this morning on "world news now." rallying against russia. president trump slamming the probe, just as we learn more about how that investigation is intensifying. meanwhile, a new leak of transcripts details some moments during president trump's phone calls with other world leaders. so president trump, what he asked the president of mexico not to say about the border wall. and new developments this hour in the global terror fight. >> two men with ties to isis have been arrested in australia, charged with trying to blow up an airplane. we have the late-breaking details ahead. and sean spicer, might have danced around some questions from reporters, time to time. but what are the chances that he'll be showing us his moves in the ballroom?

skinny," as we waltz into this friday, august 4th. from abc news, this is "world news now." >> were you hoping? were you hoping? >> i would hike to see sean spicer on the dance floor. >> sean spicer and mooch on the dance floor. >> you know that would be the first. >> if he did compete, that would be the song. we're going to start this half hour with the investigation into the russian meddling, and it appears to be entering a new phase. >> abc news has confirmed that special counsel robert mueller has empaneled a grand jury in washington and there are reports that subpoenas have gone out in connection with donald trump jr.'s meeting with a russian lawyer. >> now president trump held another rally last night, where he doubled down, denying that there was any collusion that

>> reporter: president trump returned to friendly territory here in west virginia. but in between the talk of coal and jobs, the president trained his focus on the russia investigation. as the russia probe seems to be entering a new phase, the president came out swinging against allegations that his campaign colluded with the russians during the 2016 election, take a listen. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. [cheers and applause] that i can tell you. have you seen any russians in west virginia? or ohio? or pennsylvania? are there any russians here tonight? any russians? >> reporter: as he went on offense, the president even returned to a common theme from his campaign. hillary clinton. >>

be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. [cheers and applause] [ crowd chants "lock her up" ] >> reporter: the president's defiant tirade comes as special counsel robert mueller has convened a grand jury to investigate meddling in the 2016 election. the top white house lawyer dealing with the situation seems to be a bit caught off guard by the news. special counsel ty cobb said he was unaware he was using a grand jury but the white house is dedicated to fully cooperating. diane and kendis? >> our thanks to arlet there, his other lawyer said this is a standard procedure, they expected this to happen, but there is another thorn in the president's side, newly-leaked transcripts of his calls with two world leaders shortly after his inauguration. >> those transcripts show that the tension on those calls was far more intense than first reported. abc's cecelia vega has the details. >> reporter: classified documents reveal the true nature

with world leaders in the days after his swearing in. the "washington post" published leak transcripts of two contentious conversations. the first with mexican president all about that wall. >> and who's going to pay for the wall? that wall will go up so fast your head will spin. don't worry, we're building the wall. >> reporter: but on the phone, the mexican president is firm, calling the idea that mexico will pay for the wall completely unacceptable. president trump responds, the fact is, we are both in a little bit of a political bind, because i have to have mexico pay for the wall. i have to. i have been talking about it for a two-year period. he tells him the funding will work out in the formula somehow, adding it will come out in the wash and that is okay. in fact, the president was already publicly laying the ground work for the u.s. to pick up the initial tab. >> are you going to direct u.s. funds to pay for this wall? will american taxpayers pay for

>> we'll be starting those negotiations relatively soon, and we will be in a form reimbursed by mexico. >> so they will pay us back. >> yeah, absolutely, 100%. >> reporter: the wall was president trump's signature campaign promise, but in that phone call, he tells his mexican counterpart, this is the least important thing that we were talking about, but politically, this might be the most important. still, the mexican president insists mexico will not pay. so president trump implores, you cannot say that to the press. the press is going to go with that, and i cannot live with that. in their conversation, president trump complains drugs are flowing across the border into the u.s. adding, i won new hampshire because new hampshire is a drug-infested den. new hampshire senator maggie hassan calling the president's comments disgusting. telling our mary bruce. >> what an outrageous statement for him to make. >> reporter: the transcripts showing how difficult the conversation

turnbull. >> when you hear about the tough phone calls i'm having, don't worry about it. just don't worry about it. >> reporter: on the phone, the president furious about inheriting an obama-era deal to accept more than 1200 refugees from australia, telling the prime minister, this is going to kill me. i am the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. he says the deal will make him look terrible, like a weak and infective leader and a dope. the president abruptly ending the conversation. that is enough, malcolm. i have had it. this is the most unpleasant call all day. putin was a pleasant call, this is ridiculous. cecelia vega, abc news, washington. the justice department is vowing to crackdown on leaks like the release of those phone call transcripts that have plagued the trump administration. attorney general jeff sessions is holding a news conference today after vowing to step up prosecution of cases involving leaks of classified information. he'll be joined by the director

of national intelligence, dan coats. two men have been charged in australia with a terror plot to bring down a plane. authorities say the plot was directed by isis. the men allegedly tried to smuggle a device on a flight on july 15th. but prosecutors say they were unable to get the luggage through check-in because it was too heavy. this morning the suspects were denied bail during a court appearance via a video link. and back here at home, a powerful thunderstorm triggered flash flooding in one southern california community. the storm about 50 miles north of l.a. at one point dumped three inches of rain per hour. one driver rescued by helicopter from the roof of his pickup truck. tv viewers in the southern california area watched it happen live. the flooding also damaged metro link train tracks and that will affect this morning's chute.

chute commute. quite a dramatic scene there. and further north, firefighters are holding their own in the 56,000 acre cinder butte fire in oregon between bend and burns. that fire is still uncontained and it comes as the pacific northwest is set to get a bit of relief from that heat. still temperatures over the next couple days will still be up to 20 degrees above normal. and after a week without power, the lights are back on in north carolina's outer banks. tourists are being allowed to return to the popular destination today. a massive power outage forced thousands to evacuate the islands. a construction crew accidently knocked out that power. and this is huge. the u.s. coast guard has finally cracked a mystery on the high seas. >> it involves a tiny mermaid house that was found floating in the gulf of mexico about 180 miles south of grand isle, louisiana. >> so now we're just learning that it apparently came from the parakeet hotel in key west. you see the journey there. >> quite a path. >> it was swept

recent tropical storm. the coast guard says nobody was on board, thankfully. >> and that was definitely the scientific path it took, we know that for sure. we didn't arbitrarily draw that, did we? >> no, some 2-year-old kid was drawing it and went yeah, it went like that. that is in essence what it did. it's fascinating though. >> that was the path, i like the little swirly. >> uh-huh. >> i would have loved to have seen the expression on the person's face who first found it. there's this little house floating around with a mermaid. >> it's a mermaid on the side. everybody was looking for daryl hannah, maybe. let's go to an image high in the sky that we can't see without the help of a map. check this one out. >> a boeing 787 dreamliner drew an outline of itself yesterday over the united states using tracking software. boeing tweeted out an image of the flight path captured on a

live flight tracker website. >> it looks like we made this one up, but that was actually for real. >> it took off from seattle and then started outlining it throughout the country. 18 hours, wow. coming up, those endless robocalls. pretty annoying, but the fcc is cracking down on one man and his company. they say is responsible for making over 21 million of them. and coming up in "the skinny," thor will be boosting into theaters, and we are learning the back story behind one of the most memorable lines in the teaser. you're watching "world news now." "world news now" weather, brought to you by carfax.com. by carfax.com.

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for a race towards the finish line, and apparently the yellow one won the race. >> ah, the yellow one. >> the yellow one. >> well done, rubber ducky. in a completely unrelated story. >> you didn't want to try for a second one on that one? >> the duckies to the robocalls. but there's a crackdown on illegal robocalls. the fcc hitting one company with a huge fine. >> their new trick apparently is disguising the number you see on caller id. what can you do? here's rebecca jarvis. >> reporter: they're a nuisance and your top consumer complaint. >> hello, this is rachel at cardholder services. >> reporter: the fcc cracking down on one man and his company. >> he was responsible for more than 200,000 robocalls a day. 21.5 million all together. >> reporter: philip rosele of best insurance contracts hit th

elderly and poor and disguised the origin of the calls by making it look like they're coming from different phone numbers, called spoofing. >> he chose question consumers to pick on. his victim was the dumber and more broke the better. >> reporter: regulators also warning consumers to stay on high alert for scams like this, which claims you owe the irs money. >> don't disregard this message and do return the call before we take any action against you. >> reporter: some of the carriers are offering free call blocking. there are apps out there to help, but there's no foolproof solution yet. what you have to do is let those calls go to voice mail if you don't know the numbers. rebecca jarvis, abc news. >> like you would with your exes. so from annoying calls to annoying pets. meet jerk. he is a rooster who is so good at being a rooster that his

expletive rooster, but she said she got some funny replies to the post that she's now going to keep jerk. he's a celebrity now, she says. >> let's get reaction to that from our senior pet correspondent, "world news now" correspondent frank the bun. >> what do you have to say for yourself? what do you think about jerk? that's what i thought. frank prefers a more quiet pet. >> yes, he does. all right, when we come back, sean spicer on the dance floor with "dancing with the stars." >> ooh, plus ryan reynolds, shirtless for reals. "the skinny" is next. reynolds, shirtless for reals. "the skinny" is next. what does life look like during your period? it's up to you, with tampax pearl.

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♪ skinny ♪ so skinny it is skinny time on a friday.

frank is all excited with it, because we are starting with the lesser-known sixth member of the spice girls. sean spicer. >> i don't remember hearing that. >> there was posh, baby, scary. >> scary. >> sean. >> there were a few more. anyway, there's speculation that the outgoing white house official had been approached to be a contestant on "dancing with the stars" in the fall. he said he was flattered with the opportunity, but sources tell tmz that for now he's passing on the show. he believes he will have an overwhelming number of commitments during the fall. >> he's going to be busy. another source said he's not a good dancer. >> so, shall we ask the mooch then? >> yeah, let's do it. but that's never stopped anybody before? >> isn't the point of dancing with the stars to take bad dancers and make them good ones? >> exactly, geraldo. so for now, this is when we have. imag

>> sean's head on somebody else's body. >> no, no, that's a real photo. this is not fake news. >> it's so well done, i didn't pick up on what's going on there. it looks like a real photo. >> the new season starts september 18. >> that's an actual photo from his wedding. >> oh, okay, nice suit. in case you haven't seen the new teaser for the new thor movie, chris hemsworth is back as thor and the movie is months from release, but it's all the buzz online. >> we learn that 95% of the film was improvised. so what about the best line so far? >> i give you your incredible -- >> yes! we know each other! he's a friend from work. [ laughter ] >> so yeah, that was not the reaction people were expecting

when he bursts into the fighting pit, but it turns out, that line was not written by a professional or even one of the actors in the film. it came from a make a wish recipient. the kid was on set the day they were shooting the scene, and said you know, you should say he's a friend from work. that would be funny. chris agreed. they decided to put the line in the movie. it has become the biggest hit of the trailer so far. good job, kid. this is usually how we see one ryan reynolds. >> yes. >> and why you're hating ryan reynolds. >> by the way, frank really likes this black and white tuxedo look. >> do you think he will chew on him? >> yes, he absolutely will chew on him. >> but there's a different side of ryan reynolds. he's sharing the image. of him on the set of dead pool two. >> this is posted by his trainer. and you can see the s

of shirtless ryan and then ryan in his dead pool costume. >> so he teased saying you still have to do some work. i think frank, he's going to town on ryan. >> stay with us for the weekly friday rewind. yan. >> stay with us for the weekly friday rewind.

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no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. new cascade platinum powers through... even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade. ♪ so, august certainly kicked off with a bang. a white house resignation and a peanut butter-inspired jailbreak. >> those are just some of the stories making headlines this week. let's check them all out in the friday rewind. >> tropical storm emily suddenly forming off the gulf coast. kicking off the week with a washout. emily is now offshore, but this thing came in fast and furious, dumping up to eight inches of rain across the state. >> terror take down. authorities arresting four suspects accused of trying to bring down

airliner. reportedly planning to build an objection to eck bomb filled with poison gas. >> we do believe it's islamic-inspired terrorism. >> protests have blocked the streets of caracas, venezuela. they've been protesting president nicolas maduro's relentless power grab. is life harder now for you than it was? >> yes. there's no quality of life. >> a dozen inmates with rap sheets, including attempted murder and robbery, allegedly using peanut butter to change numbers above a jail door, tricking a new employee into thinking he was opening a cell. >> that door number was the outside door. he hit that lock and out the door they went. >> the white house admitting that president trump was personally involved in crafting his son's misleading statement on that controversial meeting with the russian lawyer. >> the president weighed in as any father would, based on the limited information he had. >> communications director, anthony scaramucci known simply as the mooch forced out after 11 days on the job. the new white house chief of

staff, john kelly, pushing for his departure. >> the president's poll numbers hit a new low as he backs a sweeping new proposal to slash legal immigration in half. giving preference to english speakers and skilled workers sparking fireworks in the briefing room. >> this whole notion of they have to learn english before they get to the united states, are we just going to bring in people from great britain and australia? >> it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree, that you think only people from great britain or australia would only know english. it's so insulting. >> immigrants have to learn proper english, lie covfefe and bing bing bing bing bing. >> and we are settling the debate of all debates. which ryan is more yummy. frank? >> he's going towards reynolds. >> no! >> yeah!

oh, oh, oh, >> oh,

making news in america this morning, president trump holding a campaign-style rally overnight. his message to the crowd as new details emerge that the russia probe is intensifying. the attorney general will address intelligence leaks today after classified conversations with the president were released. hear what those transcripts say as a senior senator reacts after the president called her state a drug-infested den. new this morning, dramatic video just released. an american airlines wide body jet on fire. and back on the gridiron, the nfl preseason is here. see the highlights as the countdown to the regular season gets under way.