a red roast in iowa. the 2024 gop presidential hopefuls duke it out in the battleground state, and the stakes have never been so high

if you have been feeling under the weather lately, there is a new virus that some doctors are calling the runner-up to covid. a half-baked roll-out of legal cannabis leaves farmers high and dry in new york city. and making sure kids have fun in the sun meet the high school senior who is making a splash in her community. it's monday, june 5th. "early today" starts right now >> good morning. hope you had a good weekend. i'm phillip mena. >> glad you're was i'm frances rivera a number of gop hopefuls descended on iowa over the weekend as perspective candidates hope to emerge from the shadow cast by their main rival, the former president. future more on this, we go to nbc's brie jackson in washington and brie, what do these candidates have to say at this early point in the race? >> good morning, francis well, the republican primary field continues to grow with just over seven months until the first contest. this week we are expected to see the official entries of former

president mike pence as well as former new jersey governor chris christie while he is not a declared candidate yet, pence joined several of his peers over the weekend in iowa, the site of the first in the nation caucus many of the candidates spent saturday at roast and reid hosted by joni ernst the presidential hopefuls mixed and mingled with iowans at the fairgrounds while laying out their cases for their candidacy. take a listen. >> as president, i recognize that the woke mind virus represents a war on the truth. so we will wage a war on the woke >> i couldn't be more proud to have been part of the administration that appointed three of the justices that sent roe v. wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs >> don't complain what you get in a general if you don't play in this caucus, because it matters. >> meanwhile, former u.n.

ambassador nikki haley remained in the hawkeye state through the weekend for a live cnn town hall sunday night haley drew contrasts with the other candidates in the field, including pledging continued support for ukraine in their fight against russia as well as calling out florida governor ron desantis for his feud against disney, calling it a waste of taxpayer money frances? >> all right brie jackson for us. brie, i want to ask you. somebody appeared to be missing from the festivities this weekend, one major republican. talk about more on that. >> yeah, frances, a notable no-show was former president donald trump all the candidates in attendance were taking advantage of his absence. trump, who does remain the republican front-runner, now none of the former president's challengers mentioned him by name when ron desantis, his main rival was asked about trump's absence at the event or what that meant, desantis responded i'm just happy to be here. despite this, desantis, pence

and haley all expressed criticism for trump's praise of north korean leader kim jong-un on truth social, whom trump congratulated on friday after the country was elected to the executive birthday of the world health organization. frances? >> brie, a matter of time before we hear trump pouncing right back okay, thank you. police in virginia late sunday night suspended search efforts following the crash of a private plane in augusta county earlier in the day the planes a unexpected flight path prompted the scrambling of fighter jets that led to a sonic boom that startled residents in the washington, d.c. area. the fighter jets shadowed the plane, which was originally en route to lyme disease until it crashed. a senior government official says they determined that the plane's pilot was incapacitated. officials say four people were on board the plane, but no

survivors were found in the search now to an nbc news exclusive. according to multiple people familiar with the investigation, the federal grand jury looking into former president trump's handling ofs arified documents is set to meet in washington after a hiatus of several weeks. last summer, federal agents searched mr. trump's florida home and found more than 300 documents with classified markings trump has denied any wrongdoing. it's not clear how far along the prosecution is this week, the jury could hear additional witnesses, or they could move to indict the former president. the justice department would not comment on the status of the investigation. hospitals and nursing homes have filled thousands of vacant positions with employees from overseas but many say they were put in positions leaving them feeling trapped in their jobs. more than a dozen immigrant health care workers have described being placed in jobs with so little staff that they weren't able to meet patients' needs and feared for their physical safety.

they also allege beside paid less than their american counterparts and when workers tried to leave their jobs before their multi-year contracts expired, they say they were faced with tens of thousands of dollars in penalties or sued, in some cases for more than $100,000 that's all according to documentation obtained by nbc news while some nurses have had sufficient fighting back with lawsuits, they say there is much more work that needs to be done. health officials are seeing a little known virus infecting more and more people this season hpmv, which feels similar to a cold or covid is the latest respiratory illness on the rise. john chandler from our nbc new york station has more. >> reporter: feeling under the weather this spring? the cdc says hmpv might be the reason. >> oh, really? wow. i didn't know that. >> reporter: most were unaware of this respiratory virus, which can feel like a bad case of the common cold, my mom last week had a really bad sore throat, and new my nieces are getting

sick. >> reporter: and hmpv is going around at its peak in mid-march, the cd saw positive testing 36% higher than precovid viruses. >> the virus doesn't cause severe infections. we don't test it everywhere for every patient. >> reporter: dr. marina keller treats infectious diseases at whes chester medical center. she says hmpv are similar to other virus, runny noses, sore throat, fever, cough, nasal congestion and shortness of breath. >> it's like other respiratory viruses like what we call the common cold. but it can be more worrisome for people who have medical problems. >> reporter: those with weaker immune systems are more at risk, younger children and the elderly especially and as the urgency of covid fades, so too might our health precautions. >> it seems like a common cold thing, but i would watch out, wear your mask, because covid is still a thing. >> we've stopped wearing masks mostly is that something that could be contributing >> it is definitely possible as we take our masks off, a little

more lax with our common sense precautions that we do see more viruses. >> reporter: dr. keller says use common sense stay home if you or your kids feel sick. and at the very least -- >> hand washing never goes out of style it's really important. it prevents all kinds of viruses. >> and our thanks to john chandler for that report the uk is increasingly taking the lead in arming ukraine in its fight against russia rishi sunak is the third british prime minister serving during the war in ukraine he and his predecessors have often dared where others feared, being first to send ukraine advanced weapons systems and recently cruise missiles >> officials on both sides of the pond acknowledge that the u.s. has tactically approved all british support, but it may not be enough. an aide to president zelenskyy say they still lack the arms to launch a counteroffensive. a signal error blamed for a horrific train crash in india

that killed 300 people over the weekend. it happened in the northeast part of the city near the city of balasor an official report seen by nbc news blames a series of wrong signal lights for this disastrous pileup. we want to bring in foreign correspondent ali arouzi on this ali, good morning. what's the latest there? >> good morning, phillip that's right, according to preliminary reports by indian authorities, the root cause was a signal failure but the transport minister in india hasn't confirmed whether this involved human error, or if there was some kind of interference that played a role in this signal malfunction but he says an investigation is under way, and no stone will be left unturned. what we do know, phillip, a green light was given to one express train to move forward, at which point the train switched tracks from the lane line on to the loop line where a freight train carrying very

heavy goods was parked that express train plowed into that freight train at about 80 miles per hour and the sheer momentum of that crash caused the engine of the express train and four or five carriages to jump tracks on to a third track, to believele over, and hit the back coaches of another express train that was traveling in the opposite direction, also derailing some of the carriages on that train now the two trains combined were carrying some 3,000 people out of those 3,000 people, over a thus of them have been injured. some of them with very severe injuries in what must have been a terrifying collision >> you get a sense of the impact when you see all that sprawling wreckage we were showing earlier. ali, how common are these sorts of accidents in india? >> well, over the years, a lot of efforts have been made to improve rail safety in india and there haven't been any

fatalities over the last two years. but nonetheless, there are several hundred accidents every year on india's vast rail network. now nothing on this scale, though, since 1995 where 358 people were killed in an accident near delhi. >> wow in a generation or so. ali arouzi roeporting for us. thank you. nbc meteorologist michelle grossman is tracking the latest for us good morning. >> good morning, guys. we're going to see temperatures 10 to 20 degrees above what is typical. really warm today, tomorrow. and some spots 30 degrees above average by the middle of the week we're starting out cool in portions of new england. we really is ra temperature difference across the country. it's cool and wet in the northeast. parts of the northeast, especially in new england to start out your workweek. we're going to see that same play through wednesday as well showers in parts of new england. then a chance for strong storms in pars of the carolinas and the

tennessee, g area. winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour could see some hail. the tornado threat is low. but there is still a chance for tornadoes. mentioning the temperatures in parts of new england, it is so warm in the middle of the country. today 88 degrees in fargo. 13 degrees is typical. 93 in memphis. 87 in kansas city. it's going to be warm too as we go throughout morrow, to the southeast. gulf moisture move booing the southern plains that could spark some thunderstorms in houston. all right. warm and stormy in some spots. we'll see how long it last >> okay, see you in a bit. thank you. tens of thousands of members of the lgbtq+ community flocked to disney world in florida for the annual gay days gathering.

this year, even bigger crowds turned up in defiance of governor ron desantis' feud with disney and for his attack on lgbtq+ rights. disney's gay days is one of the largest pride months events dating back to 1991. we're back in 60 seconds with new safety measures coming to new york's subway system. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i used to pre-rinsee disheses cause my old detergrgt didn't't actually y get 'emem . but t new cascadade platinumums has me doing didishes...dififferentl.

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from graduations and proposals to big surprises and reunions, these stories are sharing uplifting moments from the past week and are sure to

make you smile jose diaz-balart items us more >> reporter: it was no ordinary graduation at new jersey's seton hall university. >> grace mariani and justin. >> there is grace getting her degree in education. but the crowd went wild when her service dog justin, who attended every class with grace, also got his very own diploma >> how are you doing >> and there was this dream come true for a young baseball fan. >> yeah, you get the support >> that's 7-year-old christian kandel immediate meeting his hero, san diego padres third baseman manny machado this week. >> peace >> back in march, machado saw a social media post of christian crying tears of joy at one of his games and offered the invite. >> how cool? pretty kooltcool, huh?

>> it's amazing. >> and love at disney world. that's alex proposing. but alex had planned to propose and pulls out a ring of his own. the two starting their lives together with laughter >> we got it and in southern california, this was the moment special needs third-grader eli learned his dad rick. >> hi, daddy >> but his new bus driver. are you ready to go? let's go rick learned to drive for the poway unified school district to help with the ongoing bus driver shortage >> have a great day. and then there is this moment that's touching so many hearts that's 15-year-old elijah ford getting his head shaved by his buddies to support his mom tamika who is battling breast cancer elijah overcome with emotion then one by one, his friends joined in too.

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around rhode island, beaches like north kingstown's town beach will soon be booming thinking beach is definitely more of a family-oriented beach with a lot of younger kids. >> reporter: while there are kids with parents playing on blo playgrounds, also in the sand. all around them are beach toys but they didn't bring them here themselves. >> kind of similar to the little free library for books. >> reporter: betty foley's beach library was put in place a few weeks ago. >> i think it's as successful as it could have been so i'm proud of myself. >> reporter: having seen something similar circulating on social media, betty decided to create one for the ocean state for her high school senior project. >> the first thing i had to do is reach out to the town's recreation department, and they told me also to reach out to the public works. >> reporter: after additional approval from the town council, betty went to work. >> i just used basic plywood and things like that that i got at

home depot i sanded everything really well and screwed everything together. >> reporter: and then of course, she needed to fill it with fun so she purchased pales and tons of toys. >> i went out and bought a lot of the toys. some of them were some of mine that from when i was younger. >> reporter: signs taped outside of it lets the public know this costs them nothing it's explaining anyone is free to leave a toy or take a toy. >> reporter: but betty knows because sometimes kids can be left out. >> sometimes kids can't afford beach toys so it's to help out those people, but to remove extra stress on parents because it's one less thing they have to worry about when coming to the beach. >> reporter: parents and children alike say the beach library is already making noise. >> they ask to come here now because of this. >> reporter: and while she received a great grade for this, the most rewarding part is the imprint it's leaving in the sand >> it's been really great just

coming to the beach and seeing other younger kids playing with my project and having fun with it because that was the whole goal of the project >> and our thanks to sam reed for that story well done. >> yeah, absolutely. sometimes you just forget the stuff. so it's greats it's right. if you cannot pick between your sweet tooth or a salty craving, check this out. an australian creator kick started an a mcdonald's ice cream, a mcflurry between two hash browns. they've been screaming over this ice cream hack my stomach is not iron enough for, they yeah, i'm going to

bound to their jobs. after coming to this country to help ease e the health crisis, foreign workers claim they're being heldld hostage by american emoy