Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

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

Breaking news tonight, former FBI director James Comey indicted. The Department of Justice and an arrest warrant issued will the renewed fight round two against one of the president's biggest political foes hold up in court this time. The new case against Comey stemming from a photograph of seashells arranged in the number 86-47, which prosecutors allege is a direct threat to the president, how Comey is responding tonight. After the first indictment in a separate case was thrown out by a judge. Also tonight, the Trump administration threatening the licenses to broadcast of ABC-owned stations amid the president's escalating feud with Jimmy Kimmel. The rare move as Kimmel pushes back to President Trump's call to fire him. King Charles' historic trip to Washington the pompant circumstance at the White House before his address to Congress, the royal stressing the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. despite the rift between the two countries.

New rounds of dangerous storms threatening millions, dramatic images of hail smashing car windshields. His tree slamming into a house, the risk for tornadoes, plus the wildfire in Miami-Dade County. We're tracking it all. Wild video capturing a hot air balloon slamming into a casino building, how it lost control. Elon Musk takes the stand in the trial, pitting him against Open AIs Sam Altman, how it could reshape the future of artificial intelligence. And school bus heroes. kids jumping into action after their drivers suffered a medical emergency. Plus, gas prices surging to a four-year high as the war with Iran remains deadlocked.

How the oil crisis is deepening tonight. Top story. It starts right now. Good evening tonight, breaking news. Former FBI director James Comey firing back at President Trump saying, quote, I'm still innocent, and he's indicted for a second time and an arrest warrant has been issued. Comey, a longtime critic of President Trump, indicted by a federal, grand jury over allegations he made threats against the president's life.

So what did he do? Here it is. This is the post at the center of the indictment. It shows seashells on a beach spelling out 86-47. Many interpreting the 86 as slang for get rid of and 47 as a reference to the president. Comey later deleting that image saying he didn't realize some associated those numbers with violence. And just moments ago posting this video saying, I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let's go. The indictment comes just months after Comey was charged with lying to Congress, a case that was dismissed after a judge ruled the prosecutor involved was unlawfully appointed. The DOJ has appealed that. Our Kelly O'Donnell has fallen at all and leads us off tonight. Round two. Tonight a new indictment and an arrest

warrant against former FBI director James Comey. A fresh attempt to prosecute a figure the president publicly targeted for retribution. Threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice. A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicting Comey for making a threat to take the life of the president and communicating that threat across state lines on social media. In 2025, Comey posted, cool shell formation on my beach walk. The numbers 86-47 arranged on sand. Interpreted by some as an old slang term, 86, for get rid of, and 47 referring to the president. Facing backlash, call me writing, I didn't realize some folks associated with violence, so I took it down. He knew exactly what that meant. The child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination. The Justice Department says Comey's post is not protected free speech, but a crime.

How will you prove intent when Mr. Comey said he did not associate 86 with doing harm and he took it down promptly? Well, it's not, this case was indicted today. How do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent to the extent it's appropriate. And that's how it will improve intent in this case. Comey responding tonight. I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid.

And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let's go. The Trump-Commy relationship has been bitter for years. The president angered by the Russia investigation. He's a dirty cop. Comey, I think he's a dirty cop. I think he's morally unfit to be president. An unrelated federal indictment against Comey last year, where he was accused of lying to Congress,

was dismissed by a judge. But the DOJ is appealing. All right, Kelly O'Donnell joins us tonight from D.C. And Kelly, you have some new reporting about this arrest warrant for Comey. Well, when there is an arrest warrant, sometimes that would mean authorities would go out, handcuff the person who was an indicted, and then take them off to custody. We understand that there are separate discussions happening now. According to two senior law enforcement officials, they tell us there are conversations underway for Comey to voluntarily turn himself in. That would be in North Carolina, which would be in North Carolina, which.

where this indictment was filed and likely this week. So that conversation is happening. Nothing's said just yet. Now, Comey's lawyer also says that he denies these charges, meaning Mr. Comey does, and the defense they are going to build will work to vindicate not only James Comey, the former FBI director,

but also vindicate the First Amendment. Tom? All right, Kelly O'Donnell, leading us off tonight. Kelly, thank you. Now to the unprecedented move from the FCC threatening ABC's ability to broadcast. The agency ordering a review of ABC's broadcast licenses in some of the biggest cities in the country. It comes as President Trump calls for ABC's late night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired for his joke about the first lady.

Chloe Malas explains. Tonight, pressure is mounting for ABC and Disney after an unprecedented move by the FCC, ordering all eight Disney-owned local stations at major cities across the country to file early license renewals years before their expiration. If the renewals are not granted, they would lose their ability to broadcast. The FCC has been investigating Disney, the parent company of ABC, over its DEI policy since last year. The source with knowledge of the matter tells NBC News that Kimmel's recent comments about the First Lady will now be part of the review. You know that sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job. Jimmy Kimmel addressing the latest controversy.

Well, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it. This clash stemming from a joke the late-night host made last week in a sketch about the then-upcoming White House correspondence dinner. Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. Kimmel now defending his words. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost eight. and she's younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of

the definition a call to assassination. Melania Trump called Kimmel's words hateful and violent rhetoric. Sentiments echoed by President Trump who demanded Kimmel's dismissal. The firestorm comes just a month after new Disney CEO, Josh DeMorrow, took the helm. And seven months

after ABC briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live after controversial remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. In a statement to NBC news, Disney says they have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules. All right, Chloe Malas is here to break down what all this means. Chloe, I know you got some new reporting.

There's a new statement out from the FCC? Yes, that's right, Tom. So an FCC spokesperson telling NBC News, as the agency decision makes clear, the early renewal order is based on a long-running FCC investigation into Disney's DEI conduct, not any speech. A source with knowledge of the situation, Tom, told me more. multiple times today that Jimmy Kimmel's comments in the fall, Jimmy Kimmel's comments last week when he did the mock White House Correspondence in a roast did not help the situation. It

accelerated this entire process of these renewals being asked to come years early. And this source also said that Jimmy Kimmel's comments are going to be part of this review process over the next 30 days. So again, the FCC obviously publicly saying this is nothing to do with speech, that this all has to do with DEI policies, but, you know, according to sources who are well placed, that's not really the case. All right, Claymore. Great reporting on this one. We appreciate it. For more on this, I want to bring in Tom Wheeler. He's the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission under President Obama. Tom, thanks for joining Top Story tonight. First of all, I want to kind of walk our viewers through what all of this means. Explain what it means that the

FCC is ordering these ABC owned and operated stations to be reviewed for renewal. Is that a threat to pull them off the air? Well, I think clearly it's intended as a threat. Tom, the way that the licensing process works is that every few years, a broadcaster who operates using a license to use the people's airwaves has to renew that license. In this case, the ABC licenses aren't up until 2028, but Chairman Carr has decided that he's going to have an early investigation as to their suitability for renewal.

And so he has had his Media Bureau, not the full commission, but a staff level, issue this order saying, we want to have this investigation. What does it essentially mean, though, are they going to review? They're going to review the Jimmy Kimmel jokes. Are they going to review news coverage? What are they looking at? There is the question, because Tom, you know, Brendan Carr says that he wants to make sure this is in the public interest, quote unquote. But he never defines the public interest.

And in fact, since the beginning of this administration, several of us have been calling on him to just define what do you mean by the public interest. and it appears by his action that what that definition is, is whatever makes Donald Trump happy. I do want to ask you, as Chloe pointed out in her story, these are some of the biggest markets in the country. Correct. What does it mean if they lose their license? Oh, we saw it today.

Disney's stock dropped something like 1% today, right? So if you lose these licenses, you have lost a terrific revenue stream. But there's a bigger thing. Does it mean they come off the air? Like, explain the process. But like, if you lose the license, can you no longer transmit? Somebody else. And then the license is awarded to somebody else. So those markets would not be able to watch ABC programming?

Don't know that. If the new licensee signs an affiliation agreement with ABC, they might be able to. Got it. But you don't know. And then does the FECD? have the power to revoke the license, or will it be fought in court? I guaranteeed it'll be fought in court. And I hope that one of the things that happens right now is that Disney digs their heels in

and fights the action that has been taken thus far and prepares to go to court. But first, Tom, there's a step here. The chances of this getting actually lifting the licenses is probably pretty pretty, slim because once the FCC makes a final decision, which this is not, makes a final decision, that decision will be appealable to the courts. And I have a very hard time seeing how the courts don't rule that this walks all over the First Amendment and exceeds the authority of the FCC. During that time, do they keep their license? Can they stay broadcasting or will they come off the air for all their millions of viewers? That's a great question. And it depends.

depends on what the court decides in terms of a temporary stay. My bet is that the court would stay the order until it makes a final decision. And where do they appeal this? Would this be appealed in Virginia, the District of Columbia, or in each of these markets? Are they individual sort of O&Os where the cities are? I think that they would make a decision as to which court they want to appeal in. Traditionally, this gets appealed in the D.C. Circuit. And then have we ever seen this before? Do you know of other networks losing their broadcasting

licenses and what happened in those cases? Tom, that's a really good question. Let me be real specific. It has been 40 years since the FCC revoked a license, a broadcast television license. And that was a license, that was revoked on the grounds that the company owning it had been and bribing foreign officials had been lying to the FCC, and there was a real legal cause. There is nothing like that in the current activity. You've made it clear, Tom, but I want to make sure I don't mince words here. You think this entire action by the FCC is completely politically driven.

It is to appease President Trump. Let's take Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, at his, word. He said last March at a meeting at CPAC that we're not done yet. This isn't the last shoe to drop, and that the kinds of things that he has been doing is made possible because of the quote, permission structure that President Trump has allowed. That permission structure is to do what President Trump wants, to appease the mega base, and to coerce other licenses saying it could be you next. Tom, I want to thank you for your time. I'm sure this story is not going to go anyway anytime soon. I'm sure we'll be talking a lot in the future. Tom, look forward to it.

All right. I want to bring in now NBC senior Hollywood reporter Rebecca Keegan and NBC News legal correspondent Danny Savalos for more on this. Rebecca, Disney's board chairman says he's confident. He's the company's new CEO, Josh tomorrow, will, quote, rise to the occasion and do the right thing. Does that imply Disney doesn't fully know its game plan yet? What is it waiting for? No, I don't think so. I think what that implies is that Disney is going to be very, very strategic right now. We saw a little bit of the statement that they issued earlier today. There's a piece of it that feels important to me. Disney said that they were going to operate through, quote, appropriate legal channels to respond to this. So while President Trump and Chairman Carr sort of signal their intentions, oftentimes on social media or in a podcast interview,

well, Disney company's lawyers are hard at work right now figuring out what their response to this will be. It's a pretty complicated problem for them politically and commercially. They have a lot of stakeholders, the talent community in Hollywood, their advertisers, and maybe most importantly, their audience, the people who tune in and watch these television stations. Rebecca, is the timing of this controversy less than a month after a new CEO, Josh DeMorrow, started at Disney, raised the stakes? I think it does. I mean, this is really the new CEO, Josh DeMorrow's first test in that role. This is one of those incredibly complicated jobs where you have to manage many, many people and complex political situations. Now, DeMorrow came into this job from running the theme parks division.

That's actually a place where he had to navigate politics a lot, including. tangling with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. So he has some experience in these waters, and he's going to be, you know, tested very quickly in his term right now. Danny, the FCC is signaling out the eight stations, right? We're going to show them here to our viewers where exactly they are. Those are national stations, and then there's the owned and operated stations, those red dots there. Again, it's just the red dots. I don't want to confuse people with this graphic here that are being questioned here.

There are more than 200 ABC stations, right? We see them there. Do we think that this case could expand further than this, or you think it'll just stay with the eight? It will likely stay with the eight, at least for now, and here's why. FCC doesn't license networks. It licensed stations. And the way it works is those 200 plus stations, those affiliates, as we call them, are owned by other companies, companies not ABC. Nexstar, Sinclair. The O&Os, as we call them, the owned and operated by ABC are those eight stations. So if you're the FCC, or more specifically, if you're the administration and you want to punish ABC, it would make no sense to go after the affiliates because you'd be punishing the company that owns them that has nothing to do with ABC, the network itself, other than they have a contract to handle, to have an affiliate in this particular city. You're the lawyer here. The only question we should be asking you, is there a case? Does the FCC have a case here? 24, the Supreme Court decided a case, NRA v. V. Vulo. And what it holds is that the government

cannot use its regulatory power to frustrate or compel or suppress speech. In other words, you can't use your regulatory authority as the government to say, we don't like what you're doing here, we don't like who you're associating with, we don't like what you're talking about. So that will be Exhibit A in any motion or at any trial or in any court case by ABC. That will be front and center to their defense. What about the DEI practices they claim that they're investigating this over? I think that strengthens ABC's argument because it makes it a pretext. In other words, you had this prior DEI investigation, and by the way, for legal reasons, that DEI investigation never reached the affiliates to begin with. So that's an even stronger point why this is focused only on the O&Os,

again, owned and operated by ABC. So in this situation, you have the DEI pretext. what's happening now. It's so obvious to many that this is about Jimmy Kimmel and a retaliatory effort concealed using the DEI pretext. Rebecca, let's talk about how the public is reacting. After Jimmy Kimmel's joke about Charlie Kirk back in September, we saw a jump in people betting online on Kalshi. At one point, so many people bet Kimmel's show would be canceled that Kalshi spiked the chance of cancellations to 57%. This week we saw people start betting on Kimmel's cancellation again, but at a lower level than last year, just 41% Is that a reflection of public opinion? It feels like there was more action by both ABC, the stations,

Next Star, the station groups that made the first move in saying they were going to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air. We're not seeing that this time around. Right. I mean, Cali is a reflection of what people like to bet on, probably a more useful metric in terms of how the public felt when ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel last fall, or at least how the Disney audience felt, was how many people canceled Disney Plus and Hulu. There were about 3 million people who canceled Disney Plus, about 4.1 million who canceled Hulu. Typically, you'd see a churn of about a million people in that time frame.

That was way outside that margin, and it suggested that Disney's audience was pushing back at this programming decision. Yeah, and then, Rebecca, I know other people as well are coming to the defense of Jimmy Kimmel. Do you think that that will rise? I mean, will he become sort of this ground swell and support in the Hollywood community for Jimmy Kimmel? Do you see that happening? Well, it's interesting. We're definitely seeing people take up the issue of free speech, and Kimmel has become a sort of symbol of that. We saw when he was pulled off the air in the fall that there were protests outside the Disney Gate. So not only big movie stars like George Clooney

and Jane Fonda, who are sort of known Hollywood liberals, but just kind of day-to-day middle-class people who work in the media and entertainment industry were picketing at that time and sort of pushing back. Danny, before we go, is this going to be a long legal battle if they try to revoke? the station's license, or do you think the courts will take the side of ABC and Disney? It will take, in all likelihood, years and years and years, because litigation like this takes a long time, and if precedent is any indicator in the past when this kind of thing has come up, it's litigation. And you think judges will issue a stay and let them keep broadcasting in that time? It's hard to say. Getting a stay from judges, that's a very high burden to meet, but they might.

Okay. Danny, Rebecca, so great to have you on tonight. President Trump's public battles with his adversaries playing out as King Charles makes a historic visit to Washington. In his speech to Congress, the British monarch celebrating close ties to the U.S. while also pushing back on the president's criticism of NATO. Here's Gabe Gutierrez. Tonight, a royal reset amid pomp and pageantry. King Charles and Queen Camilla arriving to a red carpet welcome here at the White House under overcast skies. What a beautiful British day this is. President Trump honoring the monarchs, despite his recently strained relationship with the U.K. Over the Iran War, the future of NATO, and tariffs.

Americans have had no closer friends than the British. The president, whose mother was from Scotland, getting personal, telling the king about her love for the royal family. My mother had a crush on Charles. Can you believe it? After a military flyover, in the private meeting in the Oval Office, 15. six years after a previous visit, the King delivering a historic speech to a joint meeting of Congress, condemning the third assassination attempt against President Trump. Let me say with unshakable resolve, such acts of violence will never succeed. While gently pushing back on the president's criticism of NATO.

The challenges we face are too great for any one nation to bear alone. And specifically backing Ukraine. Today, Mr. Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people. The King, not meeting with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein or their families, even after removing his brother's royal title. Former Prince Andrew has denied wrongdoing related to the late sex offender. All right. With that, Gabe joins us tonight from the White House. Gabe, there's a state dinner there at the White House tonight, part of a pack schedule for the King and Queen. Yeah, that's right, Tom.

The afternoon, the king and queen met with tech titans, including Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Tomorrow. The Royals head to New York to tour 9-11 Memorial with Mayor Zoran Mondani. And then on Thursday, they go to Virginia to tour a national park. Okay, Gabe, thank you for that. Now to the life-threatening storm sweeping across the country. Millions tonight on high alert as tornado sirens ring out in Texas and Illinois and violent hail pelt's parts of the heartland. are Shaquille Brewsters in the storm zone with more. Tonight, tornado sirens ringing out.

Dark clouds rolling over buoy, Texas, as another round of dangerous severe weather sweeps through. Destructive hail slamming the nation's heartland from Arkansas. We just got pelted in Missouri by a hail storm. To Missouri, hail cracking this car's windshield. This tree crashing into a home in Kalamazoo, Michigan. While in Kent County, police say a 39-year-old man died after being struck by a falling tree. Meanwhile, planes fighting a new wildfire in Miami-Dade County, Florida, as Georgia's wildfires rage on,

the Pineland Road fire expanding to more than 32,000 acres. Back in the Midwest, strong winds leaving more than 200,000 without power this morning. In Clifton County, Illinois, this funnel cloud seen through flashes of lightning. In Germantown, Illinois, where daylight revealed the devastation after a tornado tore through this community, this is what Michelle Welton's home looks like now, after she raced for shelter as warning sirens blared. It was so fast, you know. We just heard glass and everything crashing. The roofs of several homes there are now gone, her neighbors spending the day coming together to clear debris. How do you rebuild?

I have no idea. I don't know. And Tom, the cleanup here will likely take some time. The homeowner here racing throughout the day to clear out as much as you can before this rain started coming down. The tree on the other side uprooted and just crashed on this home. The roof is also gone. It's a similar story for this home over here. Fortunately tonight, both homeowners are safe. Tom?

That's incredible. They survived. Shaq, thank you. I want to get right to NBC meteorologist Bill Karens. Bill, it's a wild night. Tornado warning still going off at this hour. I look at that radar. I know you have other images that are busy as well in some of your graphics. Yeah, we did have a reported tornado near Mineral Wells. There are some destroyed homes.

That Super South thunderstorm has a new tornado warning for the Clayburn area, so everyone get to their shelters there. Thankfully, that storm weakened the one as it's heading over downtown Dallas. At one point, this one had baseball-sized hail with it. That has since weakened a little bit. Still a very heavy rain, maybe some golf ball to be a quarter-sized hail just north of the downtown Dallas area. but that's kind of the worst of it. And other areas of concern, still some pretty big storms

rolling through Arkansas, too, that we have to watch in the next couple hours, Tom. All right, Bill. And then we're also getting a new video of flash flooding in Puerto Rico. What's the situation there? Yeah, this video is wild.

So this is in the mountainous areas of Puerto Rico. This is about an hour, hour and a half from the San Juan area. This is Comiero, and this was about three to five inches of rain. Water quickly rushed down the mountain into this, you know, right down that looks like almost a main street.

Water was in the first level of some of the, homes. So there's a lot of cleanup in those areas and a lot of homes that apparently have been lost. Looks like a very dangerous situation there in Puerto Rico. All right, Bill, we thank you. We're back in a moment. Elon Musk taking the stand in the trial against his fellow tech tycoon, Sam Altman, the fiery testimony and what the case could mean for the future of AI. Plus, the dangerous street takeover ending in a high-speed chase how police are cracking down. And the terrifying mid-air crash, a hot air balloon losing control and slamming into a casino. But you won't pull.

believe how lucky the person inside that basket was. That's next. We're back now with Elon Musk taking a stand in a blockbuster trial, the world's richest man suing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, alleging that Altman swindled him out of millions of dollars and broken agreement pledging to keep the company at a non-profit. Musk co-founded Open AI back in 2015 and left the board back in 2018. One of the most pointed moments today was when Musk reflected on his concern for AI going back to his college years, saying he believe, quote, AI would be a double-edged sword if you create too powerful, and AI could go very wrong. It could make everyone prosperous, but it could kill us all. Let's bring in NBC News,

business, and data correspondent Brian Chung. Brian, this is the first time Elon Musk is testifying in this case. What are the both arguments on both sides here? Yeah, and again, this is so significant because essentially the fate of AI could be in the balance with XAI, Elon Musk, going up essentially against Open AI, Sam Altman. Again, what this goes back to is the structure of Open AI. Elon Musk is suing Sam Allman because he alleges when he helped Sam Altman by giving him $38 million to stand up Open AI about 10 years ago, he would, he did that under the premises that this would be a non-profit company. Sam Altman would change the structure of that, and now Elon Musk feels slighted, which is the reason why he's taking him to court. Now, Elon Musk saying today in court, quote,

I came up with the idea, name, recruited the key people, provided the funding. I could have started it as a for-profit and I chose not to. Open AI's lawyers completely deny all. of these charges here. And they say, quote, we're here because Mr. Musk didn't get his way at Open AI. He quit saying they will fail for sure. Open AI trying to allege here, Tom, that essentially it's one competitor trying to hobble the ankles of another competitor. So what happens if Elon wins? What happens if Sam Altman wins? Yeah. Well, what Elon is asking for if he wins is for Open AI to give up over $130 billion. Now, Musk would not pocket that money himself. Essentially what he's asking the company to do if he wins is to pay that over $130 billion from the for-profit arm of the company

into the nonprofit side of the company. And he also wants Sam Altman to leave the company entirely. Now, I should point out, that is a lot of money. That is more than Ford and GM combined. And it's also at this moment where you have Open AI going up against Elon Musk's own company XAI, as well as Anthropic, as well as Google, as well as meta. So it could dramatically change the landscape of AI. What happens if Altman wins? Well, if Alman wins, then he would not have to agree. change the structure of the company and business could go on as usual as this very much hot race of AI continues. Okay. Big important case here, Brian. We thank you. Still to come on top story, federal agents raiding businesses in Minnesota. The investigation looking into alleged welfare fraud,

what we're learning tonight. Plus the scary scene on his school bus, the driver passing out at the wheel, how students sprang into action to save her and their classmates. But first, Top Story's top moment and the adorable mix-up caught on camera. Some young fans of singer Benson Boone mistaking their window washer for the Grammy nominee. You can see Jade Nora and Lucy very excited about Benson, the window washer, so he decided to have some fun and run with it later put on a surprise performance. Take a look. That guy looks like Benson Boone.

I'm with those little girls. You all see Big Brother Wyatt also getting in on the fun there. Stay with us. More top story on the way. We're back now with new scenes of federal agents on the ground in Minnesota, this time executing search warrants at businesses across the Twin Cities in raids linked to a growing fraud scandal in the state. NBC's Maggie Vespa has this one. Tonight, new raids rocking Minnesota, with video showing federal and state authorities executing more than 20 search warrants at sites across the Twin Cities, including autism centers, child care facilities, and at least one senior center. All federal authorities say tied to allegations of widespread welfare fraud within Minnesota's large Somali community.

It's just a simple question. Where are the children? Allegations reignited by this viral video posted four months ago by a right-wing influencer claiming multiple Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota were fraudulently collecting state subsidies while sitting empty. But according to the state agency in charge, one of those centers was closed. The others were operating as expected. Today's raids marking the boldest move yet by a new White House fraud task force led by Vice President Vance. You have families who need these services who are unable to get them because people are getting rich off of fraud schemes. The Trump administration repeatedly citing the fraud allegations as cause for launching high-profile immigration raids in Minneapolis earlier this year, during which at least two U.S. citizens were shot and killed.

Governor Tim Walls denouncing those ice operations, but applauding today's raids. And the Minnesota Department of Human Services saying they're fed up with people taking advantage of the system. And Maggie, joins us now from the ground in Minneapolis. Maggie, you're at one of those centers raided today and just talk to an employee. What do they tell you? Right. Yeah, Tom, that's right. The employee came to this front door right here.

And she told me that they're obviously closed for the day after the raid and that she's been turning parents away all day. She also told me that the owner wasn't here to give comment. For what it's worth, we have reached out to him, as well as two other centers that were raided. So far, no response. It's also worth noting we talked in that piece about Governor Walls. Remember, he dropped his reelection bid for a possible third term amid this welfare fraud scandal, and he's giving his final state of the state address tonight. Tom.

All right, Maggie, thank you. Now at Top Stories News Feed, we're going to start with the new passport design. Have you seen it? This is ahead of the country's 250th anniversary. The State Department announcing President Trump's face is set to be printed on the inside cover of a limited series of passports. They're expected to be released this summer. The move comes just weeks after the Treasury Department announced it's adding the president's signature to U.S. dollar bills. And New York tonight, from New York tonight, the New York Port Authority just confirming it's installing trackers on rescue vehicles at its three major airports.

It comes after that crash at LaGuardia last month where a fire truck collided with an Air Canada plane. Killing two pilots, federal investigators say the truck did not have a transponder, which played a role in the deadly crash. A Port Authority spokesperson tells us they're still working closely with investigators and remain focused on strengthening airport safety. In Mississippi, students jumping into action when their bus driver had a medical emergency and passed out while on a highway. You can see the middle school student rushing to the front of the bus, one of them grabbing the wheel, others hitting the break and calling 911. The driver apparently had an asthma attack but couldn't reach her medication in time. school district officials now praising the students saying their quick thinking help save lives. And in San Francisco, a giant sea line is capturing the hearts of tourists and fans online.

See this big old guy? They call him chonkers. He's apparently, he apparently swam up to a dock a month ago and decided to stick around, weighing in around 2,000 pounds. He's about three times a size of other sea lines in the bay, and he's become quite the sensation when he sons himself on the pier. Okay, now to those dangerous street takeovers. disrupting neighborhoods across the country. New dramatic video showing Wisconsin police chasing one driver.

NBC's Emily Aketa has more on how law enforcement is cracking down. Tonight, new video of a high-speed chase in Wisconsin. Glendale police pursuing a 20-year-old who took off from a so-called street takeover, throwing apparent spike strips and knocking the car into the median in a pit maneuver. Crash, crash, crash, crash. In nearby Milwaukee, police responded to a. dozen street takeovers last weekend alone. A dangerous trend involving rowdy crowds and disruptive donuts that the chief says is popularized on social media. This is sensationalized

for them and they like to get the gain recognition. The department deploying drones, surveillance technology to track drivers and additional officers at hotspots to tamp down the trend that's driving concerns across the country. Watch this street takeover in Los Angeles. Passengers hanging out of the spinning vehicle before apparent gunshots ring out. Sending people scrambling for safety. The NYPD recently arrested a man from this chaotic scene that included a ring of fire caught on surveillance cameras earlier this month. Do you think these incidents will grow as we approach summer?

Yes, as the weather warms up, there are more individuals outside. There are more gatherings. But as they ramp up, we ramp up. Some lawmakers are working on legislation that would implement stronger penalties for drivers and spectators involved in street takeovers, including potential jail time and seizure of cars and bikes. There's also been a push for stricter curfews ahead of summer. Tom. All right, Emily, thank you. We want to turn out of the high-stake moments in California. A hot air balloon taking flight in high winds crashing into a casino. George Elise has the dramatic video.

High winds and high stakes. This hot air balloon slamming strong. into the side of a California casino Monday. Chopper video capturing the high soaring chaos moments after the balloon took flight. You can see it wobbling in the air above the parking lot of the Sky River Casino as guests gathered at a groundbreaking

ceremony for a new hotel resort. The balloon drifts closer to the building then crashes into the side. The basket hooking on the roof, nearly flipping over. The lone pilot inside, hanging on. The balloon beginning to tatter and float away.

and float away. Then, minutes later, it collides with a power line. You can see the spark. It's amazing that the pilot was able to get down safely and that there was no injuries. And seeing that all now, he was lucky with the wire. According to local police, unexpected high winds caused a balloon to make an unplanned launch. Something local experts say can turn dangerous fast. Winds that were going one direction suddenly go 30 directions. You can't predict what's going to happen next. Those can be violent. There's nothing you want to play with in a balloon.

The 20-minute mishap coming to a dramatic close as the balloon landed in an open field, still battling the wind and being dragged. Deflated, somehow the undefeated and unscathed pilot emerges and begins to wrap up the balloon. The FAA and NTSB were notified per local authorities. A risky bet, not on the casino floor, but high above it. Experts say these incidents are actually pretty rare,

as long as you follow best practices like flying these hot air balloons in the morning when winds are traditionally calmer. And for large scale events, using a smaller balloon. That way, if something goes wrong, you have more time to course correct. Tom. George, so at least for us tonight, George, thank you. Coming up the latest on the war in Iran and the push to reopen the street of Hormuz, what it all means for the price you pay at the pump. Plus, they play ping pong and run marathons.

Now will robots be in charge of keeping your luggage safe and sound? How one airport is testing out the tech. That's next. We're back now with the escalating costs and concerns over the war in the Middle East. The critical Strait of Hormuz still closed amidstall peace talks. Raf Sanchez explains what that means for oil prices here at home. Tonight, two months since the start of the war with Iran, the deadlock in peace talks sending oil prices surging. The average price of a gallon of gas now $4.18, the highest level in four years.

It's really taking its toll on people. Adding to oil market uncertainty, the UAE announcing it's pulling out of OPEC, the group of oil exporters that helped set prices worldwide. The UAE says leaving will free it to increase production, which could drive down prices in the long term. But for now, the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, keeping prices up and hurting America's allies in the region. Iran is just the other side of the Gulf, but on this side, there is growing alarm among

Arab states as the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and their energy exports can't get out. Today, U.S. Marines boarding and then releasing this commercial ship suspected of trying to evade the U.S. naval blockade that's squeezing Iran's economy. While the White House showing little interest in Tehran's latest peace offer, a narrow deal to reopen the strait without addressing Iran's nuclear program. Suffice it to say that the nuclear question is the reason why we're in this in the first place. Leaving talk stalled. and the critical waterway shut. Raf Sanchez joins us tonight from Doha.

Ralph OPEC plays a crucial role in setting global oil prices. But today, it's actually the U.S. that is the world's biggest oil producer. So what does this mean for who sets the price of oil going forward? Yeah, Tom, not everybody realizes this. With the advent of fracking, the U.S. is now the world's biggest producer of oil, bigger than Saudi Arabia, the traditional petro states that have dominated OPEC. And so with a weaker OPEC going forward, because the U.A. has now left that group. It is going to be American policies that play a bigger role in setting

oil prices worldwide. And that's likely to mean that today's events are seen as a victory for President Trump. He's been very critical of OPEC in the past, saying that they are artificially holding down production of oil in order to keep their prices high. Tom. Okay, Raf, we thank you for that. Now the Top Stories Global Watch and a check of what else is happening around the world. In Indonesia, dramatic video from inside a train capturing the most of It collided with another train. Authorities say 15 people died and nearly 90 others were hurt. Here you can see the aftermath as rescue crews worked to pull passengers from the wreck.

It happened yesterday just outside the country's capital. Police are now investigating what caused that accident. In Mexico, special forces just arrested a top commander of one of the country's most powerful cartels and video shows them taking him into custody as he was trying to hide in a drainage ditch. His name is Audius Flores. He's considered a potential successor to lead the Halisco, new generation cartel. The operation to capture him reportedly took 19 months and involved more than 500 troops. Mexico security minister says he could be extradited to the U.S. In Japan, one airline

is testing out a new way to handle your luggage. One word, robots. This was a demonstration at an airport in Tokyo. For now, Japan airline says the humanoids will handle ground operations like loading and unloading baggage, but someday they could even help clean the cabins on planes. the robots are meant to address growing labor shortages in the aviation industry. The experiment is expected to start next year. Next tonight to a new series for true crime fans, an exciting new project from our own Ellison Barber. Allegedly, a video podcast produced by NBC News Studios for Netflix out tomorrow.

We'll break down the most talked about cases in true crime captivating fans worldwide. Here's a clip from the trailer. Think about who Gabby is to them, right? So she's dating Brian. They also repeatedly say we loved her. Allegedly is a podcast where we look at contemporary true crime cases. And it's not just me. I bring along a friend or somebody directly connected to the case that really help us move the conversation forward.

And Ellison Barber joins us now here at Top Story. Ellison, first, congratulations. Thank you. This looks so incredible, and I'm so happy for you. Talk to us about this new project and sort of how it came to be. I mean, it's so exciting. It really is a... video podcast where we are focusing on cases that are capturing national attention and trying to say,

okay, here's the totality of it. How do we put it all together in one place and really dig into the details? And one of the things that we're really trying to do is break everything down and sort of show people the reporting process that we use all the time when we're doing stories even on the evening news, right? But also try to give people as much information, as much factual information we can about cases that everyone seems to be talking about because I really believe that information is the best tool we have to prevent bad things from happening. And so through these conversations, we're hoping it's things that people are interested in, that people feel like they're able to learn, that they also feel like they're able to recognize

the real people impacted in these stories and learn about them as well. And you're starting with the Gabby Petito case. We just heard a little bit there. She, of course, was the 22-year-old vlogger who disappeared, was killed by her fiance while they were traveling. You examined some of the key pieces of evidence, including that sort of stunning piece of evidence that we reported on, the letter that his mom allegedly sent to him with the label, burn before reading. Let's take a listen.

Among other items that were found was a letter, a handwritten letter that was from his mom, Roberta, that said, at least on the outside, burn after reading. And I want to show you that. This is a photocopy of the letter that they say they found that Roberta had written, handwritten. What stands out to you? So, obviously, the language in here,

If you're in jail, I'll bake you a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel. I mean, of course there's a huge question mark about when this was written. Did you discover new evidence while analyzing some of these pieces? Yeah, I mean, one of the things that we did of kind of picking up that was new was there have been all these civil lawsuits related to what happened to Gabby Petito. And in one of them, Brian Laundrie's parents sat down for depositions. And so we went through hundreds of pages of those court documents, pulling out different pieces of statements, of things, how they explain stuff, connecting it with the evidence and looking at it through that lens of what they said happened, what they revealed about these time gaps where from Gapby's family's perspective, they were hearing nothing. We know the laundry family wasn't cooperating with police.

They weren't giving any information. And it was piecing together some of the stuff that we learned through the civil depositions and statements that they made through civil lawsuits and kind of going. through it line by line in that way. And then we're also going to keep following it, right? Like later in an episode, later in the season, we're sitting down with Gabby's mom, Nicole Schmidt, and talking to her from her perspective about hearing about it in snippets at the time

and then also seeing the deposition and how the laundry family explained these things that became such pivotal moments in the case overall. What are some of the other big stories, big cases you're going to be looking at? So we have a long list. One of them I covered, I think, for the first time on this show, The VA Opaire Affair murders, as they have been called with Brendan Banfield. We went through and really looked at all of that after the trial finished.

We are looking at cases related to cults. We have an episode coming up that I sit down with this woman who she has a documentary on Netflix. She's a part of it called Trust Me the False Prophet. And what we look at is the case behind that documentary about this man named Sam Bateman, who convinced people that he was a prophet and he was taking child brides abusing them. she basically, in some ways, infiltrated that community, collected all this evidence, worked with police, and sent him away to jail for almost the rest of his life.

So we sit down with her and look at the case through her lens and how she was involved to sort of give it a broader picture. And it's a podcast, but it's obviously taped. And so you guys, you can see the evidence. It just adds a layer for the viewers. Yeah, every time we're trying to be like, what video can we show, what documents can we show you, where can we tell you how we found this piece or that piece,

so people really feel like they have all of the information to maybe think about why did this happen in the first place, what signs were missed, if any, to prevent it from happening, and how do we learn from it moving forward? And you can watch and listen to allegedly with Ellison Barber on Netflix premiering tomorrow. Again, we're so excited with new episodes released every Wednesday. We will be watching.

We're going to talk about this on bingeworthy. We have to, all right? All right, Alison, thank you. When we come back, the special surprise for a young baseball fan, getting a hospital visit from his beloved Yankees right in the heart of Red Sox Nation, that moment next. Finally tonight, it's the story of one young Yankee superfan in Boston, of all places, who just got the surprise of a lifetime.

Seven-year-old Walker Farrington usually cheers on the Bronx bombers from afar, but this time his pinstripeeros paid him a special visit. Take a look. Hey, Yankees, my name's Walker. Meet seven-year-old Walker Farrington. In these halls, he's known as Walker the Heart Warrior. He was born with a congenital heart defect and is a patient. at Boston Children's Hospital. But even though he's in Boston, Let's go, Yankees.

He's a diehard fan of the New York Yankees, often wearing his pinstriped jersey and celebrating team sweeps. Last week, with the Yankees traveled to Boston, ready to take on their rivals, the Red Sox, Walker invited the team to visit. I'll be right here waiting. Members of the team, surprising him.

Hey, are you Walker? Stopping by to say hello. Superstar hitter Aaron Judge even FaceTiming, moved by Walker's fight. We can do hard things. Walker, I love it. And so that is such a great quote. What started off as just sort of a fun video,

trying to pass the time while we were here, turned into something so much bigger. That night at Fenway, the Yankees tapping this sign on their way to the field with the message from Walker, play like a warrior today. Just to see it in practice and see the guys and the players buy into that.

It made me emotional that night. It's a very isolating journey. So all these messages of support, it definitely helps give us the boost during the hard times. All right, that does it for us tonight. We thank you so much for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yamerson, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.