Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

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

Tonight, the secret plan, President Trump evading an Iranian assassination threat with an elaborate plane swap. The covert maneuver to get President Trump out of the NATO summit in Turkey. The president boarding the old Air Force One in front of cameras sneaking on to a catering truck and flying on a different plane. The new details about the shoulder-to-air missile threat and questions about the White House staff and Americans left on the decontor. plane that was a target. The extremely dangerous storm battering the Midwest right now, unleashing torrential rain and tornado warnings, winds hitting almost 100 miles an hour, even flipping a car on the highway. In Illinois, did lightning set this home ablaze? Hundreds dead in Columbia, 3,000 still missing, the frantic race to rescue anyone still alive.

New video capturing the powerful quake hitting, sending buildings crashing down, A family escaping their home just in time, and the miraculous rescues, people forming a human chain, and this, a six-month-old, pulled out alive. The pivotal hearing for accused CEO killer, Luigi Mangione, ahead of his state murder trial, why the judge wants the jury to remain anonymous.

Undercover cop shootout the moment an officer opens fire on one of his own. The new policy at a major university sparking debate Should first semester grades count? We'll talk to people on both sides of the issue. Plus, outrage after one shake shack charged customers extra after they opted not to tip. How the burger chain is responding.

And polls have just closed in South Carolina in a critical test of President Trump's power. Steve Kornacki in the House tracking races in key battleground states. Top story starts right now. And good evening. We begin tonight with that covert operation to protect the president from a possible Iranian assassination the high-stakes plane swap, potentially, putting American lives at risk.

It happened last month with President Trump was in Turkey for the NATO summit. You see him here boarding the old Air Force one to leave, but then comes to swap due to an extremely serious Iranian threat. According to a U.S. official, the president was led into this catering truck and secretly driven to a smaller plane, but left on the original plane the decoy. Cabinet members, Marco Rubio, Scott Besson, as well as crew and journalists. that according to a U.S. official. On the smaller plane was the president,

Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegeseth. All planes ultimately landed safely in the U.K. The president secretly reboards Air Force wanted a scene walking off. A U.S. official tonight says this was a snap decision made under probably the most unprecedented level of alertness we've ever been at. But the question tonight remains,

why did the decoy plane take off with people on board if it may have been a target? Garrett Hake leads us off. Tonight, new details of the elaborate operation by the Secret Service to covertly swap President Trump's planes amid fears of an Iranian assassination plot. All of it happening at last month's NATO summit in Turkey, just a few hundred miles from the Iranian border. The president had arrived aboard his Qatari-gifted Air Force One, but raised eyebrows by announcing he'd take an older plane home, sending the new plane ahead to a British airbase. It's flying to Europe to one of the big bases so the soldiers can see it because it's truly magnificent. But tonight, a U.S. official tells NBC News the change was made because of a, quote,

extremely serious Iranian threat, including that the Iranian regime could target the president with a shoulder-fired missile. So the Secret Service devising a clandestine departure plan. It was a snap decision, the U.S. official tells us, our job is to keep the president safe, adding, this is probably the most unprecedented level of alertness we've ever been at. You could see the president boarding the old Air Force one. Then as the camera pulls back, there's a glimpse of a catering truck parked behind it. Later, a small group of reporters, the press pool unwittingly bored what would become a decoy jet, as Secret Service agents were covertly moving President Trump to that catering truck,

which drives away, and pulls up next to a small military jet further down the tarmac. That plane would then fly President Trump out of Turkey. Tonight, a U.S. official telling NBC news that Cabinet Secretary's Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent and other senior staff remained on board the decoy plane, the old light blue and white Air Force One, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth joined President Trump on the smaller aircraft. After landing in the U.K., President Trump is seen walking off the old Air Force One, which he had secretly just reboarded. Back aboard the new plane, he brushed off a question about Iranian threats. Were you aware of any credible threat by Iran against her first one? I have a threat all the time. I'm number one on their list. All right, Garrett Hague joins us tonight live from the White House.

So Garrett, the president was successfully taken off that plane. But what does the Secret Service or the White House say about the Americans, including crew, senior staff, journalists that could have potentially been blown out of the sky? Well, Tom, the Secret Service has declined any comment on this episode. But a senior official who was on that trip told me that for the White House, the president's safety is paramount and that in their view, staff and press simply will not be treated the same. This person adding those are the risks that everyone signs up for. Tom. Okay, Garrett Hake, with that new reporting, Garrett, we thank you for that. I want to bring him Bobby McDonald.

He's a retired special agent for the U.S. Secret Service and is now a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven. Bobby, thanks for joining us tonight here in Top Story. Obviously, the number one goal right of the Secret Service is to protect the president. president. What I don't understand here is why did the decoy plane have to take off? It seems like that would put American lives at risk. Well, good evening, Tom. It's a pleasure to be with you tonight. I think there's a lot of pieces of the puzzle that we're missing here. And I think that a decision was made, whether it was made a little bit in advance, or as your piece said earlier, a snap decision, based upon threat intelligence that was developed on the ground. It was investigated. It was deemed to be

credible and the decision was made to put together this clandestine type of operation. I will say this. I'm willing to bet that the two 747s while they were traveling from Turkey to England were the safest 747s flying around the world at that point. I'm convinced that there were Air Force assets and allied assets that were prepared to respond to various things. And remember, those planes do have some anti-missile things about them to help with the security. So the bottom line here is that everybody did get home safe, the president got home safe, the transparency here that people would like to see is not really the responsibility of the Secret Service. The Secret Service is there to protect everybody and get everybody home. But I'm willing to bet the ranch

that those two planes were not left to fend for themselves and that everybody on there was going to be delivered safely to England and then ultimately to home. Can you explain why you think the Secret Service split up the President and the Secretary of Defense and then let Secretary of Defense? Rubea and Secretary Bessent still on the decoy plane? I'm not sure there's a whole lot of thought going into that specifically, to be very honest with you. At that point, we're putting together a package to figure out who's going to go where and to get everybody ultimately to where they want to get to.

So I think that the Secretary Hakeseth, I'm guessing they used his plane. That is a plane that he would normally use when he went to the NATO summit. So I'm guessing it was his plane that was assigned to him, and that's why the president went with him. I'm not sure that we can look past that and peel back the onion and read too much into who went where at that point. Yeah, explain to me. Why do you think the planes had to take off? Why couldn't they have just left the planes there until they felt it was safer to take off in a normal kind of normal protocol? Yeah, Tom, there's a lot that goes into this.

We want to stay maintaining a regularity with the schedule and the things that are supposed to be done with all sorts of movements. You know, the White House staff, as you know, works in concert with the Secret Service and the White House military office, whether the president's going to the Kennedy Center or he's going to Turkey. So there's a lot of moving parts here. There's a lot of assets that are out there. There's a lot of assets that are signed in protective missions like this. So, again, there's a lot of different scheduling issues. There's a lot of different looking at whether that plane, those planes were going to be safe and all those people were going to come back. So we're not going to know all the pieces of the puzzle.

And I'll leave it to you and your colleagues at the White House to be. be asking those tough questions of the White House staff and see what type of responses they're going to give you. The Secret Service is not in the business of public relations. In your experience, how unusual was this operation? This is unusual. You know that sometimes in motorcades we do what are called shell games. There has been precedent with President Clinton and President Bush doing various trips to very difficult theaters and using different maskings or different clandestine type of things. This is not something you're going to see every day, but the Secret Service does use this type of deceptive tactic on a much lower scale to try to keep the people that want to cause those nefarious activity at bay.

All right. We thank you so much for being here, Bobby. We thank you for your take here on Top Story. Moments to go, polls closing in South Carolina in a critical special election, testing the power of President Trump's endorsement. It's just one of several key races we're watching this evening. Our reporters are covering it all. We've got Steve Kornacki at the Big Board, Shaquille Brewster in Battleground, Wisconsin, following another challenge to the Democratic establishment. And Ryan Noble's is on the ground in South Carolina, which is where we want to head first. So Ryan, tonight's a special primary election

to replace the late Senator Lindsey Graham. President Trump, as we know, backing his sister, Darlene, who you spoke to. Does she have enough support there to break through in a crowded field? It seems likely, Tom, that she's at least in the poll position to make it to the runoff. But that's the key here.

candidate gets over the 50% threshold tonight. There will be another race two weeks from today between the top two candidates. And what Darlene Graham and her campaign is focusing on is getting to that runoff. It seems pretty clear because of the big field, because there are a number of candidates with a significant base of support, there are several members of the House of Representatives running, a former governor running, and including Darling Graham and her connection to her late brother, Lindsay Graham, that should be enough for at least a group of them to draw enough support to keep anyone from getting over 50%. It is the next stage that will be crucial.

And that's where Darling Graham believes the endorsement of President Trump will come into play. That's where her connection to her brother will come into play. And she's also hoping that this, you know, new introduction that she has to the voters here in South Carolina will pay off. She helped get the Russia sanctions bill across the finish line during her short time in the Senate. And she's also been focused on kitchen table issues, more domestic and economic issues, different from her brother who was very focused on national security. So she's definitely in the driver's seat, Tom, but this is going to be a close race tonight, and it will likely be a close race over the next two weeks before we figure out who the Republican nominee will be,

and that person will likely be the next senator from South Carolina. It's a good point, Ryan. We'll check back with you if you have any updates. I want to go to Shaq Brewster now. He's in Madison, Wisconsin. Shaq, all eyes are on the governor's race there. Democratic Socialist Francesa Hong has been the frontrunner in her primary. What are you hearing from voters? It's been a real struggle for many of the voters here who have gone in to cast that ballot. Many of them describing it as that classic battle between your head versus your heart. Many of them like the policies that they hear from Hong, some of her Democratic Socialist policies included in that, but they don't know whether a Democratic Socialist can win statewide. I want you to listen to how some of those voters have painted it to me in the conversations we've been having here.

Why did you vote for David Crawley? Because I think he can win. voted for Francesca Hong. Why Hong? I think she's, a lot of people think she's like too radical, or not electable, but I think that she actually just knows what she wants to do. We have a divided household. Still on the same side of the ticket.

Wow. Yeah. One of us went more liberal and one of us went more safe, I guess. I talked about this last week. She has had a struggle in her messaging these last couple of weeks. She's had to walk back some statements, including those to advocate it for canceling Thanksgiving. The big question that voters have is, will she be able to win? If she maintains that frontrunner position once all the votes are cast and she wins this nomination,

will she be able to win in this battleground state once we get to November time? Yeah, we'll see what happens there. What it means for the larger Democratic Party. We thank you for that, Shaq. I want to get over to Steve Kornacky at the big board. always great to see you on these big nights. Let's pick it up there where Shaq left off in Wisconsin. This is yet another test for Democratic Socialists.

What will you be watching closest in the governor's race? Yeah, I think one interesting dynamic here is the fact that so much happened in this race about a month ago with candidates getting in, candidates getting in, remember Crowley was out of this race for about 10 days, then he jumped back in. There are other candidates here who are going to be on the ballot, Sarah Rodriguez. She's dropped out. her name is still on the ballot, Mandela Barnes. The month of July, 140,000 votes were cast

by mail in Wisconsin, most of them in the Democratic primary, some in the Republican, but most in the Democratic primary. Those votes were cast when other candidates were in the race who are long since gone. Those votes were cast before this dynamic of Crowley v. Hong, establishment, before that dynamic was set.

So there's this last-minute effort by the establishment in Wisconsin to get folks behind Crowley to stop Hong. One of the problems, one of the hurdles they face tonight is that a lot of votes, probably well over 100,000, were cast before people understood that to be the case. And we're probably cast for candidates who have long since left this race. So if this thing is close tonight, if the sort of establishment of the party succeeds in getting Crowley close to Hong, if they just miss, this could be a big factor, votes that were cast long ago. Yeah. And then Steve, Well, we have you here. Let's take a look at South Carolina. Polls, as we mentioned, are closed.

They're still counting the votes. If no candidate gets this to 50 percent, this one heads to a runoff. That's right. 50 percent plus one wins its night. Anything less than that? The top two will advance. Obviously, the story here is this is a big test for Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Lindsay Graham, endorsed by Donald Trump, appointed to this seat by the governor. We are starting to get some results here. As you can see, Russell Frye here. He's a congressman from the 7th, district very early. There's only a little bit over a thousand votes. These, I think what you're seeing here is the votes are coming primarily right now from his congressional district. That's why he's jumped out to a bit of a lead here. But also other candidates very much in the mix here,

Mark Sanford, I think a familiar name to folks, a former governor, a former member of Congress. Ralph Norman, he's a congressman from up here in the Charlotte Metro area, a Rock Hill, York County. So you got, you know, you got a bunch of candidates here who have some distinct geographic bases. And then you've got Darlene Graham, who doesn't have a distinct base of her own, but obviously carries in the family name and the Trump endorsement. So a lot of interesting dynamics here. But, yeah, top two advance unless somebody gets an outright majority tonight, which is not expected. Steve Kornacki, for us, Steve, of course, your viewers can watch you all night long on the Kornacki cam on NBCNews.com and YouTube. We do now want to turn to some other news we're following the dangerous storm system that is tearing apart the Midwest, bringing flash floods and Hurricane Force winds.

are Maggie Vespa in the storm zone tonight. Destructive deadly storms slamming the Midwest. Intense winds blowing over this train car, blinding rain rocketing through the Chicago area. Tornado sirens blaring. Oh my God, this is so scary. Millions sheltering in place. Crowds at Chicago's iconic Navy Pier taking cover in a parking garage.

Winds in some areas gusting. to nearly 100 miles per hour. In suburban homewood, Eric Anthony taking cover with his family of four. I took my family right downstairs, and we just heard the tree limbs falling, the wind getting very high, hail. In nearby Frankfurt,

stunning video shows this home fully engulfed. Firefighters tell me it was either caused by lightning or downed electrical equipment. You heard boom! Like, it sounded like a missile went off. We met homeowner Tammy McKee, who narrowly escaped with her 79-year-old mother. It's just devastating. It's heartbreaking. It's so many things.

Across the storm zone, power knocked out to more than 900,000 customers already. In northwest Indiana, authorities investigating what caused this home to explode as the severe weather moved through. You can see flames still shooting out. Debris is everywhere. At least one person killed. And in Ohio, a traffic camera on I-71 in Columbus capturing winds lived. lifting this vehicle into the air and flipping it. Ohio's governor declaring a state of emergency in multiple counties amid widespread flooding. In Perry County, some residents forced from their homes. The weather now being blamed for at least one death in that state.

Maggie Vespah joins us tonight from Frankfurt, Illinois. This is just south of Chicago. Maggie, we see that burnt out home behind you. Could have been lightning. That is so wild. And the folks there in Illinois have real reason to be upset, not upset, but just frustrating. with all this weather because it has been so wild for them this summer. Yeah, Tom, it's just been exhausting. I mean, the entire season, even Tammy, who lives in this house that, as you talked about,

may have been struck by lightning. She brought up not just today, but the entire summer, how chaotic the weather has been. And for instance, you look at tornado reports, a really niche statistic. We found out the state of Illinois, for instance, has had 232 reported tornadoes so far this year. That's an all-time record, and actually two to three times what we normally this time in the calendar year, Tom. Maggie Vespa for us, Maggie, always great to have you. Thank you. Now to that deadly earthquake in Colombia, our team has made it into one of the hardest hit

areas where rescue units are urgently working to find those trapped in the rubble, with thousands still reported missing. Our George Solis is there. This hospital torn apart during dangerous tremors that rock the region when an earthquake hit Colombia. Healthcare workers forced to care for newborns outside of family in Pereda, narrowly escaped. their home, the ground beneath them cracking. Seconds later, debris comes crashing down.

Others scrambling for safety, running out of this school as columns fell around them. Tonight, the death toll rising as more than 3,000 people have been reported missing by relatives. Rescue teams now desperately searching for survivors at this collapsed department building in Hard Hit Gali. Take a look at this human chain of first responders and volunteers. Some of them survivors themselves, all of them moving that's smaller debris. The objective here is to clear the road so that bigger machinery can get in.

There have been glimmers of hope. This six-month-old infant pulled from the rubble captured by a local news network reporting that rescuers heard voices calling out from the concrete. Overnight firefighters saving this 35-year-old man who was trapped in Pareda, a brief moment of silence to listen for signs of life and then cheers. There are people, one man exclaims. Emergency crews putting this survivor on a stretcher as those gathered celebrated. This aerial footage showing the vast destruction across the region. Buildings flattened. Homes crumbled. Angelaya Ybarba's building collapsed and says it's a miracle of God.

She's alive. Everything was destroyed, she says. The water pipes burst. The floor is cracked open. 15-year-old Samuel Rubio showed up today, bringing water to rescuers. He was in a class when the quake struck, sharing this video he filmed. I wouldn't be here, Rubio says, if the building had fallen on my school. It happened to all of us, Colombians, he says.

We all feel it. Stefania Peralta says she's holding on to hope. We have to hold on to that, she says, hope that there might be someone alive. George Salis joins us tonight from Kali, Colombia, and George's quake destroyed roads and hospitals. Explain to us how that's complicating all the efforts around you. And when you see this destruction up close, you realize. how hard it is for them to find anyone who's still alive. That's absolutely right, Tom.

It's really a two-fold problem. So you also have the rows that are closed, and you have buildings that have been compromised. So at any given point, you have members of the National Guard, closing streets, which makes it harder for ambulances to get around. There was actually an aftershock earlier today at a hospital that forced basically a small evacuation, one-wing remaining open.

Patients having to be treated outside. There is a mass congestion of traffic and people, even here at this hour, volunteers that are trying to get in here to this zone right now to help some of those volunteers. But at any moment, they ask for silence just in case they do hear a voice from deep within the rubble because they really do hope that they might be able to find someone still alive. Tom. Okay, George Sirlees on the ground there. George, thank you.

Still ahead, Luigi Mangione back inside a courtroom. His highly anticipated murder trial less than a month away, why a judge has decided the jury should remain anonymous. will explain. Plus, missing tubers found alive, rescuers finding a family deep in the woods after a trip gone wrong, how they survived for nearly three days with little food. An undercover cop confusion the moment one officer opened fire on another will explain what happened here. Stay with us. Back now with an update ahead of Luigi Mangione's Blockbuster murder trial. It's set to begin in less than a month with jury selection. The court finalizing plans, including how to handle the high-profile nature of this case.

The fatal shooting becoming one of the most publicized crimes in recent history. Stephanie, Goss joins us now. So Stephanie, you were at today's pretrial hearing where the judge decided he wants the jury to remain anonymous, and there's a reason for that. Yeah, their safety, Tom. I mean, they don't want their names out there, their addresses out there. You know, there is a lot of publicity in this case.

There are a lot of people that have been coming to the trial. Many of them are supporters of Luigi Mangione, but they don't want to take any chances, and depending on where the verdict falls, they worry about their safety for the jurors. There was a late development today you were telling me about there's a federal case as well. I know we don't know a lot, but what do we know?

Well, we know that today, following this hearing in state court, there was an announcement that both sides, so the U.S. attorney, as well as the defense team, asked the judge for a conference. And then the judge granted that conference on Friday, which is a fairly quick turnaround. We don't know what the substance, and they did not say what the substance of that hearing was going to be.

We're going to be keeping a close eye on that one, though, for sure. But we may learn Friday? We will definitely learn on Friday, for sure. Stephanie Gosk, we thank you for all that. Still to come on Top Story tonight, the new labels coming to Spotify, why they want you to know when you're listening to AI-generated music, plus the big ballpark giveaway tonight, the one-of-a-kind, POPAT sending fans into a frenzy in the Holy Father's hometown.

Stay with us. We're back now with Top Stories News Feed, we want to start with a former U.S. Marine now free after more than four years in a Russian jail. President Trump posting this picture of Robert Gilman. You can see him there on the left. German was detained in 2022 on charges of attacking a police officer. His family and American officials say he was wrongfully imprisoned and abused, leaving the 32-year-old close to death. According to President Trump, the release happened after he discussed the case with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Dallas, new video shows police accidentally firing shots towards an undercover officer. video's wild. You can see the police pulling up behind a suspect. He's accused of stealing this white Porsche and threatening a nine-year-old girl. The undercover officer stops just in front of the car, then hops out when the gunshots ring out. Police say they stopped shooting after realizing it was a covert officer. The suspect surrendered moments later. You see him kind of jump out of the car and do a nose dive into the lawn. You'll watch it right here. There he goes. Spotify rolling out a new feature to flag AI-generated music starting next month, AI persona badges will be added to some artist's profiles. It will happen in two ways. Artists can identify themselves as not human,

and Spotify says it will also be reviewing profiles and putting labels on them. Music with the AI badge won't appear in certain recommendation lists. The streaming platform says the move is aimed at building trust and authenticity between artists and fans. And a big night for Chicago White Sox fans, Anyone at the ballpark is taking home one of these limited edition Pope hats. Check it out. It's all to honor Pope Leo, a longtime White Sox fan from Chicago. The caps got so much buzz online. The team expanded the giveaway to everybody at the game.

It might be divine intervention, too. The White Sox are holding on to the top spot of the division after finishing last season. All right. In Michigan, a family rescued after a tubing trip gone horribly wrong. They had been stranded for three days after their floats, surviving on protein bars, flowers, even eating ants until help arrived. Morgan Chesky picks it up from there. Make some noise!

Lost in deep Michigan woods for 72 hours, a cry for help answered. Stand by. Body cam blurred by officials capturing state trooper Zach Murphy leading rescuers through deep brush. Trying to find a family lost from a float trip turned nightmare. When was the last time I was water? Great, I don't even know. Murphy embracing Jasmine Hawk alongside her cousin Sarah Vida and Vida's nine-year-old son, Caden. I give you my shirt, okay?

Even offering his own shirt. What were you thinking as you started to make your way back? The thought that kept on going through my head was, I can't believe that three people allegedly in bathing suits with no shoes on were making the track through that swamp. The group tubing Tuesday down the mission. Skigan River when their floats were popped by a log jam, straining everyone. Hawk visibly cut up, seen here shaking amid severe dehydration. I'm so happy we found you guys. I'm so happy. The two cousins giving their few protein bars in water to Caden, surviving on flowers, tree bark,

and ants for days. Everyone left hungry. I want Mountain Dew. The last year. Rescuers leading the family out of the brush, Caden getting his own piggyback ride. It was certainly a fourth quarter, fourth down, Hail Mary victory. Out of the woods, the family recovering at a hospital. After an afternoon of fun became a fight for survival. Morgan Chesky joins us now. Morgan, do we know how those rescued tubers are doing tonight?

Yeah, Tom, as that photo showed, fortunately, the mother and her son were able to get some much-needed care at a nearby hospital. Fortunately, there was no significant injuries to report. They both had to rehydrate, and we anticipate a full recovery for all of those three that were involved. But important to note, the authorities that I spoke to say, considering the conditions, considering the duration of time that they were exposed to the elements with little to no food and no shelter whatsoever, he said, had this gone any longer, it could have been incredibly dire. Tom. Morgan Chesky, we thank you. Now, a new report tonight connecting Raul Castro's grandson to a human smuggling cartel out of Mexico.

That, according to a new report in the New York Times, that says Raul Castro's grandson, Raul G. Rodriguez Castro, a group that stole boats from southwest Florida used to smuggle thousands of migrants and illicit goods between Cuba, the U.S. and Mexico. According to court documents obtained by the Times, witnesses claim Rodriguez Castro received gifts in exchange for helping the Cuban mafia in Kintana Roo, including a fountain 38 high-performance boat, a Rolex watch, a Suzuki motorbike, and a Louis Vuitton outfit. Joining me now is one of the New York Times reporters who broke the story, Francis Robles. Francis, thank you for joining Top Story once again.

So what did you learn about Raulito's alleged involvement in this criminal group? Well, we want to be clear that the New York Times is not alleging that Raul Rodriguez played a direct role in smuggling migrants. What we are saying, what our reporting shows, is that the leaders of this group told U.S. prosecutors that he was kind of their inside God. You know, if they needed a container of goods to get into Cuba, he helped grease the wheels for that. Or, and vice versa, in terms of getting rid of the Coast Guard, if boats were leaving Cuba. My sense is that he knew what they were doing, didn't ask a lot of questions, and received luxurious gifts in exchange for his help. You know, there's been a lot of reporting about sort of his luxury lifestyle. The USA Today recently had an interview with him where they highlighted some of the stuff he likes to wear, including Hermes sneakers, which, as you know,

you know, in a place as poor as Cuba, can very much stand out when the average Cuban makes less than $20 a month. So he has claimed that these have been gifts that he has received, right? That he doesn't purchase these. Could this be a way that he funds his lifestyle? Well, it's very interesting because there's a real parallel between what the leaders of this group told federal prosecutors and what Raulito himself told USA Today. As you noted, he said that he receives these things as gifts. And this group told federal prosecutors that among the gifts was expensive clothes. I can't go further than that other than how he funds his lifestyle, except to say that there's definitely a parallel.

Yeah, there's sort of a micro view to your story, and there's a macro view. And I'm going to ask you one more question on sort of the micro view, and then we'll ask the big picture here. Explain to our viewers how this work, because this dealt with stealing boats in southwest Florida, bringing them to Cuba, smuggling people then to Mexico. How did the cartel work and how does it still work potentially? About six years ago, the Department of Justice cracked down on this organization called the Cuban Mafia in Contaneroom. So what they had been doing for years, going back at least 15 years, is they were stealing boats in southwest Florida, Sarasota, Naples area, Marco Island, taking them to Cuba, filling them up with people, taking those people to Mexico. And what would happen there, the people would go to safe houses. And the people who could pay their smuggling fee, they were fine.

They got to go on their merry way to the United States. They were coached on how to ask for asylum in the United States. The problem was for the people who could not pay their fees. They were held. They were beaten. They were tortured. And some women were forced to work in strip bars. Yeah.

So, Francis, if you're an eagle-eyed viewer of what's happening between Cuba and the United States, like I am, like yourself, you're watching all these new stories sort of come out of Cuba, right? You have a pressure campaign by the United States. You have that new reporting that just came out that the CIA has set up a new sort of intel sect, if you will, within Cuba, or at least they'd like to do this. They're cutting off oil shipments. They're putting on more sanctions. And stories like yours are popping up. So my question to you is this.

Is this a message, right? To Cuba and essentially to the Castro and Raulito saying, we can tie you to a criminal operation. You may remember your friend, Nicolas Maduro, and what happened to him. He was tied to a criminal operation. The U.S. came in, they extradited him. He's sitting in a federal prison now in New York. So my question to you is this, is this part of a pressure campaign by the U.S.? To let the Cubans know, we have more things on you than you may believe?

That sounds like you're suggesting that the Department of Justice leaked this story. I don't know. I'm not into source revealing. That's not what I'm into. But I'm into, there are ways that things are communicated to people. And again, I'm not taken away from me. reporting. Don't take it that way. But if I'm Raolito, I'm reading the story going, oh, wow, they've just implicated me in something else. Or do you think he was well aware of this?

I don't know if he was aware of this. It's really, it's such an opaque place that it's really hard to know. What's really fascinating to me is that the feds knew this, and they knew it for a long time. You know, you could argue, oh, well, this information is coming from criminals who were looking to get a deal from the DOJ, and this guy was known by Congrejo. is a valuable target. You know, let me give some information on him, except that the information came three years ago, and he had no legal value three years ago.

And so to me, I think that really lends credence the information that these guys gave. I don't know if your reporting has gone this far, but have you talked to lawyers or legal experts who say there's enough here for the U.S. to come after him now? Oh, that's a really good question. What's a really interesting point here in the reporting shows that these people were charged with RICO.

A RICO case allows feds to charge everybody with RICO, regardless of what your role was in this conspiracy. Do they have enough evidence? That's another question. That only the DOJ can answer. Okay. Francis Robles, again, a big break in the New York Times. She covers Cuba and that entire part of the world does a great job.

We thank you for joining Top Story tonight. Coming up, one of the top schools in the country says it's going to stop giving out grades to some freshman students. We'll get into that debate. Is this good for their mental health, or is the coddling going too far? Plus, the Shake Shack Shakedown, a customer claiming he got hit with a fee

for not leaving a tip how the company is responding right after this. I am completely unsupervised here. No one tells me to go to class. No one tells me to do my homework. No one warns me that wearing your shower shoes in the snow is not a good idea. Last week, I slept for two whole days.

Nobody woke me up. Two whole days. That was a clip from the sitcom The Middle, illustrating the stress so many first year students have adjusting to that first year of college. Now tonight, one university taking it a step further. It says it will help students deal with what they're calling a growing mental health crisis. The University of Michigan announcing that it will stop giving some first semester students grades. Instead, grading them on a pass-fail system.

This will go into effect in the fall of. 2027 and impact roughly 8,000 first-year students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The school says the program is described to, quote, curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals. And the University of Michigan isn't the only school to do this. At least four other colleges, you can see them right here, have also made the same call over the past decade. So a reaction to the University of Michigan's program, as you can imagine, has been very strong in both directions. Let's take a listen. It's all about fun and taking all. of your money because you know they're going to take the money for the classes, but then not let

these kids know if they're on the verge of flunking out. I honestly think this is a positive development because it reduces the pressure on students. Instead of asking our children to rise to the challenge, we're lowering the bar. Joining us tonight, two guests with very different opinions on this issue. Here in studio, we have psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert, and joining us virtually University of Michigan history professor Derek Peterson. Derek, let's start with you. Thank you so much for joining Top Story, by the way.

You're in favor of this decision. What are you seen in 2026 that makes you think this is a good plan for college students going forward? Yeah. Look, the University of Michigan is a big public institution. Most of our students come from in-state. About 50% of our students come from in-state. Many of them are first-generation students. They're coming out of public school systems.

We're not a finishing school for polished students from the East Coast. Many of our, most of our students don't come from private institutions. Our students haven't had top-notch guidance counseling necessarily. Some of them have, but, and neither have they had necessarily a great high school experience across the board. So not marking them in their first semester, as we're going to start doing, it seems, in the fall of 2027 is to me an opportunity to give a big, capacious, diverse first-year class a chance to experiment with classes that they otherwise wouldn't think about taking and to free them

of the obligation to have to carry around marks that they earn in their first semester for the rest of their lives. It's a way to relieve some of the pressure. Derek, I'm surprised to hear you say the beginning part of your answer, because the University of Michigan, it's not an easy school to get into. That's right. It's not. But 50% of our students come from in-state, and a lot of them are first-gen students. We are a public institution, unlike, you know, private institutions. We take pride in serving the citizens of the state. Jonathan, your book, Therapy Nation, argues that the language of therapists, of people like

yourself has sort of gotten into the mainstream and everyone's sort of using these terms loosely. You don't like this idea. Why? I don't. I have to disagree with the professor. Regardless of whether students come from in-state or out-of-state or abroad, the school has a great reputation and it should be rigorous and school should be tough. And in my very profession, in therapy, we have therapists that are pathologizing ordinary life experiences. So if someone had a bad day, they might be labeled as depressed. If someone has difficulty focusing, they might be labeled as ADHD.

And what we're seeing playing out at the university really just mirrors that. And I have great concerns about that. We're creating a culture of fragility instead of resilient students that know how to go out into the workforce. Derek, your response to that? No, that don't think that's true, frankly.

We're giving students license to experiment in their first semester with subjects that their parents wouldn't necessarily want them to sign on for. My own experience was as a first year student at the University of Rochester, coming in studying chemical engineering, having little idea what I was getting into. I flunked most of my first semester classes because I was terrible at chemistry. And thankfully, Rochester didn't record my marks my first year, allowing me to go on through my undergraduate degree, find a different vocation, find a different subject, and succeed. That's what this new policy at Michigan's

meant to do. Give our students chance to experiment and find the subject that really suits them. I know every class and every teacher is different, but in college usually there's not an attendance policy, right? Or at least a very lax attendance policy. How do you make sure these kids just aren't parting their entire first year there at the University of Michigan, taking a week off to get ready for the big football game, and then maybe taking a week off to recover the next week and not learning all the valuable things you guys have to teach there? First of all, the classes will be marked on a pass-fail basis. That's the proposal. So students who don't show up will fail the class and therefore not meet the mark.

Second, there will be grades recorded. And so we're working out the policy, as I understand it at the moment. So students who are in other departments where first year classes are required, other colleges, will have those marks recorded and they'll go into their transcripts if they're in engineering or the arts or other subjects that are not in literature, science, and the arts, which is the college we're talking about here. And third, you know, after the first semester, Marks will be on the record. The idea is to give students space to get up to speed with college so that they can meet the rigors that Michigan does demand. Because as you said, this is a very high achieving institution, and our students need to be kept, you know, held to account for what they're learning after their first semester.

You hear what Derek says here, Jonathan. Where's the line between what Derek is saying, which, you know, you hear him say it. And it makes all reasonable sense. There's so much anxiety, so much pressure put on kids these days, but where's the line between that and coddling these kids? Well, there is a lot of anxiety and depression, but Michigan's own study in 2025 showed a decline in rates of anxiety and depression. So I do wonder where this program is coming from. I think the opposite of the professor, I think we need to be tough on students that helps to prepare them for the workforce. Once they get into the workforce, I don't think they have the accommodations that they're seeing currently at University of Michigan. Michigan. Yeah, Derek, in this same year that Michigan is sort of loosening grades to protect

mental health. Other schools are tightening them. Harvard actually voted to restrict the number of A's their professors can give out in undergraduate classes to 20 percent to prevent great inflation, which has been happening, not only in college, but in high schools too. Can those problems exist simultaneously, grade inflation and a mental health crisis? And if so, what's the fix? Yeah, we've been talking in faculty government about ways that we could potentially take something like a Harvard approach to great inflation. We're not there yet. It is true that we give out a lot of A's as does every American institution.

In my own classes, I give out Bs and Cs pretty regularly, I would say. And many of us feel the obligation to distinguish between top quality work and lesser work. But it is a problem. I don't deny that grade inflation is an issue. I don't think this first-year policy, however, is a step in the wrong direction. To the contrary, it gives students a chance to experience. and allows us to better fit our students into the programs that we actually teach where they can succeed. So, Derek, since you're the one who's on the faculty here, explain this to me.

How would law school and or medical schools look at a kid from the University of Michigan? Would they judge them on three years or is there still a process to judge them on four years? Say there's a kid who goes to the University of Wisconsin, up against a kid from the University of Michigan. They're applying to the same law school. How does the University of Michigan put out those transcripts? So we haven't as yet come up with the policy that will determine what the transcript will look like. The expectation that I have is that for the first semester, it will be for students within LSA, within this college that makes up about 50% of the undergraduate body here at U of M. Students will get past fail marks in their first semester, and thereafter we'll get ordinarily the marks that one would get A through F, as it were.

So the transcript will, you know, the first semester marks will be not counted toward the GPA, but after the first semester, the transcript will look like any other transcript. Many institutions have done this in the past. My own undergraduate transcript looks like this, as do many other undergraduate transcripts at other institutions. I don't think it will be a problem for our students. If anything, it will allow our students to find their footing and succeed better as undergraduates going forward after the first semester. Jonathan, is there something to be said about tough love? about the school of Hard Knocks, and do you have to sort of meet reality,

even though you're 18 years old in America, your freshman year, first semester? Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you get a C or a D in a class, that's a time to reevaluate what you're doing in school. Maybe you need to change your study habits. Maybe you need to go meet with the professor or a teacher's aide and, you know, get some extra help. So I think it can be helpful and indicative if you get a poor grade. And I do think University of Michigan is doing a of service for these students. Derek, I'll let you have the last word here since you came on and you're from the university. No, I don't think that's true.

Again, our students are diverse coming from lots of different backgrounds. The idea that somehow we're going to give them tough love and show them what the world is really like, they already know what the world is really like. They're living in a macrocosmic world in which all the traumas, all the difficulties, all the violence and all the pleasures of this world are available to them on their cell phones in a way that wasn't true when I was an undergrad. All this puts a lot of pressure on our students' sense of well-being. We're not trying to coddle students.

If anything, we're trying to give them the experience of failing spectacularly if they need to in their first semester by trying out stuff they don't expect to be good at with the expectation that they'll find their footing after the first semester and go on to succeed in the rest of their undergraduate years. Everyone likes to take a mulligan every now and then. That might be the philosophy here, and it might work. Derek Peterson, we thank you so much for being here. Jonathan, also, we thank you so much. We want to take you now to some viral video taken at an airport Shagshack.

That appears to show a kiosk adding a surcharge after customers declined to tip. This is also leading to a big debate tonight. The chain says the charge was due to an error, but it's reigniting a debate over what we're being asked to pay for. Dana Griffin explains. Beattie Powell and his wife were waiting for their flight out of Salt Lake City on Friday when his wife noticed a surprising charge while trying. trying to order food at an airport shake shack kiosk. My wife says that if you don't tip it Shakeshack, they make it more expensive per item,

so we're about to find out. I really didn't believe my wife was first. The couple retested their theory to see if it would happen again. See, $5.99. Watch as they ring in three milkshakes. You got cookies and green. They ring up for $5.99 each. One has a $0.49 cent surcharge for adding whipped cream.

But when they go to check out and select no tip. Uh-oh, the screen reads, there has been a pricing update on one or more of your cart items. The price on the screen then switches. Everything just went up 50 cents. I felt like it was being charged for something I shouldn't have been charged for. In a statement, a Shake Shack spokesperson tells NBC News, it is not policy nor that of our licensees to increase the price of menu items when no tip is added. They go on to say this occurred at a Shake Shack that is owned and operated by our license. at an airport. And that error was created by kiosk technology unrelated to tipping. Adding the issue has been resolved. Powell says he didn't try the tipping option to see if that would change the price.

The topic at a tipping point for many Americans. It's gotten out of hand. I feel like salary should get higher. According to a pop menu survey of a thousand people, 78% say tipping has become ridiculous, 44% tipping less this year than last year. Who's right or wrong here? Who's right or wrong here? Should we be paying or should these businesses stop asking us to? That is a great question. I think it's probably in the middle. Like if you say, should I pay 20% for my delivery? Well, if I ordered a huge delivery, it's not that different for that person than, you know, if it's a small amount.

And so I don't think anyone's wrong. I think this is a good conversation to be having. All right, Dana Griffin joins us now. Dan, I'm sure a lot of our viewers are going to be debating this and talking about this. Our team went to a shake shack today and tested this out, right? What did you find? We did, Tom. So we went to our own kiosk and we punched in the exact same items as a couple on the screen.

We didn't get a surcharge for us. The prices stayed the same, Tom. All right. There you go. Dana Griffin. We appreciate the story. This was a fun one. Still ahead tonight, one team funding, a special way to give back to the doctors and nurses who helped

them through years of cancer treatments. That moment. Next. Finally tonight, a teen who beat cancer. celebrating the end of his treatment journey and finding a very bright way to thank the doctors and the nurses who helped them through some of his darkest moments.

This is a sound worth cheering for. 14-year-old Julian Bakero celebrating the end of cancer treatment. Sharing an emotional hug with his parents, William and Alba, giving mom an extra squeeze. Surrounding them, the people who helped Julian who helped Julian every step of the way during two years of leukemia treatments. And so Julian came ready with a way to say thank you.

Yellow daisies for each of the doctors, nurses and caregivers who helped him through some of his darkest days. For Dr. Ramirez? Good. Handing them out and sharing hug after hug after hug, telling us what he was feeling in those moments. Happiness. Happiness. That's it. Now, Julian's just excited to be a kid again.

I want to do the sports. I want to do all the stuff I cannot do when I have the cancer. The color yellow, of course, symbolizing hope, hope that helped Julian when he needed it the most. I will say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And Julian, we are cheering you on as well. We thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamis in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way. Thank you.