>> reporter: jonathan, what we know is just moments ago, in a news conference conducted by the egypt aviation authority, as you point out this is a fluid situation. and they said that there were 55 passengers on board this plane and five crew members. again, that number is much lower than what we had heard earlier of some 80 passengers, but again according to the egypt aviation authority, 55 passengers on board. they also say what you have just mentioned. that the hijacker was wearing an explosive belt and forced the pilot to divert its course from the intended route of alexandria to cairo and to land in cyprus instead. we have been getting reports that once on the ground, the majority of the passengers were allowed to leave with the exception as you point out there are four foreigners remaining on board and seven crew members. from the egypt civil aviation authority they tell us there had at 1one point, eight americans n

board that flight. we do know the nationality of the four left on the plane. some of your reports about this being a potentially a domestic issue, there was word that the hijacker threw a letter from the plane on to the tarmac and has demanded to speak with his ex or his estranged wife from cyprus. we are getting reports this woman lives in the village not far from the airport and that negotiators may be trying to make some arrangements to have some communication between these two. none of that is clear at this point. again, it is a very fluid situation. things changing almost by the minute in terms of the information. but officially, we are hearing from the egypt aviation authority, 55 passengers on board, the hijacker apparently had an explosive belt, forcing

the crew to take it from the intended route of landing in cairo on to cyprus. >> one more question for you. in the briefing did they talk about security and how it was possible for this person to get an explosive belt on to the plane? >> reporter: it is a good question. this briefing is still under way, so information still is coming forth on this. and there is no confirmation at this point that the person actually did have a belt that had explosives. he was saying that he had a belt, and passengers say that there was a belt. but do we know whether or not the material in the belt was explosive? that has not been confirmed with authorities from egyptair and no other authority is confirming that, but they're erring on the side of caution. if someone is threatening and it looks like an up explosive device, they say it's an explosive device. people act accordingly, jonathan. >> great, rehema, thank you for that clarification.

stay put. joining us live by phone, nbc correspondent ayman mohyeldin, who is in the process of traveling to cairo. >> reporter: yeah, jonathan, we are still following this situation and obviously a lot of questions are going to be asked about security. i can tell you about alexandria airport where this flight originally took off. it is one of the smaller airports in cairo. but there has been a lot of beefed up security in general across the egyptian airports, particularly following the plane that was downed in sharm el sheikh. and for now, it's not clear whether in fact as rehema was saying that this individual did actually manage to get any explosives on the plane. since that incident back in october in which isis claimed

responsibility for planting a bomb on a jet, security has been beefed up. but we do know in the past there have been serious security gaps not just in some of the smaller airports, but as well as some of the larger and busier airports. alexandria being egypt's second largest city, there's question of whether or not if he did get some explosives on the plane, how he managed to do that. if he was working with anyone at the airport. at this statement, that's no confirmation that he was in fact capable of doing that. >> andam one more question, you mentioned that security has been peefed up since that russian -- beefed up since that russian airliner incident a few months ago. do you think there's any meer are cushions for this -- repercussions for this, there's

no confirmation that the belt was wearing indeed had explosives but if it turns out to be the case, just in general the fact that he was able to hijack this plane what kind of repercussions could there be for egypt security forces for allowing this to happen? >> well, egyptair maintains at least by international standards very tight control on all of the planes. we have in the past -- i mean, i have flown egyptair many times. they do, you know, follow strict international protocols in terms of, you know, pilot security, cockpit security, cockpit door security. so it will be very interesting to see what he was once we hear the accounts certainly from those either on board or from the investigators how he managed to divert this plane. it is going to really depend on whether or not they "a," believed he generally had real explosives, and "b" if he did have a real explosive that's a very different level of threat. you can rest assured that if in fact they do trace he was carrying real explosives of any

kind, that is going to be a major security gap for egypt and implications for it are going to be very severe. it's important not to get ahead of ourselves, but egypt has struggled with airport security. obviously the government maintains that -- you know, it apie api abides by the highest of international standards, but we have seen that militants in the past have been able to carry out severe attacks, literally downing that russian metrojet. so again, there is a track record, lax security at some of the smaller airports in egypt. and alexandria airport where this plane took off from, which would fall on the smaller side where security could be a little relaxed, if you will, compared to cairo which is the main international airport in egypt. but, again, this turns out not to have the explosives there are going to be questions as to what he did on the plane that forced that pilot to turn the plane around and take it to cyprus.

>> all right. ayman mohyeldin, thanks very much. let's go back to london and rehema ellis who has more news. >> reporter: jonathan, we are getting new information about those who remain on this plane and now we're told it's a total of seven people on the plane. let me give you a breakdown of it. we are told that it includes the captain, his assistant, a flight attendant, a security officer and three passengers. again, this information is different from what we had learned before, but as we have been pointing out this is a very fluid situation. this information coming from the egyptian aviation authority and coming out of the news conference they were conducting about the number of people on board. the security officer is still on board. there are three foreigners. we do not know the nationality of the foreigners. it was mentioned during the news conference that this passenger, the hijacker, informed them that he had an explosive belt

attached to him. they do not know whether or not that is credible, but they proceeded as if it were. unable to determine that just by the person speaking it. they had no way of being certain if it was or was not true. so that's why they diverted this plane to cyprus as the hijacker demanded. more is going on now in terms of negotiations in trying to bring this situation to an end. but again, now we're hearing a total of seven people on board including three passengers. we don't know the nationality of the passengers and one security officer. >> great, rehema ellis, thank you very much. we'll keep you updated as more news becomes available. let's turn to a major setback in brussels where the one has been charged in last week's deadly attacks. the police released the man, identified as faycal c. kron --

conceding they didn't have enough evidence to keep holding him. he was the mysterious suspect seen wearing a dark hat and light jacket alongside the two bombers. authorities issued a new plea to the public to help identify that man yesterday implying he's still at large. this morning the u.s. capitol complex is back to normal operations after a shooting yesterday. 66-year-old larry dawson was listed in stable but critical condition overnight. he was shot by an officer after police say he drew what appeared to be a weapon at u.s. capitol screening check point. in the immediate aftermath, the entire area was locked down as police raced inside a congressional staff, and tourists took control. authorities say dawson is from tennessee and he was under a court order to stay away from the capitol. federal documents show he was arrested in october for disrupting the house of representatives, shouting bible verses and calling himself quote, a prophet of god.

according to "the tennessean" newspaper, dawson is known as a one-time funeral director who lost his license. a school bus driver fired for harassing a teenage girl and a self-styled church pastor who launched a campaign in the name of raising the minimum wage. dawson has been charged and will be arraigned when he's released from the hospital. the justice department has dropped its high stakes court fight against apple saying it has found a way to unlock the iphone belonging to one of the san bernardino shooters without apple's help. federal officials' decision to drop the case comes a week after doj lawyers stalled a courtroom showdown after a third party came forward with an alternative method for accessing the actual phone. it remains unclear how exactly the fbi was able to bypass the phone's security settings or what data may have been

obtained. in a statement, apple said the case should never have been brought and that people around the world deserve data protection. now, we continue to follow the breaking news on that hijacked egyptian plane. the first thing that comes to mind is it terrorist related? information is still coming in. the latest, next. there are two billion people who don't have access to basic banking, but that is changing. at temenos, with the microsoft cloud, we can enable a banker to travel to the most remote locations with nothing but a phone and a tablet. everywhere where there's a phone, you have a bank. now a person is able to start a business,

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...and more absorbent, and you can use up to 4 times less. remember, that's charmin in there... no wasteful wadding! we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin. we're following breaking news overseas where the egyptair jetliner has been hijacked. according to the airline, it was en route from alexandria to cairo at the time of the incident. now, the plane landed at larnaca airport in cyprus where it's been ever since. one of the passengers told the pilot he had an explosive belt and that the hijacking seems to be a personal matter about a woman, possibly an ex-wife. all the passengers have been reportedly allow to get off the plane, except for four crew members including the pilot, and three other passengers.

let's get a check on the other headlines. after a week off the campaign trail, donald trump is back at it in wisconsin. the republican front-runner is holding a rally in house speaker paul ryan's hometown of janesville, where six protesters were arrested, demanding the event be cancelled. with seven days to go before the vote, governor scott walker will make an endorsement this morning and trump not expecting it to come his way. last night, trump tweeted, after the way i beat governor walker and jeb, rand, marco and all the others in the presidential primaries, no way he would ever endorse me. meanwhile, ted cruz is optimistic. >> i am a big, big fan of scott walker's. he's a terrific governor. he's a strong conservative. look, of course i would welcome scott walker's support. anyone would. >> this as john kasich is shifting his ad dollars in the state. pulling back in some areas to

target certain congressional districts while putting money into upcoming races in pennsylvania and new york. while trump says he's aiming for a victory in the badger state, telling a local news station, quote, i'm going to spend the entire week in wisconsin. i'm going to stay there for election night. i may have to sneak out if i don't do well, but i will be there for election night. bernie sanders went on yet another fund-raising tear following his three wins out west this weekend. supporters donated more than $4 million in the two days following those wins in hawaii, alaska and washington state. the senator was off the campaign trail yesterday, but his top aides held a press call in which they continued to emphasize that there's still a path to the nomination. at one point, senior adviser referred to hillary clinton as quote, a weak front-runner. meanwhile, sanders' senior staff repeated their call for a debate in new york ahead of the primary on april 19th. here's what clinton senior

strategist joel benenson had to say. >> there's no risk. the debates have been good, but senator sanders doesn't get to decide when to debate, particularly when he's run a negative campaign against us. let's see if he goes back to the tone that he said he'd set early on. but we -- >> no chance of a new york debate? >> i didn't say that. we'll talk about that. see what kind of tone he sets. if his campaign wants to run a negative campaign and run negative ads like they did in north carolina, in illinois, all over the country on march 15th, that's going to be disappointing to a lot of democrats who feel we have to start focusing on republicans, whether it's donald trump or ted cruz and about our differences so we win in november. >> benenson turned some heads yesterday when he said in a conference call that senator sanders is going to campaign like a brooklynite ahead of the new york primary and clinton will campaign like a senator who

represented this state for eight years. he said that was a compliment, adding we are proud new yorkers. ahead of the speech urging republican lawmakers to hold hearings on the nominee, chuck grassley told politico quote, with all of the troubles she's getting on e-mail and the fbi's going to question her, i would imagine she'd want to change the tone of her campaign. as expected, clinton returned fire in wisconsin saying this about the republican senator from iowa. >> senator chuck grassley, the head of the judiciary committee, could hold a hearing tomorrow if he wanted. but he says we should wait for a new president because and i quote, the american people shouldn't be denied a voice. well, as one of the more than 65

million americans who voted to re-elect barack obama, i'd say my voice is being ignored right now because of their obstructionism. last night, president obama chose the dias of one of the most prestigious places of journalism. while speaking at the toner awards dinner, he called on the fourth estate to hold themselves to the higher standard and while taking some responsibility for the divisive culture in american politics, he called on american companies to invest back in the good and not dumb down the news. >> if i say the world is round and someone else says it's flat, that's worth reporting but you might also want to report on a bunch of scientific evidence that seems to support the notion that the world is round. a job well done is about more

than just handing someone a microphone. it would be better served if billions of dollars in free media came with accountability. especially when politicians issue unworkable plans or make promises they can't keep. and there are reporters here who know they can't keep them. i know that's a shocking concept. >> let's get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill? >> well, jonathan, a big storm is moving across the country. severe weather, get snow out of this. even a blizzard. this is a spring-like storm. right now this is over the west, over nevada. this is a cutoff low and it will slowly drift across the country. it dips down into the great lakes and the warm air is going to return to the middle of the country, along with severe weather. we'll get some of that moisture coming off the gulf. let me show you what we're dealing with now. we have winter storm watches all

the way to wyoming. wyoming will get the worst of it, some blizzard warnings. caspar can pick up a foot of snow. we'll watch beautiful weather up to minneapolis, st. louis, we clear it out in new england. the afternoon looks okay. and then tomorrow this is when it gets active. the storm moves into the middle of the country. the thunderstorms will be widespread late in the day. potential of severe weather and tornadoes too. we have 29 million people at risk of severe storms. this is wednesday afternoon and evening. from iowa, all the the way down to texas, louisiana included, tomorrow is day of concern for the middle of the country. >> all right. bill, thank you very much. now, we are still following that breaking news out of the middle east. where a plane headed to cairo from alexandria, egypt, was hijacked and landed in cyprus. authorities say it does not appear to be terrorism related. word is coming from an nbc source this may have been triggered by a domestic dispute. the latest next on "way too early." xerox predictive analytics help companies provide a better

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we're following breaking news overseas where an egyptair jetliner has been hijacked and has landed in cyprus. all but three passengers and four crew have been allowed to get off the plane. the hijacking seems to be about a personal matter involving a woman, possibly an ex-wife. the battle over religious freedomer have gay rights has taken divergent paths.

yesterday, the governor vetoed a bill to deny services to the members of the lgbt community based on religious grounds. major corporation like disney, apple and the nfl had criticized the bill. msnbc's parent company comcast nbcuniversal also objected. and it wasn't clear how nathan deal would respond. >> i do not think that we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in georgia. our people every day work side by side without regard to the color of their skin, of their fellow mate. or the religion that their co-worker might adhere to. they are simply trying to make life better for themselves, their families and their communities. that is the character of georgia. i intend to do my part to keep it that way.

>> a similar battle is playing out in north carolina. yesterday, the american civil liberties union announced it's suing the state. at issue, a state law that effectively blocks local lgbt anti-discrimination protection. just like georgia, businesses are leading the backlash but the governor of north carolina rejects the criticism calling it a quote, coordinated smear campaign. >> you know, we all have to make adjustments in life and we have had these proper etiquette situations for decades in our country and all of a sudden, we're through political correctness we're throwing away basic etiquette. i wonder your daughter or son was showering and all of a sudden a man walks into the locker room and says this is what i am, would you want that for your child?

>> the governor says he's fighting against any government entity how they should implement bathroom policies. last year, president obama signed an executive order from discriminating against lgbt staff. that does it for me. much more on the egyptair plane that landed on the see land of cyprus. among the guest, jeh johnson and general michael hayden, "morning joe" is just moments away. it's not a quick fix. it's my decision to make beauty last. roc retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it the better it works. retinol correxion from roc. methods, not miracles. and we are theic plays) hbug chicks.ie and i'm jess. we are a nano-business. windows 10 really helps us get the word out about how awesome bugs are. kids learn to be brave and curious and all kids speak the language of bug. "hey cortana, find my katydid video"

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okay. >> good morning. it is tuesday, march 29th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set in washington we have washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay. pulitzer prize winning colu columnist. the president and ceo of politico jim vandehei all with us this morning. new polls out this morning on the republican and democratic