you can rise. the only question is how. glimmer of hope. president biden and russia's putin agree to meet in principle but only if ukraine is not invaded. we're live in the region with the latest and new warning for americans that if war breaks out in ukraine the price of gasoline, groceries and other goods will spike plus concerns over a russian cyber attack in the u.s. remain. we'll have the latest on 95-year-old queen elizabeth's condition as she battles a case of covid university of michigan head coach juwan howard appears to throw a punch in a scrum with members of the university. and the biggest moments from

nba all-star game including who scored 50 and who hit the game winner a busy presidents day ahead. "early today" starts right now good morning i'm frances rifrpa >> and i'm cori coffin we begin with new velths breaking overnight in the ukraine crisis president biden has agreed to the possibility of a summit with vladimir putin french president emmanuel macron spoke with each leader separately and france says the high-stakes meeting will only happen if russia does not invade ukraine. secretary of state antony blinken and the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov are scheduled to meet thursday three sources tell nbc news that a final decision about a summit will depend on the outcome of these talks. nbc's matt bradley joins us now with a live update from ukraine. and matt, despite the diplomacy here the threat level seems very high this morning. >> reporter: yeah. not only on the diplomatic level, on the international level, but also here in eastern ukraine where i am there's been an increase in exchanging of

fire between well, sort of mainland ukraine, kyiv-controlled ukraine, where i am now and the separative enclaves that are are backed by russia to the east of where i am donetsk and luhansk. these two regions have been cleaved off of ukraine for the past eight years and now we're starting to see an increase in shelling back and forth between those two places this is what washington has been warning about, that this could become a pretext for war and allow russia to invade also, though, north of of where i'm standing only about 30 miles, the russian border. and we're starting to see an increase in dynamic troop movements by the russians who seem to be taking up battle positions far away, or further away, excuse me, from their sort of more permanent locations. now, this is from max ar technologies which have been tracking all the troop movements along the border with ukraine. and again, that is very threatening. but considering the u.s. intelligence assessments that say that russia has already

given the decision to move in and made that order to military leaders, it seems as though we could be reaching the precipice of war except for those diplomatic maneuvers we're now seeing on the international level. emmanuel macron engaging in diplomacy between vladimir putin and president joe biden in a way that makes it look as though this -- what seemed like an imminent invasion just yesterday could actually be averted. cori >> the possibility of a glimmer of hope, matt. we appreciate it thank you. a potential war in ukraine would have a ripple effect in the u.s. it could crater the stock market and send the price of gas soaring even higher. nbc's stephanie ruhle looks at the potential fallout. >> reporter: a possible invasion thousands of miles away means potentially big impacts for wallets of americans here at home gas and food prices, inflation and investments all at risk. as the white house tells companies to be on alert for

possible russian cyber attacks on businesses and infrastructure and warns of the potential economic effects in the weeks ahead. >> i will not pretend this will be painless. there could be impact on our energy prices. >> it requires sometimes for us to put ourselves out there in a way that maybe we will incur some cost. and in this situation that may relate to energy cost, for example. >> reporter: russia is one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas. and western sanctions or retaliation from russian president vladimir putin could disrupt the flow of oil. meaning gas prices in the u.s. could soar, possibly as much as 30 cents per gallon. and that's not all heating your home could also become more expensive. >> gas prices are going up much more home heating's going up much more in europe but because we ship a lot of our gas over to europe our prices are going to go up as with'll. so yes, we will be paying more >> reporter: those rising prices of oil and gas could push up inflation even more, making everyday items including food

more costly. and that could slow economic growth if russia invades the crisis is also likely to cause more wild swings in the markets as global investors worry about how a potential conflict will play out, potentially impacting americans' investments. >> so for those who, let's say, were planning to retire this year, start living off their retirement savings, should they be reconsidering >> i think they might want to pause, just take a look around, see how this all plays out, what kind of damage it actually does to their nest egg. >> reporter: as people brace for the potential economic impacts, experts say the damage will hopefully be short term but warned there are still lots of unknowns if russia invades stephanie ruhle, nbc news. britain's queen elizabeth has tested positive for covid-19 according to the palace, the monarch is experiencing mild symptoms her diagnosis comes after her eldest son, prince charles, and his wife, camilla, tested positive two weeks ago they have also spent time with the queen. a number of cases have been reported at windsor castle now

splashed across the british front pages this morning, the queen's determination to keep working. while self-isolating she will continue with light duties she wasn't too sick to congratulate the women's curling team on their olympic victory over japan the monarch is triple vaccinated and turns 96 in april. while the world is focused on ukraine, north korea appears to ramp up activities at a major nuclear facility the think tank center for strategic and international studies has analyzed thermal imagery recently taken on the site of yongbyon they say that warm water come free throw cooling system means that the nuclear reactor is currently in use the report says, "this activity is an indicator of north korea's continuing efforts to expand its inventory of nuclear fuel rods." nuclear talks between the u.s. and north korea broke down more than two years ago there's good news in the fight against the coronavirus. the rate of covid-19 infections seems to be plummeting across the country. according to an nbc news tally,

the number of new daily cases has dropped by 67% in the last two weeks. the covid decline isn't just being felt here in america foreign countries are seeing a drop as well leading to a loosening of travel restrictions according to the "new york times," israel will reopen to all foreign tourists regardless of their vaccination status as of march 1st but today is the border reopening for international tourists heading to australia. as of today leisure and more business travelers may enter the country after a nearly two-year ban. investigators are trying to find out more about two helicopter crashes that happened just hours apart near popular beaches on opposite sides of the country. both are raising new concerns about helicopter safety. here's blayne alexander with the story and the dramatic video >> reporter: the surveillance video is simply stunning first the growing roar of engine trouble. then on the left side of your screen a police helicopter

tumbles from the sky, crashing into the water below >> airplane crash newport boulevard and west coast highway. >> reporter: it happened just south of l.a. in newport beach, california where the officers were responding to a call. >> it was like flipping over and spinning >> it just started losing its control and went into a tailspin, came all the way down. >> reporter: inside two officers with the huntington beach police department one released from the hospital but 44-year-old nicholas vella, a 14-year veteran of the department, did not survive. now the entire fleet is grounded as investigators try to determine what happened. >> we do regular maintenance it's ongoing maintenance and there's a schedule that is -- that is comprehensive with respect to the maintenance on our helicopters. so i don't know what occurred. >> reporter: it comes just hours after another shocking crash, this time in miami beach, where a chopper plunged into the water just barely missing the crowded beach.

lieutenant lucas bocanegro was one of the first officers on the scene. >> the location of the crash helped the three survivors tremendously because it wasn't too far into the ocean, it wasn't too deep. >> just off the sand >> reporter: experts say ass like these do not happen often >> typically you're supposed to be about 500 feet vertically or horizontally away from the nearest person or structure. but when helicopters are landing and taking off in crowded areas, you know, they're designed for that, then there is -- there are exceptions >> reporter: the ntsb is investigating. blayne alexander, nbc news nba's brightest were shining in cleveland for this year's all-star game. team lebron and team durant traded big dunks and explosive plays all game long, lighting up the scoreboard and it was a historic night for steph curry, whose 50 points was good for a second most in a single all-star game close down the stretch, the game came down to the last bucket

>> good! that's the winner! >> the king stays the king in cleveland. team lebron gets the win 163-160. and after his 50-point performance steph curry was awarded the kobe bryant trophy for all-star game mvp. >> a lot of you have a long weekend. let's turn to your presidents day weather. nbc meteorologist michelle grossman is in for janessa today. hi, michelle good morning. >> good morning to both of you and it's another week and another big winter storm we're watching we'll watch it move across the country. let's start with the winter weather alerts out there because 15 million people are under some sort of winter weather alert where you see the white that's your winter weather advisory winter storm morning is in your pink and we're going to see anywhere from three up to a foot of snow in some spots. tracking that today. and then on the warm side of the storm system we're looking at heavy rain falling and the potential for some severe weather including dallas, up to

tulsa, springfield, also little rock 9 million at risk this risk will move off to the east tomorrow an normal with lots of sunshine in bismarck we're looking at 3 below zero and just 22 in minneapolis. all right, guys. temperatures are all over the place. it's a battle between spring and winter we'll look at that coming up >> we're starting to talk about spring hopefully we'll hear more about that thank you. >> i hope spring wins out. all right. and thousands were saying let the good times roll this weekend as mardi gras parades returned to uptown new orleans, leading up to fat tuesday on march 1st the carnival celebrations kicked into high gear with floats, costumes and festivities galore. after last year's events were

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bryan were convicted of killing arbery what this trial seeks to establish is if the crime was motivated by racial bias last week jurors heard from 20 witnesses who delivered testimony against the three white men. the defense called on one single witness on behalf of greg mcmichael. a nightmare for a mom and her toddler. the 2-year-old was actually left behind inside a popular daycare center video shows her locked inside all alone. our meagan fitzgerald spoke to the mother >> reporter: a branch of the nation's largest childcare company is under police investigation. >> honey i'm coming okay >> reporter: after a parent's horrifying discovery stephanie martinez found her 2-year-old daughter locked inside this south florida kindercare center alone. she frantically called 911 >> she's inside the daycare. she just came up to the door >> she's inside by herself >> yeah. she's crying she's inside by herself. >> reporter: how's your daughter

doing? >> she is definitely traumatized. nighttimes are not -- she's avoiding trying to go to sleep >> reporter: a police report says two daycare employees checked around inside before locking up and leaving at 6:20 eight minutes later martinez arrived. >> because i don't get off of work till like 5:30, i do have to pick up my son first. so they always did the favor for me of staying there a little bit later. >> reporter: the facility closes at 6:00, but it's supposed to have a 30-minute grace period for late pickups, though it's unclear if the staff knew the little girl was still inside first responders had to pry the door open to rescue anastasia. kindercare, which has more than 2,000 locations ationwide, say "nothing is more important to us than the safety of the children in our care. while we're thankful the child was quickly found and was safe, this incident should not have happened." the employees involved have been placed on administrative leave and the company says all staff will be retrained on proper

child supervision. but martinez says the damage is already done >> it was the worst feeling to see her through that glass i don't want anyone else to go through this >> reporter: meagan fitzgerald, nbc news still to come right here on "early today," basketball brawl. michigan's coach lands in hot water after throwing a punch in a post-game fight. and a rookmeie erges triumphant from the wreckfest at daytona 500. we were breathing that day and night! that's when we started using swiffer. in just a few minutes, duster captures dust before it gets airborne. it traps and locks dust in one swipe. yes! for our floors, sweeper's heavy duty cloths easily trap dust, dirt and hair... locking it in. see ya, dust! and swiffer partners with the american lung association to support clean air. within this hallowed bowl is the grain of all time.

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cindric is going to bring them to the line way up high to block ryan blaney. and at the line cindric beats bubba wallace by half a car length and they crash going into turn 1 >> a nail biter to end the 64th daytona 500. 23-year-old austin cindric held off bubba wallace by a split second just ahead of that big crash to win his first nascar cup series race. cindric is the second youngest daytona 500 winner, with a big

race being just his eighth ever nascar cup series start. >> what were you doing at 23 >> not that. >> right well, university of michigan head coach juwan howard is under scrutiny after taking a swipe in a post-game fight. a verbal altercation between howard and wisconsin head coach greg gard turned physical with grabbing and punching before howard strk the face of wisconsin ab significant joe krabbenhoft. sho howard said he was protectin himself after gard nibd the exact" contact when they were talking. in a statement the big ten conference says it's reviewing the incident so many highs and lows in the 2022 beijing olympic games have come to a close norway making history winning 16 gold medals. that's the most ever at a single winter olympics. the country took home 37 total russia came in second with 32 medals germany and canada followed with usa in fifth place taking home eight gold 25 total medals. the winter olympic torch

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family dollar stores are closed in the south after a massive rat infestation was discovered at a distribution center in arkansas the fda found over 1,000 dead rodents inside more than 400 stores are temporarily closed across six states products like medical devices, over-the-counter medications and cosmetics have been recalled you can visit the fda website for more information former president trump's new social media network is launching today. it's officially listed on the app store. truth social was first announced back in october. it'll also serve as mr. trump's

return to social media he was permanently banned from twitter, facebook and youtube in the wake of the january 6th siege on the capitol the new platform is aimed at drawing users who feel their views are suppressed on other social media websites. a special surprise at the virginia military institute. one of the last surviving tuskegee airmen spoke to new cadets from our roanoke affiliate wsls alissa ray has the story >> reporter: lieutenant colonel enoch woody woodhouse ii played a major role in history. and despite being hailed by others as a hero he doesn't view himself as such. >> the true heroes are at arlington national the true heroes are not with us. >> reporter: he was part of the 332nd fighter group, typically referred to as the tuskegee airmen, a group of of predominantly black fighter pilots who fought in world war ii in a time where segregation was still prominent in america, woodhouse didn't know the impact they would eventually have on

the country. >> we were so busy trying to cope with the present situations, the present injustices we did not have the potential to see how america could change for the better >> reporter: in 1948 the united states armed forces was integrated the tuskegee airmen set the stage for future servicemen and women. >> i am as qualified as the next person on my resume, and i don't have to face the same obstacles. >> reporter: his accomplishments and reputation precede him >> he is the epitome of what we seek to do with our lives, what we seek to be. >> reporter: his message is one of unity >> i'm speaking about american history. this is our history. not mine not yours. but ours >> and our thanks to alissa ray for that report. it's one thing to learn and to hear about them but when they're hearing from him directly and the stories he's got to tell, wow, that's priceless.

>> i also want to know his secret for a long life >> yes all of us could learn from that. thank you for starting your week with "early today" and spending your day with us i'm frances rivera >> and i'm cori coffin have a great presidents day. we'll see you back here tomorrow

breaking overnight, a possible meeting in the works between presidents biden and putin. but there must be no invasion as almost 190,000 russian soldiers are on ukraine's border. queen elizabeth is battling covid at this hour how the 95-year-old monarch is doing. we'll have the latest. the beijing olympic torch is being extinguished at an olympic games unlike any other trump takes on twitter today the former president launches a new social media platform to take on those who sh