fighters could flee mosul and launch terrorist attacks against the u.s. and its allies. matt, any combination on what advancing forces could reach mosul? >> reporter: we the know this is a good thing right now. we don't know when we will be reaching isis t. engagement of the counterfrichl terrorism force means the going according to plan him does that mean we know where they will be entering mosul? we know this is a similar pattern for the islamic states over the last year. now, i was with the counterterrorism forces if in january, according to wall street journal. i learned this is a very small force a. lot were actually trained in the united states and these people learn a lot when they speak english. they are very well trained.

usually this is used for precision strikes. now they are being used as the main point of the sphere against ramadi to fallujah and now in mosul. so they are being very over extended. >> they are there in northern iraq. few details are emerging about a gas explosion that rocked portland, oregon, thursday. they have t to save lives. >> he went in on his own, pulled the fire alarm, which allowed those individuals to evacuate. had those steps not been taken, we would have been having a different conversation this afternoon. this man single handedly saved a lot of citizens today and firefighters. >> he is one of three firefighters, and three sids

this morocco the mayor is asking sids to do nate after the explosion continues. still to come here, an nbc news investigation with hacking and the use wikileaks is having on our election. it's must see tv. >> but, it was a record breaking day on wednesday with over 50,000 registered. we have the weather and more on that historic and brazing day across the country. >> it hit 90 this cold front sending the season. so this morning, it is in st. louis. we'll see showers and thunderstorms. rain throughout the day for ohio and fork and especially this evening. >> that rain will hit closer to the east coast. that's a look at the big weather story today and a closer look at the day ahead. for today, you can see the heat

still warm around baugdz and humid still areas of the southeast and much cooler in the northern plains, highs only in the 40s. >> really heavy rain of the next couple of days. it's been a good drought over the last couple months. is america going to pot? a new survey takes that question high. and there were a rash of bank crashes on wednesday. what's going on? we will explain "early today" has the details

. test. today's quick hit the cdc says specially transmitted diseases have hit a record high in the u.s. >> a new gallup poll finds 56% of americans support

three other states welcome medical marijuana. federal officials are now urging all pregnant women who live in or have recently visited miami-dade county to get tested for the zika virus. plane crashes in three states. new details about the air accidents across america. first, though, watch this. look at that landing t. pilot was forced to land with malfunctioning landing gore right there. on the nose of the plane. it was d down the runway t. pilot walked away unharmed. in ft. lauderdale, iwitnesses says this twin engine plane landed after crash landing on a runway. the plane's landing gear is under way. the pilot and a passenger on board were not hurt. a different story for the pilot of this small plane. he and a passenger on board crash landed into the back yard of a house. this is in southern new jersey. the first responders saw the

it took 20 minutes to free them. all the crashes are being investigated. >> scary. is america about to have a new sports capital? >> intelligence officials say they caught the russian hackers. nbc news investigates. next. nbc news investigates. next. free to seize the savings on medicare part d. from one-dollar copays on select plans to rewards points on all prescriptions, it's easy to save big at walgreens. ?? ?? then sit back and enjoy the savings. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. more "sit" per roll. bounty is two times more absorbent. so one roll of bounty can last longer than those bargain brands. so you get more "life" per roll.

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the cleveland indians are going

really early, after the indians and the toronto bluejays end the series. it's been 19 years since the indians played in the world series and 68 sentence they won a championship. lebron james celebrated tonight, world series, here we come. congrats, george. you can imagine the celebration. >> now, to an nbc news exclusive investigation as wikileaks continues to in the election in the u.s. intelligence agencies are taking us inside the effort to stop the hack by russia and published by wikileaks. here's senior correspondent. >> reporter: a high level u.s. intelligence source tells nbc news the u.s. is confident it has cut off the flow of election material being hacked by the russians. the u.s. cla imse the kremlin

documents, many harmful to the clinton campaign. the highly praised intelligence officials tells nbc news, new defensive measures taken by the u.s. and aliesz are choking off the cyber paths the russians have been using to steal e-mails from high profile democrats and other prominent americans. >> i think it's credible the u.s. government is doing everything moble to stop the cyber pleading. >> reporter: u.s. officials sigh th ever that the russians have used wikileaks founder julian assange to help distribute the hacked material, telling the u.s. into assange, a "willing participant in the russian scheme. a sange is holed up in the ecuadorian london for more than four years. >> they're frustrated because wick key leaks has done a lot of

information. >> reporter: multiple intelligence sources tell us the u.s. quietly pressured ecuador to shut off julian assange's access,ese lateing him. the state department next which door denied there were any pressure. reverb racings of the cyber assault was felt across the spectrum. marco rubio came up swinging against wikileaks. >> we want to be a country where foreign leaders and agencies can blackmail elected officials. straight ahead the most tweeted moments to the presidential debate. that's next. idential debate. that's next. what? is he gone?? finally, i thought he'd never leave... tv character: why are you texting my man at 2 a.m.? no... if you want someone to leave you alone, you pretend like you're sleeping. it's what you do. if you want to save

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>> chris wallace asked donald trump if he would accept the results of the election on november 8th. trump had this to say. >> are you saying you are not prepared. >> what i said,ly tell you at the time. i will keep you in su he will end with a cliff hangar. his campaign manager kelly anne conway, i am told we have footage of her taking questions from reporters about it in the spin room. >> this campaign, this whole election has been like. >> i know the moments, there were a lot of people. people were tweeting during the debate.

treatment of women. when trump refused to say if he will accept the election results and when trump called putin his puppet. clinton gained 13,000 in followers compared to trump's 6,000. overall, trump has 12.6 million compared to clinton's 9.9 million. it's amazing to see how much social media played in this el we saw facebook helping out registration. that's within the next positive if you will. >> not only are you watching the debate. you have to sit there. exactly. they are putting in their two cents. dozens weighed in. including josh gad who tweeted this -- "snl" at this point is

trending for many, though, bill maher was concerned about the lack of questions of climate change especially when it comes to a lot of heavy celebrity weighing in on that. >> that's kind of disappointing. moving on, the boss is also weighing in, he's taking on the donald. when bruce spring steen was asked about his rise. take a listen. >> when about a rigged election and he's not -- he has a ceiling he will lose now, of course, he is going to lose. he's such a flagrant toxic narcissist that he wants to take down the entire democratic system with him if he goes. wit. o clean better than a manual... he said sure, but don't just get any one.

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