and better camel, shipped directly to france, to a zoo in france. zoo. not stew. now you know. one to grow on. you know. "first look" is up next. >> good friday morning. right now on "first look," a u.s. defense intelligence bombshell. north korea can likely produce a nuclear missile. this new information as secretary of state john kerry arrives in seoul to try and defuse the situation. fighting off a filibuster threat. the senate's compromise on gun control clears the first of many hurdles. a storm system spawns more tornadoes as it barrels through the south. plus, jay-z blasts critics of his cuba trip. the cruise line cheaper than a --

the world is bracing for a possible missile test by north korea after word that the pentagon believes the rogue state may be capable of arming with a warhead. it raised imminent concerns over the intention of the regime. jim maceda is live in seoul, south korea, where secretary of state kerry is now on the ground. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the u.s. and south korea as well as japan are all standing by waiting to see what north korea's erratic young leader kim jong-un will do with now up to five medium range missiles which -- all of which could reach a u.s. bases on guam in the pacific. these are so-called musudan missiles. they would be carrying conventional, not nuclear payloads, but they are ready for test firing. while the u.s. and south korean land, air and sea assets are standing by tracking the

missile's every move. today as you said, the secretary of state john kerry has arrived here in seoul. he's trying to kickstart a diplomatic strategy. there's been a vacuum there. he says for the last five years or so. he heads to beijing for talks tomorrow. there's been a ratcheting up of tension. this time it's not coming from pyongyang but from washington where the intelligence session by the defense intelligence agency concluded that north korea probably does have the ability to arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead. the dia did add the nuclear weapon would be highly unreliable and couldn't reach the united states at this time. meanwhile, president obama said that no one wants to see a conflict in korea. let's take a listen to what he said. >> now is the time for north korea to end the kind of

belligerent approach that they've been taking and to try to lower temperatures. >> reporter: so far kim jong-un only seems to be listening to his own generals. mara? >> jim maceda live in seoul, south korea. turning now to washington. the most serious gun control efforts in years cleared their first hurdle in the senate thursday. victims of the sandy hook massacre were there to watch. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell has that story. snapshots of fallen children and teachers of newtown inside the senate. outside the capitol, a 23-hour vigil reading gun victims' names. >> jamie stafford at the age of 31. >> reporter: crosses to remember them on the national mall and family members here to witness the vote. >> we are standing here because her sister and my mom can't be

and their voices need to be heard. >> reporter: under that emotion-fueled pressure, expectations shifted. >> literally the political landscape of america on gun safety is changing before our eyes. >> the motion is agreed to. >> reporter: senatored took one small but significant step, opening up what will be weeks of heated debate over gun laws and violence in our culture. 16 republicans voted to begin that contentious negotiation. >> it goes way beyond guns, and that's why we need to have the debate. >> reporter: two red state democrats up for re-election, including mark begich voted against. >> i vote what's important for alaska. it's not a party decision. it's not a conservative versus liberal. >> reporter: after victims' families left the senate chamber, some described another set of emotions. >> the tears we had were tears of joy but tears of remembering this is happening and we're here because of what happened to us.

>> reporter: that was nbc's kelly o'donnell reporting. in and now here's your first look at this morning's dish of scrambled politics. despite campaigning for mitt romney last year, kid rock says he's embarrassed to be a republican. it's all because of concert ticket prices. some gop state lawmakers who want to outlaw paperless ticketing. he tells "rolling stone" the gop is dumb for passing those laws and goes on to say that now he's a bit more of a libertarian. the top official with the liberal superpac progress kentucky has resigned after the group was accused of secretly recording aides to senator mitch mcconnell. on the tape, members of mcconnell's staff were heard describing campaign tactic ahead of a potential run against actress ashley judd. louisiana governor bobby jindal is heading to new hampshire next month. he's frequently touted as a 2016 contender but has raently seen ha proval raeths tumble.

mark pryor has raked in $2 million since the beginning of the year for his 2014 re-election campaign. he's considered to be one of the most valuable democratic incumbents in the senate. chris murphy is asking fox not to air a nascar race sponsored by the nra. fox sports is scheduled to broadcast the nra 500 tomorrow. meanwhile, president obama called for family members of newtown victims after thursday's historic senate vote on gun reform. he thanked them for their work in pushing legislation and for lobbying members of congress. the president's home state might soon have one less public official. state lawmakers are moving to put a measure on the ballot to apolish the office of lieutenant governor. the current lieutenant governor has already said she will not run again. and call her mama grizzly. cindy mccain is taking to twitter after writing ann coulter because she penned her latest column threatening cindy's daughter. she tweeted ann coulter needs to

get a life. in and that's your morning's dish of scrambled politics. turning to weather, the violent storm system that left a trail of destruction from the gulf coast to missouri has left at least three people dead. nbc's jay gray reports from atlanta. >> it's huge. look at the cows running. >> reporter: this massive tornado chewed up farmland and everything else in its path as it churned through mississippi. >> east of us not even a mile up the road gop houses that were just destroyed. >> reporter: the violent system spawned several twisters as it swept across the southeast. >> homes were destroyed. lives were changed forever. when you are in situations like this, and in a few short minutes the indiscriminate nature of mother nature puts tornadoes and high winds through an area. your homes will never be the same. >> reporter: a trail of debris from missouri through arkansas, mississippi, alabama and georgia. thousands were left without power, including tim crouch who was inside his house as the storm moved through rome, georgia. >> i heard the wind picking up.

i opened my door to see how hard the rain was coming down, and about that time, i heard a crash. and 2 by 4 came through my ceiling. >> reporter: in other places, roofs were completely ripped away. power poles splintered, trees pulled from the ground. fences and even this 18-wheeler pushed over by the winds. just part of the mess left behind as the intense storms ripped through the area. jay gray, nbc news, atlanta. now for a look at the weather, nbc meteorologist bill karins is here. are we going to see more severe weather like this? >> hopefully not, although we still have a threat. we had about eight or nine tornados in the last two days. it was just the case. it hits, it lands, you get the devastation. if it stays over rural areas and farmland, we're okay. one fatality yesterday. haven't had many this season. so let's see how we're going to do today. nine tornadoes yesterday. i don't think we'll have many today. the big story today will be the

heavy rains, soaking rains through virginia, covering much of ohio. pittsburgh area is getting drenched. you are on the i-95 from d.c. to philly to baltimore, new york city through providence and boston, expect to get a lot of wet weather today. up to an inch of rain. not the severe storms. that's going to stay out of this region spoep as far as the forecast goes forther to the south, that's where we have a tornado watch in effect but haven't seen any reports any of tornadoes or warnings for that matter. you still have an isolated chance there especially eastern north carolina through your morning. the timing of this, the heavy rain by about noon today covers the i-95 corridor. that's the yellows and reds. that's the heavy rain. the green color is the lighter rains. by about 5:00, heavy rain could be right over the top of new york city for a miserable friday evening commute. then 9:00 p.m. this evening, that heads into the boston area and exits thankfully just about for everyone. the weekend forecast clears out and calms down from this amazing, you know, clash of weather. we had a foot of snow in colorado and tornadoes this week

in the southeast. >> at least the weekend is a little calmer. coming up, a bizarre twist in the texas college stabbing case. and the winklevoss twins have a new adventure. the sun produces the biggest solar flare of the year. we'll tell you what effect that had on msnbc. flying is old hat for business travelers. the act of soaring across an ocean in a three-hundred-ton rocket doesn't raise as much as an eyebrow for these veterans of the sky. however, seeing this little beauty over international waters

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welcome back. now to some other stories. new numbers today on same-sex marriage from the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. 53% of americans now support same-sex marriage while 42% oppose it. the new information comes as delaware lawmakers introduced a bill thursday to legalize same-sex marriage in that state. delaware already recognizes civil unions. jay-z has released a new track addressing his now infamous trip to cuba with wife beyonce. ♪ boy from the hood. obama said, chill, you gonna get

me impeached ♪ >> the lyrics aren't exactly accurate and it was in fact the treasury department not president obama who cleared that trip. new and gruesome details on the suspect in tuesday's stabbing spree at a texas college. police say dylan quick fantasized about cannibalism and wearing victims' faces as masks. 14 people were injured in that rampage. and some radios temporarily went silent thursday thanks to the most powerful solar flare of the year. nasa says flares will become more common because the sun's 11-year cycle is ramping up to peak later this year. and now to your first look at what's moving your money on this friday. we go to cnbc's seema moody. good morning. >> another day. another record high for the dow which has its best four-day winning streak since september. investors will look for economic data out on retail sales and consumer sentiment. eli lilly is set to cut

about 1,000 jobs as companies face competition from generic drugs. cymbalta loses patent protection later this year. facebook wants to be your digital home on the go. the social networking site starts selling its new home app for htc smartphones today. your facebook home page will be the first thing you see when you turn on your phone. back to you. >> seema, thanks for that opinion. a little good news if you are hitting the road. gas prices continue to fall. aaa says the national average is $3.56 a gallon. that's down from $3.70 a month ago. blackberry shares took a hit thursday after reports of an abnormally high return rate and dwindling sales for its new blackberry z10. the company says those allegations are absolutely false. and if you are wondering what the winklevoss twins are up to, wonder no more. famous for suing mark zuckerberg for allegedly stealing the idea for facebook. they are now venture capitalists

and major big coin investors. they told "the new york times" they own about $11 million worth of the digital currency. a mea culpa from mcdonald's. they've killed an ad that is a parody of a mental health psa. mcdonald's said it never approved the ad and faults the advertising agency. recently the seemingly cursed cruise line carnival was offering four-night trips for $149 per person. that's 38 bucks a night. that's $2 less than a room at a motel six. but hopefully carnival will also leave the lights on for you. coming up, a 14-year-old makes history at the masters. and do the knicks keep their winning streak alive? we'll tell you. while keeping out threats to your operations? it's not working!

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instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. turning back to the battle over gun control and the senate ending a gop filibuster thursday to begin debating a compromise measure. joining me now, steven shepherd, an editor for "national journal hotline." good morning. thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> now that the gun control legislation has cleared its first hurdle, what comes next? >> many, many more hurdles. you saw 68 votes in the senate yesterday to start debate on the democratic proposal to strengthen the nation's gun laws. and what we're going to see is the bipartisan background check

provision pushed by senators toomey and manchin. that's going to be an amendment at some point to the larger democratic legislation. and all of these are going to require more votes and more votes to finally try to push through a package. of the 68 senators who voted to start debate on this bill, 16 were republicans. so to get to 60 votes again is going to require significant republican support on numerous more votes. that's going to be a tough call. >> if, by chance, this does clear the senate, what chance if any, will it have in the house? >> well, the house, as you know is a republican majority. 232 republicans. speaker john boehner has faced a lot of criticism over the past few months for bringing up bills that were opposed by a majority of his caucus. something that -- something called the hastert rule named for former house speaker dennis hastert where the speaker is not supposed to bring legislation that's opposed by the majority of the majority. the senate bill if it does, or

whatever gets through the senate, will go, speaker boehner said through the house judiciary committee where it will probably be amended and then brought to the house floor to see if they can pass anything that changes the nation's gun laws which still remains, frankly, pretty unlikely as well. >> steven shepard with national journal hotline, thanks for joining us. turning to sports. the first round of the masters kicked off yesterday at augusta national. aussie mark leishman and spain's sergio garcia each shot 6 under 66 to sit atop the leaderboard. the real story was 14-year-old guan tianlang. he shot an opening round 63. he's the youngest player to tee it up at any major and he's currently tied in 46th place. and in the nba, nate robinson scored a season high 35 points and jimmy butler added 22 as the chicago bulls rallied to

beat the new york knicks 118-111 in overtime last night. the loss ended the knicks' 13-game winning streak. well, just ahead, your week in review and what's in theaters this weekend. and a quick programming note. on sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern, msnbc will premiere david guggenheim's latest documentary "the dream is now." it takes a look at the human face behind immigration reform and specifically the d.r.e.a.m. act. we make meeting times, lunch times and conference times. but what we'd rather be making are tee times.

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beautiful shot of the capitol there. from wicked weather to animal fraud, let's take a quick look

back at the week that was. the madness of march came to a nail-biting end. but so much for april showers. spring brought two feet of fresh snow to colorado. more extremes in the south as twisters tore into a number of homes. in d.c., cherry blossoms bloomed as the mercury soared. but the heat didn't keep protesters off the national mall calling for immigration reform. farther from home, political dissent made for a more dramatic moment. >> this is crazy. today an anti-government protester confronted russian president vladimir putin and took off her shirt. we didn't doctor the photo at all. can we zoom in on his thumbs? back on the hill, some progress in the senate. >> it will expand background checks to purchases of firearms at gun shows and over the internet. >> oh, speaking of which, holy [ bleep ], you can buy guns over the internet? >> as north korea threatens nuclear war, the u.s. is armed

and ready to go. >> with this laser cannon, nothing can stop us except bad weather, vauwater vapor, smoke, sand or dust. japan welcomed adorable bear cubs into the world. argentineans were floored to find out this furry guy was a fraud, not a poodle, but a ferret on steroids. in vietnam, a dragon-shaped bridge that actually breathes fire. while back in the states, comedian joel mckale set his own pants ablaze. an astounding escape for this guy in hawaii fishing from his kayak, he nearly became the food. finally, a family in mali made the biggest mistake after being asked to care for a camel belonging to french president hollande. >> when they were told they were supposed to feed the camel, they instead thought they were supposed to eat the camel. >> they ate the president's camel. well, turning to

entertainment, an historic look at america's favorite pastime is coming to theaters this weekend. "42," the story of jackie robinson has a shot at becoming the biggest opening ever for a baseball movie. the film just needs to clear the $20 million mark. and with harrison ford headlining, chances are pretty good. scary movie 5" is also hitting theaters and should debut in the mid teens. well, donald trump's daughter ivanka announced that she header in husband are expecting their second child this fall. and jane fonda will be playing first lady nancy reagan in an upcoming film cause something to boycott the movie to which she responds, get a life. i may not have always agreed with nancy reagan, but i admire her. she was a forceful, loyal and powerful lady. get ready to head back to the overlook hotel. warner brothers is in the early stages of a prequel to the horror classic "the shining." fans of the original film are angry that anyone would dare

think of making a prequel. i'm mara schiavocampo. you don't want to miss "way too early." it starts right now. you know, folks, if anyone out there watching is thinking of visiting new york city, there are so many great things to see. but nothing is more iconic than the costume mascots in times square. i mean, you just can't be -- you can't beat posing with your kids nox a sweaty person in a filthy plush knock-off costume who then harasses you for money. the big apple. >> good morning. i'm bill karins. and this is "way too early." thanks for being up with us. we have a lot to discuss this morning. a lot of news in the white house and overseas. it's friday, april 12th.