an nbc us in exclusive, the pentagon prepared a specific strike plan for a preemptive strike on north korea and the key america's battle tested b-1 bombers. president trump's fire and fury rhetoric is backed up by his secretary of defense as the u.s. draws a red line in the sand. what caused a purse to explode into flame at a town hall meeting. why this kardashian could be headed towards a billion dollars at 19 years of age. and bruce springsteen plans to get intimate with fans. and rally kitty gets a little too frisky before a big game moment. "early today" starts right now. >> good morning, i'm philip

mena. >> and i'm frances riffa. north korea said they would fire four ballistic missiles over japan and towards the u.s. united states territory. but secretary of state rex tillerson says americans should sleep well at night knowing the threat has not substantially changed. while defense secretary jim mat is warned north korea to stop considering action that's would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people. promising it would lose any conflict it initiates. and the standoff may have the president facing the greatest leadership test yet. he faces a backlash at home for the tough remarks against north korea. remarks some say was out of bounds for the commander in chief. even if they were his own delivered off the cuff. nbc white house correspondent kristen welker has that and more for us this morning. >> reporter: when president trump unleashed that heated

warning to north korea. >> they will be met with fire and fury. >> reporter: those words were his, according to the white house, who said the president didn't discuss specific language with his top advisors but had previewed the tone, including with chief of staff, john kelly. still, the president's combative remarks sparked a backlash with some lawmakers. >> teddy roosevelt once said walk softly but carry a big stick. that's not what's being employed here. >> reporter: privately administration officials acknowledge they've spent the day trying to turn down the heat but the president may have added to the mixed messaging tweeting my first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. it is far stronger and more powerful than ever before. while it's true mr. trump ordered a review of the nuclear arsenal in january, former president obama launched an effort to upgrade the stockpile a project taking 30 years to complete making it impossible to have been signature changes this year. the president sent a second

tweet saying hopefully we will never have to use this power. some say president trump's unconventional policy talk shows strength. >> this is how north korea talks. why not give it a shot to say we have fire and fury if you want to play that gym. >> this is what you expect to hear from the north koreans not the united states and won't reassure our allies. >> reporter: the president's leadership facing the most fierce test yet in what's shaping up to be the most dramatic standoff since the cuban missile crisis. >> every president learns what is important is not tough talk but tough action. >> reporter: president trump spoke with his secretary for an hour on wednesday. today, vice president mike pence will meet with the president here in new jersey. north korea will undoubtedly be the key focus. >> thank you. for more on how the crisis

is shaping up on the ground, we go to our reporter on the chinese-north korean border. good morning, janice. >> good morning. it's unclear whether this latest round of u.n. sanctions can work. 80% of north korea's trade is with china and the vast majority of it flows through here. that's north korea just on the other side of the river. shipments are being curtailed. near dang dong though, ate paerit appears to be business as usual. trading food and con sunlsumer electronics, trucks cross notice morning, they empty the goods filled with chinese made goods and go back across the bridge that connects the two countries. north korea always found ways to circumvent the sanctions in the past. so much of what happens next is going to depend on enforcement. china voted for the sanctions. they say they're committed to a

resolution but they also stress that the u.s. and south korea need to back down. so there is this sense of nervousness in the region with the rhetoric widening the risk for miscalculation. so while it's not yet a sense of crisis, there is most definitely an escalation in tension. frances? philip? back to you. >> thank you. a pittsburgh s.w.a.t. team was rushed to the hospital following a dangerous raid when police knocked over a table where drugs were being bagged causing an extremely potent opioid drug to go airborne. 18 officers came in contact with the substance. they were treated and released from the hospital and are doing fine now. now four suspects are charged with conspiracy to traffic the opioid. they face a fine. tiger woods reached a plea deal with prosecutors related to his arrest in may. his attorney entered a not guilty plea.

but a prosecutor says he agreed to plead guilty to reckless driving. under the deal that, charge is wiped clean if he completes a diversion program. he is aexpected to appear in court on october 25th. some broadway goers got a dose of groundhog day deja vu. >> you ever have deja vu? >> i don't think so, but i could check with the kitchen. >> the comedy classic starring bill murray was recently made into a musical. he went to see the rendition for the first time and in true groundhog fashion he went to see it again last night. when he was moved to tears and so emotional he said the idea we have to try again is a beautiful powerful idea. he will return for a third time. >> the attention is always on the stage but sometimes it makes sense to look around you. >> bill murray every time. when it comes to baseball games, you've seen all kind of

people and things going on the field. i don't think you've seen anything like. this watch this kitty here roaming its way on to the field during a game. when the grounds keeper come out to get the lost kitty, look what happened. he picks it up and then right there, kitty attacks causing him to wring out in pain. he tries to get it under control for a second time only for the kitty to do it again. and, of course, as these things go, when you slow motion, you see it right there. >> so much better. the best part of this is on the very next pitch. so bases were loaded and the home team cardinals were down, very next pitch when they started play, grand slam. cardinals won the game. right after that. so lucky kitty. and will be there every home game i'm sure. just ahead, a graphic testimony from taylor swift's mom at her groping trial. plus, why you could see oprah at your local grocery store. first, bill karins is here with the latest on hurricane franklin. picking up steam or losing? >> losing quickly now. made land fall around midnight last night north of vera creuz,

mexico. we've had this in the pacific. now it's going to rain itself out. none of the moisture is going to sneak its way north. this is mexico's problem with rainfall over the next day. and that's about it. then we'll be gone franklin. still looking at very warm conditions. yesterday was 90. seattle, it will be close to 89. 94 in boise. looking for nice conditions l.a. from san this. this is very cape tall ftypical time of year. 110 near phoenix. a sneak peek of the upcoming weekend forecast coming up. all right. this next one could very well be a pizza lover's nightmare. look at. this a tractor-trailer crashed and scattered hundreds of frozen

pizza's loaning the highway in little rock, arkansas. the trailer hit an overpass. the officials had to shut down the highway and clean it up. i will stalled traffic for hours while they cleaned it up. all that pizza to waste. >> at least everybody is talking about the pizza. not necessarily the way they like though. go ahead, just ahead, i should say, more gop infighting, this time targeting senator john mccain and oprah's next conquest, a grocery store. and is kylie jenner headed for a billion dollars? "early today" is back in two. honey? can we do this tomorrow? (grunts of effort) can we do this tomorrow? if you have heart failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase, making tomorrow uncertain. but entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest heart failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine.

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>> uh -- >> is really, really -- >> fantastic. >> uh -- sometimes that says it all. stocks around the globe, they pulled back on fears of north korea unrest. but on the retail side, you have oprah and kylie jenner making waves. >> and we got cnbc's in-house business guru steve sedgwick. he has us covered. good morning, steve. >> we have, yes. exactly. we'll talk about trump. trump and, of course, kim jong-un having a few problems of each other, of course. not just sending people to safe havens, the swiss currency, the dollar is getting a bid. the dow had two days down. the european markets are down on the back of that big story. elsewhere though, from o, that's good. that's the new brand, kraft heinz and oprah winfrey have come up for a brand of food she is going to put on the shelves this week as well. there's going to be an ad campaign that starts on october 2nd. very interesting. mashed potatoes with cauliflower

mixed in. cauliflower mashed and replacing the cheese. not sure about replacing the cheese, who knows. kylie jenner, how much is her cosmetics business worth? $420 million and done that in only 18 months. the likes of estee lauder took years and years to get to half a billion bucks. incredibly fast there. huh, back to you. >> she has a lot of influence, huh. >> no hesitation there, no huhs. steve, thank you. leading the news, this bizarre story in massachusetts people may consider disturbing. two juvenile babysitters putting a baby in a refrigerator and filming it for chat. she says bye and closes the door. in another portion they open the fridge to reveal the screaming baby. the girls are laughing throughout. officials say the infant is expected to be okay. the sitters have been charged

with child endangerment and assault and battery. their identities have been withheld because of their age. now to an interparty fight brewing between the members of the republican party and it includes a key member of the senate. senator ron johnson said this to a chicago morning talk show when offering the explanation on why john mccain voted against the gop's obamacare repeal bill. >> again, i'm not going to speak for john mccain. he has a brain tumor right now. that vote occurred at 1:30 in the morning. some of that might have factored in. >> really? >> now, senator johnson is taking a step back saying i'm disappointed i didn't more eloquently express my sympathy for what senator mccain is going through. i have nothing but respect for him. the senator's called johnson's comments bizarre and deeply unfortunate.

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guam saying it will be in position to do so by mid-august. >> even as it brushes off president trump's comments of retaliation as a load of nonsense, how deep of a war would a preemptive attack plunge us into. >> reporter: nbc news can report the pentagon has prepared a specific strike plan for a preemptive attack on north korea should the president order one. key to that plan two senior officials and retired officers tell us the battle tested b-1 bomber seen here in a military video training for such a mission. the b-1 recently updated has been a workhorse in afghanistan and iraq. since the end of may the b-1's have accelerated their training, conducted practice runs including monday. they are not nuclear capable. here's what they're training for. pairs of b-1 supported overhead by satellites and drones surrounded by fighter jets as well as refueling and electronic warfare planes have practiced trips to see what missile sites might look like.

the highly sophisticated strike package is designed to be largely invisible to target a sneak attack. approximately 2 dozen north korea missile launch sites an support facilities officials tell nbc news they feel confident they have accurately identified. the b-1s can carry a mix of weapons, as many as 168 bombs or more likely the new b61 er, a highly accurate missile that can be fired hundreds of miles outside north korean airspace. >> of all the military options you can consider this would be one of the two or three that would at least have a possibility of not escalating the situation. a single long range strike against the nuclear program, a

cyber offensive would be the second. those are the only two military options that ought to be in serious consideration. nonetheless, the admiral who was the supreme allied commander of nato says he would counsel the president against the use of the u.s. military at this point. >> kim jong-un would be compelled to respond. he would lash out militarily at a minimum against south korea and long range targets potentially including guam, a bad outcome from where we sit today. facebook is going to launch the next big thing plus, taylor swift's mother takes the stand in her sexual assault trial. and the airlines rewards programs, the latest rankings. ...we run marathons... ...companies... ...solve problems. how? we eat. we eat almonds...

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mother took the stand in the second day of the sexual assault lawsuit. she told the court her daughter was physically upset after allegedly being groped by former damage david mueller. she said the singer told her, mom, a guy just grabbed my behind. swift's team never called police because she didn't want her daughter to relive the incident however they didn't want him to get away with alleged groping so they told his radio station. he was later fired and denied it and he's suing her and she's counter-suing for sexual assault and seeking a symbolic one dollar. frequent flyers, u.s. news and world rereport released this year's ranking on the best reward programs, for the third consecutive year, alaska airlines tops followed by delta and then jetblue and southwest is fourth and united mileage plus round out the top five. keep it right here. shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day

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authorities in florida are looking at a group of prankster who's set off fireworks inside a wendy's restaurant. surveillance video shows the fireworks being tossed through the entrance, an employee sitting nearby doesn't react to the first explosion but the second one sends her running. the incident happened on o july 5th. the explosion damaged the wall. you see there. no one was hurt. the talk with cuba dmob jeopardy after two cuban diplomats were taken back in may. it's in retaliation for five diplomats severe hearing loss. ap officials said concluded they had been exposed to a sonic device in havana in late 2016. the condition is nonlife

threatening but some were forced to return to the u.s. the state department is investigating. >> it took time to figure out what it was. this is still on going. we take this very seriously. look -- this incident. >> what's the incident? >> and that's what we're calling it. we don't know exactly. >> the cuban government says it's investigating and denies any involvement in the incident and the u.s. is investigating whether the sonic devices were planted by individuals outside the cuban government's chain of command. but cuba says it would never allow the territory to be used for any action against diplomats. >> so could the hottest new shows be coming to facebook soon? the social media giant just unveiled the new platform for original programming. it's called watch. and it's expected to compete directly with youtube. the platform will feature tv like shows that users can add to their watch list and promises to make it easier for people to find video content outside of the news feed. watch will also feature live shows that connect directly with

fans answering questions in real time. users can also access watch via mobile devices, computers and tv apps. facebook is rolling out watch to a limited group of people in the u.s. first before expanding to more users. sparks were flying at a city council meeting in boulder city. hit nothing to do with politics. watch this moment. a woman's phone randomly erupts in flames causing her shirt to catch on fire. luckily the city's top firefighter was there and he jum noopd action. the woman was treated for minor burns and officials say a battery malfunction is to blame for the explosion. . >> so scary. >> there is no lucky winner in last night's powerball drawing worth $307 million. saturday's is estimated $356 million. mega million is my go to. that is always a dollar versus the whopping $2 for powerball. >> go get rich, everyone. >> see you back here tomorrow on

friday. it )s thursday morning..

we )re more than halfway through the work week. a live look outside in san it is thursday morning and we're more than halfway through that workweek. lye look outside san francisco this morning, a beautiful start to our thursday morning. you can almost taste the weekend, almost there. good morning to you, thanks for joining us i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm sam brock. what's being cocked for the weekend? you got some eggs for us? >> oh, breakfast lunch and dinner you think you have enough for a barbecue? >> i think so. it's going to be perfect this weekend. we'll bring down those temperatures a few more degrees. it will be cooler it's been so nice and especially for the inland areas. right now it's 63 degrees as you head out in san jose, upper 50s for palo alto, and snichlt napa. for today's high temperatures will be up to