♪ it was an incredibly busy weekend as anti-asian violence demonstrations were held throughout the nation while police continued to investigate the atlanta shootings. spring break in miami. maskless crowds defy the local curfew, as police, including s.w.a.t. teams come out in full force. thousands of migrants hoping to enter the u.s. in the biggest border surge in decades. and the biden administration sends the message america is closed

and the weekend that basketball fans have been waiting 24 months for the men's and womens ncaa tournaments, "early today" starts today good morning, i'm phillip mena >> and i'm frances rivera. thousands of people in cities across coast to coast standing up against anti-asian hate even celebrities like sandra oh taking a stand >> if you see something, will you help me? >> yeah! >> if you see brothers in harm, will you help us >> yeah! >> we don't understand as asian americans we have to reach out our hands to our sisters and brothers and say help me >> a new "usa today" ipsos poll says 71% blame the asian people for the pandemic 25% saying half are responsible.

our lindsey reiser is in chinatown. >> reporter: there are thousands of people here in chinatown. senator chuck schumer made an appearance, andrew yang did as well they actually had this space space reserved weeks ago, before we saw the tragedy of the shootings in atlanta really, this event is about taking the power back. the ont organizer tells me there are events around the country, they don't want to live in fear anymore. he has lived with racism his entire life. they have seen an uptick recently in fact, his mom calls him before she takes the trash out let's listen to the organizer in his own words. >> we wanted to create an experience for the people where people can feel empowered. they can go home feeling they can go home taking control of

their personal world self-defense is obviously important because people are scared we don't want people in fear because when people are in fear, they're crippled, they can't take any action. we want people to be strong, feel how important they are, feel how worthy they are to be here >> reporter: they also want people to frequent the businesses here in chinatown they've been hit hard because of the pandemic, now with the extra layer of fear, they really want the people to come out and support the community. phillip. >> lindsay, thank you. jury selection is expected to wrap up by week's end in the murder trial of derek chauvin. and also some evidence to the 2019 arrest related to his medical condition as well as a portion of the body camera footage. now to america's continuing battle against covid-19 which has infected over 29 million people and killed more than

544,000. 21 states from hawaii to new york are reporting a rise in covid cases. >> experts blame the new variant of the virus, the uptick comes as 49 states are expanding vaccine eligibility. in florida, anyone over 50 can get the shot this as miami police are under fire for tactics used on black spring breakers. nbc's corey koffman has more >> reporter: frances, an internal investigation is now under way over what happened on night one of the curfew enforcement. you can see things ascending into chaos, as police used force to disburse them and pepper ball into the crowd black community leaders called the response excessive the chairman of the miami-dade black affairs advisory committee told the miami herald, quote, i

was very disappointed. i think when there are young black people at south beach, the response is oh my god have have to do something. this response was put in days after of crowds to miami beach frances, the other factor in all of this is the effect that spring breakers have on coronavirus numbers. doctors are worried we might see a spike in two to three weeks, not only in the state of florida but neighboring states that these partiers are heading back to corey, thank you >> the record number of migrants arriving at the southern border is growing by the day. yesterday, the biden administration sent a strong message to migrants saying we're closed and the president himself said he may go to the border soon nbc's tracie potts joining us with the latest. the surge is overwhelming down there and the administration is scrambling to contain it >> well, they're scrambling, but republican critics argue that

message that the border is closed came too little, too late, right now, the federal government has nearly 5,000 unaccompanied minors in custody down at the border, more than 10,000 more throughout the country that health and human services is handling, while they're reching to call it a crisis, their critics aren't >> our message has been straightforward and simple, and it's true, the border is closed. we are expelling families, we are expelling single adults. and we've made a decision that we will not expel young vulnerable children. i think we are executing on our plans, and, quite frankly, when we are finished doing so, the american public will look back on this and say, we secured our border and we 81 held our values and our principles as a nation >> it's going to get worse it's going to get a lot worse springtime, summer more and more come over, the message is coming back, hey, we

got a new president. come on in, we're open to business for traffickers guess what, they're right here and i predict 1 million people trying to get into this country by the summertime. >> so the president sent fema down to the border the federal emergency management agency to try to help process things health and human services opening temporary shelters, critics blame the policy rollback from the trump administration but the biden team refusing to call this a crisis, says that they are handling it and they point out that those migrant border crossing, the numbers were going up under the trump administration which is true, but they spiked after president biden took office. phillip. >> tracie, thank you now to china where for the last two years, two canadian men named michael have been detained on spying charges. the case is widely seen as retaliation for the 2018 arrest

for of the senior chinese telecom executive. for the latest we turn to nbc's janis mackey frayer from beijing. >> reporter: good morning, diplomats from two countries in canada and the u.s. were denied trial, he's facing charges cover was a former diplomat arrested in december 2018 after canada arrested a huawei executive at the behest of u.s. officials who want to see her extradited to address fraud charges. there was another canadian michael staver who was detained. he had a trial on friday that lasted two hours now, the timing of the trial is no zmons, happening as the first high-level meetings took place between china and alaska they did not go well at the top of the agenda was the fate of the two michaels as

they're known, because they're widely seen as pawns in a wider geopolitical fight between washington and beijing china says that miss meng is a hostage and outside the courts, diplomats were saying it shows a lack of transparency in china's system that china has violated international protocols. there's no word on a verdict but this is a conviction that requires 99% >> complicated story, thank you, janis. one peteam is busting brackets, after upsets number 2 ohio state oral roberts came up swinging the gators are up by five. and from weaver it puts oral roberts up late. florida would have one last

time, it was no good, oral roberts wins it 81-78. remember, sister jean? she predicted that other loyola ramblers would make it to the big game that translated to plenty of points on the other end, the ramblers ran away with the upset, they head back to the sweet skin with a 71-58 victory. the upsets kept coming late into the night. oregon state led by as much as 18 and they blocked 11 oklahoma state shots. the cowboys did make it a game late but the beavers went on to win, survive and advance they did, oregon state, 80-70 over to the women's tournament where all four number one seeds began their pursuits

high point with gene auriemma still away from the team 102-59 nc state had trouble shake out north carolina a & t the wolfpack rallied and downed the aggies 79-58 and the women's teams are work out in an all new facility after several players posted to social media yat gym space they said was smaller and had less equipment than the men's the ncaa apologized for the disparity. with the ncaa tournaments going on, that means it should be getting warmer outside. let's go to nbc's meteorologist bill karins. >> some of those things go together the masters golf, the tournament it's finally spring. we're dealing with a snowstorm, of course in colorado today. it's the snowiest month of the year, in denver. they've had "d" to 3 inches on the ground

that storm is going to continue to plague you. the snow will eventually move to the plains a little bit. areas around northern new mexico, as far as severe weather goes, this storm system will bring severe storms, isolated tornadoes late today until areas of dallas andwichita falls there's beautiful weather to be, once the storm is over, if when warm up, in denver, 39 degrees today. we're also watching rain moving into the plains tonight. well, frances, if you liked this weekend, you'll love the week ahead forecast, that's coming up >> can't wait, making all these plans outside, bill, thank you coming up, how ditching your screens could earn you some

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oh [ bleep ]. heart-stopping video shows an elephant charging at a father and toddler daughter after the man snuck into the enclosure at the san diego zoo. fortunately, they escaped into safety but the twi-year-old was arrested and charged with child cruelty. he's released on bail. if you're feeling the pain with the sharp increase in gas prices you are not alone the prices have shot up to levels we haven't seen in years. nbc's steve patterson explains

why. >> reporter: frances, a lot of us are feeling the strain on our wallets, still in the midst of this pandemic and these astronomical gas prices is really not what anyone wants to deal with. as the country begins to open up, a collective groan is being heard as people pull up to the pump >> especially with the times the way they are, you'd think they'd give us a break at the pump, but, no. >> reporter: nationwide the cost at the pump is skyrocketing. the national average for a gallon of gas is $2.88 that's a 20 cent jump from faeb and a 77 cent increase from this time last year if you're driving in california, brace yourself, the average price $3.87 for regular. this is showing no signs of slowing down here in l.a. county the price of regular gas has risen 59 times

in 60 days that's the highest since november of 2019 what's fuelling the surge? >> it really all coincides with the backs of americans reopening, motorists taking to the roads. there's places to go, things to see once we see covid recovery demand has surged but supply has not and that's what's pushing prices up so significantly across the country >> reporter: as for any set of relief, experts say it's like lie down the road, a dip or two is expected in two weeks, but hovering around $3 for memorial day when most americans head to the roads for the unofficial start to summer. obviously, the reopening the only contributing factor to the rising prices but certainly a driver in it aexperts we spoke to said unless the driving patterns change significantly before memorial day, it's hard to get over this hump >> steve, thank you. still to come, how former

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in today's top stories, former president trump is plotting his return to social media, after he was kicked off twitter, facebook and other sites, following the deadly insurrection of the capitol. the senior adviser said the former president is planning to launch his own platform in the next few months. saying it would, quote, completely redefine the game a new york congressman tom reed said he will not run for re-election in 2022. reed was accused of rubbing a

woman's back and unhooking her bra in 2017. reed has apologized to her and said the incident happened at a time in his life when he was struggling kylie jenner is being highly criticized for asking fans to donate to a fellow make-up artist's gofundme page he was in a car accident needing surgery costing $60,000. jenner shared she donated $5,000 to her friend. given that the star was worth $1 billion, fans thought the donation was kind of small one twitter user asked us like we made the forbes list. >> i know she wants to shed her reach there, but it's throwing a bad look when she has that much. if you're going to sip some wine during the pandemic, why not get paid for it. one winery in california is offering $10,000 a month the murphy winery is looking to launch somebody's career you show them a video, the lucky

winner will uncork a six-figure salary, free housing and 30 cases of murphy good wine. i hope this goes through a liquor rep or server who is out of a job now >> yeah, a pretty good deal because a lot of us are doing that anyway. not getting paid, yuck coronavirus restrictions in spain are still firmly in place but that didn't stop the barcelona ravers from holding an outdoor silent dance party they were welcomed in spring by putting on their headphones and displaying their best moves on the water front. it's called the silent disco and they meet up on sundays. social distancing, some with masks, some without. and it's like what are they doing? they got headphones on >> whatever it takes

thanks for waking up with us, i'm frances rivera >> and i'm phillip mena. before you go, check out this unique way this zoo is soothing its residents. it's a pianist

there is a lesson to be learned in all of this, because when it happens to one person among us, it can spread to everyone. >> now at 4:30, a show of solidarity, the bay area rallies and calls for justice following a string of hate crime attacks against asian-americans. and the all new push from local lawmakers now making to try to put a stop to the violence. also. >> the new curfew miami beach is putting in place. this is after maskless spring break crowds overwhelmed the city and the growing concerns about travelers and the spread of the covid