the u.s. races towards 3 million positive cases of coronavirus with more young people than ever contracting the disease and now new fears of how easily it spreads once airborne. jeffrey epstein's alleged con conspiracy or the moved to new york nascar's bubba wallace signs a deal with dr. dre's beats.

busy tuesday ahead "early today" starts right now thank you for being with us. i'm frances rivera. >> i'm phillip mena. more than six months into this country's battle with covid-19 we're still struggling to contain it, infections are nearing the 3 million mark in new orleans officials ran out of tests five minutes after opening. in phoenix people sat in their cars for eight hours and san antonio officials imposing limits on testing. >> more than 200 scientists are urging the world health organization to advise guidelines and acknowledge the virus can spread through the air indoors. droplets stay airborne 12 minutes after someone stops speaking. immigration and customs dealt a blow to international students, foreign students pursuing in the u.s.

must leave or risk deportation if their college has switched to online only courses. in florida, the education commissioner ordered all public schools to reopen next month following the guidance of health officials. in texas a record number of people flooding ers, hospitalizations have increased 120% kerry sanders is in florida where patients are going from pool side to patients in days. >> reporter: florida's hospitals are getting stretched to the limit. in some cases they're at the limit. >> scenes like these on florida's beaches on the holiday weekend worrying health officials with 44 hospitals here now reaching icu capacity. northside hospital in st. petersburg among them. >> is florida headed in the same overload that new york had >> i hope not. we are seeing an increase on a daily basis or weekly basis. >> reporter: while the death toll in florida at nearly 4,000

remains smaller than new york's nearly 32,000, there are worrying signs it took florida four months to register 100,000 cases in the last week it doubled to 200000 this from miami beach's mayor about patients needing ventilators. >> in dade county, there's over 160 people on vents, 121 patients two weeks ago in intensive case that's now over 330. >> reporter: florida's governor said the increase in cases is because the average age of those being tested is 36 years old, young enough they're not likely to be seriously ill and did not get tested at the beginning. now testing lines snake into day-long waits. >> there's no need to be fearful about it we can talk about the different steps that individuals can take

we're going to take statewide but this is something that's been around for quite some time. >> reporter: doctors tell us they found better ways to treat the virus. >> two weeks after july 4th is when you would probably see a spike related back to july 4th. >> reporter: are you anticipating that? >> we're ready for it and hoping it doesn't come. >> reporter: a sign of how anxious hospitals are. competing hospitals are now meeting and discussing in a war room every morning how to handle what potentially could be an overflow of patients phillip. >> kerry, thank you. jeffrey epstein's alleged accomplice has been moved to a new york city cell she's being held in brooklyn on friday maxwell will enter a plea, charged with enticing a minor to engage in illegal sex acts a claim she denies

prince andrew said he has no recollection of meeting the accuser and denied any sexual contact with her federal prosecutors have requested through the british government to speak with prince andrew a source close to the prince's team said theyd twice in the last two months but got no response. bubba wallace has a new major endoser. just hours after the president's attacks, dr. dre's electronics company announced it'll sign wallace. it said it intended to announce the deal later this week but hate cannot win the day adding we're proud to add bubba wallace to the family. bubba wallace tweeted back saying so dope, if you know me, music is a passion of mine lebron james also shared the

announcement to his 46 million followers. with cases of coronavirus skyrocketing in the country, president trump will take part in a conversation on how to get kids safely back to school in the fall >> the president turned to twitter to stoke the flames on several divisive cultural issue. peter alec san erd has more. >> reporter: after the fbi determined last month that bubba wallace was not the target of a hate crime when a noose was found in his assigned garage, the president tweeting has wallace apologized to all those great nascar drivers and officials who came to his aid, after finding out it was a hoax. wallace responding even when it's hate from the potus, love wins the president also tweeting, nascar's flag decision, banning the confederate flag is hurting

the ratings. does he believe nascar should fly the confederate flag >> the ban on the flag was mentioned in the broader context in he rejects the notion that men and women who go to the events are racist. >> reporter: in fact, ratings were up 50%. and lindsey graham says he supports nascar's ban on the confederate flag. >> if if you're in business, the confederate flag is not a good way to grow your business. >> reporter: it comes as the president is trying to capitalize on the cultural divide. >> their goal is not a better america. their goal is to end america. >> reporter: and later downplaying the risk from coronavirus with the statement that many public health experts say is misleading. >> we have tested almost 40 million people by so doing we show cases.

99% of which are totally harmless >> reporter: whilethe death rate remains low, hospitalizations in many states are increasing in a case that could impact the fall election, the supreme court ruled that presidential electors cannot break ranks and can be forced to support the winner of their state's popular vote >> peter, thank you. from civil to lgbtq and women's rights there have been many movements in the history of our nation but according to new research from a data science firm, the black lives matter may be the largest in u.s. history citing four recent polls about 16 to 20 million people have participated in the black lives matter demonstrations over the death of george floyd and others that figure far suppresses that of the women's march of 2017 which reported a turnout of 3 to 5 million people on a single

day. fallout on the viral video of a white woman calling the police on a black man in central park amy cooper is now charged z with filing with false police report. if convicted she faces up to a year in jail. storms produced flooding and water rescues throughout the northeast. the rain caused damage to homes, cars and power outages and prompted a flash flood emergency for philadelphia and the surrounding areas. there were at least 24 rescue calls but no mayor injuries in pennsylvania it also moved through new jersey, maryland and virginia. >> where it's storms or sweltering heat, let's check your whether with meteorologist janessa webb good morning. >> good to see you both, good morning, everyone. we had a classic ring of fire that developed across the northeast. what happened is you have the bubble of heat that surrounds

these storms and it filtered to the south, allowing for these storms to be really compact for philadelphia area into new york city we saw over 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours we have power outages in that area and still dealing with the flooding the storm system will make its way to the so continue to build. the feel like temperatures currently in the mid 90s and now the heat has spread throughout the afternoon houston 92 so when can you let go of the ac i'll have all the details coming up. >> it may be a while. former nfl quarterback, colin kaepernick and disney have entered into a partnership

focussing on projects that deal with social justice issues it's expected to provide opportunities for minority producers and directorers. colin kaepernick has not played in the nfl since the 2016 season since he took a knee to protest racial inequality and police brutality. when we return, facebook trying to make new friends after longsi advertisers. and the robocalls are about to get dialled way back thanks to the supreme court cosentyx treats the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis to help you look and feel better. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me! learn more at cosentyx.com.

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service in the u.s. over the weekend. the ceo of the naacp is speaking out against the stop hate for profit campaign against facebook it was launched to pressure facebook to do more about hate speech on its sites. the ceo of the naacp appeared on closing bell to talk more about the effort >> it should not be a tool to recruit individuals to participate in white supremacy and use racial hate speech, gender hate speech, anti-semitic speech and other harmful speech. >> hundreds of corporations have joined the boycott mark zuckerberg will meet with the organizers of that boycott today. the social network founder and other executives will speak with the heads of the naacp and color of change who have urged several hundred businesses to pull advertising from the platform. the boycotters are asking the

company to aggressively tackle hate speech and misinformation on its platform. the supreme court answered a question, whether members of the electoral college can be required to cast their ballots for the candidate who wins the popular vote and held up a 30 year ban on automated calls. the exception to the law allowing robocalls to people who owe the government money must be eliminated susan mcginnis has more. >> reporter: from the supreme court a ruling that closes a loophole in the u.s. system that has existed since the writing of the constitution and one that eliminates a concern looming over the 2020 election the high court ruling members of the electoral college are not free agents and must cast their votes in accordance with voters in their state. >> if it was closely divided it

could be a big fight to get electors pledged to say joe biden or president trump to switch sides. >> many americans are unaware when they cast a ballot they are voting for a slate of electors who get together and make the results official there was no rule prohibiting those electors from choosing a different candidate. in writing the court's decision the justice said a state may instruct electors they have no ground for reversing the vote. it came after several electors said they refused to vote for hillary clinton in 2016 even though she won their states. it blunts what could be huge drama in the upcoming election. >> they decided to say states you have the power to punish these electors who switch views. >> reporter: while electors can be compelled to go with voters in their states and penalized if they don't, the question remains

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in today's news by the numbers a michigan woman has a lot to celebrate not only did she beat covid-19 she also celebrated her 100th birthday margaret defied the odds and was

able to celebrate with her loved ones patrick mahomes signed a ten year deal worth over half a billion dollars, the contract is the richest in sports history and keeps the 24-year-old a chief the next 12 seasons. harry styles is going to help fans drift off to sleep he's reading a story for the calms app. the recording will be released on wednesday. stocks kicking off the week in the green, surging 450 points on the dow with amazon and netflix leading the way. here for perspective is steve sed sedgewick. good morning. >> good morning. i'm going to try and not do a harry styles the data was very good safe to say really good for business going forward and new order. that was a catalyst for the market to go higher and record levels on the 0 for

the first time just a mere $1.5 trillion valuation now. elsewhere, interesting story the economic impact payment they sent out 4 million in may and june, issued by an institution called meta bank as well most people used these prepaid debit cards but people thought it was a scam so 788,000 people have had letters telling them you haven't used your debit card, if you need a free replacement you can get it if someone offers you free money you're going to think it's a scam i'll leave it there and hand it back to you. when we return, janessa tracking high temperatures in our forecast. an update on one of the hottest television reunions how the cast of "friends" will safely be there for each other

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♪ the devil went down to georgi he was looking for a soul to steal ♪ ♪ he was in a bind because he was way behind ♪ ♪ >> this morning fans are mourning the death of charlie daniels. he was best known for his band's hit "the devil went down to georgia" ks an expert fiddler, his career spanned six decades. daniels died of a stroke at a hospital in tennessee on monday. fans lining the street there as police escorted his body to the funeral home charlie daniels was 83 years old. in today's top stories,

secretary of state mike pompeo said the u.s. is looking to ban chinese social media apps, especially tiktok, citing national security concerns tiktok is stopping operations in hong kong. it comes in in the wake of the city's newest law. local leaders in washington d.c. are concerned about federal employees returning to work. according to the "new york times" the defense department authorized 80% of its employees to return which could bring as many as 18,000 people to the pentagon and the department of interior expects 1,000 workers to return to an office near the white house. the car series is coming back this weekend but without john force, the 16 time funny car champion will miss the nationals in indiana the 71-year-old along with his daughter and fellow teammates did not register by monday's deadline the nhra said they look forward

to their return in the future. hockey fans we are less than a month away from a return to the ice. the nhl and players association announced a plan to return on june 1st games will be played in edmonton and toronto. david schwimmer gave fans an update to film the friends reunion, they hope to shoot in mid august but won't risk anyone's health or safety to do it the entire original cast will return they hope to return with a live studio audience on hbo max, the pandemic put those plans on hold at least friends won't be put on hold. we had so many plans for this year, we all did. we know there's light at the end of the tunnel and it involves david schwimmer. >> and "hamilton" too.

i need to split that up. my kids will sit there for a whole almost three hours >> all the silver linings we can get we'll take them. >> have a great start to your tuesday, i'm frances rivera. >> i'm phillip mena. coming up on

right now at 4:30, still burning. the fight continues against the crews fire in southern california county. firefighters across northern california also bracing for another busy day. we'll talk about the newest numbers from the frontline. plus -- the campaign is growing and going global. >> the hate speech standoff. the next moves in just hours on what facebook may do as pressure mounts against the social media giant. and are local and state leaders serving up confusion in the south bay? coming up,