We are coming on the air as Los Angeles braces for round two of those intense Santa Ana winds. The same wind that helped literally fan the flames of the fires that burned the Palisades and Altadina into something unrecognizable. Fire crews repositioning, say they are ready, but the city, it's holding its breath to see if those deadly fires escalate or if new ones start. We are tracking those Santa Anas live, along with our teams in the region. We're going to have that in just a moment. We're also live in South Korea, which says hundreds of soldiers in the north have died fighting for Russia. Why the Ukrainian President now says he's ready to make a deal on prisoners of war. Then the disturbing new details from the charging documents we're just getting of a man who allegedly stalked Caitlin Clark. How it fits into this broader pattern of online threats against women's basketball players. Plus, why cases of the are spiking this season. And in tonight's original, the new explosion of online betting on pretty much anything you're going to hear about in this show tonight. Why gambling on the news is getting new attention from the President, Alex Sun, later in the show.
Hey there, I'm Halleigh, and We are on the ground in LA, a city that is holding its breath right now as firefighters are racing to try to contain those devastating fires before another round of those intense and potentially devastating wind. Let's take a live look. This is at the The Palisades here. This is damage, a shell of a home. We could show you this live shot in 155 different places all across the city. It looks that bad everywhere you look. This is also where firefighters are trying to hold the line with whatever containment they can get. Right now, they have at least a small percentage of the Palisades fire contained. Same thing with Altadina. And just about an hour from now, we're expecting to get an update on the status as we speak. Here's the deal. Here's the problem. Here's the wild card. The thing that's supposed to happen later on tonight into tomorrow morning. You know those Santa Ana winds? They are going to pick up. It's those winds last week that helped essentially fan the flames of those devastating fires. We're talking like storm force winds, 70 miles an hour. They're huge. There is a little bit of a silver lining, some good news that there are other fires that are mostly contained, like the Hearst fire, which is in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles.
That's not the two biggies we've been talking about. That's Eaton, that's Palisades. For the sixth straight day, still burning through tens of thousands of acres, no Nowhere near contained. We're talking about thousands of people who have been displaced and police trying to figure out what started these fires. Could it have been potentially arson? They don't know. They haven't said yet. We know, though, that two dozen people, 25 people, have been confirmed dead. That means this is among the deadliest fire in California history. Dozens of other people are also reported missing tonight. The warnings are still out there. This area is not safe. They are still horrifically finding the remains of people who lived in some these neighborhoods as they're going in, as they're trying to look for anything they can. As they go in, they're also finding that some of these places have turned into crime scenes. Looting. They had a whole bunch of arrests made overnight. You've got a 6:00 PM curfew in place. You've got drones in areas where police and fire crews are trying to get in. We've got it covered on every angle. Meteorologist Bill Karens is standing by with the forecast on those winds.
Ellison Barber is in Altadena. Liz Kreutz is in the Palisades. But I want to start with Dana Griffin, who is also there in the Palisades. Here we are, and you've got so much of the city bracing for what could come as these winds pick up yet again for the second week in a row. Absolutely, Halley. And so what we're seeing here on the ground in the Palisades are firefighters that are in communities that have already burned down like this one behind me. We saw them go up into this area. They disappeared because they're deep in there, but they are taking their shovels. They're digging around to see if there is anything here that is smoldering. And I talked to one of the fire captives about why they're When he's doing this particular work. Listen to what he told me. Right now, there are certain hotspots. It's pretty deep-seated, and it's in there because it is subterráinen. It's below a grade on some of his larger homes, like the below-grite garages and stuff. It's really well in there. So It's like a campfire. Even though it looks like it's out, there's still hot colds under the smoldering.
You may be wondering, well, why do they need to put water on homes that have already burned down? Because Because of those Santa Ana winds, which, as I mentioned, could gust up to 70 miles per hour, those winds could come through those homes and pick up embers and carry them to homes that have not burned down. You can see there's another truck here behind us with the Los Angeles Fire Department. There are crews that are still circulating this area, and that's why they have not been able to repopulate this area because it is still so dangerous. There are still some open gas lines. They got some smoldering here. They don't want people in this area until it is safe, and that's not going to happen until the next event because things could get a little dicey. Yeah, that's exactly right. We're going to talk more about that wind event, as you put it, with Bill Karens in just a second. But quickly, Danny, there's this question that has come up. Obviously, they are still in the middle of a very active disaster. We're talking about the recovery phase still in place here. But what about the cause of this fire?
Are they getting any closer to figuring out, specifically for the Palisades, what started this? If they are, they have not revealed it. They got a lot of questions earlier today at a press conference asking, Could it be arson? Could it have been some downlines? They say that they are simply looking at everything. They have not come to a conclusion yet. They will be announcing the first looting and arson arrest pretty soon. But again, that arson arrest is not connected to the big fires that have killed a lot of people. And Halley, you can see behind me, these are the firefighters that have been working tirelessly, walking around, checking every single home ahead of this next wind event, and they are going to be here all day long. Halley. Doing heroic work, and I cannot imagine the exhaustion to the bone that so many of those firefighters must feel. Dana Griffin, thank you very much. Liz Kreutz is in the Palisades for us as well tonight. Liz, you are talking about, as I look at what's behind you here, what is left of the bricks, the frames of these homes. You're talking about a massive displacement crisis here.
You have thousands of people who have nowhere to go. They have nothing to return home to once they are eventually allowed to go home and see what remains. Yeah, Halley, this is a crisis on top of a crisis on top of what was really already an existing crisis. We're in California. This is something that we deal with every single day is the housing crisis here. It's unaffordable. There's hardly any available housing and rent. Now we have thousands of people displaced who need to find a temporary place to live until they can rebuild for the next couple of years. Where are they all going to go? This is going to impact not only those who have lost their homes, but millions of people here in Southern California over the next coming years. Just to give To give you guys some perspective on the housing shortage in this area, we'll show you Altadina, where the Eaton fire is. The population is about 41,900. There's nearly 16,000, just under 16,000 units available, or not even available, housing There's 1,000 housing units in that city. The Pasadena, 133,000 is the population. There's 62,000 housing units. Population Pacific Palisades, where I am, 21,000 is the population, 9,000 housing units.
You can go on and on to every single community, and it's the same story. There's just not enough housing. It's a crisis. My colleague, Morgan Chesky, was talking to an LA realtor today who said that now already they're getting six to eight families a day who lost home calling, trying to ask, Do you have anything available? Where can I go? Then there's this concern about price gouging. We heard the governor and the attorney general over the weekend come out and say they're going to crack down on anybody that tries to price gouge and raise rents more than they really should be, Halley. That's been a huge concern. Liz, of course, there live for us in Pacific Palisades. Liz, thank you for being out there. I know that you have been on the ground, on the scene for days as well. We appreciate your coverage. Ellison Barber, rather, is out for us in Altadina. So this is the Eaton Fire. We talk about the Palisades fire, Ellison. You're at the Eaton Fire. All of that said, the A series of fires has wrecked LA. I mean, you know this. It's all consuming for so many people in the city.
It seems like everybody knows somebody or knows somebody who knows somebody who lost a home, who lost somebody that they love. There are still something like at least 24 people or so missing at this point, and the numbers are all really in flux. That's one thing that we keep hearing from officials. They can't get into some of these zones because it is still so hot with these fires not contained. Yeah, but they are trying to. Look where we are right now is the Command Center for the Search and Recover every effort for the Eaton fire. There have been teams like these coming in and out, going back up into these areas to search for people who are missing. They say that the priority is to focus initially on areas where they had what they describe as disconnected 911 calls where someone made a 911 call at the height of the fires in distress, and then it was disconnected, or specific areas, locations where people have reported loved ones, family members missing, and they're going in there trying to find the remains. Look, we spoke to one of the people involved in this search, and he told us this search effort is massive.
This is day three of the grid search for people who are missing and for remains. They're not calling this a search and rescue mission. They are calling it a search and recovery mission. Listen to some of what he told There's a lot of operations to go into something this significant, this large. The fact that we have over 400 personnel assigned to just nothing but this particular operation shows the enormity of it. Three seconds. What is happening here is one of the reasons why fire officials and police are saying, We know people are frustrated, they want to go home, but we can't let you back into these areas for a host of reasons. Safety issues, first and foremost, but in addition, these efforts that are going on to recover the remains of people who are missing. One official saying today, We are literally searching for the remains of your neighbors. They're asking people to just be patient as they go through this process because there are remains, bodies that are still unaccounted for that they know they will likely find some they have already found. They tell us this morning, official said there were nine remains that had been recovered, but so far they hadn't been able to identify by the individuals of those bodies, and they're still working on that process.
But this is going to be a long journey. The death toll is expected to rise here. Halley. It is chilling in every way, Ellison. As you're talking with people who are trying to You make the point, they've asked people, please, please let us do our work here, let us do our jobs. But as you're talking to other folks who are in and around the area, what are you hearing from them now as we're almost a week into this crisis? I mean, look, people are frustrated. People can go to larecovery. Com gov and get a sense on a satellite map for both the Eaton and Palisades fire of whether or not their home is still standing. But a lot of people know their entire communities look like this, and they're desperate to get back inside to assess the damage, see what of their homes remains. For those who believe their homes are still standing, they also are wanting to go back in to get basic necessities closed. A lot of people evacuated at a moment's notice. They didn't grab anything to change into. They didn't grab medicine. Some people left pets behind. But fire officials and police, they say, Look, in some of these areas, we are considering these active crime scenes.
We can't let you go in because of that. We also can't let you go in because these fires are not out. We've seen in Altadena today in a building just up the street where it looked like there was no fire. There were no visible flames this morning, no smoldering. But then by the afternoon, a couple of hours later, afternoon your time, that building was on fire again. There was a team frantically trying to douse it with water to get it under control. Those spots often pop up in buildings like this because you can see how so much of it is concrete. In Altadina, especially, there are a lot of homes and businesses that have basements. When these buildings burn and they collapse, each level of the building, if it was a multi-level building, collapsed and concaten on top of each layer. They were just down, down, and down. Then underneath that, it trapped heat and other flames, and the concrete and brick holds that heat underneath it. Ultimately, until they can clear all of the debris, that heat can to reignite and create hotspots. We've seen it happen in Altadina today. We saw it happen here a couple of days ago when we were on the ground.
All of that are issues that are still happening. They're saying to residents, Look, we get that you maybe see a building and you think it's just rubble, but you don't know what is underneath it. If you were to walk into a building and step on an area where there's a hotspot or something reigniting, it could be catastrophic. Certainly, burn your feet and possibly kill someone. On top of that, there are all these power lines that are down. We've seen power crews and electrical teams in and out of this neighborhood trying to get all of the power and electricity off, but it's not a guarantee. In addition to that, there's a lot of big trees that have been burned. The roots maybe no longer there. A tree branches that are just fried and still up on the trees for now, but can collapse and fall on top of people. So there's so many layers to why they're saying people can't come in right now. But at the same time, the residents in this community and also in the Palisades, they say, we feel like we're not getting the information indicated clearly to us. And some people desperately need to get home to just get basic things like medicine, and they're afraid if they don't, what that will mean for them or their loved ones.
So it's so many challenges for people here, Halley. Ellice and Barbara live for us here at the Eaton Fire in Altadena. Listen, thank you very much. Let me bring in Bill Karens with the forecast. Okay, Bill, just to remind folks, in about 45 minutes or so, we're going to have an update here on the Palisades fire. That is going to be critical from fire officials because anytime we get an update, it's important to listen to. The other big thing is this issue at the Santa Ana winds, these winds picking back up again. There's something called, and you know this better than I do, a Particularly dangerous situation. That's like the official National Weather Service term, a PDS. It's pretty rare to have that in place. The last time LA saw that was last week before the Palisades and the Eaton fire started destroying everything they did. Correct. Typically, they happen about once every four years. Halley, this is the fourth time since November that Southern California has gone through this. In The other three times, by the way, each and every time we had evacuations and structures destroyed. Are we going to go four for four?
We hope not. We pray not. We don't want that to happen, but we learned from the past, and That's why they're giving these dire warnings that tonight, tomorrow, and then into Wednesday morning is about as dangerous as it gets. Now, the winds will not be as strong as last week. Last week was off the charts. It was so uniquely rare. The areas that were as windy as they were, this is a more typical event. So this is everywhere that's under a red flag warning. Notice LA, downtown area, you're not in the red flag warning. This is not LA proper, the downtown problem. Areas to the north of LA and to the northwest. And then as we get to Ventura County, these hashed lines is where we're seeing that PDS issue. So that's where the problems are going to be. The winds are already up. But you notice from our reporters, Halley, our reporters are not in the windy areas. Where our fires were, the Eaton and the Palisades, that's not the huge concern areas. It's the areas north of there, in the Angeles National Forest, the Western Santa Monica Mountains, and near Ventura County, we're going to see the 60 to 70 mile per hour winds there.
So, Halley, I'm not as concerned with the fires that we still have out there spreading and being a problem. I think the bigger concern It's just new starts. The question and the concern there, besides the obvious, is also the fact that you had so many firefighters in the region crash in to the Palisades, to Altadina, to Pasadena, into LA proper, LA County, to help Now, it's the pre-positioning that's happening, and it's a factor of getting the personnel where they need to be and getting enough personnel, right? Yeah, and all the fires that have started in the last four to five days, there's so many helicopters and aircraft that can dump water fire the retardant, that any fire that starts is going to be hit really hard, really fast. The only thing that's going to scare me in this next 48 hours is if the winds get so high that they say they can no longer do this, because when they drop the retardant like that, if you have 60, 70 miles per hour winds, it's not even going to come close to hitting the spot that they were aiming for. And the air may get so turbulent near the mountains with the high winds that they may ground all the aircraft.
If we have a new fire, an aircraft got grounded, that's when you get very concerned because the ground crews would not be able to keep up with it. That's the fear. Hopefully, that doesn't happen. Let's just start with no fire forming. Big time period to look at, right? It's going to be what? Right as we're waking up tomorrow morning? 08:00 o'clock East Coast, about 05:00 AM. This is the wind gust forecast, 66, 58, 57, 60. Yeah, tomorrow morning when we wake up. If you don't hear there's any fires, new fires or evacuations by about mid-morning tomorrow, then we'll be really happy. Okay. Bill Karens, plenty to watch for you, friend. Thank you very much for being with us and walking us through all that. We appreciate it. We will, of course, have continuing coverage of those devastating fires. We've also got a lot of news out of Washington, DC over the course of the next week, as we are now one week away from Donald Trump getting sworn in as the next President of the United States. He's going to have a cabinet, but that cabinet needs to be confirmed, starting with this guy tomorrow.
That's his pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegset, the former Fox News host who's going to face what's expected to be a whole bunch of tough questions, in part because some members of the President-elect's own party haven't been like, All right, we're all in. Yes, we're in your corner. You haven't seen that yet because of some of the issues plaguing Hegset here. Expect questions on allegations Hegset denies of sexual assault, alcohol abuse, financial misconduct. Then there's his past comments about whether women can or should serve in combat. There's not much experience in the eyes of his critics running an organization as big as the world's most expensive military. That's just tomorrow, right? Look at this week that the Senate has in store. You've got a dozen hearings on the books in what amounts to a huge loyalty test now for members of the Republican Party before Donald Trump has even sworn in. While all that's happening, stop us if you've heard this one before, the President-elect has a new legal thing hanging over his head here. Gabe Gutieris is going to get into that new ruling from a Florida judge in just a second. But I want to start with Julie Sorkin, who's live for us on The Hill.
Julie, as we look ahead to tomorrow morning here, and I should note, we will have continuing coverage of this. We're going to take that hearing live. I will see you and the rest of our team at 9:30 Eastern tomorrow morning for that right here on NBC News Now. But it comes as Pete Hetset is prepping. He has reportedly been holding mock confirmation hearings, getting basically grilled in a friendly setting so he can be prepared for what's to come. Then Democrats are set to meet tonight as well to talk about their strategy. Tell us Exactly. After the votes in about an hour or so from now, Democrats will huddle with the ranking member of the committee, Jack Reid. He's the top Democrat, and he's the only one besides the Republican chairman, Roger Wicker, who have been briefed on the contents of that background check that the FBI had conducted, which we were able to report first, Halley, on Friday. But just because Reid and Wicker know what's in, it doesn't mean that the rest of the committee does. It is up to Reid and Wicker to decide whether they're going to brief their members ahead of that hearing tomorrow.
We can report, of course, that tonight Democrats are going to huddle. They're going to go over that background check, not in a physical hard copy, but just what Reid had heard from the transition team who brief them on Hexet's background, on some of those allegations. Are they in the report? That is something that Democrats are certainly asking about. How to borrow the report and the check even was is something we're all chasing up here, of course. But they're going to strategize over what they're going to do, what questions they're going to ask, how they're going to get to some of those tough moments that maybe Hexeth didn't want to answer when he met one-on-one, which, by the way, how Holly, most of the Democrats on this committee haven't yet met with Hexeth in person. Only Reid has met with him so far. The rest of them were told, We'll see you on the 15th. We'll see you the day after the hearing. Certainly, Hexeth's a big one to watch, of course, tomorrow. But you mentioned that train wreck at the beginning. Maybe it's a little bit less of a train wreck now because at least four of these nominees were postponed, including Doug Collins in front of the VA committee because his FBI file has not yet been completed.
Holly. To be clear, just to remind folks, if Pete Hexeth It's the support of all the Republicans in the committee, and then, of course, all the Republicans in the Senate, he's fine. He's confirmed. He's through, right? Yeah, absolutely. Remember, the first step is this committee hearing. All he really has to worry about is Republicans because they do have the majority. But here's the catch. There are still Republican women, especially, who are concerned about some of those allegations that he has denied, at least most of them that he's denied. That still remains to be seen. Joni Ernst, for example, is somebody who sits on that panel. She's key, and she's also somebody who is a veteran. She's a sexual assault survivor herself. Some of this stuff is really personal for her. He still has to win her over. They met one-on-one a while ago. They actually met more than once. They had a phone call. Ernst was holding the cards close to her vest, not really wanting to reveal this. But if that dam breaks, you could certainly see more Republican women feeling comfortable to vote against Hexeth on the Senate floor. Again, though, all Republicans have to support him on the committee, including Joni Ernst, to even get to that place.
We'll have a sense of this pretty soon. It's so interesting, Julia, saying to a colleague of ours, tomorrow, after we conclude our live coverage of the hearing, I think every camera is going to go to Joni Ernst, Senator Ernst, and her InstaReacts, I think is going to be critical, engaging her temperature as to where this goes and Hexet's chances. Julie Sorkin, a busy day for you. A few of them ahead. Thank you, Jules. Appreciate it. I want to go to Gabe Gutierius, who's in West Palm Beach, Florida. I guess it'll be busy for you, too, my friend. You're coming back to Washington, far colder than where you are now. All of it is happening as this ruling by a judge has come out, saying that we will get to see that January sixth report, that January sixth investigation report into Donald Trump, the one that Jack Smith and now former Special Counsel put together. Explain why that matters, because people may be going, Wait a sec, he's not charged. What's in the report? I don't know. Don't we already know? Or is it significant? Walk through the dynamics to play here and how hard you expect the Trump team to fight this?
Well, the President-elect has pushed back strongly on this, as you know, Halley, and it comes just seven days before the inauguration. Trump has been trying to argue that this would hurt his transition. He also says that Jack Smith should have never been appointed, and that's why this report shouldn't be released. But as you said, Judge Eileen Canon has said that this report now can be released as soon as midnight. It is unclear exactly when the DOJ will put it out. In theory, Trump's lawyers could appeal to the US Supreme Court, but we have not heard whether they plan to do so. So at this point, Halley, we could see it as soon as midnight. Gabe, there's also some news coming out as far as what the inauguration will look like. A week from today, we will all be gathered here in Washington for this seminal moment, obviously a critical moment, anytime a new president is sworn in. We have the schedule, and we're also learning, for example, Carrie Underwood is now out with a statement saying that in the name of Unity, for example, she is going to be performing on January 20th. Yeah, that's right, Halley.
Her statement was interesting. She's performing in the spirit of Unity, she says. That's something that we keep hearing from several of these entertainers right there. She says, I'm humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future. Now, there's another big name performer, the Village People. Halley, as you know, a staple of Donald Trump's rallies. The Village People will also be performing. And in their own statement, they say, We know this won't make some of you happy. However, we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics. Now, Halley, this comes after in 2017, there really wasn't that much star power at Donald Trump's inauguration. Back then, it was the Radio City Rock that performed. So, Kerry Underwood, the village people, could be a bit of a sign that some of the entertainment industry, their reluctance to perform at Donald Trump's events might have thawed since 2017. Gabe Gutier is live for us down there in West Palm. Gabe, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Listen, we're just getting some more breaking news just into us here as it relates to those California wildfires.
Our team getting more information from sources as to what may have caused it, the thing that investigators are looking into. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back with more more on what we've just discovered as that news conference from a district attorney continues. This is related to the looting. This is related to some of the issues that you heard about at the top of the show. Here's the other piece of developing news that's happening overseas now. A deal to free the Israeli hostages in Gaza may be closer than ever. We'll talk about the optimism we're going to level set on where negotiators are. Plus, you've also got a big earthquake hitting Japan, the potential aftershocks that have officials so concerned. We've got that all coming up right after the break. A new study says dementia cases could double in the decades to come. We'll tell you what the data is telling us. But first, we got to get to this developing news. A potential hostage deal in the Middle East. It may be closer than it's been in months. We're getting some new details on what this deal, what a potential ceasefire could look like.
You got the White House really putting the pressure on both sides to get to the table here and to get something done in the last literally six and a half days of the Biden administration. Now, Hamas has said late tonight that talks they think are going well, and it is possible, according to two US officials close to the negotiations, that the deal could come within a matter of days. Here's what the Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, is telling our own Andrea Mitchell in their exclusive one-on-one today. Watch. We are closer than we've ever been. The ball is in Hamas's court, but it's very close, and we They're very hopeful that we get it over the finish line, finally, after all this time. You hear some notes of optimism there from Secretary Blinken. It's all happening, though, as dozens of people have been killed. We're learning a new Israeli raids in central Gaza, according to the head of as civil defense. I want to bring in Danielle Hamamjian, who's live for us in Tel Aviv. You heard Secretary Blinken, Danielle, say, We are closer than ever before. The Biden administration is in power in office for, like we said, less than seven days at this point.
Can you level set with us about what you're hearing from folks on the ground there? Is that optimism warranted? Could we really see something get done soon? Short answer is yes. It seems that all parties concerned here say that there has been significant progress, and I'll get right to it as to what this deal would look like. It appears as though during the first stage of this deal, 33 hostages would be released on humanitarian grounds. We're talking about children, women, female soldiers, those who are severely ill, all believed to be alive. In exchange for those hostages, what has been described as a significant number of Palestinian detaunees will be released. I should point that since October seventh, 2023, thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank have been arrested without being tried or charged. Once that first stage is complete, 16 days would go by, at which point all the other hostages would be released. The The male soldiers, the remaining men, those who were killed on October seventh or were killed in captivity. During this period, the IDF would withdraw from densely populated areas to a buffer zone. It would remain in what's called the Philadelphia corridor, which is a strip of land between Egypt and Gaza.
But the IDF has made it clear that it will not withdraw from the Gaza strip until all the hostages have been released, Halley. There is a, obviously always a geopolitical component here, and that exists in this instance, too. You saw the work that the Biden administration has been trying to do for a deal. You have President-elect Trump, who has said recently in his words, All hell will break loose if there's not a deal done by the time he takes office here. For both the outgoing and the incoming presidents, there's a lot on the line. Well, I'll start with President Trump's comments about all hell to pay. I think if you were to ask Palestinians in Gaza about that, they would just tell you, how can hell look any worse than this? There are babies freezing to death at this point, amputations being performed without anesthesia. I could go on and on and on, but they have been saying for months now that death is better than the reality that they're living now. In terms of President Biden's legacy, I could tell you that the view there are many around the world who believe quite bluntly that President Biden was played by Benjamin Netanyahu, that despite the US warnings, the US concerns, the Israeli Prime Minister did what he wanted and still does to this day.
And even if there is a ceasefire announced today or tomorrow for many, that will be too late. President Biden's legacy will be the killing of 46,000 people in Gaza. Halley. Danielle Hamamjian, live for us there in Tel Aviv. Danielle, thank you very much. Let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. Number one, Japan is now lifting a tsunami warning after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Southwestern in part of the country today. You are looking at some of those blinds shaking a little bit. You see some people taking some video there in a plane. We don't know the extent of the damage yet. The plane was obviously on the ground. We don't know whether anybody was hurt, but officials are warning about the possibility of aftershocks in the next 48 hours. Number two, an emergency task force is now in Russia, according to officials, to deal with an oil spill that's spreading in the Kurchh Strait. It's after two Russian tankers were badly damaged during a storm a few weeks ago. They collected more than 150 65,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil so far. Number three, Walmart's telling people to throw out one of its chicken broth products, basically, because of a packaging issue that could mean it will spoil the recalled product.
Tough to see there, but I'll tell you, it's the great value family-sized chicken broth. It expires March 2026. Nobody's gotten sick based on reports so far, but return it, throw it out if you have it. Number four, early draughts of Bob Dylan's hit, Mr. Tambourine Man, are going up on auction block. The lyrics are part of the personal connect collection of a journalist, Al Aronowitz, who's known as the godfather of rock journalism. It's expected that those pages you're looking at could sell for between $406,000... Wait, let me say this again. Half a million dollars is the bottom line. That's like a solid amount of money for some paper, but hey, rock and roll history. Speaking of people making history, can we just all take a moment to have a collective sob for Craig Melvin because we love him so much on his first day today with the Today Show. Al Roker there, and you see his kiddos, Del, Sid, who came and hung out with him, and Lindsay, and Savannah, and the whole gang on set. That's his parents, Mr. And Mrs. Melvin. He see his brother on the left. That's after Hoda closed out in early two decades with the show, with NBC.
It was like the most... If you haven't watched, go back and watch the whole Today show. It's just like you're going to ball your eyes out. You're going to love Craig as much as we do. You already do. We love him. We love Savannah. We love the Today show. We love Hoda. There's a lot of love going around. All right. We're going to take a take a beat here. We're going to make a turn to something that is far less joyful, probably a little scarier if you hear the headline, right? But we're going to break it down for you. That's this new study about the risks of dementia. And this new study warns that there is going to be potentially spike, and this is what researchers are warning about, a spike in cases of dementia over the next couple of decades here. Americans older than 55 have an average 42% chance, this is men and women, of developing dementia over the course of their lifetimes. If you're a woman, if you're Black, that risk is even higher. Anne Thompson has been covering all this for us. Talk through why the rise. It seems to be because Americans are living longer because some of these numbers, some of the risk really goes up once you hit age 95, right?
Yeah, Halley, that's the thing to member here is that, first of all, this is a lifetime risk starting at age 55 that dramatically increases once you hit the age of 75. Why are scientists projecting that these numbers numbers are going to double? It's because of a couple of things. First of all, we are living longer, and that's a good thing. And so your risk goes up the longer you live. Secondly, this research covers some 15,000 people. It's a really big study And this, unlike prior studies, and this time it incorporated a lot of minorities in the study who had been missed in the past. Also, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, they're all linked to increased dementia risk. Finally, hearing loss. This is something you may not think about, but a third of people who are eligible for hearing aids or who have hearing loss don't get hearing aids. If you can't hear your world narrows and that increases your risk of dementia. Halley? We covered another big study not too long ago, looking at how closely Alzheimer's and diabetes are connected. It suggested that maybe some of these drugs like Ozemp DMP, etc, could help prevent Alzheimer's.
It feels like, obviously, there is an urgency now to the research on dementia prevention and slowing the development of dementia. Is there any sense that we have of some of these GLP-1s, as they're called, that could help with dementia? Where are we on that? Well, certainly, it just makes sense because if dementia is linked to diseases like heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and which are also linked to obesity, that if you reduce weight, you reduce risks of those diseases, and therefore you reduce your risks of dementia. Earlier today, NBC's Dr. John Torres addressed this very issue. These new weight loss medicines that are out there, in particular GLP-1s are doing fantastic at getting people's weight under control. And so that improvement of health, whether it's from the weight loss or the GLP-1s in general, especially when it comes to diabetes and hypertension, we do think will go a long ways towards keeping this risk of dementia low or as low as possible as we get older. So remember, there are things you can do. Exercise, think of your brain just like a muscle. It needs to be exercised. Make sure that you get plenty of sleep, you protect your mental health, and that you do everything you can to reduce heart attack, stroke, and diabetes risk.
It's pretty simple, and it can be prevented. Halley? Anne Thompson, lots to follow on this front tonight. Anne, thank you very much for being with us. Appreciate it and good to see you. We got some breaking news now back out West on those fires out in Los Angeles. We are just learning about an early focus of the investigation into the cause of the Palisades fire, according to what officials are telling BBC News. This is a live look now at the LADA press conference, this news conference. This is mostly related to looting and burglary charges that they filed related to the fires. There's an arson charge on a smaller brush fire. Let me get to Dana Griffin right now who's in the Palisades. Dana, this is a headline coming in from our investigative team that says sources are telling them that there is an investigation now that's narrowing in on a possible human cause to the fire. What does that mean? Explain that. So covering fires for most of my career, human cause does not necessarily mean that it was intentional. It could mean anything from arsenic. It could mean someone throwing a cigarette blood out of the window.
It could also mean someone firing up their car, maybe on a dry patch of grass. And that is all human cause. And that's going to be an investigation That's going to be part of the investigation. Usually when it's natural cause, that's usually lightning. And outside of lightning, everything else is usually human cause. So that is just a really broad way of saying they don't really know what the cause is, but that they are looking at everything. There have been questions about whether arson could be something or a focus of their investigation. They say that they are not ruling it out. They have not given an official cause of this fire, but that's something that they will be working hard to try to figure out. Maybe they're pausing that for now because you've got those Santa Ana winds that are coming through the LA County area once again. So the focus is going to be on that particular threat to this community. Holly. Dana Griffin, live for us there with that new development from the Palisades. We're going to have more on that coming up next hour. Dana, thank you. Overseas tonight in South Korea, the country says about 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed, nearly 3,000 more hurt, fighting for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Officials say so many North Koreans are dying on the battlefield because they are not trained for modern warfare and that they're under orders to die by suicide to avoid being captured. It comes as the Ukrainian President says today, or in a video address, I should say, that he's ready to trade two captured North Korean soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia. In this video on X, Zelensky shows what he says are the North Korean POWs. Nbc News has not independently confirmed that. Janice McAfreyer is joining us now. Janice, this dynamic, the North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine. This has been something we've known about for a little bit now. The new piece of this is this idea of the scale and the scope of the casualties now at this point, right? Well, North Korean, these two men who are said to be North Korean soldiers are being questioned by South Korean intelligence who's providing assistance to Ukrainian security forces. They're painting a picture of what it's for North Korean forces who are fighting with the Russians in the Kursk region. They're telling interrogators that they were told they were going to Russia for training, not for a war.
One of them was carrying a fake Russian military ID. What this does is it gives the living proof, so to speak, to President Zelensky to be able to say to the international community that North Korea is indeed supplying munitions operations and supplying troops to Russia, and as a consequence, escalating the war. Halley. We've talked a lot about this relationship between Russia and North Korea, the dynamic here, and what Kim Jong Un gets in return here. So pull that thread for us for him sending these soldiers over to Russia, and as you talk about the conditions for them here. What Vladimir Putin gets is resources to to continue to prosecute the war in Ukraine. But from what ex-North Korean soldiers have been telling us here, the North Koreans are basically cannon father because they lack the combat experience and they lack any actual training in modern warfare. What Kim Jong Un gets in return is international prestige, he gets cash, and he gets know-how, that Russian technical help that he was looking for to advance his weapons program, which was underscored just last week with the test launch of a new type of hypersonic, ballistic missile that was overseen by Kim himself and hailed as a major military achievement.
So this is all raising the stakes with US officials saying that North Korean troops gaining combat experience could actually embolden Pyongyang to seek conflict with its neighbors, namely South Korea. So the stakes very high here, Halley. And of course, this change in the White House that could impact military aid and financial support for Ukraine being closely watched. Halley? Janice McAfreyer. Thank you very much for that. Appreciate it. Nbc news covers hundreds of stories every day. And because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all, our bureau teams have done it for you. This is what they tell us is going down in their regions in a segment we call The Local. Out of our Northeast Bureau, police in Montclair, New Jersey, are arresting a school employee for allegedly making a threat online. Directed at a staff member. That forced schools in the district to close today. School officials say the suspect had been on administrative leave, but they say there's no further threat to the community. Out of our Southern Bureau, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is calling off the first ever launch of its big New Glen rocket after some tech issues that happened right in the last couple of minutes of the countdown.
That's a hit to the company's push to try to compete with SpaceX and Elon Musk. Blue Origin says it's now reviewing opportunities for the next launch attempt from down in Florida, Cape Canaveral. Also, out of our Northeast bureau, the 76ers are staying in South Philly. Big reversal for the team. Remember, they spent years pushing an arena in Center City or maybe even New Jersey. The 76ers say they're going to open a new arena shared with the Flyers by 2031. We should note, MBC News' parent company, Comcast owns the Wells Fargo Center, and the CEO was involved in these talks. Got to get to some developing news out of Indiana now, where prosecutors are charging a Texas man for stalking Caitlin Clark. Prosecutors say 55-year-old Michael Lewis sent threatening messages to the WNBA's Rookey of the Year, and the threats overall to women's basketball players, in particular, are increasing, both the college and the pro level. Here's Emily Aketta with more. New charging documents lay out how prosecutors say a man, Terrorized, frightened, and intimidated one of the country's most popular athletes. Indiana Fever superstar, Kaitlyn Clarke. Michael Lewis faces a felony stalking charge after allegedly traveling to Indianapolis to be near her.
Police say he admitted it is a imaginary relationship, with dozens of posts on X directly tagging Clark, including a number of threatening and sexually explicit messages changes, according to prosecutors, even posting after an initial encounter with police. An attorney for Lewis hasn't been listed online, and he has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to court records. Prosecutors say Clark and the fever have cooperated Neither could be immediately reached for comment. As the popularity of women's basketball sores, so do the threats against athletes, and not just at the pro level. In the last couple of weeks, a 40-year-old Oregon man pleaded guilty to stalking Yukon women's basketball star, Paige Beckers. He got a three-year ban from the state of Connecticut. The head of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, raising concerns over the harassment of female athletes on Capitol Hill last month. The worst examples of online threats, abuse, and harassment were being directed at women basketball players playing in our women's basketball tournament. That, in many respects, I think is not as well known as it should be. The speaker says the NCAA and member schools can only track what they see publicly. What's in players' DMs may be worse.
According to an NCAA study in October, women's basketball players are targeted three times more often than men, with 80% of abuse of posts happening around March Madness. We spoke with the man who helped lead that study. We're seeing this rise of abuse being triggered by angry gamblers and sports betters. It's definitely a growing phenomenon and definitely an issue that needs to be tackled. 12% of all abuse was related to gambling, according to the NCAA. Baker's solution, a ban on prop bets in college sports. That's where you can put your money down, not on a team, but a specific athlete athlete and their performance. The American Gaming Association says of the 38 states where sports betting is legal, less than half ban prop bets on college athletes. The threat's made easier by social media, with fans having more direct access to players as many share their lives online. But it's impacting IRL behavior. For Clark, police say she's even had to change her public appearances and where she goes out of fear for her safety. Emily is joining us now. Okay, so let's talk about what the NCAA is doing, what states are doing to try to tackle this whole issue of harassment for these players.
Well, Halley, it's a really good question because you look at the prevalence of this harassment. That study that I mentioned from the NCAA found that one student athlete for assistants, received more than 1,400 abusive messages in just a two-week span. While the NCAA has been pushing for and lobbying states to actually ban betting on specific individual athletes and their performances, we're seeing some states take action and measures that actually target the harassers themselves. Wyoming, for instance, recently approved a measure that would place anyone who was found guilty of harassing an athlete, essentially on a list for the state that would try to prevent them from placing future bets. We know West Virginia and Ohio have taken similar measures. Halley. Emily Aketta, thank you very much. Appreciate your reporting on that. Still ahead, why cases of the flu are spiking Coast to Coast this season. That's next. There's new data tonight showing unusually high rates of flu and some other seasonal viruses across most of the country. Is that breaking news to you? Probably Maybe not, if you're anything like anybody's household that I know, where you know somebody who's gotten sick, like over the holiday break, over the course of this winter here, maybe it's flu, maybe it's COVID.
The CDC says it is serious here. They're reporting an increase in hospitalizations. They even say that six kids have died in just the last week from the flu. That means 17 kids in all have died this season. For more on this, let's bring in Dr. Natalie Azar, who's joining us now. Dr. Azar, what is going on? Because typically, we see the flu start around Halloween, the spike hits in peak February, basically. The flu got a later start this season. So what does that mean for the rest of the season? Yeah, that's right, Halleigh. And experts are saying that we can expect at least a few weeks, if not a few more months of significant flu activity. We're just hitting a spike right now, but no one has suggested that we've hit a peak at all right now. So in terms of protecting yourself, the number one thing you can do is to get your flu shot. No, it is not too late. Hand Soalwashing is key. Masking, not just to protect yourself from somebody getting you sick, but something we call source control. That means you can prevent other people from getting your infection if you wear a mask.
Avoid touching your face, especially with little kids, the hands, the The mouth, the eyes, that's how the flu gets into your system. And avoid sharing food and utensils. As I mentioned, Halley, it's not too late to get the flu shot. It takes about two weeks to build up those antibodies until you're protected. And you get about a three-month window where you're really well protected against illness, but the protection against more severe disease, hospitalization, and death, that lasts longer than that three-month window. So again, good hand hygiene, vaccine combination, Stay safe, everybody. Those are always good tips now more than ever. Dr. Natalie Azar, thank you very much for that. Appreciate it. We've got a lot more coming for you here on the show, including a look at betting markets. The millions of dollars go into online wagers on everything from basically every topic you've heard about in this show. Yes, South Korean politics, the LA wildfires, bird flu, and more. When do you hear about it? So tonight's original now with in-depth reporting on a topic we've been watching. And new tonight, it's the MAGA World, Betting Big on Betting. Because in just the last few hours, we've heard from Donald Trump Jr, the President, Alex Sun, who says he's teaming up with Kalshi to be a strategic advisor.
You know what CalShe is? It's a digital platform. You can put money down on things like elections. That's allowed here in the United States for now. But a lot of political betting actually also happens on a different website we've talked about before called Polymarket, and regulators have blocked people in the US from using that site. But now, Polymarket is pivoting to letting people bet on, well, almost anything, including the news, including most of the stories you've heard us talk about here tonight. Yasmin Vasugan explains. New odds popping up every day on Polymarket with big dollar amounts up for grabs, like the LA fires. Shockingly, you can wager on how much of California will burn or the exact date of containment, or if President-elect Donald Trump will buy Greenland and who he might pardon in the first hundred days. Thousands of dollars put on that. There's even a whole section on bird flu. How many cases, whether we'll have a vaccine or another pandemic. Online betting on pretty much anything surged in popularity heading into the election. And the final totals for that? St staggering, thriving in part on anonymity. Many of its users placed bets using cryptocurrency Agency.
That's a reason why the federal agency that oversees futures markets blocked US users from the platform in 2022. And Polymarket is not the only one that will let you bet on world events. Kalchi, a platform that's legal here in the US, is doing the the name. The big question heading into the election was whether Trump's lead in betting markets could actually impact the votes. A new concern now is if somebody has control over one of these world events and decides to influence them based on a bet. Just like how infamous sports heroes have bet on games and through the integrity of the sport into question. Imagine one of those bird flu wagers we told you about. Hypothetically, a state official could put down big money through Polymarket on a decision they make on whether it's a public health emergency. And it's possible nobody would know. Keith White of the National Council on Problem Gambling says his group doesn't take a stance on the ethics of these future bets, but there are concerns. While there may be some validation ability in using prediction markets to predict events, there's also some real, if you will, moral hazards on allowing people to profit from negative events.
We reached out to Polymarket about these concerns and have yet to hear back. The company CEO, Shane Copeland, telling CNBC two days after the election that Trump's win represented something of a proving ground for the predictive nature of his platform. I understand that it's a novel concept, and people We were skeptical when it came around, but hopefully now people will be a lot more embracing of market-based information. But six days later, the FBI raided Copeland's apartment and seized his cell phone, according to a source familiar with the matter. Not long after, Copeland posted on X, New phone, who dis? A company's spokesperson told NBC News at the time that the FBI raid was obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration. After Polymarket, in their words, correctly called the 2024 presidential election. Copeland was not arrested or charged. The Southern district of New York declined to comment. We also asked the Trump campaign if they'd want to continue any investigation into Polymarket's activity. No response there. The boom in sports betting is leading to plenty of problems for those who can't stay away. Another concern as the markets you bet on seem limitless and the regulations less so.
I would argue that sports betting is the most heavily regulated and has the most extensive a set of consumer protections. But the prediction markets and other things that we're talking about have little or none. In the meantime, the betting continues. Yasmin, is joining us now. Yasmin, it's so interesting when you look at the betting markets, what's underneath them, what you can bet on. Now you've got the President-elect son who's teaming up with Kalsi. Did he give a reason for that? What's the thought process? I think you can guess the reason here. He's joining up as a strategic advisor who actually posted it this morning on X. I'll read you part of his tweet in which he On Election Night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called The Race, a Coin Toss. My family and close friends used the prediction market to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media, as he said. We've heard this, obviously, rhetoric from Don Trump Jr. And his family many times before. I immediately knew I had to contribute to their mission today. I'm proud to announce that I am joining Kalash'e as a strategic advisor, Hal. Then, by the way, that post was reposted by Kalash' giving a response to his announcement from Don Trump Jr.
Saying, We're excited to welcome him. Don Jr. Saw Kalash'e's power firsthand on election night, using it to confirm his father's win hours before the media approve what we've always believed, prediction markets are the fastest, most powerful way to uncover truth. Look how I don't necessarily think that this story is going away. When we talk about conflicts of interest here, as we mentioned in that story, right? Donald Trump Jr. Being a strategic advisor for Calgie now, of course, his father being president-elect. Certainly, this story will continue, to say the least. You'll be on it. I know Yasmin Vasugian, we're glad to have you there.Thank you very much.Thank you.Thank you very much, yes. I appreciate it. That does it for us for this We've got more coverage picking up right now. We're coming on the air with a new update any minute on those deadly fires in LA and some new clues just into us as to what may have started one of the biggest our team's law enforcement sources, saying they're looking into a possible human cause for the Palisades fire. We are live across LA, going through those new details with the city now bracing for the possibility of round two because of those intense Santa Ana wins.
Plus the alarm bells that are sounding now about a crisis on top of this crisis, a housing crisis with thousands of people now displaced. Then, what is the chances that one of President-elect Trump's most controversial cabinet fitpicks will actually get confirmed? We may find out really soon with Pete Hegset getting ready for his Hill hearing. Plus, how Mr. Trump may face more legal issues just a week out from his inauguration or at least questions as we're getting some new details on that. Plus, the new information about a potential hostage deal in the Middle East, why talks may be closer today than they've been in months, according to the Secretary of State in a new exclusive that's coming up later in the show. Hey there, I'm Halleigh, and tonight we are on the ground in Los Angeles, a city getting ready for another potential blow from those powerful Santa Ana winds. Those are the winds that literally fan the flames of the fires that are still burning around LA. Tonight, you've got the LA County Fire Chief warning that the wind could get to something like 70 miles an hour tonight in some parts outside the city, which means it could be hard to get those planes up.
It could be hard for containment. You've got the risk of new fires starting as well. It's all happening as we're getting some late-breaking news just into us. Multiple law enforcement officials telling us they're looking into a possible human cause, human cause in the Palisades fire. That is one of the biggest here, the biggest in addition to the Eaton fire. We now know that 25 people have been killed in all in these series of devastating fires. We are waiting for officials to give us an update on the Palisades fire now. This is a news conference that I think is just about to begin. It looks like it just started. We've got a team listening in. They're going to bring us any news as we've got it. We've got our team standing by, too. Meteorologist Bill Karens is here. God, he's short. It's live for us in Malibu. But I want to start with Dana Griffin, who's live in the Palisades with that breaking news. So, Dana, it is important to note here that human cause can encompass a whole lot of things. That does not mean it was arson. It simply means that maybe it wasn't like lightning or a natural cause.
Do I have that right? You had it perfectly, Halley. That's right. Human cause means there's pretty much a vast different options that they could possibly could find here. Human cause could be someone having a grill in their backyard, someone throwing a cigarette butt out the window, and even someone accidentally starting it by maybe starting their car up on some dry grass. That is something that is going to take a long time for them to come to a conclusion to, possibly. Now, remember, the Maui fire took them about a year to come to a conclusion, but they are definitely looking into it. Officials say that the federal investigators have not even gone to the point of origin to determine yet exactly what could have been the culprit. But this is something that they're going to be looking into. A lot of people have had questions about how did this start. I think we narrowed it down to a possibly somewhere in someone's backyard. Earlier reporting, we haven't really revisited that in a while, but there were some concerns that the fire may have started near a backyard area. A lot of people are going to be wondering, well, how long does it take?
It could take a while. Out of all of the fires that have started here in Southern California, all of them remain under investigation. That just means they have not determined the cause. Investigators say they are not ruling out arson as a potential cause, but they have not settled on one specific cause at this time. Halley. Dana Griffin, plenty to watch there. That's been one of the biggest questions here, in addition to the very active disaster that responders are dealing with, is how did this fire even start in the first place? We're going to watch that. Dana, thank you. We're also watching Gadi Shorts, who's live for us now in Malibu. And Gadi, it feels like the big story tonight, the number one story, these Santa Ana winds, these powerful winds that are set to come back in a big way in the overnight hours, peaking early tomorrow morning here. You've got crews that are exhausted. You've got planes that are up in the air that need to be up there to drop fire retardant, to drop water, et cetera. Talk me through this city holding its breath for what could come later on tonight. Right.
Malibu has been absolutely rocked. What we're seeing right now are line crews coming down. They're trying to clear out as much debris as possible before those winds step in. Then, Halley, sometimes you come across scenes that it just takes a second for everything to sink in. This is one of them right here. This is the ocean. And then take a look at the destruction that we're seeing. This is, I believe, some car or a Porsche. It is hanging off the side there. The thing that's holding this from falling off this little cliff here is the engine block. The engine block of this Porsche is holding this car upright so it doesn't fall in, collapse down onto the beach with the rest of this home. This used to be a massive two, three-story home, and the only thing you see is the steel frame. Everything else has fallen down on the beach. It's not just this one. Rows of houses going down that way. It's miles of houses going down that way. Let me turn us around real fast. What you're seeing These are the line crews. They just showed up. They're getting ready to start to pull some of the electrical lines out from this area and clear out PCH.
This is Pacific Coast Highway. Looks like they're getting ready to load up this transformer here But again, this is some of the cleanup that we're seeing from Southern Caled, Edison. Those crews are coming in. Meanwhile, down on the beach, over towards Santa Monica, the only way I can describe it is like an army base. Barracks have popped up there. There are soldiers soldiers that are taking rest on the beach preparing for the night. Up at Zuma, it is a base of hundreds and hundreds of firefighters that are preparing for a very, very active night. Then all along the hills, most people have evacuated, some people have not. Some people have chosen to stay to try to protect their homes. Of course, firefighters warning people to leave. If they do stay, they are on their own. That's the situation as we head into another night of chaos. Ali? And the question, too, Gadi, we've been watching some of these images, and I think this has captured people, too. They're seeing the super scoopers, they're seeing the helicopters doing the water drops, the planes dropping the fire retard and et cetera. If it gets too windy, it may not be safe for those planes to fly, right?
Yeah, and we haven't seen very many planes out here. It's not because of the wind. There's no wind right now, fortunately, fingers crossed. But yeah, this is where those super tankers or super scoopers would come. They'd pick up water and then they'd go out. If you get above 50, 60, 70 miles an hour, it's impossible to fly. So that is the major concern. And it is something that the crews on the ground, you've seen the accuracy of some of these pilots, the fixed wing aircraft, those are able to fly in a little bit higher conditions, a little bit higher wind speeds. But those helicopters are so crucial in all of these fights. Everyone is hoping that tonight, those air assets are up and they to continue to pound all of the perimeter of this fire that is still uncontained. Gautie Schwartz, I know that you'll be live, Anchor, and stay tuned now from the field there in LA, right as those winds are starting to pick up. We'll be watching tonight right here on NBC News Now. Gautie, thank you. Morgan Chesky is live for us in Pacific Palisades, California. Morgan, you're there in the Palisades as we're keeping an ear on that news conference.
California governor, Gavin Newsom, is now asking for two and a half billion dollars more for this wildfire response. Part of the issue here, we've referenced it at the top of the show, there is now a housing crisis. You have a displacement crisis because of what's behind you. People who are trying to get back home, A, might not even be able to get there because it's such an active scene, but B, have nothing left. Halley, it's frustrating no matter how you look at this, and we had a chance to speak to several individuals now caught in the midst of this housing crisis. Both families lived in the Pacific Palisades. They lost their homes. I should add that both of the families we spoke to have children who went to school right here, Halley. This was where they were in a classroom barely a week ago. Now, they're having to try to figure out where to go next on top of finding out a new place to live. And they're competing with hundreds and thousands of other people looking for limited inventory in the Greater Los Angeles area. I'm going to hear one exchange I had with one father, a husband, on the search for a home and knowing very well that he's not alone.
Take a listen. We looked at that one at a price, and the realtor that I was talking to said it would probably go for $7,000 more than it's listed for. $7,000 above asking to rent. To rent it, yeah. I'm a renter in the Palisades, and there are plenty of us up there. For us, we don't have the means to go above and beyond, really, to compete with that market. Halley, we've seen evidence of two things happening simultaneously. You had, as that man mentioned, people willing to pay significantly more above the listed price just to make sure they can secure a home. On the flip side, we have people, unfortunately, landlords, trying to drive up the price of rent because they know demand is so high. Either way, it's a tragic state of affairs. And just to paint an even more grim picture of the housing portrait here in Los Angeles. I want to share this statistic with you. This isn't necessarily talking about those who lost their homes in this horrific fire tragedy, but there are 494,000 low-income renter households that don't have access to an affordable home. That's before the fire, Halley. So we're seeing compounding variables create a nightmare situation here in real-time.
Morgan Chesky, Live for us there in the Palestine. It's Morgan Glad to have you there. Thank you very much. I want to go to Bill Karens now, our meteorologist, who's been tracking this wind forecast here. And before we get to that, Bill, sorry, let me just also talk about this Miramar fire that has popped up a little further south, that's outside San Diego. I want to tell people this This is like three acres. It is small now, but it is in an area... Well, you explain it. Tell us where it is. All right. So you mentioned- I don't want to steal all your lines. No, you're good. No, I like it when you know your stuff. If you think of Top Gun and you think of Miramar, that's the Marine Corps air station. That's where this little fire is formed. It's actually right next to the runway. It's on the Marine Corps base. There's helicopters flying. They're dumping water on it. They think they have it under control, and they think they're going to be able to put it out. They're actually not even in the red flag warning. We've been talking so much We're not much about Los Angeles, but this red flag warning goes all the way down here.
San Diego right here. Miramar is located just to the left here of the E and El Cajon. That fire is going to be put out. It's just an example of it's not just an LA issue. There's dangerous conditions all over Southern California. The really significant dangerous stuff with the really high winds, yes, that'll be in the mountains north of LA, into the northwest of LA. Ventura County will be part of this, too. They've actually increased. This hashed area was three zones Now they've combined one and made it a little bigger here. It's really everywhere north of the 101 and then everywhere to the west of Malibu. The only reason that Malibu is not in this area is this is where the Paradise fire already burned. There's nothing left to burn in this area right in here. That's where Paradise is located. And there's also nothing left to burn here near Altadina, northwards up near Mount Wilson. So that's why you're not in that particularly dangerous conditions. And we're just waiting to see- Can you just pause there for one second, Bill? Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Because explain to people this PDS, Particularly dangerous situation, right?
This morning. Sure. It is rare. It is not something that comes up all the time, except for last week, this week, and in the last couple of months here. I think that's important for people to know. It's not like every time it gets hot and windy, they put out this PDS. Correct. The National The weather Service only issues PDS when they know that life-threatening weather conditions are not just possible, but likely. They do PDSs also for tornado. If we know we have a big, huge tornado on the ground and it's about to head and hit a town, they'll either call It's called a tornado emergency or a particularly dangerous situation, tornado watch. That means it's possible for that to happen. So yes, Halley, they do it for tornadoes and they also do it for fires. And it's like the ingredients of a cake. The ingredients are there. We just don't want to turn the oven on and make the fire happen, because if it does, it'll spread rapidly. So that's what we're waiting to see. The winds are already gusting high. We're already in the 40s, the 50-mile power range in that danger area. And it's not LA.
I think that's the thing I want people to know. It's not the same areas as last time. This is different. It's just further north and west. Further north and west. But we've talked about this strain on firefighters, on personnel, on equipment here. Oh, and yes, it's in a huge area. How are you going to put resources through all of this area? There's a lot of small mountain communities. Yes, we have little cities like Santa Clarita that are in the midst of this, but it's all going to be in these mountainous areas going up and down the ridges if we get these fires to form. Yes, they have assets in locations and especially near those other fires. We just hope, Halley, that they can I got. He was just spot on when he said that. That's what everyone's worried about. If the winds get too high that they can't fight these from the air anymore, we lose the advantage. Then the fire starts to wind. We'll find out tomorrow morning just how intense it's been. Bill Kareins, thank you very much for that. I appreciate it. Let's bring you back here to Washington because we've got some breaking news tonight out of the Justice Department with the special counsel who prosecuted President Biden's son, Hunter on tax and gun charges, releasing his final report just in the last couple of minutes here.
Now, remember, President Biden has pardoned his son. He issued that blanket pardon on those charges and any potential federal offenses he may have committed over a decade long period. Kendalanian is joining us now. So Ken, in a nutshell here, it feels like the headline out of this report is that David Weis, the Special Counsel, defending the prosecution and let's say less than pleased with President Biden for the pardoning of Hunter. Fair? Yeah, 100%, Halley. That's the real news here. There are no new revelations about the case. Look, We know what the case was. Mr. Biden was prosecuted in two separate cases. In one case, he played guilty to the tax charges. The news here is that this career prosecutor is absolutely taking on President Biden's justification for pardoning his son in really explicit, powerful language. Let me just read you a little bit of what David Weiss wrote. He said, Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department Department of Justice based solely on false accusations. He continued later, Politicians who attack the decisions of career prosecutors as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of a case undermine the public's confidence in our criminal justice system.
He said the President's statements unfairly impugn the integrity not only of the Department of Justice personnel, but of all the public servants making these difficult decisions in good faith. These are the things that people have been saying about Donald Trump for years as Donald Trump has attacked the FBI and the justice system. Here you have a career prosecutor saying this about President Biden because President Biden said that he pardoned his son because he was selectively prosecuted and unfairly prosecuted. The prosecutor takes issue with that, Halley. Ken Delaney and Ken, thanks for sifting through that report. We appreciate it coming out just in the last couple of minutes here. Thanks. Also in Washington, we are just seven days away, a week from President-elect Trump's inauguration when he will be sworn in as the next President. He'll have a cabinet around him, and that cabinet may or Or may not include this guy, his pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegset, former Fox News host, who will be appearing tomorrow morning for what may be the most explosive confirmation hearing of this administration. Maybe. We'll see, but maybe because there's a few other controversial pics. Listen, here's the thing.
Huge loyalty test right now for Republicans because the President-elect, his transition team, people around him have been pushing really hard to get Pete Hegset over the finish line here. Expect Hegset to face some questions on allegations he denies of sexual assault, financial misconduct, alcohol abuse, plus his past comments about whether women can serve in combat. Then a lack of experience running an organization as big as the world's most expensive military. It's a wild week the Senate has in store, and that Hegsef, tomorrow is just going to be the first part of it. They've got a dozen hearings on the books. While that happens, stop me if you've heard this before, the President-elect now has a new legal question hanging over him. Gabe Gutieras will get into that rolling from a Florida judge in a minute. But I want to start with Julie Sarkin, who live for us on Capitol Hill. The questioning tomorrow, we expect it to be sharp from Democrats here. It is Republicans who hold the key to whether or not Hegset will be confirmed, but it's Democrats who may really push on some of these points that have come up, these allegations against Hexeth, which he denies.
Yeah, Halley. And literally within the last couple of seconds, I actually have news to break with you, which is that the FBI background check into Pete Hexeth did not include any interviews with his ex-wives. There was no information with the or with the accuser in that Monterey Hotel case. This is major because, of course, Democrats right now, as we speak, are getting briefed on this report by Senator Jack Reid, who is the top Democrat on the panel. You can bet that this will definitely instruct how they will question Hexeth tomorrow before that hearing about these sexual misconduct allegations, trying to get him to respond to those in a public setting before the committee, despite that he denied those allegations, the fact that they are not as part of this FBI background check is certainly sending warning signals to Democrats. I got to tell you, two sources have previously told me that interviewing current and former spouses is just standard practice for the FBI. Certainly, Democrats are going to pay attention to this. We've been talking to a number of them in the hallways, Senator Duckworth and Blumenthal, for example, teasing surprises ahead of tomorrow's hearing.
It'll really be one to watch. Hexeth will certainly be in the hot seat. As we talked about, Halley, it's not just Democrats. Republicans have been toeing the line and going along with who Trump had put out for them so far. But Joni Earth sits on that panel, and she's somebody who is a veteran who's faced sexual assault herself. That's somebody that I'm certainly paying close attention to. We talked about Hegset. This is the first hearing. I should note we're going to have a full live coverage right here on NBC News Now, starting tomorrow morning when this hearing begins. I'm sure I will see you then. We'll have the whole team in place. It's far from the only hearing that's going to be interesting. You've got Pam Bondi, the attorney general pick coming up this week. You've also got at a TBD date at some point, RFK Jr, Robert F Nadi Junior, who's set to lead the Health Department. If Mr. Trump gets that, pick confirmed, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, Cash Patel. Some of these folks are going to be critical in the law enforcement and intelligence communities. Yeah, absolutely. And Tulsi Gabbard's hearing has not even been scheduled yet because they're still trying to get all the paper the work that is needed for her, but certainly that's somebody that I'm watching because she has bipartisan questions, not just from Democrats, Republicans also concerned about her background.
It's why we reported on Friday that she changed her position about support for a key surveillance program. That was big. And certainly others, like Cash Patel. His past is pretty clear. He says what he thinks, and so there's not a lot of secrets that senators feel like they don't know about, but certainly it's a big job to lead the FBI, essentially the investigative arm of the Department of Justice. This is something that Democrats are paying attention to. That said, though, Halley, and you've said it, Republicans hold the keys here. They have a three-seat majority, four if you count JD Vance, who as vice President, could break any tie. Really, the most controversial ones at this juncture are Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hexet, and also RFK Jr. Might have some trouble, too, but he could also peel off Democratic votes. Those are interesting to watch. Julia Sarkin, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Gabe Gutier is standing by in West Palm Beach, Florida. There's this judge's ruling, Gabe, that means we are going to see parts of the former special Council's report, Jack Smith's report, into Mr. Trump and the deadly attack on the Capitol on January sixth.
Explain why this matters, because January sixth has been litigated in the public spotlight for years now the Congressional investigation. But the release of this report could be significant, at least symbolically, right? Yeah, that's right, Halley. Look, before I get to that explanation, though, I should point out that we've managed to arrange a beautiful full Moon. Is that the Wolf Moon behind you? Just for your show. Now, that's the breaker. But are you a Taurus, Oranaries? But this is just for your show, Halley. Okay. Just a second. No, Capricorn. But I will move on. Also effective. All right. Explaining about this report. Yeah, we do expect it in just a few hours, Halley, and it is significant. Look, the President-elect has been talking about how this will hurt his transition. Look, Halley, we don't expect necessarily any new facts of the case to come out in this report. But what we It would see is perhaps new justifications why the special counsel decided to bring this prosecution. So yes, this comes just several days right before inauguration. And earlier today, Judge Eileen Canon down in Florida, decided to allow this to become public, but we don't expect it before midnight.
Trump's lawyers, though, could still appeal, theoretically, to the US Supreme Court, although we haven't heard any indication yet that they plan to do so, Halley. We also talk about you're coming back up home, back to DC with the inauguration a week from now, Gabe, and there's already a lot of plans in place. We now have the official schedule. You've also got the security that's starting to get beefed up here. 25,000 members of law enforcement, 30 miles of fencing, drones, flight restrictions, etc. As the Chief of the Capitol Police is laying out what he sees as the biggest threats. Yeah, that's right, Halley. 7,800 members of the DC National Guard. As you said, authorities there are in a heightened state of alert. Here's what the head of the Capitol Police had to say earlier today. The biggest threat, I think for all of us remains the loan actor. Again, the biggest threat, according to local officials there, is a lone actor. And this comes, Halley, after several high-profile events in the DC area, including Jimmy Carter, lying in state. The head of the Capitol Police said that there were two loan actors that were disrupted by Capitol Police.
There was someone that came near the Capitol with some knives and a machete, and also someone who set their car on fire, potentially trying to disrupt their proceedings. This is something that they're going to be looking at very closely, Halley. Yeah. Gabe Gutierrez. Gabe, who framed this live out for you with the moon. It's perfect. I got to tell you, this is Carlos Cabo, behind the camera, and my producer Olympia Sonier. She made it happen. That's what I'm saying. I will just tell. They call it January, a wolf Bigful move. It's just for you. I wouldn't do this with just everybody. I get it. I wouldn't do this with just anyone, Halley, but all you. I would let you and Olympia and Carlos go charge your crystals right now. I want you to just vibe in the moment. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Bye. Coming up a little bit later in the show. We got a lot more coming for you here. Not just, of course, the latest in politics, but also more on some developing news, including our own Andrea Mitchell's one-on-one with the US Secretary of State. That's right, dangerous sitting down with Tony Blinken as he talks about the potential for a ceasefire in Gaza.
That's next. A hostage deal in the Middle East may be closer than it's been in with some new details into us on what that deal, what that ceasefire could look like. You've got the White House trying to get both sides, not just to the table, but over the finish line on an agreement with really six and a half days left in the Biden administration. Late tonight, Hamas says talks are going well, and two officials on the American side close to negotiations tell NBC that any deal may be just days away. Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, sitting down exclusively with our own Andrea Mitchell today. Listen to how he cast it. The first six For the next weeks, the conflict stops. Israel pulls back its forces. A lot of hostages come out. Some prisoners are released by Israel. We surge humanitarian assistance, and we also use that time to try to finalize an agreement on an enduring ceasefire. Big question, of course, if this discussion, these talks, this movement here is actually going to result in anything, all as dozens of people, according to the head of Gaza's civil defense, have just been killed in new Israeli early grades in central Gaza.
Danielle Hamamjan is live for us in Tel Aviv tonight. You heard Secretary Blinken, Danielle, say, We are closer than ever before. The Biden administration is in power in office for, like we said, less than seven days at this point. Can you level set with us about what you're hearing from folks on the ground there? Is that optimism warranted? Could we really see something get done soon? Short answer is yes. It seems that all parties concerned here say that there has been significant progress, and I'll get right to it as to what this deal would look like. It appears as though during the first stage of this deal, 33 hostages would be released on humanitarian grounds. We're talking about children, women, female soldiers, elderly, those who are severely ill, all believed to be alive. In exchange for those hostages, what has been described as a significant number of Palestinian detaunees will be released. I should point that since October seventh, 2023, thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank have been arrested without being tried or charged. Once that first stage is complete, 16 days would go by, at which point all the other hostages would be released, the male soldiers, the remaining men, those who were killed on October seventh or were killed in captivity.
During this period, the IDF would withdraw from densely populated areas to a buffer zone. It would remain in what's called the Philadelphia Corridor, which is a strip of land between Egypt and Gaza. But the IDF has made it clear that it will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip until all the hostages have been released Kelly. There is obviously always a geopolitical component here, and that exists in this instance, too. You saw the work that the Biden administration has been trying to do for a deal. You have President-elect Trump, who has said recently in his words, All hell will break loose if there's not a deal by the time he takes office here. For both the outgoing and the incoming presidents, there's a lot on the line. Well, I'll start with President Trump's comments about all hell to pay. I think if you were to ask Palestine opinions in Gaza about that, they would just tell you, how can hell look any worse than this? There are babies freezing to death at this point, amputations being performed without anesthesia. I could go on and on and on, but they have been saying for months now that death is better than the reality that they're living now.
In terms of President Biden's legacy, I could tell you that the view, there are many around the world who believe quite bluntly that President Biden was played by Benjamin Netanyahu, that despite the US warnings, the US concerns, the Israeli Prime Minister did what he wanted and still does to this day. Even if there is a ceasefire announced today or tomorrow, for many, that will be too late. President Biden's legacy will the killing of 46,000 people in Gaza. Halley. Danielle Hamamjian, live for us there in Tel Aviv. Danielle, thank you very much. Let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. Number one, Japan has now lifted a tsunami warning that had been in place. After a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Southern part of the country, you see some of the shaking there. This is a plane on the runway. On the tarmac there, you can see it. We don't know the extent of the damage yet or whether anybody was hurt. The warning and the concern now is about aftershocks, apparently in the next couple of days. Number two, Walmart is recalling a chicken broth product because of packaging issues that could lead to spoilage.
It's the great value family-sized chicken broth. Tough to see there, but that's what it's called. The date of Best Buy date is March 2026. Fortunately, no reports of anybody getting sick, but obviously, don't eat it. If you have it, take it back. Number three, the Patriots are announcing Mike Rable as its new head coach. No strange of the team. He's a Pats Hall of Famer who won three Super Bowl's with him. He's succeeding with Rod Mayo, who was fired after one season. Number four, Bad Bunny announcing a residency. A residency, it's in Puerto Rico. He's going to do 21 shows there this summer. It's after the release of his sixth album, which he has called his most Puerto Rican album yet. Bad Bunny is going to be the first artist to have a formal residency at the biggest indoor arena in Puerto Rico. He was actually in the Rockefeller Center subway earlier today with Jimmy Fallon, so Allen, watching tonight. Number 5, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, have welcomed their third child, Golden Ray Mahomes. Look at her little tiny feet. Oh, man, that's a cute picture. Look at those little baby feet.
Timing's really good. The Chiefs were off this weekend because they're the number one seed in the AFC, so that baby gets it. Also, tonight, scientists are warning everybody here. Researchers are saying, Hey, brace for potentially a huge spike in dementia cases in this country over the next couple of decades, over the next several decades. Right now, there's about half a million cases of dementia diagnosed each year, but that new research shows it could double to more than a million new cases a year by 2060. Researchers say Americans older than 55 have an average 42% of developing dementia over the course of their lifetimes. That risk is even higher if you're a woman or if you're Black. Let's bring in Anne Thompson, who's been following this story for us. Talk through why the It seems to be because Americans are living longer because some of these numbers, some of the risk really goes up once you hit age 95, right? Yeah, Halley, that's the thing to remember here is that, first of all, this is a lifetime risk starting at age 55 that dramatically increases once you hit the age of 75. Why are scientists projecting that these numbers are going to double?
It's because of a couple of things. First of all, we are living longer, and that's a good and so your risk goes up the longer you live. Secondly, this research covers some 15,000 people. It's a really big study, unlike prior studies, and this time it incorporated a lot of minorities in in this study who had been missed in the past. Also, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, they're all linked to increased dementia risk. Finally, hearing loss. This is something you may not think about, but a third of people who are eligible for hearing aids or who have hearing loss don't get hearing aids. If you can't hear, your world narrows and that increases your risk of dementia. Halley? We covered another big study not too long ago, looking at how closely Alzheimer's and diabetes are connected. It suggested that maybe some of these drugs like Ozempic, etc, could help prevent Alzheimer's. It feels like, obviously, there is an urgency now to the research on dementia prevention and slowing the development of dementia. Is there any sense that we have of some of these GLP-1s, as they're called, that could help with dementia? Where are we on that?
Well, certainly, it just makes sense because if dementia is linked to diseases like heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and which are also linked to obesity, that if you reduce weight, you reduce the risks of those diseases, and therefore you reduce your risks of dementia. Earlier today, NBC's Dr. John Torres addressed this very issue. These new weight loss medicines that are out there, in particular GLP-1s, are doing fantastic at getting people's weight under control. And so that improvement of health, whether it's from the weight loss or the GLP-1s in general, especially when it comes to diabetes and hypertension, we do think will go a long ways towards keeping this risk of dementia low or as low as possible as we get older. Remember, there are things you can do. Exercise. Think of your brain just like a muscle. It needs to be exercised. Make sure that you get plenty of sleep, you protect your mental health, and that you do everything you can to reduce heart attack, stroke, and diabetes risk. It's pretty simple, and it can be prevented. Halleigh? Anne Thompson, lots to follow on this front tonight. Anne, thank you very much for being with us.
Appreciate it and good to see you. Coming up, a suspect tonight facing charges of stalking a WNBA superstar. That's right, Kaitlyn Clarke. We're getting into the growing number of threats facing these female basketball players. Plus, Ukraine saying it captured two North Korean POW to use, what they want in a potential prisoner swam. Next. Nbc news covers hundreds of international stories every day. Because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all, our teams around the world have done it for you. Here's a look at what they're watching in a segment we call The Global. Out of Bolivia, officials say rivers that are overflowing are affecting hundreds of families. Look at this. It rained a ton over the past week. That bridge is washed out, too. The country's President is ordering a lot of humanitarian aid to go and help people in the region. Out of Turkey, a baby gorilla rescued from a plane's cargo hold, now recovering at a zoo in Istanbul. Officials say they found him in a box on a flight from Nigeria to Thailand. Wildfire officials are considering returning him to his natural habitat, but for now, they're trying to keep him safe.
Guerrillas are classified as in danger. Out of Belgium, tens of thousands of people are demonstrating in support of a nationwide strike, protesting possible pension reform. The strike has brought air and train travel nearly to a halt. Nearly half of all flights at Brussels Airport were canceled today. Schools are closed. Not that many trains were running, too. Out of South Korea now, that country says tonight, about 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and nearly 3,000 more hurt, fighting for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. Officials say so many of these soldiers are dying on the battlefield because they're not trained for modern warfare and that they're under orders to die by suicide to avoid being captured. It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says in a video address, he's ready to trade two captured North Korean soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia. Zelenskyy posting a video on X that he says shows the North Korean POWs. Nbc News has not independently, of course, confirmed that. Janice McHeefraer is joining us now. This dynamic, the North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine. This has been something we've known about for a little bit now.
The new piece of this is this idea of the scale and the scope of the casualties now at this point, right? Well, these two men who are said to be North Korean soldiers are being questioned by South Korean intelligence who's providing assistance to Ukrainian security forces. They're painting a picture of what it's like for North Korean forces who are fighting with the Russians in the Kursk region. They're telling interrogators that they were told they were going to Russia for training, not for a war. One of them was carrying a fake Russian military ID. What this does is it gives the living proof, so to speak, to President Zelensky to be able to say to the international community that North Korea is indeed supplying munitions and supplying troops troops to Russia, and as a consequence, escalating the war. Holly. We've talked a lot about this relationship between Russia and North Korea, the dynamic here, and what Kim Jong Un gets in return here. So pull that thread for us, for him sending these soldiers over to Russia, and as you talk about the conditions for them here. What Vladimir Putin gets is resources to continue to prosecute the war in Ukraine.
But from what ex-North Korean soldiers have been telling us here, the North Koreans are basically canon fighter because they lack the combat experience and they lack any actual training in modern warfare. What Kim Jong Un gets in return is international prestige, he gets cash, and he gets know-how, that Russian technical help that he was looking for to advance his weapons program, which was underscored just last week with the test launch of a new type of hypersonic ballistic missile that was overseen by Kim himself and hailed as a major military achievement. So this is all raising the stakes with US officials saying that North Korean troops gaining combat experience could actually embolden Pyongyang to seek conflict with its neighbors, namely Korea. So the stake is very high here, Halley. And of course, this change in the White House that could impact military aid and financial support for Ukraine being closely watched. Halley? Janice McAfreyer. Thank you very much for that. Appreciate it. Got to get you some developing news out of Indiana now where prosecutors are charging a Texas man for stalking Caitlin Clarke. Prosecutors say 55-year-old Michael Lewis sent threatening messages to the WNBA's Rookey of the Year, and the threats overall to women's basketball players, in particular, are increasing, both the college and the pro level.
Here's Emily Aketta with more. New charging documents lay out how prosecutors say a man, quote, terrorized threatened and intimidated one of the country's most popular athletes. Indiana Fever superstar, Kaitlyn Clarke. Michael Lewis faces a felony stalking charge after allegedly traveling to Indianapolis to be near her. Police say he admitted it is a imaginary relationship, with dozens of posts on X directly tagging Clark, including a number of threatening and sexually explicit messages, according to prosecutors, even posting after an initial encounter with police. An attorney for Lewis hasn't been listed online, and he has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to court records. Prosecutors say Clark and the fever have cooperated. Neither could be immediately reached for comment. As the popularity of women's basketball sores, so do the threats against athletes, and not just at the pro level. In the last couple of weeks, a 40-year-old Oregon man pleaded guilty to stalking Yukon women's basketball star, Paige Beckers. He got a three-year ban from the State of Connecticut. The head of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, raising concerns over the harassment of female athletes on Capitol Hill last month. The worst examples of online threats, abuse, and harassment were being directed at women basketball players playing in our women's basketball tournament.
That in many respects, I think is not as well known as it should be. Baker says the NCAA and member schools can only track what they see publicly Today. What's in players' DMs may be worse. According to an NCAA study in October, women's basketball players are targeted three times more often than men, with 80% of abuse of posts happening around March Madness. We spoke with the man who helped lead that study. We're seeing this rise of abuse being triggered by angry gamblers and sports betters. It's definitely a growing phenomenon and definitely an issue that needs to be tackled. 12% of all abuse was related to gambling, according to the NCAA. Baker's solution, a ban on prop bets in college sports. That's where you can put your money down, not on a team, but a specific athlete and their performance. The American Gaming Association says of the 38 states where sports betting is legal, less than half ban prop bets on college athletes. The threat's made easier by social media, with fans having more direct access to players as many share their lives online. But it's impacting IRL behavior. For Clark, police say she's even had to change her public appearances and where she goes out of fear for her safety.
Emily is joining us now. Okay, so let's talk about what the NCAA is doing, what states are doing to try to tackle this whole issue of harassment for these players? Well, Holly, it's a really good question because you look at the prevalence of this harassment. That study that I mentioned from the NCAA found that one student athlete, for instance, received more than 1,400 abusive messages in just a two weeks So while the NCAA has been pushing for and lobbying states to actually ban betting on specific individual athletes and their performances, we're seeing some states take action and measures that actually target the harassers themselves. Wyoming, for instance, recently approved a measure that would place anyone who was found guilty of harassing an athlete, essentially on a list for the state that would try to prevent them from placing future bets. We know West Virginia and Ohio have taken similar measures. Halley? Emily Aketta, thank you very much. Appreciate your reporting on that. Still ahead, why cases of the flu are spiking Coast to Coast this season. That's next. There's new data tonight showing unusually high rates of flu and some other seasonal viruses across most of the country.
Is that breaking news to you? Probably not, if you're anything like anybody's household that I know, where you know somebody who's gotten sick over the holiday break, over the course of this winter here, maybe it's flu, maybe it's COVID. The CDC says it is serious here. They're reporting an increase in hospitalizations. They even say that six kids have died in just the last week from the flu. That means 17 kids in all have died this season. For more on this, let's bring in Dr. Natalie Azar, who's joining us now. Dr. Azar, what is going on? Because typically, we see the flu start around Halloween, the spike hits in peak February, basically. The flu got a later start this season. So what does that mean for the rest of the season? Yeah, that's right, Halleigh. And experts are saying that we can expect at least a few weeks, if not a few more months of significant flu activity. We're just hitting a spike right now, but no one has No one has suggested that we've hit a peak at all right now. So in terms of protecting yourself, the number one thing you can do is to get your flu shot.
No, it is not too late. Handwashing is key. Masking, not just to protect yourself from somebody getting you sick, but something we call source control. That means you can prevent other people from getting your infection if you wear a mask. Avoid touching your face, especially with little kids, the hands, the mouth, the eyes. That's how the flu gets into your system. And avoid sharing food and utensils. As I mentioned, Halle, it's not too late to get the flu shot. It takes about two weeks to build up those antibodies until you're protected. And you get about a three-month window where you're really well-protected against illness, but the protection against more severe disease, hospitalization and death, that lasts longer than that three-month window. So again, good hand hygiene, vaccine, combination. Stay safe, everybody. Those are always good tips now more than ever. Dr. Natalie Azar, thank you very much for that. Appreciate it. We've got a lot more coming for you here on the show, including a look at betting markets. The millions of dollars go into online wagers on everything from basically every topic you've heard about in this show. Yes, South Korean politics, the LA wildfires, bird flu, and more.
Wait to hear about it. So tonight's Original Now with in-depth reporting on on the topic we've been watching. And new tonight, it's the MAGA World, Betting Big on Betting. Because in just the last few hours, we've heard from Donald Trump Jr, the President-elect son, who says he's teaming up with CalShe to be a strategic advisor. You know what CalShe is? It's a digital platform. You can put money down on things like elections. That's allowed here in the United States for now. But a lot of political betting actually also happens on a different website we've talked about before called PolyMarket. Regulators have blocked people in the US from using that site. But now, Polymarket is pivoting to letting people bet on, well, almost anything, including the news, including most of the stories you've heard us talk about here tonight. Yasmin Fasukian explains. New odds popping up every day on Polymarket with big dollar amounts up for grabs, like the LA fires. Shockingly, you could wager on how much of California will burn or the exact date of containment or if President-elect Donald Trump will buy like Greenland and who he might pardon in the first hundred days.
Thousands of dollars put on that. There's even a whole section on bird flu. How many cases, whether we'll have a vaccine or another pandemic. Online betting on pretty much anything surged in popularity heading into the election. And the final totals for that? Staggring, thriving in part on anonymity. Many of its users placed bets using cryptocurrency. That's a reason why the federal agency that oversees futures markets blocked US users from the platform in 2022. And Polymarket is not the only one that will let you bet on world events. Kalchi, a platform that's legal here in the US, is doing the same. The big question heading into the election was whether Trump's lead in betting markets could actually impact the votes. A new concern now is if somebody has control over one of these world events and decides to influence them based on a bet, just like how infamous sports heroes have bet on games and through the integrity of the sport into question. Imagine one of those bird flu wagers we told you about. Hypothetically, a state official could put down big money through Polymarket on a decision they make on whether it's a public health emergency.
And it's possible nobody would know. Keith White of the National Council on Problem Gambling says his group doesn't take a stance on the ethics of these future bets, but there are concerns. While there may be some validity in using prediction markets to predict events, there's also some real, if you will, moral hazards on allowing people to profit from negative events. We reached out to Polymarket about these concerns and have yet to hear back. The company's CEO, Shane Copeland, telling CM ABC two days after the election that Trump's win represented something of a proving ground for the predictive nature of his platform. I understand that it's a novel concept, and people were skeptical when it came around, but hopefully now people will be a lot more embracing of market-based information. But six days later, the FBI raided Copeland's apartment and seized his cell phone, according to a source familiar with the matter. Not long after, Copeland posted on X, New phone. Who dis? A company's spokesperson told TV news at the time that the FBI raid was obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration. After Polymarket, in their words, correctly called the 2024 presidential election. Copeland was not arrested or charged.
The Southern district of New York declined to comment. We also asked the Trump campaign if they'd want to continue any investigation into Polymarket's activity. No response there. The boom in sports betting is leading to plenty of problems for those who can't stay away. Another concern as the markets you bet on seem limitless and the regulations less so. I would argue that sports betting is the most heavily regulated and has the most extensive set of consumer protections. But the prediction markets and the things that we're talking about have little or none. In the meantime, the betting continues. Yasmin, is joining us now. Yasmin, we talked... I mean, it's so interesting when you look at the betting markets, what's underneath them, what you can bet on, and now you've got the President-elect son who's teaming up with Kalshi. Did he give a reason for that? What's the thought process? I think you can guess the reason here. He's joining up as a strategic advisor who actually posted it this morning on X. I'll read you part of his tweet in which he said, On election night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called the Race, a Coin toss.
My family and close friends use the prediction market to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media, as he said. We've heard this, obviously, rhetoric from Don Trump Jr. And his family many times before. I immediately knew I had to contribute to their mission today. I'm proud to announce that I am joining Kalash' as a strategic advisor, Hal. Then, by the way, that post was reposted by Kalash'e giving a response to his announcement from Don Trump Jr. Saying, We're excited to welcome him. Don Jr. Saw Kalash' power first-hand on election night, using it to confirm his father's win hours before the media approved what we've always believed. Prediction markets are the fastest, most powerful way to uncover truth. Look, Hal, I don't necessarily think that this story is going away. When we talk about conflicts of interest here, as we mentioned in that story, right? Don Trump Jr. Being a strategic advisor for Calgie now, of course, his father being present-elect. Certainly, this story will continue, to say the least. You'll be on it. I know Yasmin Vasugian, we're glad to have you there.Thank you very much.Thank you.Thank you very much.I appreciate it.
That does it for us for this hour. We've got more coverage picking up right now. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media.
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