the nbc news exclusive, the pontiac gone has prepared a strike plan, and the he could, america's battle tested, b-one bombers. >> trump, fire and rhetoric is backed up by the secretary of defense as the u.s. draws a line in the sand. >> and a search of manafort's home. >> and testimony from tiller swift's groping trial. >> and the cardinals rally kitty gets too frisky in a big game moment. "early today," starts right now. >> good morning. >> this morning, we n

that the pentagon has a plan for a strike on north korea. north korea doubled down to strike the u.s. territory of guam saying it will be in a position to do so by mid august. as it brushes off trump's comments as retaliation as a load of nonsense. >> still the president's tough rhetoric was backed by stronger words by the defense secretary as he warned north korea to stop considering actions that would lead to the end of the regime and the destruction of its people. promising it would lose any conflict that it initiates. how much would a war would an attack plunge us in to? >> the pentagon has prepared a specific strike plan for a pre-emptiv attack on north korea if it should be

seen here in a military video, training for such a mission. the b-1, recently updated, has been a work horse in afghanistan and iraq. since the end of may, the b-1s have accelerated their training, conducted 11 practice runs, including one on monday. six b-1s are positioned in guam, they are not nuclear capable. here is what they are training for. pairs of b-1s, supported overhead by drones and satellite, surrounded by fighter jets and refuelling and electronic warfare planes have practiced what a real operation against north korean missile strikes may look like. this is designed to be largely invisible to facilitate a sneak attack t targets, approximately two dozen north korea missil

facilities that we have been told they are confident they have identified. they can carry a mix of weapons. as many many as 168 bombs or more likely the missile that can be fired hundreds of miles outside north korean air space. >> of all the military options you could consider, this would be one of the two or three that would be at least have a possibility of not escalating the situation. a single long-range strike against the nuclear program. a cyber offensive would be the second. those are the only two military options that ought to be in serious consideration. >> nonetheless, the admiral, who was the allied commando of nato said he would double against the u

>> he would lash out at south korea and potentially at longer range targets. perhaps including guam, that's a bad set of outcomes from where we sit today. >> thanks, for that report. and for more on how to crisis is shaping on the ground, we good to janice on the chinese north korean border. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, it's unclear whether the latest round of u.s. sanctions can work. about 80% of north korea's trade is with china and the vast majority of it flows through here. that is north korea on the other side of the river. shipments of coal, iron, ore and seafood, all being curtailed that could choke a billion dollars in annual revenues for the regime. here, it appears to be business as usual. trading and goods ranging from food to consumer electronics, continues, trucks cross from north korea in the morning, they em

chinese made goods and go back across the bridge that connects the two countries. north korea has found ways to get around sanctions in the past, so much of what happens next is going to depend on enforcement. china voted for the sanctions and stressed that the u.s. and south korea need to back down. so, there's a sense of, nervousness in the region with the rhetoric widening the risk for miscalculation. so, while it's not yet a sense of crisis, there's most definitely an escalation intention. francis, philip? back to you. >> thank you. now, to a party fight brewing between members of the republican party and it involves the key member of the senate. after wisconsin senator ron johnson said this to a chicago morning talk show. when offering his explanation on why senator john mccain voted against the obama care repeal bill.

john mccain. you know, he has a brain tumor right now. that voted occurred at 1:30 in the morning. some of that might have factored in. >> really? >> you can hear the radio host befuddled by his answer. they pushed him further to ask him about it, and he doubled down. >> i don't -- i thought he was going to vote -- he voted no. so, you will have to ask john what was on his mind. >> well, now senator johnson is taking a step back, saying the statement, i am disappointed i didn't more eloquently express the sympathy for what senator mccain is going through. >> a dramatic escalation in special council, robert mueller's russia investigation. it's confd

fbi agents late last month at paul manafort's. news of it comes on the day that the president's son, donald dru trump, jr., submitted documents on the trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. it's a lot to uncover, tracy, tell us about both manafort and trump, jr. >> let's start with manafort, what is as significant as what they were looking for and what they may have found is why the raid happened in the first place. but according to our sources they were seeking banking and tax document records on paul manafort's business dealings in ukraine and in cypress and in order to get that, mueller would have had to convince a judge that there was probable cause

now, he has been cooperating, manafort has with the investigation. a spokesman said that he is consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other series inquiries and did so on this occasion as well, and it confirmed that mueller is looking at more than just russia's medaling in the election. we now know, that the trump campaign and trump, jr. and manafort have turned over documents to the senate judiciary committee, the committee is expected to hold hearings in late september. >> all right, tracy, thank you. >> now, to a bizarre story out of massachusetts, people may find it disturbing. two sitters under arrest for putting a baby inside a fridge and filming it for snapchat. you can see a person is seen picking up and placing

said bye and she closes the door. in another portion they open the fridge to reveal the screaming baby. the girls are heard laughing throughout and the officials say the infant is expected to be okay and the sitters are charged with child endangerment, and assault and battery. >> this one could be a pizza lover's nightmare a track for tra -- a tractor trailer crashed scattering pizza. it hit a overpass and that caused the accident. luckily no one was hurt. >> well, i'm sure that arkansas heat, and the chaez of the pizza is melting a bit. >> i wonder what the five second rule is on that? >> i don't know about that one. we have a full flejed hurricane, with franklin. how big is this one? >> it's

it's move engine to inland areas of mexico and the mountains are right near the coast. so, it will start to tear the storm apart quickly. 80 mile per hour, we are lucky it did not stay over water longer. it will rain out today, and no concern here in the lower 48. the only thing that we have to worry about is scattered storms in the southeast and colorado and kansasment here is a closer look at the day ahead. well, there's tall scattered afternoon storms in the southeast, those will be dotting the map. won't cause too many problems. maybe a quick half hour, you will have to run inside, the worst of it. temperatures will cool in the northern plains and a lot of 70s showing up on the map. we will track the cooler temperatures in to the up coming weekend for you later in the show. >> we are headed in the right direction. thanks a lot, bill. >> thank you. >> major league baseball's player's weekend is coming up in a week and the league is going to allow players

the back of their jerseys with nicknames. they are going to display brightly colored jerseys and they can use custom accessories like cleats and spikes. it's in an effort to appeal to younger fans. >> facebook is going to launch something that is going to be pretty huge. details of of the shootout between police and a suspect that mowed down six french soldiers "early today" is back in two. (grunts of effort) can we do this tomorrow? if you have heart failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase, making tomorrow uncertain. but entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest heart failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto

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more "doing chores for dad" per roll more "earning something you love" per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty the quicker picker upper. authorities in deerfield beach florida are looking for a group of pranksters that set off fireworks in a restaurant. the fireworks were tossed through the entrance, and the employee does not react to the first explosion but the second one sent her running. it damaged a wall, you see it there. fortunately nobody was hurt. >> leading the news this morning, taylor swift's mother took the stand on the second day of proceedings in the s

she told the court that her daughter was visibly upset after being groped by a former radio d.j. when she said that the singer told her homicid-- told her mom just grabbed my behind. however, they did not want miller to get away with the groping so they told his radio station. he was later fired and he denies touching swift inappropriately and is suing for $3 million. she is counter suing, alleging sexual assault and seeking a symbolic $1. >> could the hottest shows be coming to facebook. they just unveiled their new platform for original programming. it's called watch and will compete with youtube. it will feature shows that you can add to your watch list and they promise to make it easier to find video content outside

their news feed. they will feature live shows that connect with the fans answering questions in real time. users can access watch via mobile devices, computer and tv apps. they are rolling out watch in the u.s. for a limited group where expanding. >> changing the way all of us watch tv. hope you keep it here every morning. the mayor of a paris suburb said they have caught the suspect that mowed through soldiers. the mayor called the attack the work of a terrorist, the swat team tracked the suspect down, north of paris, shooting him five times and he survived and now hospitalized. >> if you are a frequent flyer, listen up. the ranks of the best airlines rewards program has been released and for a third consecutive year. alaska airlines mile plan topped the list. followed by del

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and now to the nation's opioid crisis that continues to plague the nation. a mayor speaks out. she spoke about the um

son's death. >> this is megan barry's family during better times. ten days ago, the mayor got a knock on her door at 3:00 a.m. >> your first thought is that you had a police officer that of was injured and you need to get dressed. you need to go to the hospital. you need to comfort a family. >> instead, it was she who needed comforting. her son died of a drug overdose. >> did it come as a shock? >> yeah. totally. >> you didn't see it coming at all? >> i didn't see it coming. >> he had been to rehab once before but recently graduated and moved to colorado. >> he was your only child? >> yeah. our only. >> the mayor revealed he had a lethal combination of drugs in his system. including xanax, cocaine and the opio opioids. >> i want to just shake him and say, what were you thinking? >> this is a tremendous problem in our

>> on tuesday, president trump stopped short of declaring a national emergency but pledged to ramp up law enforcement to combat the opioid crisis. >>. >> is that enough? >> we are not going to arrest our way out of this problem. you need having access to beds and treatment. >> has it sunk in yet? >> i don't think so. you know, i that i, this hole that i have in my heart will never be filled. see, right here. >> she shared with us their final texts. >> i'm so grateful that the last word wes said and the last text we sent said, i love you. >> max berry was 22. >> straight ahead, why gamers could soon be going for gold at the olympics and the because is broadway bound. details on his big debut. that is next ...we run marathons...

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august 30th. you can imagine how much those tickets will be. >> video gamers could soon be competing for gold medals. a co-president of the paris olympic bid plans to hold talks about the possibility of adding gaming to the 2024 olympic games. professional gaming has gained popularity and france alone has 850,000 professional and amateur players. and market research estimates that there are 148 million e-sports enthusiasts worldwide. >> that will be met with controversy and purists will say, it's not an olympic sport. >> they have race walking. this is "early today." shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day

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good morning. straight ahead on news 4, one year later. what has changed since an explosion killed several people in an apartment complex in silver spring that changed the lives of several others. and i'm meteorologist chuck bell, we are having a very lovely start to your thursday and temperatures today once again in the comfy zone. but rain chances increase just

united we stand, divided we fall. now on "news 4 today," a call for justice and resignation. the fallout begins just hours after a police officer is cleared in the death of an unarmed black

show of force. when north korea says it's planning a possible attack near the u.s. territory of guam. and jackpots continue to grow and so does the excitement. how much you stand to gain after power ball and mega millions produced no big winners. good morning. i'm chris lawrence. thank you for starting your day with us here on news 4 today at 4:00 a.m. if you liked yesterday's weather, you're going to love what is in stoin store today. >> good morning, everybody. yes indeed, our stretch of beautiful weather here really started in earnest on tuesday afternoon. it will continue through most of today. i wish i could tell you that the nice weather was going to last all the way into the weekend, but i can't quite do that. we have dry air on top of us for today and that offers us sunshine and production from