right now on "america this morning," tornado emergency. the damage overnight across the south as severe storms sweep across several states. tens of millions people affected, and now much of the east coast on alert. new insight behind the walls of the kremlin. why vladimir putin is getting such bad advice from his advisers. what intelligence officials are now revealing as the war rages in ukraine. a red cross facility among the latest buildings to be bombed. chris rock speaks publicly for the first time about being slapped by will smith. what he told a crowd in boston and the dramatic arrest outside the show. plus, word that will smith was asked to leave the oscars but refused. what the academy is saying now. abc news exclusive. the mother of the navy s.e.a.l.

candidate who died after the so-called hell week of training speaks out. what her son told her just moments after he completed that grueling week of physical challenges. plus, easing the pain at the pump. a new move by the white house is to bring down gas prices. and later forget coffee and doughnuts, dunkin' expands into cosmetics? the new makeup line unveiled. good thursday morning, everyone. we begin with the severe weather moving toward the east coast after slamming the south overnight. hundreds of thousands of power outages are reported after possible tornadoes touched down from arkansas to alabama. several areas damaged in storms just last week were hit again. >> the intense wind is blamed for causing this pileup on a highway in louisiana, but the worst damage was farther east in mississippi. this morning, widespread damage

is reported in mississippi's capital after cameras captured a tornado racing toward downtown jackson. the twister forcing workers at te state capitol to take shelter in the building's basement. and this large tree came crashing down outside the governor's mansion. >> we got a tornado right here. right there. just to the south of the tv station. we had a little bit of a spin right there. >> reporter: in louisiana overnight another tornado hitting the new orleans area. witnesses reporting minimal damage, but the latest weather threat is putting residents on edge outside the city where a tornado caused extensive damage just last week. >> we've put a new roof on this week on this part of the structure. they tarped up to where the roof stops today because if water comes in, then more is damaged. >> reporter: the strong line of intense storms is stretching nearly 800 miles triggering tornado warnings and watches across the deep south. earlier wednesday at least seven

people were injured when a reported tornado hit northern arkansas. the local school district posting images of this elementary school gym now destroyed. and in nashville, tennessee, paneling fell five stories from the side of a hotel downtown tr ding on a roof of a building reaching upward during the thunderstorm. the storms are now moving into western georgia and florida. we'll have the forecast for you in just a few minutes. now to the war in ukraine and new reports that vladimir putin's advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth. the devastating attacks targeting ukrainian civilians show no sign of slowing. abc's em nguyen is here now with the overnight details. em, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, andrew. u.s. intelligence officials say they believe vladimir putin is being kept in the dark by advisers too scared to speak the truth. new assessments on the war in

ukraine reveal morale among russian soldiers is low, and vladimir putin is unaware just how badly things are going. >> it increasingly looks like putin has massively misjudged the situation. > reporter: british intelligence says some russian soldiers are now disobeying orders and even sabotaging their own equipment. >> we've seen russian soldiers short of weapons and morale refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft. >> reporter: according to recently declassified information, u.s. intelligence has determined putin feels misled by his military leaders after they failed to give him key details about setbacks on the battlefield fearing he'd get angry. and the white house says putin is not being told about the full impact of sanctions on the russian economy. it all comes as russia claims to be scaling back military operations in some parts of ukraine to promote trust between the two sides.

but the pentagon says only about 20% of russian forces around kyiv are moving away from the capital, and they're apparently just repositioning. russians continue to bombard the suburb of irpin. abc's james longman is there. >> as you can hear, the war rages, and this, this is one of the areas that the russians say they are now going to leave, but as you can hear, there are no signs of this war stopping. >> reporter: in southern ukraine officials confirm this red cross building was hit by a military strike. new satellite images show the damaged building with the red cross symbol clearly marked on the roof. as for peace talks, a ukrainian negotiator says both sides will meet again tomorrow via a video link. mona. >> em, thank you. sources say the biden administration is moving forward with plans to end the trump era immigration rule known as title 42. the rule gives the government the authority to expel migrants at the southern border because of the pandemic. lifting title 42 is expected to

trigger a surge of up to 18,000 migrants crossing into the u.s. every day. the rule is expected to be lifted in may. the navy is investigating a military plane crash off the coast of virginia. one crew member was killed. officials say the radar plane was conducting routine operations. no word on what caused the crash. now to chris rock back on stage for the first time since being slapped by will smith. he mentioned the infamous moment during his show in boston last night, and the show was not without its own drama. overnight chris rock breaking his silence in the wake of the will smith oscar slap. >> how was your weekend? >> reporter: in this audio obtained by "variety," rock publicly addressing the incident. >> i don't have a bunch of [ bleep ] about what happened. i'm still kind of processing what happened. so at some point i'll talk about that [ bleep ]. >> reporter: abc news entertainment producer anastasia

williams was in the audience at rock's performance in boston last night, his first since the oscars. she says rock got emotional as the audience gave him a prolonged standing ovation. >> he started to get visibly emotional. he wiped away some tears. he was smiling, but you could tell that he was really overcome by the moment. >> reporter: but the performance was not without incident. at one point a heckler interrupted rock. >> chris definitely noticed that person because he actually stopped the show, and he said something like, is this person going to take out a gun and -- out of his pocket and shoot me, which i think was half a joke half what's kind of going on. chris rock's personal security came out from the outside of the curtain and kind of stood by just to see what was going on. the person was escorted out, and chris went right back into joke telling. >> reporter: in this video you can see the suspect lashing out at police outside the theater before he's taken into custody. meanwhile, the academy of motion picture arts and sciences now revealing that smith was asked to leave the oscars after he slapped rock, but he refused.

the academy now apologizing to rock saying, mr. rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment. the academy also announcing it has begun disciplinary proceedings and adding, while we would like to clarify that mr. smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently. oscars co-host wanda sykes now speaking out against smith calling his actions sickening and adding she spoke to rock after the ceremony. >> the first thing he said was, i'm so sorry. and i'm like, why are you apologizing? it was supposed to be your night. >> the academy could expel will smith or sanction him but it's not expected to take away his oscar. new video of wildfires burning in virginia and eastern tennessee. dozens of firefighters contained this forest fire in roanoke county and in tennessee, one person was injured near pigeon forge, and at least 35 buildings burned in the dry, windy conditions, but rain today should help. all right. with that time for a look at

your thursday forecast. good morning. the threat for severe thunderstorms is high across the south into this early thursday morning from pensacola northward to nashville, could see heavy weather with damaging straight-line winds, even a few tornadoes. meantime, daybreak on thursday from the southern appalachians down to the florida panhandle we're going to see heavy thunderstorms, could see some strong winds, even a few tornadoes then later in the day the storm threat shifts to north florida and even up into the mid-atlantic states. a couple of zones of severe weather on your thursday. i'm accuweather meteorologist kevin coskren. coming up, new action from the white house to control gas prices. also ahead, a 42-year-old cold case killing finally solved. how police cracked the case of a woman murdered on her way home from work. and later what we're learning about the brain disorder forcing bruce willis to give up acting and how he has struggled.

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kids, go with grandma over to the cars. >> police in new mexico helped to stop a woman and her grandchildren after a car they were towing behind a motor home caught fire and shoveled dirt onto the flames and disconnected the rv from the burning car. fortunately everyone is okay. big announcement affecting gas prices today. president biden is expected to tap into the nation's strategic petroleum reserves to release up to 1 million barrels of oil per day. it's part of a strategy to help bring down prices at the p3 . meanwhil offi overl irease is drive poultry and egg prices up 12% and then the war in ukraine could push the price of wheat flour up 15%.

we turn now to a cold case murder solved after four decades and police say it's all thanks to the killer's own son. here's andrea fujii. >> reporter: this morning, a dna discovery helping solve a 42-year-old cold case. >> she was real and she meant the world to me. >> reporter: on wednesday, eye ren wilkowitz saw the face of her sister's killer for the first time, herbert rice who died in 1991 of natural causes. >> i didn't want to see it. >> eve wilkowitz of island was walking home from the train station after work in 1980 and all police knew back then was that someone followed her and sexually assaulted and strangled her. her body found days later dumped on someone's lawn. >> due to the technology at the time, no donor profile, no anderson profile was able to be r decades no suspects until 2020 when the fbi

began to run genealogical comparisons on public databases and when they ran the dna left on wilkowitz's body they found a match to herbert rice's son who according to the local newspaper "newsday" willingly gave a dna sample and they exhumed his father's body and saw it matched on the rape kit. wilkowitz's sister thanking rice's family for helping solve this decades long mystery. >> i also want to thank the relative of the man who gave his dna. i really appreciate it so very much. he didn't have to. >> reporter: police say rice who was 29 at the time of the crime did not have a major criminal record, so his dna was not in their database. mona, andrew. >> simply incredible they were able to piece that together 40 years later. okay, thanks, andrea. coming up, the fruit you should eat twice a week for

important health benefits. the new research. but first we hear from the mother of the navy s.e.a.l. candidate who died after the so-called hell week of training. (jackie) i've made progress with my mental health. so when i started having unintentional body movements called tardive dyskinesia... i ignored them. but when the twitching and jerking in my face and hands affected my day to day... i finally had to say, 'it's not ok.' it was time to talk to my doctor about austedo. she said that austedo helps reduce td movements in adults... while i continue with most of my mental health medications. (vo) austedo can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, behaviors, feelings, or have suicidal thoughts. common side effects include inflammation of the nose and throat, insomnia and sleepiness. don't take austedo if you have liver problems, are taking reserpine, tetrabenazine, or valbenazine. austedo may cause irregular or fast heartbeat, restlessness, movements mimicking parkinson's disease, fever, stiff muscles, problems thinking, and sweating. (jackie) talk to your doctor about austedo...it's time to treat td.

td is not ok. visit askforaustedo.com. (swords clashing) -had enough? -no... arthritis. here. aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ it was time for a nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma that can mean less oral steroids. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor.

tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. we're back with an exclusive interview with the mother of kyle mullen, the navy s.e.a.l. candidate who died during training. mullen passed away in february after completing hell week, a grueling five days of underwater training with little sleep. kyle's mom says she spoke to her son just moments after he finished the training, and she says he did not sound well. >> and he was so happy, and i heard him out of breath, and i said, kyle, you okay? are you hurt? are you in a hospital, and he just responded, don't worry, mom. i'm good. i love you, and he hung up, and then i texted him immediately, you don't sound good. and i never heard from him again. >> reporter: no official cause of kyle's death has been released. later on "good morning america"

regina explains what she thinks killed her son and the changes she wants the navy to make. actor paul herman has died. he was perhaps best known for his role on beansie on "the sopranos" and appeared in dozens of tv shows and almost every film made by martin scorsese. herman was 76. we're learning more about the brain disorder that's forcing bruce willis to retire from acting. aphasia is typically caused by some sort of brain damage. this morning, the shocking announcement from bruce willis that he is stepping away from acting. >> get together, have a few laughs. >> reporter: his family including his wife emma and his ife mi relea statemt ce health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. aphasia is a disorder that affects your act to produce or comprehend language. >> the number one cause of aphasia is stroke because stroke is such a common condition and a common disease, however, there are many other things that

can cause aphasia, for instance, aphasia can happen in a transient way even in people who suffer migraines. aphasia can happen in a much slower but more progressive way in certain memory conditions and in certain cognitive conditions like alzheimer's disease. >> reporter: experts say there is effective treatment available. >> there is certainly opportunities for rehabilitation. particularly through a speech and language pathologist and the earlier the intervention, the better in the case of stroke. >> i see dead people. >> in your dreams? >> reporter: the 67-year-old enjoyed a storied hollywood career with big hits including the "die-hard" series, "armageddon" and "the sixth sense." willis is also known for doing his own stunts saying he lost two-thirds of his hearing filming this scene in "die-hard." >> thanks for the advice. >> reporter: there's been speculation in the industry in his condition after he considered several straight to video movie projects in recent years. while it's yet to be revealed what caused his aphasia,is

key' blenmi i close. ex-wife demi moore even living under the same roof under the pandemic. the family saying, quote, we are moving through there as a strong family unit. as bruce always says, live it up and together we plan to do just that. "the l.a. times" reports people who worked with willis on recent movies scaled back his roles and fed him lines through an earpiece to help him out. in sports the u.s. men's soccer team has clinched a berth in this year's world cup. they qualified last night despite losing to costa rica. the tournament begins in november. tom brady is getting a new head coach. bruce arians is stepping down or up for a job in the bucs front office replaced by todd bowles who becomes the sixth minority head coach in the league. here's a baseball highlight we've never seen. a player for the savannah bananas minor league team doing a full split at the plate. he drew a walk, and they call it now the banana split. >> looks like a scene out of a movie.

well, coming up, forget coffee and doughnuts, the new makeup from dunkin'. also ahead, the company also ahead, the company that brought us fancy vacuum numbers... ...move you but some can stop you in your tracks. like the tens of thousands of people who were diagnosed with certain hpv-related cancers. for most people, hpv clears on its own. but for those who don't clear the virus, it can cause certain cancers. gardasil 9 is a vaccine given to adults through age 45 that can help protect against certain diseases caused by hpv. including cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal, and certain head and neck cancers, such as throat and back of mouth cancers, and genital warts. gardasil 9 doesn't protect everyone and does not treat cancer or hpv infection. your doctor may recommend screening for certain hpv-related cancers. women still need routine cervical cancer screenings. you shouldn't get gardasil 9 if you've had an allergic reaction to the vaccine, its ingredients, or are allergic to yeast. tell your doctor if you have a weakened immune system, are pregnant, or plan to be. the most common side effects include injection site

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their highest level in decades, but they may be worth it. >> a new study finds eating avocados at least twice a week can reduce your risk of heart disease by up to 21%. but be warned. avocados aren't exactly diet food. loch one has between 200 and 500 next, what's being called a ake-up and makeup collection. just dunkin', and the company elf cosmetics. >> they're launching beauty products inspired by dunkin's sweet treats including the dunkin' dozen eyeshadows and the glazed for days lip glosses, matching the colors and flavors of your favorite dunkin' products. finally, more americans are getting access to drone delivery. >> it's like grubhub but with wings, and wings may be inside. a company called fly teches is testing food deliveries by drone in north carolina and it's expanding to a much bigger area outside of dallas. >> residents can order from local restaurants. the company promises delivery in

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>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> now at 5:00.

a wild scene on the bay bridge. a crash, a carjacking and traffic backed up for hours. this morning, police are asking for your help to attract down the person they say is to blame. kumasi: getting answers about the second covid-19 booster shot. we are taking questions to a member of the abc 7 vaccine team. reggie: the clock is ticking on california's rent relief program. good morning on this thursday. your rent is due tomorrow. people do not like it what i say your rent is due the day of. kumasi: i do not like it today, either. [laughter] lisa: you have annoyed less people. i am helping