i'm tom llamas. have a great night. on this wednesday. i'm tom llamas. have a great night.t includes our perspective on the needs of the american people. we'll break down what she said in her first national solo interview since getting the presidential nomination. also here at ho

tom llamas in the storm zone tonight. >>> also breaking, kamala harris making her first visit to the border as the democratic nominee. now she's hitting back at donald trump over immigration. >>> and mr. trump meeting ukraine's president zelenskyy. vowing to negotiate a deal to end russia's war that's, quote, good for both sides. >>> israel striking hezbollah's headquarters in beirut. the target, the group's top leader. richard engel on the ground for us. >>> prime minister netanyahu under pressure for a cease-fire. his defiant message today to the u.n. >>> the hacking attack on the trump campaign linked to iran. who the u.s. has now charged. >>> new york mayor eric adams pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges. the mounting calls for him to step down. >>> the beloved two-time oscar winner and star from "harry potter" and "downton abbey," remembering maggie smith. >>> and live from new york, "snl"'s new season kicking off celebrating 50 years of laughs. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening, and welcome. the impact of hurricane helene h

tom llamas, thank you. >>> now to vice president harris making a trip to the southern border set to proposal asylum restrictions but facing a new round of criticism from former president trump over information just revealed by immigration authorities. gabe gutierrez is in arizona. >> reporter: tonight, vice president harris landing in arizona for her first trip to the southern border in three years. also facing new criticism from former president trump as the immigration and customs enforcement director sent a letter to lawmakers revealing more than 13,000 migrants previously convicted of homicide are currently free inside the u.s. >> and i've been saying this from the beginning of the harris/biden disaster. what they've done to our country with this is inexcusable. >> reporter: a source familiar with the data tells nbc news, many entered the country prior to the biden administration and that i.c.e. lacks resources to find them. all of it after trump earlier today met with ukrainian president zelenskyy. >> a great honor to have you. thank you very much. >> thanks so much. >> reporter: trump

tom llamas is there for us. tom, what are you seeing? >> reporter: so, lester, the situation here in new orleans is getting more intense by the minute. this city has faced bigger and stronger hurricanes, but when this hurricane came ashore, it had a rapid intensity. now, a category 2 hurricane, and soon the big easy will feel those 100-mile-per-hour winds. just behind me here is lake pontchartrain, and as you know, new orleans is between the mississippi river and lake pontchartrain. 50% of the city is below sea level, so water is always the big threat here, but tonight there's also the scare of tornadoes. tonight, hurricane francine lashing the louisiana coast. the massive storm barreling into the new orleans area and drenching surrounding communities. >> take this storm seriously. it is a serious storm. >> reporter: the warm waters of the gulf strengthening the powerful system, now a category 2 hurricane. wind gusts churning at 100 miles per hour. dangerous storm surge slamming into the coast with pounding rain and flash flooding threat

i'm tom llamas in for lester tonight. it is massive, it is gaining strength, and it is life-threatening. tonight, hurricane helene is on a potentially devastating path to florida expected to make landfall late tomorrow as a powerful category 4 storm. helene already flooding streets in cuba and causing heavy rains and dangerous conditions in mexico. hurricane and storm surge warnings are in effect for much of florida's gulf coast with surges as high as 20 feet predicted. airports in tampa and st. petersburg set to close tonight. flood watches are in effect for 36 million people from florida all the way to virginia. beyond the winds of 130 miles per hour expected at landfall, there's a tornado threat across parts of the southeast. al roker is tracking it all for us tonight, and, al, this is one of the most powerful storms we've seen in years. >> that's right. two years ago hurricane ian making landfall as a category 4, and, tom, right now it's 460 southwest of tampa and moving faster north at 12. we've got tropical storm wa

i'm tom llamas in for lester. two days after israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages in gaza including israeli-american hersh goldberg-polin, hundreds of thousands took part in a general strikg that the netanyahu government accept a deal to bring the remaining hostages home. thousands more, you see them here, attended goldberg-polin's funeral in jerusalem, where his mother shared the agony she has felt over her son's captivity for almost a year. in washington new criticism today from president biden, who said israel's prime minister netanyahu is not doing enough to achieve a cease-fire and hostage release. but netanyahu remaining defiant, saying it's hamas that won't agree to terms. we begin tonight with nbc's raf sanchez in tel aviv. >> reporter: tonight protesters bringing their fury to the gates of prime minister benjamin netanyahu's jerusalem residence. public anger in israel spiraling after the killing of these six young hostages and what demonstrators see as the government's failure to bring them

i'm tom llamas.italian place ♪ ♪ it's where i met your family some words were exchanged ♪ ♪ i'd suggest the jazz bar on maryann street but ♪ ♪ you'd buy me a drink and we know where that leads so ♪ ♪ i'll meet you for coffee 'cause if we have wine ♪ ♪ you'll say that you're sorry i know that's a lie ♪ ♪ if i didn't trust you it would be fine ♪ ♪ i'll meet you for coffee only for coffee ♪ ♪ nowhere else is safe every place leads back to your ♪ ♪ we've done this before ♪ ♪ and i don't need it anymore ♪ ♪ so let's not do coffee let's not even try ♪ ♪ it's better we leave it and give it some time ♪ ♪ if i didn't love you it would be fine ♪ ♪ 'cause if we do coffee it's never just coffee ♪ ♪ it's never just coffee ♪♪ [cheers and applause] welcome to "the kelly clarkson show." this is our first show of the season. it is good to be back. give it up for my incredible band, y'all! [cheers and applause] if you notice -- one, i almost cried the entire performance because it is such a good song but also, i am dy

but let's start in tallahassee with tom llamas. tom, what are you expecting there? >> lester, good evening. some are calling this tallahassee's most dangerous storm event ever. you can see the streets are empty right now. people are hunkering down. the rain is just starting to pick up. it is quite calm right now, but we know it's going to be a very, very violent night. as you just showed our viewers, this is a massive storm affecting almost all of florida. and right now on a collision course with millions of its residents. tonight, that monster hurricane helene aiming for florida's capital, destroying these docks as tallahassee braces for catastrophe. >> this area has not had a major hurricane hit in quite some time, and certainly nobody in recent memory has seen a storm of this magnitude that has hit. >> reporter: with a foot of rain and triple-digit winds in the forecast, residents bracing for power outages and floodwaters raging in. authorities urging everyone to get inland fast. sergeant, you just came over here to tell us something important. what was that news

m tom llamas in new york >>. stay right there, more news on the way. d withou >>> sean "diddy" combs held without bond. his lawyers expected back in court today to appeal the bail decision. >>> donald trump back on the trail this morning for the first time since the second apparent attempt on his life. his golf partner talks to nbc news about the secret servic. >>> new fears of a wider mideast war. at loeast nine people killed an thousands injured when pagers belonging to hezbollah members exploded across lebanon. hezbollah accusing israel of a coordinated attack. we have a live report with what we know. >>> a breakthrough in breast cancer treatment. the fda expanding approval of a drug for met static cancer. one woman shares how it saved her life. >>> and a family gives a vietnam veteran the gravestone they always thought he deserved after a 50-year effort. it's wednesday, september 18. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm frances rivera. sean "diddy" combs remains behind bars this morning. the music mogul facing a slough of charges, incl

tom llamas is close to where helene made land fall overnight. hey, tom. >> reporter: hey, hoda.ant to show you some of the damage. as you mentioned here in perry, florida. you can see the building here completely gone. this is a motorcycle repair shop. the windows blown out. we'll be careful because there's glass on the floor. the roof ripped off, i should say. this completely taken apart there, and if you look at the side, this is the wall that was blown out. we are just east of the state capital which dodged a bullet in a very large way. down south, a much different story. hundreds of rescues still under way even at this hour. a monster storm unleashing its fury overnight on florida's gulf coast. a catastrophic category four showing no mercy, destroying property, businesses and homes. and submerging vehicles in oceans of water. >> this is terrible. >> reporter: helene not only hinging hurricane-force winds to the region, but also a historic storm surge. tonight on top of all this, the threat of tornadoes. >> reporter: violent winds slamming into florida. flood waters sending w

tom llamas is there. 're about six minutes away from the start of this debate we will carry in its entirety. tom, are you starting to feel that buzz? >> reporter: something that is different about this debate, usually the spin room gets wild and crazy post debate. what i'm seeing for the first time is pre-debate spin. you see surrogates on both sides flank all the reporters, flank all the sets from news organizations and try to get their message out. there was a ton of commotion about ten minutes ago because rfk jr. came into the spin room. of course he was the third-party candidate who has since endorsed former president trump, followed by dozens of reporters as he walked through the spin room. we're hearing kind of the same things, both campaigns are disd disci disciplined. the harris surrogates are saying the same thing. former president trump is the most experience it d debater, h seventh. they want to go over reproductive rights. and on the trump side they're hammering the issue that vice president ha

have a great m tom llamas in ne

tom llamas is there for us. tom, what are you seeing? >> reporter: so, lester, night has fallen here clearly in new orleans, and this storm is getting more intense by the minute. now, the city has faced bigger and stronger hurricanes, but what makes hurricane francine different is that it had a rapid intensification at landfall going from a cat 2 -- a cat 1, i should say, to a cat 2. now those 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts could hit the big easy. the city, as you know, sits between lake pontchartrain and the mississippi river. water is a big fear here, because 50% of the city is below sea level, so they're always worried. tonight, hurricane francine lashing the louisiana coast. the massive storm barreling into the new orleans area and drenching surrounding communities. >> take this storm seriously. it is a serious storm. >> reporter: the warm waters of the gulf strengthening the powerful system, now a category 2 hurricane. wind gusts churning at 100 miles per hour. dangerous storm surge slamming into the coast with pounding rain and flash

n barber in new york for tom llamas. stay right there. more news is on the way. >>> the race for governor in north carolina. what mark robinson is saying about a record this morning. whether he intends to stay in the race. >>> the kentucky judge shot and killed in his own chambers. the suspect in custody is a local sheriff. what we know about what happened and why. >>> kamala harris pulling a little star power overnight, holding a campaign event with oprah, while donald trump courts je jewish voters in washington, d.c. what the latest polling shows about the state of the race. >>> in a league of his own. dodger super star shohei ohtani officially creates the 50-50 club on a night that included three home runs as he went 6 for 6 against the marlins. >>> around meet home depot's oldest worker. his secret to longevity ahead of her 100th birthday. it's friday, september 20th. "early today" starts right now. >>> they are are new calls for mark robinson to drop out after a bombshell report. cnn released comments of him referring to himself as q

have a greatriday, a f n barber for tom llamas. stay right there.> the race for governor in

tom llamas joins us next with nightly >>> tonight, hurricane helene gaining strength, expected to slam florida as a major category 4 storm. helene rapidly intensifying as it closes in on florida's gulf coast and its capital, tallahassee. set to become the most powerful hurricane to hit the u.s. in two years. life-threatening storm surge up to 20 feet. states of emergency in florida, georgia, and the carolinas. mandatory evacuations, miles of traffic as the race to get out is on. al roker standing by with the new track. >>> also breaking tonight, the ied exploding at a california courthouse. six injured. a suspect in custody. deputies pinning him down as he screamed at the top of his lungs. what was his motive? >>> the deadly bus hijacking in los angeles. a gunman leading

tom llamas in the storm zone tonight. >>> also breaking, kamala harris making her first visit to the border as the democratic nominee

>> tom llamas for us there in panacea, florida. thanks, tom. >> let's get right over to al and see the track of this storm. >>> guys, here is the deal. on the latest on our system here, tropical storm helene, it is a category 2 storm. we have tornado watches already going on. some tornado warnings. it's 320 miles southwest of tampa, 100 mile-per-hour winds, moving northeast at 12 miles per hour. tropical storm warnings from the carolinas all the way down to key west. hurricane warnings south central georgia all the way into the big bend area of florida. this makes its way in as a category 3, possibly a 4 tonight between 8 and 11:00 p.m. with this storm, almost 500 miles wide, tropical storm force winds, 60 miles per hour out from the center of hurricane force winds. the storm surge, the big problem. some places 10 to 20 feet along that big bend area. the large area of this shallow water of the continental shelf, there's not that much depth to it. so when you get these strong winds pushing in, that allows all this water to pile up fr

but first, tom llamas, anchor of "top story" on nbc live, joins us now from louisiana. eporter: hoda, good morning. parts of southern louisiana dealing with a lot of flooding right now. earlier today this entire area was flooded. luckily the water is receding. that's important this is a way to get to the major hospital. winds up to 100 miles per hour. but it was a massive rainmaker. officials saying pumps failed, but there was too much water, no system would have with hold all that. there was too much water, too fast. this morning, residents in new england surveying the damage after now tropical storm francine slammed into new orleans overnight as a fast-moving category 2 hurricane. the big easy taking a direct hit from powerful winds, up to 100 miles per hour, ripping off roofs and knocking out power. >> this is a shelter in place storm. >> reporter: francine also pounding new orleans and nearby coastal communities with more than 8 inches of rain, floodwaters cutting off parts of the city. >> officer! you have a truck right here. >> reporter: nbc new orleans affiliate l

let's go to tom llamas in the spin room for us. re starting to see people filter in and what are you hearing? >> it's still very early. each campaign is getting their talking points, making sure everyone is on the same message before they pour into the spin room. some people are coming in, a crush of reporters waiting for everybody. i can tell up in the meantime my phone has been blowing up with both republican strategists, democratic strategists, voters. i've been asking everyone what they think. it is a complete different shift change from the first debate. after that first debate republicans felt very victorious, confident. they were saying the entire debate was about joe biden. republicans seem very frustrated with former president trump, with the format of the debate, which is never a good sign on your side, and then saying they were able, at least vice president kamala harris was able to make this debate not about joe biden, not about herself, but about donald trump. and that led to her advantage. so, again, many of the surrog

nbc news senior national correspondent tom llamas is in perry, florida with the latest. >> reporter:shing its fury overnight on florida's gulf coast. hurricane helene, a catastrophic category 4 showing no mercy, destroying property, flooding hotel lobbies, businesses, and homes, and submering vehicles in oceans of water. >> this is terrible. >> reporter: helene not only bringing hurricane-force winds to the region, but also a historic storm surge and tonight on top of all of this, the threat of tornadoes. violent winds of 100 miles an hour slamming into florida. floodwaters with these high waves in tampa, and treacherous driving conditions with trees blocking roads, and this boat shored up. storm surge transforming neighborhoods with chest-high water in some areas, and this man left to take refuge in a kayak. turning roads into rivers. all of it inundating towns right in the center of florida's gulf coastline. >> i have been in this organization for 31 years, and thiss the highest surge i've ever seen. >> reporter: showing what seems to be a possible transformer exploding in st. pete

llama sandy tong. es la primera mujer asiática americana en liderar ese departamento. la primera también en ascender de los de los servicios médicos de emergencia y no desde la lucha contra incendios. tomhasta lo más alto de una estructura en la cual quedó atascado. todo quedó captado en cámara ojos abiertos porque un hombre murió presuntamente por un error médico durante una cirugía y las autoridades difunden imágenes de ese puma que fue captado merodeando en el centro de una ciudad aquí en california. tendremos más detalles. y finalmente tendremos un descanso del calor con un descenso marcado en el mercurio. los detalles a continuación. y atención mexicanos en el área de la bahía. el consulado de méxico en san francisco anunció que mañana sábado 7 de septiembre estará realizando trámites consulares relacionados con pasaportes, matrículas consulares, credenciales del ine y actas de nacimiento, entre otros servicios. son sin cita personas indocumentadas a comprar una casa. jocelyn moran nos trae los detalles desde la sala de redacción. jocelyn estamos hablando del programa california dream for all. ayuda a personas que quieren comprar una casa por primera vez con préstamos. esta ley bu