debby crashes into the

carolinas. >> the tropical storm making a second landfall overnight. pummeling that region with potentially record-breaking rainfall. meteorologist angie lassman is tracking the threat as this storm barrels up the east coast. an alleged terror threat forcing taylor swift to cancel concerts in vienna. we're live with new information on the two suspects arrested for plotting the attack, including one with alleged links to isis. a battleground blitz turning into a war of words over military service. we're in d.c. with how kamala harris and tim walz are firing back. coastco is bulking up for a fight against membership moochers. and put the pedal to the gold medal. the u.s. cycling team rides to another win, while a star runner pulls offer an epic comeback. we're live in paris this morning with all the action as we sprint

into the final stretch of the olympic games. "early today" starts right now. good morning, and thanks for joining us, i'm jessica leighton. we begin this thursday morning as tropical storm debby makes a second landfall, this time along the coast of south carolina near bold bay. debby struck monday as a category 1 hurricane, drenching the gulf coast and causing widespread power outages. the slow-moving storm killing at least six people and bringing dangerous flooding across the southeast. in gaj, aeorgia, at least four were breached in bullock county. and a tornado touched down in north carolina's sampson county wednesday, damaging two homes and causing a building to collapse. more than 700 fema staff and federal partners have been sent out in florida, georgia, and north carolina. and, for the very latest on debbie's path, let's bring in

nbc meteorologist angie lassman. angie, what a mess. everyone along the east coast is dealing with. >> yeah, good morning, jessica, you're exactly right. this has been days and days of this system and we still have a couple days to go until it's out of the picture for folks across the east coast. 50 mitle per hour winds and a whole lot of rain. we've already seen large, dangerous tornados across parts of north carolina this morning. we've got a tornado watch that's going to extend into the early afternoon hours including vwest virginia and north carolina. 21 million people under those. they'll likely expand through the day today. here's the area we're watching, richmond included in that stretching to the coast. that is something we'll watch through tonight. here's how this system moves. by the time we get into late thursday into early friday, still tropical storm, does weaken, but either way, we're

still going to see additional rainfall for folks across the carolinas and mid atlantic and eventually the northeast. here's where we're watching for the greatest chance of flash flooding. where you see the brighter pink, roanoke included in that. we'll be watching that through the day today. >> thank you so much. now to that chilling cancellation in europe. organizers calling offer all three taylor swift concerts in vienna after miss spolice say t foiled a terrorist attack on the arena where she was supposed to perform. two suspects have been arrested, but the concerts are still canceled due to security concerns. let's start with the suspects and what we know about them right now. >> reporter: jessica, good morning. we're still learning about the two suspects at this time. what we do know, one of them is a 19-year-old who allegedly pledged allegiance to isis. we do not have information on the second suspect but austrian police are looking for at least one more possible associate. there could be more as well.

the two detained were known to law enforcement and had been under surveillance for some time. their plans appear to have focussed on targeting vienna's major major event sites, and they focussed on taylor swift's concert, not for swift herself but for the large crowd she draws. law enforcement found the chemicals for a bomb. they did not have the final gr ingredients, but it's believed they would have achieved that. both of the suspects are said to have been radicalized online. and unfortunately, that is all we know about them at this time. all three of swift's shows in vienna have unfortunately been canceled. her website says all tickets will be automatically refunded within the next ten days. swift hardly cancels concerts,

but she said that her greatest fear is a terror event at one of her shows. >> nothing more important than their safety. thank you. now let's turn to the race for the white house and the battleground blitz. vice president kamala harris and tim walz hitting the road together. and they are sweeping through the critical swing states, rallying supporters in wisconsin and michigan. nbc's drew petramoix joins us now. the democratic party is really seeing a new wave of energy and enthusiasm with this reset in the race. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, good morning, jessica. the harris campaign says they took in $35 million in donations in the 24 hours after they announced that governor tim walz was joining the ticket. the vice president and her running mate seem to want to reset the tone of the race. as they put it, they are bringing joy to this election. >> in this fight, as tim walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors. >> all the things that make me mad about those other guys, and

all the things they do wrong, the one thing that i will not forgive them for is their try to steal the joy from this country. they try to steal the joy. but you know what? you know what? our next president brings the joy! she emanates the joy. [cheers and applause] >> reporter: campaign has b sending jd vance to the same br battleground states and have launched a new attack against the military record of tim walz, slamming him for saying he carried weapons of war. he served in the national guard but not in combat. >> when tim walz was asked by his country to go to iraq, you know what he did? he dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact he's been criticized for by a lot of people he served with. >> i never said i saw a firefight myself, but i've always told the truth about my service.

that's the difference between me and tim walz. >> reporter: the harris campaign responded by saying after 24 years of service he retired in 2005 and ran for congress where he chaired the veterans affairs committee. he fired and trained others to use weapons of war and he would never insult or undermine any american's service to the country. vice president harris will hold another event in michigan before traveling to arizona. >> busy day ahead. thank you. in a new interview, president biden was asked if he was confident there will be a peaceful transfer of power after this election. take a listen to what he said. >> if trump wins, no, i'm not confident at all. i mean, if trump loses, i'm not confident at all. he means what he says. we don't take him seriously. he means it. all this stuff about, if we lose, there will be a bloodbath. >> nbc news did reach out to the trump campaign for a comment on this. they did not address that clip directly. rather, a spokesperson said that

mr. trump hwill win, and he wil take back the white house. new this morning, the estate of one of the victims aboard that doomed "titan" submersible is suing the company oceangate for $50 million. the lawsuit alleges that passengers likely knew that the vessel was about to implode and claims there were numerous safety breaches on the part of oceangate. the submersible was trying to reach the wreckage of the "titanic," when it imploded in june of last year. oceangate could not be reached for comment. well, this was supposed to be a ten-day mission, but now nasa says two boeing starliner astronauts could be stranded on the international space station until february. ground crews are still working on helium leaks and thruster issues on that beleaguered starliner. nasa is now considering having butch wilmore and suni williams return to earth on a spacex mission due to launch in september and return next year.

they are taking it in stride. >> i have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home, no problem. >> that mantra you've heard, failure is not an option, that's reques why we are staying here now. >> a final decision does need to be made by mid august. to paris now, quincy hall was in it for the long haul in paris on wednesday e. >> quincy hall is coming back! quincy hall is digging deep! quincy hall is running past all of them! can he get there? he does! >> the runner found himself as far back as fourth place in the final stretch of the men's 400-meter. that is until he switched gears and left the rest of the field in his dust, beating out britain's matthew hudson smith for the gold by .0400 of a second. the gold rush didn't just stop

at the track. team usa took home two more, one in cycling, team pursuit. and the other in women's wrestling. let's go back to the pool. the u.s. ended a nearly two-decade medal drought in artistic swimming. the team was narrowly edged out by china for gold, but their routine still won them the silver, the first since 2004. and the u.s. women's basketball team is one game closer to their eighth straight gold medal. the squad continuing their dominance in the quarter final match. easily cruising to a 14-point win over nigeria. and then get this, there was even a long-delayed coronation right under the eiffel tower. the u.s. figure skating team received their gold medals from 2022's winter games in beijing on wednesday. they were finally confirmed as the winners last month, following russia's disqualification over doping allegations. take a look at the medal count. team usa currently lays claim to 94 total medals. that is 29 than its closest

challenger, which is china. jay gray will be live from paris a little later on in this broadcast with a preview of today's olympic events. well, coming up, a heat wave is blanketing the south this morning. angie lassman is tracking those temperatures for us all across the country. good morning again. >> summer holding on strong. 57 million people under heat alerts. that number continues to rise today. this stretches from florida across parts of the gulf coast into the southern plains, oklahoma city, dallas, you're included in this with temperatures expected to be in the triple digits for a couple folks today. dallas, houston ho, looking for near 100 degrees in tallahassee. we're running about 20degrees below normal across colorado today. more of that cool air settles in across the midwest tomorrow. but the triple digits and high 90s stay with us across houston and mobile. this will be something we deal

with well into next week. a bit of improvement, not as many 100-plus temperatures out there, but we are close saturday, sunday and monday in houston. let's see what's happening in your neighborhood. 74 degrees with rain in the forecast today in new york city. we head to the low 80s for richmond. lots of sunshine from shreveport to jackson. 99 degrees in new orleans today. 103 for tonight. charlotte seeing rain in the forecast. and that's a look at you are request forecast, jessica. back to you. "early today" is back in a minute with costco's new crackdown on membership moochers. and steve martin will not be on the comedy ticket as the election heats up. why he said no to snl's own version of the veep stakes. it's in your nature to stand strong. supplement your bones with high-absorption magnesium. nature's bounty. it's in your nature.

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who don't have a membership. let's get over to sylvia amaro. >> it's similar to netflix's move to crack down on password sharing. now costco announcing plans to crack down on membership sharing. the company said that over the coming months, membership scanning devices will be used at the entrances of your local warehouses. sticking with this theme, disney announced plans that in order to crack down also on password sharing, with these plans potentially coming into effect from september. th this announcement came after results that showed a moderation in terms of consumer demand for theme parks. >> all right, silva,yl sylvia, you. find out when you can see a sci-fi classic in imax. and live from new york, it's

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you just toss, wash, wow. is so, so, i want to renegotiate my contract. i want more money. >> can't, can't do it. >> lorne, lorne, what did you pay me the first time i hosted in 1976? >> $5,000? >> and what are you paying me now in 2006? >> $5,000. >> steve martin is out of the running for snl's veep stakes. the "l.a. times" reported that the comedy legend, i know, i can't look at this. turned down an offer from lorne myc michaels to play tim walz on the show. he explained that the show should get an impressionist for the part rather than someone who just looks like the minnesota governor. and he really does look like the minnesota governor, but i give him credit for saying you need someone who can really do this.

>> who's going to do it well. >> i would have loved to see him. >> al franken has been put in the running and jim gaffigan. but steve martin, you sure do look like walz. >> we will be watching to see who the tim walz wanna-be is. variety reported wednesday that nolan's 2014 sci-fi epic "inter "interstellar" will be released on december 6. it comes amid reports that t70 millimeter prints of the film have been destroyed. but they've archived more copies of the movie than others. you've already waited ten years for the rerelease, you can wait a few more months. and you've got to see it in imax. >> since we've talked about

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paris. nbc's jay gray is there. jay, only a couple days left in these games, but still a lot to watch for. bonjour. >> reporter: yeah, bonjour, you're right. team usa is close to 100 medals at this point, closing in on its olympic record, 113 won in tokyo. 27 of the medals in paris gold, the latest coming from the oval inside olympic stadium. >> it's the final of the men's 400 meters. let's go! >> reporter: down early, quincy hall finds another gear. >> quincy hall is coming back! >> reporter: closing at the tape to win gold in the 400 by just .004000 of a second. kate e katie moon soaring to silver in pole vault. >> this is what the olympics i thought would fieel like. i'm so happy.

>> reporter: more hardware in a rough and tumble steeplechase. olympic rookie cole rooks grabbing silver. on a different track, the american women built an early lead and never holooked back, taking home gold in cycling team pursuit. and for the second time in as many nights, an american woman left the wrestling mat a champion. sara hildebrand takes home gold. a heavyf heavy load lifted from shoulders of team usa, the first medal for the men in the sport in 20 years, a 20 year drought ending for the artistic or synchronized swimmers. the team taking home silver, and with two sick runs early, tom schaar closes the skateboard competition with a silver in men's park. yeah, look, we've been trying to take you inside the locker room of team usa, show you some of

the gear here, but i feel like we're running out of time. we only got a day left. this, the synchronized swimming swimsuit. it is magical. look at this crazy thing. the horse hood for the horses in equestrian. that's neat, i've never seen that. cycling's been a huge deal. look at the cycling shoes, cycling shoes, even a pedal from one of the cycling bikes. i hope it wasn't needed. this is the cycling suit. we have the cycling helmet here. and it is, let's see. there's a cycling helmet. soccer, women's soccer is still in it. we've got the women's soccer jersey here as we keep going. yeah, yeah, women's soccer, this is track and field. >> jay, we love you, but swrie

this morning, an