Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Episode Date: September 18, 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.

Breaking tonight, Diddy Locked Up, music mogul Sean Diddy Combs behind bars as he faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Combs denied bail after pleading not guilty. The sprawling indictment unsealed this morning accusing Combs of running a criminal enterprise, using his power to threaten and violently abused dozens of victims. Prosecutors alleging he orchestrated drug-fueled sex performances known as freak-offs. findings inside his home and the guns discovered after the raid on his Miami mansion. Does the state have a strong case? Are legal experts standing by to break down the latest? Also tonight, explosive messages.

Pagers in Lebanon blowing up simultaneously killing Hezbollah members and injury nearly 3,000. The shocking video is showing a man picking out fruit when his device suddenly explodes. The Iranian-backed militant group accusing Israel of a coordinated attack. How Israel and the U.S. are responding, and how exactly was this pulled off? Back here at home, a Florida sheriff frustrated over school shooting threats, taking a controversial step. The deputy releasing the mugshot and perp walk of an 11-year-old charged with threatening to commit a mass shooting. We speak with parents about if they think the move goes too far.

Stolen flowers? Pop star Miley Cyrus sued over her Grammy-award-winning hit, Flowers. Cyrus accused of copying a Bruno Mars chart-topping song when I was your man. We'll hear from an expert in these cases and play you both songs so you can judge for yourself. And meditating with AI, wellness author Deepak Chopra sits down with Top Story to discuss his new embrace of artificial intelligence.

How Chopra is expanding his reach, allowing his followers to ask an AI version of himself for advice on everything from romance to managing stress, So can manufactured intelligence powered by technology really help you reach a state of peace? And new restrictions on Instagram accounts, the sweeping update aimed at protecting teens, will they really work? Top story. It starts right now. And good evening. Tonight, hip-hop artist and music titan, Sean Diddy Combs, is behind bars inside of a New York jail right now, where he will remain until, trial, a judge denying Combs' bail after he pled not guilty to racketeering and sex trafficking

charges. The moment marking a stunning fall from grace for the 90s and early 2000s hip-hop icon, his arrest culminating in a months-long investigation, which resulted in a sprawling grand jury indictment. That indictment unsealed just this morning, accusing Combs of leading a criminal enterprise that committed a number of crimes, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors allege the music mogul weaponized his fame and status to coerce victims and to sexual acts dubbed freak-offs. The state revealing some pieces of evidence, including weapons they discovered when federal

officials raided his homes, adding that the firearms were used to intimidate and threaten not just his victims, but those who witnessed the abuse. Some of the guns had the serial numbers scratched off. His lawyer maintaining his client's innocence as he left court this afternoon. He's going to clear his name, and we're going to stand by his side as he does. We believe in him wholeheartedly. Now, federal prosecutors allege Combs engaged in a pattern of abuse, even pointing to graphic video which showed a violent altercation between Diddy and his then-girlfriend musical artist Cassie Ventura. We do want to warn you this video is disturbing.

The security cam video obtained by CNN shows the rapper punching, kicking, and dragging Cassie in a hotel hallway back in 2016. Just this past November, Did he settle a lawsuit with Cassie after she accused him of sexual and physical abuse? Will she be a witness in this case? And what about the other civil suits still pending against Diddy? Our legal experts standing by with what to expect. But first, NBC's Chloe Malaw starts off our coverage in Lower Manhattan. Tonight, Sean Diddy Combs behind bars, a federal judge denying the music mogul bail following his arrest and indictment, as federal prosecutors allege Combs is dangerous and poses an ongoing

threat to the safety of the community. In court today, Combs pleading not guilty to three federal counts, sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Sean Combs led and participated in criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the obstruction of justice. In an indictment unsealed this morning, federal prosecutors say since 2008, Combs abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.

As alleged, when Combs didn't get his way, he was violent, and he's subjective victims of physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. Combs is arrested in New York City Hotel Monday night comes six months after federal authorities raided the Grammy winner's homes in Los Angeles and Miami. Today, revealing what they say they found, firearms, including three defaced AR-15s in his bedroom closet, and videos of elaborately produced sex performances with multiple victims, known as freak-offs, according to prosecutors. Freak-offs sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers, and often involved a variety of narcotics. such as ketamine, ecstasy, and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant.

An attorney for Combs maintaining his client's innocence. Mr. Combs is a fighter. He's going to fight this to the end. He's innocent. Today's federal case following a string of civil suits, including one filed last week, by a member of the girl group, Danity Kane. As well as a settlement with singer Cassie,

seen in this 2016 surveillance video being physically attacked by Combs. Cassie later filing a civil suit accusing Combs of raping and physically abusing her. The terms of their 2023 settlement were not disclosed. An attorney for Combs telling a judge today that Mr. Combs is not a perfect person. These toxic relationships were mutual, adding, is it sex trafficking if everyone wants to be there? We don't want the federal government in our bedroom. But tonight, federal prosecutors are leaving the door open for even more arrests,

saying Combs did not act alone. I'm not taking anything off the table. All right, Chloe Malas joins us tonight live from Lower Manhattan in front of that courthouse. Chloe, you were inside when all of this was going down. What was Combs like? Hey there, Tom. It was a two-hour arraignment, and I was just a few feet away from Sean Combs, and he was unemotional. I mean, really expressionless. He looked exhausted. It looked like maybe he had even been crying. Obviously, it had been a long night. He had been arrested and caught off guard

at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, you know, about 12 hours earlier when federal authorities, they just arrested him right there in the hotel lobby in a source telling me that he was blindsided. But, you know, he cooperatively, Tom, was led away by the U.S. Marshals, and his attorney, Mark Agnifalo, is saying that they plan to appeal this as early as tomorrow, and there actually is going to be a bail appeal hearing tomorrow right behind me at 3.30. Chloe, I'm curious, you cover the entertainment industry for NBC News. Is anyone in the entertainment industry coming out to defend Sean Combs tonight? I actually just did a Google search to see if in the wake of this indictment being unsealed today, did anyone, any individuals of those who he helped bolster their careers, who helped make these individuals into Grammy winners or household names like Faith Evans, like Mace, like French Montana.

is saying anything. And that could just be because they want to see how things are going to play out. We do know, though, Tom, that there are two documentaries in the works. There is one with ID Discovery that is supposedly going to be dropping in the next couple of months, and then, or sooner. And then also Netflix is doing a documentary reportedly with 50 cent. And that reportedly has some big names, and we don't know who, but we could see people sitting down in potential docu-series or documentaries. But in terms of social media, or public statements or even in the courtroom when I was there today. I saw his sons. I saw his family members. I saw some friends, but I didn't see any celebrities, Tom. All right, Chloe,

Malas, a lot of new reporting tonight for us on this case. Chloe, we thank you for that. For more on Dittie's indictment and his day in court, I want to bring in our expert legal panel tonight. Sarah Azari's a criminal trial attorney and a good friend of top story. And NBC news legal analyst, Danny Savalos. For the purpose of this segment, we're going to have Sarah play the prosecutor and Danny will cover the defense. Sarah, I'm going to start with you. What are the two biggest pieces of evidence in this case after going through that indictment. Well, Tom, good to be with you. You know, we've got various categories of evidence, but, Lordy, there are tapes, right?

We know from this indictment that there are videotapes that Sean Combs was taping a lot of these sex acts and violent sex acts, and there was a rate of his home, so I'm presumably, I believe, there's some videotapes. There are definitely some pretext audio calls, which are very important, and this doesn't really meet the eye looking at the indictment. because in order to have a racketeering charge stick, you need to have at least one of the predicate acts to have occurred within the last five years. Well, the allegation is that in the fall of 2023, when it became obvious that there was an investigation, that Combs made phone calls

to some of these witnesses and essentially tried to obstruct justice and maybe even some bribery. So that allegation is very important, and apparently there's phone calls that are recorded in that regard. you have a slew of witnesses, people in his entourage that have cooperated for several months with the federal government where, okay, we can attack their credibility because there are people, but again, tapes don't lie, video doesn't lie. So the evidence is pretty strong here. Danny, we talked earlier right after he was denied bail. You were somewhat surprised about how this whole thing went down when we were talking. They offered up $50 million and the judge still

said no. Explain why. Yeah, they could have offered a billion dollars because the reality is it's all about the finding whether or not he is a risk of flight, which the government must prove by a preponderance of the evidence, or he is a danger to the community, which they actually must prove by a higher burden, clear and convincing evidence. And the government submitted a document, a letter to the court that was longer than their indictment itself making the argument that Diddy should be held, even though the Bail Reform Act creates a presumption that defendant should be released pending trial in certain circumstances if no conditions can ensure or at least persuade the judge that it's safe to let this defendant out,

then the judge has the authority to hold the defendant, no matter how much money he's willing to put up. And most defendants simply don't have anywhere close to the amount that Diddy has to put up as a bond. So this is not a hard number. 50 million to Diddy is the equivalent of a couple thousand dollars to an indigent defendant who has no money. Right. Sarah, do we have a sense of how many victims may be out there, number one? And number two, can more victims come forward? to help the prosecution's case? So we don't know yet how many victims are out there. We know there's victim number one

that is named as victim number one in the indictment. There's also another victim. So there's two victims within the four corners of the indictment. But this was an invitation for other people to come forward. I mean, there was actually a statement made by the U.S. attorney for SDNY in the presser about people coming forward. And I guarantee you, having defended these cases,

that there are people that are already being vetted that have come forward, but maybe not ready enough to present to a grand jury. So I expect that we're going to see a superseding indictment here that this is not going to be limited just to Cassie or whoever else is in the four corners of this indictment. But one other point I wanted to make to Danny's point, you know, I kept thinking about the denial of bond here, and I agree with Danny completely. But also, this is SDNY, where most of the cases that come before the bench are white-collar cases. And now you have these accusations of really egregious violent behavior that shocks the conscience of this bench. So I'm not at all surprised that bail was denied. Danny, if you were the defense attorney, if you were

representing Diddy right now, where would you start your defense? Well, you've already gotten a preview. And the notion that, hey, no one was there against their will. They all were willing participants. These were consenting adults. You said the magic word, consent. The problem for the defense is Consent isn't going to get you that far with these three counts. Here's what I mean. Consent is a defense to some crimes, like kidnapping, for example. But it is not a defense to RICO. And for count two and three, it is not a defense to a violation of what's called the Man Act.

That's count three transporting someone across state lines for illegal purposes, the crime underlying crime being prostitution. In fact, consent isn't really a defense to prostitution at all. So consent isn't going to get ditty to an acquittal across. the board. He needs something more than that. And it will probably be some variation of they are all lying, which when you don't have much else as a criminal defense attorney, sometimes that's all you go. But if you are the defense attorney, you have a lot of people here who have lawsuits, lawsuits that are demanding a lot of money of ditty. Can they challenge the credibility of some of those witnesses? Absolutely. In fact, they will certainly, on cross-examination,

inquire about that. The problem with that is that juries understand that, not all witnesses are perfect. In fact, that is the essence of the cooperating witness that the federal government uses so, so well. These are people who are flawed, who have committed crimes themselves, often, or even the victims who have committed no crimes. They may be people who are not perfect people themselves.

Juries get that. But it is the criminal defense attorney sworn duty to inquire into all of these credibility issues, and certainly having a civil lawsuit is ripe for the picking. You've got to address that in cross-examination. Sarah, before we go, if Diddy decides to plead guilty to some of these charges, will he do prison time? Yeah, and that's a lot of time, Tom, because typically, statutorily, a RICO charge carries up to 10 years in federal prison. But when you have a predicate offense like kidnapping, for example, here, that carries life, that extends that exposure under the RICO charge of 20 years to life.

So he's looking at 20 years to life on the RICO. He's looking at 20 years to life on the sex trafficking and then up to 10 years on the transportation for prostitution. He's looking at a lot of time. This is not a case where he's going to accept any kind of plea offer because the plea offer is not going to be something that is acceptable. The stakes are really, really high here. Danny, we have 10 seconds. Is this case possibly winnable for Diddy's defense attorneys? The numbers are pretty grim in federal court.

90% of all federal criminal defendants plead guilty of the 10% of the 10% of the case. so that go to trial, 90 plus percent of them are found guilty. If you're a criminal defense attorney, Sarah knows this. You do not want to be in federal court. It is really depressing to be there. You'd much rather be in state or local court. Danny Savalos, Sarah Azari, always a pleasure to have you guys. We thank you. We do want to move on now to our other major story. This one happening overseas Hezbollah tonight, blaming Israel for an unprecedented attack that involved blowing up the pagers of its members across Lebanon. You heard me right. It comes amid fears of a wider war as conflict escalates in the Middle East.

Ralph Sanchez has our latest reporting. Tonight, explosions like this across Lebanon. As the Hezbollah militant group says, hundreds of pagers belonging to its members detonated simultaneously, calling it a massive coordinated attack and blaming Israel. Look again. The explosion injures the man with the pager, but causes almost no damage around him. Lebanon says almost 3,000 people were wounded, including the Iranian ambassador, and at least nine killed, among them several children. Iranian-backed Hezbollah uses pagers to avoid Israeli

surveillance. Israel tonight refusing to say if it was behind what appears to be an unprecedented intelligence operation. Have you ever seen anything on this scale before? No. No, I haven't. It really is a remarkable sort of milestone in the the pantheon of intelligence security activities. Hours earlier, Israel said it foiled a Hezbollah assassination plot using a landmine. The latest escalation in a conflict, many fear, is now spiraling towards all-out war. Raf Sanchez joins us tonight from Tel Aviv. Raf, can you explain exactly what these devices are?

I mean, when you say pagers, there are images of beepers that may be coming to people's heads. Is that what we're talking about? It is, Tom. Every indication we have at this point is that these are standard pagers, that in 1980s, 1990s technology that you might use to send a message to your doctor when they are out of the office. And these devices seem to have worked, functioned. Hesbola used them for months, it appears. And the reason that Hesbola was relying on this analog technology is that they believed that Israel, with its vast electronic surveillance capabilities, was able to hack into smartphones.

So they thought that this was the safest thing to do. And instead, these pagers turned out to be miniature bombs. That leads to my next question, right? And the big question, which is Israel hasn't claimed responsibility just yet. But if they did, if they did do this, do we know how they might have pulled this off? That is the key question at this point, Tom. We don't have any details confirmed. But as you saw in the piece, I spoke to former...

CIA director John Brennan earlier. He said his best guess is that Israeli operatives somehow got into the supply chain of these pagers. So just for example, Israel may have found out that Hezbollah was ordering these pagers from a specific company. Israeli operatives potentially getting into the shipment before it arrived in Lebanon, planting small explosives into each of these individual devices, closing the case up, sending it on to Lebanon into the hands of Hezbollah. operatives who then carried it around on their belts, in their pockets, until that explosion at around 3.30 Beirut time earlier today. All right, Ralph Sanchez, on that breaking story out of Tel Aviv for us tonight.

Raf, we appreciate that. For more on these explosions, I'm joined now by Michael Allen. He's the former senior director at the National Security Council and former staff director of the House Intel Committee. Michael, thanks for joining Top Story tonight. I want to pick up where I left off there with Raf because my producers have informed me. There's some new reporting tonight from the New York Times. New York Times saying this. According to officials, Israel planted the explosives inside new beepers sold to Hezbollah. According to their reporting, the pagers which Hezbollah had ordered from gold Apollo and Taiwan had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon. Then the explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered to remotely detonate the explosives. Again, this is the New York Times reporting. NBC News has an independent.

independently confirmed that. But Michael, if the New York Times has it right tonight, is this real? Could this really have happened that way? It absolutely could, Tom. U.S. intelligence, others around the world have used this type of sabotage, this type of a supply chain infiltration for generations. This must be the most bold and most daring I've ever heard of, but I think it's entirely possible that Mossad, one of the most capable intelligence agencies in the world was able to get inside of this and figure out a way, not only to put explosives, but in another way to trigger it remotely all at 3.30 local time in Lebanon today. So this was extraordinary, and I think it's, again, another example

of Israel trying to get into the heads of their enemies as a war looms on the horizon. Are you surprised at the sophistication of an attack like this? I mean, even the former head of the CIA seemed to be impressed, or at least wondering how they would have pulled this off? I am very impressed. I think this is almost to the degree of shocking. You know, we've heard that terrorists and other groups like to use analog technology, and that's one impressive way to get around our digital. Apple phones and the rest, but the fact that they were somehow able to send a signal across the country and only blow up phones that were apparently on the hips of Hezbollah terrorists is extraordinary. It feels like there was such a small amount of explosives there that had limited

collateral damage. I know that there are reports of some innocents perhaps being killed, but largely I think we're going to find out that the collateral damage was limited, and And that was, of course, by design, by Israel, to send a message to Hezbollah and their patrons in Iran that we can hit you anywhere. We are inside your supply chains, and we are inside your intelligence services. I do want to ask you about that, right? Because you mentioned the collateral damage. Thousands are saying we're injured by this attack. I understand Israel is at war right now, right? A war on many different fronts. But does something like this, is this deemed out of bounds and people say there are no rules in war. But I'm wondering, as someone

like yourself, you spent years in intelligence and you understand these concepts, is this a little too abrasive or is this what it takes for Israel to defend itself? I think this is what you would call covert action here in the United States. We, of course, had a predator program and we targeted terrorists all around the globe, especially in Afghanistan and Yemen and elsewhere. I think this is the Israeli equivalent of it. They have a strong presence in Lebanon. They have a big presence also in Syria. You recall last week, they were able to get commandos into Syria to blow up a drone factory embedded inside of a mountain. So I think these are intelligence, covert activities short of war. And that's what they're trying to do, is not

necessarily get into a war with Lebanon or with Hezbollah yet, but it is some place that Bibi Netanyahu is hinted that he wants to go when he's finished with Hamas down in Gaza. Michael Allen, we appreciate this conversation. Learned a lot. We appreciate your analysis. We do want to switch gears here. Back here at home to a headline you may have read, the new protections for children being rolled out by Instagram's parent company, META. The social media giant introducing a new feature called Instagram. teen accounts. The move aimed at users under the age of 18 allowing parents to control things like when and even who their child interacts with. NBC Savannah Sellers has more.

Tonight, Meta rolling out Instagram teen accounts, a feature with built-in restrictions for users under 18, like default private accounts, so teens have to accept new followers, messaging restrictions, and time limits prompting breaks. Meta says users under 16 will need parental permission to opt out of these settings. But enforcing this could be. be a challenge. We've built new technology to try to identify people who may be misrepresenting their age. How confident are you that you can identify a teen's age properly? This is one of the big challenges for industry. There's no sureproof way to verify somebody's age. We ask for age when someone joins the platform. We use signals to ask teens to then verify their age.

Because if a teen is able to say that they are older than they actually are, they could, in theory, escape all these protections. We anticipate that some of them will try to do that, which is exactly why we've built these mechanisms. This comes as META's been hit with several lawsuits alleging the company is harmful to young people. Meta says parents will now have more control. They'll be able to see who their teens are messaging with and even block access to the app. For parents who aren't convinced that this is enough to keep their teens safe, which, What do you say? Well, we've been consulting with parents for many, many months. And it's our sincere hope that they will find that these answer their biggest concerns, these protections.

But we will be taking continual feedback from parents. And with that, Savannah Sellers joins us now in studio. So Savannah, listening to your report there, you talk about this one hour limit. How did Meta come up with that? Yeah, because what do you think of that? A lot or a little? I thought it was a lot, but I asked some of our staffers and they told me that that's actually a little. Yeah, and it's actually significantly less. than what average estimates from experts put social media use for teenagers at generally across the board. But what is it? Just real quick.

Depends on which study you want to look at, but some put it up to six hours a day between all the different apps that young people are spending on their phones. Two things that I think are important here. First, to answer your question, how did they come up with that? They had input from doctors and specifically from parents, a process that they say that they are still open to. They want to continue to hear from parents as they roll this out. But also one of the other new features here is that sleep mode, because that's, I think, where those hours get so high, right? Is where a kid is in their room. It's bedtime.

A parent doesn't realize that what they're actually doing is doom scrolling. Instagram's trying to put a stop to that. Probably the worst time to do that as well. I also want to ask you, how easy is it to get around these restrictions? Because I have a little guy who's six years old and he can figure out how to get over some of the guardrails we put up on the TV or a tablet. So I just wonder for teenagers who are way more savvy, will these restrictions really work? Yeah, it's a really good question. The way that they are framing this, and these haven't rolled out yet, is essentially that these restrictions are tied to parental control.

So parents will be able to, essentially, from their own phone, have a lot of control about what's going on on their young person's account. Now, to your point, yes, are there ways that a young person could probably figure out how to get around this, changing passwords, figuring out their parents' passwords, things like that. Probably, and I think that that's something that you just have to be aware of within the home. But right now, they are touting one feature in particular that I think could make a real difference is a parent's ability to, to completely block their teenagers' access to the app. They can essentially turn Instagram off for their teenager during this time. And importantly, to this point as well, these go into effect immediately, automatically for young people. If you are under the age of 18, you automatically get this teen account.

You're not opting in. It's what they've decided now are the rules for you. So starting today, right now, it's there. Starting today, if you sign up for a new Instagram account, yes. If you have an existing account, it'll roll out over the coming weeks. All right. Savannah Sellers, a lot of great info there. We thank you for that. All right, still ahead tonight. Suspicious packages sent to election officials in at least 12 states. What's going on? Some containing white powder, prompting evacuations, delay the counting of early voting in some cases, what we're hearing from the FBI. Plus, a Florida sheriff igniting a controversy after posting a mugshot and video of an 11-year-old accused of threatening a mass shooting, why he says he decided to show that minor's face online. We're going to explain. And Miley Cyrus, did you hear about this one, sued over her Grammy-winning flowers. The song she's accused of ripping off will play them both for you right here on top story. Stay with us. We're just getting started on this Tuesday night.

We're back now with a controversial move by police in Florida as part of a crackdown on school shooting hoaxes. The Valusa County sheriff posting an 11-year-old's mugshot and perpwalk on Facebook after he allegedly threatened a mass shooting. That sheriff saying he wants to send a message to both students and their parents. NBC's Valde Castro reports. Tonight, an 11-year-old in handcuffs paraded into a Florida jail cell. The video shared publicly on social media

by the county sheriff in an effort, he says, to send a message about school shooting hoaxes. You don't stand up on an airplane and yell hijack. You don't walk into a movie theater and yell fire, and you don't get online and post that you're going to shoot up at school. Slow and steady. What are you here for today? The video begins with the board.

being led from a Volusia County deputy's vehicle. His hands cuffed behind his back. We've blurred the boy's face because he's a minor. Followed his deputy here. Right this way, young man. He's led into a secure facility where an official puts shackles on each of his ankles before walking him into an empty jail cell. Have a seat and cell. We're going to gather up some paperwork and get things started for you. Do you have any questions? All right. Sheriff Chitwood says the middle school student is accused of showing these weapons, including knives, swords, airsoft rifles and fake ammunition to other students on FaceTime and allegedly writing out a list of names and targets. The boy allegedly telling

deputies it was all a joke. The sheriff adding he publicly shared video showing the boy's face and his mugshot because the student has been charged with a felony, making a written threat of a mass shooting, warning other students and parents that threats, real or fake, will not be tolerated. Sherib, we're going to start publishing his face and doing perp walks with them and we take him into custody. And then we're going to show pictures of you, the parents, because you don't want to raise your kid, Sheriff Chitwood's going to raise him. Chitwood says 54 tips have come in about shooting threats. All of them were deemed bogus, adding that this particular hoax cost more than $20,000 in resource response. Law enforcement officials across Florida have been tracking numerous

threats since the school year began. In Broward County, officials said they have already arrested nine students, ages 11 to 15, for making threats since August. You think it's a joke. You're going to find your ass in handcuffs. Sheriff Chitwood's video drawing more than a thousand comments online, many calling on the boys' parents to be held accountable. NBC News has reached out to the family but have not heard back. Other parents at the boys' school speaking to the local NBC affiliate in Orlando. Makes you not want to send your kids to school. It really does. You don't know what's going on with the parents. You don't know what's going on with the people around it.

and it's horrible. It's so sad. The tactic, perhaps unconventional, but the sheriff not backing down from his own threats. Parents get your kids in line or your checkbook's going to hurt and your pride's going to hurt, I promise. Okay, Valerie Castro joins us now, so he's going to appear in a Volusia County courtroom. Do we know anything about this court appearance for the 11-year-old? So he made his first court appearance today, and just like the sheriff, it seems like the judge is not messing around and says he found probable cause to keep the child in custody for the next 21 days. That's according to our NBC affiliate in Orlando.

We also reached out to the school district, and a district spokesperson in an email says, while they can't comment specifically on a student's disciplinary matters, they did say the district is thankful to the students who saw or heard about this threat and reported it. All right, Valerie Castro, I know this story is not going anywhere. All right, coming up, the new warnings about the dangerous virus. Official scene, a spike in cases of a respiratory illness. that can cause paralysis in children, what precautions parents can take. That's next.

We are back now with Top Stories at News Feed, and we begin with the FBI investigation into suspicious packages sent to election officials across the country. The packages, some containing white powder, were sent to secretaries of state and election officials in at least 12 different states. There were no reports that, any of the packages contained hazardous materials, but the scare did cause disruptions in ballot

county when offices were evacuated with early voting underway in some states. Scientists sounding the alarm about a respiratory virus that can paralyze children, officials finding a spike in levels of D-68 in U.S. wastewater samples. The virus can sometimes lead to an illness called AFN that causes severe weaknesses, weakness in the arms and legs. There's currently no cure, So doctors urged parents to take the same precautions they would for other viruses like washing hands and wearing a mask while sick. Okay, a daring robbery in Atlanta caught on camera. A video shows two suspects crashing through the ceiling of a cash checking business, nearly crashing into an employee before ordering her to the ground. The suspects then walked the employee to multiple safes, stealing them more, stealing more than $150,000.

A customer at one point walking in while the robbery was happening, police are still searching for those. suspects. Okay, now to Miley Cyrus, the pop megastar, facing a lawsuit tonight, alleging that her hit song, Flowers, copied elements of a Bruno Mars song from the 2010s. Cyrus's flowers dominating the airwaves in 2023, you may remember, helping push the start of new heights. NBC Stephen Romo took a listen to both songs and dove into whether the suit has any merit. I just won my first Grammy. Miley Cyrus may have taken home music's biggest honor at the Grammys this year for the song Flowers. I can buy myself flowers.

But now a lawsuit is alleging that's not the only thing she took. It says Cyrus copied elements of Bruno Mars's 2013 hit when I was your man. Listen to them side by side. Same bad, but it feels just a little bit bigger now. The suit also alleging the songs have similar lyrics. That I should have bought you flowers and held your hand. Compared to Cyrus's flowers, I can borrow us of flowers, I can hold my hand. I think the case here is reasonably strong.

The standard for the similarity is really just what a jury will think if they hear these songs. How similar in the jury's mind is it? And to me, hearing the songs, they sound strikingly similar. Mars is not a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. His representatives did not respond to our request for comment. Instead, tempo music investments is behind the suit. The group owns a share of the copyrights, which it acquired from a co-writer of When I Was Your Man. Too young, too dumb to realize. The lawsuit saying, quote, any fan of Bruno Mars, when I your man knows that Miley Cyrus's flowers did not achieve all of that success on its own. Cyrus has not responded to an NBC news request for comment.

But her fans have sounded off on X saying things like why the sudden cash grab moment and they're just money hungry people. Alongside Cyrus in the suit, more than two dozen companies involved in the song's distribution. Tempo music is asking for damages that would be determined later at trial and it's asking for a judge to prevent Cyrus and the others named in the suit from distributing or performing flowers. Cyrus, no stranger to lawsuits like this, the singer settling a $300 million suit over her song, We Can't Stop, about four years ago. Other artists facing similar accusations, Ed Sharon beating another massive one last year for his song, Thinking Out Loud.

Just before another was dropped against Dua Lipa's hit, Levitating. But back in 2015, a judge ordering Robin Thick and Farrell Williams to pay $5 million for allegedly copying parts of a Marvin Gay song in their hit, Blurred Lines. Now, after Cyrus's flowers spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2023, its future, is in limbo. Stephen Romo, NBC News. All right, when we come back, Deepak Chopra joins Top Story,

and he's bringing his AI twin with him, how the wellness expert is using new technology to answer your questions about spirituality, love, and mindfulness. But is the digital Deepak as good as the real one? We'll put it to the test and talk to the man himself. Stay with us.

We are back now with Top Story Spotlight, And our next guest is Doctor and Wellness expert, Deepak Chopra. He's known for his extensive writing and research on the intersection of science and spirituality, but now he's diving into the world of artificial intelligence. You heard me write with his most recent book, Digital Dharma, how AI can elevate spiritual intelligence and personal well-being. And his new venture called Digital Deepak,

it's an AI twin version of himself, where users can actually ask him anything about spirituality, love, wellness, mindfulness. Here's an example of how it works when asked, how do I get a better night's sleep? To improve your sleep, prioritize relaxation and reduce over-stimulation, such as using smartphones in bed. Aim for eight hours of sleep and incorporate self-care into your routine.

Set an intention for restful sleep and practice deep breathing and progressive relaxation. Maintain a consistent routine, including meditation and exercise. If you're still struggling after two weeks, seek further advice. Remember, your attitude towards sleep can greatly influence your sleep quality. And tonight, we are lucky enough to be joined by the real-life version in studio today. Deepak, thank you so much for being here on Top Story tonight. Thank you. So I'm going to start with some tough questions, right?

I want to understand this. Being in the moment, meditating, reaching mindfulness is all about authenticity. And yet artificial intelligence is not real, right? It is manufactured. So how can you depend on something like that to help you reach inner peace? So I think the right word would be augmented human intelligence, because it is human intelligence that goes into the artificial intelligence machine. But remember, you and this book and this table are different only in digital codes.

Everything can be mathematically through zeros and ones. The entire universe comes from a digital code of cosmic consciousness outside of space and time. The difference between you and a mountain or a book or a piece of furniture or a rock is just zeros and ones. So this is an extension of who we are. We are already in a virtual reality. But that's, okay, but you can also say, maybe I believe I have a soul, I have a spirit. This book has no soul, this book has no spirit? Yeah, this book doesn't have a soul, it doesn't have subjective experience.

So, you know, it doesn't feel hungry, it doesn't fear death, it doesn't have existential dilemmas, it doesn't have sexual urges, so that is what actually our spirit is. It's a subjective experience. But this is objective mapping of subjective experience. So AI, even though it's called artificial intelligence, it's not intelligence. It's just a database for the entire history of human knowledge, whether it's spiritual people or philosophers or scientists. So you have access to the luminaries of humanity and you have access to multiple languages.

We speak in narrative language as biological language, language of physics, mathematics, whatever you know. The entire database of humankind is there. It's almost like Aladdin's lamp. Right. You know, you press a few buttons and you can access the mind of Plato. Were you concerned because AI is still being vetted? And the people that are going to go to this site, the people that read your books,

may be in a vulnerable state. Well, that's why it has to be authentic. It doesn't go to other search engines. It's not a large language model. It has access to 95 of my books, and every time I speak, it gets registered. Every time I do an interview, this one will be on Digital Deepak. So it also uses something called a rag model. Rag means retrieval augmentation generation, which means if anything is inaccurate,

and delete it automatically. And everything is valid, it will upgrade the... Do you think it can be trusted? If you trust Deepak, then you'll trust. digital Deepak. If you don't trust Deepak, as many probably don't, then you can't trust it. I don't think Donald Trump would go to it. Is it as good as Deepak? I mean, if I went to you for help, is it as good as talking to you, talking to the AI?

It's better. Because it's better? How can it be better? Because a lot of things I said 50 years ago are not valid anymore. Okay? And a lot of things need to be upgraded. And it will outlive me. And it will keep upgrading. So maybe more. more efficient, but maybe not better. Yeah, it doesn't have a soul. So you told us exactly how it works. What do you think, or how do you explain, how is this different from Googling something? See, the way I've written a book and the way I've structured Digital Deepak is for

four things only. It's a personal confidant and can become your best friend. And you can share ideas, you can say, I want to reflect on life, and, you know, it becomes your friend. if you use the right prompts, number one. Number two, it's a research assistant and a better research assistant than Google because it has instant research on the latest algorithms that correlate everything. So it's a research assistant, it's a personal friend, it's a health coach, both physical

and mental. Finally, it's a spiritual guide. No guru can compete with all the gurus of human. humanity since the dawn of history. We could have that debate, but I don't think we're going to have enough time. I do want to talk more about the site, Digital Deepak. We put it to the test here at Top Story, and we got pretty deep, pretty fast, right? So the first question we asked is, how do I take control of my own life?

Let's take a listen. Embrace uncertainty and be responsive to changing situations. Work on psychological blocks like guilt and shame and free yourself emotionally. Don't regret the past or fear the future. Be willing to redefine yourself daily. Examine your own controlling behavior. Be more accepting and non-judgmental. Learn to bend with the situation.

Remember, you are not fortunes fool. You can surf the wave of uncertainty. Beautiful. What do you think when you hear that? Well, it's my stuff, you know. The wisdom of uncertainty is something I've always supported because everything is uncertain, especially the future. But when you listen to that, right, are there pieces of you that want to add something,

maybe take away something as you're listening to it? Are you thinking about how would I deliver this to somebody who was asking for help? No, it's a pretty good summary, but, you know, that's the short answer. If you want, you can ask for a longer answer. Okay. And it'll give you a longer answer. And it'll answer in English, Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, Arabic, Spanish. Here's another one we asked him. This one's kind of tough, right? Here we go. Why am I not loved? Let's listen.

Can stem from core beliefs about oneself, such as I am not lovable, or if they really knew me, other people would reject me. It's crucial to challenge these damaging beliefs. Remember, love starts from within. When you cultivate self-love, you'll attract love from others. That is impressive, Deepak. I must say, what do you think? What do you think I created it? Yeah. Are you impressed by it?

I'm impressed by the technology and the fact that it can instantly retrieve an answer from 95 of my books, from every speech I've given, from every video I've done, from every interview I've partaken in. How long did it take you to buy into this to say, okay, I'm willing to do this because there is a risk here, right? You have a brand, as you mentioned, you are a guru. You're someone people believe in. You're someone who's helped a lot of people. You've got to make sure that your brand cannot be harmed by something like this. So how long did it take for you to get on board with this? Took a few years, but I've always been interested in this project for last decade or so more than that.

But it took some time. And remember, every technology, what distinguishes us from other species is that we create technology. We created fire. Now you can create a forest. fire with that. You can cook food. But if we hadn't discovered fire, you wouldn't have thermodynamics, you wouldn't have turbine engines, you wouldn't have the industrial age. Somebody created a knife. You can kill with a knife, but a surgeon can heal with a knife. You created somebody created a hammer. You can knock somebody dead with a hammer, but you can also do carpentry. So there's no technology

that doesn't have... Do you know what questions are being asked the most on the side? Yeah, most of them are about spirituality and mental well-being and relationships. And relationships. People are very interested in relationships. And building better relationships. Finally, Deepak, since we have you here, can you please leave our viewers with some guidance and some wisdom since we have you here in the flesh? Every day cultivate an attitude and set an intention

for a joyful, energetic body, a loving, compassionate art, a quiet, reflective, creative mind, and most importantly, lightness of being joy. I heard joy a lot on your program recently. Yeah, Deepak, we thank you so much. Thanks for being here. The book is called Digital Dharma. You saw the site. It is pretty impressive, I must say, but it's great to have you in the flesh and the real person. Thank you so much, Deepak. And when we come back and update to a story, we brought you earlier this year, a man who was born into slavery, later renting a home to a Chinese-American family at a time when no one else would. The incredible way they're now paying it forward and the moment both families were reunited for the first time in a generation. Stay with us. Finally tonight, an update to something we told you about here on Top Story. Two families in California, bound by a history of kindness, flipping the script on the American dream. Showing us the real dream is not just in buying a home, but in passing the opportunity to others.

NBC Steve Patterson has this follow-up. This is something, though, you know. In the picturesque neighborhood of Coronado, California, a homecoming full of history. Oh my god. Hello. This is so amazing. It is. This small house, home to two families over the last hundred years, coming together for the first time in a generation. I'm so glad that you came. It's like the icing on the camera. It really is. The current owners, a Chinese family, the Dongs. My brother and I both lived in that room. It wasn't very big. But before them, the time. The time. Thompson's, their great-grandchildren, visiting this house for the first time. In its own way, it was quite emotional to be in the house, which I hadn't been, and to be in

the house with the dongs. Great-grandfather Gus Thompson was born into slavery, enduring a life in the Jim Crow South for decades before moving west and settling here with his wife Emma, a pioneer at a time when the state's black population was less than percent. Coronado historian Kevin Ashley traced the family history. The library stable was the only place for several decades where an African American could rent a bed to sleep in Coronado. Their old original house, they usually rented out to immigrants. Lloyd and Ron Dong, still thankful for the opportunity that turned their family from renters to owners. The Thompson's gave my parents the ability to make the American dream a house in a safe place.

to live. A move that defied the exclusionary housing practices against Chinese immigrants at the time. That's one of the great parts of the story is to Gus and Emma, this was not a big deal. It was the right thing to do. Now, decades later, they're honoring that spirit. We are so grateful to see the Thompson's legacy of caring for others continue through the Dong family's generous gifts. Selling the house and donating millions here to the Black Resource Center. at nearby San Diego State University, all in the name of Gus and Emma Thompson. This may be just the thing that makes them thrive. The Dongs, who spent decades in education, now hoping to pass on the chance of the American

dream to the next generation through students like Tajudine Henry. I think it also represents a larger sense of togetherness that I would love to see extend throughout America. I think the world is ready for More of the Thompson-Dong spirit. Both the Thompsons and the dogs, reminding us all, the real American dream can't fit in a house. Do something nice for someone. It doesn't have to be $5 million, but do something nice and pay it forward. Steve Patterson, NBC News.

We thank Steve Patterson for that wonderful story, and we thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamerson, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way. Thank you.