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our angie lassman is here tracking what comes next armed men storm a studio in ecuador during a live broadcast. the shocking moment hit air waves highlighting the chaos across that country. we're live with what sparked this escalation. misinformation in the age of a.i. actor mark ruffalo issuing an apology. what it means for the fight against deep fakes mababy yoda is heading to t big screen we've got the details on the next film franchise from a galaxy far, far away could pandas return to american zoos? after the national zoos said good-bye to the iconic bears, san francisco's zoo is makinga plea to bring pandas to the bay. it's wednesday, january 10 "early today" starts right now good morningmorning, glad you'r

us, i'm frances rivera storms are wreerkaking havo. more than half a million are still without power along the eastern seaboard in the southeast, over a dozen tornados were reported in florida and south carolina, toppling homes and leaving a trail of destruction in maryland, multiple drivers were rescued when their vehicles got snucktuck in floodwaters. and one man was taken to the hospital when he was found unresponsive a wind advisory in place overnight in new york city and if you're traveling, check ahead. hundreds of flights are already canceled today, with many more delayed according to flight aware. in the midwest, blizzard conditions made travel treacherous, and more than a foot of snow blanketed the central plains for more, i want to bring in angie lassman, who's tracking this system and the next one on the way, angie, good morning we're talking about back-to-back

storms here. >> back-to-back-to-back. we've got multiple systems that we're keeping a close eye on we've still got to see this system exit. we've still got 46 million people under theis flood alerts as you go through the rest of your day when we look at the river flooding across this region, 13i6x 13 13i6xi 13 13r it's going to take a little while for these rivers to come down we're also dealing with gusty winds. 30, 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts. out west we have wind alerts up across much of that region through thursday in preparation for the next storm system. as we look to tomorrow, the next system works through parts of the rockies. it bring snow for forecasts there, a cold blast to the northern and central plains, and then we see the snow and mess of

wintry weather along with more rain headed for folks across the east frances? >> got to keep bracing ourselves, okay, thank you, angie. defense secretary lloyd austin has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, officials at walst walter reed say. president biden was only informed yesterday austin has been under fire for not disclosing the hospitalization that started new year's day after he suffered complications from cancer treatment. he was incapacitated for at least parts of the stay but has since moved out of the icu mike rodgers has announced a formal quarterback into the secretary's handling of the matter prostate cancer has a generally high rate of survival. and officials at the hospital confirm that austin's prognosi is quote, excellent. ecuador plunged into chaos after criminal gangs launched into violence, storming the set of a leiive tv news program, threatening to blow it up. let's go live to chapman bell

who's been following the story for us why is this happening? >> reporter: good morning, frances. well, let's first look back at some of those pictures of those armed gunmen, masked men breaking into this tv studio, waving around guns and what appears to be explosives, including sticks of dynamite in the port city of guayaquil, where police were able to storm the studio and arrest all the intruders, at least a dozen of masked gunmen. but there were, fortunately, no one was killed but this was broadcast all across the country on tv shortly. and this follows a series of gang-related attacks that have rocked the country and this follows the escape from prison of one of the country's leading drug gang leaders. and after that, the president, who's only been president of the country since november, declared a 60-day state of emergency on monday and saying that they

would call all these armed drug gangs terrorists now this caused a string of, series of attacks in the country, gang-related attacks. and, as you mentioned, the abduction of several police officer across the country so the country really trying to get to grips with this gang violence that has really rocked the south american country in recent days, as they try to get things under control frances? >> chapman bell for us, thank you. donald trump will return to the campaign trail today after making a detour to a d.c. courtroom on tuesday his lawyer made the argument that the former president should be immune from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results laura jarret is following the case >> reporter: the ruling expected any time, from the federal appeals court, which appeared deeply skeptical at donald trump's efforts to derail the case about his attempts to overturn the 2020 election >> i did nothing wrong

absolutely nothing wrong i feel that, as a president, you have to have immunity. >> reporter: the republican frontrunner watching on in court as his lawyer urged the panel to break new legal ground and find the former president immune from prosecution, emphasizing everything he's charged for took place while he was still in the white house. >> you have the prosecution of the chief political opponent winning in every poll and prosecuted by the administration thathe's seeking to replace. >> never before has there been allegations that a sitting president has, with private individuals and using the levers of power sought to fundamentally subvert the democratic republic and electoral system it would be awfully scary if there weren't some sort of mechanism to reach that criminally >> reporter: the judge, a biden

appointee. >> could a president order s.e.a.l. team 6 to assassinate a political rival? >> reporter: the answer in her vi his view, yes. a position doj casts as frightening. >> what kind of world are we living in, the president has a unique constitutional role, but he is not above the law. >> and our thanks to laura jarret for that report the las vegas man who attacked a judge is facing new charges, including attempted murder he was arraigned in front after different judge. the shocking video shows him lunging across the bench and brawling with court officers he appeared before her again on monday and was sentenced up to four years in prison for the original charges we are learning new details about the woman who was rescued from the angeles national forest

over the weekend she's recovering from hypothermia and a led a leg jiny she survived by drinking rain water that fell through crack in her truck's windshield as we hit our midweek stride, let's take a look ahead at the weekend weather angie lassman is tracking something else in store as we're talking about triple back-to-back storms. >> 'tis the season, frances. we've got a couple systems we've watched this week. we've got another one on deck. look at friday this becomes a mess for folks across the great lakes, the east we're going to have really heavy rain we'll have the potential for of course more flooding with the significant rainfall we've already had in the short term and more on the way. notice as we get into saturday these bands of snow are still going to be circulating around the great lakes, leading to more snow we'll also see strong winds,

power outages likely across that region, and not to mention sat rated grounds. as we look into the weekend we could see potential for flooding once more and a dip in temperatt the mid-6 0s and phoenix at 59 with full sunshine that's a look at your forecast coming up, this is the way to the big screen. "the mandalorian" and baby yoda are teaming up and we're back in a moment with fake pictures of donald trump that sparked a real firestorm for actor mark ruffalo. firestorm for actor mark ruffalo. you won't. it's ripe in here. my eyes are watering. i'm a busy man. look how crusty this is.

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former president trump on the plane of jeffrey epstein tom winter has more. >> reporter: award-winning actor mark ruffalo backtracking after being tricked by fake photos, all part of unsubstantiated theories spread on social media about an infamous case the fake photos appear to show former president donald trump with a group of young girls traveling on a private jet ruffalo posting to his 8 million followers, #maga wants to paint everyone on those flights as pedophiles except the one guy who smiles at a group of young girls all hideeaded to epstein's island but users quickly flagging that they were a.i. generated pointing to shadows, and one girl missing an arm.

ruffalo issuing an apology but also putting some of the blame on x's owner, elon musk, saying he's allowing so much disinformation here. musk responding back at ruffalo saying, he's not great at internalizing responsibility x, including a community note saying they were a.i. generated pointing to a think tank fact check from months ago. >> we are building technology to automatically detect whether a photo, audio, especially video is fake. often that's something that's not visible to the naked eye >> reporter: from the university of washington, he tells us his tech confirms with high confidence that the images are a.i. generated or altered. >> the social media companies have a huge responsibility that frankly they've been shirking. >> reporter: ruffalo and musk did not immediately respond to request for comment.

x responding with a "busy now, check back later" message. it comes with the unsealing of nearly 4,000 pages of documents from a jeffrey epstein-related lawsuit. the real documents posted on an official court website offer the latest chance to get a fuller picture of epstein's crimes, the company he kept and who else could have been involved questions that remain unanswered after epstein's suicide in 2019, before he stood trial. rumors and unsubstantial yaltsed conspiracy theories spread for weeks before the documents were released the theories undercut bit judge's own order, stating most names were already public through news stories or were not associated with salacious behavior. t the documents do have high-profile names such as clinton and trump. as the documents and questions continue to swirl, the fake

photo showing how easy it is for misinformation, a.i. and conspiracy theories to thrive online >> this problem of misinformation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and particularly before the upcoming november elections. we are about to witness a tsunami of political misinformation >> our thanks to tom winter for that report. still to come. "star wars" fans finally get their wish an imax-sized baby yoda. the latest journey to a glax far far away after this. o a glax far far away after this. good thing the general gives you a break when you need it. yeah, with flexible payment options to keep you covered. so today is your lucky...day [crash] so today is your lucky...day for a great low rate, go with the general. this isn't charmin! no wonder i don't feel as clean. hurry up dad! i'm trying! this cheap stuff is too thin! here's charmin ultra strong! ahhh! my bottom's been saved! woohoo!

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confront the end of the world in netflix's new sci-fi epic. three body problem, based on the acclaimed series of novels for david benioff. it hits the streamer on march 21st and this looks spectacular even in just the few minutes that we're watching it right now. and rightfully so. this is going to be one of netflix's most expensive, if not the most expensive, undertaking. >> i can't wait to see how that turns out. we always talk about shows we'll both be watching and reporting back and nearly five years after their debut, mando is making a jump to the big screen the first "star wars" film to hit theaters since 2019. it's based off the disney+ spinoff starring the bounty hunter played by pedro pascal

and baby yoda. the release date is being kept under wraps. john fauf row was announced as director it's going to be the first one since 2019 to hit theaters i have a feeling people are going to be super excited about this and they'll be dressed to the nines. >> anything star war meantime, season for "mandalorian" still in the works. kerry kuehn is traiting in 19th century new york for a stay at a posh beach side resort. the actress will join the white lotus. an ensemble with jayson isaacs and parker posey little is known about the installment about the dark comedy ex-seccept for a report saying it will take place in thailand, and everyone's asking who's going to come back if

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wrote to china's leaders asking for them to and temporary home >> reporter: right now the only cute, fuzz eye pandas you can find at the san francisco zoo are on the shelves of the gift shop but san francisco mayor london bri breed is hoping to create more real-life encounters the mayor first made the suggestion to china president xi jinping during the apec summit in san francisco in november, after hearing him talk about restarting so-called panda diplomacy. >> this is a way to say we are opening up the doors, developing the relationship, sharing with you one of our most valuable, precious assets to show respect and to build on that relationship >> reporter: breed points out historically, san francisco established the first consulate as well as the first sister city relationship with china. she says she's encouraged by the feedback so far. >> we had some high-level

experts visit san francisco at the end of last year to take a look at our zoo and to determine location and whether or not san francisco could potentially host this, and it's clear at thatq w can. >> reporter: the pandas would give the city a much-needed image boost. one even saw a panda at the san diego zoo years back what was the biggest thrill? >> how silly they are and how goofy they are, and basically how carefree they r. >> reporter: one security guard wants it to happen even if it means more work. if the pandas come, that's going to make a pretty busy time for you, is that okay with you >> yes, people come in and get to see an animal they don't always see >> ne wo

>> they would be so welcome back an interstellar mystery was just unlocked there's a bright green picture this's much older than the explosion by 100,000 years scientists were able to remove the green monster, revealing a complete view of the dying star. the most detailed and well-preserved look inside a super nova and more discoveries and amazing images are on the way. time and again, that james webb telescope brings us these amazing images we thank you for watching "early today. i'm frances rivera ha

right now at 5:00, honoring a fallen hero. a public memorial service in oakland today honoring the officer shot last month i