the tale of the tapes. this morning the actual audio of donald trump discussing a cash payment of sorts to a former playboy play mate. captured and recorded by then attorney michael cohen. the georgia law maker who unwittingly dropped his pants and used racial slurs on "who's america" will resign. there's just a single winner of the mega millions jackpot. we'll tell you where the golden ticket was sold. your wicked weather forecast that includes record heat and flooding for millions coast to coast. frrsh. that is a seven kilometerer climb.

>> oh, goodness, gracious. >> that head-over-heels moment that tour de france. "early today" starts right now. >> good morning. >> good to be with you. we begin with breaking news. a bomb shell tape widening the rift between then candidate, donald trump and his then lawyer michael cohen. just months before the election, cohen secretly recorded conversation with trump talking about buying the rights to a former playboy model's story nbc news can't confirm whether the recording has been edited or altered. they discuss payments to keep the year-long affair with trump quiet. while trump has denied the affair, the tape made it clear he knew about the plans to buy her silence. >> he's heard saying quote pay with cash. >> i need to open up a company

for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david, you know, so that i'm knowing to do that right away. and i've spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up. with -- >> so what are -- >> yes. and it's all the stuff -- all the stuff. because you never know where that company -- >> maybe he gets hit by -- >> correct. so i'm all over that. when it comes time for the financing -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to -- >> pay cash. >> no, no, no. >> cohen is under federal investigation for his alleged role in paying hush money to women. in this case there's no evidence a payment was made. he had made a payment of $1,000 to stormy daniels for an alleged one-night affair with trump. tracie potts from washington with the very latest.

>> reporter: and we're also hearing from daniel's attorney. first reaction from president trump. he ignored shouted questions about this last night but told a crowd in kansas city not to trust the media when it comes to situations like this. meanwhile we're hearing from the current attorney rudy giuliani in a phone call. he says taping a conversation a lawyer taping a conversation with a client disastrous. he goes on to say he doesn't believe, based on what he's heard that there's anything criminal in this tape. he also questions the motive for it being released. >> this is at most an attempt to do something. i don't know of any attempt in this category of crime that they're looking at. in any event, i don't think anyone can suggest this

represents anything where the president did anything wrong and that's the reason why we waved it. >> reporter: there are at least two wem whoon are alleged to have had affairs with the president. this one is about karen mcdougal. but the attorney for the other woman, stormy daniels has a very different take on what this tape may mean. >> there's no question that michael cohen has the goods on the president. and instead of come canning clean and disclosing that information in full and being open and honest with the american people, he continues to hedge his bets. and they sprinkle out this morsel, this one-minute tape. there's multiple tapes. >> reporter: as he mentioned there are more tapes out there. we don't know when or if we will hear them. the big question is this a political problem for the presidents? a criminal problem or no problem at all? >> we will soon find out. thank you. extreme weather is reeking

havoc on both sides of the country. in the west nearly 40 million are facing triple digit tempertureses fuelling ferocious wild fires like these in california. the blistering heat is already sponsible for six deaths. they're urging people to protect themselves and pets by keeping cool and staying hydrated. they got to this dog in time inside a parked vehicle at a staggering 114 degrees. phoenix shattered a record high with temperatures topping 115 degrees. it melted in just 30 minutes. well, another threat in the west flash floods from powerful storms triggerering numerous rescued. it's indachging over 35 million on the other side of the country. frrls. >> reporter: dangerous flooding on the east coast is effecting 10s of millions. in pennsylvania an urgent search

is underway for a missing 19-year-old woman swept into a creek near harrisburg. >> she got swept under the current and we're searching for her under the waterer. >> that waterer is very dangerous. do not attempt to cross or drive through waterer because you don't know the dangerous conditions that can occur. >> reporter: the flood waters moved in so quickly riekert got trapped on the roof of his jeep. >> it just happened out of nowhere and my car was shut off and i was like what do i do now? >> reporter: hirschy park closed after parts of the park were submerged. emergency crews responding in charlotte, north carolina after five people got trapped in a flooded business and in baltimore, maryland, a child and two adults rescued when they got trapped on a school bus. bridges buckled. the storm has claimed at least one life a woman kill canned by a tree in virginia.

>> the tree had fell into approximately a quarter of the home. >> reporter: dangerous weather showing no sign of letting up. elizabeth town, pennsylvania as president trump's trade war with other nations heats up, they're now offering aid to those effected the most. the department of agriculture for farmers facing billions in losses due to the president's tariffs. the nouncement the same day ivanka trump had news of her own regarding her fashion brand. >> reporter: with his trade war heating up, president trump sending help to american farmers caught in the cross fire. >> this is the time to take off the rip off -- we have to do it. >> reporter: the administration announcing $12 billion in temporary aid for farmers hit hardest by retaliatory tariffs. >> if it's indefinite, a year,

two years, we're going to have a lot of problems in farm country. >> reporter: tweeting tariffs are the greatest but promising this eventual happy ending. >> farmers will be the biggest beneficiary, watch. we're opening up markets. you watch what's going to happen. just by a little patient. >> reporter: even some republicans are calling the tariffs and plan to offset them a bad idea. saying farmers tell them. >> give me trade not aid. we've spent decades developing these markets. let's have access to them. >> reporter: on the same day the president's daughter, ivanka trump, announces she shutting down her retail business. saying after 17 months in washington i do not know when or if i will ever return to the business. but recently stores like

nordstrom stopped calling her namesake brand amid declining sales and calls for boycott from those critical of her farther. an immigrant detained by ice after delivering pizza is back home with his family this morning. he was released from a detention center just hours ago after a federal judge ordered his immediate release, calling him a model citizen. he could not contain his emotions. >> i'm so happy. oh, my god. i love you. >> reporter: a judge has ruled he can remain in the united states while he tries to gain legal status. demi lovato is recovering from an apparent drug over dose. she is awake and with her family. they can ask for privacy. she was treated with an

antiopioid medication. it's not yet known what drug caused the over dose. she's been open about her battle with substance abuse. she was skejed to perform in atlantic city tomorrow but that's been canceled. it's so hard to make plans. >> tropical down pours. florida afternoon weather but it's the last four or five days in a row. overnight the heaviest rains are in central pennsylvania. the red is flash flood warnings. sw a band of rain in philadelphia. in new york city about an hour from now. this is the flash flood threat for today. the area of red is the greatest risk. heavy rain later this afternoon and evening this region. and as far as the timing this is 8:00 a.m. for your 5:00 p.m. map is from

upstate new york through the poconos, the catskills including wauks d.c. be in eastern and coastal north carolina. you also may have seen dallas back up to the hundreds today and the heat continues out west. >> they're becoming very familiar -- >> just like phoenix these days. and authorities in bay area are looking for three women they say shop lifted from a dozen lululemon stores. melania trump visited the children's hospital in nashville. and met with young patients.

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simply add water, to remove soap scum. try mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam. leading the news a television aboard air force one tuned into cnn caused a big stir. the new york times reported president trump raged at the staff for violating a rule that they should begin each trip tuned to fox. the report coming on the same day president trump again attacked the media at a veteran's of foreign wars event. >> don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. just remember what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> the times reports that at the end of the email exchange they agreed standard procedure would be all tvs are tuned to fox news. the new jersey police

officer isbying hailed a hero. he saved the life of a man nearly run over by a train. the officer found the man during a welfare check. so he made a mad dash for him, screaming to get his attention. conductorer heard the yells and slowed the train down just in time for the jump from the tracks. he thanked the for rescuing him. after initially rejecting multiple calls to resign, jason spencer has now said he will call it quits on sasha barren cohen's tv show. he pranked spencer into believing cohen is an israeli military expert and gets spencerer to participate in a fake antiterrorism training and convinces him to do this to ward off terrorist attack. >> now i am going to be the

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now to an nbc news exclusive. espionage and intrigue at top universities. chinese students coming to universitieses to steal secrets? here with the story. >> reporter: what country is fbi directorer christopher ray worried moets about? last week he told lester. >> i thing china, from a counterintelligence perspective represents the broadest, most challenging, most significant threat we face as a country. >> reporter: academic espionage is of concern. that some students, at the direction of the chinese government is funding research, much of which is funded by the u.s. government. >> in a microwaven. >> reporter: famous for inventing an invisibility cloak, made up a material invisible to

microwaves. >> working invisibility cloak sglerks and a young scientist in china. lieu came to study in dr. smith's lab, some believe on a mission from the chinese government. >> we know the chinese have a shopping list of intelligence technology every year. we know the research he took from duke university was on that collection list and we know certain government officials and operatives met with him while he was in the united states. >> reporter: lieu, who was being paid by the chinese government while a student mere, brought his colleagues to dr. smith's lab. >> they took pictures and measurererments and took that back to china. >> is that ethical? it sounds like theft to me. i don't know. >> if we were a company, you might think so. >> reporter: they opened a case

on lieu in 2010. but charges were never brought. >> was he handled, approached, compromised, subsidized when he took it back to china? my theory says yes. >> that is ridiculous. >> reporter: ridiculous? >> yeah, ridiculous. it's far away from the truth. >> reporter: what is true is his chinese tech company is now valued at $6 billion. we visited an advanced version of dr. smith's invisibility cloak. university tells us they never concan sidered withdrawing his ph.d. that the fact they opened the campus in china had nothing to do with that decision and that in the wake of this event, they along with many universities around the country are looking for sharper and clearer guidelines for how to protect intellectual property.

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in today's top stories, at least 70 people are dead after turning athensgreece into a raging inferno. they're searching through the scorched destruction in the country's worst blaze in over a decade. they rescued people from the showerline and pulled another 19 from the sea. 23 children are being treated in hospitals for injuries. los angeles police say an officer fired that bullet that killed a trader joe manager during a stand off. the innocent bistander was caught in a frantic gun fire

exchange. they say when the suspect crashed his car next to the trader joe's, he began firing at police. curoddo was running out the the store. the incident turned into a stand off and ended hours later with atkins' surrender. one thought he could snag some easy cash. they say a delivery man walked away with money from their tip jar. they later are responded to offer its support, including reimbursement. they said the driver has been located and driving privileges have been revoked. how about his privileges? >> never catch guys like that. someone in california, some one in california became an overnight multimillionaire.

the winning mega millions was the only ticket with all six matching numbers. the jackpot had swelled to the fifth largest prize ever. that's a cash pay aut option of over 808 million bucks. and tickets of $1 million each sold in arizona, mama, michigan, minnesota and new jersey. >> i wonder if this person has any idea at this given moment in time? >> probably not. going to wake up and everything changes. >> everybody's going to want a piece of that. move over beyonce. selena gomez shared picks from her 16th birthday party to her followers on instagram and in 13 minutes that post racked up a million likes.

she dethroned queen beyonce who preev dwrsly held the title when she posted bout her twins. >> that's incredible how many followers that is.ad lib live pe

shot - foggy! good morning and thank you good morning and thank you for joining us. i )m laura garcia. and i )m marcus washington. developing this morning -