breaking overnight, fatalities mounting as a massive fire engulfs a 27-story apartment building while residents slept. reports of others trapped. the american college student held in north korea is back in ohio but his medical condition is concerning. on the heels of his attorney general's senate hearing, president trump is the focus of a lawsuit over foreign payments. overnight the reward raised as police hunt for two escaped georgia inmates. plus a passenger jet frightens passengers. and a propain tank explosion. "early today" starts right now.

good wednesday morning to you. i'm frances rivera. we begin with breaking news in london. a massive fire has completely destroyed a high rise apartment complex in london, sparking fears the building could collapse. officials say there are fatalities but could not confirm how many. the fire was reported around 1:00 a.m. local time. crews try to evacuate the 24-story building but residents say many may have been trapped inside. >> people were still sleeping on the highest floors so they didn't know what was going on. i'm not sure if half of them got out, to be honest with you. there was kids out the window, flashing their phones for help. >> nbc's bill neely is near the scene. bring us up to date on the latest. >> reporter: good morning. i'm looking at the building now and it is still smoking eight hours after this fire started. as you say it was just about

1:00 in the morning and it started in the lower floors but it spread very, very rapidly. people talking about people upstairs waving flashlights from the top floors of the building, people throwing their children out, saying save my children, really terrible scenes and a lot of emotion here. you can see from the pictures just how intense this fire was. we know there are a number of fatalities. more than 50 people have been taken to five london hospitals. a couple of hundred firefighters, more than 50 trucks that scene 120 homes in this building and there were real concerns after a renovation earlier this year. it took a year, cost $11 million and they said a smoke detection system had been upgraded during that renovation. but local people are telling us here that there was no central

alarm. no alarm went off. what they heard were smoke detecters and individual homes. so the local action group extremely angry. they say that their warningsign. there are fears this building could collapse. we could probably go in a minute to live pictures of the scene. this smoke can be seen right across the capitol, across london. a 24-27-story block. new floors were actually added during the renovation. hundreds of people were inside at the time, many, many old people and as i say the fire authority say there are a number of fatalities but exactly how many they don't know and they don't at this stage know the cause. but there is no reason at the moment to believe that this is

anything other than an accident. they're not ruling out terrorism but they're simply saying there's no reason to believe that it is anything but an accident. frances. >> certainly many bracing themselves for the number of fatalities to be released. bill, thank you. american student, auto is back in the united states after being held captive for 70 months in north korea. and he was visiting north korea in january of 2016 when he was accused of attempting to steal a propaganda banner. he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. his parents reportedly said they were told he had been in a coma since the trial. after landing in his home town of cincinnati, he was quickly taken to a hospital. the family plans to hold a news conference thursday. >> we continue our discussions with the north korean regime regarding the release of the

three other american citizens that have been detained. >> his release comes as former nba basketball star dennis rodman lands in north korea. this is just a coincidence as rodman's visit is private. law makers are suing president trump in federal court today. they claim he accepted foreign funds from his businesses without congressional approval. they violate this violates the constitution's emuleiant clause. the plaintiffs includality least 30 u.s. senators and 166 representatives. they say this is the largest number of legislators to ever sue a u.s. president. they insisted president trump's business interests do not violate the constitution. this after attorney general jeff sessions testified before the senate intelligence committee. he did not invoke executive

privilege, instead sessions sited an unnamed justice department policy to explain his limited responses. tracie potts is in d.c. what is washington's response to the testimony from sessions? >> reporter: well the white house response is that he did a good job and that he reemphasized there was no collusion going on between the russian government or officials and the trump campaign. but it's the things he did not say that really frustrated democrats and there were a couple of exchanges where they really pressed the attorney general for his basis. you mentioned executive privilege which only the president can invoke but why was sessions not talking about for example his private conversations with president trump? he sited justice department policy. listen. >> can you share those policies with us. are they written down at the department of justice? >> i believe they are. >> i'm asking you about the policy you referred to?

>> it goes beyond the attorney general. >> is that policy in writing somewhere? >> i think so. >> democrats clearly frustrated saying he was not forthcoming and he was stonewalling. what sessions did say is that any allegations of collusion between russia and the trump campaign and the trump transition were and this is the way he put it an apalling and detestable lie and he did not say anything improper happened when he met twice with the russian ambassador which we know he didn't initially disclose. >> thank you. now to the desperate search underway in georgia for two escaped inmates who killed two prison guards. they raised the reward for $70,000 for the capture. howard phil says the two were on a prison bus with 31 other inmates when they entered the driver's compartment and fatally

shot both guards on board. >> i saw two brutally murdered corrections officers. that's what i saw. i have their blood on my shoes. >> police say dubose and russell car jacked a nearby vehicle. they're considered armed and extremely dangerous. day three of jury deliberations begins today in the bill cosby sexual assault trial. the jury spent 12 hours behind closed doors tuesday without reaching a verdict. he's charged for allegedly drugging and molesting andrea constan in 2004. they asked for excerpts cosby gaim gave. the 79-year-old could spend the rest of his life in prison if

found guilty. one couple's honeymoon got off on the wrong foot when they looked out of their window and saw the leak. united eventually canceled the flight and issued an apology saying they were working to provide customers with hotel acomidations for the night and they would get back on their way to venice today. over 31 million people at risk today. are you one of them? here's bill karins with that and the forecast. >> we had another 11 tornados yesterday. over 40 in the last two days. not many today but we have a chance of large hail and damaging winds. around des moines, and for today here is the area of yellow where the slight risk is includes green bay, wisconsin, illinois, and from kansas city to st. lewis. we will see large hail and the

timing is typical. they fire up late afternoon and then some through the quad cities and up towards good morning. i'm meteorologist bill henley. skies are clear right now. we will see temperatures stay lower than yesterday. they're still elevated this morning. 77 degrees right now in philadelphia. that's a couple degrees warmer than yesterday at this time. it's low 70s for the suburbs, the lehigh valley now 74 degrees. it's 75 in delaware. won't see the 90s this afternoon. it will be 70s and 80s today. here's a look at what we're working on for "nbc10 news today." >> we are on verdict watch in the bill cosby trial after another day of deliberations ends without a decision on the comedian's fate. this morning, jurors will be back at it. and a salute to the stars and stripes. today's flag day. we'll take you around the region for a look at patriotic events near you. and the former fan favorite gets the call at a game ever.

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restaurants and cafeterias in 30 states. so far no reports of illnesses. visit our facebook page. now on nbc news.com, the university of virginia fraternity has agreed to settle its defamation lawsuit against rolling stone magazine. rolling stone will pay the chapter just over $1.6 million associated press reports. the lawsuit stems from the november 2014 story a rape on campus, about a woman who claimed she was raped by frat members as part of an initiation right. they found no evidence to back up the account and the story was later retracted. they suffered a similar defamation lawsuit with a administrat administrator. and after it was passed with overwhelming support by the house. reforming the va and improving accountability was a recurrent theme throughout his campaign.

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fast forwarding into wednesday, the pittsburgh

penguins will celebrate with a victory parade through downtown pittsburgh. miley cyrus will co host along side jimmy fallon. she'll also be performing some of her new singles. and president trump turns 71 years old today. no word on what his birthday plans are. also boy george turns 56 and actress marly gibbs from the jeffersons and 227 is 86 years old. investors around the globe are focussed on just one woman, chair janet yellen. here to tell us why this morning. good morning, gemma. >> well, that's because expectations are really high. the fed is expected to raise interest rates to between 1 and 1.25%. there's a press conference this afternoon and janet yellen is expected to give details on how the fed plans to stop winding back it's enormous balance

sheet. and there's a consumer price inflation report due later this morning and all eyes will be on that as well. offer around 1.9% of inflation, which will be in line with april. let's remember that was the first time since 8/20/15, it's tracked below the fed. and meanwhile they've been hashing out a plan to make social media companies legally liable for the extremists material on their websites. the idea is companies such as facebook and twitter will be encouraged to quickly remove after having located extremists materials in a bid for radicalization. >> thank you so much, gemma. still ahead the twitter in chief just stopped a best

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the waiting game. another day of deliberations ends without a verdict in the bill cosby trial. this morning, jurors will again try to reach a decision. standoff and surrender. only nbc10 was there just after police say an atlantic county doctor pulled a gun on authorities during a raid on his office. released from the heat. today temperatures are expected to gradually drop off after days of scorching weather. a little relief will be nice. good morning, this is "nbc10 news today." i'm tracy davidson. >> i'm vai sikahema. the cooldown, i think, starts. let's get right to meteorologist bill henley with the first alert forecast. bill? yeah, 90s yesterday, but we've cooled to the 70s this morning with mostly clear skies. 77 degrees one of the warm spots, philadelphia. in the suburbs, 72, 72 degrees

in new jersey. the lehigh valley, look closely. you see a few scattered clouds. no rain clouds this morning. there are a few chances for some isolated showers popping up this afternoon. you see the clouds in easton will be increasing at 10:00. the temperature will also be moving up just a little bit. 74 degrees at 10:00 today. we will not see the 90s today. warms up to 83 in philadelphia. that's normal for this time of year. partly sunny for the suburbs. 82 degrees will be the high temperature. 79 degrees for new jersey. and at the shore, looks like it's going to be a nice day today with partly to mostly sunny skies. 70 the afternoon high. the humidity is high this morning in the lehigh valley. as the day goes on, the humidity will be dropping. the temperature tops out at 85 degrees this afternoon. and delaware, turning partly sunny with a chance of an isolated shower or thunderstorm this afternoon. not a huge threat, but that is a possibility for later today.

i'll take a closer look at where the showers may pop up when i'm back in ten minutes. first to jessica boyington. we are closed from broad street to the schuylkill expressway. watching that construction project and diverting traffic off of the off-ramp. in between broad street and the schuylkill, westbound and eastbound closed until the 5:00 hour. also watching construction, 95 northbound between curlin and 320. closed there for early morning construction. you should be able to get by just with, again, the right lane closed. northbound and southbound, seven-minute trip from naman's road, speeds into the 60s. back to you. hey, hey, hey! >> bill cosby leaving court last night during his signature "fat albert" catch phrase for the crowd. it wrapped up another day of deliberations without a verdict in the case. matt delucia is live at the montgomery county courthouse