Deadly Train Crash in Spain; Pretti’s Parents Call Out Feds & Mel Robbins on Stressful Times

0:00You got out of bed and went to work? Good job. You sent a bunch of emails? Good job. Two of the three kids made it to school with lunch? Good job. Hi, everybody, and welcome to Here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Basugin. If you have been on the internet at all lately, well, you'll know our guest today. Today on the show, we have Mel Robbins, and I'm going to talk to her about how she found her let them, and also how to handle stress in a time that feels very stressful right about now. So we're going to get into all those things coming up. Plus, the parents of Alex Preddy, speaking now, calling on the federal government to be more transparent about their investigation into his death.

0:46We're going to get into that as well.

0:52Up first, though, two high-speed trains collided in central Spain today, killing at least 68 people and injuring dozens, according to the latest account from Spanish authorities. The trains crashed on a line that goes from Madrid to Seville, and it's the second deadly accident on that line just this year. So for more on what is going on here, I want to bring in NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez. Hi, Raf. Hey, Yas. We've been seeing some of those images trickling in from the crash site. It is astonishing to see multiple train cars just fully off the tracks, laying on their side. What do we know about how this actually happened?

1:32Yeah, so this is a really devastating scene. You see these train cars just hurled clear of the track. Some of them are lying in a field next to the rail line. Others just completely smashed to pieces. Here's our understanding at this early stage in the investigation. The Spanish government is saying that early this morning, around 8.30 a.m., there was a failure on one of their computer systems, so a technical failure. That meant that along sort of 40-ish miles of train line, all the trains that were in that section were told, were forced to come to a stop because they were no longer being properly monitored by the computer system.

2:16So you have a bunch of trains that go from traveling at high speeds to coming to a complete stop. They're waiting there on the line to be allowed to continue on their journeys. And then at some point, according to the Spanish government, there is a human error. Somebody in a control center tells an approaching train, you're good to go. Keep going into that section. Don't worry about any speed limits. You keep going as normal. And so this high-speed train goes barreling into this section where the other trains have been told to stop on the line. And it is going so fast it doesn't have time to stop when it sees this stationary train in front of it on the same railway.

3:03It goes barreling into the back of that train, and it is the stationary train that seems to have suffered most of the damage, but a lot of damage also to the front of the incoming train. And that appears to be how you have this disaster today. Have we heard from any of the survivors? I know that there were some Americans on board as well, hearing from the State Department per their status. So the State Department is saying that there are a number of Americans injured. Thankfully, at this point, there's no reports of any Americans killed. Anybody who's traveled by train in Spain will know this is like a very popular part of the line.

3:43It's kind of the equivalent of the Amtrak corridor that runs in the northeast of the United States. Just like it's a main, main artery for the Spanish rail line. And Spain historically is considered to have had very high quality trains and a very extensive rail network. In terms of what we've heard from survivors so far, they are saying this is just an absolutely terrifying scene. people who were on the stationary train say they were kind of sitting there, they were looking out the windows at the fields next door, they were kind of thinking, this is annoying, I hope we get on our journey soon.

4:17And then all of a sudden, just this enormous crash, people thrown from their seats, luggage everywhere, and people who were in the closer to the front train cars, then looking out the window and seeing basically the back half of their train had been ripped off the rail line and a lot of it was lying in the fields, people having to climb out of broken windows and stuff to actually escape from the train. So, Raf, in talking about how this crash actually took place, and by the way, this is the second crash that has taken place on this line this year alone, There's a real question of safety here, right?

4:57Was there any action taken after that first crash? I mean, what are they doing to alleviate fears that this is just not a safe line to travel on, considering the track record here? So, yeah, it's kind of unbelievable to have two deadly crashes on the same rail line within nine months of each other. The last one was back in January. Forty-five people were killed. Now, the Spanish prime minister went to the scene of today's crash. He said, based on what they know so far, it does seem like this was a totally different set of causes that led to today's crash compared to the one in January. So back in January, one train basically skipped over the rails and went head-on into an oncoming train.

5:47This time we have one train stationary on the line and a second train colliding with the back of it. So he's saying it's not like the same mistakes were repeated twice here. But that is obviously not a whole lot of reassurance to Spanish people, to tourists who are thinking about traveling on this line, given that you have now had these two major disasters there in very close succession. The Spanish prime minister saying it is just not acceptable in a country like Spain to have accidents like this at this scale of death with this frequency. He says if mistakes were made, they're going to be dealt with really severely.

6:30And at this point, we don't know how long this line of track is going to be closed for. So amidst this, right, there's also this election happening. There's general elections next month. the political parties have said they're going to briefly pause campaigning in the wake of this crash. But how is this playing into that, especially as we're hearing from country leaders? So it's really interesting, yes. All the political parties have said they are pausing campaigning, except the hard right party, Vox, which is saying, look, we are not going to allow the kind of rituals of grief and mourning to silence us when actually this is the time to be really harshly criticizing the government for presiding over these two disasters within one year.

7:18So this is a very tough situation for the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez. He's from the center-left. He's been in charge of Spain for a long time, but there's a lot of discontent in Spain, as there is all across Europe right now. We've seen protests in France and Italy also. And this is really, really not what he needs because it raises major questions about the competence of his government that they have now been at the helm for not one, but two major rail disasters. Raph Sanchez, thank you. Thank you. All right, coming up. Nine months after Alex Preddy's fatal shooting by ICE agents in Minneapolis, his parents are accusing the federal government of withholding information about the investigation.

8:06We're going to hear more about why they're speaking out now. That's next.

8:14This message comes from Wise Business, the only account your business needs to scale globally. You're building a business with global ambitions, but hidden fees are eating into your margins. With Wise Business, you can pay overseas suppliers without exchange rate markups. Have customers worldwide get payment details in 22 currencies so you get more of each hard-earned payment without hidden conversion fees. Be smart. Get Wise Business. Download the app. T's and C's apply. Toyota trucks are equipped for your journey through mountain peaks, desert trails, and weekends off-grid. Whether you're heading out solo, packing up the family, or towing your gear, there's a Toyota truck designed to fit your lifestyle.

8:59Choose from the 4Runner, Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser to take you off the beaten path and discover something new about the world and yourself. Make every mile count with a Toyota truck that's built to outlast so you can outlive.

9:18And we're back with Here's the Scoop from NBC News. So we're going to go now to Minneapolis, where the community is still looking for answers, and the deaths of René Nicole Good and Alex Preddy. Both were shot and killed by federal immigration agents during Operation Metro Surge. Alex Preddy's parents, Michael and Susan, they held a news conference on Tuesday accusing the federal government of keeping them in the dark about the investigation into their son's killing. At every turn, they have ignored us, misled us, and shielded Alex's killers. So it's a big step for the family, which is try to stay out of the public eye since their son was killed back in January.

9:57For more on this, I want to bring in Jenna Shortle, anchor and executive producer of the show Breaking the News for NBC's affiliate in the Twin Cities, CARE 11. Jenna, welcome back. Thanks. It's good to be here. Thanks for covering this story. It's great to have you. Okay, so Alex Preddy's parents, Michael and Susan Preddy, I mentioned kind of they stayed out of the public eye for quite some time. What are they asking for and what are they accusing the federal government of now? So to understand what happened in Minneapolis yesterday, you do have to go back in time a little bit. It has been nine months since Alex Petty was shot and killed on January 24th on a cold Saturday morning in Minneapolis by several agents of the federal government in Operation Metro Surge.

10:43from the jump, the Preddy family has had legal representation, but has not been a family that has spoken to the press. They decided to take the route of patience that the federal government would cooperate with the state and not do them any favors. They're certainly not asking for any favors. They're not asking for special treatment. They're just asking the process to go through the normal process, in their own words and their attorney's words. And so the family, by this past Saturday, when it had been nine months since Alex was killed, they'd had enough. They sent the letter to Todd Blanche, the AG, the attorney general, three months ago.

11:22And not only did they not get answers, they didn't even get basically a receipt of, hey, I got your letter with your concerns. And the Department of Justice said yesterday, well, it's standard practice. Standard practice dictates communications with family members that those occur only at later stages of a legal case, at an indictment, an initial appearance, a plea, a trial, stuff like that. But that statement from the Department of Justice yesterday doesn't address the fact that the Preddy family attorney, a formal federal prosecutor, is the one who sent the letter asking for information that the Preddy family and their attorney claims they have a right to under the Victims' Rights Act.

12:00It's got to be so painful for his parents to have such a lack of kind of transparency, understanding of what happened to their son. What do we know about the investigation into his death? What do we know about the investigation to Renee Nicole Good's death? I mean, do we know the officers that were involved in his killing? Like, what do we actually know? Right. That's a short answer because not much. I want to share something that Michael Preddy said yesterday as I answer this question. Imagine that your child was killed because of the actions of the government, federal government. Imagine learning that your child had been murdered by watching it on TV.

12:46No one from the government called you, called us that day. They didn't call us the next day, nor the next, nor the next 275 days. We have not heard anything from the federal government. But on the day Alex Brady was killed, people from the Trump administration, Kristi Noem and others, went forward and told America and the world that Alex was a domestic terrorist looking to harm law enforcement. We know from the video that that is on its face seemingly completely untrue. He was shot in the back 10 times. Have they retracted that statement? They have never retracted it nor apologized. In terms of what do they know, the Preddy family knows absolutely nothing.

13:33That was the first question of the attorney general in that letter sent by Steve Slisher, their attorney, three months ago. The names of the agents, just that, they won't answer. When they asked the U.S. attorney from Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, he says no comment or I can't tell you for many reasons is what they told us yesterday. So basically nine months later, there's like zero accountability, it seems, so far when it comes to the individuals that took the life of both Alex Pardy and René Nicole Good and the families don't really know what happened, what happened, and what's going to happen. No, and it's not for lack of trying.

14:13The Hennepin County Attorney and the BCA, which is like the Minnesota version of the FBI, but it's a statewide agency, they have tried every which way but Sunday. So has the State Attorney General, Keith Ellison. They're trying to sue to get the information, but it's caught up in courts. And that's why we're learning the things as the press that we're learning are through court documents. So just 10 days ago, we learned in court documents that the evidence sharing that was supposed to be happening, that the county attorney had told us was happening after a lot of battle in July, saying we're finally getting some evidence.

14:44In the Renee Good case, they got the car. They got some other pieces of evidence. But then all of a sudden last month in these court filings, we learned that the evidence sharing stopped for no reason that it is laid out in these documents. And then at a court filing, it said on September 10th, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, said, evidence sharing is paused indefinitely due to challenges with D.C. Wow. Wow. What has it been like, Jenna, since you and I spoke last back in January? It was the height of the protests there in Minneapolis. You've been pepper sprayed yourself in covering these protests.

15:26You described a city at the time that was very much on edge. Obviously, a lot of time has passed, not much movement in these investigations that you and I are talking about. But what is it like on the ground there now in Minneapolis so many months later? I think, to be honest, the scars—and we'll really see, you know, Minnesotans' response to Operation Metro surge on Election Day because it's a heavy part of the candidate platforms of who did what and who didn't do what. But, you know, the repercussions are real. Our two major school districts, Minneapolis and St. Paul, are both reporting multimillion-dollar deficits because English language learners, so kids that do not speak English, immigrant kids, drop by the hundreds if not thousands.

16:23Wow. We have had reports of businesses. I mean, just the economic impact, although that pales in comparison to what it did to people's psyche and then the deaths of Renee and Alex, I don't know that you can overstate the damage that was done economically to people's lives, their families, their friendships. It's almost indescribable. Jenna Shortle, thank you. Pleasure. All right, we're going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, a special conversation with one of my personal icons, Mel Robbins. Stay with us.

17:19without exchange rate markups. Have customers worldwide get payment details in 22 currencies so you get more of each hard-earned payment without hidden conversion fees. Be smart. Get wise business. Download the app. T's and C's apply. Toyota trucks are equipped for your journey through mountain peaks, desert trails, and weekends off-grid. Whether you're heading out solo, packing up the family, or towing your gear, There's a Toyota truck designed to fit your lifestyle. Choose from the 4Runner, Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser to take you off the beaten path and discover something new about the world and yourself.

18:00Make every mile count with a Toyota truck that's built to outlast so you can outlive. This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just$15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like all I want. Right. Okay, we can afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only.

18:32Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.

18:39And we're back with Here's the Scoop from NBC News. So if you have been on social media at any point, really, in the last decade, I guarantee you, you've heard these words of wisdom from our next guest. Let them. I mean, how much does you worrying about it, how is that going to change anything? It's not. That phrase was coined by Mel Robbins, one of the most influential voices in the self-help and motivational space who turned that mantra into the number one selling book of 2025, the let them theory. Mel's words have always resonated with me. And I'm not alone. By the way, I listen to her every Monday and Thursday when that podcast hits.

19:18Mel has 40 million followers online, is the creator and host of the Mel Robbins podcast, and is the founder of Pure Genius Protein and Fiber. And Mel Robbins is joining me now. And I heard you, I saw you shaking your head because like, can you even believe it? No. You have like 40 million. Like, that's insane. It's insane. And it's also really cool to be 58 years old. Yeah. And to have all of this extraordinary success and positive influence happening later in life. Yeah, yeah. I actually want to talk about that. So you were like, you were 41 years old, right? You woke up, you're like, okay, my life is not going great.

19:52Oh, I was a total loser. You were on the verge of potential divorce. You were$800 ,000 in debt. Uh-huh. Leans on the house. Leans on the house. Three kids under the age of 10. Who are you looking to at that point? Like, who was your Mel Robbins? Who was I looking to? Yeah. Oh, I was looking to Jack Daniels. Like, I wasn't looking to anybody. I was marinating in my misery. You couldn't even get out of your own way. Oh, get out of my own way. What's interesting about being stuck is there's periods where you're miserable and you're stuck and you know it. But if I'm being really honest, it's easier to stay in the misery.

20:30Yeah. And in my case, I'm just going to speak for myself personally, blame my husband for everything because it was his restaurant business that was failing and taking our house down with it. and blame the job market and blame, you know, whatever, the society or the fact that I didn't have enough money or this, that, and the other. It's everybody else's fault. It's easier to avoid the things that you need to do that could actually fix everything. And so there is a period when my life was falling apart that I just soaked in it. And a lot of us do. And it's not just because we're losers. I'm calling myself a loser.

21:04it's because our brains are also wired to do the easy thing. All the medical doctors, all the addiction specialists, all of the neuroscientists will tell you that there's this weird thing with your brain that your brain can change, but it will resist changing. And there comes a moment where it's actually harder to stay where you are than to do the thing you've been avoiding. I realized what I'm doing isn't working. Yeah. Nobody is going to come and fix this, but nobody is stopping me either. And the person that you need is already here. It's you. And at some point, you have to wake up and decide, do you want to have things get worse before they get better?

21:45Yeah. Or do you want to start showing up as the person you wish would arrive right now? You know, obviously, I listen to you on Instagram. I see you on Instagram. I listen to your podcast. There are a lot of self-help people out there. Yeah. How does one say, this is for me, this is not for me, this is good, this is not good? Well, first of all, it's deeply personal. Yeah. Like, you don't have to like me, you don't need to listen to me. Like, I know exactly who I'm talking to. I'm talking to the person who's standing in line with me at the grocery store. Yeah. And they are doing the best that they can in a very overwhelming moment in history.

22:19Yeah. And they want to feel better, They want their family to do better. And they don't have any time. But the time that they have, they're going to spend it listening to something that could actually help them or their family. That's who I'm talking to. And I am not a scientific expert, but I lean on them. And one of the reasons why I lean on science so much and I lean on research so much and I talk to so many experts is because I tend to be a bit of a cynical person. Like if a town's too good to be true, like, come on, give me a break. But if somebody has spent their life studying this and they can explain why, like lifting heavy weights when you're in menopause really matters, then I go, oh, well, that makes sense.

23:05Now I can believe you. I mean, by background, I went to Dartmouth. I'm a lawyer. Yeah. I like evidence. And so for me, I listen to people that, number one, have either like tremendous life experience and can explain the facts that back it up. Or I listen to people that are highly credentialed and they're not trying to sell me anything. They're trying to teach me something. And for me, I'm very clear that the intention of everything that I do, particularly on the Mel Robbins podcast, is to encourage and educate. I don't think I'm smarter than anybody else, honestly. I really don't. I think I'm kind of like the screwed up friend or sister that got herself together later in life.

23:50And is now on a list. Me too, by the way. Right? High five. But aren't we all? Yes. Aren't we all? Yeah. And so I feel like you can learn from anybody. I want to end the way that you start your podcast, which is if there's one thing that people listening can take away from this conversation, especially in a, listen, And we've talked about it a lot throughout this conversation, a stressful time. We have elections around the corner. Things are very divisive. People feel very stressed. Yeah, you should feel stressed. It's like stressful right now. It's a stressful moment. If there's one thing that people can take away from this conversation that you want to leave people with today, what is that?

24:29So there's actually a couple things. One, I want— I said one. Okay. You're doing a really good— No, give me the couple things. No, you're doing a really good job. Thanks. Who, me? Yes, you are. Oh. And so are you. No, as you're on a walk, as you're listening right now, you're doing a really, really good job. And it's very important to say that because you are focusing right now on everything that's out of your control. You're focusing on everything that you think you did wrong. I know that. And it's very important right now, if you do nothing else, I want you to take on a little practice at night where as you're about to go to bed, I want you to start to ask yourself, what are three things that went well today?

25:13And I'm gonna give you some examples. You got out of bed and went to work, good job. You sent a bunch of emails, good job. Two of the three kids made it to school with a lunch, good job. And if you start giving yourself a little grace and you start feeling and calling out the things that are going well, you start making room for more of it and you're also focusing on what is in your control and your mindset and seeing things that are going well starts to create momentum in a new direction. That's the one thing I would love for you to do today. Mel Robbins, it's a privilege. Thank you. It's an honor to see you.

25:51And thank you for inviting me to be here. Thank you. All right, that is going to do it for us. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Bisugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, The Inside Scoop. It's a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for The Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription at NBCnews.com. We'll see you tomorrow.

26:34It's the holiday season at House of Burl, which means that it's the perfect moment to review some key rules. Rule number five, more style means more celebration. Number four, buy gifts, but remember to treat yourself too. Number three, there is no dress code, but always leave them talking. Number two, show off different outfits. No party remains unattended. And rule number one, have it all without spending it all. Happy holidays from House of Burl, Burlington.