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 shut him out

and a rookie driver takes the daytona 500 in a heartbreaking race for bubba wallace, who finished a very close second it's presidents' day "early today" starts right now good morning on this monday. i'm cori coffin. >> glad you're with us i'm frances rivera we begin with the latest efforts to pull europe back from the brink of war president biden was in "the situation room" sunday meeting with his national security council. as we learned overnight about a potential summit in the works with vladimir putin. nbc's brie jackson joins us now from washington, d.c and bree, good morning what more do we know about this possible meeting with russia >> reporter: good morning, frances. well, this latest diplomatic effort was spearheaded by french president emmanuel macron, who spoke with both president biden and president putin on monday. the white house has agreed to the summit in principle and only on the condition that russia does not move forward with an invasion in a statement overnight the white house press secretary said, "we are always ready for

diplomacy. but she also added that russia appears to be preparing for a full-scale assault on ukraine very soon. president biden has said that he is convinced that putin has made the decision to invade ukraine and secretary of state blinken gave a very similar update on sunday's "meet the press." >> it certainly looks like everything we said was likely to occur in the leadup to the actual invasion is happening we're seeing false flag operations taking place in eastern ukraine. the manufacturing of provocations and justifications for russia to go in. so all of this seems to be following the script that i laid out at the united nations security council that president biden talked about to the nation just the other day >> secretary of state blinken is set to meet with russian counterpart sergey lavrov on thursday three sources tell nbc news that a final decision about a potential summit with putin will come after those talks now, the next move will largely depend on russia's behavior over the coming days. frances? >> certainly major high-stakes

stipulation when it comes to that potential meeting thank you, brie. there have not been many signs of any de-escalation from russia along ukraine's borders the state department has issued a new warning for u.s. citizens to leave ukraine defense secretary lloyd austin says russia's military has now entered a stance that it would need to be in for an attack. nbc's matt bradley joins us live from ukraine matt, the situation seems to be growing more dangerous and more tense by the day [ no audio ] >> reporter: -- the secretary of state just mentioned in front of the u.n. security council. he laid out what he described as a potential process toward war that is sort of unspooling right where i am here in eastern ukraine. on those two enclaves, those two russia-backed separatist enclaves of donetsk and luhansk which are very close to where i'm standing right now in

kharkiv in eastern ukraine, he said those two places would create a pretext for war that would allow vladimir putfootin bring his military into eastern ukraine under the pretext of protecting the russian-speaking population of eastern ukraine who he has repeatedly said are subject to discrimination, oppression, even genocide. so this is creating a casus belli, sort of a pretext for war. and there has been an increase in shelling and exchanging of fire between where i am now, kyiv-controlled ukraine, mainland ukraine if you will, and those separatist enclaves. and a lot of that according to the ukrainian government has been drummed up by those separatists. they're the ones, they say, who are shooting toward ukrainian soldiers ukrainian soldiers have been given orders not to engage the enemy and to try to restrain themselves so as not to provide that pretext for the russians to invade now, also, north of where i'm standing in the russian city of

belgorad around that area we're starting to see more dynamic troop movements of massive amounts of hardware, tanks and other weapons that really show that it looks as though russia is planning an invasion possibly from the north now, of course there are troop movements all over the borders but some of the maxar technology images that we've seen, some satellite images have shown that those troop movements just north of where i am about 30 miles from here really show that the military is taking sort of battle formations, moving out of the formations that they have had which would show that they were in sort of camps and more permanent locations. now it looks as though they're moving to tree lines and taking up positions that are worrying some analysts who say that they could be -- they could be gearing up to invade guys >> all right, matt, we appreciate that update thank you. britain's queen elizabeth is not slowing down despite testing positive for covid-19. the monarch is still fulfilling

a number of royal duties while self-isolating nbc's molly hunter has more on her majesty's diagnosis. >> reporter: buckingham palace announced queen elizabeth has tested positive for covid-19 the 95-year-old monarch is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms and expects to continue light duties at windsor. the palace not sharing any details about where exactly she might have caught it back on february 10th her son, prince charles, tested positive for covid. his second bout with the virus at the time the palace said the queen had seen her son recently. on february 14th camilla tested positive but there was no update on the queen's health. >> it's very different to the head of state in the united states who, as you'll know, has regular medicals and those checkups are made public it's part of his or her role as the head of state. our head of state, the queen here in the uk, does not do that the royal family tend to be much more private about their medical matters. >> reporter: and then on wednesday the 16th we saw queen

elizabeth greet military leaders in person without a mask the message to the public, she doesn't have it. >> the queen of england at the age of 95, fully vaccinated with her covid-19 shots is still at risk of hospitalization. it's much less if you're fully vaccinated like the queen. what's not clear is what variant of omicron most likely that she was infected with and could that affect her chances of also being able to get sick and potentially going to the hospital? >> reporter: according to the cdc, people 85 and older have the highest risk of severe illness from covid-19. last october a health scare put her in the hospital overnight and forced her to rest up for a few weeks. but since the beginning of the year she's been back at work as she ramps up to her 96th birthday and the platinum jubilee celebrations coming this summer >> and our thanks to molly hunter for that report the 2022 beijing winter games have come to a close

norway making history winning 16 gold medals, the most ever at a single winter olympics the country took home 37 total russia came in second with 32 medals germany and canada following and then team usa in fifth place taking home eight gold, 25 total medals now, to nbc's keir simmons in paris where organizers are already prepping for the 2024 summer olympics. >> reporter: the spotlight turns to the city of lights. a return to europe after three olympics in asia organizers' revolutionary vision integrate k the city's historic architecture, with olympic sports archery at esplanade des invalides. fencing at the grand palais. and beach volleyball at the foot of the eiffel tower. >> we want to offer a new celebration and be creative. i think it's the time also to reinvent a little the games and

make sure those games will be completely different >> reporter: that includes the debut of a surprising new sport, breakdancing american olympic hopeful logan edgera hopes she'll be competing for team usa >> i'm just a vessel to inspire other people through what i'm doing. so yeah, i want to take home the gold for sure. >> reporter: in all, 306 events. 95% of them at pre-existing locations. but the massive olympic village is being built from scratch. they're racing to get it done. so far on schedule >> so right here in the heart of what is the biggest construction site in france right now >> reporter: hard to imagine this as an athletes' vil lage right now. >> it is, isn't it >> reporter: but the city's truly olympic-size undertaking is on the water. preparations for a spectacular opening ceremony on the iconic river seine, with boats carrying

10,000 athletes downstream and some events including the triathlon in the river the $1.1 billion cleanup effort is now under way and the city expects part of the seine will be swimmable for the general public by 2025 >> that could be a massive and historical legacy for the olympics and i think we will achieve it >> reporter: french gold medalist ferrand mandou says france is ready for the return of the games >> it's just a dream to do the olympics in your home country. for me paris is the most beautiful city in the world. i'm really looking forward to see what's going to happen >> reporter: and paris 2024 is also working towards becoming the first olympics in history to completely offset its carbon footprint. >> we are ready for it as well thanks to keir simmons for that preview. former president trump's new social media network is launching today. it is 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 aiming to draw users who feel their views are suppressed on other social media websites all right. let's get a check of your holiday weather with nbc meteorologist michelle grossman. she's in for swrans sa this morning. happy presidents' day, michelle. >> happy presidents' day to you. happy monday also. and we are tracking another winter storm we have a warm side, we have a cold side. another really active weather week let's take a look at your winter alerts because we do have an alert stretching from the northern plains all the way to the great lakes, even down to the rockies. 15 million people impacted here. winter storm warning that's in your pink. winter storm watches in your blue the white is your winter storm advisory we could see anywhere from three up to a foot of snow in some spots. the highest snow totals in your purples and pinks. so just north of minneapolis

there. also on the warm side we're tracking heavy, heavy rain, a flood threat and even a severe threat, 9 million at risk here, including tulsa, north of dallas, springfield, little rock could see some hail. also some damaging winds even possibility of some tornadoes. this threat moves off to the east tomorrow. so tomorrow afternoon 9 million at risk including memphis, 're looking atkson and really frigid temperatures in the northern plains. 3 below zero in bismarck today guys, when i come back, we'll talk about a hyuge temperature difference so cold in the northern plains and picture perfect in the northeast >> we'll check in with you in a bit. the blockbuster action film

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>> cleveland good >> 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. 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 pushing before howard struck the face of wisconsin assistant joe krabbenhoft. howard said in his post-game press conference that he was protecting himself after gard initiated the contact while they were talking in a statement the big ten conference says it is reviewing the incident now to a nail-biting photo finish at the daytona 500. >> 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

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he was my destiny. ♪ >> i wish to promote you, mr. presley. ♪ warden threw a party in the county jail ♪ >> are you ready to fly? >> i'm ready ready to fly ♪ >> tomorrow all america will be talking about elvis presley.

>> elvis has entered the building that was our first look at director was lurhman's new biopic about the life of elvis presley. austin butler stars as the king. and you saw tom hanks there. he plays his manager it hits theaters june 24th >> this is the movie we needed for 2022 >> we sure did and it's going to be all in the hips all the hip action we're going to be seeing everything baz lurhman does and touches is always awesome. >> fantastic mark your calendars. meanwhile, pop star justin bieber has become the latest celed- his diagnosis unfortunately could no a representative for the 27-year-old confirmed the news to "people." bi second stop on the tour. according to a statement posted onth the gleobal tour wa 2020 but was delayed twice due to the coronavirusimine for that

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jublia is recognized by the apma. most commercially insured patients may pay as little as $0 copay. go to jubliarx.com now to get started. welcome back on this monday morning. well, let's talk about the drastic differences in temperatures we have a cold front clearly you can see it on the map. back on the back side we have frigid air we're looking at temperatures so cold in the northern plains, 6 degrees in rapid city today. that's 35 degrees below typical for this time of year. and then so warm in the central and southern plains. over to the east so dodge city today 71 degrees 80 in wichita. and look what happens. that cold air dips to the south by tomorrow. so oklahoma city, you drop 32 degrees to 43. still to warm in philadelphia. 62 enjoy that wednesday we're going to squeak out one more last day of really warm air in the northeast before we plummet on thursday, just 39. back to you guys >> all right michelle, thank you. up next, meet the first black

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a new poll reveals the u.s. lgbtq plus population is growing to new heights according to a recent gallup poll 7.1% of adults self-identified as lgbtq plus in 2021 that's compared to 3.5% in 2012 when gallup first measured it. the poll also found that 57% of lgbtq americans indicate they are bisexual meanwhile, 21% say they are gay. 14% identify as lesbian. 14% identify as transgender. and 4% say they are something else the poll looked at data from more than 12,000 adults. the first black family to

raise quarter horses in texas is continuing to break barriers, this time renaming one of their champion horses black lives matter reporter meredith yeomans of our nbc dallas station sat down with its owner. >> reporter: meet a new member of the hatley family >> hey >> reporter: a 1,200-pound newly minted champion. >> he's got something extra about him. >> reporter: video of the horse winning his first race went viral. when he surged from last to first place. but it's been named the announcer call >> black lives matter. >> reporter: that's left an even bigger impression. >> i saw him charging. he was like he gone! he gone! black lives matter coming up on the outside. i'm like, is this for real >> reporter: the exclamation punctuates decades of dedication >> me and any daddy. >> reporter: by the first black family in texas to raise quarter horses >> my dad was entrepreneur he started racing horses in

1963 >> reporter: brothers james, charles, and kie'elronn now ron the business and until black lives matter pranced into the picture it had been more than 30 years since the family raised horses >> it's like a dream come true we gave this horse this game because we want to bring awareness to what's happening in the world today. >> reporter: but when they tried to officially change the horse's name from its birth name to black lives matter >> they told us we couldn't name him that >> they said it was going to bring up a lot of racial conflicts and statements and -- >> reporter: the hatleys say it took the threat of legal action to get the decision changed. >> it was definitely a struggle. >> reporter: now they're off to the races. >> on the outside is black lives matter >> reporter: with a horse making a name for himself >> he gone he gone! >> reporter: on and off the track. >> our thanks to meredith yeomans for that report. that was a very, very cool story. >> when it comes to black lives matter those three words are so

important to so many people. clearly for that family. now it's double with a double meaning, for their cause and also that prized horse of theirs too. >> absolutely. thanks for kicking off your presidents' day with "early today. i'm cori coffin. >> and i'm frances rivera. coming up on the "today" show

a glimmer of hope. president biden and russia's putin agree in principle to meet but only if ukraine is not invaded. we're live in the region with the latest. we'll have the latest on queen elizabeth as she battles a case of covid. a punch thrown in a scrum at the university of michigan. and a crash of two helicopters. the case of black property