severe weather ahead for millions in over a dozen states. blinding rain, tornados and large hail in the forecast. new details as russia blames syria for the deadly chemical attack that took almost 100 lives. >> senator mccain, the handling of the president's supreme court nominee. >> exodus of companies pulling commercials from fox news's the o'reilly factor. >> the controversy around the new kendall jenner pepsi ad. "early today" starts right now. good to be with you. i'm frances rivera. >> i'm yasmin vossoughian. buckle up today, 55 million americans in 13 states bracing for potentially strong tornados. in goodman, missouri a fire

station took a hit from a tornado. buildings caving in on fire trucks along with trees in the area. and cars were forced to deal with blinding rain and hail in other parts of the state. the next two days are rough weather wise. meteorologist bill karins tracking the storms. what are you seeing? >> good morning. our goal today as forecasters is save lives, it's one of those dangerous days when not just tornados but strong tornados that could be on the ground for a long period of time. we're starting early, not with a tornado threat but hail down in southern portions. the atmosphere is primed in a hurry and this afternoon this area of red, moderate risk we could go under high risk if the situation gets worse. but for montgomery to birmingham, atlanta to augusta, macon and areas to the east of savannah at greatest risk of strong tornados. a lot of large hail and wind damage, could get tornados in southern ohio valley through kentucky and tennessee.

those hopefully weaker. those could be deadly. then this risk into the mid-atlantic and into areas of north carolina come thursday so. once again, areas especially alabama, georgia, south carolina have your safety plans. be prepared for the worst. >> hopefully everybody comes out safe. thank you. this morning the u.n. security council hoping a meeting after a suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people in a rebel-held area of syria. a relief agency says at least 83 people died including 25 children. that at least 350 others were injured. the united states, britain and france all blame bashar al assad forces for the atook. here is richard engel with details. >> images are horrific. they show bodies strewn on the ground, no obvious signs of injuries, just dead and injured people motionless in some cases, struggling to breathe. the hallmark of a chemical weapon attack.

that's exactly what syrian activists say. in the morning there was an explosion in this town which is a small town in idlib province in syria. people immediately started to feel ill. they were sweating profusely, they were foaming at the mouth, they were struggling to breathe. they would douse people with water to try to wash off this suspected agent, take off the contaminated clothing, then rush them to clinics. inside the clinics medical officials said that this was a nerve agent attack, and said they believe that because the victims had tiny pinpoint pupils and there was a mass number of casual casualties. some of the facilities are makeshift and in one of these as victims were treated, there was another explosion. even as first responders and medics trying to give life-saving aid. the syrian government has said

that it was not responsible, syrian army said it never used chemical weapons. >> that was richard engel reporting. so gut wrenching to watch with the images of the children. the russian defense ministry claims the syrian air force did not use chemical weapons but rather their air strike hit an alleged rebel chemicals stash. the russians did not provide evidence to support these clamtss. we have news out of north korea, according to u.s. and south korean officials north korea fire add ballistic missile into the sea of japan, the launch days before president trump is set to meet with the chinese leader. north korea will be discussed while mr. trump said his administration is prepared to tackle the rogue nation alone if necessary his secretary of state rex tillerson had this terse response to the provocation. north korea launched another ballistic missile. the us has spoken enough of north korea. we have no further comment. after president trump made

the well known unsubstantiated wire tapping claims the investigation continues. and what if any involvement with the russians the trump campaign may have had. critics claim repeated attempts by the president and the white house to deflect attention. the latest target, former national security adviser to president obama susan rice. allegations she tried to unmask the identities of trump associates whose names appear in intelligence reports for political purposes. >> i believe susan rice abused this system and she did it for political purposes, she needs to be brought in and questioned. >> susan rice is the typhoid mary of the obama administration foreign policy. every time something went wrong she seemed to turn up in the middle of it. >> enough seriousness that we have to investigate. >> we're joined by tracie potts. what more can you tell us about how susan rice is responding? >> in an interview with andrea mitchell she denies that she didanything wrong that she leaked anything and she talks

about this concept of unmasking which is asking intelligence officials to identify an american whose name gets caught up in surveillance. here is what she said about that. >> the notion that which some people are trying to suggest that by asking for the identity of an american person that is the same as leaking it is completely false. there is no equivalence between masking and leaking. i leaked nothing to nobody and never have and never would. >> president trump retweeted an article about this, of course congress is caught up in it as part of the russian investigation, some democrats now say it's a big distraction, republicans want to see susan rice come in and testify so they can question her specifically about these unmasking allegations. >> tracie potts for us. thank you. overnight democrats launched a protest against the pick for supreme court judge neil

gorsuch. jeff merkley taking to the floor to wage an all night talk-a-thon after mitch mcconnell set in motion a confirmation vote for thursday that is sure to end with a historic fight. as of this morning democrats have 44 votes against gorsuch making the filibuster proof. republicans say they have no choice but to change senate rules to allow for a simple majority. is so called nuclear option. in the chamber they are not happy. here is what senator mccain had to say about those who describe the nuclear option as a good idea. >> i would like to meet that idiot. i would like to meet that numb skull that would say that, that after 200 years at least 100 years of this tradition where the senate is functioned pretty well they think it would be a good idea to blow it up. idiot. no, whoever says that is a stupid idiot who has not been here and seen what i've been through and how we were able to

avoid that on several occasions. and they are stupid and they deceived their voters because they are so stupid. >> mccain's comments as quoting that gorsuch failed tos cite source material. they release this comparison of his writing on the left and the original author's work on the right. gorsuch allegedly mimicking the author word for word. the white house denies gorsuch did anything wrong releasing a statement that reads in part quote this false attack has been strongly refuted by highly regarded exerts. there is only one explanation for this baseless last-second smear of judge gorsuch. those des rat to justify the unprecedented filibuster of a well qualified main stream nominee to the supreme court. the back lash is growing against fox news star pill o'reilly, a slew of advertisers say they are pulling their ads from the o'reilly fact area

after more complaints of sexual harassment have come to light. anne thompsons that new fallout. >> reporter: bill o'reilly is rarely at a lauls for words. >> i'm bill o'reilly. >> reporter: he said nothing on his show over off-screen allegations of sexual harassment. his advertisers are speaking with their wallets. exodus including bmw, mitsubishi, and drug maker all pulling their ads from the o'reilly factor. allstate saying in a statement inclusivity and support for women are important allstate values. we are concerned about the issues surrounding the program and we have suspended our advertising. issues detailed in a "new york times" report that found fox news or o'reilly paid five women $13 million to settle harassment and inappropriate behavior claims against the star anchor. fox news said in a statement we value our partners and are

working with them to address their current concerns. earlier this week in a statement o'reilly said his fame made him vulnerable to suits and he acted quickly to put to rest any controversies to spare his children. his show is the number one program on cable news, pull ing more than $100 million a year in ad revenue. more than 350 brands advertised on the show in the first three months of this year. at least 14 companies changed their plans as they wait to see what if any changes fox and o'reilly will make. ahead, a big civil rights win regarding work place discrimination. we want to check with meteorologist bill karins with more on the severe weather ahead. >> let me show you and give you the timing on the severe storms. one wave early today going to bring a hail threat. then along the cold front this is where we could get the super cells forming about 5:00 p.m., north georgia popping up in

alabama and heading into georgia and then we'll go through the evening with all of that nasty weather rolling through south carolina, even wind damage possible in areas of virginia, and then a heavy rain threat and flood threat in new england. as we go into thursday. quite the next two days. save as much my sweetheart's gone sayonara.

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a show of support from jenner's mother chris saying she is proud of her daughter as we all know. just back there cheering her kids on. a federal appeals court in chicago rules that job discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited by civil rights law. now the ruling came out of a lawsuit filed by kimberly havely, claim as community college in indiana denied her a full time post because she is a lesbian. the college, however, denies her claims. championing a cause near and dear to his late mother's heart. a speech at a conference in london. he spoke about princess diana's work. >> 20 years ago in the last months of her life, my mother campaigned to draw attention to the horrific and indiscriminate impacted of land mines. she refused to accept that these destructive weapons should be

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in today's business quick hits tesla surpassed general motor as the most valuable car company in the united states. the electric carmaker pushed past ford motor on monday. it's delivered more than 25,000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year, 69% jump over last year. payless shoe source filed for bankruptcy protection, it struggles to com beat on line retailers. >> am aston to stream football games. the deal will allow amazon to stream 10 games next season, twitter paid $10 million for the same rights last season. >> the latest on today's severe weather and the age old question, what do you buy for the guy who seemingly's got everything? you're watching "early today." then we wad it up to make it nice and soft. but grandma, we use charmin ultra soft so we don't have to wad to get clean. mmm, cushiony...and we can use less.

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neighborhood forecast the most accurate forecast in town. bill? it is going to be a beautiful one. little chill in the air right

now. new jersey, some neighborhoods in the 40s, 45 degrees. 55 in the suburbs and 57 in philadelphia. well into the 50s right now for lehigh valley and delaware. sunshine, a lot of it today. right now looking at clear skies in delaware. 59 degrees currently. 56 degrees at 6:00. temperature wills start to move up and head into the 60s. topping out after 70s degrees for philadelphia. 68 in the suburbs. the shore a little cooler than inland areas. look at the warmup for lehigh valley and delaware. enjoy the sunshine today. tracking sunshine and thunderstorms for tomorrow. a look at that when i come back in ten minutes. first, jessica boyington has first alert traffic. we're starting off on 95. here's camera around route 420. at this point, philadelphia construction project, about in the process of clearing. they were supposed to be clear around the 5:00 hour. looking through my carrier, can't see any backup or lane

restriction. could be construction crew out there. watch firefighter lane restrictions there. other than that the north and southbound side of 95 are pretty much doing okay. crash in upper moorland on fareway road. watch for amtrak northeast this morning. running on modified schedule. may see some delays. reporting some delays already. check in with that especially as the morning rush continues. might see bigger delays. other than that new jersey septa and patco are running on time. i did not want my son to die like this. >> this morning in an nbc 10 exclusive, hearing from a mother in shock after somebody gunned down her son at a stolt in philadelphia. she believes he was targeted. police agree this was no random act. nbc 10 katy zachary live. tell us what we know about the case.