breaking overnight. hollywood legend gene hackman has died. the two-time oscar winner and his wife found dead in their new mexico home. what we've learned from authorities, and a look back at his incredible career. also ovevernight, e freeze on foreign aid is stayed. the supreme court hands president trump a win. but the legal battle is just getting started. we're live in d.c. w with the details and the take aways from president trump's first cabinet meeting. an unvaccinated child in west texas now the first measles death in a decade. instagram users reeling after their reels were flooded with graphic content. and the celebrity designer wearing her new heart on her sleeve after a near-death experience. hear her incredible story ahead on this thursday, february 27. "early today" starts right now. good morning. just in to our newsroom, i'm frances rivera.

breaking this morning. gene hackman has died at 95, along with his wife betsy arakawa. hackman won two oscars. he was found dead with his wife and dog in santa fe. the cause of death is not clear, but the local sheriff says there is no foul play suspected. gadi schwartz has a look back at his incredible career. >> reporter: it's the car chase scene in the "french connection", which is the gold standard for all hollywood chases to follow. its star, gene hackman has come to define what a true actor is. with the uncanny ability to vanish into any role, he drew from within to put nuance into all the tough-guy roles he portrayed. >> is that gun just for show? >> reporter: the child of a broken home who lied about his age so he could join the marines, he worked many odd jobs all to finance auditions. >> every day was like a new

challenge. it was going out and trying to get that job and doing those auditions. and i loved it. >> reporter: kicked out of the pasadena playhouse, it wasn't until he was 36, playing in "bonnie and clyde", when hollywood took notice. soon after, the french connection earned him his first oscar. >> the prestige means you've been in a couple films that have made money and they can take a chance on you. >> reporter: hollywood kept taking chances. he won his second oscar in 1992's unforgiven. but he fell the tough guy roles never really pushed him. >> we were cast so close to type in films that you can only do so much within your own persona. >> i hope you're hungry. i could eat a horse. >> reporter: toward the end of his career, he found he preferred comedy for the

challenge. >> comedy's harder. it isn't arbitrary. if they don't laugh it doesn't work. >> and the problem is? >> reporter: always shrugging off the label of movie star, he remained an actor in his own words. >> i guess movie star is robert redford and paul newman and guys i idolized or visualized when i was a young guy. >> reporter: moving to santa fe after retiring, he continued to work as a novelist, publishing his fifth book in 2013, always letting his actions speak for him. on the written page and the silver screen. gadi schwartz, nbc news, los angeles. also breaking overnight, a federal freeze on foreign aid will stay in place for now. the supreme court putting a pause on a lower court's order to release more than $2 billion in aid just hours before the midnight deadline. non-profits say they have not been paid for work they've already done. while the government says it

will take them weeks to free up these funds. the groups challenging the freeze have until tomorrow at noon to file a response as justices figure out what to do next. alice barr joins me now with more. the president's budget cuts were in focus at the first cabinet meeting. >> reporter: good morning, frances. they were. and thatr: good morning, frances. they were. and that first cabinet meeting felt a little bit like a press conference with much of the spotlight on the president's chief budget slasher, elon musk. musk once again defended his directive that federal employees e-mail a list of what they did at work last week or face termination, saying the goal was mply to find out if people are showing up to work, and that if their work is too sensitive to describe, they can say that. musk was surrounded by some cabinet members who had initially told their employees not to respond. to that e-mail, the judge joked about kicking musk out of the meeting. >> elon, let the cabinet speak just for a second. anybody unhappy with elon? if you are, we'll throw him out

of here. >> reporter: president trump hinted at deep cuts coming to the environmental protection agency, saying 65% of staff there will be laid off. the white house later walked that back, saying the agency plans to cut 65% of its spending. musk admitted that doge will make mistakes and used canceled funding for ebola prevention as an example. >> so for example, with usaid, one of the things we accidently canceled very briefly was ebola. ebola prevention. so we restored it immediately, and there was no interruption. >> reporter: the "washington post" reports that efforts have not been restored and 16 people working on cdc and response have been cut to six staffers.

two employees at housing and urban development tell us that don't staff have gained access to sensitive information that agency. the system includes data about contracts and vendors and has records about people who suffered domestic violence along with addresses. yesterday the heads of agencies were told to prepare for mass layoffs, saying department also have to submit plans for a second phase workforce reduction by mid april. and the president signed an order that some credit cards with some exceptions be frozen for 30 days. uk prime minister keir starmer is in washington, d.c. today with news of a large increase in the british defense budget. the investment is part of european efforts to ensure ukraine gets a voice in negotiations and that the u.s. still backs europe over russia. this as volodymyr zelenskyy is expected to sign the minerals

agreement at the white house tomorrow. zelenskyy says both the u.s. and ukraine outlined the agreement to jointly fund ukraine's future security and reconstruction using an investment fund powered by the country's rare earth minerals. scenes of jubilation in the occupied west bank in gaza as hundreds of palestinians returned home from israeli prisons. the militant group for their part turned over the bodies of four israeli hostages as phase one of the cease-fire expires on saturday. for the latest, let's go to matt bodner. how did the releases play out? >> reporter: yesterday's handover looked very different than what we've seen thus far, with hamas foregoing the propaganda ceremony. israel released dozens of prisoners to the red cross which transported them to the west bank.

hundreds more headed back into the gaza strip. medical officials who received some of these prisoners in gaza said some of them arrived in a, quote, severe state of emaciation and some could not walk from the severity of beating and torture. they were originally slated for release last saturday, but it was postponed due to the ceremonies. yesterday's exchange was the final trade under the cease-fire deal. phase one does expire this coming saturday. at the moment it's not clear what will happen next. negotiations for a second phase were slated to begin several weeks ago, but the negotiations still have not begun. 59 israeli hostages remain in hamas captivity. 32 are believed to be dead. trump envoy steve witkoff has indicated efforts are under way to extend phase one, giving more time for negotiations on phase two. however, there are major obstacles to phase two, which will force israel to choose between two very different objectives moving forward.

that would be securing the release of the remaining hostages or destroying hamas. the current vision for phase two ends with a complete withdrawal of israeli forces from gaza, but the trump administration has said hamas cannot remain in power. frances? >> now the unsettling unknowns. matt, thank you. new this. >> morning morning, a hacker broke into an offline storage facility for crypto. the feds say the assets will likely be laundered and converted into real-world money. buy bit is based in dubai and is the second-largest crypto exchange. the measles outbreak in texas turning deadly after an unvaccinated school-aged child has died. it's the first u.s. measles death in a decade.

so far 124 people have been infected most in rural texas. robert f. kennedy jr., a vaccine skeptic down-played it, saying we have measles outbreaks every year. the lunar lander known as athena is on a second mission. it made news for being the first private company to land. athena is expected to make it to the moon in about a week. while much of the country enjoys spring temperatures, the northeast is bracing for another round of rain and snow. meteorologist angie lassman is tracking it all for us. hopefully it's a quick turn around. >> it sure will be. it's a quick-moving system, frances. we've got some of that rain and a bit of snow working across the same region, parts of the great lakes across the appalachians and the northeast. that's where we'll watch today to see the soggy conditions. i-95 corridor, specifically, you could see rain.

might slow you down just a bit as you get out and about today. we'll deal with the next system on deck tomorrow. this will leave us with snow across the great lakes and the northeast. that lasts into saturday for our friends in the interior areas of new england. there's spring-like temperatures, 60s for the plains. upper 60s in ltle rock. we're running well above normal, 10, 15 degrees above normal. springfield at 78. here comes that cool down for the northern tier of the country. 20s for green bay, 30s for chicago rain for charlotte and raleigh upper 70s for jacksonville. and that's a look at your forecast, frances, back to you.

>> thanks so much, angie. family and friends of gossip star michelle trachtenberg are mourning her untimely death. new york police discovered the unresponsive 39-year-ld and was pronounced dead. her generations of fans have followed her through the years in roles such as in buffy the vampire slayer. coming up, why we could soon see elon musk drop in on "the daily show." and the error that led to a wave of graphic content. a wave of graphic content. good morning, mr. snuggles. make breakfast special with the cocoa and hazelnutty goodness of nutella. ( ♪♪ ) ( ♪♪ ) feel the power of osteo bi-flex®. taken every day, it's clinically shown to improve joint comfort in 7 days, with significant improvement over time. ( ♪♪ )

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error that prompted some users on instagram to rereport harmfu and violent content recommended on their personal reels pages. they say this should not have been recommended and meta policy seeks to protect users from harmful content but does have content that raises awareness for certain issues. the company reported an expectation beating 78% rise in fourthuarter revenues for $39 billion. but the focus was on the forward guidance with nvidia saying projected revenues are set to $43 billion. this represents a 65% rise on the year earlier. but falls short of the rise recorded the year before that. and that points to how high the bar has been raised for this a.i. giant. and it all comes in the context of the emergence last month of

low-cost a.i. chinese startup deepseek which rattled markets. demand for the blackwell a.i. chip was still ramping up with the ceo saying the demand was amazing. but the stock is seen lower overnight and will be awaiting the market open to see the true fallout. >> karen, thanks. still to come, shane gillis returns to snl. and, are we headed for a daily show showdown? owhoow sh swdn?ly always dry scoop before you run. listen to me, the hot dog diet got me shredded. it's time we listen to science. one a day is formulated with key nutrients to support whole body health. one a day. science that matters. ahh, yellow! didn't pass the tissue test? buckle up! whoa! there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3dwhitestrips white. whitens like a 400 dollar professional treatment. pilot: prepare for non-stop smiles. crest.

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so, how are you feeling? are you excited to host? >> yeah, i'm excited. i'm just worried everybody's going to be hungover still from the 50th. >> why do you say that? >> that, for one thing. also mikey's wearing sara's clothes. >> what? i always dress like this. >> i feel like i'm ben. >> no, ben is the cute one.

i'm ben. >> have you considered maybe we're all ben? >> shane gillis is back for the post-50th anniversary run. the comedian makes his second appearance as host this weekend alongside tate mcrae. so you got to see this special. it was amazing. so many of the creative geniuses flowing over the decades culminated in the three hours. hopefully they got something left over for this show. build on that momentum. >> there's so much of the season left to go. i'm sure it will be funny. tate mcrae's been great. could there be a stewart-musk grudge match? the billionaire and top dog at doge should appear on "the daily show" to talk to jon stewart after stewart spent monday's edition of the show railing against the agency led by musk which resulted in the viral moment of stewart cutting his hand on a coffee mug.

musk said he would appear if the show appears unedited to which "the daily show" replied we'd be delighted. they don't know if or when such an interview will happen, but i have a feeling, if elon musk has put it on x, jon stewart's not going to turn that down. >> we'll see if it's actually going to happen. when we come back, keep the cups away from jon stewart if he or as a drying rachim. ready for a kazakh trip? m.th ready for a kazakh trip? with your dishwasher and cascade complete. your dishwasher does the work for you, with temperatures up to 140 degrees - too hot for hands. some dishwashers even have a sanitizing cycle. load pots, pans and tableware at the bottom, with plastic and glassware on top. cascade complete removes visible and invisible residue, for virtually spot-free and shiny dishes.

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40% this year due to bird flu. the trump administration is investing 1 billion to combat the outbreak. new york governor kathy hochul is refusing to comply without a court order on the congestion pricing. nasa's spherex is set to launch. it will map over 450 million galaxies. "early today" will be right back. e right back. mom's gonna love this! alright kids come on. it's time for bed! ( ♪♪ ) good morning, mr. snuggles. make breakfast special with the cocoa and hazelnutty goodness of nutella. ( ♪♪ ) i love that my daughter still needs me. but sometimes i can't help due to burning and stabbing pain in my hands, so i use nervive. nervive's clinical dose of ala reduces nerve discomfort

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as heart health month winds down, one woman's journey has just begun. coming back from the brink of death, only to find new purpose saving lives by wearing her new heart, not just on her sleeve but on clothing she designs herself. >> reporter: it's a relaunch of this fashion designer's line and a new lease on life. >> i want to be happy. i want to do my best at the moment. >> reporter: as the designer, sisi lee has dressed some of the most famous women. her fast-paced life came to a halt when what she thought was just fatigue almost cost her her life. >> i was showing my collection, look some people. >> reporter: little did you know. >> that i just had a heart attack. yeah. i didn't know that. >> reporter: but she ignored

symptoms and kept working. then ended up in the er, suffering from congestive heart failure from a childhood infection that was never treated. north well atlantic hill's dr. patel said it was life or death. >> it pools up in the lungs, you cannot breathe and you start choking. >> reporter: after heart surgery to replace a valve, she spent three weeks in the icu, connected to a maze of machinery and tubes but got better by the day. >> god didn't want me to die for a reason. i am going to make the best out of this. >> it takes a village to get sicker patients through. >> reporter: now stronger and well, sisi creates her designs with a new purpose, with what she calls a new heart, same beat. >> god didn't want me to die for a major reason. i think i can inspire a lot of

people. i always admire like, how doctors save people's lives. you really change people's lives. and i wasn't able to do something like that in my career wise. but now i feel like i can make a difference. >> it has been three months since her surgery, and sisi says there's not much she can't do these days, as you see right there. even more reason for her to advocate for women's heart health, and to remind you to not ignore those symptoms. coming up on "today", how one life-changing decision saved three little girls. kate snow has the inspiring story and how it can hp patients around the world. so a lot out there as we wind down heart health month. thanks so much for watching "early today" as we wind down this morning. i'm frances rivera. have a great thursy. see you back hdaer chloe melas,

news. >> stay right there, news is on the way.