2026? >> we'll have reaction from the senator's office to this second incident this summer. also ahead, a new legal twist for america's mayor, a federal judge ruling that rudy giuliani defamed georgia election workers. could that impact the fulton county case too? and later, what's 2.2 billion between friends. the new york attorney general alleging donald trump isn't as rich as he says he is. ♪♪ it is 10:00 a.m. eastern, i'm ryan nobles reporting from washington in for ana cabrera. this morning idalia's impact is being felt from florida to the carolinas. now a tropical storm, idalia unleashed heavy rain and life-threatening flash flooding across eastern north carolina in the early hours of this morning. after battering south carolina overnight, spitting out tornados with wind gusts strong enough to flip cars right on the roadway. people along florida's gulf coast are still dealing with the aftermath of the storm this morning. downtown cedar key almost entirely submerged in the storm. joining us from florida is nbc news correspondent maggie vespa, from north carolina's nbc's julia ainsley, and also with us is meteorologist angie lassman. let's start with you, julia. what are you seeing there in north carolina right now? >> mainly just the wind, we're just having gusts of wind coming through, shaking our cars, wu but the rain is starting to subside. we've seen some peeks of sunshine through these clouds. this is the last remnants of idalia as it moves out to sea now. these remnants were expected to bring in some flooding. we had warnings of storm surges up to four feet. now the high tide is moving out. it doesn't look like areas around morehead city may flood. i spoke to some locals who say a little further south of here there have been some a areas of flooding. really not the kind of damage this area saw five years ago with hurricane florence. this restaurant here where i'm standing had feet of water in it during hurricane florence. they were spared that this time. and it's really nothing compared to the damage in florida, but still they remain under a tropical storm warning. schools were closed all the way as far west as raleigh, and people are still worry about power outages, throughout the carolinas about 50,000 people are without power, some of that starting to come back on as crews were able to get out, so not quite as dangerous here as we've seen with some storms in the past. still more to come as these bands of rain and wind move through this area. >> okay. julia ainsley, live for us in north carolina, thank you for that. maggie, let's go to you. that's where dalia landed a big blow to the big bend of florida. where do things stand in the sunshine state this morning? >> i'll just show you the damage. this used to be a store here in perry, florida, this is a pile of rubble, a pile of debris including sheet metal and major structural parts of this building. it's scattered all over the parking lot. we just talked to a man who said his store is wrecked too. he started crying almost as soon as he walked up to us. so there is absolute rampant destruction kind of in these rural coastal communities. but also a lot of progress. governor ron desantis had his latest press conference today saying that a couple of numbers he threw out overnight, since last night, as of last night, there have been 40 rescues. the majority of them by the florida national guard, a lot of those were water rescues. he also said 150,000 people statewide still don't have power, well over 400,000 have had their power restored so a lot of progress on that end. at last check, this has been moving across the southern portion of the concerned. georgia also has close to 150,000 without power between 100 and 150, and then close to 50,000 without power in the carolinas as well. so the damage is really widespread. one final note that we kind of want to land on. the governor touched on it in his press conference. there have been, his office says, no deaths attributed to this storm. we want to be very clear. the florida highway patrol essentially disputes that saying there are two weather-related deaths, two people who died in two separate car crashes during the storm. those crashes were at least partially caused by the conditions of the weather, of the storm. so according to the florida highway patrol, there have been two deaths, aka, this storm was fatal. governor ron desantis not ready to basically endorse those numbers or corroborate those numbers at this time. it is a fluid situation, a lot of agencies working together, national guard driving all around here helping to clean up in areas like this, getting into a lot of those communities they haven't been able to get into yet and make sure there's no one there needing to be rescued. >> what is the latest on the storm at this hour? >> yeah, so we've seen the worst of it. the worst of it is behind us. we're still not completely done with it. we've got the rain that you heard both of our correspondents talking about draped across parts of the carolinas and extending into virginia even. this is really the last of it, the last push of this system as it works its way offshore. the center of the system is already offshore, and it's moving at about 20 miles per hour, so we'll shortly see all of this rain being taken with it as ale. most of this rain is on the west side of that system as it moves to the north and east. the rain is going to wrap up as we get into the later parts of our day. we'll continue to see conditions that will be a little more conducive for folks to get out and see exactly what has happened in their communities. i want to be very clear, we still have flooding concerns across this region dealing with the rain, even if it is light rain at this time. we saw moisture working through with some of those heavier rain bands. cape patterson down north of wilmington. the closer you are to the coast, the better chance you have of that. as far as wind speeds, again, same kind of area that i just showed about the flash flood warning, we've got 49 miles per hour wind gusts happening in buford. we've got 44 in hatteras, so those are the areas still dealing with the tropical storm force wednesday. you look back farther to the west where it's no longer rain, raleigh at 21 miles per hour, wilmington at 30 miles per hour. still a little bit of gusty kind of conditions leaving us across that part of the country, but this is really it. a little more rain to add to it here as we get through the day today. the flooding concern will remain, and that system is going to continue to move out to sea, and eventually as we get into the weekend, it will be something that bermuda has to contend with. not quite as powerful as it was when it impacted the united states. >> thank you for that update. we appreciate it. joining us now is the former fema administrator brock long. let's take a look at some of the front pages out of florida. under water, swamped, this was very rough for people, particularly in the big bend of florida. what are the biggest challenges when you're recovering from a storm like this? >> right now, you know, storm surge is the worst part of a hurricane that any community can experience. it has the highest potential to cause the most amount of deaths as well as destruction of property. it's very hard for responders, state, local officials, federal officials to get into areas where the water is still up, and you have to recedes and assess the damage. storm surge is the toughest lesson to teach people about. we're about to go into the height of hurricane season, the statistical height is september 10. we need to take note of what happened here. the surge can go far inland, it's the main reason why we ask people to get out of the way and evacuate. it's not the wind. it's more about the water. >> and now as the recovery continues, we're dealing with around 300,000 people without power. what are their immediate needs? >> right now, you know, the partnership between state and local government and the federal government is all about life safety, life sustaining missions. you know, trying to help people where they are or if they're in an area that they need to be moved, getting into a shelter, you know, to be able to service their health and medical needs, right? what you're going to see throughout the day as the system exits, you know, north carolina, you're going to see preliminary damage assessments begin in florida, georgia, south carolina, as well as north carolina to assess how bad the damage was, what infrastructure's been impacted, is the trauma to citizens. and based on that information, it will be used to determine what type of disaster declaration should be considered by the president of the united states. >> well, let's talk about the president and his role in all of this, the storm comes just as the recovery is getting underway from hawaii in the wildfires there. i want to play for you part of what president biden said when he asked if there's enough disaster funding to go around. take a listen. >> can you assure americans that the federal government is going to have the emergency funding that they need to get through this hurricane season? >> the answer is if i can't do that, i'm going to point out why. how can we not respond? my god. how can we not respond to these needs and so i'm confident even though there's a lot of talk from some of our friends up on the hill about the cost, we got to do it. it's the united states of america, yes. >> the president alluding to the fact that he's concerned perhaps, maybe republicans on capitol hill may not be willing to authorize more funding that would be necessary for these cleanups. are you worried this could become a political fight? >> let me be clear, congress has got to step up and pass a clean supplemental and get deanne criswell, the administrator of fema, the money she needs. she needs all the tools in her toolbox to handle not just idalia, not just maui. people don't realize how busy fema is across this country from any day. right now fema is operating over 3 different joint field offices with state and local partners to manage roughly 75 different disasters. many disasters don't make the news, but fema has people spread out across this country, and fema has got to do -- and they do a great job of estimating how much money is going to be needed each quarter of fiscal year. the most recent estimate is $2 billion or more is what we would need to fix -- effect recovery across the country, and that was before maui. it's very frustrating. disasters should not be political. fema should not be political, and congress needs to get the job done and give deanne criswell the tools she needs. >> of course the supplemental up against also just a wide ranging spending bill. it could be a political fight ahead when congress returns next week. brock long, thank you for your perspective, we appreciate you being on. >> thank you. and when we're back in 60 seconds, senator mitch mcconnell appears to freeze at a press conference again. how the minority leader's office is responding this morning. plus, attack on the capitol, we're at a d.c. court where proud boys leader is being sentenced this hour for his role on january 6th. also, 2 billion big ones. the new allegations from new york's attorney general about donald trump inflating his net worth. and then later, leaving the titanic ocean grave alone. uh, yea. i have to watch my neighbors' nfl sunday ticket. 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[sneeze] (♪♪) astepro allergy, steroid free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. with astepro's unbeatably fast allergy relief you can astepro and go! now to another public health scare for one of the most powerful republicans in washington. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell appeared to freeze for more than 30 seconds while speaking to reporters yesterday for the second time this summer. >> for the second time in two months, a health scare for senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. the senator freezing after being asked a question wednesday. >> what are my thoughts about what? >> running for re-election in 2026. >> that's -- >> did you hear the question, senator? >> he was unresponsive for more than 30 seconds. >> i'm sorry, y'all, we're going to need a minute. >> reporter: mcconnell's spokesperson telling nbc news that the senator felt momentarily lightheaded but felt fine later. in july he endured a similar episode where he froze for more than 20 seconds during a press event on capitol hill. >> been good bipartisan cooperation and a string of -- >> reporter: he was led away by fellow senators but later joked about president biden stumbling at an event earlier that month. >> when the president called to check on me, i told him i got sandbagged. >> this time it was the president offering mcconnell support. >> he's a good friend, i'm going to try to get in touch with him. >> reporter: echoed by vermont senator bernie sanders who at 81 is the same age as mcconnell. >> i hope he makes a full recovery and does what he thinks is best for the people of kentucky and himself. >> reporter: mcconnell missed a month of work after suffering a concussion in march and he's one of many leaders in washington facing questions about their age and health. california senator dianne feinstein missed three months worth of votes after a bout with shingles and has at times appeared disoriented during senate hearings. >> aye. >> and a recent poll shows that 77% of voters feel president biden is too old for the job. a liability the president often jokes about. >> i know i'm 198 years old. >> and mcconnell's office said he'll see a doctor before his next event. joining me to talk more about this is the former rnc chairman michael steele. thank you for being here. you know, mcconnell has been reaching out to some of his fellow senators and his office says he's going to see a doctor. do you think they need to do more to speak publicly about what it is he's dealing with. >> i think first they've got to fully understand what it is that's causing these momentary pauses for him. i think his health should be the primary concern of both his family and his office. and then they can deal with how they explain and express that to the press. it is very concerning to see an individual, regardless of their age, have a moment like that where they lose time, if you will. they just are frozen in that moment. so yes, it's going to continue to raise alarms, but i think they have to be honest with themselves first before they will be honest with the people of kentucky and the country, so obviously wishing the best for senator mcconnell. that concussion and subsequent falls clearly have had an impact on his health, and i think that that is something that is possibly contributing to what we're seeing now. it's not just oh, we're going to see a doctor before his next event. this is something that's a little bit broader than that that they need to be concerned about. >> it's interesting covering capitol hill now, been forced to deal with this on a number of occasions. it seems as though when there's one incident, you allow some opportunity to try and figure out what's wrong and there's some semblance of letting them figure it out. when there becomes multiple issues that's when you start to hear the whispers and rumors about something needs to be done. could there be a push for a change in leadership? >> the people put him there, if the people want him out they'll get him out. screaming bipartisanship on the left and right, means absolutely nothing. it's political noise. at the end of the day, and you hear people say it, the people of kentucky elected him, and the people of kentucky if they're concerned about his health and believe he's unfit to serve, just like with dianne feinstein of california, they at the next election, should they stand for re-election will make that decision. so you know, a lot of the noise, you know, from the chattering classes is that because it will affect nothing. it will not -- it will not run mitch mcconnell from his post, nor will it run dianne feinstein from hers or, you know, the president of the united states from his. you know, i'll tell you this, though, i always find it amusing, all the 40 something-year-olds who are right now talking about oh, age limits and oh, my god, they're too old. when they get that age, they're going to be doing the exact same thing, sitting behind a seat everyone is saying they should give up. it is part of the cycle. elected officials hold onto power, they don't want to let go of power until the people, you know, wrenches it from their hands. >> well, to that point, you know, look at the stat, the 118th congress is the third oldest since 1789, and the median age in the senate is 64, and the house it's 58, comparatively, the median age for americans is 39. you know, you've kind of to a certain extent already addressed this. do you think there's any discussion for something like term limits when you talk about age of members of congress, or is that an issue they're never going to touch. >> i think people serve as long as they're fit to serve. again, that's a judgment for the people they stand before. i've always been an advocate for term limits, not for age limits, just for breaking up the partisan strangle hold of a house chamber or senate chamber over an extended period of time. when democrats held the house for 40 years, democrats weren't talking about term limits and changing leadership. you know, republicans when they have control, everybody says we've got to change things up. we know how the game is played. at the end of the day, the results are the same. people are going to serve for as long as they can serve, and it is the people that they represent that keep electing them. i don't live in kentucky. i have no say in whether or not mcconnell is the senator for this term or the next term. they do. and so that's part of the process that the rest of us have to respect. we may not like the decisions of kentuckians, but the reality of it is that's their choice. the presidency, same thing. all the noise around biden will get resolved next november by the people of the country if they want an 80-year-old president, an 84-year-old president or a 90-year-old president, they'll give us one. if they don't, they won't. so the numbers, you know, are the numbers i guess in many respects, and people seem to be digesting them regardless of all the clamoring that, oh, it's a big concern. it's only a concern when people make noise about it. and then when it's time to vote, they vote them back in. i don't know what to tell you. >> we'll have to see what happens this fall and next fall, michael steele, thank you so much for being here. we appreciate it. >> all righty, my friend, take care. next, a legal loss for america's mayor. how much money rudy giuliani could be on the hook for after a judge found him liable for defaming georgia election workers. and new developments out of georgia, the co-defendants looking to sever their cases from the group in fulton county. from the group in fulton county. . now i'll be smelling fresh all day long. still fresh. still fresh, you nasty little goblins! still fresh! still? 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>> well, ryan, i'll start with that overlap. it is a major overlap. what he was found liable of in this case is really kind of one of the allegations that's at the center of the georgia charges right here. of course one of the big things that is being charged is false elections, kind of spreading false information about the elections, including those claims, those slanderous claims about the two election workers. the two certainly overlap in this way. a judge has ordered him to pay $130,000 in combined attorneys fees. it's going to go before a jury to decide if he needs to pay damages on top of those attorney fees. we got a strong statement from those election workers, ruby freeman and shaye moss, they say they're still trying to rebuild their reputation. that doesn't undo the damage that was done to their lives and their reputation, but it confirms what they knew all along which is that those claims were absolutely false. >> would this ruling have any impact on the state charges that giuliani's facing in georgia? >> i think that remains to be seen, ryan. this is a civil case, as you pointed out. it has a different burden of proof, and i think that this is an unusual case because what happened here is that the judge decided to impose judgment on rudy giuliani, but that was because he failed to comply with the judge's orders over and over again with respect to turning over discovery that would help ruby freeman and her daughter bring their case against him, and you just can't do that. if you ever wanted to see an example of what a judge can and will do when her orders are not followed time and time again, this would be an example. so judgment has been found against him with respect to the defamation charge, but there would be a question, as to whether that would be permitted to be used in a subsequent case because it was really done as a default judgment, and not actually a finding on the substantive merits. i think that would be up to the next judge to decide. >> and hannah, ruby freeman and shaye moss, they testified before the house january 6th committee about giuliani's actions. i remember distinctly that their testimony being some of the most gripping of all the hearings that you and your committee held. what stood out for you about their testimony? >> yeah, ryan, i think that's exactly right. when the committee was looking at the impact that donald trump's plot to overturn the election had, we looked at, obviously, the day of january 6th, but we also looked at people like ruby freeman and shaye moss, these election workers who were attacked by the most powerful man in the world. i think when you're looking at how our democracy withstands this, you look at people like these individuals who say we're not going to stand for this bullying. what's also interesting is we talked to rudy giuliani in on investigation who told us he had no evidence of election fraud in georgia, right? this is what he was saying to us when he was testifying, but publicly he was saying that ruby freeman and shaye moss were criminals, right? so i think it's interesting why we have the results in this case, what is rudy giuliani hiding in terms of what documents he wants to turn over. he pled the fifth to us on the january 6th committee. thing is a big win when we're looking for justice for ruby freeman and shaye moss. i am personally happy for all that they've done to find justice. >> and of course when he was testifying in front of the january 6th select committee, could not lie under penalty of perjury. a little bit different than what he was saying publicly, of course. and blayne, we've also got more news in the georgia case. one of the indicted co-defendants kenneth chesebro is asking a judge to reveal the names of the unindicted co-conspirators and chesebro and sidney powell want to sever their cases from the other defendants. what exactly do they want? >> one of the interesting things when you have a sprawling case like this with 19 separate defendants. so with sidney powell and ken chesebro are asking is they want to be tried separately. from chesebro's standpoint he is the first person to have asked for a speedy trial. the judge said october 23rd is going to be your trial date. chesebro is saying let's fwd and make it official and remove the other 30 some odd charges, counts that he's not charged with. get those out of the way because his attorney is arguing that would make for a fair trial. if he's not associated with the other 30 plus counts. now, for sidney powell, she's saying she has no other connection with any of the other 18 co-defendants and saying the only way she can get a fair trial is if she is tried separately. in fact, her attorney even said in the filing that to sit in a courtroom with 18 other defendants for weeks or even months would cause prejudice and would bar her from getting a fair trial in this situation, ryan. >> okay, blayne, thank you for your reporting on those topics, let's turn to another topic, carol, we have new reporting in from the new york attorneys general probe into donald trump finding that he's inflated his net worth by more than $2 billion in one year to get more favorable loans. what kind of exposure does he have here? >> right, so ryan, i'm going to emphasize here that this is also a civil case, not a criminal case. letitia james is the attorney general of new york state, and she has the authority to bring civil cases against people who violate the law in new york state. and she has brought this case against donald trump, his organizations, and his children, and she is seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief, in other words, that they can't do business in new york state anymore, and so what she's said now is that she has filed a motion for partial summary judgment. what that means is that both sides have now exchanged all the evidence that they have in the case. what she's saying is that you can look at the evidence in the light most favorable to donald trump and there's still no disagreement. he grossly inflated the value of his assets and his properties, and that is a violation of new york state law and not only that, he used those inflated valuations to get loans and lower premiums from insurers, and that is also a violation of new york state law. she's basically saying, judge, you can make the decision right now. you don't need to have a trial on this because there's no dispute about these facts. >> and hannah, you know, being a billionaire is a big part of donald trump's pitch to his voters. it was a big part of what made him successful. how do you think this impacts his campaign? will his supporters care at all that perhaps he wasn't being completely forthright about how much money he actually has? >> donald trump is a liar, and he's been lying to his supporters. we know from the january 6th committee investigation that he was lying to them about election fraud in order to raise money. he was even lying about where that money was going to. donald trump has been trying to grift his supporters since he started running for office. it's no surprise that he was doing it in this case, and i hope that we can shed more light on this, keep him accountable because it's not -- it's not who we should be in the presidency. >> okay, carol lam, hannah muldavin, thank you both for being here. we appreciate it. today is sentencing day for two proud boy members on their seditious conspiracy convictions. sentencing underway this hour for joe bigs, the proud boys leader and info wars correspondent, and zack reel, the president of the proud boys philadelphia chapter. they both face around 30 years in prison. nbc news justice reporter ryan reilly is outside the courthouse here in d.c. what do we know so far about today's hearings and sentencings? >> reporter: enrique tarrio, the head of the proud boys was supposed to be sentenced yesterday. judge kelly wasn't feeling so great. he got on the bench and apologized for his absence. tarrio's hearing has been rescheduled for tuesday. later today, probably around the noon hour, i would expect, we could see a record setting sentence for january 6th cases. right now the record belongs to stewart rhodes, the founder of the oath keepers who was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison in may. in this case, federal prosecutors had gone for 25 years and ended up with a sentence of 18 years. in this case prosecutors are going for even more. they want joe biggs to spend 33 years behind bars saying he was an instigator on january 6th and was driving a lot of this sort of move towards rebellion and political violence by the proud boys leading up to the january 6th attack. he was actually on the ground january 6th and had a bull horn with him and leading the proud boys as they marched around the capitol. he was right there during that initial breach at the peace monument and made his way all the way to the gallery of the senate, took a selfie of himself out there. after he left the building, he filmed another selfie video saying that january 6th was a day that would live in infamy. he was not someone who testified during the seditious conspiracy trial unlike his co-defendant and person who will also be sentenced today, zachary rehl, he is someone who is really a major driver of this entire effort and the proud boys being at the center, the sort of the tip of the spear of this january 6th attack, ryan. >> ryan reilly live outside the d.c. courthouse, thank you so much. we appreciate it. next, we are on the ground in cedar key, florida, battered by idalia, what the recovery process could look like. ry process could look like. ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists photographing thousands of miles of remote coral reefs. that can be analyzed by ai in real time. ♪ so researchers can identify which areas are at risk. and help life underwater flourish. ♪ what do we always say, son? 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>> reporter: ryan, it was hard hit, especially by the surge. we see the debris around me here. this is what happens when you get a storm surge in a place like this. it's not only the damage to the structures, but there's also a lot of vegetation, so when the water recedes there's usually a lot of mud and plants, as you can see. everything that's also part of the cleanup process, right, getting rid of all of this. this is the fairway inn. it was one of the main hotels in this small key. the owner of this hotel says she plans to rebuild. now, most of the damage was to to that cottage. that cottage was also, she says, the most popular one because it had the best ocean view. i'm going to ask our photographer, carlos to turn the camera that way. we have a lot of cars, and we have some crews there. you can see the water. this is a beautiful view. when people talk about florida, when they talk about retiring in a place with this weather, with these ocean views. this is usually what they come for. there's a lot of retirees here. the people who live here say they're used to the storm. some say this surge, those who have stayed for the storm, this surge which was much faster and it of course went much higher. you can see from the property in the back that a lot of these structures are built on stilts, precisely because of the possibility of storm surge. these cottages are not on stilts, the ones that were damaged, but even the homes that are prepared for that type of storm surge had some type of damage. one of the owners in another home said, you know, he had his washer, his drier and other things on that bottom level, and of course all of that was ruined. the people that live here are used to the storms. they plan to rebuild. this is a beautiful location here on the west coast of florida. people might think it sounds crazy because of the possibility of hurricanes. they are used to this type of weather. of course this hurricane was different, right? you see the destruction that it's caused, not just here but in other communities along the coast. for now it's a recovery process. you know, the governor is expected to make his way to some of these locations, these communities along the coast today, also offering that help. we have first responders checking all of the area, the national guard. i saw some vehicles on the way in is also offering help, and yesterday we had a lot of power outages. the power companies were also working on that, so it's a cleanup process as the residents return, and those that stayed here also assessed the damage and began to get back to their lives, hopefully to clean up here as fast as possible, ryan. >> okay, guad venegas life for us in cedar key, florida, thank you, guad. breaking news this morning, this time coming from the supreme court. justice clarence thomas released his financial disclosure forms for 2022, and they include the trips he took on billionaire gop donor harlan crow's private plane. thomas has come under fire in recent months for failing to disclose those trips in previous years. in a statement thomas's lawyer said he's confident there was no willful ethics transgressions and any prior reporting errors were inadvertent. next, a tragic blaze in johannesburg, south africa, killing more than 70 people, many of them homeless, the latest on the search efforts. plus, growing tensions as north korea stages a nuclear strike drill. ke drill trends is . we need to scale with customer demand... ...in real time. 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ask your doctor about every-other-month cabenuva. every other month, and i'm good to go. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. we're following developing news from overseas this morning. at least 73 people confirmed dead after a massive building fire in johannesburg. witnesses said as many as 200 people were living in the building including homeless families with children. nbc's matt bradley is following this story for us. so matt, what do we know at this point? >> yeah, so this is a real tragedy and one that as you mentioned, 73 people have died, including now as many as a dozen children. so that number is likely to go up, both numbers are likely to go up including the dozens who have been injured. this fire is thought to still be smoldering. officials have said that they've contained the blaze. they're working through this five-story building. this building is homeless sort of settlements. basically this was an abandoned corporate building this the center of johannesburg. it was taken up by homeless people. they're not all just homeless, they're also a lot of undocumented immigrants from outside of south africa. they're squatters, and they had essentially a tent city inside this building, which is one of the reasons why it was so quick to light up and why it's so difficult for authorities to make their way through the building with all of this burned out debris. and that's why the casualty rates were so incredibly high. now, ryan, this is going to draw attention to a lot of pervasive issues in south africa that have beset the country for the last several decades. this is what south africans called a hijacked building. this is one of 700 that are thought to be in the central business district of johan necessaryberg that have been abandoned by other businesses that have been operating out of them and taken up by homeless people, most of them undocumented immigrants. and so now we're starting to see this issue where people are trying to blame the government for not taking care of this building, and the government is shouting back saying the fact is that we can't control the people who are living, squatters in these buildings that don't have permits and we don't have the authority to evict them. ryan. >> matt thank you for that update. we appreciate it. north korea's military claims to have fired two ballistic missiles to simulate what they called, quote, scorched earth nuclear strikes against military targets in south korea. state media said the strikes were a warning against the u.s. deployments of bombers in the region and they come amid the annual military drills between the united states and south korea. next, look at this crowd. for a college volleyball game in nebraska that just made the record books. plus, a titanic move by the u.s. to try to stop explorers from taking artifacts from the famous shipwreck. s from the mofaus shipwreck ♪i've got home internet from t-mobile.♪ ♪it only costs $50 bucks at t-mobile.♪ ♪just one cord to set up.♪ ♪say goodbye to that truck.♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful mornin'...♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful day...♪ ♪they won't raise your rates at t-mobile...♪ ♪you'll get a great deal every day!♪ home internet from t-mobile... just $50 bucks a month. 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>> reporter: good day. this is not related to the tragedy in june that took the lives of five "titanic" tourists. a georgia company has the salvage rights to "titanic," but u.s. law and international agreements really limit activity around that site and now the government has gone to court to stop the company from returning to retrieve a key relic, the wireless, the transmits "titanic's" call for help. for 111 years, "titanic" has rested some 12,500 feet down on the ocean floor. its maiden voyage from england to new york captured on film. >> get back! >> reporter: the terror of hitting an iceberg in the dead of night portrayed in blockbuster movies. >> in an hour or so, all this will be at the bottom of the atlantic. >> reporter: among the artifacts already recovered, shoes, silverware, fine china. but now the u.s. government is moving to block the company with the salvage rights from recovering even more, including the ship's wireless telegraph that transmitted the sos to passing ships. in a court filing, rms "titanic" says it hopes to return it next year and may recover freestanding objects inside the wreck, including objects from inside the marconi room, the radio room. under u.s. law and international agreements, the wreckage is now a memorial and cannot be disturbed. the government insists the company is not free to disregard the validly enacted federal law, yet that is its stated intent. >> the company's reason to be as they do all of the exhibits that have the actual artifacts from the "titanic." >> reporter: david gallow is a strategic adviser to rms "titanic." we talked to him in june before the government's challenge. >> the rules are there can be no more recovery of artifacts. >> reporter: in 1996, "titanic" survivor edith hazeman told us of the night she lost her father -- >> reporter: since 1985, roughly 250 people have visited "titanic." then in june, tragedy, five people died when their submersible imploded. >> it is a grave site, 1500 people died there. >> reporter: researcher katie bell has dived to the site herself, even as time and the ocean's depths take their toll on the wreckage, she now thinks it should be treated with the reverence of a cemetery. >> are we actually learning anything new about it? and is that the reason to recover artifacts or should we just leave it alone, we have a lot of things already, let's just call it a day and leave it with respect? >> reporter: we reached out to the company rms "titanic" for comment, we got no response, no response from noaa, the government agency moving to block this latest move to recover the artifacts. but consider this, many historians say there are parallels here to cemeteries at gettysburg, at normandy, and yet the sea is slowly taking away, rusting away at "titanic." so is this hallowed ground never to be touched, or should they try to take the artifacts now while they can and preserve them for all time? back to you. >> all right, tom costello, thank you so much. and a crowd of red sports fans made history in nebraska last night. this is incredible video. forming the largest crowd to ever turn out for a women's sporting event, 92,000 cornhusker fans came out to watch the champions women's team serve up another win. they beat the omaha mavericks 3-0. volleyball is hugely popular in nebraska. the huskers routinely sell out their games, but the stadium they usually play in only 8,000 fans. where they played last night, it outnumbered the population of nebraska's third largest city and it bumped the previous records for most fans at a women's sporting game from real barcelona's 2022 crowd. unbelievable. the pictures just hard to wrap your mind around. that does it for us. jose diaz-balart will pick up our coverage right now. good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we're tracking tropical storm idalia as the remnants barrel north after creating chaos in florida's west coast yesterday. we'll take you live to our reporters on the ground. major legal developments out of georgia, a judge found rudy giuliani liable for defaming two workers who counted votes in the 2020 election. we'll break down where the critical case goes next. in washington, senator mitch mcconnell's team is responding after the 81-year-old appeared to freeze again at an event in kentucky. meanwhile, a devastating tragedy in south africa. at least 73 people are dead after a massive fire tore through a five-story building, some jumping out of the