[ sirens ] a suspect steals a Police Cruiser, setting off a dangerous chase that ends in a deadly crash at least two children killed, ten other people injured well have the very latest those stories, plus, white house return President Trump arrives home overnight from the g7 summit to new questions on iran, north korea, and his trade war with china. Day in court Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband set to face a judge in the College Admissions scandal were there live. And taylor made. You need to calm down taylor swift shines at the vmas during a show packed with powerhouse performances. The mustsee moments on stage and on the red carpet today, tuesday, august 27th, 2019 announcer from nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in Rockefeller Plaza welcome to today thank you for joining us on this tuesday morning. Im Peter Alexander alongside Kristen Welker savannah and craig have the day off. The white house not on staff today, but we thought wed take a road trip. How about last night, though taylor swift. How about last night. She was and there was this great moment in addition to her performance when John Travolta seemed to get a little bit confused, started to hand out her award to the wrong person. I dont think anything could have overshadowed her night, though twitter did go wild. He could have accidentally given it to rupaul, he didnt do that, so it worked out okay at the end of the day. Our top story is Tropical Storm dorian and what could lie ahead for the caribbean, the southern u. S. And the Labor Day Weekend. Al is back this morning. Al, welcome back you have the very latest good morning. Good morning, guys, and thank you for getting your First National weather from us heres the latest from the National Hurricane center. Dorians 30 miles southeast of st. Lucia. Its moving west, northwest at 13 Miles Per Hour. We have Tropical Storm watches, Tropical Storm warnings and parts of the Dominican Republic under a hurricane watch. Heres what we see as far as the path of the storm. By wednesday afternoon its just to the south of puerto rico. Continues its trek cross hispaniola, makes its way into the bahamas by friday and saturday and by sunday morning its off the southeast coast of florida. If the path brings it across the Dominican Republic and haiti, that could make it interact with those mountains there and we could start to see some weakening. If it stays out over the ocean, maintains its strength, then we could see this start to strengthen and maybe become a hurricane. Right now its forecast to stay a Tropical Storm, but we have to watch it the highest winds from southern and western puerto rico. You can see those Tropical Force Winds hit east of miami and as far as precipitation is concerned, were looking at very wet weather, six inches or more over the puerto rican high terrain, mudslides, rapid rises on the rivers. Heavy rain making its way into the southeast, so it looks like florida and the southeast at best is going to see a very wet, windy weekend going into labor day. Guys all right, al, thank you very much well get the rest of your forecast just ahead. Just indeed, but now to that landmark ruling tied to the nations Opioid Epidemic a judge in oklahoma has found Johnson Johnson responsible for fueling that states drug crisis nbcs Senior National correspondent kate snow has covered the opioid ep temidemic extensively. With more than 2,000 lawsuits currently pending against opioid drug makers and distributors this was a case that was watched very closely because now it could shape future rulings thank you, please have a seat. Reporter this morning a landmark judgment, an oklahoma judge ruling Johnson Johnson is responsible for helping fuel the Opioid Epidemic. Defendants caused an Opioid Crisis that is evidenced by increased rates of addiction, Overdose Deaths and neonatal zom in oklahoma. Reporter its less than the 17 billion prosecutors had asked for, but for grieving father craig bachs who testified at the trial, its still a victory he hopes sends a strong message. They knew the addictive qualities of the opioids and were banking on that unfortunately for profit. He was blind sided when his son austin died of an overdose prosecutors argued that j and j aggressively marketed opioids to doctors while down playing the risks. We have proven that Johnson Johnson built its billion dollars brand out of greed and on the backs of pain and suffering of innocent people reporter Johnson Johnson argued it manufactured a tiny percentage of prescription opioids and called the ruling flawed the company says it will appeal. The decision is fundamentally unfair in that it finds Johnson Johnson responsible for the entirety of the opioid abuse crisis. Reporter oklahoma initially sued three Drug Companies, but Johnson Johnson was the only one to go to trial Purdue Pharma which makes oxycontin and teva settled out of the court and denied any wrongdoing for parents like Tanya Ratcliffe who has fostered and adopted children from people with Substance Abuse issues this ruling is a huge win. Healing begins and hopefully, you know, addiction can be conquered and will be conquered. So kate, as you have shown, the Opioid Epidemic is something that has impacted families all across the country. Huge. A lot of people want to know, how does this impact the lawsuits that are still pending . Right as i said, theres like 2,000 of them theres speculation that now this may prompt some pharmaceutical companies to settle ahead of those suits and not go to trial. All the many cities and towns and jurisdictions have actually lumped their suits together into one giant case thats moving forward in october in cleveland, ohio meantime, 48 states also have actions against pharmaceutical makers wow. So its complicated legally how its all going to proceed. We dont know, and will there be settlements. To be clear, 570 million plus dollars, thats a lot of money is it likely that ever gets paid out and to whom . Yes, i think it will. The judge basically said im not going to give 17 billion that would have been for like 20 years of treatment and prevention instead a years worth of treatment and prevention is what that money is supposed to go toward well continue to track it. Kate, thank you for that. Now to that chaotic scene in dayton, ohio, overnight, reports of at least two children killed, ten other people injured after a suspect stole a Police Cruiser and crashed near a library nbcs ron mott has more on this. Ron, good morning. Reporter hi peter. Good morning to you. Police are investigating a frightening trail of circumstances in this case that started with a stabbing. The suspect then allegedly stole a police car, eventually leading to a deadly multicar crash all this just weeks after dayton was rocked by a mass shooting. Authorities there now dealing with yet another tragedy police say the incident began when a suspect stabbed a woman inside a home. Soon after, police in riverside, about four miles northeast of dayton, received a 911 call of a car accident involving a single vehicle that crashed into a tree. The driver of that vehicle had exited the vehicle and was somewhere on foot. Reporter police say that man, the same suspect involved in the stabbing, then entered a police car that riearrived on te scene of the crash and stole it. About that time, the officer began looking for that individual, and at some point, the suspect entered a riverside Police Cruiser and fled the scene from that location reporter before driving into downtown dayton at a high rate of speed. He just ran into me cars out of service he stole the car. Reporter shortly after the suspect causing a multiple vehicle crash. Weve got two vehicles, weve got pretty substantial injuries, so multiple medics, dispatchers, if you can. This is a tragic incident that occurred in a very short time frame there were at least seven children removed from the scene reporter this incident comes just weeks after a mass shooting that left nine dead in dayton, while hundreds of residents still trying to recover from a devastating tornado back on memorial day, the city throwing a block party over the weekend by Comedian Dave Chappelle celebrating the city that has already seen so much tragedy homicide and crash reconstruction teams are on the scene there. The suspect was also transported to the hospital. He is said to be talking with investigators. People in dayton already going through so much right now. President trump returned to the white house overnight after wrapping up what he described as a successful g7 summit with fellow World Leaders we have reports on that and some interesting new poll numbers in the race for the white house, and we start now with nbcs Geoff Bennett at the white house. Good morning, geoff. Reporter good morning. President trump returns home from the g7 summit on an optimistic note saying hes open to possible Nuclear Talks with iran and signaling a breakthrough in the trade war with china the president is trying to put a positive spin on a number of stalled Foreign Policy issues that have isolated him from other World Leaders. President trump returning to the White House Monday night after attending the gathering of World Leaders at the g7 summit in the south of france. Mr. Trump wrapping up his trip with a joint News Conference alongside the summits host french president Emmanuel Macr the president in a mood to make a deal signaling that trade talks with china are back on. We were called, and were going to start very shortly to negotiate. Well see what happens, buttic were going to make a deal. Reporter a Chinese ForeignMinistry Spokesperson now saying hes not aware of any phone calls with the president , but its yet another shift in tone for mr. Trump now praising chinas president as a great leader just days after slamming him as an enemy. Sorry its the way i negotiate. Reporter the president also sounding hopeful about the prospect of a new nuclear deal with iran saying hed be open to a meeting with irans president. If the circumstances were correct or right, i would certainly agree to that. I have very good feelings about it i think that were going to do something. It may not be immediate. Reporter and the president continuing to make nice with russia, raising the issue of readmitting russia to the fwrgr of seven in the summit. Inside the room is better than having them outside the room. Reporter while falsely attacking his predecessor. He was outsmarted by putin. He was outsmarted. President putin outsmarted president obama. Reporter t reporter the groups other members have balked at welcoming back russia when it was kicked out after it invaded crimea. President trump turned salesman in chief when pressed by Hallie Jackson over whether hell hold it at his private resort in doral, florida. Doral happens to be within miami, its a city its a wonderful place its a very, very successful area of florida. So geoff, in that press conference, the president also talked about Climate Change, a big issue for those other World Leaders after skipping a meeting on the subject what more can you tell us about that reporter thats right, the president in that press conference insisted he was a environmentalist even as he talked up his administrations support for fossil fuels, he minimized the threat of Climate Change and telling reporters he didnt want to waste money investing in what he called dreams continues to be a hot button topic. Thank you for that report. Now to the race for the white house and a new poll that suggests the battle between democrats could be tightening. This morning joe bidens campaign is taking issue with those numbers. N nbcs Andrea Mitchell has that story. Good morning. Good morning, peter, indeed they are pushing back, and a new poll now out overnight, an even newer poll gives them reason to think joe biden may still be out front. Another new National Poll has joe biden losing his front runner status for the first time in a virtual threeway tie with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren the question today, is it an outlier or the fwing beginning a trend . Reporter today potential trouble for the man who has made electability the poll showing Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren tied and joe biden a point behind the results show growth for both sanders and warren and a significant drop for the former Vice President , todown 13 points since june in the same poll. Most striking in this poll, biden is only two points ahead of sanders with conservative to moderate voters and tied with andrew yang at only 6 with young voters only last week biden started advertising his lead in the polls. We have to beat donald trump, and all the polls agree joe p d biden is the strongest democrat to do the job. Reporter and pointing to them on the trail. A risky strategy since polls go up and can come down today the biden team is pushing back hard, arguing the size of those sampled in the monmouth poll is small, only 300 people, and the margin of error big, 5. 7 also a majority of National Polls has biden beating President Trump by the largest margin in head to head matchups. Perhaps most telling, this poll was taken more than a week ago just after a flurry of news stories about several biden gaffes including this one. We have this notion that somehow if youre poor you cannot do it poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids, wealthy kids, black kids, asian kids in recent days, biden was quick to point out it is still early. This is just starting, this is a marathon. Reporter the poll is welcome news for Elizabeth Warren who spoke to a record crowd over the weekend in washington state. Hello, seattle reporter and Bernie Sanders in pennsylvania monday i see my job as president of the United States to stand with the working class of this country. The weekly Morning Consult poll out joefr nigovernight has ahead with 33 with sanders at 20 and warren at is 15 biden is unveiling a new ad, with his personal story his familys suffering with the loss of their son to brain cancer. Still a long way to go, andrea thank you very much. There is a lot more to get to, including the latest on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Today multiple women are expected to appear in federal court to tell their stories. Nbcs Stephanie Gosk is here with more on that. Good morning. Nice to see you guys the federal judge in this case made the unorthodox decision not to drop criminal proceedings against Jeffrey Epstein even though he took his own life. This morning that judge is opening the courtroom doors for victims to tell their stories. Some we have likely not heard from before. Reporter this morning an unprecedented hearing in lower manhattan. Jeffrey epstein took his own life and wont face a trial, but h his accusers are still getting their day in court the federal judge issuing an open invitation to any victims and their lawyers wishing to make statements writing, the public may still have informational interest in the process. Some have already come forward publicly in a new interview with the new york times, annie farmer says epstein lured her to his new mexico ranch when she was 16 one morning she says she woke up and he was next to her in bed. He is kind of like spooning me, you know, hes touching he touches me, but i think i was freaked out, and i was trying to think of like an excuse to get myself out of that situation as quickly as possible. Jennifer orose told Savannah Epstein raped her when she was 15. Yeah, no, he raped me, forcefully raped me. Knew exactly what he was doing and i dont think cared. Reporter many of the accusers who have come forward tell similar stories of being recruited as teenagers to provide massages for epstein or work in his homes. That work quickly turned sexual. The recent criminal charges were a chance for the dozens of accusers to finally