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from nbc news this is "today" with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. >> welcome to today, it's 7:00 a.m. on the west coast on a friday morning and hope you're enjoying the extended holiday weekend. >> i'm willie geist. >> matt and savannah taking the day off. huge crowd. >> it's a special day for him, he has want sung on national tv in about three years. this is a big day for us and for him. >> we'll talk to him about a change in his life coming up, but we begin with the breaking news. >> that breaking news, the holiday celebration in simi valley, california. families enjoying the display one moment and run for example cover the next. nbc's john yang is there live. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. now that there's daylight investigators will get a better look at this scene where thousands of people gathered to watch a fireworks display and then something went very wrong. >> a terrifying moment caught on tape as fireworks detonated into a crowd of spectators. >> you could see a million people sitting and trying to enjoy the whole thing, but, unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to. >> reporter: witnesses say it took place seconds into the show which was experienced by thousands. >> even those watching from a distance say they could feel the blast. >> it was just a loud explosion. we felt the heat pull back towards us. >> the aftermath was like a scene from a disaster movie. dozens of first responders rushed to assist the wounded. >> most of the injuries to me have been described as injuries like shrapnel injuries, things flying through the air coming in contact with body mass. >> reporter: authorities say at least 28 people were injured, many treated on site. the most severe were taken to local hospitals. >> out of those 28 patients, four of those patients were what we call immediate which are immediate transports which basically entails moderate to severe injuries. >> reporter: while most fireworks displays go off without a hitch there are some exceptions like this show last fourth of july in san diego when a 15-minute show detonated in just 30 seconds. simi valley authorities are calling what happened last night an accident. >> at this point there is absolutely no indication of foul play. we will try to determine to our best ability exactly what's happened. >> reporter: officials say the first indications are that one of the platforms holding some of the launchers tipped over, sending the fireworks into the crowd instead of the sky. kate? >> john yang reporting from california, thank you. now to the turmoil raging in egypt. thousand of supporters of ousted president mohammed morsi have taken to the streets and the demonstrations are growing more violent by the moment. ayman mohyeldin, good morning. >> reporter: thousands went to a rally near the republican guard head quarts and are that is where president morsi is believed to be held up for the past several days since he was ousted. it is there that we heard shots of gun fire. there are initial reports of casualties and fatalities, but we are still working to confirm how many people have been injured. we understand both side, both well as the guards that were standing outside the palace headquarters there opened fire on one another. weir still getting the security assessment as it unfolds. meanwhile, the egyptian military has been put on a state of alert specifically on the sinai peninsula and this is after a group in the northern part of the country expressed support for declaring war after they ousted the form president and we understand that also overnight there was a deadly attack on an army outpost that had made the security situation in sinai extremely tense and volatile. >> as we get into friday evening are we hearing anything from the muslim brotherhood and supporters of morsi? >> reporter: several leaders of the muslim brotherhood have condemned what happened now. many of them have been arrested or being charged with various crimes. many are describing this as a crackdown on the muslim brotherhood and islamists. there have been the senior leader of the freedom and justice party has been arrested and he is currently in police custo custody, but two other senior leaders have arrest warrants for them and they remain at large. kate? >> a tense situation in egypt and ayman mohyeldin watching it. breaking news out of the vatican. pope francis has just cleared john paul ii for sainthood. this announcement coming after the vatican confirming a second miracle attributed to john paul ii. the vatican also announced that sainthood has been approved for pope john xxiii, pontiff from 1968 to 1953. there are conflicting reports this morning about just how grave his situation is help nbc's ron allen joins us live with the very latest. ron, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, thomas. the crowds continue arriving here outside the hospital, offering prayers, sing hymns and paying respects to nelson mandela. the official word of the government is that he remains in critical, but stable condition, but there's been very little detail and that's why there are rumors and speculations about his condition. there's been a report making the rounds that he is in a persistent vegetative state on life support and his family has been advised to discontinue care. the family denies that report and they made a direct statement saying it is not true last night. we also recently heard from nelson mandela's wife, saying he is at times uncomfortable, but that he is not in any pain and to use her word, he is fine. also during this long period of waiting, a number of mandela family squabbles and feuds. some of them quite ugly, for example, one involving the final resting place of nelson mandela and that appears to have been settled. meanwhile here at the hospital, the vigil continues. >> thank you. back here at home, a parade marred by a tragic accident. police say a boy was riding on a flatbed trailer with with members of a martial arts group. he either jumped or fell off that trailer and then was run over by his father who was driving that float. the boy was taken to the hospital and later died. >> in maine, a bizarre accident during a holiday parade in bangor. it tipped over and that's when an antique fire truck drove over that driver killing him. they covered the accident seen with tarps and cleared parade goers from that area. rescue team abandoned the search for a missing schooner. six americans were onboard and the 70-foot nina left new zealand for australia five weeks ago and was last heard from, and officials believe the boat sank in a violent storm. now we move on to wall street and what's moving the markets today. the big focus will be on jobs. cnbc's kayla taushy joins us. how eyes is on many jobs the u.s. created righter month. they are estimated to add 195,000 jobs and that's 35,000 higher than previously expected and higher than may two. the bureau of labor statistics revised may and april to add more jobs than previously thought. the economy has led some investors to believe the federal reserve could flow it is massive four-year stimulus program and the stock market rally. wall street still in the green, though, this week. thomas? an inmate who escaped from prison wednesday is back behind bars thanks to a patriotic store patron. the mug shot was plastered on businesses around town near the prison where he escaped wednesday night. so when james myers walked into a general store on thursday, one customer wearing an american flag shirt decided to take matters into his own hands. you can see there. he took the sex offender down in one fell swoop and held him there until police arrived. >> so captain america on duty. >> he just recognized him from the mug shot and saw the guy there at the general store and didn't wait for police. >> patriotic citizen's arrest. >> thank you, thomas. >> end it on an upbeat note. >> maria la rosa is in for al this morning. >> good morning. we saw incredible amounts of flooding because of all of the heavy rain. in florida, we're talking epic amounts near 20 inches in some spots. you are looking at south walton. folks were unable to leave their homes with so much rainfall and all of the dirt roads in the area closed because of the rain. we are seeing widespread flash flood watches posted from the gulf coast on up into the ohio valley. we are talking three, four inches of additional rainfall just in the next 24 hours and rain will continue beyond that in some of these very same spots. the i-95 corridor in the northeast and no rainfall, but it is all about heat. 96 today in boston and the central u.s. heating up, too, but it is the pacific northwest, lovely with sunshine and into the 70s. that's a look at the national forecast and we'll get to your local weather in just 30 seconds. garth's father? hello. mother. mother! traveling is easy with the venture card because you can fly any airline anytime. two words. double miles! this guy can act. wanna play dodge rock? oh, you guys! and with double miles you can actually use, you never miss the fun. beard growing contest and go! ♪ i win! what's in your wallet? good friday morning to you. it's going to be a beautiful day. you made it through the heat wave and temperatures today are going to drop off nicely. it's 7:37 and temperatures are already in the 60s and 50s. that's 15 degrees cooler than 24 hours ago. look at where we're headed into the weekend, only hitting the upper 80s as you head throughout saturday. sunday an even cooler day, 86 inland, 75 bayside, 66 at the coast. we'll take a look at some of your weekend forecast plans coming up. it is a big day at the trifle george zimmerman. trayvon martin's mother on the stand right now as prosecutors begin to wrap up their case. carrie sanders is outside the courthouse in sanford, florida. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. this has been an emotional morning already as trayvon martin's mother sybrina fulton takes the stand. she has testified to listening to that 911 call that has been so central to the prosecution's case. it is the 911 call where in the background screams are heard. now sybrina fulton was not there, but she was among the first people to hear that 911 call and she told the jury this morning that those screams that she heard were her son's voice. important testimony for the prosecution because the defense has suggested that those screams could be george zimmerman, and that it was indeed george zimmerman who was asking for help because trayvon martin had attacked him, but in testimony this morning and she's on the stand right now, she continues to talk about what she believes she heard and remember, early in this case there was an expert who was called who said, look, we could not isolate that voice to do an exact determination of who it was, but sometimes the best expert is somebody who is familiar with the voice, and that's why they called trayvon martin's mother. willie? >> carey sanders outside the courthouse. thanks so much. let's bring in our legal analyst lisa bloom. good morning. >> good morning. >> the exchange in court went like this. the prosecutor asked sybrina fulton who do you recognize that could be after playing the 911 she replied trayvon benjamin martin. they hear that testimony. how powerful is it? >> i think it's very powerful for the prosecution because sybrina fulton has maintained from the first time that she heard that recording that those are the screams of her son. she has never waivered in that position, not on direct today, not on cross-examination. >> how significant, though, lisa is more broadly that 911 call to the entire case? >> i think it's extremely significant because we can presume that the man who was screaming for help is the victim and not the aggressor, and the bullet shot rings out just after the screams. if, indeed, the jury believes that is trayvon martin screaming for his life and then george zimmerman pulled the trigger and killed him, that sure sounds like either murder or manslaughter, not self-defense as zimmerman maintains. >> carey touched on this a moment ago, lisa, but has there been definitive forensic analysis to be able to separate it out and hear whose voice that is or are we just going on the testimony of different people who know trayvon martin and different people who know george zimmerman? >> a lot of effort was put into that pre-trial. six expert witnesses toughered at a pre-trial hearing about whether those sounds could be isolated, whether they could be matched up with one or the other of these young men. ultimately the judge said the science was not definitive and the experts could not testify that it was one or the other. instead, the prosecution put on one of the experts in his case in chief and that expert told the jury we simply can't do it. we don't have enough clear audio. we only have a few seconds of audio, and so it's not enough for us to be able to isolate it and determine which it was, but it's going to have to be somebody who knew the speaker and that's why the prosecution put on the mother and now the brother of trayvon martin. >> as the prosecution wraps up its case here with the testimony from trayvon martin's family, lisa, i think it's fair to say we're about about the half-way point. how should the prosecution be feeling about getting a conviction as of right now? >> well, the prosecution clearly put on all of the evidence that they had. it's a circumstantial case. they don't have any one witness who was a direct eyewitness to what happened, but they've put on a lot of different folks, all of whom were designed to show that this is an intentional killing, that george zimmerman had many inconsistencies in the stories that he told the scomplees that jury can conclude from that that this was either murder or manslaughter, but of course, we haven't heard yet from the defense, as you say. the jury will have to hear all of the evidence before they reach a conclusion. sybrina fulton, trayvon martin's mother getting ready to take the stand again in sanford in morning. lisa bloom, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> kate? willie, we told you about some of the accidents on the fourth of july, but for most americans the holiday celebrations thankfully were fun and patriotic. nbc's kristin welker is at the white house with the pomp and sick stan circumstance. good morning. >> president obama headed to camp david earlier today after he and the rest of the nation threw a huge birthday party, fit only for the fourth of july. a festival of lights from the big apple to the big easy, and the nation's capital. the country marking 237 years of independence. for barbara and miles, a world war ii veteran who visited washington d.c. for the first time on thursday, this holiday held special meaning. >> it was great. it was great. >> i thank god that we were able to be here on a day of freedom. >> reporter: in boston another hero, officer richard don hugh who was injured while bringing the marathon bombers to justice led the pomp in celebrating the city. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: meanwhile, the biggest names in music rocked the city of brotherly love. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: and the national mall. ♪ sweet caroline ♪ it just never seemed so good >> at the white house, the president and first lady hosted more than 1200 service members. >> and on behalf of all americans i want to say thank you. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: in addition to the usual parades and pomp, there were also a few firsts at thursday's nationals game, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff wowed the home crowd in d.c. with his rendition of the national anthem. ♪ what so proudly we hailed >> for some it was a day to become an american with naturalization ceremonies taking place from mount vernon to afghanistan. all a part of a bigger celebration of the country and each other. this fourth of july really was unique because it came in the wake of the boston marathon. so a number of cities in addition to boston paying tribute to the survivors and the first responders including right here in washington, d.c. kate? >> kristin welker, thanks so much. some pipes on the chairman of the joint chiefs. >> i had no idea. he upstaged neil diamond. the famous nathan's hot dog eating contest was yesterday. joey chestnut known as jaws put down a record 69 hot dogs in ten minutes. on the women's side, the black widow, you see her there, sonia thomas. they both are going to join us later this morning. first question, how do you feel? >> and are we going to put hot dogs in front of them? >> i think we'll make them smell hot dogs and probably the last thing they want to see today. >> exactly. also ahead, encouraging news on those teenagers injured on the parasailing accident. we'll hear from their parents. new leads and persons of interest identified in the disappearance of madeleine mccann more than six years ago. we are live in london, but first this is "today" on nbc. coming up on a steamy new york day after the fourth of july, what's behind their soaring numbers? the wild pig invasion spreading across the country and causing billions of dollars in damage. our crowd anxiously awaiting a live concert out on the plaza. it is john mayer back from a respite, but first, a check of your local news and weather. we're right back. well, ready to go look? 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