Top Story with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Episode Date: December 19, 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, chaos on the hill as President-elect Trump threatens his torpedo a spending bill. The move pushing the government a step closer to a possible shutdown just days before Christmas. Tech billionaire Elon Musk leading the crusade against the Republican spending package. Hours later, Trump siding with Musk, is this a signal of what to expect from a second Trump term? And the stunning reversal as the House Ethics Committee votes to release the Matt Gates Ethics Report. Also breaking tonight, the Dow plunges, marking the longest losing streak in five decades. The stock market rocked by the Fed's 2025 forecast projections, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaling the Federal Reserve will do less rate cutting. So what does it mean for your wallet? We'll explain.

Inside the assassination of a top Russian military general, the new details about the man who was allegedly paid by Ukraine to carry out the attack. Are Keir Simmons at the site of the explosion with more on the complex operation? The journey home for two NASA astronauts stuck in space delayed until next spring. We speak with a former astronaut about what is holding this up. Gang members strike again more than a dozen arrested after the violent kidnapping at a Colorado apartment complex at the center of a heated immigration debate. What is happening at this facility plagued with Venezuelan gang violence? The medical industry undergoing an AI transformation, doctors using the new technology as a second set of eyes during surgeries and to evaluate patients.

Now, hospitals are even introducing a chief of AI to their C-suite. Some don't even have any medical experience. We'll take you inside the medical complex and show you how it all works. And capturing the moments that define 2024, we speak with the New York Times about their annual year in pictures from presidential assassination attempts, to the front lines of war and even the Olympics, how they decided which snapshots made the cut. Plus, the new cybersecurity threat, hackers sending out fake Google Calendar invites

to access your information. Top story starts right now. And good evening. We're following several breaking stories out of Washington tonight. First, MAGA, rocking Capitol Hill. President-elect Trump rejecting a bipartisan and spending bill that would avert a government shutdown. The abrupt move is sending Congress spiraling.

Trump and Vice President-elect Vance releasing a long and scathing statement, railing against the package. Those remarks, just hours after Elon Musk blasted the legislation. Musk unleashing a barrage of ex-posts saying the bill should not pass. And a reminder, the tech billionaire is part of the Trump administration's task with cutting down on government spending. The sudden shake-up putting House Speaker Mike Johnson in a tricky spot. Johnson, who signed off on the bill, now forced to scramble and look for a plan B.

And time is ticking. The government's slated to shut down just after midnight on Saturday. Just moments ago, House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, slamming Republicans over the bill derailment. Here's what he said. House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country. And the other major headline, the surprise reversal from the House Ethics Committee, secretly voting to release the findings from their investigation on former Congressman Matt Gates.

Gates resigned just a few weeks ago just before the report on allegations of illicit drug use and sex trafficking were expected to come out. So how he's responding tonight, here it is. This all topping off a day that saw the Dow taking a major tumble, working its longest losing streak since 1974. The sharp drop after the Fed indicated fewer rate cuts for 2025. We have a lot to get to, but we start our coverage with Ryan Nobles, who's live tonight for us on Capitol Hill. Ryan, what happened here?

And is Elon Musk essentially sending out President-elect Trump's thinking on X? He certainly is having an influence, Tom. And that message has been received by lawmakers here on Capitol Hill. They were set to vote on this massive spending bill that would have kept the government open through March as soon as tonight, but now they are left to grapple with these new demands from President-elect Trump. Tonight, President-elect Trump, blowing up a bipartisan spending deal worked out by House Speaker Mike Johnson designed to keep the federal government open through March of next year, writing

quote, we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want. The bill extended government funding while also adding $100,000, billion dollars for disaster aid and 10 billion for farmers. But it also included health care reforms and a provision allowing for pay raises for members of Congress, leading to conservative backlash. Billionaire Elon Musk, who will lead Trump's effort to cut government spending, writing any lawmaker who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. Tonight, Vice President elect Vance talking about the spending plan known as a CR. Well, what the president believes is we should support a clean CR so long.

a debt limit increase, that's the position of the president, and that's what we're going to try to push for. All of it coming after another surprise headline. NBC News Learning, the House Ethics Committee has voted in secret to release its report on former Congressman Matt Gates, according to two sources familiar with the process. Now the committee is set to release its findings by the end of the week. Gates earlier withdrew as Trump's pick for Attorney General. I haven't been paying much attention to that. The committee looking into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, which Gates denies. Tonight, Gates writing, I've never had sexual contact with someone under 18. It's

embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now. A Justice Department investigation into the allegations was ultimately closed, with no charges filed against Gates. Okay, Ryan Nobles joins us again tonight from Capitol Hill. Ryan, I know you touched upon it there, but when will the public see this report? Well, the timing is fluid, Tom, and it has a lot to do with when Congress can wrap up these negotiations around a spending plan. What I'm told is that the report will be released the second they gavel out for the holiday recess. We thought that could happen as soon as tomorrow, maybe Friday. Now, as they're haggling over this government spending deal,

it could be into the weekend, but we do expect to see that report sometime after lawmakers leave for the Christmas break. Okay, and circling back to our big breaking news, right, what has happens with the spending bill now, given that the holidays are right around the corner? Well, there needs to be some negotiation that takes place. In many ways, Speaker Johnson is back to square one. What we anticipate is that he will propose a much slim-down version of the continuing resolution that he had already proposed, likely only including additional spending measures like disaster relief, maybe funding for the farm bill. But the problem with this negotiation, Tom, is that every time you add a new provision, that alienates, especially.

especially those conservatives that were concerned that this package was too bloated. But on the other end, it ticks off Democrats who were largely supporting this bill. This is a very, very narrow window that Speaker Johnson needs to fit through, which is one of the reasons that we are now bracing for the potential of a government shutdown. Ryan Nobles, we thank you for that, leading us off here on Top Story. For more on the Trump World response to this bill, I want to bring in Vaughn Hilliard. He's been covering the transition from West Palm Beach, Florida. So, Vaughn, let's hone in on the relationship between Musk and Trump.

What stood out to me today really was that the first tweet on this, it seemed to come from Musk on X, a flurry of messages for Republicans to vote against this bill in the House. And then you have sort of that photo from the weekend, right? And I don't know what it was saying, but it was definitely sending a message. And it was President-elect Trump and it was President-elect Vance at the Army-Navy game. And then you have Musk there in the background. So how would you describe this relationship? essentially a pseudo vice president? You have seen, to your point, you've seen Elon Musk by Donald

Trump's side all the way since Election Day. He was there at that football game. He was at the UFC fight. You have seen him at Mara Lago on a near daily presence. And the question was, you know, for Donald Trump, he's not typically used to sharing the limelight or the keys to power, but by and large, Elon Musk is almost today working as a proxy for him. And while there was a void of silence from Trump in Vance as House Republicans and Senate Republicans went back and forth over this short-term budget agreement today, there was silence here in Marlago from the Trump team. Elon Musk was out on social media saying that any Republican that voted in favor of it should be in primaried in two years and say it made the case that it would be better to have the government shut down until Donald Trump is sworn in on inauguration day than it would be to vote and pass this agreement. And so Elon Musk, he kind of called the shot, and then it was not until later the afternoon that Donald Trump stepped in and echoed what Elon Musk was saying. Vaughn Hilliard for us tonight. Vaughn, we thank you for that. And we have more breaking news tonight. This time from Wall Street, the Dow plunging more than 1,100 points. Look at this. Marking the first time in 50 years, the Dow has fallen 10 days in a row. This drop coming after the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by a quarter of a point, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled he expects fewer rate cuts.

in 2025. Christine Romans joins us on set. Christine, this is going to be dealer's choice. Okay, so do we start with the stock market or do we start with the Fed rate cut? I know they're both sort of connected. What's going on? Let's do the Fed rate cut first because it was completely expected that the Fed would cut by a quarter point. Completely expected. What wasn't expected was how clear the Fed chief was that there's probably two rate cuts next year. Just in September, they had said four rate cuts next year. So that means the Fed's not going to be in any hurry to keep lowering interest rates, and Wall Street wanted them to lower interest rates. Stocks, companies like lower interest rates because they make more money, right?

Their borrowing costs are lower. So that was a little bit of a shock to the system, and you have this Wall Street freak out. President-elect has always enjoyed having a foil. You do predict that he will get into it with the Fed chair once he's in office? You know, presidents like to have interest rates that are falling because lowering interest rates is gusing an economy. And Donald Trump, of course, has criticized the Fed before for not having looser policy. So you could find yourself in the situation where the Fed chief decides,

the Fed decides, we're going to sit back here, the economy is strong, we don't need to be goosing a strong economy, and Donald Trump doesn't like that. So people may be watching the market and they just saw the election. They may remember 2016 when Trump first got elected, the markets went down a little bit, then they took off. So what's happening this time around? I mean, because the conventional wisdom was the markets will go up. They did a little bit, but now they've been falling for 10 days. So the 10 days for the Dow, and that was just the Dow that fell for 10 days. The first nine days of that was mostly because of United Healthcare, that health care stock, its CEO was murdered in the street of Manhattan. Dow was only 30 stocks. United Health Care is a

big part of that because United Health Care was down. It pulled the whole Dow down. So today's big free fall, you could say, was all about the Fed and the Fed cutting interest rates. But step back and talk about what we're thinking about what a second Trump administration is going to mean. You know, the market went up when Trump was in office, and then the market kept going up when Joe Biden was in office. and now the market's going up again after he was elected. So the markets, the conditions for the markets have just been good, no matter who was the president. But what happens next year? That's a big question.

And so folks looking at their 401Ks getting ready for next year, what would be your advice to them? My advice to you is take the long term over five years. The S&P 500 is up 87%. You've made some money, America. So don't freak out about one down day in the stock market. Christine Romans for us. Christine, thank you for that.

We also have new developments in the fight for TikTok survival. The Supreme Court now getting involved as a ban on the popular app could take effect in about a month. On Monday, BightDance, TikTok's parent company from China challenged a law that would ban the popular app unless the Chinese company sells it. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear those arguments on January 10th, just nine days before the law is set to take effect. The ban would impact TikTok's estimated 170 million American users. Here to break it all down for us is NBC legal analyst, Angela Senadella. Angela, it's so great to have you here. And I know you've been talking to TikTok's main lawyer.

Do you have a sense of what their argument will be to the Supreme Court justices? Yeah, so look, I got to hear directly from Andy Pinkis, who is TikTok's outside lead counsel. And he argued this in front of the appellate court, and he had a lot of reasons as to why he thought the appellate court ruled wrong, which thus then opens a window for what he hopes to argue in front of the Supreme Court. And it all really comes down to precedent, specifically regarding national security threats. So he believes that the precedent, the standard that the court has to look at is if that national security threat is imminent. That's the only case in which any sort of free speech platform like this can be curtailed. But because the court here did acknowledge that any threat here to national security is really just speculative.

It's hypothetical. It could happen in the future. But there's no actual harm being proven right now. He believes that that is too far. And the Supreme Court will likely not follow along the. appellate court for that line. A second big argument is that he believes the appellate court just entirely disregarded the harm to 170 million Americans who use TikTok regularly. And just real quick, remind our viewers who are using TikTok, if the Supreme Court upholds the

ban, what would happen to their apps, essentially? So look, that would really be the final legal deadline there, and it would just go away eventually. So unless Trump and the executive branch were to step in in the new term, then this would be the end. And that means that Google and Apple, the stores would really have to stop carrying it and that the apps would never update. So it would really just slowly or maybe quickly die away, Tom. And Angela, before you go, you know, President like Trump has sort of been all over the place on TikTok, but he just met with the TikTok CEO at Mar-a-Lago. What type of influence do you think that would have, if any, on the Supreme Court with this decision actually coming before inauguration day, or at least the arguments?

Okay, so look, the court places such deference on what the executive branch considers to be a national security threat. So I think Trump has this window where if he and TikTok were to agree to make some changes to make this not sufficiently a national security threat, and then if he and his team were able to file briefs in support of TikTok saying this is not a national security threat based on whatever deal he could possibly broker with TikTok, that could change the Supreme Court entirely, because then they would be giving deference to the the executive who then could possibly be agreeing here with TikTok, Tom.

Angela Senadela is so great to have you on this story. And in case you were wondering, Angela has more than 2 million followers on TikTok, so she's somewhat of an expert here. Angela, we thank you so much. We want to move overseas now to the latest on that assassination of a top Russian general outside his Moscow apartment. Russian authorities saying they arrested a suspect from Uzbekistan today and that he confessed to being recruited by Ukraine to carry out the bombing. Kier Simmons is in Russia tonight with that report. This is the man accused of the stunning assassination of a Russian general outside his Moscow apartment, named by Russian state media as 29-year-old Ahmad Kabanov from Uzbekistan.

Moscow investigators say he confessed to being recruited by Ukraine with an offer of $100,000 and safe passage to a European country. The bomb, hidden on a scooter, had been given to him, investigators say. When we reached the site today, there was still blood in the snow, surrounded by broken apartment windows, a killing in plain sight. It took just seconds as Igor Karelov walked from this door, a scooter laden with explosives detonated. The whole thing videoed from a camera in a car just across the road and beamed, Russian officials say, back to Ukraine. It was really loud and I woke up. Lieutenant General Igorilov and his assistant were killed.

A Ukrainian security source tells NBC news Ukraine's security services carried out the killing. Twenty-four hours earlier, Ukraine had charged Kurilov with using banned chemical weapons against Ukraine, an allegation denied by Russia. Now the brazen assassination has brought the Ukraine war to Moscow's doorstep. That's horrible, I think. something like this happens nowadays. And with that, Kier Simmons joins us tonight from Moscow. So Kier, you know, you see these images.

They've been be beamed all over the world. This has to be a personal embarrassment for Putin. Is there any word yet on any potential retaliation from Russia? Well, Thomas, definitely anger from Russian officials. Former President Medvedev saying that if Ukraine is able to target senior officials here because of things they might have authorized in the Ukraine war. Why can't the same be true for Russia in relation to Western officials? We haven't Tom heard from President Putin yet.

He is due tomorrow to hold his annual question and answer session. That traditionally runs for hours. I'm sure that he will be asked about this assassination this week. And just a sign, Tom, of concern among Western officials. The White House saying today that it does not support or enable operations like this. Tom? Keir Simmons for us from Moscow tonight. Kier, we thank you for that.

Still ahead, the deadly plane crash near Honolulu's airport. Terrifying video. The plane erupting into flames after taking a nosedive and slamming into a building, the investigation, into what went wrong. Plus, the state of emergency in California over the bird flu, what the CDC is revealing about the first severe case of the virus in a hearing. human. And do you use Google Calendar, the warning tonight over hackers using meeting invites to access your information? Stay with us.

We're back now with a deadly cargo plane crash in Hawaii. The plane going down near Honolulu's airport colliding with an abandoned building and killing the two pilots. Federal authorities are now on the ground trying to figure out what happened. NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz has the details. Tonight, the NTSB investigating what caused this small cargo plane in Hawaii to spiral out of control near a busy highway before crashing into a building near the Honolulu airport. It was working and all of us aren't had on a big boom. This dash cam video showing the horrifying final moments of the flight. Kamaka 689, you're turning right, right?

Kamaka 689, we are, we are out of control here. The Kamaka Air Cessna 208 slamming into an abandoned building, killing the two people on board who were conducting a training flight, according to the airline. I was sitting at my desk and all of a sudden I saw a small plane fly past my office window. He started banking and turning back towards the airport, and then I heard a loud bang. The crash creating this massive plume of smoke and flames seen for miles. First responders rushing to the scene. Fortunately, the building is an abandoned building, so it's the best case scenario. involved in two souls that were a lawsuit.

The victims identified by family as Preston Kalohiwa and Hiram DeFries, young pilots in their 20s. And Tom, officials are praising the men saying they avoided populated areas and even a nearby fuel farm. The building they crashed into was empty and had been set to be demolished. Tom. Okay, we thank you for that, Liz. Liz Kreutz for us reporting on that. Now to those astronauts who are stranded in space, which we first told you about last night,

As we reported, Sunni Williams and Butch Wilmore are going to have to remain in space even longer until at least late March. The two NASA astronauts have been stuck on the International Space Station since their Boeing spacecraft ran into problems in June. For more on this setback, I'm joined tonight by our good friend Mike Massimino, sorry. He's a former NASA astronaut and a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia. He was also the first person to use Twitter, as it was known then from space aboard the Atlantis back in 2009. That's pretty cool. Mike, always great to have you on here. So we were just talking during the commercial break,

and I was saying, you know, we're doing better than those two astronauts who are stuck in space. And you were saying it's not that bad. Why do you say that? It could be worse places to be. They're in a place that is pretty amazing on the International Space Station doing something they love. Although, you know, these extensions, I think,

as long as they've been and will be for them, that could be kind of a tough situation. What is it doing for their head space, right? Because, I mean, you know, I've been on assignment where you're somewhere for a very long time away from home. Yeah. Sometimes it changes. You think you're coming home and you're not, you have to stay longer.

Obviously, it's not space. I don't want to compare the two. I want to be clear on that. But it does do something of your psyche when you're supposed to come home and you don't. What do you think is happening in them because they're far from home? Tom, I think it's similar. It's because you're in a place. You're doing a job you love, right?

When you're out on assignment or people doing something away from home that they enjoy doing, they're fulfilling a dream is what my friends are doing up there. But at the same time, you know, their expectation is they're going to be back or they, you know, it could always get extended, but I think their expectation was they weren't going to be a that long and now they're missing things at home and missing their family. And so it is, I think, a mental adjustment, and that's the biggest part of this. And I'm sure they're able to do that and they're going to do a great job. But I do think it could be difficult for them.

What is the physical toll it takes on your body? That I think they have a pretty good handle on. They're both very active, athletic people. As long as you exercise six days a week, two hours a day is the exercise period. What is the exercise life? So you can run a treadmill. You can ride an exercise bike. has done triathlons in space, a little creative the way she did the swimming thing with

some therabands. But there's also a resistive exercise device. You can be like Hercules up there. You can lift 600 pounds and there's nothing. So there is this exercise device that allows you to pull against springs and pullies and be able to get a good, good resistive workout just like you would with squats and curls and everything else. So that's fascinating. They're going to be, I have no doubt they're going to come back physically fit. I think they're going to be psychologically, I think they're going to make the adjustment to stay there longer. It'll It'll be interesting to see what they say to get back. Maybe, Mike, you open the first gym in space.

That could be your million dollar. There's one already up there, though. You could get the membership. Before we go, though, if you're up there, you've got a lot of time to think, and all these setbacks are happening. And you have full faith in the NASA of the space program, right? You're an astronaut. You wouldn't do it if you didn't have full faith in them.

Absolutely. Does it start to give you doubt stuff like they keep getting the setbacks? I don't think so. I think that they have full confidence in that team. The folks that are working there, most of the people making these decisions, the leaders now were there when I was there. There were flight directors that moved on and were promoted. So I am sure, I can say with full confidence,

that they have 100% confidence in the team making the decision. How would you explain to just the American people why there are these setbacks happening? This is what spaceflight is. This happens all the time, time, especially like a month delay like we see. The spacecraft is being readied. The reason that they're being delayed now

is that the crew that's going to launch, they've been delayed a little bit because their spacecraft is still being prepared. And they want to do a handover in space. They don't have to do that, But it's nice to have the new crew arrive and the old crew kind of show them the ropes. So that's why this one's being delayed. And this sort of thing happens all the time.

I remember my friends recently had a conversation with one. They were they going to come home for Thanksgiving? They thought maybe they would. Maybe they won't. You don't know. It's kind of like that in aviation as well. Things like weather, an issue with the spaceship, launch, you know, the manifest, launch windows, and so on. A lot of things can affect it.

And you're always going to take safety into consideration. When you lift off, do you always know in the back of your head you may be stuck? up there for a while? Do they train you for that? First of all, before you lift off, Tom, you're not really sure you're going to lift off. But we used to say you never know you're going until the rocket lights. You're laying and sometimes you get pulled out of there and you're going to go another day. Do you get trained for that? You may have to stay longer? Oh, absolutely, yes. So in some cases, you always, you always prepared if you need to stay

at least a little bit longer. In this case, they certainly knew that that was a possibility. But I don't, you know, I would think that, you know, they were fully trained, there's plenty of supplies. Two supply ships went up in November, including Christmas goodies. So they have all the things they need up there. But I think probably, you know, saying, what's the chances of us getting delayed for an extra, you know, seven months? They probably thought that was pretty low.

So this is a bit of an adjustment. Mike Massimino, we always thank you for being here. He's the founder of Gold's Gym on the moon. Check them out in the future. All right. When we come back, an apartment complex in Colorado, possibly hit by gang violence, once again, two people kidnapped and beaten at the same complex

where an armed burglary was allegedly carried out by a Venezuelan gang. Why this community is now at the center of a national debate on immigration, we'll explain. We're back now with Top Stories Health Check and a look at how artificial intelligence is making its way into hospitals. AI now being used to help doctors diagnose patients

and sort through data, but with the technology advancing so rapidly, who is there to make sure it's being used in the right way? NBC's Maura Baer goes inside the Cleveland Clinic to talk to their new executive in charge of AI. What if artificial intelligence could serve as a second set of eyes with your doctor? Operating as kind of a second opinion. To give you an idea, we visited Dr. Irene Wong in her research lab to see it in action.

There are more than 400 MRI slices. She's the research director of the Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic, where AI is already making a difference. Dr. Wong can team up with an AI system that has learned from a network of power. a network of past epilepsy cases. The AI can then zoom in on an MRI scan to highlight a probability map for doctors to investigate further. The more yellow or whitish, the harder it is, it pinpoints you to the area of the brain that calls for your attention.

And that is the lesion that causes seizures. This technological edge, improving lives of patients like 34-year-old Ryan Millinger, who was diagnosed with epilepsy at four-year-old. years old. It was never fully controlled and the medication was kind of an ongoing adjustment. Doctors thought the lesion causing his epilepsy was too close to a part of his brain that processes his ability to speak. They decided not to take the risk with surgery.

Eight years later, though, when the AI tech came on the scene, it found there was actually a safe way for doctors to perform the surgery. That was such a life-changing experience for me. If they didn't have that, I'd probably, you know, we wouldn't be having this conversation. As long as, you know, people kind of advance in a safe manner. I don't see why it couldn't be an advantage. 75% of health care providers expect widespread AI adoption in the industry in the next three years, even as only about 40% have reviewed or plan to review regulatory guidance, according to Berkeley Research Group. And we talked about that's why medical systems like the Cleveland Clinic are hiring up new AI exempt.

executives like Ben Shoshahani. It is my first job in healthcare. With a PhD and experience with machine learning at Google, Yahoo, and SiriusXM, the new chief AI officer at the leading medical center hopes his background in tech can cross over to assist tech's invasion into medicine. We want to be, you know, in the forefront of applications of artificial intelligence and technology in healthcare. It's not just in Cleveland, hospitals in Washington, D.C., Phoenix, San Diego, and San Francisco are hiring

AI executives, all with the goal to merge new technology into personal health, to create a better patient and doctor experience. The doctors are always in the loop, right? So the AI can process all this information. It can come back almost like a second opinion, right? You have your kind of a co-pilot that's sitting next to you, listening to the patient. While artificial intelligence continues to take on new roles in the doctor's office, analyzing data and transcribing doctor-patient interactions, Shoshahani's job is to make sure that

implementation improves health care without compromising personal data, ethics, or safety. Machine learning and AI systems are trained on data, right? And whatever the biases is in data is going to actually turn into bias of that system, right? And so it's super important for us to make sure that the bias is not harming the patient and is not having unfair and unethical impact. If the AI, the machine learning, is wrong, who's then liable? Is that on the doctor? I think that's an area that is yet to be decided. It shows you that, you know, the technology, the pace of improvement is much faster than the speed that our policies have moved.

there is potential for harm. A fine line, the health care system continues to walk for the sake of medical innovation. Fascinating look at that. Mara Barrett joins us now. So the executive in your piece talks about the risks of AI, picking up biases in data and then implementing them, right? So can you give us some examples of what that could look like and how they would essentially fix that? Yeah, Tom, I mean, the root issue here is the fact that so much bias already exists in medical. diagnoses as it already happens with medical human doctors. And so basically, AI is learning

from the data that humans provide them. And so if machine learning AI is being fed white male patient data, then they're not going to be able to diagnose or help in cases that evolve around women or people of color. And those people get overlooked. And so the experts that I spoke to really emphasize that the patient data needs to be as diverse as the patients that doctors see. and that diversity needs to include race, gender, and socioeconomic status, for example. You know, and in your piece, you make one thing clear that as of right now, AI is only being used to give doctors a second opinion. Could we see its role expanded in the future where it's relied on more heavily?

Right. So right now it's existing kind of as a partner or an assistant, especially with those listening devices, right, that is making doctors' lives so much easier, where the AI is taking note to the doctor and then sending highlights to the patients. And so that makes the doctor more present. What a lot of these experts are researching right now is whether or not there's developments that are possible with AI that can make remote access or virtual care possible for personalized medicine. There's also a lot of research being done around predictive technology. So where AI could look at someone's medical history or their current conditions and say, hey, this is your percentage chance of, say, getting cancer or diabetes, which means doctors can pay more attention for early diagnosis and treatment. But what I will say is no expert, nobody that I talked to, ever mentioned AI ever replacing doctors.

So that's the key thing, Tom. Okay. More Barrett for us tonight. We thank you for that. When we come back, the images at Defined 24. The New York Times releasing its annual Year in Pictures list. One of the co-editors joins Top Story next to discuss how their photographers captured those iconic images, even in war zones, and how they picked which ones made the cut. That's next.

We're back now with Top Stories Health Check and a look at how artificial intelligence is making its way into hospitals. AI now being used to help doctors diagnose patients and sort through data, but with the technology advancing so rapidly, who is there to make sure it's being used in the right way? NBC's Moira-Ber. It goes inside the Cleveland Clinic to talk to their new executive in charge of AI. What if artificial intelligence could serve as a second set of eyes with your doctor? Operating is kind of a second opinion. To give you an idea. We visited Dr. Irene Wong in her research lab to see it in action. There are more than 400 MRI slices.

She's the research director of the Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic, where AI is already making a difference. Dr. Wong can team up with an AI system that has learned from a network of past epilepsy cases. The AI can then zoom in on an MRI scan to highlight a probability map for doctors. map for doctors to investigate further. The more yellow or whitish, the harder it is, it pinpoints you to the area of the brain that calls for your attention. And that is the lesion that causes seizures. This technological edge, improving lives of patients like 34-year-old Ryan Millinger,

who was diagnosed with epilepsy at four years old. It was never fully controlled, and the medication was kind of an ongoing. adjustment. Doctors thought the lesion causing his epilepsy was too close to a part of his brain that processes his ability to speak. They decided not to take the risk with surgery. Eight years later, though, when the AI tech came on the scene, it found there was actually a safe way for doctors to perform the surgery. That was such a life-changing experience for me. If they didn't have that, I'd probably, you know, we wouldn't be having this conversation as long as, you know, people kind of advance in a safe manner. I don't see why it couldn't be an advantage.

75% of health care providers expect widespread AI adoption in the industry in the next three years, even as only about 40% have reviewed or plan to review regulatory guidance, according to Berkeley Research Group. That's why medical systems like the Cleveland Clinic are hiring up new AI executives like Ben Shoshahani. It is my first job in healthcare. With a PhD and experience with machine learning at Google, Yahoo, and SiriusXM, the new chief AI officer at the leading medical center hopes his background in tech can cross over to assist tech's invasion into medicine. We want to be, you know, in the forefront of applications of artificial intelligence and technology in healthcare. It's not just in Cleveland. Hospitals in Washington, D.C., Phoenix, San

Diego, and San Francisco are hiring AI executives, all with the goal to merge new technology into personal health to create a better patient and doctor experience. The doctors are always in the loop, right? So the AI can process all this information. It can come back almost like a second opinion, right? You have your kind of a co-pilot that's sitting next to you, listening to the patient. While artificial intelligence continues to take on new roles in the doctor's office, analyzing data and transcribing doctor-patient interactions, Shoshahani's job is to make sure that implementation

improves health care without compromising personal data, ethics, or safety. Machine learning and AI systems are trained on data, right? And whatever the biases is in data is going to actually turn into bias of that system, right? And so it's super important for us to make sure that the bias is not harming the patient and it's not having unfair and unethical impact. If the AI, the machine learning is wrong, who's then liable? Is that on the doctor? I think that's an area that is yet to be decided.

It shows you that the technology, the pace of improvement is much faster than the speed that our policies have moved. There is potential for harm. A fine line, the health care system continues to walk for the sake of medical innovation. Fascinating look at that. Mara Barrett joins us now. So the executive in your piece talks about the risks of AI, picking up biases in data and then implementing them, right? So can you give us some examples of what that could look like and how they would essentially fix that? Yeah, Tom, I mean, the root issue here is the fact that so much bias already exists in medical

diagnoses as it already happens with medical human doctors. And so basically, AI is learning from the data that humans provide them. And so if machine learning AI is being fed white male patient data, then they're not going to be able to diagnose or help in cases that evolve around women or people of color. And those people get overlooked. And so the experts that I spoke to really emphasize that the patient data needs to be as diverse as the patients that doctors see. And that diversity needs to include race, gender, and socioeconomic status, for example. You know, and in your piece, you make one thing clear that as of right now, AI is only being used to give

doctors a second opinion. Could we see its role expanded in the future where it's relied on more heavily? Right. So right now it's existing kind of as a partner or an assistant, especially with those listening devices, right, that is making doctors life so much easier where the AI is taking note to the doctor and then sending highlights to the patients. And so that makes the doctor more present. What a lot of these experts are researching right now is whether or not there's developments that are possible with AI that can make remote access or virtual care possible for personalized medicine. There's also a lot of research being done around predictive technology. So where AI could look at someone's medical history or their current conditions and say, hey, this is your

percentage chance of, say, getting cancer or diabetes, which means doctors can pay more attention for early diagnosis and treatment. But what I will say is no expert, nobody that I talked to ever mentioned AI ever replacing doctors. So that's the key thing, Tom. Okay. More Barrett for us tonight. We thank you for that. When we come back, the images at Defined 2024. The New York Times releasing its annual Year in Pictures list. One of the co-editors joins Top Story next to discuss how their photographers captured those iconic images, even in war zones, and how they picked which ones made the cut. That's next. Finally tonight, 2024 has been a history-making year, filled with countless major political

and cultural moments. Photographers and journalists across the world have been the ones to capture these moments reporting from wars and protests. to stadiums and small towns. And each year, the New York Times compiles a list of the most impactful images for their year in pictures. Joining me now is award-winning New York Times photo editor

and the co-editor of the Year in Pictures list for more than 15 years, Jeffrey Skaels. Jeffrey, thank you so much for being here. Oh, thanks for having me, Tom. So I want to jump right into the photos, right? Because there were so many iconic images and images that we'll never forget. So I'm going to put one on the screen right now

for our viewers. I want you to tell me what you thought when you first saw this, because it was a combination of capturing history and technology at the same time. This was the assassination attempt on President-elect Donald Trump's life. And what stands out in this picture

is that little cloud of smoke you see there, what we believe to be the bullet, one of the bullets that didn't hit the president-elect. When you saw this, what did you think? I was quite amazed at the fact that he captured that. I mean, Doug Mills, the photographer that shot this, was shooting with obviously a very modern camera that can shoot at an 8,000th of a second.

Did you have to be convinced it was the bullet, or did you know that you guys had the shot? I believed it was the bullet. Yeah. And he's been photographing, he's one of our main White House photographers. He's covered the Trump campaign last one, this one. And then this next photo, you know, which is an iconic image. An image now you see on T-shirts, on posters. It was an image that the president elect used at his convention.

It's one we probably will never forget. What did you think about this? Well, just a note on that. This isn't the exact one that was used at the convention or on the T-shirts because this is New York Times exclusive. There was another wire photographer. Good distinction. A picture at that same moment.

But Doug's picture, I mean, I remember when I saw this, I knew this was going to be a big presentation in the year in pictures. And I remember Doug saying, you know, he heard shots, and there was a commotion, and he kept taking pictures. and then, you know, the Secret Service took Trump down, and then he comes up with a fist, and he was still shooting every minute because he's like a just a pro.

You see maybe hundreds of photos every day. I don't know. You've seen probably hundreds of thousands in your career, and yet you have to pick what stands out to you. And this next photo I want to put up for our viewers because it says so much to me, right? You could look at this photo for an hour, and it's not just because of who,

Vice President Kamala Harris is. It's just there's so much going on here. What stands out to you? Well, it was an interesting moment. Aaron Schaff, one of our staff photographers, made this, and this was her preparing a speech in Washington, D.C. at the latter part of the campaign. But the layers of it, I think, are really strong, with the arm on the door, that piece of a painting. And, you know, having her framed by those two things, I think, is very effective. And some of your photojournalists took us right there to the scene. And this next photo I want to put up for our viewers. This was during the protest, the pro-Palestinian pro.

Actually, this is another one from the election here. I'm sorry, I skipped over one. Talk to us about this photo. It's a photo by Philip Montgomery was taken in Pennsylvania the day after the election. And it was at some bikers for Trump had gathered at a restaurant. And this man on the left was not a Trump supporter. and he, you know, he came up and was saying, well, I'm not sure this is going to be a good thing.

And the other guy who was one of the Biker for Trump was very insisting, oh, this is great. We've changed the world. Yeah, and your guys were right there to capture your photographers. Philip Montgomery, yeah. This next one, though, was the one I was talking about just before these were doing the protest, I believe, at UCLA. I mean, you feel like you're in the room here.

Yeah, that's, you know, I like this picture a lot, just the sort of, you have a frame within, a frame and then that that person, whether it's a student or not, but, you know, is looking out sort of as we were looking onto those protests and those encampments. It's kind of like a double layer, almost a triple layer. And obviously your journalists, like our journalists, are in the war zones. And this is another photo that stood out to me because I just thought it was incredible. When you saw this, tell me what you thought.

Yeah, this is by Omar Al-Qaeda, I believe that's how it's pronounced, from Gaza of the relief pictures. It was just amazing the way he framed and got that moment of all those parachutes filling the frame at the top. And then the bottom, you see the figures of people running. Aid drop. It was an aid drop. It was an a drop. And people running to get the aid. And he also captured the kind of the destruction that's happened in there in those buildings. So it was like, you know, all these different parts. And then bringing it back here at home, I mean, we saw so many natural disasters this year, with Hurricane Milton being one of them. And we were in Florida as well as those hurricanes were hitting back-to-back. And talk to me about this one here,

Helene and Milton back-to-back in Florida. We were actually at this beach as well, this part of Florida. I mean, these communities turn to nothing. It looks like a game of pickup sticks, and it was people's lives there. Right. Yeah, this is, I believe this was Milton in Florida, but, you know, getting an aerial point of view of that and showing just the massive destruction. And it's, you know, really elegantly composed of such a startling scene. It was an incredible year for sports,

and the New York Times was right there every step of the way. I want to put up this next photo for our viewers here, the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, the WNBA phenomenon that happened this year. What did you love about this one? Well, I like, you know, seeing the young children with the Clark, Clark, Clark. jerseys on. And that was, you know, when she was doing what she was doing, it was a great

moment. You know, she was getting those three-pointers. Yeah. And it just was like one of those moments within the year, you know, you have so much conflict and so many things that can be difficult to look at, but this is, you know, one of those happier moments. I want to show, and we're running out of time here, so we're going to go a little quickly. I want to show this one perfect. It was the Olympics. This was obviously a huge moment as well. But then the next one up, the Olympics is well, perfectly framed. I mean, this is just art, right? I mean, this is beautiful.

Because me and my co-ed are Tanner Curtis, because it's just two of us that go through these, and we go through 400,000 pictures just to do this issue, but approximately. But we wanted a picture from the Olympics that also captured Paris. Yeah. And that really captured. It was beautiful. Finally, this last one. This is a tough question.

This is Luigi Mangione, right? the CEO murder suspect. When you pick this photo, when you put this photo in your newspaper, are you thinking about that this man has now become, in some ways, a cult figure, this sick obsession with him? And do you worry at all a photo like this could further feed that, or you can't think about that? Can't really think about that, except, I mean,

it's not presenting him in an iconic, you know, heroic way at all. It's a unique moment photographically where our photographer was able to catch him as he turned his head to look back. And I think that's probably a news camera light that was catching his face. But you have the darkness in his face lights up. You know, it's interesting. It's interesting. And perp walk pictures are difficult to make interesting. And that's the one thing when we saw this, this is really a unique perp walk picture.

Jeffrey Scales, thank you so much for being here. I know it's up on the website right now. It'll be in the hard copy over the week, and I'm looking forward to it. It was a pleasure talking with you, and congratulations to you and your team. All right, thank you very much, Tom. And we thank you for watching Top Story Tonight. I'm Tom Yamis, New York. Stay right there.

More news on the way.