A (4:24)

And remember, this meeting follows President Trump's face to face with Putin in Alaska on Friday, a summit the president hailed as, quote, extremely productive. For more on that, I want to bring in NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons. Keir, you're one of the few who has spent years on the ground in Moscow. What's it like?

C (4:46)

I think it's not the way that people might imagine in the sense that we think of Russia at war. And it is, of course, but Russia is a huge country, 11 time zones, and Moscow is a long way away from the war. The truth is that in central Moscow, kind of the most upscale part of Moscow, restaurants are busy, it can be buzzing. And all of this doesn't sound like war reporting, does it? Moscow is a place that has been able to keep going. And at the same time, there have been the drone attacks, there have been assassinations, people have been impacted. And what Russians say, and they say it to the one pollster that we might be able to believe a little bit. And they say it quite often when I talk to Muscovites on the streets, what they say is, we want this war to be over, but not at any cost. We do not want to lose.

A (5:43)

You have interviewed President Putin. Can you put this moment in some historical context for us?

C (5:50)

We are watching history being made, and these are pivotal moments. But I would describe it like this, too. There are different ways to view what's happening? And here's one of them. What we're seeing is a diplomatic war. And just like the war itself, the kinetic war in Ukraine, there are battles. So when press President Putin met with President Trump on Friday, I think you could justifiably describe that as a battle that President Putin won. Now we have another battle, which is when European leaders and President Zelenskyy all descend on the White House, on the Trump administration and fight their fight together, unified. And this is a helpful way to think about things because it kind of takes us away from saying, well, that's it, it's done now. One side has won. You can win battles and not win the war. And that's true on both. In terms of what happened on Friday and why that was a win for President Putin, it's clear that he did manage to shift President Trump from the stance he was taking on Air Force One on the way, where he was saying there needs to be a ceasefire and the ceasefire should happen, if not now, soon. And I'll be very unhappy if that doesn't happen to when he then says over the weekend, okay, actually, I now think we don't need to have a ceasefire, we should just have just try and get a peace deal. Now, clearly President Putin has had influence and that's another win for President Putin. I don't think that you can say that just because President Putin had some successes on Friday, that necessarily means the war will be a victory for him.

A (7:30)

What are Russians saying about Putin's most recent, what you're calling a kind of a victory at Friday summit?

C (7:37)

Well, there are different Russians, of course, like there are in any country. And one group of Russians who are very influential at this stage are the pro war Russians. Now, they are particularly of the view that Russia has lost a lot of blood and treasure in this and that therefore they cannot stop now, that they must keep going. President Putin, even President Putin, someone who is so dominant in his own country, will be trying to get to an end point that he thinks that people will accept, and particularly those people. Wars change countries in history, and that's true for Russia with this war too. If you just think about it, all of these mostly men who have been fighting, if the war is over, return home. Do they return home feeling victorious, or do they return home feeling betrayed, feeling as if it was for nothing? If it's the latter, if it's the second feeling, how secure do you think President Putin feels in the years to come? If there are fighters, war hardened men, mostly across Russia, who are dissatisfied and feel they gave everything and people they know died and President Putin kind of just gave up on it. From a perspective of an autocrat like Putin, it is a factor.

A (9:07)

Now we have Zelensky in the White House joined by a variety of major European leaders. How concerned do you think Putin is about their additional presence today?

C (9:20)

He absolutely was of the view on Friday as he walked out of that meeting that there's a real chance that Europe, from his perspective and Ukraine will come in and shift this. I've managed to do something here and now they're going to sabotage it.

A (9:32)

Kier Simmons, always appreciate your time. All right, team, when we're back, what new documents are telling us about the murder of those four college students in Idaho? That's after the break.

D (9:49)

I'm Josh Mankiewicz and I hope you'll join us for season four of DATELINE Missing in America. In each episode of dateline's award winning series, we will focus on one missing persons case and hear from the families, the friends and the investigators, all desperate to find them. You will want to listen closely. Maybe you could help investigators solve a mystery. DATELINE Missing in America. All episodes available now.

B (10:15)

Wherever you get your podcasts.

D (10:19)

This week on MEET THE press, following the Trump Putin summit in Alaska, Kristen Welker sits down with Secretary of State Mike Marco Rubio and Senator Chris Murphy to discuss what's at stake for the future of Ukraine and the world. Only on MEET THE press. Listen to the full episode now, wherever you get your podcasts.

A (10:42)

And we're back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Brian Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without parole for killing four University of Idaho students back in 2022. But for the families and the public, a lot of questions remained even after those court proceedings ended, some of which are now being answered after local police released hundreds of documents, plus images and even surveillance footage from the very case. And we do have a quick warning before we get started. Some of these details are really disturbing and graphic. Leah Nagy is our producer for the Today Show. Leah, thanks for being here.

E (11:20)

Thanks for having me.

A (11:22)

So, Leah, you've been reading through these documents. We're talking about hundreds of pages here. What are you learning?

E (11:28)

Yeah. So keep in mind there was a gag order hanging over this case almost from the beginning that prevented law enforcement and legal teams from talking to media. These documents are coming out now that the gag order has been lifted. And of course, police have been inundated now with with media requests. So they are putting out huge troves of These documents that really show us the huge scope of this investigation. And a few things really stood out from these docum. One was a surviving roommate telling officers that she heard Kohberger call one of the victims by name, saying, you know, she heard a male voice say, it's okay, Kaylee, I'm here for you. That definitely caught our eye because it gets to the biggest unanswered question. Why these four victims, did Kohberger know them, have any connection to them ahead of time? Prosecutors have said that to this day, they don't know of a connection, but the fact that he apparently said one of their names is very interesting. For that reason, a professor also sounded alarm bells to colleagues about Coburger, saying, you know, I work with predators, and if we give him a PhD, that's the guy that will be harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing his. His students one day when he's a professor. Another really chilling moment that stood out was a fellow PhD student telling police she talked with Kohberger about the murders weeks after, and that Kohberger told her that whoever had committed the homicides must have been pretty good.

A (12:50)

What questions are still left unanswered here?

E (12:53)

We still do not know the connection, if any, between Kohberger and these victims. His motive, why that house on King Road that night? I spoke to digital forensic investigators who said that he had effectively wiped his phone for the months surrounding the murders. And that gap in the digital data is really the most damning thing they saw. But they were able to dig deeper and discover, you know, some details about his digital footprint that paint a picture, really, of an extreme loner. He had so few contacts on his phone, I think about 18, that one of the investigators said, I've worked major terrorism investigations, and these terrorists had more contacts than that. But who he did talk with constantly, they said was his parents, who were in his phone as mother and father. He also had a lot of selfies where he would be topless, flexing, giving what they termed an American Psycho feel. They said, we think he loved himself. So still a lot of questions about his. His online behavior and what was wiped on that phone. But we did learn some more about who Brian Coburger was today.

A (13:56)

Producer Leah Nagy. Leah, thanks so much.

E (13:58)

Thank you.

A (14:02)

All right, time now to move on to some headlines. Aaron's kicking off hurricane season with a bang. It's already a dangerous Category 4 storm. The good news, it's not expected to slam directly into the US Coast. The bad news, from Florida all the way up to New England. Forecasters are warning of life threatening surf, rip currents, flooding and coastal erosion. The storm's outer bands already knocked out power for thousands in Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands. What was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for a Boy Scout troop from Wisconsin turned into an absolute scramble to get back home. Thankfully, they're safe. Officials in places like North Carolina's Outer Banks are now urging people to prep because this is a storm we're going to be talking about all week long. Texas Democrats are back in the Lone Star State today, ending a weeks long standoff over redistricting. Now Dems are calling it a win since they did block state Republicans from passing a new congressional map during a special legislative session. But, but, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott has already called another special session making it likely that Republicans will be able to to advance their map soon. Israel saw one of the biggest protests yesterday since the war in Gaza began nearly two years ago. Frustrated demonstrators flooded the streets there, calling for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. The spark reports of a new planned military strike in some of Gaza's most populated areas. Protesters worry that military action in these cities could put the remaining hostages at even greater risk. It's believed that only 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are still alive. And it's still not clear when Israel plans to begin this new offensive. Meanwhile, the war grinds on. Hospitals and witnesses said 17 more aid seekers were killed in Gaza and Israeli airstrikes hit a power plant in Yemen. Air Canada has hit a little bit of turbulence, but not the kind a seatbelt sign can fix. The airline scrapped its financial outlook for the quarter and the year after, 10,000 of its flight attendants walked right off the job. Canada's labor board called the strike unlawful and ordered the union to get everyone back on board. But the union basically said, yeah, no thanks. The airline estimates that the Defiance has now grounded flights for about half a million passengers. At the heart of all of this standoff, eight months of bad blood over pay, scheduling and all those unpaid hours flight attendants say they rack up in the sky. The airline is hoping to resume flights tonight though. Okay, before we let you go, looks like the Cambridge Dictionary is done being delulu. Stay with me. It just added more than 6,000 new words, including Gen Z staples like skibidi, which I have just now learned means, well, basically anything good, bad, or just what's happening. And then there's tradwife, short for traditional wife, a married mom who cooks, cleans and broadcasts all of it on social media. The dictionary only picks words it thinks has staying power. Which means yes, you can now say what the Skibidi's going on with full academic credibility. Also making the cuts Delulu Inspo and Mouse Jiggler AKA that little gadget that fakes computer activity so it looks like you're actually working. Truly a proud moment for anyone who doubted the English language would ever recognize procrastination tech. Alright, that's going to do it for us at here's the scoop. Thanks for listening. And hey, I guess if Cambridge recognizes Skibidi, well, perhaps I will give it a shot. I mean, yolo, right? Signing off on Morgan Chesky.

F (18:10)

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