this morning, pressure building, as the special master in the mar-a-lago case hand picked by former president trump asked his legal team to back president trump's allegations that the fbi planted evidence. rising tensions in evidence after president putin's orders to begin drafting men for more troops and a growing backlash as protesters are arrested. fat leonard has been captured before fleeing to russia after an international man hunt the man involved in the largest navy bribery case ever was nabbed in venezuela.

countdown to collision we are closer than ever to crashing a rocket into an asteroid to test whether or not we can save our planet. and the story of the day that will have you smiling, the soldier surprise from one mom to her family, to kick off your friday "early today" starts right now good morning, i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. puerto rico is still dealing with the devastating aftermath of hurricane fiona president bidenannounced the government will cover the cost of the recovery efforts in full for the next month water has been restored to 70% of the island and about 38% has power. and bermuda is now on high alert as hurricane fiona is 130 mile-an-hour winds roared past the island as a category four. the powerful storm barrelling toward canada's atlantic coast nbc meteorologist michelle grossman is tracking fiona and more good morning, michelle. >> good morning.

we are still looking at a very strong storm west of bermuda, feeling the impact at this hour, high winds, and also rainfall, two to four inches of rain is possible, locally higher amounts. 130 mile-an-hour winds category four storm. that's a strong storm. we had a big wind field as well. as we go throughout time today, we will see derm ba's conditions improving and then the maritime conditions decreasing throughout the afternoon, into the evening hours. a category three storm later thon morning still a really strong storm though with winds at 125 miles an hour and then set its eyes on the canadian maritime. a historical storm throughout the weekend, winds gusting very high, bringing some power lines down, could see some power outages and heavy, heavy rain up to ten inches is possible in spots. back to you, guys. >> thank you, michelle. the special master in the mar-a-lago investigation has set a new deadline judge raymond dearie has given donald trump's legal team until next friday to identify specific materials the former president claims that the fbi planted in his florida home

this, as the new court ruling allowed the justice department to regain access to ultra sensitive documents seized from the estate our peter alexander has the latest >> reporter: the latest legal setback for former president trump, a federal appeals court ruling, the justice department is free to resuming 100 classified documents seized from mar-a-lago reversing an earlier decision by a federal judge that had blocked the government from examining those materials. mr. trump insisting he declassified the records, an argument his lawyers have not made in court. >> it doesn't have to be a process, as i understand it. if our eight president of the united states, you can declassify by saying it is declassified, even by thinking about it. >> but the appeals court brushed off that argument as a red herring saying the documents are still government property whether or not they're declassified and then the new $250 million civil lawsuit against mr. trump as well as ivanka, don jr. and

eric trump brought by new york attorney general letitia james mr. trump slamming the suit by james, a democrat, as a politically motivated witch hunt. >> she campaigned on it four years ago, it was vicious campaign and she just talked about trump and we're going to indict him, we're going to get him. >> reporter: james is accusing mr. trump of inflating his assets to get more favorable loans and better tax rates >> pattern of fraud and deception that was used mr. trump and the trump organization for their own financial develop is astounding. >> reporter: one example she cite, mr. trump's 212 acre estate outside manhattan bought for $7.5 million that was later valued at nearly $300 million, on what james said were false claims, that it had been zoned for mansions. but mr. trump argued that the banks were responsible for their own valuations >> these are banks that have the best law firms in the world, the biggest and best and most powerful, they do their own work, they don't rely on us. >> reporter: meanwhile we're learning ginni thomas, the wife

of supreme court justice clarence thomas has agreed to be interviewed by the january 6th committee in the coming weeks. the committee wants to ask her communications with a trump lawyer pushing to overturn the 2020 election results. >> our thanks to peter for that report. let's turn to russia's war on ukraine all eyes today will be on eastern and southern regions where a voting process has begun on whether these areas will formally become part of russia the voting will take place over five days in the region's largely controlled by russian forces, and separatists. ukraine, the united states and other western allies are calling this a sham referendum and are refusing to recognize the results. meanwhile, an independent monitoring group says at least 1300 have been arrested for protesting putin's military mobilization richard engel has more >> reporter: roll call, as russian president vladimir putin's new draft came into effect russia wants 300,000 new soldiers to reverse recent losses in ukraine.

but many russians don't want to serve. human rights groups say more than a thousand demonstrators have been arrested putin seems so desperate, he is threatening to use nuclear weapons. secretary of state blinken calling on the u.n. security council to send a message. >> these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately. >> reporter: just two miles across the russian border, ukrainians are undeterred. ukrainian forces recently drove russian troops from the town >> when you think about russia's partial mobilization, that putin is trying to round up hundreds of thousands of more troops, to send them here - >> they're unqualified cannon fodder and they will be killed here says andre. local mayo3%r was one of the fit ukrainians to enter. and cut down the russian flag. and then he found his mother >> may golden boy, i knew you

would liberate me, she says. >> are you worried that there is going to be a new russian offensive, that russia will come back, stronger than it was before >> it doesn't matter how many people they're mobilizing, the mayor says the whole of ukraine will rise against them >> in areas still occupied by russian troops, ukrainians will start voting to permanently join up with russia critics call the vote a sham >> our thanks to richard for that report. after waiting for 40 minutes, the cnn journalist christianne amanpour withdrew from an interview and said it wouldn't happen unless she wore a head scarf the first interview on american soil and she declined to wear the head scarf since she was in new york where there is no law or tradition regarding the practice she added that she told the aide that no other iranian president has required this, when she was outside of iran.

christianne amanpour had planned to ask about the protests that swept across eastern after a woman died in custody after allegedly violating the strictly enforced dress code. iranian forces have denied mistreating her and are investigating her test. the mastermind behind a navy bribery scheme is back behind bars, on house arrest after awaiting sentencing. he was finally nabbed in south america. sam brock has the details. >> reporter: a former military contractor known as fat leonard on the run for weeks after ripping off his gps ankle bracelet was recaptured in venezuela authorities say. leonard glen frances pleaded guilty in 2015 to a sprawling corruption scandal involving senior naval officers, the largest in naval history and set to be sentenced but he slipped away from his tony san diego home weeks ago >> the navy is embarrassed in the extreme.

so is the u.s. marshall service. with somebody cutting off an ankle bracelet and disappearing. that was an incredibly well-planned, organized, escape. >> an alert was activated indicating leonard's bracelet was tampered with on septemberer 4th. san diego police went to his home. >> trying to knock on the front door and no zblons all they found was the bracelet no leonard the u.s. government sting a $40,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. neighbors told u.s. marshals that several u-haul trucks had been in and out of the house all week. >> there were people moving things in and out but shadows, i saw them like from the peripheral vision. >> the director of the interpol venezuela says he got to mexico with a stopover in cuba and apprehended by venezuela authorities at the international airport while trying to eventually get to russia, according to a marshal spokesperson

frances was on house arrest due to health issues including a bout with kidney cancer. he was arrested in 2013, and pleaded guilty to offering 500,000 dollars in bribes, of luxury travel, prostitutes, and free hotel rooms, to navy officers a court then finding he overcharged the navy to the tune of roughly $35 million for servicing vessels, and lured ships to indonesia in exchange for classified information, now faces 25 years in prison. >> he knew where the ships were going, and he was capable possibly of providing that information to other parties or someone he contracted, subcontracted to, might have done that. >> reporter: this historic public skrupgs scandal lasted more than a decade and involved dozens of u.s. navy officers >> you're talking about commanders, and admirals how serious is this? >> it's brutally painful >> thanks to sam for that ronchts let's go back to nbc meteorologist michelle grossman with more on the extreme

weather. michelle >> hey there, guys, we are looking at hurricane fiona and active tropics, a wave that will most likely become the next tropical depression today and the next tropical storm or hurricane. and we want to give you a heads up, we expect it to impact the u.s. by the middle of next week. it is called im bed -- favorable environment for development, we expect it to develop and we expect it to impact the southeast. take time this weekend, especially on the west coast of florid along thea,the 90s. and 101 in phoenix all right, we've almost made it to the weekend the forecast in a bit. >> thank you, michelle. coming up, two spelling bee champs were honored at the white house.

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best. decision. ever. love it, or your money back. leading the news, nasa's dart mission is nearing its bull's eye, 7 million miles from earth. nasa says that the dart rocket is on track to ram into an asteroid on monday, in an attempt to change its trajectory the dart is traveling at just over four miles per second more than 14,000 miles an hour the mission is to test nasa's ability to defend earth should an asteroid be on a collision course with our planet. the white woman who went viral in 2020 on a black bird watcher lost her bat until court. amy cooper sued her former employer accusing franklin templeton of illegally firing and defaming her a judge in new york dismissed the case saying couldn'ter did not say she was discriminated against when she was fired

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coming up on "today," a game day feast, nfl football player turned professional chef has recipes for every fan. with the rise in extreme weather, it's never been more important to know abt flood insurance. the problem is, a lot of people may not be able to afford it fema is rolling out a new pricing plan that may encourage

more people to get coverage. here's nbc's jesse kirsch. >> as july's waters went through eastern kentucky, willie says the waters gutted his home it had to be torn down. >> where we're standing, this used to be your home. >> this used to be my house. >> completely gone now. >> gone. >> miles away james and karen dean say they escaped to their barn's loft as water engulfed their house. >> if the barn had washed away, i don't know if i would saved it couldn't have but i would have because you got to be determined >> now they all tell us they're starting off with less financial help than they'd want. >> even though he lived this close to water for years, willie bush says he never thought about getting flood insurance and finally did but still didn't buy anything because it cost too much >> my daughter lives here and makes $13 an hour and 4 or 500 dollars a month for flood

insurance. and 500 for her and 500 for myself. >> they have been needing insurance, since the creek could be this low. >> it is not something that could be needed. >> never thought it could be needed that's a waste of money. >> according to fema, both families live in high risk flood areas and should have considered flood insurance. >> is that something you have had any idea about. >> first time i heard about it. >> fema says according to its data, only 4% of people in the u.s. have flood insurance through the national flood insurance program and many others thinking it is part of the homeowner's policy or just not needed. >> outside the mandatory high risk area. >> if the mortgage lender is government >> jackson kentucky, this woman says her bank required florida insurance for her mortgage. >> and you're lucky that the bank made you have it. >> yes. >> and i'll keep it. >> and some people may not be able to afford that insurance. and enter fema's new risk rating

2.0, hoping to calculate insurance costs using each property's unique risk factors be >> lower values, lower risk properties, we're paying too much and i mean higher values, and higher risk properties, we're not paying enough. >> 2.0 also aims to warn people how their premium could jump down the road. >> we think that is incredibly important to continue to deal with climate change to pull back the vail and raise the visibility of the flood risk case. >> fema projects during the first year of new pricing, almost a quarter of existing plans will see premiums drop and fema is promising equity, the new plan doesn't account for how much money someone makes and low american income americans could be priced out of the market. >> for the department to give statutory authority to consider affordability. >> the florida insurance might be priced out of their market and they will just leave and my fear is they will lose their population. >> some like this couple say they hope to rebuild

now armed with information they could have used much sooner. >> and important story there thanks to jesse for that report. michelle's got your weekend forecast up next >> and ahead, the heartwarming surprise that will bring tears to your eyes rs to your eyes not okay. all...the...symptoms. need to deal with this. so your doctor tells you about trintellix, a prescription medicine for adults with depression. okay, feeling relief from overall symptoms. hmm. and trintellix had no significant impact on weight in clinical trials. so there's that. trintellix may increase suicidal thoughts and actions in people 24 and younger. call a doctor right away if you have these, or new or worsening depression, or new or sudden changes in mood, behavior, thoughts, or feelings. do not take with maois. tell your doctor about all medicines you take to avoid a life-threatening condition. increased risk of bleeding may occur, especially if taken with aspirin, nsaid pain relievers, or blood thinners. manic episodes, eye problems, low sodium levels, and sexual problems can occur. suddenly stopping trintellix may cause serious side effects. common side effects include nausea,

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so, replace your dish soap with dawn powerwash and spray your dishes clean. welcome back on this friday, there's a fall feel in the air in the northeast, where we're looking at temperatures in the 50s and 60s. lots of sunshine in the mid atlantic feeling late summer still in the south. temperatures in the 90s. in the southwest some temperatures in the triple digits florida, showers and storms. hot and humid there with temperatures in the 90s. so a crisp start to the weekend. tomorrow morning, in the northeast, the great lakes, the ohio valley, texas heat continues, and central plains really hot, with temperatures in the 80s. warm in the rockies. sunday, showers and storms in portions of the ohio valley. the interior parts of the northeast. and also the tennessee vally warm sunshine throughout the middle of the country. temperatures still in the 90s in the south. have a great weekend, guys >> sure will thank you, michelle.