Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

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

Tonight, the CEO shooting suspect sounding off as he fights extradition to New York. The outburst outside of the courthouse as Luigi Mangione struggled with officers and shouted at cameras. What he said just moments before being denied bail in Pennsylvania. And the battle to get the 26-year-old back to New York to face that murder charge. One of the most famous criminal profilers in the country joins top story as we learn new details about the suspect. Also tonight ousted President Bashar al-Assad granted asylum in Russia. An NBC News exclusive interview with Russia's deputy foreign minister confirming Assad's family is seeking shelter. Would the Kremlin give Assad up if the ICC issues an arrest warrant?

Back in Syria, the frantic search for prisoners believed to be trapped underneath a notorious jail. The fast-moving wildfire raging out of control in Southern California. Thousands forced to flee several homes up in flames. Pepperdine students sheltering in place, capturing the inferno closing in on their library. The race now to contain the flames. Operation ID, bodies of migrants discovered at the southern border a gruesome reality of the immigration crisis. We speak with students dedicated to identifying their remains in the hopes of returning them to their loved ones. Dramatic video as a garbage truck explodes.

sending debris flying over a Chicago suburb, what officials believe ignited that blast. And the state of emergency over drones. A New Jersey senator calling to ban the devices after mysterious drones were seen flying all across the state? The growing questions over the eyes in the sky. Plus, Jamie Fox breaking his silence over the health scare he faced last year. What he says brought him close to death. Top story starts right now. Good evening. I'm Ellison Barber in for Tom Yamis. Tonight, the suspect charged with murdering the United Healthcare CEO remains behind bars in Pennsylvania, fighting extradition to New York. Dramatic moments as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione made his way into the courtroom yelling at cameras

and struggling with officers. Mangione denied bail tied to his case in Pennsylvania. Just a little while ago, we heard from his lawyer for the very first time. Hopefully, again, I was not at the arraignment yesterday. I hope he pled not guilty. I assume that that's what happened. But today, when I entered my appearance, and for the record, he's pleading not guilty to those things. That lawyer also adding that he has not seen any evidence that Mangione is the shooter.

But this evening, we are learning more about a possible motive and what was found on him that could tie him to the case in New York. The Maryland native faces five charges in New York, including murder and criminal possession of a weapon. That's on top of the separate charges he faces in Pennsylvania when he was allegedly caught with a firearm and a fake ID at a McDonald's. We have so much to get to tonight, including an investigator who worked on the Unabomber case, joining Top Story. But we start off with NBC's Stephanie Goss, who was at the courthouse today. And it's completely out of touch. Alleged murderer Luigi Mangione shouting at cameras outside court today.

And it's completely out of touch. And insult to the intelligence and the American people. It's a split experience. The 26-year-old's defense attorney told a Pennsylvania judge his client will fight extradition back to New York City. We haven't gotten any evidence. I haven't seen really anything yet. Mangione is charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunning down the 50-year-old father of two in Midtown Menjohn.

Manhattan. Today's extradition hearing taking place just 24 hours after Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The one guy said, that looks like the shooter from New York. This man says he and his friends saw him eating breakfast before police were called. I kept thinking about it all day yesterday. How can that be, you know? I mean, here we are this little town. One of the arresting officers, only six months on the job. He was wearing a blue medical mask. As soon as we pulled that down, or we asked him to pull it down, We, me, my partner and I recognized him immediately. Then they asked him if he had been in New York City recently.

That really invoked a physical reaction from the suspect. He became visibly nervous, kind of shaking at that question. According to police, Mangione had a 3D printed weapon similar to the one used in the shooting, fake IDs, and three pages of handwritten notes. You see anti-corporatist sentiment, a lot of issues with the health care. industry, but as to like particular specific motive, that'll come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and months. Three senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News the notes criticize the health care industry in the U.S. and specifically United Healthcare, saying in part, frankly, these parasites had it

coming. Also adding, to the feds, I'll keep this short because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly. that I wasn't working with anyone. NYPD officials say there is no indication at this point that Mangione was working with anyone, but they have not ruled it out. The writing also including this message. I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. After reviewing hundreds of hours of video footage, canvassing the city, and even using dive teams in a pond in Central Park, NYPD says it was this photo, the grinning suspect checking into a hostel in New York City that was critical

to breaking the case. Up until the arrest, police had not identified him. We have been working this hard for five days and gotten hundreds of tips to our tip lines, but this was not a name that was called into us. The Mangione family releasing a short statement, saying in part, we only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. And Stephanie Gossk joins us now from outside of that courthouse in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Stephanie, you were able to see the suspect up close in court right after or not long after that bizarre outburst outside of the courthouse. What more can you tell us about his behavior and what you saw in that courtroom?

Yeah, Alison, we were just feet away, and it's night and day the difference. By the time he walked in, still shackled and in that orange jumpsuit, he was calm, he was relaxed, he sat down in his chair, he was kind of looking around at people at one point smiling with one of the sheriff's deputies that was in the room. It was interesting, though, during the hearing, at one point he tried to speak, even though the judge was not addressing him, and his defense attorney turned and snapped, don't say a word. But after that, he was then escorted out of the room. He said he's fighting extradition. He was denied bail, even though they tried to get him out on bail, his defense attorney did. He's now tonight back in state prison,

and this extradition to New York likely delayed weeks, Allison. So what is next for him in terms of the legal process there? Do we just have to wait to see what happens with the extradition or will he be in court prior to that being resolved? Yeah, he will. So there are a few things that need to happen. Basically his defense team has to file a rate of habeas corpus, which is basically contesting his imprisonment here in the state of Pennsylvania.

They will hold a series of hearings and they will try to fight this extradition, but very little has to be done to prove that he should be extradited. That includes proving that there are charges in New York, getting the governors of New York to sign that warrant for his arrest, also getting Governor Shapiro here in Pennsylvania to sign off on it. And really, what it seems to be is more likely a delay tactic. And what could that mean? That could mean that he's potentially trying to get a legal team in order. He's got that defense attorney here, but he's just a local defense attorney and is actually not barred to practice in New York. So he would have to get a different defense attorney if he's extradited. But anyway, the process slowing down. His next

scheduled court appearance isn't until December 23rd, Allison. Stephanie Gosk in Pennsylvania. Thank you. Let's bring in NBC News legal analyst, Angela Sinadela, for more on this. Angela, I want to pick up on some of what Stephanie was touching on there. The attorney that he has for the charges in Pennsylvania, which is different and going to be separate than what he's going to face. here or is facing here in New York. That attorney, as she said, also not even barred in New York. But he did have this press conference today where he talked about the allegations related to New York State. And I want to play some of that and then we'll talk a little bit about the press conference because I think in a lot of ways it came off as bizarre and I want to see what

you think about it. But let's listen first. The fundamental concept of American justice is a presumption of innocent and until you're proving guilty beyond reasonable doubt. And I've seen zero evidence at this point. So when he was talking about seeing zero evidence, he was referring to the charges in New York, saying, I've seen zero evidence that this is the shooter. He won't work on that, so it seems odd to speak on that. But also a couple other things that stood out to me. He was asked when Luigi Mangione had another court appearance in Pennsylvania.

He said he'll be back in court around the 20th. Stephanie Gosk reporting there, it's the 23rd. He also was asked and was talking about whether he'd entered a plea. And he said they pled not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania today. But when he was talking about the court appearance Mangeoni made last night, his attorney said, I hope he didn't enter a plea other than not guilty, but based on information

that is public and reporters like ours who were in the courtroom, he was never even asked in court yesterday how he would plea. He was just asked if he understood the charges. If I were Luigi Mangeoni, I would be looking at that and saying, I gotta get a new lawyer. What did you make of that press conference? I certainly agree with many of your sentiments.

I would also say, though, look, attorneys are human. We make mistakes all the time. It is likely that Luigi Mangione didn't necessarily have all the options. He didn't have Alec Baldwin's attorney calling him, saying that he would offer to represent him. I mean, I think you also have to know, though, that when an attorney does a presser like this, they're speaking to the potential jury, right? So even if we, as a public, might think that we know there is enormous amounts of evidence out there. His job is actually to say that there might not be.

I mean, that's what a defense attorney does. Try to poke holes and try to see doubt because there's likely no person in America right now who hasn't heard of this trial. But whether or not there is going to be a trial in Pennsylvania or New York or both, there's a jury pool at stake here. How challenging is it to take on a case like this, whether it's solely for the charges that exist in Pennsylvania and the issue of extradition or taking it on in New York State with the murder charge? Well, look, what's happening in Pennsylvania is really low stakes here. I mean, you could find any local attorney like this one to do what he's doing because, honestly, no matter what he does, there's going to be no difference in outcome. In this case, he will be extradited to New York State. It's a question of what the governors want to do, and you have some circumstances where both states want to keep the criminal, keep the suspect, or sometimes neither even want them.

They don't even want to have to spend the money on them. But in this case, it is so clear their priority is New York State that this man, all he's doing is delays. And it's a question of, well, is the delay a result of what his client is asking him to do, or is the delay the attorney wanting an extra few minutes in front of the camera? It's unclear here. And really quickly, before we let you go, I keep hearing people saying that the extradition process can take somewhere between 30 to 45 days. In a high-profile case, is there any chance that can be expedited, or is that most likely the timeline? So where the expedition will come is that both governors will get involved.

So that would certainly decrease any required time frame. Now, we have heard, though, that he would likely file a habeas corpus petition. That in itself, though, might take some time because the trial court has to rule on that prior to the extradition moving forward. However, case law seems to indicate that no appeal has to hold past that, but a petition would have to be heard. All right. Interesting stuff. Angela Sinadella, thank you. As always, we appreciate it. So what more do we know about the suspect here, Luigi Mangione, and what might have led him to allegedly commit this breaking. in crime. NBC news correspondent Sam Brock has more details tonight on the medical issues he faced and what people who know the suspect are now saying.

Tonight is Luigi Mangione sits in a jail cell accused of murder, a far cry from the smiling star student and Ivy League grad. New details are coming to light about his medical issues that investigators are examining in their search for answers. What did you know about the condition of his back? I knew it was something that constantly wait on him. It was something that impeded him from doing many things. R.J. Martin runs surf break on Oahu, a co-living space where he says Mangione lived for six months in 2022. When he first arrived, Martin says Mangione aggravated a back issue during an introductory surf lesson. He says it points. The Maryland native had a hard time sitting up straight and struggle to have an intimate relationship. When Martin

checked in on his friend nine months ago to see if he had surgery, he says the 26-year-old sent him an x-ray. Harling, it just broke my heart to know he had these three-inch screws in his spine. Two senior law enforcement officials say they are investigating a picture of an x-ray posted to the suspect's social media account, whether it's his and if it's part of a motive. As mystery shrouds the places Mangione's lived. Well, what we know so far is that he has ties to Maryland. He has ties to Hawaii and ties to San Francisco, California. We know he attended college in Pennsylvania, and we know that he has no prior

criminal history, not only in New York City, but in the country. A neighbor from Hawaii says he last saw Mangione three to four months ago. I just asked him where he's been, and for like six months he was like on the mainland, like he just said medical stuff. And his former classmates at the prestigious All Boys Gilman School outside of Baltimore equally blindsided. I can tell you that this is one of the last people you think would do something like this, you know. He was one of the nicest kids, most friendly kids that I had known at Gilman. The high school validated, Victorian is part of a large and wealthy family with businesses across real estate, country clubs, and nursing homes. The NYPD and friends and family alike now trying to put the pieces of Luigi Mangione's path together.

How saddening, how shocking to you personally, RJ, after the months and years spent together to learn all of us. He was such a bright person. He had everything going for him. He was the kind of person that you would know is going to do great things. And Sam Brock joins us now on set. Sam, and you're reporting and speaking with these individuals who knew Luigi Mangione. What else did you learn about his medical history and the issues he was having? Right. So that was RJ Martin. He owned and operated that co-living situation, Ellison.

He said that, you know, coming into the interview process, you have to be accepted into it. Mangione was fully forthright, that he had back issues. You would disclose that kind of thing. He talked about the fact that in his introductory surfing lesson, he had locked up on him so badly, perhaps triggering an underlying condition. Mangione could not move for days. This is the kind of thing that happened regularly. Affected the quality of his life. When I asked directly, do you think he moved to Hawaii because of his back? The answer was, could be part of a larger picture of being healthy, but yes, the back was part of that too. And when I did ask, you know, did his personality change based on what was going on with his back?

Martin did not want to speculate to that effect. But clearly, it is part of the investigation right now. Police looking to see what relevance, if any, there is to what happened and what Mangione is accused of. Really great reporting. Sam Brock. Thank you. Appreciate it. Mangione's profile also drawing comparisons to infamous killer Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist more commonly known as the Unabomber. Kaczynski was a genius mathematician who attended Harvard at just 16 years old before embarking on a mail bombing campaign that stretched nearly two decades.

From a tiny shack in the Montana wilderness, Kaczynski slaughtered three people and injured nearly two dozen more with meticulously manufactured explosives that were nearly impossible. to trace. It was the publication of his 35,000-word manifesto criticizing the role of technology in people's lives that ultimately led to his arrest. Kaczynski's brother, David, who was critical in ending the Unabomber Manhunt, spoke to NBC News about Mangione's apparent admiration for Kaczynski's writings, calling any influence his brother had on Mangioni a terrible mistake. Joining us tonight is one of the investigators who worked on the Unabomber case. Candice DeLong, She is a former FBI criminal profiler and head nurse at the Northwestern University Institute of Psychiatry, as well as the host of the podcast, Killer Psyche.

She was on the scene in Montana when Ted Kaczynski was first arrested. Kansas, thank you so much for joining us tonight and sharing some of your expertise. Let me just ask you the question I think a lot of people have, particularly since there's been so much speculation online about a possible good reads internet profile tied to the suspect here in New York, Luigi Mangione, where he praised Ted Kaczynski's writings. Do you see any parallels between this case in New York and the Unabomber? Not too much. On the surface, it does look that way, based on what Mangione has said in what we discussed, what you discussed earlier in the show, he was on a mission-oriented murder.

But there's a vast difference between Ted Kaczynski and what we know now. about Luigi Mangione. Kaczynski was a very disturbed individual. We don't know anything about Luigi Mangione other than his physical problem with his back. Based on some of the information we currently have, at least publicly, and obviously investigators likely have far more than we do.

But what we've seen in the public sphere from some of the snippets of this alleged three-page handwritten note that police say they recovered on Mangione's person when he was arrested in Pennsylvania. What do you make of him? What stands out to you as a criminal profiler on nuggets that you think, OK, that that's where I'd have more questions?

Well, there's a few things that stand out to me about this whole thing and that it, I think a lot of people know a lot about him that are remaining silent. Of course, family and close friends will be interviewed by the police, what they choose to share, we still remains to be seen. But he seemed to be, to me as a kid,

on a meteoric rise that looked like he was going to have a very, very bright future. And now at the age of 26, this happened. This didn't happen to him. He made this happen. He committed a horrible crime, and now he's custody. Any link or supposition that he's like the Unabomber whose mission he thought he could stop the spread of technology through sending bombs. That's absurd. We don't know what

means to be seen. Perhaps Mangione had a beef with United Health. He certainly indicated that he had a beef with United Health and this guy, Mr. Thompson, in his note. We're playing some of this video that came out earlier today as Luigi Mangioni was being led into court where he had that outburst yelling at the crews, the reporters that were gathered nearby. Some people are looking at that and are saying that behavior seems aggressive, seems erratic, and are wondering, maybe does this person have more mental health issues than we know? It's impossible to know if you're not treating an individual what they're going through in terms of their mental health.

But I'm curious what your initial read on this video and that apparent outburst is. My read on that video is that he was playing to the cameras. He did not fight with the police when they questioned him at the McDonald's. There is no reporting that he was combated in the vehicle or any holding cell where he was in. He gets out of that car. He seems to look around, spots the cameras, and then, for lack of a better term, goes nuts. I think he was playing to an audience. What sort of individual criminal or otherwise has the forethought, I guess, to play to the cameras in a situation like this, if that is, in fact, what he was doing?

Does that tell you more about his personality and also on the intelligence here? That is something that Ted Kaczynski and Luigi Mangione seem to have in common, based on what everyone has said. about Luigi Mangione, he's an incredibly intelligent individual. In your career, have you noticed any connections or anything interesting to you as it relates to acts of extreme calculated violence and intelligence levels? Well, these two men are vastly different. Kaczynski never played to the cameras unless, you know, some people might. There's one famous picture of him looking up and smiling.

Perhaps that's the one on your screen right now, but he did not do anything like what Mangione did today. And in terms of intelligence and committing crime, the vast majority of people that commit murder are not genius IQ. Kaczynski planned his crimes out very well, and he did not leave any evidence. He wasn't connected in any way to any of its targets. In fact, he didn't even know who was going to die. He didn't know who was going to get the bomb, who was going to be near the bomb when it went off.

And he didn't even follow the news afterwards. He lived in a cabin without electricity, vastly different than Mangione. What do you think happens next in terms of the way investigators try to talk with him or negotiate, if they are able to do some sort of interview if his attorney either in Pennsylvania or later in New York allows that? where would you, as an investigator, go from here? How would you approach essentially trying to get him to talk? We know in Pennsylvania, according to authorities there, he was cooperative initially, but no longer has been. Right. I don't expect him to be cooperating in the future either. But I come from a clinical background prior to becoming an FBI agent. So for me, what I'm always interested in, in, like, this is a case of premeditated murder, why?

What led this individual to do it? And what would he say is his reason for doing it? We know he has indicated something in that note that he had, that he revealed a beef with the health insurance company. but the thing to me that is so remarkable about this, and it's a vast difference from Ted Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski was disturbed starting at a very, very young age due to very likely suffered a profound maternal deprivation when he was nine months old

and had to go into a hospital for three months in his mother in those days. parents were not welcome in hospital, pediatric units, vastly different now, because we learn the damage that can do. That is not the case with Luigi Mangione. We will find out. He may know the reason why he did this, and it may not be to say, well, he wanted to kill an executive of a health care insurance company because he had to be. That just might be on the surface. It might be much, much deeper than that. All right, a lot to uncover here.

Candice Thalong, thank you so much for your time and insights this evening. We really appreciate it. Heading overseas now to our other major headline. In Syria, the brutal Assad regime is being exposed, and families desperately seeking out missing loved ones taken into custody years ago. NBC's Richard Engle takes us inside one of Syria's most notorious prisons. Thousands of Syrians today came to the Sainaya prison outside Damascus to search from missing relatives.

This is where the brutal regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad sent those who dared oppose him to disappear. A man held handfuls of nooses, he found, made of cheap nylon cord. Some were freshly used and still bloody. What did we do to deserve this, he asked. The Ministry International dubbed Sade Naya a human slaughterhouse. And now that Assad is gone, Syrians and the world can see the cruelty of his regime. They're describing this as a human press, a torture device, that prisoners like this man

is demonstrating here would be put on this slab and then crushed in order to torture them. In another torture room, Amal showed me a photo of her son Milad, missing for more than 10 years. He was sentenced for being a militant. My son was a nurse, she says. The squalid cells are now empty, broken open by the rebels Monday when hundreds of prisoners were freed. But families believe or want to believe their relatives may still be hidden in here. They broke holes in the walls searching for secret rooms and basements.

They didn't find any. Instead, they found paperwork. All over here, there are documents. It seems like this place was abandoned in a hurry. And if you come in here, you can see with flashlights. Everyone is just searching for any evidence that their loved ones may have been here, may have been executed here. This woman says her son was taken here in 2013 and never seen again.

I'm looking for evidence to give me hope he's still alive, she says. On their hands and knees, Syrians today searched for signs of love. pouring over logbooks and records. So many names, so many tragedies, Syria's blackest sight finally exposed. A Syrian human rights group says that most of this country's 100,000 missing prisoners are likely dead. Ellison? Extraordinary reporting, Richard Engel, thank you. And an NBC news exclusive, Russia confirming Syria, Syria's ousted leader,

is now taking refuge inside of Russia while also revealing that another prisoner swap with the U.S. could be on the table. Here's NBC's chief international correspondent, Keir Simmons, with that interview, and a warning, some of the images are disturbing. For the first time, Russia confirming reports it has former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in an exclusive interview with NBC News. President Assad is in Russia. It would be very wrong for me to elaborate on what's happened.

and how it was resolved. But he's secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation. The now former Syrian leader presiding over the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his own people, using chemical weapons, dropping crude barrel bombs on population centers and running a prison dubbed to the human slaughterhouse. If the Syrian people called for him to be put on trial, if the international criminal court called for him to be put on trial, would you send him for trial?

Russia is not party to the convention that established international criminal court. Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States have forces in Syria. Russia's strategic assets include a crucial navy port on the Mediterranean. Syria's official opposition has told NBC News, all foreign armies should leave within two years. But the rebels who have stormed the country include former al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters, a country that was once an ISIS stronghold. The Secretary of State's Anthony Blinken has warned,

that ISIS, the Islamic State Group, will try to use this period to re-establish its capabilities in Syria. Is that something that Russia is concerned about? Yes, very much so. This is a rare and seldom situation where I can say that we equally have concerns like the US government does. There have been reports in Russia that President Putin is preparing another potential prisoner swap timed around President-elect Trump's inauguration, A Russian-American ballerina from California was interviewed in her jail cell over the weekend, where she is serving 12 years for sending just over $50 to a Ukrainian charity. Kestnia Karolina told Russian TV, I don't even know who they might swap me for,

but I really want to believe. Sergei Ryabkov indicating they do have people in mind. There are more personalities that the Russian... government looks for for a potential swap we will definitely be prepared to consider this if i heard you right you're saying there are others in u.s jails and allies and partners of the united states who you would want to see swapped for prisoners in russia yes i just said that we would definitely consider an additional swapping scheme or even schemes if the U.S. is ready to have, you know, a constructive and forward-looking view on our priorities there.

That would be a healthy, a healthy step forward, especially at the beginning of the next administration. And Kier Simmons joins us now. Kier, fascinating reporting. In terms of Russia's war in Ukraine, that is obviously still very much ongoing. Did the foreign deputy minister say anything to you about the possibility or prospects of a ceasefire or negotiations here? Well, everybody knows, Alison, that we are just moments away, if you like, from President Trump with a mandate to try to bring peace to the war between Ukraine and Russia. We actually heard the Russian equivalent, well, heard, read the Russian equivalent of the, CIA director, write in an internal magazine for Russian intelligence, we've been able to see it. And that article says that Russia is close to achieving its goals in the war.

But are they, though? Because President Putin has suggested, Ellison, that they don't just want Domba, part of which they have already, but they want other pieces of territory, Saperitia, for example, Kherson. Now, are they going to go into negotiations, assume, they happen and bang the table and say, well, what we didn't get on the battlefield, we want now in exchange for agreeing to end the war. I asked Reabkov, Deputy Minister Reabkov, about that, and he said we want to find a way to ensure those territories who became ours over a recent period are still integral parts of Russia. That suggests that what Russia wants is to just hold on to the

It already has. One of the point, the question of security. Russia is very clear it would not accept Ukraine becoming a part of NATO, but will it accept security guarantees for what is left of Ukraine? I asked Ryabukov about that. He seemed to indicate that it would be down to negotiation. So what will happen in the talks? That is the question. Is Russia holding out maximalist goals in order for that to be a starting point in talks, or could those expectations just blow those talks out of the water, if you like? Gehr Simmons, thank you. Still ahead tonight, the health scare on Capitol Hill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seen with bandages after he fell at the Capitol, how the 82-year-old is doing tonight. Plus, the urgent evacuations underway as a wildfire in Malibu quickly spreads. The firefighters struggling to get the blaze. under control. And the new concerns over suspicious drones in New Jersey. The senator sounding the alarm calling for an emergency ban on those devices. Stay with us. We are back now and a fast-moving wildfire is exploding out west. The Franklin fire burning out of control just north of Los Angeles, racing from Malibu to the Pacific coast, torching homes.

enforcing evacuations. For more on this life-threatening wildfire, NBC news correspondent Dana Griffin joins us now from the fireline in Malibu. Dana, walk us through what you are seeing on the ground there right now and what you have seen throughout the day. Have firefighters made any progress in terms of containing the blaze? Oh, absolutely. Well, at least they've made progress in tackling those flames. We got here just after 1 o'clock this morning, and all you saw was a red glow in the sky and several spot fires. We thought the situation here was going to be much dire. At one point, skies really cleared up.

But just in the last 45 minutes, we've actually noticed more smoke in the area. We know that red flag warning is still in effect. So that could be kicking up some of the smoke that's being produced from this fire. We're actually seeing some helicopters above. Right now, this is an air attack plus a ground attack. We've seen a lot of air drops here. And this is kind of the situation now, just an orange. glow, no major active flames that we can see from our vantage point here. But there have been

some spot fires and even some fires that have run up the canyons. And those are the most concerning for firefighters because they can take off within a matter of minutes. Ellison. And we could just then see a helicopter flying kind of over that line behind you. As we head into the overnight hours and the sun will start setting there pretty soon. Our officials worried about what could happen in those overnight hours. I imagine their job gets a bit harder. Absolutely, because the red flag warning, which was produced because of the Santa Ana Wins that kicked up overnight, that is going to last through Wednesday evening. So the conditions that we experienced overnight could happen again. We hope, and we're knocking on whether that

doesn't happen. But even though firefighters have been able to tackle most of the flames here, that doesn't mean that overnight or even within a matter of minutes, those wins, wind gusts, couldn't kick up some embers and start new spot fires. So this is definitely a concern. You've still got several people evacuated from their homes. And it's important for people to just be vigilant overnight because new evacuation orders could be issued. Ellison. Dana Griffin in California, thank you and stay safe. For more on those dangerous conditions in California, let's bring an NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens. Bill, Dana mentioned the possibility of those Santa Ana winds picking up again. What are you seeing?

What weather conditions are we expecting in the coming hours and days here? Yeah, I think the first thing is how amazing of a job the firefighters did protecting structures. I mean, there's only been one or two that burned. When you look at the terrain of this area, this is Pepperdine University. And if you saw the videos from the students with the flames outside the windows at 2 in the morning, the fire was in these hills right here, right in that east side of campus. Then it kind of flowed down towards downtown Malibu. It jumped in and out of different areas.

At one time, it was burning all the way down along the coast near the pier. And then it went up today, up through the mountains, away from structure. So that was good. Even though we don't have containment, it's burning in areas further away. We do expect winds to come down overnight. We still have a chance for some isolated strong gusts. Wind advisory is still up, even for where the fire, Franklin Fire, is located. And we do have red flag warnings that are up until tomorrow morning.

These will expire about 7 to 8 a.m. So, yes, another 12 hours, just how well is in. And then things should rapidly improve. All right. Bill Carins, thank you. We appreciate it. When we return, the blast blowing up. apart a garage, a garbage truck. The explosion that was caught on camera, sending debris soaring into the air, what set off,

that dramatic eruption? We're back now with Top Stories News Feed, and we begin with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's fall during a GOP lunch. His office saying McConnell sprained his wrist and cut his face during his fall. New photos showing bandages on those injuries. It is just the latest health scare for the 82-year-old senator who also had two scares this summer freezing up in front of reporters. And a New Jersey state senator saying the state should issue a, quote, limited state of emergency over the mysterious drone sightings from the past week. State Senator John Bramnick saying the state should ban old drones until the public knows where they're coming from.

An FBI official telling Congress today that it is, quote, concerning how much. much is not known about the situation. Earlier this month, reports started popping up across that state of unidentified car-sized drones. And a massive garbage truck explosion caught on camera just outside of Chicago. New body camera footage shows the garbage truck smoldering before exploding into a fireball. Two police officers and a firefighter hospitalized in the blast. Investigators saying a fire in the truck may have lit compressed natural gas tanks leading to that enormous explosion. Turning now to a growing crisis at the southern border.

Some border communities reporting spikes in migrant deaths. A Texas State University project is working to find out who they are and where they came from. NBC News correspondent Valerie Castro traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas for this report, and we do want to warn you the following images and details could be disturbing. Hundreds of thousands of migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border every year. But for some, their arduous journey ends in a body bag. We've seen the deaths increasing in different areas that have never experienced this before, and that's alarming.

Border communities have been inundated by the deaths, 895 in 2020 alone, according to the latest CBP figures. room running out in morgues or funeral homes, some counties are now bearing the unidentified in local cemeteries, or in the case of Maverick County, storing them where they can. This refrigerated container holds the remains that are waiting to be identified, but just a few years ago, this mobile morgue held the county's overflow of bodies from the pandemic. Operation Identification. A forensic anthropology project run out of Texas State University works to give the dead a name. And when possible,

repatriate them to their home countries. The goal at the end of the day is to provide families with answers. I say answers and not closure because closure is a very personal thing. It means something different to everybody. We hold it like this. On this day, the group was in Eagle Pass, Texas, training county officials, local volunteers and Texas state students on how to examine the bodies of two unidentified migrants. A skill, Siegert says, border communities are desperately short of.

It's gotten to the point where there are just so many. people dying and not enough forensic services in the region to really accommodate this level of mass disaster. It's a grim task that involves working with the corpses of those who might have died in extreme heat or drowning in the Rio Grande. The methodology is meticulous. No detail, scar or personal item is left undocumented. After doing the initial analysis, taking measurements, looking for identifying characteristics like tattoos. Operation idea is now trying to get this man's fingerprints in hopes that he can be identified. For Zoe Becker, a Texas state computer science student,

it's her first day in the field. Seeing them like fully clothed and having to like go through their pockets, it's definitely like impacting me a lot more than I thought it would. Volunteer and lifelong Eagle Pass resident America Garcia Graywall has done this before. It's very intimate. It's very touching. And there's this hope that maybe this necklace, maybe this, you know, belonging will help us connect this person to the people who love them. The project has identified nearly 200 people out of the more than 600 cases processed since 2013. And on day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals. Now as threats of mass deportations simmer on the horizon of a new administration, the project and officials are gearing up for a spike in cases.

As migrants potentially make another push for the border. Just in seeing the numbers that have been presented in these last couple of days, the numbers have actually increased. If it would not have been for Operation ID, we would have been placed into a position to where we would have really been at a greater emergency than what we already are. This is Op ID case 1038. This individual was recovered in Terrell County. Back in a lab at Texas State. Still unidentified remains are stripped down to just their skeleton, allowing the team to estimate important details like age and height. Personal items are photographed and put online for families who might be searching for a loved one.

It's here where the reality of what the migrants may have endured overtakes the scientific process. When you're cleaning personal effects and you come across a handwritten note, photograph of family members, jewelry, things like that, something that brought comfort to them. And that's what's really the most difficult part. Finally, everything is boxed up and placed into storage, waiting for that identification number to someday turn into a name. And Valerie Castro is back from the border, joining us now here in studio. Valerie, take us into this process a little bit more.

What happens after they've identified the bodies? So the next steps are that Operation ID works in conjunction with various consulates. Once they've identified a person in what country they come from, that consulate works to try and reach out to family. in that home country, and that's when they begin the repatriation process. On the day that we were out in the field with Operation ID, they were examining the bodies of two men that had drowned. We've learned that they were able to identify those men, so now that will come the next steps,

trying to find their families. It's important work, but it's also, I imagine, expensive work. What about the cost here, and how does that get paid for? Operation ID is funded by various grants from the Department of Justice, and then the counties along the border that need the help that want Operation ID to come in and help them identify these remains, they can apply for funding through Operation Loan Star. That is the governor's program there that has sent state troopers essentially down to the border to cover the border there. So funding can come from various sources. Operation ID has determined

the exact cost of what their services are. They say it's about $13,000 to examine the remains of about 25 people. So a grim number when you put a price tag on it. And unfortunately, the number of dead found along the border, that number is likely undercounted. Valerie, thank you. We will be right back. We're back now with another major headline from the Middle East. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the stand in his long-running corruption trial. It is the first time in Israeli history that he's sitting prime minister has testified as a defendant in a criminal case. Netanyahu is facing charges of bribery, fraud, and breach

of trust in three separate cases. He denies wrongdoing and today argued that he is the victim of a witch hunt. Israeli police started their investigation back in 2016, but Netanyahu was not indicted until 2019, about three years after the investigation began. Netanyahu's long-away to testimony coming as he also faces an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Joining us now from Tel Aviv is NBC News international correspondent Raf Sanchez. Raf, tell us more about the accusations against Netanyahu, remind us of those here. And what did we hear in court today from both the prosecutors, the state, and Netanyahu? So, well, listen, Netanyahu accused of illegally accepting around $200,000 worth

of lavish gifts from Israeli businessmen, so we are talking champagne, we're talking cigars. Prosecutors also say he tried to tweak media regulations to benefit media moguls in exchange for more favorable press coverage. Now Netanyahu denies these allegations. If he's convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison. There are no juries here in Israel, so this case is going to be decided by three judges. Netanyahu sworn in by one of those judges. judges earlier today. And almost immediately, he began railing about how unfairly he feels he has been treated by both Israeli prosecutors and by the Israeli media. And Ellison, if that sounds familiar, it really echoed the way that President Trump talked ahead of his trial

in New York earlier this year. And that wasn't the only parallel. You might remember that Trump in that Manhattan court was accompanied by a number of Republican politicians, including J.D. Vance, who went on to be his running mate. Netanyahu showed up accompanied by members of his own political party, the Lakud. One of those members of parliament was actually admonished by the judge today for interrupting proceedings. That wasn't the only parallel, Netanyahu, Trump, both national leaders, but both prepared to denigrate their country's own justice systems as they go on trial. Netanyahu's defense lawyer today comparing Israel to the Soviet Union and North Korea,

as he tried to argue that his client was being... politically prosecuted. Now, the questions today are all coming from his defense, so Netanyahu had a fairly easy ride, but at some point in the next couple of weeks, he will be cross-examined by prosecutors, and those are going to be much, much tougher questions. Elsa. You know, Raf, this is a case that has been in the public eye now for almost a decade. A lot of people, even in the United States, probably remember protest against Netanyahu related to this and other things prior to the war in Gaza beginning. But break it down for us. This try as you just outlined there, there's a lot of politics associated with it. How has this

impacted Israeli politics big picture? A lot of politics, and that is a really good frame to look at this through. Israeli politics, the big question today, not so much left or right, not so much are you for or against a peace deal with the Palestinians? It is where do you stand on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There There are a number of Israeli politicians who are on the right, who ideologically agree with Netanyahu on most things, but they will not join his government because they feel it is simply not appropriate to have a prime minister who is on trial for serious criminal charges. And part of the reason that you have these very extreme far-right politicians in the Israeli

cabinet today is they are some of the only people in Israel who were willing to join Netanyahu's government even after he won the last election. If you cast your mind back before October 7th, before the Hamas attack, it feels like a long time ago, but there were major, major protests here in Israel about Netanyahu's plans to weaken the Supreme Court. And one of the things that those protesters were saying is that Netanyahu was deliberately trying to weaken the courts because he was trying to clear a path for himself to somehow get out of this criminal prosecution.

Alison. Sanchez, thank you. Now, to Top Story's Global Watch and the deadly airstrike on a marketplace in North DaFur, Sudan. New video shows chaos immediately after the strike. At least 100 people killed and hundreds more wounded. Local activists have accused the Sudanese military of carrying out the attack. The Army has denied responsibility. And Brazilian President Lula da Silva currently recovering from emergency brain surgery.

The 79-year-old was rushed to the hospital after complaining of a headache. A scan showed a brain bleed reportedly tied to a fall at home in October. The president's medical team says the surgery was successful and Lula is now in stable condition. When we come back, Jamie Fox speaking publicly for the first time after he was hospitalized, suffering from a medical emergency, what he's revealing about that health scare. Finally, tonight, Jamie Fox is opening up about a major health scare last year that has long been a mystery to the public. In a new Netflix special, the actor and comedian shares how he was seconds away from death and goes into detail about a stroke he suffered. NBC News correspondent

Liz Croyds has this report. If I can stay funny, I can stay alive. Putting the rumors to rest, actor comedian Jamie Fox telling his own story for the first time. April 11th, I was having a bad headache, and I asked my boy for aspirin. Before I could get the aspirin, I don't remember 20 days. Fox opening up in front of an attentive live audience, saying it was his sister who drove him to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to look for a potential brain bleed. Dr. Shudie came out.

He said, well, we didn't find where it was coming from, but he is having a stroke. He may be able to make a full recovery, but it's going to be the worst year of his life. The actor becoming emotional, describing the support he felt from his family. My youngest daughter, she's 14. I didn't want her to see me like that. But she snuck into my hospital room with her guitar. The duo performing together for the first time. Don't take me, no, don't take me.

Filmed in Atlanta over three nights in October, the Netflix special also featured moments of levity and music. The 56-year-old was in the midst of filming back in action with Cameron Diaz, but not on set when the medical incident occurred. Fox has mostly kept quiet about it until now and avoided cameras in the immediate aftermath, saying he didn't want fans to see him in poor health. Fox says his road to recovery has had some potholes, having to relearn basic motor skills. They said I was paralyzed. Said I couldn't walk, but look at me now. He says he's thankful to be back, bringing joy and laughs to audiences yet again. Our thanks to Liz for that report, and thank you for watching Top Story.

I'm Ellison Barber in New York for Tom Yamis. Stay right there. More news is on the way.