it's monday, march 28th. right now on "first look," targeting christians. mainly women and children, and easter sunday suicide bomber kills at least 71 and injures 300. clash in brussels. a right-wing group of demonstrators are dispersed with water cannons at a makeshift memorial from last week's terror attacks. pope francis delivers an easter message denouncing terror amid extraordinary security at the vatican. plus your ncaa final four are headed to houston. the battle between ted cruz and donald trump heats up. and spring has sprung on this easter. "first look" starts right now. well, good monday morning, thanks for joining us today, everybody, i'm betty nguyen. we want to begin in pakistan and a deadly suicide bombing targeting christians on easter sunday.

it happened at a crowded children's park in the eastern city of lahore. the death toll has risen to at least 71. killed and most of them women and children. more than 300 are injured. many still in critical condition. this morning, funerals are already being held for some of the young victims of yesterday's attack. nbc's barry arent has more. >> reporter: the bomb went off near the children's rides in a park crowded with christians celebrating the easter holiday. in the aftermath, scenes of chaos. people tending to the dead and injured. relatives looking for missing loved ones. women and children standing on bloody ground. the scene at the hospital also chaotic. one after another the wounded, many of them women and children, carried in. a health official saying many of the injured were in critical condition. a breakaway faction of the taliban in pakistan said it was behind the suicide attack. a spokesman telling nbc news the christian community celebrating easter was the, quote, prime target.

>> we are really, really sad. i'm feeling so upset, because this is a day of our worship. >> reporter: the u.s. national security council said the united states condemns the attack in the strongest terms. the provincial government in pakistan declared three days of mourning, and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice. barry arent, nbc news. late last night, presidential candidate and former secretary of state hillary clinton tweeted, my prayers are with the victims of the horrific easter day attack in lahore. pakistan and all nations must confront and defeat terrorists. just hours before the attack pope francis delivered his traditional easter message, and in it the pontiff denounced blind, brutal terrorism. and urged the world to use the weapons of love to fight the evil of violence. he also urged europe not to forget those fleeing war, hunger and poverty and condemned countries' failure to help refugees. the pope's message comes just days after the deadly terror attack in brussels, and amid heavy security in st. peter's scare. take you to belgium next.

nbc news has confirmed that missing american couple justin and stephanie shults died in tuesday's terror attacks. they were dropping off stephanie's mother at the airport when the attack happened. now she is safe. president obama called their families yesterday to offer his 0 condolences. four americans are now confirmed to have died in those attacks. a man detained during last thursday's raids in brussels has been formally charged with being directly linked to the bombing. faycal cheffou has been charged with terrorist murder and two other terror related charges. this video was posted in 2014 by a man identifying himself as faycal cheffou. two others detained face more general terror charges. several belgian news organizations are reporting cheffou is the man seen on the right in this airport surveillance image wearing a hat and light colored coat. nbc news has not confirmed those reports, though. meanwhile, a peaceful easter sunday solidarity march in brussels was canceled over security concerns. however hundreds of right-wing demonstrators clashed with

police yesterday at a memorial in brussels, dressed in all black, the demonstrators descended on the city center carrying anti-terror, and anti-isis banners. hundreds of riot police pushed the crowd back. water cannons were even used to help disperse the crowd after some demonstrators threw objects at police. about a dozen people were arrested. police raided 13 houses in belgium on sunday, nine people were taken in for questioning. and dutch authorities arrested a 32-year-old man accused of helping to plan a terror attack. that man, a french national, is expected to be extradited back to france. now a race for the white house and a sanders sweep. what a weekend for bernie sanders. the vermont senator dominated saturday's democratic caucuses continuing to put pressure on front-runner hillary clinton. for the republicans the intense personal feud between donald trump and ted cruz is not going away any time soon. nbc's jennifer johnson reports. >> thank you, seattle. >> reporter: bernie sanders

victorious after resounding wins in three caucuses saturday night. beating hillary clinton 82-18% in alaska, 73-27% in washington state and 17-29% in hawaii. clinton holds a commanding lead in the delegate count, but sanders still believes he can win the nomination. >> we have the momentum. we have won five out of the six last contests in land slide fashion. >> reporter: donald trump continues to deny his campaign had anything to do with a national enquirer story alleging ted cruz had extramarital affairs. >> this story is garbage. it is tabloid smear. and it came from donald trump and his henchmen. >> reporter: but trump denies that and says cruz started this feud. >> i respond, i counterpunch. but i'm responding to what he does. but always the press likes to make me the bad guy. >> reporter: john kasich says republican voters should forget those two and jump aboard his campaign. >> i'm beating hillary by 11 points. i'm the only one that can win in the fall. and as you notice the narrative over the last week has been what

is wrong with the party? >> reporter: but trump is still way ahead of cruz and kasich in the delegate count. jennifer johnson, nbc news, washington. the republicans, they square off tomorrow in north dakota. the primary there. they have to wait until april 19th, though, for new york. but trump may have an uphill battle is if this is any indication. look at it. new york city officials say this tombstone reading donald j. trump made america hate again was found in central park on sunday. it has since been removed. some good news for the donald, he's a grandfather again. his daughter ivan ka gave birth to baby theodore. her third child with husband. theodore is the donald's eighth grandchild. congratulations to all of them. well, millions celebrated easter sunday in colorful fashion. new york city held its annual easter bonnet parade. people and pets alike were all decked out in their most festive. the creative outfits paraded

down fifth avenue in a tradition that dates back to the 1870s. meanwhile in western pennsylvania a daredevil easter bunny made a dramatic entrance at a local easter egg hunt. unfortunately, peter cottontail was a bit off target. landing in some woods nearby. but the crowd waited and the hunt was soon under way. unfortunately, though, it wasn't all fun. in "usa today" pez cancels annual easter egg hunt after adults misbehave. organizers said saturday's easter egg hunt quickly turned into chaos. parents reportedly ignored staff instructions, shoving children to find the 10,000 eggs hidden on the grounds. one woman said an adult pushed her grandson to the ground, bloodying his nose? pez apologized, saying they only wanted to do good for the community. let's get down to business with cnbc's landon dowdy. good morning to you. >> hey, betty, good monday morning you to, as well. wall street looks to recover ground today after stocks snapped their weekly win streak at five.

markets ending mixed on thursday ahead of the holiday weekend. we get lots of economic data this week on the consumer, housing, and manufacturing, and it is all topped off by the monthly jobs report out on friday. meanwhile netflix admits it's been lowering the quality of videos that customers watch on some wireless networks such as at&t and verizon for more than five years. "the wall street journal" reports that netflix says it took the action to protect consumers from exceeding their mobile data limits. it plans to launch a data saver feature for its mobile app to give users more control over data usage while streaming. and a new survey finds that two-thirds of millennials say they're saving more than 5% of their income. that's more than any other age group, overall about 21% of employed americans say they are not saving any of their paychecks. betty, back over to you. >> well, i guess you know who to ask for a loan from, right? millennials. sports now, we have your final four. number 10 syracuse taking on top seeded virginia in the windy city. the orange were trailing for most of the game but in the second half they went on a 29-8

scoring rampage. the syracuse even getting 15 straight points in one stretch. virginia could not come back and were beaten in a stunner. 68-62. syracuse becomes just the fourth double-digit seeded team in ncaa history to reach the final four. next to philly where number 6 notre dame put up a fight against north carolina. the lone fwhirm one team left in the tournament. but the tar heels proved too much for the fighting irish. 88-74. north carolina heads to the final four for a record 19th time and the first time since they won it all back in 2009. your ncaa match-ups saturday night in houston, villanova takes on oklahoma, and syracuse will battle north carolina. the championship game is on monday, april 4th. to the nba, where the gold and state warriors extended their home winning streak to 52. klay thompson scored 40 in his second game in a row. the warriors beat the sixer 117-105. the rockets james harden put up 34 points as houston battled but

it was paul george's pacers who came up strong with a win at home. to the nhl, rangers pens, o.t., sidney crosby deflects the puck into the goal for the win with less than 30 left on the clock. pittsburgh has won eight of their last nine games. and check out this check. michigan taking on north dakota in the ncaas as a north dakota player scores on a beautiful shot 3wu9 takes a nasty forearm from the ref. but he got up with a smile. north dakota went on to beat michigan 5-2. finally a few bees drove cubs outfielder jason hayward to seek some relief. but it turned into a swarm and caused a ten-minute delay in spring training. a game between chicago and the seattle mariners. hayward later said he was stung about ten times. but hey he did get a homer so i guess it wasn't all that bad. bee thankful? maybe. okay. bad one. passing up a beloved television personality we have to tell you about.

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welcome back to "first look." weather update. get you out the door. bring the umbrella with you, d.c., philadelphia to new york. drizzle and light rain right now. this will be over with for the most part by noon today. some heavier rains in buffalo over the next hour or two. then this will all shift towards new england as we go throughout the day. so boston, all the way up through maine, vermont, new hampshire, you will deal with some of this wet weather right throughout the day. now as far as other storms are going to go this week, the west is going to deal with their storm as we go throughout the next couple of days. this will mostly be a high elevation event but winter storm warnings on interstate 80 almost to salt lake city. salt lake city just rain for you. then winter storm watches. we're going to get a good snowstorm out of this in areas of wyoming and also portions of northern colorado. this is a foot of snow in central wyoming. so if you like a little spring skiing in the inner mountain west and rockies, that's for you. speaking of cold. this is the unfortunate part of the forecast. as we head towards next weekend,

a shot of cold air comes down from the north, especially if you're in the northern great lakes or northern new england. 10:00 a.m. sunday morning, 13 and 6 and that lasts all the way to monday morning with a very cold period all the way through much of the northeast. so, you know, we've taken a bunch of steps forward, we're going to take a little one back. >> this is so painful to see. is there a chance that these models could be wrong? is there just a slight chance? >> no, this is a good-looking model. i was so hopeful. thank you, bill. syrian state media is reporting government forces recaptured the city of palmyra sunday. syrian forces beat back isis militants who control the city since last may. a human rights monitoring group reported gunfire in the eastern part of the city, but the bulk of isis forces had retreated. in mexico the popocatepetl volcano put on a show sunday morning spewing ash 6500 feet into the air. and later in the afternoon alaska's pavlov volcano sent a plume 20,000 feet over the

aleutian island chain. there were reports of ground tremors. >> another angelica founder of catholic tv powerhouse eternal word television network passed away on sunday, easter sunday. the ohio born nun started ewtn in 1981 with just $200. as of last year it was serving 250 million homes in 144 countries. a cause of death was not specified. mother angelica was 92 years old. cops in california caught up with a carjacking suspect in simi valley sunday but when she got out of the vehicle the suspect tried to hop into the driver's seat of a police cruiser. yeah, that's not going to work. officers stopped her before she was able to get away. police in tampa are looking for a group of ten car thieves who smashed a gate at a car dealership with a stolen minivan. two of the thieves can be seen looking through drewers for a box of keys, eventually taking off with eight vehicles. several cars left behind were damaged. so far only two have been recovered. 16 minutes past the hour. texting while walking could

become a crime. plus new backlash on north carolina's bathroom law. "scrambled politics" is next. (pilot talking to tower on radio) once you get out here... there's just one direction... forward. one time: now. and there's just one sound. you and us... together. tellg the world... we're coming for you. what if 30,000 people doload the new app? we're good. okay... what if a million people download the new app? we're good. five million? good. we scale on demand. hybrid infrastructure, boom. ok. what if 30 million people download the app? we're not good. we're total heroes. scale on demand

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in other states. we'll see how this one does. activists are planning a lawsuit to stop north carolina's controversial new law that prevents local governments from passing their own anti-discrimination rules for lgbt residents. suit is set to be announced later today. among other things the law would ban transgender people from using rest rooms based on their gender identities. our parent companies comcast and nbc universal both have publicly objected to the proposed law. and more than 40,000 people have signed a petition calling for open carry of guns at the republican national convention. now the convention takes place in cleveland, ohio, which is an open carry state. but the venue, the quicken loans arena, bans all weapons on the property. the petition says it is a direct affront to the second amendment, and puts all attendees at risk, and calls for a suspicion of the politics -- suspension, that is, of the policy. that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." coming up on 20 minutes past the hour i'm joined by political analyst and best-selling author ellis henican.

good morning. happy monday to you. >> i am not carrying. i assure you right now. >> okay. we won't have to frisk you. this is really interesting. in a meeting with "the washington post" editorial board, donald trump came there and he was answering questions, but when it got to the question on the specifics of using nuclear weapons against isis, he kind of dodged a little bit, and that leads some to wonder, you know, can he back up some of the claims that he says while he's out there on the campaign trail? >> betty, i think when it comes to foreign policy donald trump, he's just saying stuff. >> really? >> i'm not sure that he's pro-nuclear, anti-nuclear, he's really thought about it that much. i mean, this is a new realm for him, don't forget. and i just think he's just -- he's just saying stuff. >> well, i mean, but a lot of people are really voting, and will be voting, on what he says, so is this a businessman who thinks, okay, i'm going to comment, i'm going to elect people, i'm going to nominate people, i'm going to get people around me who are smart and who know how to handle this? >> you know, i wish.

i mean, that would be a good answer. but then we saw this group of folks that he gathered as his, i guess, sort of foreign policy advisers, and even a lot of republicans are kind of scratching their head, like, like where did all these guys come from? it's not like, so far at least, we've gotten the best and the brightest of the foreign policy establishment. >> that's what he's touting that he's going to have the best and the brightest. >> i keep hearing that. but i got to tell you, we're all still sort of waiting for the list. >> hmm. well some people today are waiting to hear what hillary clinton has to say because she's going to be giving a speech, really criticizing the gop for holding president obama's nominee for supreme court justice in limbo here. >> that's right. >> and this is really going to pit her against a bit of a rival, isn't it? >> well, that's right. senator chuck grassley, who heads the judiciary committee in the senate, you know, he's been poking at her about these e-mails. >> right. >> remember, keeping -- >> that personal server. >> the personal server. and so some people see a little personal payback here. i think there may be an element of that. hillary is also looking at the

polls that show that most americans think that -- that we at least ought to have a vote on this new nominee. >> but -- and talking about, and it's an issue that really pits, you know, the right against the left, when it comes to this nominee, do the voters really care, though? >> well, you know, the court is hugely important. maybe not the average middle voter, but those bases on both 150ids care very much about who's going to be on the court. because you know those judges are going to decide whether all this future stuff is legal. >> absolutely it's a very important seat indeed. ellis, thanks so much for your insight. just ahead a super weekend for a movie panned by critics. plus your chance to own a major piece of star wars this. we have those details next. juso recognize problems in the world around you. don't you dare change the rules. don't you dare play with your food. don't you dare get any big ideas. ignore what people say you can't do. don't you dare take that apart. don't you dare stay up all night on the computer.

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coming up on 27 minutes past the hour. leading the news on "usa today," guns, a gop convention petition tops 35,000. trump wants to study fine print. the pro-second amendment republican front-runner wants to take a closer look at a petition calling for open carry of guns in cleveland's convention this july. while ohio supports open carry petitioners say the hosting venue doesn't allow weapons placing attendees at risk. and from espn, vegas better holds $100,000 ticket on syracuse national championship. all right here's what happened. a few weeks back, one big gambler put $100 on syracuse to win the ncaa championship with the odds at 1,000 to 1. syracuse's win against virginia certainly has the bookmaker sweating. so if you are a bigger better, the original better has put that ticket on sale to give you a chance at that $100,000 payday. syracuse is just two wins away.

good luck. now, to entertainment news. batman v. superman had a huge opening weekend. >> unbelievable. >> bringing in a whopping $170 million in north america and additional $254 million overseas. the movie soared despite largely negative reviews. domestic ticket sales even set a record for a march release. harrison ford is auctioning off his iconic hans solo leather jacket for a good cause. >> would i look good in that? >> do you have the money to buy it? ford recently revealed that his daughter has suffered from epilepsy since childhood and all the proceeds will go towards finding a cure. >> buying new stuff >> congratulations to seth meyers and his wife alexi ashe. they welcome a baby boy yesterday. this is the couple's first child. and the rolling stones, they played to an estimated 500,000 cubans on friday. look at that. the free concert took over the island nation for a day. mick jagger addressed the massive crowd saying i think

that finally times are changing. >> they're big everywhere. >> everywhere. >> doesn't matter. >> and it was free. i'm betty nguyen. this is "first look" on msnbc. don't forget to like us on facebook. now you see, this little bird doesn't know it, oh -- >> what a weekend for bernie sander. first this magical moment with the bird. then he sweeps three presidential contests with flying colors. is it too soon to count him out? and the nasty feud between donald trump and ted cruz spills over into easter sunday. >> well, there are things about heidi that i don't want to talk about. but i'm not going to talk about them. i mean, you know, you could

look. but, i wouldn't tk about them. >> he hasn't campaigned for a week. he's been hiding in trump tower. but late at night he sends tweets attacking my life, attacking heidi. it is inappropriate. it is wrong. it is frankly disgusting. >> we'll have the latest from the campaign trail, and we're live in brussels. where two more americans have been identified as victims of last week's terror attack. it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west, and this is "way too early." good morning. it's monday, march 28th. i'm jonathan capehart. we begin this morning in brussels where it's now been confirmed that two more americans were killed in last week's bombings. their identities are still unknown. that comes after nbc news confirmed that missing american couple justin and stephanie