, it's a bunch of also-ranes at the bottom. It's a real problem for those trying to gain traction, trying to gain some oxygen, because Donald Trump has sucked up all the oxygen, at least up until this point. Steve, you know, I don't think Hogan is completely, wrong, right? I was watching that debate. The crowd was sort of, I mean, they were very quiet, right? And not that you need a crowd that's going out of control, but they were just,

the energy didn't seem to be there. The moderator's questions, I don't know if they were creating those moments or trying too much to create moments, but that wasn't happening. There were a lot of talking over each other, but did anyone emerge? No, I mean, I think Hogan is largely right. I don't think anybody did emerge. And I don't think there really were that many moments. Certainly what you have to do if you're a Republican challenger to Donald Trump, and he's got a 40 or 50-point lead, is to create a contrast. We've seen polling in recent days and weeks suggesting that voters, particularly in Iowa and New Hampshire, are open to non-Trump candidates. 79% of voters in Iowa say that they're open, they're considering Trump, but they're also considering other candidates, 77% in New Hampshire. And yet what you saw, by and large, was candidates who were afraid to take a shot at Donald Trump.

There was a passing mention of his differences on abortion policy from Ron DeSantis, some shots on spending, sort of glancing blows, but really what they seemed to most upset about was that he wasn't there. There's plenty to criticize with Donald Trump as the Republican frontrunner. They just didn't take the opportunity to do it. Amisha, what was your takeaway from that debate from watching it? That the ghost of Donald Trump was everywhere in that room. I think that these candidates have a very tough spot.

They know where their positions are in the polls. Nikki Haley showed up. She did what she needed to do. But as she did in the first debate, which I would argue she did well in as well, her polling status has not changed. It became a lot of infighting. They got away from answering true policy questions. There was a specific one on child care. We know that child care is the largest growing expenditure in America.

They were not leaning in on that. That was one directed to Ron DeSantis, particularly about the amount of people across the state of Florida who do not have health insurance, which is extremely vital considering the aging population in the state of Florida. They ran from policy. They ran from actually attacking and going full frontal on Trump, specifically around his anti-democratic stances. And I think that at this point, it's hard to figure out what they're fighting for, because they're not fighting for second place either. And they darn sure aren't going to supersede and jump to first. Hogan, I want to ask you about Vivek, right? Because he was

sort of somewhat of a breakout star in that first debate. And it was because he was because he was because he was aggressive. Here's him last night. Let's roll that clip. I think this artificial division is unhelpful in our party. The real divide is not between the Republicans on this stage. And in the Reagan Library, I want to say these are good people on this stage. The real divide is between the majority of us in this country who love the United States of America and share our founding ideals. Free speech, meritocracy, the idea you get ahead in this country, not in the color of your skin, but on the content of your character. and the fringe minority in the Democrat Party that has a chokehold over that party.

Vivek, the unifier, who knew? You know, Vivek like quoting Eminem on the campaign trail before Eminem told him to stop. And I guess my question tonight is, who is the real Vivek? Will the real Vivek stand up? Please stand up. Because he had two very different candidates there, Hogan. Is the Vivek moment over? Well, look, he went from everyone on this stage is bought and paid for to everyone up here is great.

We all get along. We're wonderful people. but we should be focusing on our opposition. Look, this is part of the campaign. It seemed like everybody on that stage, like a good NFL team, went in at halftime after the first debate, and decide to make some adjustments, make some changes. They listen to some of their consultants,

they listened to some of the complaints from the Republican viewers last time, and they all kind of soften the edges and then ratcheted up the rhetoric where they needed to. Vivek is a perfect example of that. Someone who wanted all of the attention after that, in that first debate. Everyone went after him and not DeSantis because the Vivek boom was actually real. The internal polling showed it. It must have. Otherwise, they wouldn't have done it. And people were trying to stifle him. He's kind of hit his peak right now. He hadn't moved much since that

first debate. So it looked like this was a chance for him to kind of reset and be kind of more pragmatic and more unifying. Not sure if it played well, but he definitely changed tactics in this debate compared to last. And then Steve, I know that the candidates in really come after former president trump too hard but they did at times here's some of that the former president you know he's missing in action tonight he's had a lot to say about that he should be here explaining his comments to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing i want him to look into the eyes and tell people who've been fighting this fight for a long time tell you donald i know you're watching you can't help yourself i know you're watching okay

And you're not here tonight, not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You're not here tonight because you're afraid of being on the stage and defending your record. You're ducking these things. And let me tell you what's going to happen. You keep doing that? No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We're going to call you a Donald duck. So, Steve, any of that stuff will it stick?

I mean, I think Governor DeSantis is trying to find moments here, especially on abortion. You know, Governor Chris Christie, he's attacking the 4. former president, he's doing that. He is probably the candidate and maybe now the television personality that is most on cable news attacking President Trump. But is that going to help? No, not those attacks. I mean, if you're a Republican voter sitting at home and you're listening to those attacks, are you really going to make a decision about who you're going to vote for in the next presidential election based on whether he was on the stage or not? I mean, we know what Donald Trump thinks. These guys know where they agree with Donald Trump and don't

agree with Donald Trump. If you look at just the past week, Donald Trump has threatened and effectively to take away First Amendment protections from some media companies. He also suggested that his former Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Millie, should be executed for what he called a treasonous act. These are authoritarian arguments, and those are places where I think Republicans could have made a good shot. I know some of them, the candidates on the stage, believe that those are over-the-top attacks, that Donald Trump is vulnerable, that they speak to the character of Donald Trump when he makes

those arguments. They're just afraid to make them to the Republican Party. Amisha, do you blame the R&C at all for this debate? And also for the debate that's going to come, that NBC is going to run the third debate. You have these qualifications where you have to have polling at 4%. Four percent. To me, it's like if you're at 4% now, and I understand you can turn things around and you could take off, but it just seems to me that they're just keeping the door open for so many candidates. here's the interesting part. There's a lot of candidates who may not even make that 4%

that were on the debate stage here. Absolutely. And if they're at 4% now, there's nothing to say that there'll be 4% in just a few weeks. I think that this is a last-ditch effort from the RNC to hope that some challenger will show up who'll be able to actually, you know, get in the mud with Donald Trump. We thus far have not seen it because there's such a fear of his base. There's a fear when you have somebody who was 40 plus points ahead of everybody else, that if you go too hard against him, if you call out the authoritarian pieces, if you call out the anti-LGB, if you call out the racist pieces of who Donald Trump is, as well as the, you know, criminality encircled around him, that you will lose that Republican base. There's absolutely no reason for someone with only 4% in the polls

to actually be on a debate stage. And at this point, since Donald Trump has totally ignored this process, honestly, I would argue there's no point for there to be a debate stage at all. If you guys can all look at your screens right now, I'm going to put on a poll that I want to put here to see if we can learn anything from history. This is where we were at in 2016. These are the poll numbers from 2016 right around this time, and it shows where the field was. So you have Trump at 21 percent, Carson, Ben Carson, 20 percent, Senator Marco Rubio 11, Carly Fiorina 11, Jeb Bush 7, and John Kasich at six. So Steve, you look at these polls from 2016 when it was a very competitive field, and this tells a much different story than where we're at today. So my question to you is,

do you think there is still a possibility someone can emerge? But what does this tell us about what is happening right now with the Republicans? Yeah, look, I mean, I think if you look at those polling numbers, obviously that was a much more wide open race. The big difference now in 2024 is you had four years of a Trump presidency, which I think for some Republican voters is a good thing. They want more of that, particularly compared to Joe Biden. But you also have things like January 6, like the president's insistence that he won an election that he lost. So I think there's an opportunity for other Republican challengers to make hey on some of these bigger issues and to call into question sort of the fundamentals about what a Donald Trump presidency in 2025

and beyond would look like. They seem unwilling to do that, I think, for some of the reasons that we've heard. Hogan, if this gets to a two, three person race, do you see former President Trump entering any Republican primary debate? I think he could, depending on where the polls sit. look, I used to work for Mike Huckabee and then again for Rick Santorum, both of whom were at like 1% in the polls at this point. So that doesn't scare me off for a candidate to be low in the polls. But Steve hit on something that's important here. What you're having in this race is something completely unique, and that is a former president with a record as president. So he clearly has the party in his grips, in his grasp. That's where the party is right now. And a lot of

people on that stage don't really meet the Republican Party, don't meet the GOP, where it is. today. They're running a race from the 90s or the early 2000s. That's not where we are. We need somebody out there who's going to be tougher, who's going to take on the establishment. Donald Trump did that, and if people are looking for another voice, time is running out for them to do so. And if he's not going to play by their rules and not go on those debate stages, it's just going to be difficult for someone on that debate stage to say, hey, I'm Donald Trump's policies without his personality. I promise, if you elect me, I'll do these things. Donald Trump did those things. So at this point in time, I'm not sure Republican voters are willing to gamble on a promise.

They want to see someone who's been in the chair, and that's Donald Trump at this point. Hogan, Stephen Amisha, thank you so much for this very smart discussion after that second GOP debate. All right, we want to turn out to some other news. We're following the story we first brought you last night. More businesses in Philadelphia are cleaning up after yet another night of looting and destruction. Authorities are pointing to the role of social media and promoting the violence. George Solis is there for us tonight. Bold and brazen, looter smashing and grabbing their way through stores in Philadelphia

for the second night in a row. This is not fair. I shouldn't be a victim of this. Philadelphia police say at least eight stores were ransacked overnight, including Claudia Simlia's beauty supply shop. I walk overnight, days, six, seven days a week, so I could get this to here. And this is what happened. You can really see the extreme measure some criminals took to break into this liquor store.

One of many stores hit up overnight. This is after Philadelphia police added extra patrols after Tuesday nights looting. More than 50 people have been arrested for looting this week, including influencer Deja Blackwell, who goes by Meatball online. Going down right here, y'all ain't nothing. Police say Blackwell was live streaming on Instagram during Tuesday's chaos, sharing her location and appearing to egg-on looters. Free eye phone. Let me see the awful.

Oh, my God. Police say at one point, 12,000 people were watching. Social media is the bane of our life. It accelerates everything. The district attorney charged Blackwell with six felonies, including burglary, conspiracy, and rioting. She has not yet entered a plea. This person incited a lot of other individuals, coordinated a caravan of individuals to go across the city, hitting multiple locations.

Blackwell, now out on bail. Tonight, she says she regrets her behavior. Never loot again. Stay out of trouble and never go to jail. Tonight, Blackwell's social media accounts are still active, while affected businesses are still closed. Meanwhile, police continue to have a large presence in the area. Tom? See what happens tonight. All right, George, thank you for that. We want to turn out of the forecast. A lot going on, especially here on the East Coast. Wet and windy weather returning. The region bracing for up to six inches of rain in some areas, flood watches also issued for parts of New Jersey,

with coastal flooding a threat from Virginia all the way up through Connecticut. I want to get right over to NBC News, meteorologist, Bill, Karen. So, Bill, walk us through what we're looking at here. So, Tom, we're going to have a month's worth of rain in the New York City area tomorrow. That's a problem. And other areas of the country, maybe can deal with it if it's not as populated. But with so much concrete, the runoff is going to be a nightmare. We have a storm coming up the coast.

We have a storm coming through the Ohio Valley. The two are going to meet up. And it's pretty localized. It's not everywhere. It's New York City, Hudson Valley, western portions of Connecticut and Massachusetts. This is at 8 a.m. Friday, torrential rain over New York City. Then as we go through 6 p.m., you notice the rain doesn't really move much. It's kind of stuck for about 12 hours. Then finally it pinwheels out of here as we go through Saturday. So what does this

mean? Well, we have 22 million people that are under flood watches because of the highly densely populated areas from Long Island, New Jersey, Hudson Valley, and Connecticut. The storm prediction center has put us under what we call a moderate flood risk. Anywhere here in this orangeish-reddish-type color means numerous occurrences of significant flash flooding are expected. This won't be isolated. We're going to have numerous highways with problems. Subway lines with water on them. Airlines, you know, will probably be a lot of portions of tomorrow just closed because of the heavy rain and the winds. And this is how much rain is expected. Four inches in Central Park, five inches in white planes. Some areas could get six to eight inches of rain time. This is going to be a significant event. And a lot of people are not getting a lot of big heads up on this. This forecast got a lot worse in the last 24 hours.

Bill, with that, the tri-state area, when should people stay off the road? If possible, if you can get away with work at home, tomorrow's the day to do it. But for teachers and kids go into school, it's 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's a daylight hour problem. We're going to need you here tomorrow, though. I'm just giving you a heads up right now. All right, Bill, we appreciate that. We went ahead overseas now to an update on the conflict that is happening. The years-long war finally ending as the contested region now falls under Azerbaijan's control. The announcement coming as tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians flee their homeland after days of brutal attacks. NBC's Matt Bradley has the details.

After years of unrest and upheaval, the war between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan is finally over. The devastated region announcing today it will dissolve and cease to exist by the new year, now under Azerbaijani control. The announcement coming after more than 70,000 ethnic Armenians have fled their homeland in recent days, more than half the population, and more appear to be en route. I have a wife, three children, a son-in-law, and three grand. grandchildren, this man said, I don't know where they are now. We left everything behind. Azerbaijan has said there's no reason for Armenians to flee, claiming there's a future for them in the region. But many Armenians share stories of persecution, ethnic cleansing, and days of fierce Azerbaijani attacks.

This woman described violent fighting, saying, we weren't able to go outside or make something to eat. We were staying in the basements. How can I live with them? My sister's child was killed. Many of my relatives were killed. And just hours after the war ended, The Azerbaijani has arrested the former head of Nagorno-Karabakh's administration as he tried to cross into Armenia. For many, it's one of the most dangerous parts of the journey. Azerbaijani checkpoints all along the road to Armenia. Azerbaijan says they're looking for terrorists. Armenians fear they're looking for retribution.

A lot of people are just terrified when they arrive at those checkpoints, especially men because they have to get out of the cars and go like a separate way, and they're more checked than, for example, women and children. Nagorno Karabakh's disillusion even sparked violence miles away in Lebanon as Lebanese Armenians protested the region coming under Azerbaijani control. While many have accepted that Nagorno-Karabakh has finished as an independent Armenian nation, some are increasingly fearful the region will no longer have any Armenians at all. Some people were saying if this continues like this, at the end of the week, by the end of the

week there just will be no more Armenians left there. As this year's long war finally comes to an end, Armenians long and dangerous. journey is only just beginning. Matt Bradley, NBC News. All right, still ahead tonight, an update on a mom who went missing in Colorado, the 49-year-old disappearing on Mother's Day in 2020, where authorities just recovered her remains. Plus, a shocking discovery at a New York daycare, ghost guns, and a 3-D pit printer.

Seized by police, the arrest just made. And concerns for Britney Spears tonight after she posted a video right here waving knives around, Police sent to her home for a wellness check. Her message to her fans tonight. Stay with us. Top story just getting started on this Thursday night. We're back with a major break on the 2020 disappearance of a Colorado mom that drew headlines across the country. Police have discovered the remains of Suzanne Morphew.

Her husband was charged with her murder in 2021, but then the case was dropped over a lack of physical evidence. Ellison Barber has the details on what her husband is now saying. Tonight, a break in a mystery that began on Mother's Day of 2020. After three agonizing years and dozens of searches. Got to find my little sister, and I have to been closer to my family. Police in Colorado say they have found the remains of Suzanne Morfew. The mother of two was 49 at the time of her disappearance. Something's up with a front tire.

Her husband, Barry, said he was on a work. trip when she disappeared. This is police body camera video of when they discovered her bike. I mean, the bike, the way it was landed, kind of looked like it, but there's not really that much damage to the bike. That's the thing. Lion? Yeah, it was a size lion. Barry publicly pleaded for her safe return. We love you, we miss you, your girls need you. No questions asked. however much they want, I will do whatever it takes to get you back. But investigators began to suspect he wasn't just a grieving husband. I know this is a weird question, but do Barry and Sudan get along pretty well?

They like talk about separating or anything like that? They have, yeah. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on May 5th, 2021. In the arrest-worn, investigators accused Barry of shooting his wife with a tranquilizer gun. and then taking steps to dispose of evidence of Suzanne's disappearance and death, create a false alibi for himself, and stage a crime scene. And days before the trial was set to begin, the charges were dropped. The prosecution saying they wanted more evidence, and he remains a suspect.

Barry walking out of court with his daughters by his side. He told ABC News this in an interview. They're wrong. They've got tunnel vision. and they looked at one person and they've got too much pride to say they're wrong and look somewhere else. Prosecutors in the area where the body was discovered say the case is still active. With a new development that's so big as this as the actual remains, given that one of the charges was not just murdered but was also tampering with evidence and tampering with a corpse, they can tie these together and they have a much stronger case. As for Barry Morfew, in a statement, his attorney maintaining his innocence, telling NBC News, quote, Barry is with his daughters, and they are all struggling with immense shock and grief after learning today that their mother and wife, whom they deeply love, was found deceased.

Okay, Alison, Barbara joins us now live on set. So, Ellison, there's now a new DA, it wasn't the original DA from 2021? Yeah, so it's not, which is a little confusing, but you kind of just have to think of it in terms of police jurisdictions. What happened is when she was reported missing, it was in one DA's district. When they found the remains, it's in another's. But when we were speaking to Angela Senadella, she said, this is a situation where because that first DA

dropped the case on their own accord, the other DA will basically just pick things up, likely where they left off if they do decide to pursue charges. And speaking with Angel's Senadella, she said that is what she believes will happen. Okay, Alison, Barbara Ellison, we appreciate that. When we come back, the hurricane that changed Florida's Gulf Coast one year after Hurricane Ian made landfall

as a Category 4 storm, we go back and find out that some residents are still struggling to rebuild, how a change in insurance coverage is making it nearly impossible for some people to move forward. Stay with us. We are back now with Top Stories News Feed. We begin with a police raid on a ghost gun operation at Get This, another New York City daycare. NYPD says officers seized multiple three-d-de-old. printed guns, along with a 3D printer from a Manhattan apartment, which also functioned as a licensed daycare site. Police arrested three people, one of them the son of the daycare

owner. The bus comes nearly two weeks after a one-year-old died of fentanyl exposure at another New York City daycare. And the Senate now walking back guidance issued last week allowing lawmakers to wear whatever they wanted pretty much in the chamber. The upper house unanimously passed a formal dress code requiring men to wear, quote, business attire, including a coat, tie, and slacks while on the Senate floor. It did not include guidelines for women. The resolution from Senator Joe Mansion and Senator Mitt Romney comes after bipartisan backlash to the original announcement. And police conducting a wellness check on Britney Spears over her latest social media posts. This one was completely wild. Spears shared this video of herself dancing with knives on

Instagram, sparking concerns over her well-being. She laid her up. updated her post, assuring followers that the knives were just Halloween props. A source telling NBC News today that police conducted that wellness check on Spears, and she's, quote, fine. Okay. Now to the people of Florida making a grim milestone, it's been one year since Hurricane Ian ripped through the state, killing at least 148 people, leaving a devastating trail of destruction in its wake. Tonight, the residents still waiting for help, rebuilding their lives and homes,

including one woman still living in a shed. Sam Brock explains. One year ago tonight, Florida residents came face to face with the horror of Hurricane Ian. The sheer power of the monster Category 4 storm on full display, 155 mile an hour winds battering the coastline. Storm search swallowing neighborhood's hole. The death and destruction left in Ian's wake, difficult to fathom. The hurricane claimed at least 148 lives, and for those left behind, entire communities, wiped off the map.

We were on the ground as rescue crews surveyed the damage, searching for survivors and residents just starting to come to terms with all that they had lost. It was just an old trailer, but you don't know, realize how nice it was to do it's gold. Robert Harmon watched his home get destroyed and slept in his car for days after Ian made landfall, others vowing to flee the state altogether. Has this experience changed your desire to stay in Cape Coral? Yes. You're reconsidering now.

We're leaving. Oh, yeah. But now, a year later, some of Ian's most vulnerable victims who decided to stay still desperate for help. That's what I need to pay my night. Almost my days. We're out to work. Mariselle Jacobo now lives here in a shed in the backyard of her house. That house devastated by flooding from Hurricane Ian.

The storm hitting as she was recovering from major surgery, leaving her trapped in the rising waters along with her dog. I've been staying in the water for almost five hours to the rescue come to pick at the people. Maricel says she lost everything. Her home now stripped down to the studs. She says her insurance won't pay for the repairs to her home's roof. So for now, the shed is the only shelter she can afford. It's really scared. It's no kind life like that.

This was no life. Earlier this year, insurance companies, big and small, pulled out of Florida affecting thousands of policies. Dr. Shahid Hamid, with the International Hurricane Research Center at FIU, says it's due to several factors. We have increase in exposure. A lot of houses being built, and the exposure is increasing, has increased rapidly. We have also reinsurance rates. They're going up dramatically in the last year or two, and that's a worldwide phenomenon. That was a little bit more sticker shock for me getting that letter. Ed Kaiser and thousands of others now struggling to find coverage, since other insurers won't take

their case with pre-existing damage to their homes. I said if you have an outstanding claim, nobody will touch you. But today, amid the lingering devastation, still timely signs of hope. A clock in the Fort Myers Beach Times Square swept away in the storm. Now back, a symbol of a community knocked down by a historic hurricane, but never defeated. Sam Brock joins us tonight from Miami. Sam, I want to go back to that woman. you spoke to Maricel, who's essentially living in her shed.

Do we know what her insurance problem was that she cannot get covered for the rest of the house? Tom, the problem is we understand it, is that she needs to get her roof fixed before the other repairs can be made to her home. And right now her insurance company is denying her the ability to fix the roof. So her attorney right now is stepped in and is trying to resolve this with the insurer. But for the moment, she's just sitting around waiting for these other repairs to be made and they cannot be fixed until the roof is. And it's very expensive, obviously.

And then on top of that, and this always happens after big storms, there's a lot of fraud issues happening as well? Dr. Hamid, that expert that we spoke with at FIU, says that fraud is one of the drivers for insurance flight in Florida. And specifically, he said, Tom, that there are about 9% of property claims nationally that are originated in Florida. But 79% of the lawsuits, which is a preposterous ratio. How could this be happening? He said, there's a couple of things at play here. One of them is benefit assignment. You have contractors going up to people's homes after storms and saying, hey, I can get your roof fixed and maybe that costs $40,000 and the roof has minimal damage.

And the insurance companies balk and you have litigation there. And the other thing is that Florida as a state has separate insurance for home, storm-related damage from, say, wind, and then flood water damage, which would be flood insurance. And only 18% of people have flood insurance, 88% of people have home insurance. And so then you're getting into haggling over when not this damage, Tom, was created by floodwater. or the wind itself, and that can be a really difficult process. The state legislature did just past legislation, trying to crack down on fraud and hopefully attract insurers back to the state of Florida. We'll see how successful they are.

Sam Brock, thank you for that. Coming up, celebrating a star of the Harry Potter franchise, Michael Gambon, whose Dumbledorf portrayal leapt off the screen, has died. We'll remember his decades in film. That's next. Back now with Top Story. global watch and we begin with a deadly shooting spree in the Netherlands. Police say the suspect stormed a classroom at a medical school in Rotterdam, fatally shooting a teacher. The man reportedly

also killing a woman and her 14-year-old daughter at their home earlier in the day. Police say the suspect studied at that school and was taken into custody. The motive, though, is still under investigation. A deadly explosion in Uzbekistan following a lightning strike. Video shows a massive fireball erupting near an airport in the country's capital city. Officials say the blasts happened after lightning hit a warehouse that was filled with electric cars and batteries. One teenager was killed, and more than 160 people are hurt. And Indian officials imposing an indefinite curfew in the state of Manipur after violent demonstrations. Protests erupting after the bodies of two students of the Métis ethnic group were found this week,

mobs marching through the streets and vandalizing a government office while authorities used tear gas to hold them back. About 80 people were hurt, an ongoing civil war between the two ethnic groups in that region has left at least 180 people dead. Next, remembering a beloved actor who made magic on screed. Michael Gambon, the Irish stage actor who brought Dumbledore to life in the Harry Potter film franchise, passed away at the age of 82. NBC's Chloe Melos takes a look back now at his iconic career. Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of time.

He helped bring the beloved character of Dumbledore to life. Dumbledore's got style. Sir Michael Gambin, known by many for his role as the Hogwarts headmaster for six of the eight Harry Potter films, has died at the age of 82. His publicist confirming in a statement that the award-winning actor, quote, died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia. The Irish-born actor's career would begin in the early 1960s, when none other than Lawrence Olivier made him one of the founding members of the UK's Royal National Theater. My first job was at the old Vic with Sir Lawrence, which was, to me, like a dream. And it's been good ever since. For two decades, Gambin would build his name on the stage, but then in 1986.

These hallucinations are better than the real thing, you know. He would land the lead role in the critically acclaimed TV show with the singing detective, making him a household name in Britain and earning him a BAFTA award. Feeling a little better, sir? No, I'm not feeling any better. I feel dreadful. His six-decade-long career would include a peer and. and dozens of movies and TV shows. Earn him three more BAFTA awards,

three Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, and in 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for services to drama. But he would get a whole new generation of fans in 2004 and reach international success. When he took over the role as Alba Stumbledore in the third installment of the Harry Potter films following the death of actor Richard Harris.

Can I say that I just think it entertained and have fun and get frightened they should be frightened now and I hope they feel safe with me like it they did Gambin's Doubletor appearing on clothing toys and is now a part of the wizarding world of Harry Potter at Universal Studios when you your character Aldous Dumbledore actually appears during the during the ride yeah that was that's pretty much for the first time yesterday and I was overwhelmed by it I couldn't believe it looked like it looks like me didn't I mean it's His legacy, living on. Do not pity the dead, Harry.

Pity the living. And above all, all those who live without love. When we come back, Grupo Frontera joins Top Story, the chart-topping band that's helping bring Mexican regional music to a global stage sitting down with our own Valerie Castro. How they feel about their rapid rise to fame, their mega hit with Superstar Bad Bunny, and what it means to them to bring their culture mainstream.

That's next. Finally tonight, top stories celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, and Latin artists are now topping the music charts all across the country and around the world, and they're doing it with songs in Spanish while also using sounds and rhythms from Latin American culture. Grupo Frumtera is at the forefront, and our Valerie Castro sat down with them to talk about their newfound success, collaborations with megastars like Bad Bunny and sticking to their roots.

Meet the band bringing regional Mexican music to a global stage. Grupo Frontier. Leaning into the country style of northern Mexico, specifically with cumbias Nortenias, the rhythms made with acoustic instruments and accordions, a twist on a nostalgic sound. We're modernizing the same music that our parents and grandparents listen to, so the new generation can listen to it.

No se va, no se va, no se va. The group exploding just last year with a cover of Noceva. Then hit after hit, sending them on a meteoric rise and leading to collaborations with other Latin stars like Bezo Pluma and Bad Bunny.

Did you manifest these collaborations? One of them in a way, yes. One manifested the Bad Bunny collab. That manifestation translating into a hit song. 1% rising to number one on the global Spotify chart. Bed Bunny is one genre of music. You guys are another. Why do you think it works so well together?

Because nobody expected it? Yeah, nobody expected it and the lyrics. Our new lyrics, starting from like that point, moving forward, for the most part, it's... It's urban. It's urban lyrics that we put into cumbia style. The Texas natives who formed the group. in 2019 playing at weddings and kinsignettas now one of the top 100 artists on Spotify with over 35 million monthly listeners i mean it's still unbelievable surreal yeah it's surreal because i mean

I personally don't say it but people do tell us you guys are one of like the foremost artists pushing that type of music into the like worldwide right and we're like bro we're just some kids from texas the kids from texas made their way to mexico city this month celebrating mexican Mexican Independence Day, returning to their roots in the famed city plaza, El Zocalo, to a crowd of 200,000 fans. That was something so out of this world, crowds and crowds singing our songs. The group is part of the rising Latin revolution in music. Past Latin artists found worldwide crossover success once they began singing in English. But with talent like Carol G., Bad Bunny and Pesso Pluma, headlining festivals and topping the charts,

The newest generation finding their fans in Spanish. And when you hear the people that don't even speak Spanish are fans of your music, why do you think that is and how do you feel about that? The rhythms. Yeah, the beat, the style of music. I mean, you can listen to a sad song and know that it's sad without having to know what they're saying, you know. The fusion bringing people to dance floors shared through TikTok and YouTube. Group Fronteras Latino Pride racing stages everywhere. We love the Rasa, we love everything that has to do in our culture, and we're grateful

to be Mexicans. And we love what we're doing. We love that we're spreading Hispanic heritage around the world. No matter the language. Music is very universal. You don't have to understand and you have to feel it. And a lot more people are feeling it now. And now that it has that reach, a lot more people are enjoying it.