of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. this morning, new developments in the mystery surrounding jeffrey epstein's apparent suicide. there are a lot of questions about the monitoring he received in jail and the justice department and the fbi are both investigating. plus, the man accused of opening fire inside a walmart inside el paso, texas, reportedly confessed that he was targeting people of mexican descent. and pushing for the reinstatement of an assault weapons ban in the wake of recent mass shootings. good morning, everybody, it

is monday, august 12th, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. we start this morning with more questions than answers following the apparent suicide of wealthy jeffrey epstein. multiple people briefed on the investigation telling nbc news that checks on inmates are supposed to take place every 30 minutes or so, but there are questions if there was a delay the night that epstein died. according to nbc news, epstein was not on suicide watch at the time of his death even though he was found unconscious in his cell with marks around his neck three weeks ago. sources telling nbc that epstein underwent a psychiatric evaluation and they cleared him from suicide watch on or around july 29th. officials telling "the new york times," because of the incident three weeks ago, epstein was supposed to have another inmate in his cell but the jail had

recently transferred his cell mate and allowed epstein to be housed alone. the president for the local union for staffers told "the washington post" that the two corrections officers assigned to watch the special unit where epstein was being housed were working overtime, one forced to do so by management, the other for his fifth or 6th consecutive day. senior law enforcement officials telling nbc news that suicide remains the presumed cause of death, and there is no sign of foul play here. >> despite epstein's death and all of those questions around it, a criminal investigation that led to the sex trafficking charges against him will continue. that is according to "the new york times" and federal prosecutors and fbi agents will now turn their attention to people whom his accusers have alleged participated in a scheme that dates back more than a decade and involved the sexual exploitation of dozens of

underage girls. that could include a circle of close associates whom accusers said helped recruit, train. in 2007, a non-prosecution agreement said that prosecutors would not charge four women it identified as potential coconspirators. the chief federal prosecutor has maintained it is not bound by the florida agreement. many of the accusers can pursue civil claims against his vast estate which is said to be worth more than $500 million. >> attorney general bill barr said he was quote appalled by jeffrey epstein's death, and confirmed the justice department's watchdog and the fbi would investigate. barr in a statement released saturday said this, i was appalled to learn that jeffrey epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal

custody. in addition to the fbi's investigation i have consulted with the inspector general who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of in mr. epstein's death. the fbi does not usually look into suicides, but a senior law enforcement official telling nbc news it was investigating given the nature of the case and out of a quote abundance of caution. >> leaders are demanding answers for why jeffrey epstein was allowed to kill himself. in a furious letter to the justice department, ben sasse blasted the doj for the circumstances writing in part that the department of justice failed and jeffrey epstein's coconspirators think they may have gotten one last sweetheart deal. every single person in the justice department knew that this man was a suicide risk and that his darkest secrets couldn't be allowed to die with

him, given his previous attempt at suicide, he should have been locked in padded room, under 24/7 surveillance. sasse's democratic colleague, and democrat candidate for president, elizabeth warren, echoed. >> i would like to see an investigation to understand how this was permitted to happen when he was incarcerated. the system broke down here. he should have been held ftrial and his victims should have had a chance to testify against him. there should have been a public errand of what happened, who helped him, who was involved, and now that has been cut off. >> jerry nadler weighed in on epstein's death, tweeting that he was deeply disturbed, adding there are many questions that need to be asked in this case. alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeted out, we need answers, lots of

them. >> while lawmakers demands more information into the death of jeffrey epstein, president trump was at his new jersey golf club promoting basing conspiracy theories on epstein's death. >> wielding the world's most powerful megaphone, president trump re-tweeted a baseless conspiracy theories to nearly 63 million twitter followers, a spurious accusation that the clintons are somehow linked to jeffrey epstein's death. democratic candidates said enough. >> this is another example of our president using this position of public trust to attack his political enemies with unfounded conspiracy theories. >> what he is doing is dangerous. >> reporter: president trump wants socialized with jeffrey epstein but said last month their friendship ended years ago. >> well, i didn't get along with him. >> reporter: president clinton had known epstein too but a

spokesperson said they had not spoken in more than a decade. the trump conspiracy re-tweet provoked this response from a clinton aide, ridiculous, and of course not true, and donald trump knows it. trump adviser kellyanne conway. >> why did the president re-tweet that clinton suggestion. >> i think the president wants everything to be investigated. >> reporter: donald trump has a pattern of promoting false claims. birtherism about barack obama, linking ted cruz's father to the jfk assassination, notably epstein death conspiracies are covered by some russian owned media. and all over the web. >> just because the accounts that initially pushed this are domestic accounts doesn't necessarily mean that russia or other foreign actors aren't involved. >> reporter: clearly aware that the conspiracy re-tweets have caused controversy in and of themselves, we have tried repeatedly to get white house officials to explain what the

president's intention was. the president himself has moved on to other subjects on his social media, typically white house officials say the president's tweets speak for themselves but they haven't given us any real explanation about what his intentions were here. over the next week, the president and his family will remain in new jersey and that's somewhat of a summer vacation, although the president rejects any characterization that he's not working. he does have a couple of trips planned for campaign and official business. he'll be visiting pennsylvania and new hampshire over the next wee week. >> you have to think that the president's tweets which officially become part of the national archive, 20 years from now, when historians are looking back at his tweet record, they are going to look that he re-tweeted this conspiracy theory. does he actually believe these things. there's always that caveat that re-tweets are not an endorsement. why does he only re-tweet this

c conspiratorial stuff. joining us, scott wong, good to have you with us this morning. what do you make of the president of the united states o touting a conspiracy theory about jeffrey epstein's death. >> it's incredibly bizarre. this is something you would expect to find on conspiracy web sites on the back channels of the internet, not from the president of the united states, but i think the president tends to, when he feels under attack, when he feels like the heat is on him, had tends to go to his comfort zone, which is attacking the clintons, attacking hillary clinton, attacking president obama, attacking many of his media critics, which we saw him do over the weekend, and as you know, trump had to dump his labor secretary over his connections to the epstein case back in florida when people

thought that he was too lenient on jeffrey epstein in these underage, you know, sexual encounters and these charges and so the president clearly feels, i think, under attack, and he is responding by going on the attack. >> yeah. i will say, though, this is not necessarily surprising. the president has a history of conspiracy theories before. >> and it seems that we're getting lower and lower in tqua of the conspiracy theories. >> and he has done this for quite some time, before he was president and while he was in office. how is epstein's death going to impact the case going forward. >> i think, you know, it's unfortunate because there were a lot of questions that prosecutors wanted to find out from epstein himself. now he's not -- no longer here, and i think the focus turns to

people in his orbit. many of the people who perhaps enabled him to, you know, have these encounters with underage girls, you know, there are a number of individuals who helped, as you guys mentioned, helped recruit these girls to have sex with epstein, and you know, based on allegations other friend of his, and so i think people are going to want to question. a number of names came up in these legal documents. i imagine prosecutors will want to talk to all of those individuals and then the focus, i think, does shift to these doj investigations. bill barr has launched an investigation. members of congress specifically house democrats, i think, want to know more, and so we could see investigations coming from capitol hill. this is by far not the end of the story. >> scott wong live in d.c.

stick around, we're going to talk again in a little bit. the alleged el paso gunman confessed to gunning down dozens in walmart. upon being arrested, suspect got out of his car with his hands up and stated to agent quote, i'm the shooter. el paso prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty. meanwhile, "the new york times" just took a deep dive into the conservative media killer and found the confessed shooter echoed many of the words of its most prominent stars. found vikistriking overlap. the confessed shooter complained about hispanic invasion of texas, echoes tucker carlson, laura ingram, ann coulter, on saying quote, you can shoot

invaders. the words immigrant invasion appeared on fox newscasts. the times reports the vast majority were spoken by fox news hosts and guests but some included clips of mr. trump using that language at rallies and other public appearances. the alleged gunman's diatribe referred to a great replacement, that is a white supremacist spear theory that thinks white culture is being taken out. several of the democratic candidates spent the weekend addressing gun violence in iowa. and one democratic hopeful broke down in tears during the discussion. dangerous levels of lead in ma newark, new jersey, what city leaders are doing about problem. we'll have those and a check of weather when we come back. a ch weather when we come back.

welcome back, 2020 democratic candidates flocked to

the iowa sate fair where they united in their promise to combat gun violence in america. listen to this. >> folks, don't apologize at all about the second amendment. the second amendment says that we can limit who can own a weapon. they can limit what kind of gun you can own. >> mcconnell wants to vote against gun safety legislation, let him vote against it, but reconvene the united states senate. let's have that discussion. let's have that vote. do what the american people want. >> it's about reducing the deaths from gun violence. that's what our goal has to be. 40,000 americans died last year from gun violence. so here's my commitment as president. i will reduce that number by 80%. >> we also need a president of the united states who understands that one of her greatest powers is to use this microphone in a way that is about not beating people down

but lifting people up. people say to me, did donald trump cause those folks to be killed, well, no, of course he didn't pull the trigger, but he certainly has been tweeting out the ammunition. >> and businessman, andrew yang was over come with emotion after hearing one victim's family's story with gun violence. >> i have a 6 and 3-year-old boy. i was imagining it was one of them that got shot, and the other saw it. i'm so sorry. >> meanwhile, both senators, elizabeth warren drew the largest audiences as the race for 2020 begins to heat up. one of those candidates we just

mentioned, andrew yang will be joining us live on "morning joe." some resident of new jersey will be receiving bottled water after it was discovered that they have been not removing lead. we are unable at this time to assure newark residents that their health is fully protected when drink tap water filtered through these devices and urged officials to provide bottled water to residents with lead pipes as soon as possible. for more than a year, newark officials denied the city's widespread lead problem but abruptly changed course last october and began giving out water filters to some residents. city officials issued a statement saying they would provide bottled water as early as this afternoon, a method used during the water crisis in flint, michigan. >> scary times for residents out there. let's switch gears bring in

meteorologist bill karins. >> good monday morning. weekend was nice for some people, hot for others. we're going to talk about severe weather threats, we're going to talk about the heat wave that's not going anywhere. one thing we're not going to talk about is anything in the tropics. now we're getting close to the peak of the season. we'll take a break this time of year. it's wake up time, middle of the night in st. louis. we have thunderstorms in the north side of town, without a lot of lightning and thunder and massive complex of storms, rolling through omaha, topeka, north of kansas city, damaging winds are possible. as they head into iowa, and the northeast section of kansas. as we go throughout this afternoon, we see severe weather. we have an enhanced risk of severe storms, they're going to stay south of the chicago, and north of st. louis. these storms roll quickly into

areas of indiana. a few tornadoes today. 11 million people at risk. then the same storm system races into areas of the east. so by the time we get to tuesday afternoon, looks like another one of those messy evening commutes on the i-90 corridor. we have 50 million people at risk of severe storms. that's the risk area, and it goes from new york city, right down to philly, baltimore, washington, d.c., richmond and back into areas of the central appalachians. we have 55 million people under heat watches, warnings or advisories. tomorrow could be as hot as 105 degrees in dallas. i know areas of the mid atlantic, great lakes had fantastic weather for the weekend. the southern half of the country, they're ready for a cool down. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, history on the mat at the u.s. championships as gymnast simone biles seeks to add two skills to her name sake. that story and much more, nextment r name sake. that story and much more, nextment

-- next. -- next

welcome back, there was a protest on the podium as the men's foil team won the gold medal. race boden dropped to a knee as the national anthem played. he later explained on twitter while he was honored to represent team usa, his pride was cut short by multiple shortcomings of the country, including racism, gun control,

mistreatment of immigrants and a president who spreads hate. he also encouraged others to use their platforms for empowerment and change. the u.s. olympic and para olympic committee said he could face sanctions over the protest. simone biles easily capturing her record 6th all around title at the u.s. championships, doing so in historic action. she was the first to land a double double dismount off the balance beam, a double twist and a double flip. let's watch it. wow. unbelievable. so then last night she wrapped up her all around victory, another previous unseen move. triple twisting, dunl somersault in floor exercise, that's three times around with a double black flip. let's watch this in slow motion. >> it's still mind boggling when you're watching it in slow

motion. whoa, one, two, three. unbelievable. when i was listening to the commentators when she did this, you couldn't imagine doing that in the sport of gymnastics ten years ago. she has revolutionized the sport. >> if in fact, that performance that she did will now be called the biles move. >> it's going to be named after her in international competitions. >> that's pretty impressive. >> when you have your own move named after you. >> she's worked for. >> you have taken the sport to a whole new level. >> she deserves it. yeah. we are continuing to follow the latest on jeffrey epstein's apparent suicide and what the white house is not saying about the case. joe biden is pushing for an assault weapons ban in the wake of recent mass shootings. we're going to read from his new op-ed coming up next. om his new op-ed coming up next everyone uses their phone differently.

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your own data. now you can share it between lines. mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. it's a different kind of wireless network designed to save you money. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. leaders from across the political spectrum are demanding answers in the wake of the suicide of jeffrey epstein. the justice department and fbi are now investigating possible failures during his detention. nbc news kathy park has more. >> reporter: more questions than answers about the suicide of jeffrey epstein, one of the most high profile inmates in a jail.

as part of the investigation into the incident, they want to know if guards conducted routine checks on inhamates. >> one issue is whether the rules were followed in the housing unit, and whether guards were check on him every 30 minutes. >> reporter: sources say epstein underwent a psychological evaluation and they cleared him from suicide watch on or about july, allowing him to return to his cell. >> while on suicide watch, he would have been monitored every second, the bed would have been bolted down, his bed clothes would have been taken away. once he was taken off suicide watch, he had clothing, he had a bed sheet, and there was ample opportunity, our sources say for him to take his own life in that cell. >> senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news, there is no sign of foul play. meantime, the u.s. attorney in manhattan will keep digging into epstein's alleged sex traffic operation. >> we know that original indictment did include a

conspiracy kouncount and it tal about people who worked for him and associates of his. any of those folks who prosecutors have evidence again could become dfefendants in an ongoing case here. i think it's important to avoid rushing to judgment, to let the legal proceedings move forward. >> thank you, kathy park for that report. the time line for jeffrey epstein dates back to march 2005 when a 14-year-old girl and her parents claim that he molested her in a mansion in palm beach, florida, when the wealthy financier came under investigation. the u.s. attorney in miami alex acosta entered into direct discussions about a plea agreement. in june of 2008, after reaching a nonprosecution agreement, epstein pled guilty to state charges involving soliciting prostitution, and soliciting a minor for prostitution. he received an 18 month sentence but served 13 months in a work

release program, allowed to spend most days at his west palm beach office. a month later epstein's victims tried to have his plea agreement unsealed. federal prosecutors argued against it. in november of 2008, the miami herald published an investigation that shed light on the epstein deal. reporter julia k. brown found 60 women who said they had been abuse by epstein from 2001 to 2006. his plea deal was illegal because victims were not told about. epstein was arrested on july 6th. july 12, alex acosta stepped down. july 24th, nbc reports that epstein had been found semiconscious in his cell with marks around his neck, and saturday he was found dead of an apparent suicide. >> while democratic lawmakers were demanding answers. president trump spent part of the week promoting a conspiracy

theory on the death of his former associate and accused sex trafficker. trump re-tweeted a message from a conservative commentator, alleging without evidence that bill clinton was connected to the death of epstein hours after he had been found dead. the use of the hash tag, clinton's body count, a long held conspiracy theory that people close to bill and hillary clinton have ended up dead. the hash tag was the top one tweeted by troll bots. this is not new territory for president trump, having pushed that president obama was not born in the u.s., and suggesting former clinton white house aide vince foster's suicide in 1993 w was very fishy. the white house defended the decision to fire off the re-tweet. >> why did the president then re-tweet that clinton suggestion. >> i think the president wants everything to be investigated as your reporter just revealed just

the day before. there is some unsealed information implicating people high up. i will say, bill, there's always this rush to we need transparency, we need accountability when it involves fictional accusations like collusion with russia to swing an e elector. >> so democrat -- an election. >> so beto o'rourke and cory booker, criticized for push the conspiracy theory. >> this is another example of the president using his position of political trust pushing unfounded conspiracy theories. >> this is more recklessness. what he is doing is dangerous. he's giving life to not just conspiracy theories but really whipping people up into anger

and worse, different people in this country. >> the president's trip to el paso continues to draw criticism. the president smiling with a thumbs up while the first lady holds an infant whose parents were killed in the massacre as they tried to shield that young baby from harm's way. in the article, graham wood compares the photo to one trump tweeted on cinco de mayo three years ago with a taco bowl, smiling with a thumbs up. the president's caption reading i love hispanics. graham notes that the thumbs up was to signal approval but questions what it meant in the photo with the baby. graham writes quote, i do not imagine that trump is applauding the slaughter, but few gestures are appropriate for both a taco bowl and the death of a baby's parents. here's presidential candidate

beto o'rourke talking about the president's trip. >> for him then to focus on comparing political rallies or on himself on how much people love him, just shows you how sick this guy is. and how unfit for this office. he should be consoling people, bringing people together, focussing on their pain and improving their lives. instead he's focused on himself. >> democratic front runner joe biden is out with a new op-ed calling for the assault weapons ban to be reinstated, arguing that it workedme. biden pointed to polling that 74% of americans supported the ban. biden wrote in the "new york times" this, when you have that kind of broad public support for legislation that will make everybody safer and it still can't get through the senate, the problem is with weak willed leaders who care more about their campaign coughers than children in coffins. there's so much we can do,

practical steps that will draw broad support but we will see only more and deadly shootings if we continue to dodge the issue of unregulated assault weapons, and high capacity magazines in our community. despite controversy over president trump's hampton fundraisers, his reelection campaign raked in $12 million in two high priced events over the weekend. hosting a 60 person luncheon for him. in fact, he made quips with his dealings, saying at one point quote it was easier to get a billion dollars from south korea than $114.13 from a rent controlled apartment in brooklyn. >> joining us again, scott wong.

it actually helped him raise more money. how have the hosts of these fundraisers been impacted? >> clearly they did raise a lot of money at these two hamptons fundraiser, but i think there is enormous frustration from average americans at what they're seeing in the trump administration and so when they find out who some of these top donors for president trump are, who are these people sponsoring these fundraisers, people are deciding they are going to vote with their pocket books and in the case of steven ross, the owner of equinox and soul cycle ji gyms, democrats are saying we can't vote president trump out of office now, the election is not for another year and a half. but we can vote with our pocket books. we can inflict harm to people who are trump allies by not, i

don't know, not frequenting their businesses, and that's what we're sort of seeing with steven ross. i'm kind of curious if some of these folks look at other business entities that ross is involved with, specifically the miami dolphins and other entities and decide to do the same type of thing. >> let's discuss joe biden's latest op-ed for a moment about reinstating the assault weapons ban and get a sense of what kind of traction that idea has out there in reality. what's your take on whether or not this idea in the wake of these deadly shootings can gain some kind of bipartisan support. >> it is from the polls that you referenced, enormously popular. 7 out of 10 americans backed some sort of ban on assault weapons. a majority of republicans, 54%, i believe. also support some type of ban on military style weapons. that being said, when you look

at other types of gun reform, specifically background checks, 90% of americans battleground checks and yet we have seen no movement on capitol hill over the last decade and so the polls are not really indicative of, you know, any sort of type of activity that we're seeing in washington. i think we are probably going to see, if any movement happens at all, and a lot of people are skeptical, i think a lot of people are looking for something scaled down, perhaps background checks which president trump has talked a lot about and said he endorses, although he has said those things in the past, maybe even something more small ball than that, like red flags legislation is what we're hearing a lot in terms of the talks between democrats and the republicans in the united states senate. >> i spoke to senator schumer m's office on friday, they told me while they have support and authored bills on assault

weapons bans, to this point, they are more concentrating on background checks because it seems like there's more support for background checks, and they feel like that could feasibly get passed but an assault weapons ban, they are confident could not get passed. >> scott, thank you for getting up early for us, appreciate it. the acting homeland security expresses regret on the raids in mississippi. and president trump gets an unlikely ally on his push to crack down on migrants. call perry, on how the mexican military is helping with that issue. and a check of the forecast with bill karins when we come back. eck of the forecast with bill karins when we come back

welcome back, let's get a check of whether with bill karins. >> the heat is going to be the big story. we're now at 76 million people under some kind of heat headlines, the area of pink from

eastern oklahoma through little rock, memphis, northern portions of louisiana, that's the hottest section. you are all under heat warnings today. we haven't had many this summer. how hot will it be, the temperatures themselves will be around 100, maybe some areas getting to 105, but when you factor in the humidity, we've got a very humid air mass right now. like memphis could be one of the worst today, 114 degrees in the shade. new orleans 109, notice it hasn't spread up the east coast. the cold front brought in the lower humidity and nicer air. slowly we'll see the humidity creeping back up the east coast. all the hot stuff today in the middle of the country through the deep south. tuesday, we start to watch it creeping further northwards, raleigh, 104. brutally hot from nashville to little rock. same for pensacola to new orleans. you're not going to get much of a break unless a little bit of rain. dallas, 104 on tuesday, it will

feel like 111. that will be the hottest you have been this summerment let. today we have to watch out for severe storms. we have thunderstorms rolling through nebraska and iowa, continuing through areas of indiana and illinois. tuesday, we have severe storms in the mid atlantic. wednesday, the strong storms will be in the southeast, and by the time we get to the end of the week, it quiets down. nothing too bad, lingering storms in the southeast. the heat in texas and the deep south, not going anywhere anytime soon. january, you know it's going to be cold. august in the south. >> it's still remarkable, correct me if i'm wrong that so deep into the summer we are setting records in some of these areas. >> it's hard to set records at the hottest times of the year. we're going to get a few today. >> thanks bill. acting secretary of homeland security kevin mcaleenan expressed regret for the timing of immigration raids that swept up 680 workers at a food processing plant in mississippi. an operation that took place

after a mass shooting that targeted hispanics in el paso, texas. meanwhile, acting customs and border patrol mark morgan defended the move saying it was a criminal investigation. >> given the emotions of the country right now, in hindsight, do you wish this raid didn't happen this week. >> the timing was unfortunate. >> these aren't raids, these are targeted law enforcement operations and in this case, this was a joint criminal investigation with i.c.e. and the department of justice targeting work site enforcement, meaning companies that knowingly and willfully hire illegal aliens so that in most cases they can pay them reduced wages, exploit them further for their bottom line the that's what this investigation was about, a criminal investigation. >> and presidential candidate kamala harris weighed in on the raids, calling it part of trump's quote campaign of terror. >> this administration has directed dhs to conduct these

raids as part of what i believe is this administration's campaign of terror. which is to make whole populations of people afraid to go to work. we say every person matters, we count. we make decisions based on who's here and what they need, and you and i will both suffer if that census count is flawed and i'm telling you, that given the policies of this administration, that is going to be a flawed census. >> as president trump pushes to limit the influx of immigrants entering the u.s., 11,000 members of the mexican national guard stand watch to deter the groups traveling north and central and south medical caame making their way up north. call perry has the story. >> reporter: it's the military surge president trump has been asking for, but instead of the u.s. border, 11,000 members of the mexican national guard stand

watch over their southern border at the river that divides mexico from guatemala. it's all part of a new mexican government crack down. the commander insisted we conceal his identity over security concerns and tells us their mission is limited in scope. the military can't physically touch migrants who come through here, instead providing a deterrent. many from central and south america trying to get to the u.s. begin their journey across mexico at this point. that show of force along the border with guatemala is half the story. the mexican government is setting up centers like this one in an attempt to get migrants to register. it's their way of trying to bring some semblance of order in what is very clearly a chaotic situation. >> some here have already lived in the u.s. and been deported and are attempting to get back. but because of recent imdprags policy -- immigration policies from the trump administration, others have given up. >> did you think about going to the u.s.? >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> because i got deported

already. >> reporter: ishmael's parents took him to california when he was 2, he was recently deported living almost his entire life in america. >> are you trying to get back? >> i am. >> reporter: how are you? >> legally or if possible, illegal. >> reporter: you would cross back illegally if you had to? >> yes, definitely, just to be back with my family. >> it's quite remarkable to see the on the ground per speckispe >> and the reasons why they make the decisions to cross back to the country to be back with his family. still ahead, tensions boil over once again in hong kong as violent protests once again erupt in the streets there. >> president trump weighs in on the missile tests between u.s. and south korea military exercises. the new and questionable comments by the president on that matter. we'll be right back. y the presin that matter. we'll be right back. hey! i'm bill slowsky jr.,

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welcome back, president trump claims kim jong un has apologized to him for the recent missile attacks, the fifth test since late july. the kim regime has said the tests are a show of force against the military exercises currently underway, saying they are escalating the tensions.

north korea despises the drill, and telling the reporters the exercises are quote war games and that he quote never liked them. kim personal oversaw the latest launch, less than a day before that test, trump said that kim is quote not happy with the testing, adding he recently received another letter from kim, hours after saturday's test, trump tweeted that kim issued a quote small apology in the letter for the recent r provocations with the president saying the joint drills are ridiculous and expensive. hong kong faced another day of casihaos. thousands of demonstrators converged on the city's airport. a peaceful rally led to civil disobedience when protesters started marching along a major road. office the unrest comes two months

after demonstrations began in opposition to a now suspended extradition bill which would have allowed suspected criminals to be sent to mainland china for trial. although protesters are calling for the bill to be fully withdrawn, their demands have included calls for an independent inquiry, and the resignation of hong kong's embattled leader, carrie lam. as china feels new pressure, so does russia. the "wall street journal" reports that 50,000 demonstrators gathered a mile around the kremlin to protest russia's economic stagnation, the lack of political choice and the kremlin's geopolitical isolation. 250 were detained despite the peaceful nature of the protest. the growing chorus of those demanding answers over jeffrey epstein's death. >> the latest investigation on to how the alleged sex trafficker was apparently able to kill himself while in federal custody and what his death may mean for thhis victims going

forward. detail on that and your morning's other top stories in three minutes. stay with us. r top stories in three minutes. stay with us ♪

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there are a lot of questions about the monitoring he received in jail and the justice department and the fbi are both investigating. the man accused of opening fire inside a walmart in el paso, texas, reportedly con if he has -- confessed that he was target people of mexican descent. and joe biden is pushing for the reinstatement of an assault weapons ban in the wake of recent mass shootings. good morning, everybody, it is monday, august 12th, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. there are more questions than answers following the apparent suicide of wealthy sex offender jeffrey epstein. guards doing rounds found him dead in his jail cell around 6:30 a.m. multiple people briefed telling nbc news, checks are supposed to take place every 30 minutes or