Wednesday, October 28, 2026

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0:59See terms. BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT, TRAIN CRASH HORROR, MORE THAN 60 PEOPLE KILLED IN A HIGH-SPED COLLISION IN SPAIN. THE MASSIVE DEBRIS FIELD, TRAINS COMPLETELY MANGLED, CREWS SEARCHING FOR ANYONE ALIVE, AMERICANS AMONG THOSE ON BOARD, THE HORRIFYING VIEW FROM INSIDE AS WE HEAR FROM SURVIVORS ABOUT THE DESPERATE ESCAPE, OUR NEW REPORTING ON WHAT WENT WRONG. ALSO TONIGHT, BATTLE FOR OHIO, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S LAST-DITCH EFFORTS IN THE SURPRISINGLY close Senate race there. Plus the bombshell new report accusing Democrats of trying to confuse voters how they plotted to put a man named Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot in Alaska to pull votes from the Republican Senator Dan S.

1:44Sullivan. Plus what our NBC News early voting data is already revealing the critical voting bloc that might not turn out this year. The head of our decision desk gives us three bellwether races to watch early on election night. Infrared videos of an escaped inmate on the run as authorities close in on him. Plus the urgent multi-state search for this murderer now on the loose. The terrifying attempted kidnapping caught on camera. A towering man grabbing a woman, kicking and screaming how neighbors race to save her. WNBA Finals controversy-wide Game 6 of the championship series is being played at lunchtime as questions mount over whether the league can handle its own explosive growth.

2:27And no more stale Cheerios, the company making big changes after years of complaints. Plus, would you hire AI to be your lawyer, the new startup hoping its tech can help underdog attorneys take on Goliath cases? We'll explain. Top story starts right now.

2:49And good evening. We begin tonight with that catastrophic and deadly train collision. Nearly 70 people killed and dozens injured, including Americans. When a train barreling down the tracks at a high speed, slammed into the back of one that had stopped. Aerial footage shows the horrific scene. Train cars thrown off their tracks, the mangled wreckage scattered across this field, and video taken by survivors on the ground painting a picture of just chaos. You see the unrecognizable remains of train cars and what appears to be part of the rail, actually the spikes sticking through the train. Passengers seen lying next to the destruction, receiving emergency first aid, while others evacuate through broken windows.

3:28This all happening in Urda, Spain, about two hours south of Madrid. And tragically, it's not the first fatal rail incident in the country this year. In January, a deadly crash involving the same train companies on the same line killed 46. So the big question tonight, what went so wrong? And is the rail system used by millions each day actually safe? Our Raf Sanchez leads us off from Spain. Tonight, the mangled wreckage of two trains, cars derailed and scattered across open fields. You can see these overturned cars hurled off the tracks, and what appears to be a section of rail spiked straight through the roof of one car.

4:05At least 68 people killed, witnesses recounting the horror. Suddenly, everything started falling apart. Bang. Here, passengers inside one car moments after the crash, looking at the wreckage just outside their window, some breaking windows and carrying fellow passengers out of the chaos. It was very hard to see. There was dead bodies. Several Americans were on the train, according to the State Department. This American tourist saying people were screaming and crying. The transport minister calling the disaster inexplicable, saying a computer failure brought trains to an automatic stop on the track.

4:45But somehow, a control center gave the green light to another train to speed down the line, rear-ending a train that had stopped. Trains on that line can travel up to 120 miles per hour. And alarmingly, it comes after a fatal crash in January involving the same two train companies on the same rail line, which killed 46 people. Authorities say the crashes do not appear to be linked. But tonight, the government facing demands for answers, with people reeling in grief, shock and anger over how this could happen again. The Jacksonville, Florida Fire Department confirming one of its firefighters and his family were caught up in the disaster here.

5:26They're thankfully OK. He actually took part in the rescue effort. And we've been seeing Spanish rescue crews in the field here still searching for people in the darkness. Tom. RAF Sanchez on the scene of that accident. Back here at home, just six days to go until election night. And right now, President Trump is on the ground in Battleground, Ohio, rallying support for Republican candidates in races too close for comfort. And in Alaska, a stunning new report shaking up the Senate battleground featuring dueling Dan Sullivan's. Garrett Haake following it all. Tonight, President Trump on a Republican rescue mission to Ohio, a state he won three times, but where Republicans are locked in tight races.

6:06And in the governor's race, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy still on defense over an attack ad his campaign ran using Democrat Amy Acton's estranged mother, who stayed with a man charged with abusing Acton, to attack her credibility. The irony is they're lying about an ad that was about her lying. There is no low that my opponent won't go to. More than 1.2 million votes have already been cast here. Barry Brown voted straight Democrat. People in central Ohio are just tired, tired of the corruption. Mike Miller is supporting the GOP. I think their moral values are right and aligned with mine. I think they've got their head on straight.

6:47And tonight, a new headline rocking the Senate race in deep red Alaska. Two Dan Sullivan's. The people aren't going to be able to tell. And it's a fraud. JOHN YANG, The New York Times reporting on a secret Democratic plot to sabotage the campaign of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by placing another candidate with the same name on the ballot to confuse his supporters. The Times, citing interviews and text messages, along with documents reporting Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign worked with national Democrats to recruit would-be spoilers, eventually finding a man named Dan J. Sullivan to run. JOHN YANG, President of the United States, Peltola's former campaign manager telling the Times Peltola was, quote, definitely aware of the plot, but she then sought to retract her statements.

7:30The Peltola campaign and the Democrats' Senate campaign committee denied the Times report. Last week, President Trump told the DOJ to file suit to block certification of Alaska's results if Dan J. Sullivan cost Senator Sullivan a win. The fake Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola should be, number one, they should be taken off the ballot, and number two, they should be prosecuted. Garrett Haig joins us tonight from the president's rally in Ohio. And Garrett, you have some new reporting on how that controversial ad we were just talking about may have backfired on the Ramaswamy campaign. Yeah, that's right, Tom.

8:08A Republican strategist working on races in this state tells me that in private Republican polling, Ramaswamy went from two points down to Amy Acton a week ago to eight points down to her now in that same time period where that ad had become the dominant story in this race. What's less clear is whether the focus on that ad, which was condemned by Republican Senate candidate John Husted, may have also prevented Husted from closing what's been a pretty persistent polling gap for him against Democrat Sherrod Brown in that hotly contested Senate race. Tom? Garrett Haig on the campaign trail for Top Story.

8:44We thank you. Tonight, millions of Americans have already cast their ballots. And joining us now with fresh insight into that early vote data is the director of elections here at NBC News, John Lipinski. He is live tonight from our decision desk headquarters in Philadelphia. AND THAT ROOM YOU SEE IS WHERE HE AND HIS TEAM WILL BE PROJECTING THE WINNERS OF ALL THE KEY RACES ON ELECTION NIGHT. THEY ARE WORKING SO HARD. THEY ARE PROBABLY HOME RIGHT NOW. BUT WE PROMISE ON ELECTION NIGHT ALL THOSE DESKS WILL BE FILLED. JOHN, THANKS FOR BEING HERE ON TOP STORY. I KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON THE EARLY VOTES COMING IN.

9:16AND YOU HAVE TWO MAJOR TAKEAWAYS FOR US TONIGHT. WHAT ARE YOU SORT OF GLEANING FROM THAT? YEAH. SO, TOM, YOU KNOW, OBVIOUSLY A LOT OF PEOPLE VOTE BEFORE ELECTION DAY IN THIS COUNTRY. and we've already had 39 million people vote. And so the very first thing I would say is like when we like do the comparisons to past years, there's a lot of enthusiasm. So as you can see here, eight more, this, this basically is an apples to apples comparison to see like six days out from the election, you know, how many people voted in 2026 to 2028. And like, we're looking at eight more million people. And so there's a lot of enthusiasm.

9:52People are obviously very excited and feel very passionate about this election. And so what this has led us to do in the decision desk is sort of to do a deep dive to see like, okay, there's a lot of people voting, but who are they? And so there's two points, Tom, that I think are kind of critical, that are kind of key things that the decision desk are looking at right now and certainly will be looking at on election night. One of them is the Latino vote. And so what we're seeing sort of across the country, but probably as most sort of prominent in Texas is there are a lot of Latinos that are turning out to vote.

10:25So like when we looked in, again, the 2022 midterm to the 2026 midterm comparison, you know, we're looking at like, you know, about 750 ,000, 750 more thousand Latinos have voted in Texas. And as you know, like in a place like Texas, sort of Latino support is going to be really critical to see like whether or not the Democrats can actually pull it off this time. You know, they always look to Texas, have come up short. But right now, with what we're looking in that early vote, and also what we're looking, combining that with looking in some of the polling, it's looking like it's going to be really competitive, and the Democrats definitely are going to have a shot there.

11:02And a lot of it's going to be based on what the Latinos do. Yeah, and we'll have some answers about what motivated them when we get those exit polls on election night. A lot of people voting their pocketbooks. We'll see if that's the case. We know it's going to be a marathon, right? Can you give our viewers three races to watch early in the night to maybe get a sense of how the rest of the night could go? Yeah. So, I mean, Tom, I mean, obviously everybody wants to know how it's going to turn out. We're going to know that on election night. But we're going to we could get some there's some early races.

11:31There's some house races that have early poll closes, but also where they count the vote very quick. So the race is like I'd say three races are going to be really pivotal. One is going to be sort of Kentucky six. Kentucky 6 is a toss-up race. It's an open seat. It's a seat that President Trump in that district won that seat by 15 points, but all of the polling that we're seeing right now in this district is suggesting that it's a toss-up. If the Democrats win this seat, but even, Tom, if they're close in the seat, it's going to be a good night for them, and we're going to know that really quick.

12:04Another race that's going to be important is Indiana 5. That's a 6 o 'clock poll close. THE OTHER THING IS THE THE OTHER THING IS THE OVERALL STATE CLOSES AT 7 O 'CLOCK, BUT IT'S A SPLIT POLLS STATE. SO WE'RE GOING TO GET EARLY RETURNS HERE. THIS IS A VERY TRUMP DISTRICT AND THIS IS A LIKELY REPUBLICAN WIN. BUT NONETHELESS, WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT HERE IS NOT WHETHER THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO WIN, BUT WHAT WE'RE SEEING, WHAT WE WANT TO LOOK AT IS ARE THEY IN PLAY? IS IT CLOSE? IS IT GOING TO TAKE A LONG

12:38is going to give us is going to be Florida is a very quick counting state. The polls close at eight o 'clock, but this district closes at seven o 'clock. We will probably have 75 to 85, maybe even 90 % of the vote by eight o 'clock. We're going to get probably an early call here. And what we want to see here is like, you know, again, can the Democrats win this seat? And more importantly, about a third of the district here is Latino. And as I had said earlier, when we looked at that THAT ARE GOING TO BE A LATERLY VOTE NUMBER. IT IS CLEARLY LATINOS ARE GOING TO HAVE A BIG VOICE IN THIS ELECTION, NOT ONLY IN TEXAS IN THAT SENATE SEAT, BUT THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE A BIG VOICE IN QUITE A FEW HOUSE SEATS, IN FACT, SO MANY HOUSE SEATS, ESPECIALLY IN FLORIDA, THAT THAT COULD BE DETERMINED ABOUT WHO ACTUALLY WINS CONTROL.

13:19IT'S INTERESTING WHEN YOU JUXUSPOSE THE TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT RACE AND THAT FLORIDA congressional district race because you have two different types of Latino voters there. But it could be interesting to see if they align or if they're different. John, while I have you here, you know, a lot of people are going to be watching election night. Some people may be watching on their phones. They may be looking at updates on different sites. Can you just say what we go through? Because we have such a tight and sort of scientific process at NBC News, and we really do go above and beyond. And I don't say that because, you know, it's my home team.

13:50But we really take this stuff very seriously, and we have a process in place. Yeah, we do. I mean, we so I mean, it's exactly right, Tom. We always follow the same process. As you know, we have a very high standard in putting in check marks. We have to be at least 99.5 percent confident. But in reality, we have to be 99.99 percent confident. I'd have to want to bet my life and my life of my team before I'd actually put in a check mark. And what we do is we have a couple dozen people in this room. They're both experts sort of in data science, but also really deep knowledge of politics. And we're combing through, Tom, data that from a lot of different sources, we're collecting a lot of our own data in NBC News.

14:31We have our own precinct operation. We have our own turnout operation. And so we are going through literally looking at literally hundreds of models, hundreds of thousands of computations across all of the races and going through all of them and making sure they're in complete agreement. And then also So everything looks right. And after we go through that process, we always are asking ourselves, you know, could we be wrong? And once we realize that there's no possibility that we are wrong, that's when we put in that checkmark. Because, again, we want we want when we put in a checkmark, that person is one.

15:03John Lipinski, so great to have you here on Top Story and so great to have you on this team. You can dive deeper into the midterms with that early vote data, expert analysis and more subscriber only content by scanning the QR code on your screen right now. Okay, we're going to turn out at other big stories we're following. There's a dual manhunt in the Midwest after two inmates in separate cases escaped by simply walking out. Aerial video capturing the moment authorities closed in on one of the men using infrared cameras. Here's Maggie Vespa. He's ran on us several times and his MO is to hunker down.

15:37This is the moment authorities closed in on an escaped inmate hiding out in a northern Michigan swamp. He'll be off your left side. There's a big pile of like brush and junk. Just be aware he's kind of buried in there about 10 feet off your nose. An infrared camera tracking the scene from above. You guys are almost standing on top of it. What we're seeing heat wise underneath the wood pile. The dog basically right off the nose. We got him. We got him. The inmate Casey Joe Helsall recaptured Monday after authorities say he escaped the local jail through a door left propped open. This, as another manhunt, is underway for convicted murderer Jacob Morley.

16:16Authorities say he walked out of a Tennessee prison. His victim sister, Carrie Norman, living in fear. What was the first thing you thought of? Is he here? Like, is he coming for you? Yes.

16:31Yes, I feel that he would have no problem murdering again. Morley had been serving life in prison for murdering Cody Birchfield in 2022. Investigators now examining surveillance videos they say show Morley stealing this truck early Monday morning and driving through a nearby town. That same truck, they now say, was found abandoned in rural Marion, Illinois. Local authorities say he has no connection to the town and has vanished. Okay, Maggie Vespa joins us and let's pick it up right there. Do we know why Morley went to Illinois and he leads there? Yeah, Tom, I talked to the police chief in Marion earlier.

17:08He was incredibly candid, saying it's actually really frustrating. He said, I have no idea why he's in my town, and he hasn't been seen here since we found the truck here more than 24 hours ago yesterday morning. For that reason, they believe it's possible he either left town or basically disappeared into the national forest surrounding Marion, Illinois. And he said local authorities are working with state and federal law enforcement, including U.S. marshals, who are now combing that entire area, Tom. Okay, Maggie Vespa, we're back in a moment with the attempted kidnapping caught on camera. This was scary.

17:39A man snatching a woman in broad daylight, carrying her towards his truck. The neighbors who rushed in to save her. Plus, a major update on the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, what the final police report reveals. And a new controversy rocking the WNBA, why Game 6 of the finals is set to tip off in the middle of a workday. We'll explain. Stay with us.

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18:46And twice a week, we'll make sure you get smarter about AI so you know what's real, what's hype, and what might come next. Listen to Machine Gods from NPR on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're the type of person who wants data, not assumptions. PreNuvo's whole body scan gives you a deep understanding of your health. Screen for over 500 conditions, including many cancers, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and more. Add blood panels to test over 80 biomarkers, and you've got information about your body you may never have had before. Book your scan at PreNuvo.com.

19:26That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O.com. Back now with a terrifying kidnapping attempt caught on camera. A man seen chasing down a woman, appearing to try to force her into his truck. That's when neighbors rushed in to help. Andres Gutierrez has that video. Tonight, surveillance video showing the moment Honolulu police say this towering man tried to kidnap a young woman. Watch as this man chases the 24-year-old out of a condo parking garage. He grabs her, lifts her off the ground, and tries to carry her toward this truck. In the video obtained by Hawaii News Now, you can see her kicking and screaming as she fights to break free.

20:04Her 77-year-old friend, who asked not to be identified, tries to stop him. He looked like a monster. He just had so much hatred and craziness in his eyes. You can see the suspect pushing the senior away. I was really, really afraid for her. Witnesses hear the women screaming and rush to help, including Scott Morrison. I was yelling at her, do you know him? And she said, no. Were you afraid at any moment that this guy could turn on you? Oh yeah, I was looking for a weapon. I was definitely aware that this could not turn out well very quickly. With neighbors closing in, the woman finally breaks free.

20:43The man then jumps into his truck and speeds off in reverse. It's surreal, but she's the hero. She did all the right things. Three hours later, police arrest a suspect booking the 23-year-old on suspicion of kidnapping and assault. Okay, Andres Gutierrez joins Top Story. Andres, were either of the women involved injured? Well, Tom, both women walked away without serious injuries. But tonight, the 77-year-old says that the terror of that day is still keeping her up at night. As for the suspect, he remains in custody. We did ask police whether he was under the influence at the time of the arrest.

21:16And they would not say, pointing out that this is still an act of investigation. They haven't even released his name, but do say that charges are pending. Tom? Okay, Andres Gutierrez, we're going to take a turn now to the WNBA. It's in the news tonight because the league is facing growing backlash over a strange decision to play game six of their finals in the middle of a workday. The move comes as the finals are shattering viewership records and raising new questions about the league's ability to manage its success. NBC's Priscilla Thompson explains. The WNBA finals reaching new heights. One on one.

21:54Burton! Buckets! But a scheduling controversy overshadowing the action on the court. What's happening right now is awful. The potentially title-clinching game six between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries is set to tip off Thursday. But instead of a prime time spot, it's scheduled for 1230 in the afternoon. The Dream normally play in a 3 ,500-seat arena, but move to the much larger State Farm Arena for the finals. The problem? The NBA's Atlanta Hawks already had a game scheduled there Thursday night, forcing the WNBA into an afternoon slot. How did one of the biggest games of the WNBA season end up in the middle of a workday?

22:36It really just comes down to a lack of planning. The Dream's owners writing in an open letter that they warned the league about potential venue conflicts months ago. But those concerns did not receive the attention nor the urgency that they deserved. Could they not have found anywhere else to play this game in primetime? That's really the million-dollar question. Once you start asking yourself all the logistics involved, the answers get fewer and fewer. The WNBA did not respond to NBC News' request for comment. The Golden State Valkyries sang in a statement, we know Balhalla will be showing up wherever they're watching.

23:11The NBA, the World Series, and the Super Bowl would absolutely never have this issue. The outrage spreading beyond basketball, with hype man Flavor Flav calling for Thursday to be a paid holiday, drawing an endorsement from Hillary Clinton. On the West Coast, where the game will tip off at 9.30 in the morning, some bar owners blasting the move. There was frustration. There was disappointment. There was anger. Jenny Nguyen runs the Sports Bra in Portland, a space dedicated to women's sports. She says she's now scrambling to bring in staff early, buy a coffee maker and serve breakfast. It's frustrating logistically as a bar owner, but for the community, for the fans, I mean, kids are in school.

23:51People be working. The controversy comes as the league is breaking records, the series delivering some of the most watched games in WNBA finals history. Give us the platform we deserve. Primetime, baby. A league with more eyes on it than ever before, still grappling with growing pains. PRISCILLA JOINS US NOW LIVE. PRISCILLA, GOOD TO SEE YOU. THE QUESTION IN A LOT OF PEOPLE'S MINDS, WHY COULDN'T THE NBA JUST MOVE THEIR GAME OR WHY COULDN'T THEY FIND ANOTHER VENUE IN ATLANTA? YEAH, SO STATE FARM ARENA IS THE HOME COURT FOR THE ATLANTA HAWKS. AND THAT TEAM DID MOVE THEIR TIP-OFF BY AN HOUR. BUT YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT NBA FANS HAD ALREADY BOUGHT TICKETS FOR THAT GAME.

24:31THE NBA SCHEDULE HAD BEEN SET FOR SOME TIME. AND SO MOVING THAT GAME WOULD HAVE IMPACTED POTENTIALLY HAD A effect on other teams in the league, other games, and also their broadcast commitments. Tom? Okay, Priscilla Thompson, thank you. Still ahead tonight, the alarming new study about CTE and football, what it shows.

25:00We're back now with Top Stories News Feed and an update on the death of actress Hayden Panettiere. The Greenville Police Department officially ruling her death an accident and closing that case. The 36-year-old was found unresponsive in an apartment complex in August. The county coroner's office has determined last month that Panettiere died after taking multiple drugs, including fentanyl. And an alarming new study on the connection between pro football and the brain disease known as CTE. Data shows roughly 75 % of NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023 had signs of CTE. That's three times higher than previous estimates.

25:37The disease can cause memory loss, depression, and violent mood swings. An NFL spokesperson says the league is committed to making the game safer by reducing concussion and hits to the head. And Hall of Fame sports broadcaster Ernie Johnson announcing he's retiring as host of Inside the NBA. This will be my last season. Totally my decision. It's just time. And I'll forever cherish every chapter we have written with Inside the NBA. Johnson has been hosting the iconic show since 1990, winning multiple Emmy Awards over the decades. The 70-year-old says he plans to step away at the end of the NBA season, adding that he will keep covering NCAA March Madness.

26:18All right. And a big change for Cheerios that could finally stop your cereal from going stale. The brand is teaming up with Ziploc to bring you, get this, resealable bags. Yes, Cheerios have been around for more than 80 years, but its parent company, General Mills, says it decided to make the switch after getting thousands of requests from customers. The new boxes are already on shelves at Walmart and are expected to be in more stores in coming months. Thank you, Cheerios. OK, and back now to our coverage of the final sprint to Election Day. This is a live look at a rally in Georgia right now.

26:51The headliner, former President Barack Obama, at some point we'll show it to you, I'm sure. He's expected to take the stage at any moment now. Right now, the Democratic candidate for governor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, is on stage. That's a race everyone's watching. Erin Gilchrist is there tonight. Erin, Georgia hasn't had a Democratic governor in more than 20 years, but the race this year is essentially locked in a tie.

27:17Tom, I can tell you, I'm having a little trouble hearing you. We have Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic candidate for governor here in Georgia, on stage right now. And we are going to hear from her and then Senator John Ossoff and then President Obama. And I can tell you that the message that she's been trying to get across to Georgians here has been one where she is advocating for what she's called an opportunity-based economy. And that's the message that she really has started out talking about here tonight. I'll tell you, though, that this governor's race here in Georgia has been an interesting one to watch because it's been so tight.

27:49You have a politician that's a known name here in Keisha Lance Bottoms going up against the Republican candidate, who is a newcomer to politics, but he is a self-made billionaire here in Georgia and has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into his campaign effort to get to this point, where we're now just a couple of days away from Election Day here in Georgia, and a final decision about who will be governor here. And so Keisha Lance Bottoms has been getting a lot of support here. Obviously, in the room, she's wildly supported, but she's also been getting a lot of monetary support trying to mount a campaign against Rick Jackson.

28:26The Democratic Governors Association just this week infused another$5 million into her campaign effort. And so tonight, we're hearing from her. We'll hear from President Obama, who really is being brought in as a closer for her and for John Ossoff. And the effort tonight, I think, is really centered on trying to tell people that turnout here in Georgia really matters, both for Keisha Lance Bottoms and for John Ossoff. And so while early voting has been tremendous here in Georgia, two million people have already cast ballots. These candidates know that getting to make sure that people are heading to the polls the rest of this week and on Election Day is tremendously important, Tom.

29:07All right. Aaron Gilchrist for us. Aaron, good to see you there. Let's move on to another Senate battleground, Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are locked in a battle that could determine who controls the Senate. NBC's Sahil Kapoor is diving deep into the race at the big board. Sahil, so great to see you. Both of these candidates are courting voters who shifted towards President Trump in 2024. Where could El-Sayed pick up some of those voters, and where might he lose some ground? Good evening, Tom. This is a massively consequential Senate race with the Republican Trump ally Mike Rogers facing the progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who is an unconventional candidate, which means you could have an unconventional path with a unique set of opportunities and pitfalls.

29:46And I'll tell you, his biggest opportunity is with younger voters under 45. This is how they drifted toward Trump by nine points in 2024. Polls show Abdul El-Sahid doing very well with younger voters under 45, not only matching, but far exceeding this margin that Joe Biden got. He needs to do that and run up the score in places like Washtenaw County, where the University of Michigan is, in places like Ingham County, where Michigan State is. Lots of young voters there. He needs to do that in part because he's got a potential weakness with black voters. This is how they voted. They drifted away from the Democrats in 2024.

30:21And Abdulaziz had struggled with black voters in the primary, that feisty primary against Haley Stevens. Some polls show him doing even worse than this number that Kamala Harris had in 2024 against Mike Rogers with black voters. He can't afford to let that happen. If it does happen, it would show up. In Wayne County, city of Detroit, about three-quarters African-American. And this is vitally important that Abdul El-Sayed hold the line, because when Democrats do well and run up the score here, like Joe Biden did in 2020, they win statewide. When they backslide, as Kamala Harris did in 2024, things become problematic.

30:54Now, Wayne County is a double-edged sword, because, yes, there's Detroit. But there's also the city of Dearborn, which is a major source of strength for El-Sayed, the largest concentration of Arab Americans anywhere in the country. This is how they voted in 2024, a massive 45-point swing toward Trump, which helped him win Michigan. And al-Sayed is expecting to make up all that margin, maybe some more. He's going to have to do that. And lastly, Tom, this county, I would say, is an opportunity and a pitfall all in one for Abdul al-Sayed. Suburban Detroit, lots of moderate college-educated voters here.

31:25The opportunity is that they don't particularly like Trump. See, here in the last two elections, they voted against him. The pitfall is that they rarely see a candidate. They haven't really seen a candidate like Abdul al-Sayed in modern times in a federal, statewide race. So if there's any suburban weakness here for El-Sayed, which Republicans are trying to cultivate, it will show up in this vote-rich Oakland County. El-Sayed has got to hold the line here if he wants to win statewide in Michigan. Tom. Sahil, thank you so much. Now to the AI boom gaining a foothold in the legal field. Investors have poured more than$3 billion into AI startups designed to help lawyers draft contracts, compile research, and review arguments.

32:04That according to Reuters. You can see some of them here. These are tools doing work that could take an entire team of junior lawyers weeks, if not months, to complete. Now two of the Biden administration's top antitrust enforcers are getting in on that gold rush, and they say their new AI tool is so powerful it can give a small team of lawyers the ability to take on opponents many times their size. I want to bring in one of the founders of FluxCap, former assistant attorney general for antitrust, Jonathan Cantor. Jonathan, thanks for joining Top Story. Let's start with the basics here, right?

32:34Your tools aim to help antitrust lawyers. Explain to our viewers, in simplest terms, what is antitrust law? So antitrust law is about corporate concentration. Think monopolies, the biggest companies of the day going back to the railroads of yesteryear, the tech companies of today. We build technology that's designed to help power antitrust lawsuits to take on the largest companies so that our economy can be more competitive. Okay, so I'm a country lawyer somewhere across this great nation, and I'm going to take on a massive law firm or a massive company, right, that can hire multiple law firms.

33:08What do you envision your AI tool able to do in this situation? So that's exactly right. We built, when I was at the Department of Justice, we took on companies many times our size and we didn't have the resources always to bring the cases we wanted to bring. So necessity is the mother of invention. We decided to build a tool that we wished we had when we were there. And so we can go out, our technology actually understands antitrust law. It understands with depth why the law works, how a lawyer reasons, and it can help a lawyer review documents, create pleadings, figure out where the good documents are, figure out where the good facts are, and create and litigate cases with a team a fraction of the size of what it normally takes.

33:49So, you know, we have covered cases here on Top Story where you have AI tools inventing law cases, hallucinating. And in some cases, lawyers have gotten in trouble and admonished by judges for presenting cases that don't exist and the judge can't find them. How do you make sure your tool doesn't do this? So this is built in from the very beginning. Everything our tool does, everything it says, every output is designed to be linked to provenance, can be logged, and it doesn't submit anything. This is not an agent that goes and files things in court for you. It helps lawyers prepare documents faster, review the sources and make sure they're accurate.

34:27And it has built-in protections to make sure that it's catching anything that might not be completely accurate. And it works extremely well. Does it really help the David in a David and Goliath situation? Because Goliath could also hire your company and have this app as well. Our company is only available for people playing offense. So we're available to public and private enforcers. Think a state attorney general or a plaintiff's firm or a company taking on another company. One side gets it. It's a comparative advantage because I come from a world where we were up against defense firms with unlimited resources and unlimited technology.

35:03So we wanted to build something better and give it just to one side so they could beat the other side. Talking about companies with infinite resources, we knew you worked in the Biden administration with antitrust law. there's been a big debate about AI and guardrails. What is your take on this? Because we saw President Trump, when he had the leaders of the major AI companies come to the White House to talk about this, and some said there was a need for guardrails, while others said, including President Trump, he doesn't want any guardrails. What's the answer here, and what is the reality? We've invented the equivalent of cars and trucks, but we have no lines on the road, no stop signs and no traffic lights.

35:42We need some basic rules and principles. This is something everybody in the country or most people in the country agree on. And so where we should start, in my view, is with basic duties of care and duties of loyalty. Companies should have the obligation to build products that are safe, that don't break into other people's servers, that don't create malicious attacks on other people's products and services and company, that respect creators' rights and so forth. And the consequences of violating that duty care, in my view, should be significant enough so that it destroys shareholder values so that companies have a strong incentive to build safe and secure products now rather than just pay fines later on.

36:22I want to talk to you about shareholders in a second, but going back to these guardrails, are there antitrust rules already on the books? Is there anything already existing that could protect the country if AI gets out of control or not really? Not really. There are some basic rules, for example, around product liability that were used recently to take on social media to the tune of fines in the many tens of billions of dollars. The problem is they're not specific enough and they don't relate to the technology. So we don't necessarily need massive invasive regulation, but we do need some basic standard duties of care, duties of loyalty.

36:56For example, if a company has an AI agent, that agent, in my view, should be treated just like an employee of the company. So if that agent breaks the law, breaks into someone else's company, commits an act of malfeasance, both the company should be responsible and the agent in the form of what I like to think of as robot jail. So if the agent breaks the law, it should be held accountable and it should be impounded and put in robot jail. What would that mean, though? Would that mean deleting the technology? What exactly does that mean? Yeah, it means taking off the market. Think about this. If a plane has a door that flies off in the middle of the air, you don't just keep flying that plane.

37:34You ground it. And it shouldn't be approved to fly until that door is fixed. Same thing should be true for technology. All right. Last question here. Anthropic is set to go public in less than three weeks. And we've been talking about the idea of circular financing here on Top Story, that other tech companies like Microsoft, Google are both customers of Anthropic competitors. Some cases, tech companies are also investors in Anthropic. Does that raise antitrust concerns for you? Certainly, it raises questions that I think should be answered. The circular investments create, I mean, the antitrust laws, the trust in antitrust, when they were created beginning of the last century, were designed to be the trust that had interest in lots of different companies at once.

38:16It was about circular investments and financing. That's what led to the creation of the antitrust laws. We're seeing that now. It not only creates concerns for competition, but it creates concerns about resiliency for our economy. And if one of those companies starts to fail, the cascading failures that go with it could be devastating for our economy. So I think it's very important that we make sure that we have independent companies who are competing against each other and who are not overly dependent on one another. Jonathan, we thank you for being here tonight on Top Story. Still to come tonight, we go inside the self-proclaimed data center capital of the world, Loudoun County, Virginia, where parents are now raising concerns about the impact of these massive facilities.

38:56Stay with us.

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40:24We're back now with a growing divide over the data centers that are fueling the AI boom. Parents in one Virginia town are voicing concerns over the stunning number of facilities right near an elementary school and asking questions about what the diesel generators that go along with them are putting in the air. Here's Stephanie Goss. Loudoun County, Virginia, proudly touts it has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. And right in the middle of all of it is Discovery Elementary, 11 centers within half a mile of the school and two more being built. Why do we have so many? Right?

41:00How many more are coming? Seatbelt on. Coco Lyon's daughter is in first grade. I have had my daughter leaving school asking, wait, is the building on fire? AMNA NAWAZ, It's not a fire. It's exhaust from backup diesel generators. There are as many as 264 of them near the school, according to an NBC News analysis of state-issued permits. Do you worry about the air? I do. I do, because I just don't know. AMNA NAWAZ, Just one generator running at full capacity emits more pollution than 118 wheelers, according to calculations done by environmental researcher Stephen Fong. The number and size of the diesel generators that are being installed, they're producing enough air pollution that there are concerns about what kind of health impacts this would have on students.

41:48Should the state be monitoring the air quality near this school all the time? Personally, I think they should. The data centers we reached out to said they turn the generators on only rarely during power emergencies and during scheduled testing and not always at full capacity. Jason Mello lives down the road from the school. He recorded this video of another data center a bit further away after three straight days of smelling the exhaust this summer. Well, I'm out with my kids and it just was so strong that I'm like, okay, we're going to go inside. Less than 10 years ago, this was all trees, but look down this road.

42:23That's a data center. That's a data center. That's the data center where Jason Mello recorded that video. And just here on this side of the road, look what they're doing, building another data center. The expansion of data centers across Loudoun County should have been done vastly differently. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed legislation requiring data center companies to use cleaner generators going forward. What would happen if 118 wheelers pulled into Discovery Elementary and just sat there idling their engines. People would lose their minds and understandably so. Also an executive order now directs the state to overhaul how it approves generators and tracks their impact.

43:07We are putting clear standards in place and ensuring that what has been permitted in years past is not permitted into the future. Loudoun County says the policy at the time the school was built did not give the community a say in data center development. The policy has since been changed for future PROJECTS BUT THAT WON'T STOP THE CONSTRUCTION ALREADY UNDERWAY. COCO LIONS SAYS SHE IS WORRIED FOR HER DAUGHTER'S HEALTH. I'M DROPPING HER OFF TO HER LOCAL SCHOOL, RIGHT? BUT TO THINK THAT I COULD BE PUTTING HER IN HARM'S WAY BY DOING SO, YEAH, THAT'S HARD. STEPHANIE JOINS US NOW. STEPHANIE, THERE'S A STRANGE IRONY HERE YOU WERE TELLING US WHEN YOU WERE REPORTING OUT THE STORY.

43:50WHERE THE SCHOOL SITS, THAT LAND WAS ACTUALLY DONATED BY A DATA center? Yeah, Tom, it goes back about 15 years, which is a very different time. We weren't having this conversation about artificial intelligence. The land was given for the school to be built. But since then, there has been this explosion in construction. The county itself put very few restrictions into data center construction, and the state was giving permits for these diesel generators really without much question. It is only until very recently that the governor and the officials and the community have raised attention to this situation.

44:23But during that period of time, you had this explosion, not just in the county, but around this one school. Stephanie Goss for us tonight. Stephanie, thanks for bringing us this one. You're welcome. When we come back tonight, the popular new trend, building bonds between total strangers, why a growing number of people are paying big money just to make friends. Plus, remembering Dolores Huerta, the trailblazing civil rights leader who fought to improve the lives of farm workers. That's next.

44:51WE'RE BACK NOW WITH A GROWING TREND OF PEOPLE SHELLING OUT BIG BUCKS IN THE HOPES OF MAKING A PLATONIC CONNECTION. YES, MAKING FRIENDS. ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, IN A PIECE TITLED, WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE PAYING TO MAKE FRIENDS, MATCHMAKING APPS ARE SURGING IN POPULARITY. IT COMES AS A REPORT FROM THE SURGE IN GENERAL FOUND ABOUT HALF OF U.S. ADULTS ARE EXPERIENCING LONLINESS. Joining us tonight is Dorothy Lee, a co-founder of Real Roots. It's a company connecting groups of strangers for a fee. So, Dorothy, welcome to Top Story. We should note Real Roots is women-only right now, but there are apps out there for everyone.

45:25Walk us through how exactly this works. So you're somebody who's looking for a friend. Let's say you live in New York City. How does your app work? Yeah, absolutely. So people download the app or they go to our website at realroots.com, and they can fill out a short questionnaire about who they are and what they're looking for in a friendship and then we let them know the date and the time uh where they we found the best group of women friends for them what's the difference between this and and say a dating app and i'll get into that in a second obviously there's a big difference but as far as the algorithm is concerned how would this be different because if you think about your friend groups you know you have some friends that you're very much alike but you have some friends that are very different but you still LIKE HANGING OUT WITH THEM.

46:06SO I'M WONDERING HOW EXACTLY THE ALGORITHM FIGURES THAT OUT. YEAH, AND THAT'S A VERY ASSISTANT OBSERVATION. SO WE DESIGNED THE GROUP DYNAMIC AS A WHOLE TO BE COHESIVE. SO IN A GROUP, WE 'VE FOUND OUT THAT IT OFTEN MAKES SENSE FOR THERE TO BE DIVERSITY AND PERSONALITIES LIKE PLANNERS VERSUS MORE EASY-GOING PEOPLE, EXTRAVERTED PEOPLE VERSUS MORE INTROVERTED PEOPLE. SO WE TAKE THAT INTO CONSIDERATION AS WE FORM THE PERFECT GROUP. AND IS IT ALL SORT OF BASED ON YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE APP? YES, ABSOLUTELY. HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE THAT, AT LEAST WITH REAL ROOTS, TWO FRIENDS, WOMEN IN THIS CASE, GET TOGETHER, MAYBE SOMEONE REALLY LIKES THIS FRIENDSHIP BUT THEY WANT TO TAKE IT TO THE NEXT STEP.

46:48ANOTHER ONE WANTS TO STAY IN THE FRIENDS ZONE. HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE PEOPLE DON'T HAVE, I DON'T WANT TO SAY BAD INTENTIONS, BUT ARE CONFUSED WITH THE APP AND THE RELATIONSHIPS? YES, WE ARE DESIGNED JUST FOR PLATONIC FRIENDSHIP. EVERYONE IS STAYING IN THE I THINK. BUT TO YOUR QUESTION ABOUT THE INTENSITY OF THE FRIENDSHIP, SOME PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR FRIENDS THAT THEY MEET UP WITH EVERY DAY AND OTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR FRIENDS THAT THEY MEET UP MAYBE JUST ONCE EVERY COUPLE OF WEEKS FOR A FUN EXPERIENCE. YEAH, THAT'S ACTUALLY A GOOD ONE, RIGHT? BECAUSE THERE'S ALWAYS THAT SITUATIONS OF TIMES WHERE YOU COULD MEET A PERSON WHO IS A, YOU KNOW, THEY CALL HIM A CLINGER, RIGHT?

47:23THEY JUST CALL YOU EVERY DAY. YES, THEY'RE CALLING EVERY DAY OR THEY'RE SUFFOCATING OR THEY WANT TO, YOU KNOW, THEY want to spend the whole day together. Maybe you just want to go to a museum. Maybe you want to go shopping, do whatever you want to do. You're in and you're out. And then the other person maybe wants the whole day. How do you make sure you don't sort of intersect with that? Absolutely. That's one of the questions that we match on, actually. And it's important to get that right. In the world that we live in now, I mean, I've been traveling a lot lately and I just, the more and more I travel, the more sort of taken back I am that how people are just centered on their phones.

47:54They're like this. As soon as they sit down, they're like this in the car. They're like this on a train, on a plane, there is no communication anymore. Do you feel that your app is actually needed now more than ever because people have cut off social relationships in so many ways, even small interactions? Absolutely. In my parents' generation, a lot of people would go to a cafe and make eye contact and perhaps make a friendship. But today, like you mentioned, we're glued to our phones, so we almost need double opt-in and permission to approach someone who's looking for a new friendship. And what Real Roots does really well is that you know everyone you match with on our platform is looking for a friend, and they are intentionally carving out time for that experience as well.

48:36So they're right there with you. Yeah, it's not cheap, though, right? I mean, if you want to roll with an entourage, it's going to be pricey. You got a$300 price tag on the app. Is that really the cost of how much it takes to make a friend these days? Well, it is for Real Roots because we also cover the activities and we staff a host to run every single experience. So the host leads conversational icebreakers and deep conversation topics. So you make the most use of your time together. Wait, hold on. This is like so different now. You have somebody, wait, you have like a referee there or like what exactly?

49:10So you're trying to make a friend and then you have what? You have a third party, a parent, if you will. What do you have there? Well, actually, the host, the guide is exactly the same age, and she fits your demo. But we match groups of women, right, into a friendship group. And with so many people, it's often very helpful to have a group leader that knows logistically where you're going that night, has all the reservation details, and also is running our experience of deep conversation topics and get to know you icebreakers. Yeah. The truth is, it's awkward in the beginning, right? So we take away that awkwardness by having a tight agenda that isn't very intentionally set.

49:47But it's so strange. How did you come up with that? I didn't say strange. I've never done anything like this or built an app. But I know I've never done online dating, but I know people that do online dating, there is no host or referee or whatever. There's no third party there. So how did you guys decide on that? Well, we are busy professionals ourselves, and we design real roots for women like us. So we want to make sure that each hour you spend with us, you're meeting people who are well-matched for you in your life stage. And also you're spending your time intentionally talking about a wide, diverse set of subjects that are really important for friendship making.

50:24Do you think people need this because of this day and age, or do you think this should have always existed? I think it should always have existed, but in some form it kind of did in the past. We had more of an emphasis on neighborhood groups. We had more of an emphasis on church groups one or two generations ago, and that has been declining. And then pairing that with just how busy everyone is today and how geographically mobile we are in this decade compared to past decades, it just really opens up space for friendship-making apps like ours. Can you share one story, something you learned from early on building this and testing it out with different groups of people that were trying to find a friend?

51:01Yeah. Yeah, well, one of the first groups I matched, actually, I designed Real Roots for me originally because I needed it so much. So my first group was a group of women in San Francisco who would meet at my house, and we would have wine every Wednesday night. And after six weeks, the group really bonded and became good friends. To this day, two of the girls, they were each other's bridesmaids. They're best friends. They've been traveling the world together. I KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THEM. I'M STILL ON INSTAGRAM AND I SEE ALL THE PHOTOS. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL STORY. THAT'S REALLY, REALLY COOL. THAT'S HOW YOU DESIGNED THE APP.

51:38YOU NEEDED FRIENDS AND YOU MET THE FRIENDS THROUGH THE APP? YES, I NEEDED FRIENDS BECAUSE I WAS ONE OF THE BUSY PROFESSIONALS THAT MOVED A LOT IN HER ADULT LIFE. WHEN I MOVED TO SF FOR THE FIRST TIME SEVEN YEARS AGO, I JUST, IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS. I KNOW, I GET IT. IT'S TOUGH. IT'S TOUGH OUT THERE, especially when you move to a new city. Dorothy Lee, thank you for coming on. We know we asked you a lot of questions, but congratulations on the app. I hope it all works out. And I hope, I really do hope you connect people because I think people need to be connected and we're getting disconnected from each other too much.

52:12All right. Finally tonight, we are remembering the civil rights leader, Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union. Huerta spent decades fighting labor injustices and her three-word slogan, Si Se Puede, Yes, We Can became a widespread riling cry for generations. Here's Liz Kreutz tonight on her life and her legacy. For more than seven decades, Dolores Huerta, one of the nation's leading labor activists, dedicated her life to fighting for change. The Latina civil rights icon co-founded the United Farm Workers Union in the 1960s with activist Cesar Chavez, where together they organized a nationwide boycott of grapes that That led to the first union contract giving migrant farm workers better wages and working conditions.

52:58There's been so much violence against our people in California. It seems like the consumers are really supporting the farm workers, and they are supporting the boycott. Despite being arrested more than 25 times, Huerta, as seen in multiple documentaries about her life, never backed down, coining that famous phrase, si se puede, yes, we can, that has inspired generations. eniz, yes, we can! YAMICHE ALCINDOR, President Obama Award at Cuerta, President of Portland. presidencial medal of freedom. AV models for him to give me that, it really indicated how important organizing is, and so I hope that my legacy will be let's have more organizers.

53:39I consider them to be like the missionaries out there, telling, speaking truth to power. YAMICHE ALCINDOR ROMANO, villeiquerata Preltisa, ANBORhora génialnikET ZENBURG Potter, Huerta sharing her truth for the first time, saying that Cesar Chavez sexually assaulted her twice, encounters that resulted in two children with Chavez. Tonight, as her family mourns her death, Obama calling Huerta a hero who spent her life fighting for marginalized communities, even as she herself faced sexism and abuse, an icon who ensured that people who put food on our tables have a seat at one. And Tom, Dolores Huerta had incredible energy well into her 90s, even earlier this year out on the campaign trail and doing interviews.

54:22A number of other leaders have commented on her passing, former President Clinton and Biden, Kamala Harris. Flags here in California are flying at half-staff in her honor. And Dolores Huerta's family did put out a statement as well asking for privacy and saying they plan to follow up with details on how they plan to celebrate her life and legacy. Tom. What a legacy. Okay, that does it for us tonight. We thank you for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yamas in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.

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