and george stephanopoulos one-on-one with the president tonight. the growing crisis on the southern border. the number of unaccompanied children in border patrol custody jumping 25% since last week. and george asking the president about the migrants coming in, who say they're coming because president biden promised to make things better. tonight here, the president responds and should the president tell them not to come? how he answers that. the severe storm threat as we come on the air tonight. 85 million americans on alert from texas to the east coast. several states at risk of devastating tornadoes. ginger zee standing by live from the storm zone. authorities on the scene tonight. the massive house explosion late today. the blast felt miles away. newly released body camera video tonight of a deadly police shooting. officers opening fire on a car. tonight, the family of the driver saying the video contradicts the police account of what happened. the frightening scene, a pickup truck dangling from this bridge, a couple in their 60s and their dogs trapped inside. and their trailer still on top of that bridge. authorities say it saved them. and the remarkable discovery tonight. archaeologists say they have found new fragments of the dead sea scrolls hidden for nearly 2,000 years. revealing ancient bible texts. good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy tuesday night. we have a lot to get to and we begin tonight with the first test vaccinations on children in this country. thousands of children from 6 months old up to 12 years old. this comes as vaccinations continue to rampup and as authorities warn again tonight against the crowds we've been seeing. tonight, just north of the border, ontario, canada, declaring a new wave of the virus. one more reason to be very cautious as we continue to move forward. but that welcome news from moderna tonight. the first u.s. vaccine maker to study how effective it is in children. an important step toward making sure schools are safe and could it mean that some children could be vaccinated before the next school year in the fall? the white house announcing today the federal government is rolling out more vaccine. 3.5 million more doses this week than last. and tonight, the numbers. 71,982,000 people have received at least one dose. that's 28% now of all adults. but the cdc director urging caution. tonight, at least 14 states seeing a slight uptick now in cases in just the last week. and so we begin tonight with abc's eva pilgrim here in new york. >> reporter: tonight, a major step toward protecting the youngest americans from the coronavirus. moderna now starting to test its vaccine on children from 6 months old up to 12 years old, making it the first u.s. vaccine maker to test on infants. >> we think that's incredibly important, particularly in terms of making both day care and school safe for young children. >> reporter: to find the right dose of vaccine for children, moderna researchers will divide a group of nearly 7,000 volunteers by age. first testing the vaccine in kids 6 to 11, followed by 2 to 6-year-olds, then children 6 months to 2 years old. >> i think teenagers down to as young as 12 get the vaccine by the summer. i think children less than that, down to 6 years of age or younger, probably won't be seeing vaccines until the end of the year. >> reporter: rachel guthrie is a nurse in arizona and has already been vaccinated. she's enrolling two of her children in the trial and believes the benefits outweigh any risks. >> not that i want my children to be guinea pigs, but i do want them to have that protection and i think it's important if we have this opportunity to get this out to the general public to do so. >> reporter: guthrie says she jumped at the chance to vaccinate 1-year-old charlotte and 3-year-old ollie, who is in preschool. >> you never know what other people are doing in their outside life. but for him to have this chance to be vaccinated, that extra layer of protection that i'm really grateful for him to have. >> reporter: nearly 12% of americans are now fully vaccinated, but with the threat of highly contagious variants, it's a race against time. >> the best way to circumvent the variants is to continue to vaccinate as many people as quickly and as efficiently as possible, at the same time as maintaining your public health measures. >> reporter: an abc news analysis found that 14 states, eight of them in the northeast, saw a slight uptick in case average in the past week. the cdc closely tracking cases here at home and warning about the virus surging again in europe. >> i'm pleading with you, for the sake of our nation's health. these should be warning signs for all of us. >> eva pilgrim back with us tonight from a mass vaccination site in brooklyn. and eva, the cdc director there urging americans to be cautious, to avoid another surge in this country. and we're now learning of a spike in cases north of the border in ontario, canada, a new wave they're declaring there? >> reporter: yeah, canadian oficials say they're seeing exponential growth in new covid cases in some areas. scientists there now declaring a third wave. they say it's being driven by variants, especially the one from the uk and that variants account for half the new cases there. david? >> all right, eva pilgrim leading us off tonight. eva, thank you. that news from ontario comes as we witness a new wave across much of europe, as well. the images tonight, half of italy now on lockdown yet again. these images from milan. virtually empty and so are the famous tourist sites in rome. and tonight, it's not just this new wave, but growing concern over a key vaccine that they've been using now halted in several countries in europe. here's our foreign correspondent james longman tonight. >> reporter: tonight, europe's vaccine crisis is deepening. already criticized for being slow to vaccinate, france, germany and sweden now among more than a dozen countries to have now suspended use of the astrazeneca vaccine. they cite reports of alleged side effects, including a small number of blood clots, some of which have caused deaths. but the numbers are tiny, just 37 cases in 17 million vaccinations, leaving many wondering, why stop the entire program? the cases referred to europe's health regulator, who tried to allay concerns today, saying there's no evidence the vaccine is to blame. >> we are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the astrazeneca vaccine in preventing covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of these side effects. >> reporter: in britain, where more than 11 million have received the astrazeneca shot, there have been any reports of any serious reactions. it's a delay europe cannot afford. already vaccinating at less than one-third the rate of the uk and the u.s. covid is urging across the continent. it's already caused another lockdown in italy. icu patients in paris, flown to other hospitals because they're at capacity. the world health organization says all countries should continue to use this vaccine. canada today even recommending they expand their use of it. the danger? these delays and doubts increase vaccine hesitancy. and that could cost lives. this parisian saying, "i was ready to get vaccinated, but since this, i can't stop hesitating on whether to get it in the future or not." >> james longman with us tonight from london, and james, with this concern now over the astrazeneca/oxford vaccine across much of europe, give us an update here, where does that vaccine stand in the approval process here in the u.s.? >> reporter: yeah, david, astrazeneca is due to have results from a final stage u.s. trial very soon. it's also expected to apply for emergency use authorization by the end of this month or april. david? >> all right, james longman reporting from london. james, thank you. and as millions wait for vaccinations in this country, the stimulus checks now arriving and president biden's first trip out of the nation's capital to sell his historic covid relief act. our senior white house correspondent mary bruce from pennsylvania tonight. >> reporter: president biden in pennsylvania today highlighting how his new stimulus law will help small businesses. he says they were overlooked in the early recovery efforts. >> we found out that only 40% of the people who, in fact, were small businesses got in on the deal. and you got very big businesses taking the lion's share of that money. >> reporter: more than 400,000 small businesses have closed in the pandemic. for those still scraping by, the new law provides billions of dollars to keep employees on payroll. ten miles down the road, dominic sevino, who runs the drexelbook event center, shows us his 1,200 person ballroom, that now sits largely empty. >> it's very sad to come here every day and to look at an empty ballroom and go, i wonder when? >> reporter: he once had 165 employees. now just nine. and while he worries about the law's nearly $2 trillion price tag, he says without it, he'd be out of business in six months max. >> this is a lifeline. this is going to help us so that we will be there when we can bring our employees back. >> reporter: david, the biden administration has been trying to ensure that this funding only goes to the smallest of small businesses, not bigger corporations. they even gave a two-week priority period to businesses with fewer than 20 employees. david? >> all right, mary bruce reporting from pennsylvania tonight. mary, thank you. the president selling his covid relief act just as the white house faces growing questions about the scene at the southern border. george stephanopoulos one-on-one with the president tonight. the number of unaccompanied children in border patrol custody jumping 25% since last week alone. and george asking the president about the migrants coming in who say they're coming in because president biden promised to make things better. the president responds tonight and should he tell them not to come? how he answers that. >> a lot of the migrants coming in saying they're coming in because you promised to make things better. it seems to be getting worse by the day. was it a mistake not to anticipate this surge? >> well, first of all, there was a surge the last two years in '19 and '20, there was a surge, as well. >> this one might be worse. >> no, well, it could be, but here's the deal. we're sending back people -- first of all, the idea that joe biden said come, because i heard the other day that they're coming because they know i'm a nice guy and i won't do what trump did. >> they're saying this. >> yeah, well, here's the deal. they're not. >> do you have to say quite clearly, "don't come?" >> yes, i can say quite clearly, don't come. and what we're in the process of getting set up. don't leave your town or city or community. >> president biden with our george stephanopoulos late today. george will have much more from his one-on-one with president biden first thing in the morning right here on "good morning america." and you heard the president there send that message not to come. it comes just hours after his own homeland security chief alejandro mayorkas acknowledged that they are bracing for more migrants than any time in the past 20 years, but also saying repeatedly today, the border is secure. abc's marcus moore from texas tonight. >> reporter: the biden administration tonight grappling with a growing surge of young migrants at the southern border. the homeland security chief warning about the dire situation, but he says the border is secure. >> this is what we do. we know how to secure the border. we know how to care for children. and we know how to build legal and safe pathways to the united states that the law provides. >> reporter: fema preparing to welcome up to 3,000 unaccompanied migrant teen boys at this downtown dallas convention center. still, despite the message to migrants calling for patience and not to come now, dhs says it expects the surge to continue, with more migrants crossing than in the past 20 years and in the middle of a pandemic. sources say the number of age of 18 in custody jumped 25% in the last week. and because of the lag in the transfer process to the u.s. refugee agency, mayorkas admitted at times some are held longer than the three-day maximum permitted by law. cecilia vega at the southern border and spoke to lawyers who met with children inside one of those sites. >> there were so many young children and more than that, it was striking that at least for the ones that we spoke to, that many of them have immediate family to whom they can be released. >> reporter: david, the convention center here in dallas will begin accepting those teenagers tomorrow. officials hope it will reduce the strain on border patrol stations that have been seeing those record increases in unaccompanied migrant kids. david? >> all right, marcus moore from dallas. marcus, thank you. we turn next here tonight, authorities are on the scene at this hour of a massive house explosion in california late today. the blast felt miles away and it was deadly. here's our chief national correspondent matt gutman on the scene in ontario, california, tonight. >> reporter: tonight, a series of crackling explosions heard and felt for miles in southern california. that mushroom cloud blasting skyward. >> that looks like just a bomb went off there. the roof is just gone. >> reporter: steve bailey was getting ready for work when they happened. >> largest explosion i've ever seen in my life. people started running. people were screaming and scrambling and running. >> reporter: officials confirming it was fireworks inside a home in a neighborhood in ontario, california, just east of los angeles, that exploded. >> it was really scary, though. i'm still shaking, you know? >> reporter: a massive response by police and fire officials evacuating the area. >> that's a vehicle that has been flipped on its side and the tires completely burned away from it. >> reporter: debris scattered everywhere. and right there, you can see first responders leading a horse to safety. david, you can still smell the gun powder in the air here. now, just moments ago, authorities said they have found two bodies in the debris. there are about 50 firefighters around the building right now, but they can't actually access the lot because there are so much ordnance, explosives, still on the ground. that's why the bomb squad has to go in there and comb through it first. they say the investigation will take days and they'll need the help of the atf. david? >> all right, matt gutman on the scene in california. matt, thank you. we turn next here to the severe storm threat as we come on the air this evening. 85 million americans on alert from texas to the east coast. several states at risk of devastating tornadoes. they warn for the potential of a threatening multiday tornado event. a twister in kansas already. a potentially dangerous night in the south. let's get right to chief meteorologist ginger zee in jackson, mississippi, tonight. hey, ginger. >> reporter: david, the state of mississippi is in a tornado drought so far this year. they've had zero, and that's not normal. unfortunately tomorrow, we're going to catch up on those numbers. but let me take you through tonight. you can hear the rumbles of thunder. this is kind of the day before the day, but tonight, from wichita through woodward, oklahoma, a tornado risk. severe storms with damaging wind possible, dallas down to austin. it is really tomorrow in these populated areas, more than 100,000 square miles from memphis to little rock, here in jackson, greenville, tupelo, birmingham and montgomery. that moderate risk is the second-highest the storm prediction center puts out. this is a giant area that could see intense tornadoes tomorrow afternoon and evening, david. >> we'll be watching this right there with you, ginger, over the next several days. thank you. in the meantime tonight, overseas now, and the new message from north korea to the u.s. tonight. kim jong-un's sister saying that if the biden administration, quote, wants to sleep in peace for the next four years, that they should refrain from causing trouble. this comes as new satellite imagery shows activity at a north korean nuclear facility, steam seen rising for the first time in years. a u.s. commander tonight warning north korea may resume its missile testing. when we come back here on this busy night, newly released body camera video of a deadly police shooting. officers opening fire on a car. the family responding tonight. and then the pickup truck dangling from a bridge. a couple in their 60s and their dogs trapped inside. many plug-ins are stuck in the past. they release a lot of scent at first but after a while, you barely know they're working. new febreze fade defy plug works differently. it's the first plug-in with built-in technology to digitally control how much scent is released to smell 1st day fresh for 50 days. it even tells you when it's ready to be refilled. upgrade to febreze fade defy plug. hi sabrina! >>hi jen! so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin? 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