from the caucus to the courtroom to the campaign trail, republican frontrunner donald trump is off to an early lead in the race for the nomination, but

will his legal troubles catch up to him we're live in d.c. with the whirlwind start to election season america on ice the deep freeze setting in for tens of millions across the country, after a monster winter storm buried the northeast our meteorologist angie lassman is tracking the bitter cold front. a magma emergency. a volcanic eruption forced thousands to evacuate. the unbelievable new drone footage from the site. and an airline mega merger living on a wing and a prayer. why spirit and jetblue a's 's $ billion deal could never take off. it's wednesday, january 17 "early today" starts right now glad you're with us, i'm frances rivera we begin with the latest in the

race for the white house right after his big win in iowa, donald trump was here in new york he was back inside a manhattan courtroom as jury selection began for a defamation trial brie jackson joins us now. which case pulled donald trump away from the campaign trail this time? >> reporter: so the former president was in court for jury selection in the civil damages trial. and the separate case last year, a civil jury found that trump sixx s sexua sexually assaulted assaulte e.n carroll and defamed her. he says he does not know carroll. his focus now is the new hampshire primary, and his biggest challenge there shaping up to be former u.n. ambassador fl nikki haley. as haley puts it, she is in striking distance ard doing to

tdistance >> nikki haley is counting on liberals and independents to infiltrate your republican party. you have a group of people coming in. they're not republicans. it's artificially bloosting her numbers here >> reporter: and haley's campaign and super pac has spent nearly $30 million in new hampshire, far more than her competitors, and she 's backed y chris sununu meanwhile, abc has canceled a debate that was planned for thursday after desantis was the only candidate who would commit to doing it. haley said she would not commit to doing it unless donald trump does and as we've seen, the former president has been skipping all of the debates lawmakers on the hill have struck a bipartisan deal to expand both the child tax credit

and provide tax breaks for businesses the $78 billion agreement was struck between the republican house ways and means chair and the democratic senate finchair. as many as 400,000 children would be lifted out of poverty in the first year. republicans for their part get to revive portions of the 2017 tax cuts that have expired the supreme court will not weigh in when it comes to bathroom access for transgender students at least for now. the court declined an appeal from an indiana school litigatio litigation in lower courts will continue, but it's expected the supreme court will take the case at some point. the u.s. struck houthi rebel targets inside insid inside yem.

it's another example of a region on the brink >> reporter: the u.s. striking back against houthi rebels in yemen again, destroying an anti-ship ballistic missile launcher that the u.s. says was preparing preparing to attack ships in the red sea. >> we continue to reserve the right to take further action >> reporter: it comes after the houthis hit a commercial ship with a missile the biden administration redes ig nating the group as a terrorist organization >> 15% of commercial traffic is going through that strait avenue single day 30% of the world's container ships. we're seeing internationale s

repercussion >> reporter: photos of iranian missile parts. the u.s. navy spotted a suspicious boat and sent in a team of navy s.e.a.l.s they confiscated the missile parts but not before two navy s.e.a.l.s. ended up in the waters and they are still missing u.s. officials say iran launched multiple ballistic missiles into northern iraq. the iranian revolutionary guard claiming they tarlgted a spy base for mossad in the region. u.s. officials not confirming that, saying u.s. military and diplomatic facilities were not impacted and that civilians, including children, were killed in the missile attack. sparking protests in the streets inner bea inne in erbil, the white house saying they were imprecise.

it was actually president biden who took the houthis off the foreign terror organizationlis earlier in his term, amidst concerns that it was having an impact on the already-devastate humanitarian situation in yemen. back to you. >> courtney, thank you now to celand, where another volcanic eruption is rocking the country with thousands forced to evacuate, many watching in real time as their homes were swal wlowed by massive streams of lava. nbc foreign correspondent matt bradley has the latest all right residents of this fishing town in iceland on high alert after a volcano eck eruc eruption the citizens of grindavik evacuating the volcano erupting 30 miles from the capital raeykjavik

some evacuated residents still losing everything. this man was nearly finished building his new home, saying i'd intended to move into the house before christmas, the same house i watched burn down on live tv. feeling helpless, as they watch the destruction unfold from afar >> i'm born this town. i actually live in the house that i'm born in and it's kind of a tough, it's a tough thought to think that, that this town might be over and i would have to start all over somewhere else. but if that's the case, that's exactly what we'll do. >> reporter: but, as this round of eruptions ease, officials warn of more dangers to come >> what is certain is that we will have more periods of activity on the peninsula, and the whole area is sort of in a stage of great uncertainty

>> reporter: it's the second eruption on the peninsula in just four weeks, and the fifth since 2021 as traumatic events like these threaten to become iceland's new normal >> and our thanks to matt for that report. and now to the deadly winter blast at home that's freezing much of the country. snowing and ice conditions for some showing no signs of ending. here's erin mclaughlin >> reporter: tens of millions of americans are on ice, and nationwide there's at least seven confirmed weather-related deaths >> my hands were frostbitten, and i had on gloves. >> reporter: with wind chill alerts of minus 30 extending into the mississippi valley and temps well below average everywhere east of the rockies and in chicago, electric vehicle gridlock >> they tell you the charges are fast it takes two hours to charge your car >> reporter: hire in the suburb, it's so cold electric car

batteries are dying rapidly. some drivers waited in line up to six hours more than 2200 flights canceled nationwide, according to flight aware. with the frigid temps and snow also creating dangerous conditions on the roads. and from colorado to ohio, the cold meant class dismissed >> we were all shivering and shaking. everybody had too much of a shaky voice. we couldn't do much. >> reporter: multiple cities in the south now facing possible record lows. as nashville saw more snowfall in a single day than what's typical for the entire year. the same storm working its way up the east coast, delivering some fun for this driver in kentucky and ending a snow drought from d.c. to new york which had gone more than 700 days without an inch of snow >> i almost forgot how to do it. >> the first time in the snow. do you like it, hugh guyo? what do you think?

>> reporter: and central park is the winter wonderland. >> all right, thank, erin. that bitter cold is here to stay nbc meteorologist angie lassman tracking it all. it's not letting up any time soon >> it isn't. we've got to bundle up you heard erin mention, folks along the gulf coast are waking up to frigid temperatures, too look at these freeze alerts from texas to florida temperatures in the single digits in memphis. we look down to baton rouge, just 20 degrees. you add on the winds, and it is much colder than that. here's the temperatures a little farther to the north chicago will hang out into the teens. single digits for omaha by friday when you look at these wind chill temperatures into the morning hours, even worse. 17 below on saturday in the morning in chicago and we've got another winter storm that we are tracking 16 million people across the west are now under winter alerts there's storm system rain, snow, ice that we're going to have to deal with across the pacific northwest.

and we see this next low pressure system that's going to eventually lift some snow into portions of the mid atlantic and northeast. we're not looking at an ample amount of snw 20s from columbuso pittsburgh upper 20s for boston, new york a lot of sunshine on tap today that's a look at you are why forecast, frances, back to you "early today" is whack back in a minute with a new crackdown at co costco costco. the always-on, odor-fighting air freshener you set and forget. no outlets used, no batteries needed, no effort required. so your bathroom stays continuously fresh

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cracking down on non-members arabile is here to break it all down for us. good morning, arabile. >> that jetblue story has been fairly interesting it was said to really happen a while ago, right, the takeover of spirit. the $3.8 billion takeover that has now been blocked ultimately by the courts, district judge if boston concluding then that if this deal was to go forward it would hinder the sale of cheaper tickets. all those consumers who were hoping that spirit airlines would continue with cheaper tickets, that would fall by the wayside. it would take away a lot of low-priced tickets and competition around the airlines sector the ruling is a victory for the biden administration, actually, and may raise questions over other mergers and acquisitions happening in the airline sector. shares of spirit halved while

jetblue was higher they are disagreeing with the ruling and could appeal the decision that was made on the other side, you spoke about costco pretty much just the same way as netflix has. when you go to costco you have to produce that membership card, right, to one of the employees now they're saying we're actually going to ask you to bring not just that card but your i.d. and could even have a skin scan to see who the actual owner of that card is. $60 a year for a membership and $120 if you would like the executive membership they're saying that it's unfair that other people have membership and they aren't even paying for it. >> they don't even look at it. i flash it up, and they're like, go ahead g a, go ahead '90s rock icons reuniting at

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now lorne must decide, which is the new cast member >> is it the black one >> you mean me no man! i'm keenan >> that could be a glimpse of a potential passing of the torch at studio 8h lorne michaels suggested that tina fey could be in the running to succeed him at the legendary sketch comedy show as the boss michaels said he would make a decision about his future with the show after its 50th anniversary celebration. i cannot wait to see the direction of snl it's had its ups and downs, but i miss those iconic characters they don't seem to be sticking as much as they used to. >> tina fey would add a nice breath of fresh air. but we're not kicking you out

yet, lorne cast members were named for the white lotus. season three's ensemble will also feature jayson isaacs and will reportedly take place in thailand i love it. avenue every season they go to a different destination. >> it's going to be longer, bigger, crazier. so everything a little extra when it comes to season three. for two weekends in april the eyes of the music world will be on the desert doja cat was announced as a headliner for coachella. also on the lineup is no doubt, who will be reuniting for the first shows in nearly ten years.

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worthy of television we break down the coaching carousel a month out from the super bowl >> reporter: it has been an upside down world fin the nfl, with overwhelming favorites to the philadelphia eagles getting pounded, and that is prompting questions about what's going to happen with the organizations specifically at the top with the head coaches it's like waiting for the other shoe to drop with mike mccarthy, the long-time coach of the dallas cowboys who came to that city promising success in the playoffs he only has one playoff win. no conference championships. no super bowls and in the world of jerry jones, that is highly problematic he would he could lose his job. nick soriano, also you're looking at a team decimated by injuries, but still collapsed after a 10 and 1

start. bill belichick of course, after 24 years in new england, speculation is heating up as to where his next head coach job might be according to the atlanta falcons, they tweeted this out they interviewed belichick for their open position, a team loaded with offensive talent, something bill has really lacked on his roster, but no established quarterback. so again, it's a question of whether or not he's looking for a particular setup, if he wants some sort of talent but really needs a quarterback or not, keep an eye on that and lastly player speculation. dak prescott, who had a magnificent regular season, arguably his best in the pros disappoints dallas can you pay someone $40 million plus and still be able to maintain the rest of the talent on your proster and lastly, jason kell cce, a cornerstone for his franchise. someone who has not only been to

six pro bowls but helped deliver a super bowl championship to the city of philadelphia is beloved. plays one of the most important but wear and tear positions, physically demanding as a center he's talked about the fact that it's taken a toll on his body. he has considered retirement it's not confirmed, but there is at least one media outlet reporting, espn, that he has told teammates in the locker room he is going to retire there's just too much of accumulation of injuries will that be the fact? we don't know at this point. this would be a legend of the game retiring if that's true who knows what comes next. (vo) meet fargo, the new virtual assistant from wells fargo. fargo makes banking faster, and easier. (woman) fargo, turn off my debit card! (vo) lets you pick up the tab, even if you forget your wallet... (kaz) i got this. (ben) fargo, send kaz $145 dollars with zelle®. (kaz) smooth.

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