our own terry moran reporting on that important story. but first, here's a look at today's temperatures. >>> "world news now" weather, brought to you by lysol. best friends share everything protection. every year, kids miss 22 million school days due to illness. lysol disinfectant spray kills viruses that cause the cold & flu. and since lysol is the only disinfectant with box tops, you can earn cash for your school with every purchase. lysol. what it takes to protect. >>> this was a live picture at aurora, colorado. survivors and others are mark the movie theater shooting in the denver suburb. james holmes walked into a midnight showing and killed 12 and injuring several others. he's currently in prison serving 12 life sentences. >>> a 24 hour strike gets under way today in venezuela, in opposition to president maduro's plan calling for a new constitution. protesters are expected to block the streets of caracas to express disapproval over the president's plan which would creat

that's not something she would do, she says, if she were a spy. >> terry moran in moscow. terry, thank you. >>> now to the fireworks on capitol hill today. president trump's pick to replace comey in the fbi. front and center, asked about loyalty to the president, and asked about what the president said just today that this is all a witch hunt. how his nominee answered. abc's senior justice correspondent, pierre thomas, in the room. >> reporter: after firing previous fbi director james comey, president trump's pick to replace him, chris wray, facing intense scrutiny today. grilled about everything from the loyalty to the president to the president's son, don junior. >> if you get a call from somebody suggesting that the foreign government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent, tell us to call the fbi. >> any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. >> all right. so i'll take it we should call you and that's a great answer. >> reporter: after those one-on-one meeting

terry moran, abc news, moscow. >> and we have an update on congressman steve scalise this morning. you will remember he was shot last month during a baseball practice. he has been transferred out of intensive care but remains in serious condition. he spent the past week in icu for an infection. he's now had several surgeries since the shooting. >>> the fox river is at an all-time high in burlington, wisconsin. this after seven inches of rain fell in a short period of time. the river is expected to peak today at noon. back yards and roads were flooded in chicago after rain in the chicago area that one resident said just wouldn't stop. even six flags, great america had to close as a result of the hot and dry conditions are fueling many wildfires in the west coast. arizona has nine, large, active fires. more than any other state. the newest fire in the state has grown quickly to more than 2,000 acres. there are about four dozen fires in 12 western states. >>> united airlines has a new plan to deal with overbooked flights. according to bloomberg, they will offer passengers rewards if t

abc's terry moran takes us to russia's capital, moscow, where he meets with survivors who say they fled for their lives. >> reporter: the kremlin, the seat of power in vladimir putin's russia. but we are headed to the outskirts of this city and keeping a low profile. >> the person we're about to meet is taking a risk doing this interview. >> reporter: we're on our way to a secret safe house. >> we don't know where we're going. >> reporter: to meet two men who say they've been forced into hiding, their lives in danger simply because they're gay. this is what's happening in russia. these disturbing images collected by human rights watch showing men allegedly being choked, beaten, violated, targeted allegedly because of their sexuality. in the past few years, bigotry has been on the rise. and repressive government policies have fueled the hatred. but it is in southern russia, in chechnya, a semi autonomous republic where human rights group say vigilante hate has evolved into something far worse. a coordinated government campaign to round up and eliminate gay men. a mass persecution. here i

ourhief foreign correspondent, terry moran is there. >> reporter: she is at the center of a global media fire storm. >> let me ask you a question. >> reporter: but natalia vesle net skaia says she is not interested in politics. she is known as a politically connected lawyer, and no stranger to washington. she is in the front row of a hearing on russian sanctions, just five days after she got that meeting at trump tower with top campaign officials, including donald trump jr. he was told she was a russian government attorney bringing damaging information about hillary clinton. we asked her about that today. is that true or false? listen, she says, i have never had compromising materials on hillary clinton. her only relieving some u.s. sanctions. she and trump agree on one thing. that meeting was a bust. he wanted to hear from me, that which i did not tell him, she says. he got disappointed from not hearing it. today, vesle net skaia insisted she is not an em baa sar. were you carrying any message or any information from anyone in the russian government to the trump campaign? >> no. no. >>

we're up all nightline with terry moran who caught up with two survivors. >> reporter: this is what's happening in russia. these disturbing images, collected by human rights watch. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: showing men allegedly be being choked, beaten, violated, targeted allegedly because of their sexuality. on the past few years, bigotry has been on the rise here. >> [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. >> reporter: and repressive government policies have fueled the hatred. but it's in southern russia, in chechnya, a semi-autonomous district where vigilante hate has evolved into something far worse, a government campaign to round up and eliminate gay men, a mass persecution. here, in that moscow safe house, we're about to meet two of the men who say they are survivors. they tell us they're so afraid, even here, that they've asked that we obscure their faces and change their voices. this man, we'll call him deneil says he is no stranger to violence. he could take the risk of dating very rarely. >> we would meet in public places so in case of danger, we could run away or ask for help. >>

you're looking at susan collins, rand paul, mike lee -- >> terry moran -- >> lisa murkowski. moran had procedural problems. >> okay. >> if faced with a -- so he said. he didn't like the way the process was running. if faced with a vote, o repeal and replacing the affordable care act or not, i don't think it's going to die if it does because of his vote. >> we had a couple of public events yesterday with the president on camera. one, he stood in front of white house interns at the kwho-- int at the white house, and had a memorable eye roll when asked about the future of jeff sessions. let's listen. >> mr. president, should jeff sessions resign? [ laughter ] >> on health care -- >> be quiet. he was asked about what do we do next on health care he said, "be quiet." he told people they're not supposed to be asking those questions. even though he invited the press in. two questions here -- jeff sessions, with friends like these, who needs enemies? he's -- he -- this is his most loyal supporter early on. is he waiting for jeff sessions to resign? what's happening there? >> well, it

our chief foreign correspondent terry moran is live in london. morning, terry. >> reporter: good morning. this is a magnitude 6.7 quake. a long strong shake. the greek islands, especially the island of kos and the turkish coast hit hard. it was just after 1:30 in the morning, people finishing up a summer night out and video capturing the moment. lights going out and flash of light on the horizon. patrons and hotel workers scrambling for covering spending the night outdoors. the threat of aftering shows very real. fires breaking out. a small tsunami smashed fishing boats on the shore. so far two dead, both tourist, up to 200 injured in greece and turkey. this was a major event there. david. >> bracing for possible aftershocks. thanks so much. amy. >>> we are also, david, following the very latest headlines out of washington. a lot of news on the russia investigation. donald trump jr. and former campaign chairman paul manafort facing a deadline this evening. they must respond to the senate judiciary committee's invitation to publicly testify next w

this morning in moscow the lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya, told abc's terry moran she does not know why trump was told to expect that she had any such information about hillary clinton. [ speaking a foreign language ] >> translator: listen, i never had any compromising information against hillary clinton. >> reporter: it was all a misunderstanding, she claims. the meaning took place one floor below the office of donald trump sr. and democrats wonder how could it be he says he only learned of it in the last few days. days after donald junior scheduled it it was revealed there would be new information about the clintons. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the i think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> it doesn't stand to reason that the president of the united states didn't know about this meeting. >> reporter: especially since trump knew well from his experience at the miss universe pageant in moscow that goldstone worked with his billionair