this morning on "world news now," tensions escalate with north korea unleashing a new threat, vowing to attack the u.s. territory of guam and its key military bases there in just days. this follows president trump's fire and fury warning to the north. we have new reaction from overseas. and a powerful explosion rocking a milwaukee neighborhood. look at the flames there. a home leveled as firefighters rushed to the scene. what caused that blast? walmart is drawing criticism over an image in one of its stores. >> what appears to be rifles, marketed as part of a back to school sale. understandably, it's got parents across the country fired up. and oprah's latest venture?

food. after investing in weight-watchers, the media mogul will be offering comfort food options coming to a grocery store near you. we'll get to that in "the skinny" on this thursday, august 10th. from abc news, this is "world news now." >> this is not like the tom brady and gisele comfort food, where they have like celery as a snack. >> here, have a pepper. >> a pepper. >> you don't want to go crazy. >> no. this is like real, real comfort food. >> here, have a tomato. >> no, that's a fruit, they can't have that. not allowed. we'll get from comfort food to not a lot of people feeling comfortable with the tense situation right now between america and north korea. >> the north's military commander has laid out a threat to the u.s. territory of guam, promising a threat to attack that pacific island before the middle of the month. >> the threats

the white house admits were improvised. we begin with emily row. >> north korea best not make anymore threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury, like the world has never seen. >> reporter: a direct response now to president trump from the commander of north korea's army, a new statement calling the president's threat a load of nonsense, saying north korea will complete its plan to attack waters near guam by mid august. >> they will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. >> reporter: hours after the president said those words tuesday, north korea responding with its own warning. citing that potential plan to target guam, the u.s. territory, home to key military bases in 160,000 americans. secretary of state rex tillerson, attempting to strike a softer tone.

>> he's sending a message in language that kim jong un would understand. he doesn't seem to understand diplomatic language. >> reporter: this as abc news learns that the president's fiery threat caught some in his own inner circle by surprise. the strong language not vetted by his security team. in the latest statement from north korea, the army commander calls president trump a guy bereft of reason and goes on to say only absolute force can work on him, diane and kendis? >> emily, thank you. and world leaders are weighing in on the conflict, as many expressed some concern over this. >> yes, they are. arlette saenz joins us. good morning. >> good morning. certainly, north korea's neighbors in the region are expressing a lot of concern about their latest threats. south korea announced its security council is convening an emergency meeting today to discuss the north's latest plans and south korea's military is

will face powerful and stern responses from the south and its allies, including the u.s. in a news conference this morning, the prime minister of australia echoed the response. >> the north korean's regime's illegal, reckless and dangerous conduct must stop. they must come to their senses. what they are doing is putting the peace and stability of the region and indeed the world at risk. >> reporter: but there's also u.s. allies criticizing president trump for the language he used in his warning to north korea. new zealand's prime minister says the president's comments were not helpful and germany's foreign office cautions that saber rattling won't help. also worth noting that japan is saying they would be able to fire at any missiles that north korea launches towards guam. >> in their anti-missile defense system they have there. and i believe guam also has, they have plenty of u.s. troops there receiving that threat from north korea. what more are we hearing about

specific outline that north korea has given regarding any threats that they've been making. they named a number of missiles and the exact type of missiles that they would be firing at guam, as well as saying they will complete their plan by mid august, that's about next week. then present it to kim jong un to decide whether he will follow through with it. now, remember, president trump warned that if north korea makes anymore threats there will be fire and fury. he's created a red line. there's already been two threats from north korea in the past 24 hours. how is he going to respond. >> i kind of miss the days when north korea was angry over a movie with james franco. i miss those days. thank you, arlette. >> and president trump has tweeted a sharp response to comments senate majority leader mitch mcconnell made over the battle over health care. >> on monday, the republican senator said the president had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.

the president's tweet, senator mitch mcconnell said i had excessive expectations. but i don't think so, after seven years of hearing repeal and replace, why not done? meanwhile, ron johnson has apologized to john mccain. johnson was speaking on a radio show, talking about mccain's vote that led to the senate's failure to repeal and replace obamacare. listen. >> he has a brain tumor right now. that vote occurred at 1:30 in the morning. some of that might have factored in. >> really? >> you hear the reaction from the host of that show. the spokesman for senator mccain responding, saying it is bizarre and deeply unfortunate that senator johnson, who is from wisconsin, would question the judgment of a colleague and friend, senator mccain has been very open and clear about the reasons for his vote. and there's also new tension between the u.s. and cuba after the u.s. expelled two cuban diplomats in retaliation for a

those incidents took place at the u.s. embassy in havana and other facilities. several u.s. diplomats suffered unexplained hearing losses. they've now been attributed to some secret sonic device that was deployed. cuba says it's looking into the matter. and authorities are trying to determine what caused a house explosion in milwaukee. neighbors saw flames shooting 75 feet into the air. the home was being renovated but is now just a pile of rubble. no injuries have been reported. investigators say there's no indication this was caused by a gas leak. now to a tragic construction accident in austin, texas. a worker crushed to death under slabs weighing up to 40,000 pounds. they were being lifted by a crane when they shifted and fell. local and federal authorities are investigating the cause of that accident. and mexico is bracing for the first hurricane

hurricane season. >> we're talking about franklin, which has already triggered flooding on cozumel island and is now a category storm packing winds of 85 miles per hour, taking aim at mexico's gulf coast. accuweather's justin povick joins us. >> guy -- diane, kendis, thank you and good morning to you. franklin, the season's first hurricane after making its second landfall early on this morning it will be steadily weakening, but we're still concerned about high winds and extremely heavy rainfall. mudslides, the potential here for over a foot of rain. meanwhile, in the northwest, still concerning here with heat, poor air quality, and we're also talking about elevated fire danger. kendis, diane? >> it's been a rough fire season there in the northwest. justin, thank you. and one of the latest things president trump tastes just like chicken. >> actually

>> yes, he does. >> check out the 30-foot chicken west of the white house. it has a menacing stare. and some are saying it bears a resemblance to the president, particularly with that hair. >> it's a version of the many chicken don balloons that have popped up. all yearlong. remember they popped up on tax day. a film maker put it up to criticize the president for being weak and infective. that's so close to the white house there. >> he said it took five months to get permission from the national park service to put up five months. just to be able to inflate a balloon in a park. he really wanted that chicken balloon going up. >> i'm amazed that the national park service allowed him to put it up. >> maybe they think it's decorative. coming up, a car slams into a closed train crossing gates. that train bearing down. we'll see what happens next. and then in "the skinny,"

car-pooling with will smith. oh, man, don't we wish we were passing through there? you're watching "world news now." ♪ chick, chick, chick, chick boom ♪ "world news now" weather, brought to you by the real real. ♪ ♪ no matter who was in there last. protection. new lysol power & fresh 6 goes to work flush after flush for a just-cleaned feeling that lasts up to 4 weeks.

ect. clearasil rapid action begins working fast for clearly visible results in as little as 12 hours. t will it stop this teen from ugging hot sauce? ...oh jeremy. so let's be clear: clearasil works fast on teen acne, not so much on other teen things.

want to see the four luckiest people alive right now? yeah. so they plow through the railroad crossing barrier. this is in poland. and then that high-speed train, seconds, maybe a second later just misses them. and, as you can see from the reverse angle, they just, passengers and driver just get out nonchalantly, did we miss something? is there something there? time to get out, all right. boom. police did manage to hunt her down and gave her a ticket. here at home, walmart is apologizing for a store display that's angering parents all around the country. this photograph was reportedly taken inside the walmart in evansville, indiana. it shows the store seeming to market rifles as back to school items. you see the sign even says something

school. own the school year like a hero. walmart tweeted a response, saying, quote, this really isn't acceptable. the sign is gone, and we're looking into how this could have happened. so google is facing some fresh fallout of its own this morning over the firing of one of its engineers who wrote a ten-page memo criticizing the company's diversity program. >> the engineer at the center of the firestorm is standing by his words but defending himself and speaking out. here's rebecca jarvis. >> reporter: the fired software engineer speaking out. >> i'm not saying that any of the female engineers at google are in any way worse than the average male engineer. >> reporter: in an interview, james demore standing by his internal memo in which he argues that women have more neuroticism, higher anxiety than men. and that the abilities of men

biological causes and these differences may be why we don't see equal representation of women in tech and leadership. he says he values diversity but insists by recognizing differences, we can improve the workplace. >> for example cooperativeness, which is higher in women than men. we should make the workplace a place where you can actually thrive if you're cooperative. >> reporter: google firing demore after his post went viral, saying his posts violated their code of conduct by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in the workplace. the ceo of youtube owned by google's parent company sharing how difficult it was to explain the memo to her daughter. i thought about how tragic it was that this unfounded bias was now being exposed to a new generation. the labor department is already investigating allegations of wage discrimination. google denies those allegations. rebecca jarvis, new york. coming up, oprah's new food

options. >> and will gets jiggy with it. ♪ la, la, la, la, >> "the skinny" is? >> getting jiggy with it. ♪ la, la, la, la, "the skinny" is? >> getting jiggy with it. can't sleep because you're worrying about your big... ...day tomorrow? don't forget about the client dinner. hope you didn't forget! what're you gonna wear? hannah. did you get that email i sent you? i need you to respond... ...before you wake up. when life keeps you up... zzzquil helps you fall asleep in less than 20 minutes. because sleep is a beautiful thing. z2gv6z zi0z

y2gv6y yi0y

will you be checking out today, mr. connors? >> i'd say the chance of departure is 80%. >> the 1993 harold ramos movie has been made into a broadway musical. and last night murray was in the house to watch it for the first time. >> ground hog day. >> was he? >> groundhog day has been made into a musical. >> yes! >> and bill murray was in the house to watch it. >> oh, was he? >> we reported this yesterday. are we in groundhog day right now? >> sort of. we're wearing the same, oh, at

least. >> we're not wearing the same thing, so no, no. >> however, bill murray, might be stuck in a groundhog day loop. >> yeah, because he was at the theater again last night. only to see groundhog day the musical. >> he hung out with fans, the cast and staff, and he left a nice tip, paying for a bottle of water with a 50 and leaving the change. so it looks like weather man phil connors has turned over a new leaf after all. >> the first night he was emotional. the second night he looked a little bewildered. >> he was making it rain. knowing the price of water on broadway, that may have been a pretty bad tip. barely covered the cost of the water. next to will smith taking part in apple music's launch of "carpool karaoke." >> james corden takes will for a spin much like he does on his show. they get down to "boom boom boom shake a room", by dj jazzy jeff

and the fresh prince. take a listen. ♪ never start to stutter ♪ >> they're good. ♪ ch ch ch ch chill >> so james did his homework. >> he asked smith about a potential movie role. ♪ boom, boom, boom, boom, shake the room ♪ >> if anyone said to you, would you play barack obama in a movie, someone must have called about that? >> yes, i talked to barak about it. >> what did he say? >> he told me that he felt confident that i had the ears for the role. >> check it out, shall we? we have asked our graphics department for a little help on this. and get a look at what that might look like. >> oh, my gosh. that is genius.

>> he does have the ears. they didn't do anything with former president obama's ears. >> you can't really tell. are those his ears or president obama's ears. no one knows. >> he's fit for the job. next to a person who needs only one name. >> beyonce? no. >> cher? >> no. >> oprah! >> there you go. >> she's helped thousands of people shed pounds after revamping weight-watchers. what would be the next logical thing for the champion of weight loss? how about comfort food? >> before you start scratching your head, they come with substitutions for healthier ingredients. the mashed potatoes have cauliflower in them, for example. >> ah. it's called o, that's good. a partnership with kraft/heinz and creamy parmesan pasta.

with added white beans. >> i want some. i'm kind of hungry now. there are soups. there are sides. >> so oprah's saying, "i love comfort food." >> me too, oprah. comfort food." >> me too, oprah.

clearasil rapid action begins working fast for clearly visible results in as little as 12 hours. but will it stop this teen from being embarassed by her parents? nope. so let's be clear: clearasil works fast on teen acne, not so much on other teen ings. this clean was like pow! everything well? my teeth are glowing. they are so white. step 1 cleans. step 2 whitens. crest [hd]. 6x cleaning*, 6x whitening*á i would switch to crest [hd] over what i was using before. ♪ tired of wrestling with seemingly impossible cleaning tasks?

neffective. try mr. clean magic eraser. simply add water, to remove soap scum and grime. try mr. clean magic eraser. ♪ ♪ nights are the mystery ♪ we'll rewrite history ♪ woo-ooh >> the wait is almost over. we're talking about ♪ da, da, danger looks behind you ♪ >> we are talking about ducktails, huey, louie and uncle scrooge are back. and abc's nick watt has a look behind the scenes. >> reporter: ducktails then. tell me you're bringing back the theme song? >> oh, yes. >> reporter:

and this is how they make it. who plays who? >> how dare you? >> reporter: they're dewey and huey. >> it's a time, look, machine. >> it's the first time that scrooge mcduck has ever been played by an actual scotsman. >> reporter: lynn manuel miranda. there is plenty of shouting in the writers room. >> louie can be very bitter toward scrooge. scrooge is still alive. >> reporter: is it always like this or you're overexcited because strangers are here. it's always like this? calm precision from the art director. >> here's the way he looks to the audience. here's how he looks to us. he has to look consistent through the entire show. >> reporter: and time-consuming tweaking and animation and editing. >> characters look like that and we change it so they can be a little more on model. >> the way they drew his mouth is incorrect. they drew a mouth in front of his beak. >> reporter: these oversize children are executive producer and writer.

>> our main goal is to give kids today the feeling that we had. >> it really is created with a lot of love. >> reporter: they gave me some groans and a line. episode 109. >> right, but if we attack and urge them to surrender, we should do that, right? >> that was perfect. that was amazing. [ laughter ] >> reporter: do not judge ducktails reboot on my american accent, keeping the spirit but mildly updated. nick watt, abc news, los angeles. >> nick watt, a star in the making. >> who knew? his accent was beautiful. >> we'll get his next emmy ready to go. >> ducktails. >> i am so excited for that one. and we're going to have that song stuck in our heads. >> the only thing i can dream of is the thunder cats reboot. >> thunder, thunder, thunder cats!

oh!

making news in america this morning, north korea responds to president trump with a new threat. guam is now at the center of the dispute. new reaction from people living on the island overnight. a russian surveillance plane over u.s. government buildings flying near the pentagon. the capitol, even president trump's golf club where he's vacationing right now. what they're doing and why the country is allowed to even do that. hurricane franklin makes landfall overnight slamming into mexico. we have a look at its new path. and a poultry prop. this morning we know who plays the massive inflatable chicken across from the white house.