right there. more news now on the way. ith yo. stay right there. more news now on the way.

the u.s. department of justice bringing terrorism charges against six top leaders of hamas in connection with the october 7 attack in israel. this, as protests rage and pressure mounts on benjamin netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal. in new york, a former aide to governor kathy hochul is charged with being a secret agent for the chinese government. how prosecutors say she and her husband used her position to gain millions. donald trump and kamala harris continue to rally their bases in key swing states. with both setting their sights on pennsylvania, where the philadelphia eagles and the harris campaign are denouncing fake ads, falsicely claiming th team endorsed the democratic candidate. millions of americans losing their medicated coverage, often due to clerical errors and red tape. where advocates say the problem is especially bad. and four years after missing out on gold, an american paralympian finds redemption. his incredible comeback on this

wednesday, september 4th. "early today" starts right now. good morning, glad you're with me. i'm frances rivera. the justice department has charged six senior leaders of hamas with terrorism for their role in the october 7th attack on israel. chief among them is the group's leader in gaza. yahya sinwar. he is largely regarded as the main architect of the assault that killed more than a thousand israelis. the charges also include conspiracy to murder u.s. nationals. meanwhile, in israel, protests continue against the government, urging prime minister netanyahu to accept a hostage deal. here's raf sanchez. >> reporter: thousands rallying outside israel's defense ministry, as the largest protests since the start of the war surge on. public fury mounting over hamas' murder of these six young hostages. the israeli government's failure to bring them back alive. >> our government are heartless

people. >> reporter: night after night, protesters have taken to the streets, demanding prime minister netanyahu make a deal to bring the remaining hostages home. the question is, will he listen? so far, the answer is no. >> these murderers executed six of our hostages. they shot them in the back of the head. and now after this? we're asked to feel seriousness? we're asked to make concessions? >> reporter: netanyahu refusing to withdraw israeli troops from the egypt-gaza border, saying it would allow hamas to rai earm, israel is accused of obstructing a cease-fire deal. >> we made clear that we're opposed to the reoccupation of gaza. >> reporter: alex, a father of two, was among the hostages killed. his widow refused to meet

netanyahu during a condolence visit. the israeli leader has not met the family of american hostage hersh goldberg-polin, who was buried in jerusalem. >> finally, my sweet boy, finally, finally, finally, finally, you're free! >> reporter: israel carrying out more strikes in gaza, but the u.n. says it's pushing on with the polio vaccination campaign, getting doses to more than 160,000 children over two days. even as war rages around them. >> and our thanks to raf for that report. new this morning, a federal judge has denied donald trump's second request to move his new york hush money case to federal court. the judge essentially saying the former president did not have a good enough reason to justify the move. the defense wanted to transfer the case with hopes of eventually overturning the conviction, using the supreme court's recent immunity ruling to do so. mr. trump's attorneys filed a notice of appeal late last night. former president trump will

hold a town hall later tonight in pennsylvania. both presidential campaigns are planning stops this week in key battleground states. mr. trump will visit wisconsin and north carolina later this week. and vice president harris will be back in pennsylvania tomorrow. donald trump made appearance on a podcast yesterday, where he was asked about the tone of his campaign. >> from my personal opinion, i think you are at your best when you are talking about a positive vision of the future versus criticizing the other side. >> yeah. i think you have to criticize, though. i think, i think they're nasty. >> the candidates are set to face off on the debate stage on september 10th. trump campaign officials say tulsi gabbard is helping mr. trump sharpen his policy attacks. the harris campaign is still pushing for the mics to be unmuted at all times. philadelphia is tackling misinformation ahead of the election after ads popped up showing kamala harris in an

eagles helmet. the team calling the ads counterfeit. nbc's tremaine lee has the story. >> reporter: ads plastered at bus stops across the city of brotherly love showing kamala harris as the quote, official candidate of the philadelphia eagles, pulled down. it's because they're fake, according to the team. just the latest deception giving voters whiplash. a caricature of the vice president in an eagles helmet with bold lettering "kamala". they were working to remove the counterfeit political ads. the bogus ads did list a link to the official non-partisan website of the philadelphia eagles thatencourages voter registration. a spokesperson for the harris campaign said the campaign did not purchase these ads. intersection media, the company that runs and manages the advertisements on these bus structures say they were vandalized and people find a way to unlock the ad box. >> we're backing kamala anyway.

>> reporter: president biden scored more votes than donald trump here. on the streets of philly where people take the trickery in stride. >> i don't see a problem. but why would somebody waste their time putting an eagles logo on something that wasn't given permission. >> reporter: eagles goes way beyond into the purple suburbs and broattleground pennsylvania. just over two months to the election, voters are getting bombarded with fake information online. and now in real life. last month, former president trump shared a.i.-generated images on truth social, showing one real and one fake, driswift for trump. many have been shy about getting into politics. as michael jordan once quipped, republicans buy shoes too.

but other players are taken a stand with steph curry and coach kerr at the dnc. dana white, a prominent trump supporter was at the rnc. but some feel election talk should stay on the sidelines. >> i don't think there should be much politics in sports. >> our thanks to tremaine for that report. a former aide to new york governor kathy hochul was arrested tuesday on federal charges of acting as a secret agent of the chinese government. prosecutors say linda sun used her state government position to act on requests of chinese communist government officials. in exchange, they say she got millions of dollars. her husband was also arrested in the scheme, accused of money laundering. the fibi says they used the mony to buy luxury homes. t governor hochul's office says sun was fired last year after

evidence of misconduct was discovered. september off to rough start on wall street. stock futures are in the red after the worst day for markets since the big selloff last month. the dow dropped over 600 points, while the nasdaq fared even worse. chip stocks suffered the biggest low. nvidia tumbled nearly 10% over a bloomberg report that the company received a subpoena as part of an anti-trust investigation. turning to northern california where crews are battling a fast-moving wildfire. the bear fire has devoured some 2,000 acres and is 0% contained. hundreds of homes and businesses in the sierra county area are without power, and more than 500 people have been forced to evacuate. the cause of the blaze is still under investigation. all right. get ready for rain if you live along the gulf coast. nbc meteorologist angie lassman is tracking that system for us.

good morning. >> good morning, frances. we've got the rain in the picture for folks across the gulf coast. umbrellas handy. flood watches up for folks across texas and louisiana. this is going to include new orleans, corpus christi, san angelo. this from fnt is just going to g around the next couple days. the showers and storms will be here the next few days, leaving us with really soaked ground and the potential for flooding with heavy rain working through over the next couple of days. meanwhile, out west across specifically parts of the southwest, 55 million people under heat alerts. this stretches up the coast from seattle to basically tucson. and temperatures quite warm. >> temperatures running well above normal in some spots, nearly 20 degrees above where they should be. 107 tomorrow, not a break for phoenix either. 113 is what we're expecting for the high. we'll keep that heat in place

into the weekend with trip n mia. upper 70s for charlotte and raleigh. low 80s in atlanta today. and that's a look at your forecast, frances. >> see you in a bit. coming up, the new warning from chase bank about a viral trend promising free money. and why millions have lost medicaid. oothing non-medicated vicks vapors. easy to apply for the whole family. vicks vapostick. and try new vaposhower max for steamy vicks vapors. that grimy film on your teeth? dr. g? ♪♪ it's actually the buildup of plaque bacteria which can cause cavities. most toothpastes quit working in minutes.

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c n ichlt /* n ich technical errors. >> reporter: this woman is confined to a wheelchair. this jacksonville resident cannot do much alone. you need help for everything from getting up? >> from getting up to preparing meals, to going out in the community. i need help. i would say almost 24/7. >> reporter: and yet for more than a month, akin says she was alone overnight after the state of florida revoked her essential medicaid coverage. >> it was pure panic, because, i'm, like, what the heck happened? >> reporter: during the pandemic, the federal government required states to keep providing health care coverage to medicaid recipients, even if they they lost their eligibility. then eligibility rules came back last year. since then, more than 25 million

people have lost coverage during what's been dubbed the unwinding of medicaid. and, according to a health policy research group, roughly 70% of those who lost coverage did so because of procedural reasons like paperwork issues. though some may not geneuinely qualify anymore. kimberly bryant helps lead akins' care team. akin received digital notices that were not sent to her care coordinators. even if she did find this online s wou online, would she have been able to see this? >> no, she can't see that, because she's legally blind. >> reporter: it's been particularly sloppy. >> it's caused me a lot of stress. >> reporter: they estimate thousands of di disabled people like lauren have been impacted. now it's alleged the state has

violated the constitutional rights, ending coverage with little or no notice or little explanation of the actual reason. we asked florida for comment, which they never gave. so we went to a press conference to ask governor ron desantis why people who should have medicaid lost coverage. the secretary of the florida department of children and families stepped in to say this. >> we're committed to ensuring that anyone who is eligible maintains coverage. >> we do have an appointment friday. >> reporter: but, without coverage, bryant said she took out personal loans to pay akins' care team. >> a little over 12,000 now. >> reporter: $12,000? >> yes. >> reporter: of your money. >> my money. >> reporter: why would you put out $12,000 for someone you have only known months? >> i guess because if it was me, i would want somebody to care. i couldn't walk away. >> reporter: late last week, lauren akins' care team says her coverage was restored. it took almost three months and

a team of people helping her. meanwhile, akin says she's lost faith in the system that's supposed to help her live life to the fullest. >> if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody. >> reporter: jesse kirsch, nbc news, jacksonville, florida. still to come, a very sweet debut for sabrina carpenter. more of a seasonal honor bestowed on post malone and morgan wallen after this. ever. with the scrubbing power of magic eraser and the cleaning power of dawn. watch it make soap scum here... disappear... and watch how sprays can leave grime like that with up to 10 times the cleaning power, foamy melts it on contact. magic. it makes this ring a thing of the past. it makes you forgetti about baked on spaghetti. new ultra foamy magic eraser. clean with more magic than ever. upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i got to make this kind of mess all blf♪ >> post malone and morgan wallen needed no help when it came time to drop a number one summer jam. the duet "i had some help" was crowned cro

crowned song of the summer. it had a six-week run at the top of the hot 100. the current number one single came in at number two. kendrick lamar's dis track. what about sabrina carpenter? she made the top ten with "espresso", and also my favorite, "please, please, please". >> is that your number one? >> hot to go is still way up there. >> charlie scx, i couldn't believe she wasn't on there. we've got discrepancies. from the song of the summer to the album kicking off. sabrina carpenter's "short n' sweet" was the third biggest debut of the year. carpenter joins swift as having

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for gold at the paralympics in paris. emilie ikeda tells us about ezra frech's dominance at the games. >> reporter: this is a jump ezra frech dreamed of. 1.94 meters for paralympic gold. >> frech will not be denied. >> reporter: frech, overcome with emotion, celebrating with his family in the stands. >> can't even put it into words, i swear. i put everything into this. i put everything into this. so to come out here, win two golds, especially the high jump, oh, i'm literally the happiest man alive. i can't even tell you. >> reporter: the 19-year-old is now a two-time paralympic gold medallist, after pulling off stunning upset in the 100-meters. >> he is gone! >> reporter: but the medal he wanted more than anything was the gold in his signature event, the high jump, looking for redemption after heart-breaking fifth place at the last

olympics. what does the gold medal mean to you? >> this means so much to me. i did what i feel i was put on this earth to do. high jump. >> reporter: he was born with congenital limb differences and he had been counting down on social media. >> day 100 until i win paralympic gold. >> reporter: he told lester, visualizing and sharing his goals is key to his success. >> i think most people fail to vocalize their goals, because they're afraid they're not going to accomplish them. i think in order to accomplish something, you must believe you're capable first. that's the first step to accomplishing greatness. >> reporter: greatness achieved. emilie ikeda, nbc news, paris. >> that is the manifestation of gold right there. congrats to him. all right, you probably heard of the groundhog, punxsutawney phil and his great predictions about spring. but in maine, a clairvoyant

lobster attracts a captivated crowd in belfast after being pulled from the bay. >> this is more important than google. we need to know what the weather will be. this is serious. this is science. >> he emerges from his trap and is presented with two scrolls. one declaring six more weeks of summer and one declaring an early winter. despite the hopes of many this year, the lobster predicts cold weather is right around the corner. all right, before we go, here's al roker with a look at what's ahead on "today". >> this morning on the third hour of today, kefrenvin hart l and we're rounding up some great fall reads. all that and more on the third hour of "today." hour of "today." thanks f

football season already and not a satellite dish in sight! i hardly recognize the roofs i grew up on. enough squawkin'! oh great... coach prime! y'all are whining while everyone else is watching nonstop football on directv! tell me! whose house is this? their house? i think they're renting. listen, listen— i know they get easy access to all this football... but you know what you got? what, coach? a crumb bum attitude! now drop and give me twenty! twenty what?