WRAL Newscasts
7PM News on WRAL - Thursday, July 11, 2024
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Right now, at seven o'clock, as you probably know, at any moment, President Biden will speak during a rare solo news conference following a critical NATO summit. Thank you for joining us, some Dan Hagerty. And I'm Ashley Rope. The president will be taking questions from reporters. Let's get straight to Brian Schrader in the WRL Live Center. Brian, a lot of eyes on this moment tonight. Anticipating this to begin at any moment at last check, they were doing some of the last minute preparations at the podium as we take a live look at the White House. Those are the color bars there, as that feed from the Walter Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington, again, I get about to again, begin at any minute. Some new information in the past half hour Reuters is reporting that the United Auto Workers President Sean Fain, an ardent supporter of President Biden's, is apparently telling the unions board that he is worried that Biden may not beat former President Donald Trump. That's according to sources, telling Reuters that the UAW, a major union organization, is now considering its next steps in this campaign. It also comes as 12 Democratic lawmakers now are calling on President Biden to drop out of this race. A lot of focus on President Biden, of course, today. And a lot of news coming out from President, former President Donald Trump, just in the past hour, lawyers asked the judge in the New York Hush Money case to vacate the 34 felony convictions after that Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Of course, we reported to you earlier that the judge had postponed the sentencing in that case to September, while he considers all of that. So a lot of attention right now, getting ready for that press conference, and of course, you will see it live here on WRL as soon as it begins. - Brian, thank you. Vice President Kamala Harris was in Greensboro today for a campaign rally for the Democratic ticket. The Democratic party hotly divided over whether President Biden should remain their 2024 nominee amid rising concern about his mental acuity. Harris considered a likely choice to replace him on the ticket if he should step aside. Biden has said he will not bow out of the race. We're gonna hear what he has to say at this press conference. Harris reiterated that message today, acknowledging that it's been a rough few days for telling supporters that she and Biden will continue to fight. Let's get to your weather forecast because we are tracking the best chance for rain in over a month. It's gonna start falling in just the next few hours. This is the rainfall that we are forecasting here. Look at this, it's getting up to two inches in Roxborough. - Right, and some of that can be coming down pretty quickly, which could give us an issue for potential flooding. That's why we have issued WRL weather alert days for tomorrow. Meteorologist Kat Campbell in the WRL severe weather center tracking this unsettled weather on the horizon here, Kat. - A lot of us need this rain. So the rain is good news, but it may come down so fast that we can't soak it all in. And that's when we get into the flash flooding issues. And that's the concern tomorrow. A flood watch will go into effect at midnight and it will continue through tomorrow evening. So here's this setup. We've got this stalled front that led to flash flooding at the coast today. That is going to be headed inland tonight. So you're actually gonna see the rain move from east to west during the overnight hours. Not a lot out there right now on the dual Doppler 5000 radar, but that could change as we head into the late night hours. I think it'll just be some spotty showers through midnight, but after midnight, rain chances start to go up and we will have some rain around during the morning commute tomorrow. Not everybody's gonna be dealing with rain for the morning drive, but there will be some rain on the radar. So I encourage you check in with meteorologist Silas Whitgarner before you leave the house. The bigger issues in terms of the heavy rain would come during the afternoon, especially between about noon and six o'clock. That's when we've got the greatest threat of some of that heavy rain. I'll have a closer look at your weekend coming up. - I'm Willy Danily in the WRAO breaking news tracker. I'm standing here outside the Walmart located off New Bern Avenue. You can see this police scene right behind me. Raleigh police are responding to a confirmed stabbing at this bus stop. Take a look at this video. This is Sky 5 video that we captured from above and you can see the big presence from Raleigh police here. There were around 11 RPD cruisers having this entire area blocked off. I actually spoke to a young lady who just got off of that bus that was involved in this incident and she told me it was an all out brawl. According to Raleigh police, when they got on scene, they found one victim who had been stabbed and they believed that they have non life-threatening injuries. There was also another victim involved in this incident who sustained some injuries. Take a listen to this. This is what police heard when that call first came in. Raleigh police here for EMS. We got multiple stab wounds and one female with a complete ankle breath. Phone's sticking out. It is worth noting that this is not the first stabbing that's happened at this bus stop. It was just last April that a 17 year old was killed in a stabbing altercation here. Right now, as far as this incident, there is no suspect in custody. So we're going to continue to follow this story and keep you updated with whatever we find out. Back to you. Okay, Willie, thank you. The Army is looking into a Fort Liberty training presentation that labeled anti-abortion groups as terrorist organizations. A picture of the slide was posted to X. It's since been shared over and over thousands of times. Here it is. The post was made last night. So you can see there it has the header terrorist groups. And then under that, multiple anti-abortion groups are referenced. Fort Liberty addressed today around noon in a Facebook post says that the slide was not vetted, did not go through the appropriate approval process. They actually say a local garrison employee created the slide to train soldiers who man access points around post. Fort Liberty says this is not a reflection of views held by the 82nd Airborne, the post, the Army, or the Department of Defense. North Carolina Senator Ted Bud posted to X calling this post disturbing and despicable. His post says the US Army and Fort Liberty are both investigating what happened. - Hornet County deputies arrested a teacher who they say had sex with a student. Mackenzie Parnum has bonded out of jail now after turning herself in. Parnum began working at the school in August of 2021. Sheriff Wayne Coates said the investigation began after complaints and some tips. Her attorney says state law prohibits her from making any statement about this case. She did say she plans to vigorously advocate for a parham in court and she's due back in court later this month. - A carry man employed by the US Department of Commerce has been arrested on nine child sex crime charges including duplicating child porn. Police arrested Gustavo Leemon Wednesday night. Investigators found videos and images of girls and boys as young as seven years old on Leemon's devices. This crime highlights the surge of child sex crimes taking place in our state. Today, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new campaign called No to Protect. In response to the 26 million tips they and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received last year. - Online CSA is a horrific crime that targets some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. Our children and teens. The No to Protect campaign aims to educate teens and parents about this surging crime. This site has a ton of resources for your family. You can head to our website, WRAL.com where we have the link. - Terribly sad, pink balloons, a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal there and a child sized casket. It was just an awful scene today. The family of a two year old who was shot in Durham three weeks ago, they buried her today. Minari is her name. Her funeral was at Antioch Baptist Church in East Durham. Her family members wore T-shirts that said gone too soon. They tell WRAL she was a sweet little girl who always had a hug ready and loved to dance. - It seems a really good kid when she sees, hey, she runs up with a smile and she hugs everyone and she don't really be missed. - So police, the investigation at this point, they're still searching for the person who killed that little girl. Durham Sheriff Clarence Burkhead attended today's funeral and he's calling on the person responsible to come forward. - Tonight, the Cumberland County Board of Education and Hope Mills leaders reached a deal that secures school resource officers. Last month, the town learned that the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office would not be able to provide SROs going forward. City Council's agreement with the school system is to provide SROs and school traffic control officers for the coming school year. Fayetteville Police would provide nine SROs as roving officers in the high schools for the school year. They're also working to add traffic control officers in the city limits. You can read more on WRAL.com. - Stay with us here on WRAL. Any moment now President Biden will speak and answer questions during what we're told is an unscripted news conference this following the NATO summit as we take a live look at the podium right now. This is where he will be making his remarks in a matter of moments. Stay with us. We're back after this. - Here's Brandon with Parkway Sleep Centers. - Tired of waiting for a sleep treatment? At other sleep centers, it can take six to eight months just to get an appointment and cost you thousands more. Not Parkway Sleep Health Centers. We schedule you within weeks and we'll save you money too. We have over 20 years of experience serving the triangle. Let our expert team help you sleep better sooner. - And your sleep problems. Live your best life. Experience the Parkway Sleep Difference. Visit ParkwaySleep.com and start your journey to better sleep today. Parkway Sleep Health Centers, Sound Sleep, Sound Health. - Save big this summer with great deals. All in the King Supers app. Get juicy Washington red cherries for $2.99 a pound. Then get 10 for 10 on items like Lays Stacks, Rice Oroni and Sparkling Ice Sparkling Water for $1 each, all with your card. Shuff these deals at your local Kroger today or tap the screen now to download the King Supers app to save big today. King Supers, fresh for everyone, prices and product availability subject to change, restrictions apply. See site for details. - The podium set up at the NATO summit as we are awaiting President Biden's press conference the first time he is taking a press conference of this kind since November of 2023. This is something that so many people have their eyes on as more and more people are coming out saying that President Biden ought to step aside for this election campaign. So joining us now to help us break down what's going on in this moment as we await this news conference is Meredith College Political Analyst and Professor David McLennan. Thank you so much for once again joining us here and lending your expertise. - Glad to be with you. Let's talk about the scrutiny that President Biden is currently under. I mean, people are watching every word looking for a misstep. - And that's been going on for two weeks now. And even earlier today when he was introducing Ukrainian President Zelensky, he referred to him as Putin and that got a lot of coverage. That's what people are watching for in the press conferences. A mistake, a pause that shouldn't be there. So it's tremendous pressure. - And just for context to there. So he said this at about 5.30 this evening when he was introducing President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, he accidentally said Putin, President Putin and then he corrected himself. That occupied the network airwaves for the last hour and a half. This is an example of what we have seen over the course of the last couple of weeks. Do you expect that this is something that can run its course? Or will this just continue to go on? The amount of scrutiny on President Biden as these continued calls for him to step aside happen? - It only seems to be increasing. And particularly given, as you mentioned, the calls in Congress and in other places for him to step away, he's been defiant. The more he's defiant and says I'm gonna stay on the ticket, the more scrutiny he'll get. So it's almost a chicken or the egg. - This news conference is going to be interesting. One, because it happened so rarely for this particular president. But also given the circumstances around this, I mean, this is the NATO summit. This is a huge deal with world leaders all descending on Washington, D.C. And yet here we are, probably a lot of the attention is going to be on his campaign. - Typically the story would be about the war in Ukraine, about other things the NATO would be doing. But the story is about Biden and his candidacy. And so it's a shame because there's typically a lot of news that comes out of NATO. But now the news is about a campaign. - Today The New York Times reported that the White House is doing its own internal polling to see how Vice President Kamala Harris stacks up against former President Donald Trump in a matchup for this election to see if maybe she is the better candidate. Then President Biden, what's the significance of that internal polling? - Well, campaigns use this all the time. I mean, they use it for all kinds of reasons. For this is unprecedented, to use that term we've used too many times. But for a presidential campaign to be testing another candidate to take the place of the president, you know, that in and of itself is a symbol, a signal that the campaign's in real trouble. The fact that they're testing it, you know, other polls have been showing that President Biden's approval has been going down, Harris has been going up. So I can't say it's inevitable that this is gonna happen, but all signs are pointing to some big changes coming. - You are a political analyst. You are an observer of the political sphere and you have been doing this for some time. Who have you been watching as you've been witnessing various politicians and maneuvering publicly, supporting or stepping away from Biden, you know, there are a lot of questions about who could replace him on the ticket? - Well, you know, watching the leaders in Congress, they're certainly gonna be signaling a lot about their support or lack thereof for President Biden. You know, so many of the people whose name's been mentioned, they cannot act like a candidate right now. So you've heard Gretchen Whitmer, you've heard others kind of say, "No, I'm totally in Biden's camp." But this is the kind of thing that Biden is the candidate until he's not. I mean, it'll be a very dramatic sudden shift. - That's just politics as it is. - It is. - All right, thank you so much for your insight as we continue to wait for this news conference. Brian. - Ashley here in the WRAL Live Center as we await the start of that news conference, you mentioned there with David McClellan, that sound bite that aired on NBC Nightly News, where President Biden introduced Ukrainian President Zelensky and accidentally called him President Putin. I wanna play that for you right now. - And now I wanna hand it over to the president of Ukraine who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. (applause) President Putin is gonna be President Putin. President Zelensky. And you can see where President Biden corrected himself there, he caught that verbal misstep. And President Zelensky then took to the podium and addressed the crowd. Again, we're waiting for this news conference to begin at any moment now. There's some indication that it's running even farther behind than it was earlier, originally scheduled for 5.30 this evening. Then it got pushed to 6.30, 7 o'clock. And here we are waiting for the start of this. When it happens, you'll see it here on WRAL. - Brian, thank you. Let's ease our nerves here for a moment and take a look at how about just a fun news story. This is a woman in Johnson County. Her ring camera caught a moment. You see the black bear right there walking in front of her house. Her name's Tammy Strickland. She says this is the first time that her cameras have ever spotted a bear like this. It's strolled through right around 10 o'clock last night. It went around to the side of the house where a second camera then picked up the movements. A little scary for her though, she said, because about 15 minutes after this, Strickland herself, she walked outside to put a few things away in the night. And the bear probably was right close by at the time. - I didn't believe it. I kept looking at it over and over and I couldn't believe it. It wasn't aggressive or anything, it just walking around, but it's still scary to see it. - You know, I think a black bear like that would run off as soon as it saw you and it's a line of sight there. But wildlife experts say sightings like these can become more frequent in areas where there's new construction nearby and some different developments are popping up. Let's talk to meteorologist Kat Campbell. We have seen some storms pop up. More of that tomorrow, we're expecting a lot of rain. - We are, and you know, that's good news that we're finally getting some rain. The issue is it could fall very quickly and that leads to the threat for some flooding. So tomorrow's the WRAL weather alert day, even aside from the flooding risk, this will be a higher impact rain for us. The highest threat of that heavy rain and flooding will come during the afternoon and this is for central and eastern North Carolina. Let's talk about the rain chances. In the morning, there will already be some rain on the radar. It's about a 40% chance in the morning. So check in with meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner before you leave the house. By the time we get to the afternoon, rain chances are up to 90%. That's when we should see some of the pockets of heavier rain as well. And then looking ahead at Saturday, we still have the potential for some storms, but Saturday's storm chances are more of your typical summertime scattered stuff. Sunday's storm chances, just 20% of avoided temperatures rebound are back up to 97. Sunday, the good news is you get a little bit of relief from the heat tomorrow. We've got a high of 82 with the rain and storms, but it is still going to be very humid. So I don't want you to think it's going to be feeling great outside. We're in the tropical category on the muggy meter tomorrow. Dew points are in the 70s through the weekend. So it'll feel more like it did earlier in the week, less like it did out there this morning. 88 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. The sunset is at 833. You can see some people at Dick's Park there having a picnic, not a bad evening for it. There's not a whole lot of rain out there right now. The bulk of the rain has been toward the coast. And early this morning, there was a line of storms and that led to some flash flooding toward the coast and coastal plains. Futurecast overdoing this initial band of showers and storms headed our way, but once we get to tomorrow, I think it's got a much better grasp on the dynamics and the atmosphere. So early in the morning, we've got some of those scattered storms around, but the heavier rain and the more widespread rain should come during the afternoon and evening. One thing about tomorrow's rain that I want to stress is that it is not going to be a non-stop, old day, kind of a washout. There will be breaks in the rain. So if you need to run out and do something, you should be able to plan some dry windows of time to do it. Make sure you've got your WBAR-AIL weather app on hand. That way you can utilize the Dewitt-Lachler 5000 radar. Over the next seven days, the big heat is building back in. We're gonna be at 97 Sunday, 99 on Monday, and even 100 on Tuesday. That'll come with just some small storm chances early in the week. It looks like toward the end of next week, we could have a better chance of rain and storms. But I did want to point out some of these lows next week too. 77 is as low as temperatures go Monday night into Tuesday, and just 78 for the low on Wednesday morning. - All right, getting hot again. - Mm-hmm. - Thank you, Kat. So as we head to break, we do want to take another live. Look, this is the stage in Washington. President Biden's set to speak there at any moment. Significant for so many reasons, this will be unscripted following the NATO summit today, taking questions, all types of questions from the reporters in the crowd. The time of this has been pushed back several times. Of course, we will keep an eye on this, waiting to see what happens next. Stay with us here on WRL News. We're back after the break. (upbeat music) - When you close your eyes and think about wealth, what comes to mind? Early tee times? Giving back? Seeing your kids go further than you ever thought possible. The thing is, everyone has their own idea of wealth. 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And just in the past few minutes, some new reporting from the Associated Press, French President Emmanuel Macron is talking, and of course, this is all happening around that NATO summit. And through an interpreter, he talked about President Biden accidentally calling President Zelensky, President Putin earlier this evening. And President Macron says, "We can all have a slip of the tongue. It's happened to me." He said that he had a long conversation with President Biden during Wednesday's dinner and heard discussions in the summit meetings. And President Macron described President Biden as, quote, "very much on top of things." End quote. He said that he knows the issues around the table as among those who has the greatest depth of knowledge on international issues. So some, a vote of confidence there from French President Macron, who himself has been dealing with a lot of political issues of late. When this news conference begins, you won't miss a minute of it. Stay tuned here to WRAL. We will bring it to you live. And then join us at 10 and 11 for reaction on WRAL News. Good evening. We're coming on the air with breaking news. President Biden is about to hold what could be the most important press conference of his political career. Mr. Biden, under growing pressure from members of his own party to step aside in the race for president, after what many have described as a disastrous debate performance two weeks ago today. Now the eyes of millions of voters and also his key allies inside the Democratic Party will be watching closely to see how he answers the barrage of tough questions likely to come his way in his unscripted format. This is not only the president's first press conference since that debate, but also the first solo press conference he has held in eight months. He is certain to face questions about his age, about his health and his ability to run for president and serve in that role for another four years. The president has just finished up a meeting with NATO allies here in Washington, D.C. and will likely begin with comments about what he was able to achieve during that summit. But the question looming over all of this is whether he can regain the confidence of the Democratic Party and assure lawmakers and voters he can take on Donald Trump in the race for president. Let's get right to our chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander. He's at the president's news conference. Set the scene for us, if you will, Peter. - Lesser, we are within the two-minute warnings to expect to see President Biden any second now. He arrives here as both commander in chief and a presidential candidate. And as you note, the stakes are quite high for this opportunity before the American people, the first solo news conference in eight months, and also an opportunity to try to make up for the Democratic defections to satisfy the anxiety of Democrats. - And here is the president. - Thank you, please. - Well, good evening. We just concluded this year's NATO summit and the consensus among the members was it was a great success. So especially momentous because it represented the 75th year, the most important military defense alliance in the world, history of the world. We should never forget that NATO grew out of the wreckage of World War II, the most destructive war in history. The idea was to create an alliance of free and democratic nations that would commit themselves to a compact of collective defense. Standing together, they knew we'd all be safer. Attack on one would be treated as an attack on all. And it's worked because a would-be aggressor knows they attack one of us, they'll be attacked by all of us. Sending that message is the best way to deter aggression and prevent wars in the first place. For those who thought NATO's time had passed, they got a rude awakening when Putin invaded Ukraine. Some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe roared back to life because once again, a murderous madman was on the march. But this time, no one cowered in appeasement, especially the United States. We collected intelligence to Russia as planning to invade Ukraine months before the invasion. I directed the intelligence community to be a significant amount of intelligence to be declassified so I could start building an international coalition to oppose the invasion. Then in February, some of you remember, I warned the world that the invasion was imminent. I rallied to coalition of 15 nations from Europe to Asia to help Ukraine defend itself. My foreign policy, many foreign policy experts thought, as Putin amassed Russian forces just 100 miles north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, but he thought, he Putin thought it was a mother home of Russia. The capital would fall in less than a week. But the Ukrainian people, backed by a coalition to help build, stopped them. Today, Kiev still stands. And NATO stands stronger than it has ever been. During the week of this summit, several... At King Super's pharmacy, care is what's most convenient for you. Care is being here when you need us. We're open evenings and weekends. Care is helping you save more. Most insurance plans and discount cards are accepted at your local King Super's pharmacy. Care is saving you time by managing your prescriptions online. You can request free fills, check order status and more. Care is convenience that works for everyone. King Super's, a world of care is in store. Services and availability vary by location. 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