chris pollone, nbc news. >>> this is vintage world war ii plane. headed to a show when something went terribly wrong.ly baakes it off the ground. just burst into flames. l 14 people made it out. the faa is now investigating. >> >>> turn or attention back here to scene right outsi our doorstep. rain rain and more rain going to be jus the kind of day you need to take a nap and not do anything. >> yes and if you do need to do anythiaybe get out early in the morning. still a lot to talk about tonight. still raining o there. very heavy showers now situated a little further to the north of the beltway and east. starting to see thing light up. a lot of moving parts. here's the deal. we do have a flood warning now in effect. extended north. evyone in light green is under flood warning. flash flood warning is for parts montgomery. see there frederick just added as i'm going down. alexandria under a flash flood warning. copious amounts of rain coming down very quickly a accumulating very fast. take a look at accumulations so far. rain down towards charles co

nbc's chris pollone has more. good morning, chris. >> reporter: good morning, phillip. this trade war is on and as you said, it started at 12:1 eastern expand these tariffs to another $16 billion worth of goods soon. chinese media reports say the country has already responded imposing tariffs on $34 billion worth of u.s. goods. poultry, corn, soybeans, pork, things that hit the american bread basket hard. now, people even in the president's own party feared that the trade battle could raise prices for u.s. consumers and for businesses and slow down economic growth. but the president says that this is necessary to level the playing field for u.s. businesses. live in washington, i'm chris pollone, philip, let's go back to you. >> chris, thank you. >> the clock is ticking as the president narrows down the list for the supreme court seat. a source familiar with the washington, amy michigan. andaymond kethledge. pete williams tells us more. >> reporter: president trump has apparently narrowed the list to three federal appeals court judges. a source familiar with the news it'

news4's chris pollone is following the latest on capitol hill. ris, talk about the reasoning that pruitt gave for stepping down. >> reporter: right. in his resignation letter sent to the president, pruitt cited unrelenting attacks on himhi an s family. he made no reference to why thosettacks have been taking place or what he deems as attacks. of course, pruitt is under, by nbc news' count, 15 separate investigations for possible violations you've heard all the stories, from trying secure a chick-fil-a franchise for his w for a high-paying job to installing a very expensive phone booth inside his office. the white house finally decided that pruitt was expendable, especially leading into the supreme court pick and into the midterm elections. they didn't want him to be a distraction. >> chris, while we have you, let me ask you about the supreme court nominee, this short list president trump has that's getting shorter, it seems. who arehe front-runners? >> reporter: that's right. nbc news has learned that the three finalists at this point are amy cone

time but kethledge is seen as a bit of an outsider we'll have to see what the president does >> chris pollone in d.c., thank you very much. let's check the other headlines outside of money and business. phillip mena has that. >>> good morning the head of the epa is out scott pruitt resigned from his post amid multiple ethic scandals pruitt faces more than a dozen separate investigations but it wasn't just environmental activists and democrats calls for his ouster, also republican members of congress even as president trump defended him >>> a sad development in the rescue effort for that trapped soccer team in thailand. a former thai navy s.e.a.l. died during rescue operations he died after running out of oxygen while placing tanks throughout the cave. this as rescuers race against time before monsoon rains bring more flooding. >>> here in the united states, unrelenting weather is assaulting much of the country in colorado the spring creek fire, the largest in the state, burned 16 acres every minute in wine country the county fire is jeopardizing 1500 homes and structures >>> in pittsburgh imm

. >> several blocks of fifth avenue remain shut dowt this hour, and as nbc's chris pollone shows us, one major concern right now. >> reporter: it could be seen across manhattan and looked like billowing smoke but it was actually steam shooting hundreds of feet in the air. >> sounded almost like a jet engine. >> reporter: dave mat ews saw it from his office around 6:40 in the morning. >> i saw a 300 foot column of steamising through t air out of a giant hole in e middle of fifth avenue and chunks of concrete spread across the street. >> reporter: officials say an underground pipe burst in the city's flat iron district and steam used to heat and cool buildingan inttan at fifth avenue through the air. five people were treated for scrapes and cuts >> all i saw was a tunnel of smoke and i just started running and didn't know g what wasng on. i called flashbackser on septe 11th. >> reporter: repairs could take days and traffic is snarled and traffic and buses are. disrupt because the point was so old laid 86 years ago, health officials fear the explosion send dangerouses as into the air. t

chris pollone, >>> a warning for swimmers to beware of sharks after two separate attowks in beach in new york. both happened yesterdaynly a few miles apart onire island. a 13-year-old boy was bitten on the leg. he was treated by paramedics. they fnd a shark tooth in hisle in that wound. >>> and a 12-year-old girl named lola was standing in waist-deep water when a shark bit her on the leg. her parent talked with nbc's kerry sanders. >> well, really i saw the puncture wounds before i saw the blood. >> i could have lost a leg but i didn't so that's good. >> reporter: will the paulina family go back int water? >> yes. >> not me. >> me and lola will. lola can laugh about it. good for her. soon after those attacks fishermen and people on the t beach caugh sharks hand brought them ashore, but the sharks have notxactly been linked to these attacks so fire island officials are warning everyone you can go out in the water and be a rt when you'r out there. >> crews rescued 50 to 60 cats from a hoarding situation in north potomac. animal rescue and the firepa ment removed several cats from then

chris pollone, nbc news. >>> a major scare at a texas mall. why shoppers feared an active shooter was on the loosego >>> and we'vsome nice conditions out there right now. temperatures are in the 80s, coming into the 70s tonight. but the heat and hidity and >>> a day at the mall turns frightening forer shos in texas. [ screaming ]. >> people started screaming and running for their lives, thinking there was an active shooter in the mall. this all started with a botched robbery at a jewelry store inside the mall m mcallen. shoppers thought it was gunfire when the glass was smashed. the police caught all the robbers and fortunately nobody e was hurt in chaos. >>> a baltimore man charged with sexually assaulting a passeng oard a flight. federal prosecutors charged deo mugabe. investigators say he assault happened on a flight from houston to baltimore in late may. prosecutors say mugabe knew the passen had an inability to communicate. if convicted, mugabe faces up to five years in prison. >> police tonight searching for four people who they say took

. >> and chris pollone is here to tell us what that could mean for the future of the supreme court. good morning, chris. >> good morning kris and marcus. the president and first lady watched the fireworks at the white house here in washington, but it is this pending pick of the supreme court justice that could bring even more fireworks to the capital. >> reporter: president trump and the first lady on the truman balcony celebrating independence day after welcoming mille tear members and their families to the white house. >> thank you for keeping america safe, strong, proud, mighty and free. >> reporter: the president building suspense this past week playing coy over who is going to be his next nominee for the supreme court. >> and like justice gorsuch, we hit a home run there, and we will hit a home run there. >> reporter: the president has narrowed the list to seven candidates with two appeals court judges with brett kavenaugh and amy coney barrett. >> it is going to be someone who looks like judge gorsuch and a known commodity to be counted on the ideological issues that hard core

nbc's chris pollone has the story. >> reporter: it comes days before he sits down one-on-one with russian president vladimir putin in finland. democrats are pressuring the president to pull out after the justice department revealed indictments against 12 russian military intelligence officers accused of stealing e-mails belonging to the dg th 2016 cam. >> if he and his team are not o this indictment of russian interference a top priority in the helsinki meeting, then the meeting should be cancelled. >> reporter: president trump continues to call the russia probe a witch hunt and on twitter casts blame on president obama for not doing more to stop russian hacking, but the president insists he will confront putin about it. >> i know you'll ask will we be talking about meddling, and i will absolutely bring that up. i don't think you'll have any gee, i did it, i did it, you got me. there won't be a perry mason here, i don't think. you never know what happens, but i will absolutely firmly ask the question. >> the problem with this meeting is we don't know and won't know what is going to be dis

. >> chris pollone has more from capitol hill.e what cho are immigration officers being told to offerarents? >> good morning. this comes from an immigration and customs enforcement form obtained by nbc news. it covers parents who came across the border with your chdren in may and june and then were separated from those children. the government is giving em twochoices. do you want to go home to your home country with your children or witho your children? apparently, those people are not being allowed to be reunited with their children as they await asylum. immigration advocates say that this is being presented to tse immigrants who came across during those two months and are separatem their children without waiting to see if they are granted some sort of asylum or a court proceeding. an immigration and customs enforcement spokesperson says they're only to be given to people who received final removal orders butot would clarify whether they're allowed to go before a judge and ask for asylum first. >> chris polne onhe hill for us. thank you.> at the live desk, following breaking news in

. >> all right, nbc's chris pollone on capitol hill for us. thank you. >>> 4:47 now, and the brewing trade war with chinati is h up again today. tariffs on hundreds of chinese products took effect overnight. this is the latest escalationn the ongoing battle between the u.s. and some of our biggest trade partners. the white housesmposing an additional 25% tariff on more than 800 chinese goods from farm machinery to medical devices, from cars to aircraft parts. so far, finished goods like n smartphones a included. china fired back, imposing retaliatory tariffs on u.s. goods. >>> here at the live desk, we've got some new information that'sg already mak headlines around the world. the "associated press" has reported that anne frank's family tried to seek refuge in the u.s. and cuba during war ii. you remember, frank is the jewish diarist w died in the holocaust. the "ap" says documents reflect anne's father, otto, twice tried to get papers to come to the u.s. and later to cuba. otto frank wrote in the lette that he had filed an application in rott

let's go to nshs's chris pollone for more. orte someen the president's nominee but it turns out that might not be a winning strategy. nearly two-thirds of those surveyed, 62%, say the senate should vote to confirm or reject trump's nominee before the midterm election, while a third, 33%, say just the opposite. the new snapshot coming as we learn the commander in chief is already interviewing those on his short list with two or three more interviews set to take place in the coming days. still when asked, the president wouldn't divulge just who he has met with. >> in the morning, during the morning, i interviewed and met with four potential justices of our great supreme court. they are outstanding people. they are really incredible people in so many different ways, academically and every other way. and i had a very, very interesting morning. >> reporter: of course a lot of this battle will be waged over roe v. wade, the alls on that issue today. >> would the president like to see roe v. wade overturned? >> i'm not going to get into any specifics that we would be lookin doe he himself,

chris pollone, nbc news. >>> a frightening scene in india caught on camera. at least 17 people were hurt after a tin shed collapsed during a tractor race. hundreds had climbed on the shed to watch the competition when you see the roof giving way there authority says the injured were rushed to the hospital for treatment. there were no reports of fatalities. >>> nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with our monday forecast. good morning. >> good morning. we're returning to the stagnant weather pattern we dealt with early last week. here is the scenario. two areas of hmm. the one in the west bringing the extreme heat. it's not helping the firefighters at all. and that's going to continue in the west. we're going to see very warm temperatures once again. then in the areas of the east atlantic we get another big area of high pressure. and those two aren't moving. well call this a blocking pattern. and that leaves this area of low pressure kind of in the middle of the country. and because of that bermuda high, the wind direction out of the south for the entire eas

we are live in washington i'm chris pollone. >> all right. thank you. >>> right now it's 5:07. we are taking a look at northern thailand. people awaiting word about the planned rescue of the boys soccer team trapped deep in a flooded cave. you can see other boys sleeping under the blankets. rescue operation leaders say the boys are practicing wearing diving masks and breathing faz they were under water. one calls it a risky operation because the boys don't know how to swim and it runs more than 2 miles. >> they are talking about them teaching them to dive and then do it. that's a bit of a long shot to be honest. >> the boys all between the ages of 11 and 16 along with their coach became trapped on june 23rd. there are fears more rains could make the water riesse. >>> the county fire burning in yolo and napa county is now the size of the city of fresno. air tankers and helicopters were able to make more drps yesterday as you saw because the visibility was better. this is all but deserted which is really unusual during a holiday like this one. >> have you ever seen it this quiet

chris pollone is following the latest for us. >> reporter: good morning, esron.he ent said he will make the announcement a week from y, toext monday, july 9th. as he continues to whittle down that list and inrview potential candidates, senate without having a name to target, are ratcheting up their rhetoric. they're putting pressure on pro-choice republicans, susan collins and lisa murkowski. 4 with9 votes in the senate, it's clear that democrats nwoed one orepublicans to go along with them to delay a vote or block a trump nominee to the preme court. all depending on the health of john mccain and whether he will be able to vote when this comes to a vote. the democrats areounding the ala ala alarm, saying a potential pick from the president, could us eaten things like row ver wade. >>> minimum wage workers in maryland willbe wiaking home a bigger paycheck. $10. is in effect. lormakers have pushed a bigger increase but that legislation stalled this year. > other areas of our region are getting a pay hike and new laws are in effect. for information, open the nbc was

. >> and chris pollone is in washington, d.c., with the pressurewashington. chris. >> yeah, kris and marcus, it is the upcoming supreme court pick that could bring the fire wok w that could bring them back to the capitol. the president and first lady on the truman balcony after welcoming military members and their families to the white house. >> thank you for keeping the country safe, mighty and free. >> reporter: he was playing coy over who is the next nominee for the supreme court. >> just like justice gorsuch, we hit a home run there, and we will hit a home run here. >> reporter: the president has nar troed list to the seven candidates with two appeals court justices in brett kavenaugh and amy coney barrett being the leaders most likely. >> and it is going to be someone who is like judge gorsuch and known commodity to be counted on the ideological issues the epublicans can be enthusiastic about. >> reporter: and both sides on the abortion battle are ramping up campaigns for the swing votes of the pick like maine senator susan collins. >> roe v. wade is very