With the flu spreading nationwide, the astonishing number of us who still have to work sick and the biggest reasons we dont stay at home. Early today starts right now hey there. Welcome to friday. Im phillip mena. Good to be with you im Frances Rivera a week of wicked weather is on the way for over 50 million americans. From coast to coast, threats of severe storms that could bring everything from snow and ice to tornados over the next several days lets get right to nbc meteorologist bill karins r us busy map and busy morning for you. A treacherous weekend for people traveling and getting around were just really cone the severe thunderstorms later on today and the possibility at least of tornados and lifethreatening winds with these storms this could be an extreme wind event. Downed trees on houses, things like that, as we go throughout the afternoon and evening. If youre in the yellow, you have the risk of getting the severe storms. If youre in the orange, that means youre more likely if youre in the red, it means batten down the hatches, youre almost guaranteed to deal with these storms dallas going to shreveport later on today and then these storms will continue through the night and right in through saturday morning. So the southern half of mississippi and alabama will also get nailed. Then the Northern Edge of this we need to watch out for significant flash flooding, especially areas of arkansas, southern missouri and the flood watch continues all the way through detroit and western new york this is only the warm side of the storm. We still have to deal with the ice and the snow those details coming up. All right bill, thank you. There are a growing number of questions this morning about what caused a ukrainian airliner to crash near tehran american and canadian intelligence sources tell nbc news there is strong evidence that the plane was mistakenly brought down by Iranian Forces iran is strongly denying those accusations and has urged boeing experts to join in on the investigation. Nbcs tom costello has this report. Reporter u. S. Intelligence sources say satellite imagery and communications intercepts confirm that iranian missiles shot a passenger jet out of the sky. This video taken from the ground appears to show the moment a missile exploded the fireball streaking across the sky. Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 left tehran at 6 12 a. M. Headed for kiev u. S. Sources say two minutes later, two russianmade missiles fired at the plane seconds later, a midair explosion. The plane crashing to the ground u. S. Officials believe the shootdown was an accident as iran was on high alert for a u. S. Counterattack after firing missiles at u. S. Troops in iraq. It was flying at a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake. Some people say it was mechanical i personally dont think thats even a question, personally. Reporter among the 176 on board, 11 ukrainians, 82 iranians and 63 canadians. We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence plane was n an iranian surface to air missile reporter ukrainian officiale remains of a russianmade rocket iran calls it a fake at the kiev airport in ukraine, friends and family members remember the passengers and crew members with flowers and photos. Why they decided to take off three, four hours after an attack instead of just saying, lets stay on the ground for a while. That is a question that i cant answer right now but its a question that needs to be answered phillip, from the very beginning, aviation sources have suspected a missile. Among their clues, the size of the fireball in the sky. An engine fire would not be that big. Pilots would also still have been able to fly the plane and they would not have lost all of their coms. This plane went completeminus to flight, and now according to u. S. Sources, in fact, it was a missile or maybe even two. Phillip . So many questions to be answered tom, thank you. The house of representatives passed a new war powers resolution to restrict military actions against iran the vote was largely along party lines with three republicans voting in favor of the resolution and eight democrats voting against President Trump blasted the vote defending his actions at his first major rally of the year in ohio Nbcs Alice Barr has the latest from washington. Theurrent resolution is adopted. Reporter a strong signal to President Trump as the house passes a largely symbolic resolution demanding he seek congressional approval before taking any further military action in iran. Which did not happen before the drone strike that killed irans top general Qassem Soleimani it was disdainful in terms of not consulting with Congress Reporter the final votes falling mostly down party lines. Democrats distrusting and dissatisfied with the trump administrations strategy. President trump failed to consult the congress, failed to secure specific authorization. President trump acted decisively in bringing down this brutal, inhumane bully. Reporter eight democrats voted against the resolution, three republicans for it, including one of the president s staunchest allies. If the members of our Armed Services have the courage to go and fight and die in these wars, as congress, we ought to have the courage to vote for them or against them. Reporter at a Campaign Rally in ohio, President Trump defending his decision to act without notifying congress these are split second decisions. You have to make a decision. Reporter and mocking democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi i didnt have time to call up nancy, who is not operating with a full deck. Reporter Congress Facing off once again over the president s actions as the standoff with iran continues alice barr, nbc news, washington now to the drama that is building among the British Royal family there are reports now that Meghan Markle has returned to canada after her bombshell announcement with prince harry that they are stepping back as senior members of the family nbcs keir simmons is in london with the palace intrigue keir, good morning reporter hey, frances. Hey, phillip, good morning to you. It looks like harry and meghans tough stance may have actually forced their family to listen. Family want to try to do a deal because they really did take a tough stance weve learned more of that in recent hours another night of drama in the royal family a london newspaper the first to report Prince Charles and Prince William were only sent a copy of harry and meghans statement ten minutes before it was released quoting unnamed senior sources with whom nbc news has not spoken, the london Evening Standard says a meeting between prince harry and the queen was blocked by palace officials, but the queen made it clear he should not go public about his future plans at this time. The fact they have done it in this way is a massive slap in the face for the royal family. Reporter but a friend of prince harry defending the couple. Harry will always serve the queen. Now its time for him to serve archie and meghan. Reporter even in their engagement interview, the two acknowledged the hardships of royal life i didnt have any idea what it would be like i tried to warn you as much as possible. Reporter after since that fairytale wedding, tensions have been building behind the scenes. Last year a royal official telling nbc news meghan was often in tears on harry and meghans website, they laid out what they want, to remain royal patrons of charities, take a new approach with the media and keep their home in windsor. Theres also the issue of security, whos paying for it . The royal family was blamed after princess dianas fatal crash with not providing her with Royal Protection officers there are now multiple reports the queen has directed princes charles and william to begin negotiations with harry and get a deal done within days. Perhaps that is a recognition that if harry and meghan simply walk away it would be too damaging for the royal family. Guys more drama to come, for sure. Keir, thank you. There are new develops in the case of a missing mother in connecticut of five. The estranged mother has been charged with the murder and kidnapping is out of prison. Officials say two days after being arrested he posted his 6 million bond his exgirlfriend, who was also charged in connection with the crime, also bonded out du dulos is now on house arrest she suddenly vanished several months ago after dropping her kids off at school her body has not been found. Turning now to wall street where stocks hit new record highs on thursday. Mpanies and relief over the cooling of tensions between iran and the u. S. The dow added 211 points the s p tacked on 21 and the nasdaq gained 24. Carnival cruise lines is cracking down on dress codes for guests aboard their ships. The cruise line has banned offensive clothing, pro infafan nudity or ethnic or racial commentary it comes after reports of other people in different travel sectors wearing clothing with very threatening messages. Lets toss it back over to bill karins. Lets talk about the cold side of this storm. This iant pacts especially as we go throughout the day saturday and saturday night. About 30 Million People under winter storm watches i think eventually we may turn over to icorm warnings, especially in areas of michigan. Here is the latest Snowfall Forecast the areas of light blue, 2 inches, darker is 4. Purple is half a foot. It could be a from Oklahoma City to kansas city the heavier snow in Northern Michigan if keir going to get any of that ice storm, our computers hinting at the area especially lantsing up to saginaw, michigan. And also northern missouri watch out for that i andce plains the warm, humid air is moving through south texas and louisiana. Thats going to be fuel for our afternoon storms keep here on this station for your local meteorologists to take you through the storm after this cheetos is popping into the new year with a new snack. The brand announced the ready to eat popcorn. 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Nbcs Janis Mackey Frayer has more on the Recovery Efforts reporter cheers for american firefighters arriving at the Sydney Airport desperately needed in a fire zone that is at risk of growing. More than 2,000 homes and everything in them gone. We didnt have time to get anything. We had seven minutes. Reporter countless animals struggling to survive. Karen came from seattle to volunteer at this kangaroo refuge and barely escaped. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Reporter most of the kangaroos wandered back, suffering burns and the stress of losing their habitat. High winds today could kick up what they call ember attacks, which could help the flames to spread the real fear is that these massive fires will merge. Thank you, janis. Still ahead,ng together. Brad pitt opens up in a surprising way about Bradley Cooper. If youre having trouble keeping up with your favorite tv shows, weve got the reason why. S pick the starters . Great question, no. 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Zzzquil pure zzzs. Naturally superior sleep. So i had to spread my wings i you know what i mean no ham, no beef, no kevin bacon we still get six degrees of separation me and mine and a couple of bad boys Independence Day welcome to earth that is jimmy and will recreating his entire career on the tonight show. Many people forget he started as a rapper. All right. If you ever complained or heard somebody complain theres just too much tv out there. According to the new york times, there were 532 scripted tv shows in 2019 that, of course, is a new record and heres some interesting facts about just how newl is so children born today will never know a World Without hundreds of available tv shows children born 50 or 60 years ago remember the time when there was Just Three Networks that aired tv shows an say, and you missed it, youre out of luck. Maybe, maybe it would air as a rerun months later basically, it was gone now there are networks, streaming, places that ship paper towels to your house some named after cheese or a sound. Its pretty true for whatever youre looking for, its out there for you. So the bottom line here is that the number of shows has doubled in just six years. And when you include reality tv shows, that number doubles again. Just a lot of content out there. It does kind of feel overwhelming at times. People talking about, have you seen this . Commercial breaks, what are you watching what do you like. Too much to watch. Thats life these days. Brad pitt just revealed a very important impact that Bradley Cooper had on his life. I got sober because of this guy, and every day has been happier ever since i love you and i thank you. Aercoopers encouragement that finallyn sob over 15 years, introduced brad last night at the National Board of rhere pitt won for best supporting actor. 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The fast food chainannounced i will pay 100,000 annual salary for general managers at some of its companyowned stores the pay hike will be phased in later this year. Tech giant google received a staggering 3. 3 million job applications in 2019 thats an 18 increase from the 2. 8 million applications the company got in 2018. A couple in iceland is celebrating the birth of their newborn baby who happens to be one of the biggest babies reported there in a long time. Weighed in at 13 pounds and 23 inches long. That poor mother. Right two babies with the flu widespread, the astonishing number of us who still go to work sick. Yep. Inside the big risks of working when under the weather that, do i . Actually, you do. Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line, and if youre not taking care of your gums, youre not taking care of your mouth. So now i use this. Crest gum detoxify. Crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. 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Continuing with movie like apollo 13, the truman show and and our sunday sit down with ed harris on suddnday today. Catch us in the morning or set the dvr for any time you like. See you on sunday morning. Sounds good, willie see you then. It is flu season and a lot of us have done it. We go to work sick so how do you know its okay and when you need to stay home here is nbcs stephanie gosk. The flu is upon us. That tenacious virus hanging in the air. Lingering on door handles and Elevator Buttons and coworkers are getting it. The message from doctors, go home the reality, 90 of workers said they got to work while sick. 90 question for you, have you ever come to work sick yes yes, you have why . I have. Because i had to because i had to work. For shame, kate snow. For shame. I dont want anyone to ever think that im not actually sick when im leaving. You worry that they think youre faking . Yeah. Yeah, we just get too into our work and feel as though weve got to keep on going. Reporter the cdc has some guidance if you have a fever, 100 degrees or more, stay home dont come back until youhave been feverfree for 24 hours and heres a sensible prevention tip. Make sure i wash my hands thoroughly youre actually holding on to Hand Sanitizer as you do this. Yes. And its almost empty. And i havent missed work in a long time. Rse who cant avoid getting sick, remember this. You know what we dont want we dont want your sneezing, we dont want your coughing, we dont want your mucusfilled voice crossing the room. Reporter oh, yeah, and feel better soon. Stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york oh, and the guilt, you and i talked about it. If we are sick on a monday or friday we come in at 3 00 you dont want everyone thinking, oh, shes sick friday to get that long weekend. Ive done it before they need a new designation. Trump obamacare is a complete and total disaster. Let obamacare implode. Nurse these wild attacks on healthcare hurt the patients i care for. Ive been a nurse in new york for thirty years. I know the difference leadership can make because i saw what Mike Bloomberg did as mayor. Vo mayor bloomberg helped lower the number of uninsured by 40 , covering 700,000 more new yorkers, Life Expectancy increased. He helped expand Health Coverage to 200,000 more kids and upgraded pediatric care infant mortality rates dropped to record lows. And as mayor, Mike Bloomberg always championed Reproductive Health for women. So when you hear Mike Bloomberg on health care. Mrb this is america. We can certainly afford to make sure that everybody that needs to see a doctor can see a doctor, everybody that needs medicines to stay healthy can get those medicines. Nurse you should know, he did it as mayor, hell get it done as president. Mrb im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message