breaking overnight, strong storms ripped through louisiana, leaving at least one dead and

tens of thousands without power. angie lassman is tracking the danger for us this morning. secretary of state antony blinken arriving in kiev to underscore american support for the country amid the war against russia. we're live with his message to ukrainians. a face-off with his former fixer. donald trump in court as michael cohen takes the stand. the explosive testimony in a hush money trial. and the horrifying moments when an armed teen tries to get inside the building with dozens of children inside. steve sedgwick will tell us what sent gamestop shares surging through the roof like 2021 all over again. and a 106-year-old skydiver is in the record books. "early today" starts right now. good morning, i'm frances

rivera. we begin with the severe weather wreaking havoc across the south overnight. at least one person was killed in louisiana's st. martin parish where officials suspect a tornado tore through. a twister was also reported in the lake charles area, leaving a trail of destruction. trees were ripped from their roots, and power lines were toppled. tens of thousands remain without power this morning. several parts of the state are also under water after heavy rain. let's get to angie lassman, who's tracking the threat. >> we have a newly-issued tornado watch across that same region. the gulf coast is where we're waking up to thunderstorms, tallahassee and montgomery seeing rain at this hour. the tornado watch lasts until 9:00 a.m. it just barely includes parts of extreme southern georgia as well as florida. we'll see some general thunderstorms across the southeast, but i think the best chance for some of those stronger storms, tampa to jacksonville, just barely into

portions of noflorida, gainesvie and atlanta in there. but an isolated tornado or two is not out of the question. rain across parts of the east as well. parts of that working into the north atlantic. tomorrow will stay a little soggy as well as the carolinas where we'll see stronger storms as we get into the afternoon hours tomorrow. the grounds are quite saturated. no surprise that we have flood alerts at this hour. 3 million people included in this, across, once again, the gulf coast. we see ample amounts of rain in some of these spots. notice the mid atlantic picking up an inch or two. parts of florida, localized amounts up to 5 inches. >> okay, angie, thank you. breaking overnight, antony blinken has made a surprise visit in ukraine. for the latest, let's go to chapman bell. do we know what's on blinken's

schedule during his visit? >> reporter: good morning, frances. yeah. secretary blinken meeting with ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy, just minutes ago. and president zelenskyy thanking secretary blinken for his visit and expressing his gratitude to congress. president biden, the american people for passing that long-awaited $60 billion aid package, that supplemental funding bill. blinken, for his part, saying he was happy to be back in ukraine, although acknowledging, it's a tough time for the county. this is his fourth visit since that full-scale invasion by russia, as ukraine is now in their third year of war following that invasion. and it's his first since the passing of that bill. the state department also saying secretary blinken will meet with other members of the, of president zelenskyy's

administration while there. and part of the visit is to highlight the united states' enduring support for ukraine and will emphasize america's commitment to ukraine's sovereignty. now this visit comes at a time where fighting is raging in parts of the country. particularly in the east, and in the northern area around kharkiv, where russia has gained ground recently. and ukraine has rushed reenforcements to the area to help stabilize positions there. he's also expected to give a speech to talk about how they can help ukraine win the future and be closer to their goals of joining the eu and nato one day. this visit really trying to show the support as ukraine has gone through a difficult time recently, as they've been waiting for this aid package to arrive, frances. >> chapman, thank you. in just a few hours, another crucial day will begin in the criminal hush money trial of donald trump. michael cohen will return to the

witness stand, where he's been describing his role in trying to bury stormy daniels' allegations about his former boss. what have relearned from cohen's testimony so far? >> reporter: good morning, frances. michael cohen describes the payment he made to stormy daniels, saying that donald trump directed him to pay off the film star in the days leading up to the tw2016 electi. trump's defense team is arguing that cohen was a personal attorney handling a personal matter. but michael cohen suggested in court that this was only about the election. saying mr. trump told him, women are going to hate me. guys may think this is cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign. donald trump has pleaded not guilty and denies having a sexual encounter with stormy daniels. the former president is limited in what he can say about this case. but he has political allies at

the courthouse who are attacking the prosecution. >> does any reasonable, sensible person believe anything that michael cohen says? >> mental anguish is trying to be pushed on republican candidate for the president of the united states this year. that's all this is. >> the people of the state of new york know that this is a sham trial. the people of america know that it is a sham trial. >> prosecutors have not presented direct evidence that mr. trump was involved with falsifying records. michael cohen's testimony, it is key, and the defense is expected to hit him on his past convictions and his credibility. now we could see cross examination begin as soon as today. frances? >> brie jackson for us, thank you. terrifying scenes in louisiana after a teen with a gun tried to enter a church full of children receiving their first communion. luckily, nobody was hurt, but it was a tense scene as cops searched the church for any possible accomplices.

here's blayne alexander. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: it was the most sacred of spaces at st. mary magdalene church. 60 children were poised to take their first communion saturday. >> this sacrament. >> reporter: when suddenly a man approaches the priest, whispering in his ear. moments later, father nicolas dupree stops the service. a suspicious person opens the back door. members immediately confronted him and led him outside, calling police. authorities say he was armed with a gun. inside, the video shows clergy members ducking for cover. altar servers scrambling to safety as police rush in. guns drawn, checking for any additional threat. >> please get ahold of your child. go slowly. >> reporter: the suspect was a 16-year-old white male, police say, dressed in all black. he was arrested and taken to a

hospital for mental evaluation, charged with terrorizing and two counts of juvenile gun possession. incredibly, police say there were no injuries. >> hallelujah. >> reporter: the scars were clear. and there's a shocking similarity to yet another close call last week at a pittsburgh church, with a man approached the pulpit and aimed directly at the pastor, who was spared, police say, only when the gun jammed. back in louisiana, the church plans to have law enforcement stand guard at every service going forward. as more houses of worship are forced to mix the power of prayer with the presence of police. blayne alexander, nbc news. demolition crews in baltimore are taking an explosive step toward reopening the port after the deadly bridge collapse in march.

the crew had removed most of the pieces that collapsed on top of the dali cargo ship back in march. but last night the team had to blow up a remaining 600-ton chunk to free the vessel. the crew has sheltered in please aboard the ship since the crash. and now it can be refloated and moved back to the port with the goal of fully reopening the channel by the end of the month let's get a check of the severe weather sweeping the south. >> we've got some thunderstorms happening across parts of the gulf coast. we've got a little rain across the great lakes starting to diminish and a bit of thunderstorms that are working through parts of the tennessee valley. otherwise the west looks pretty quiet. maybe a couple scattered showers there. we've got low 70s in new york. buffalo headed to 73 degrees today. washington, d.c. around 3773. looking ahead to tomorrow, more of the same. pretty typical for this time of

year. low 70s for the northeast, mid atlantic. look what happens by the time we get into the later parts of the workweek. low 80s for nashville on thursday, friday and saturday. mid-80s in raleigh on friday. 87 degrees is where we'll end up for thursday, friday and memphi. plenty of sunshine on tap for oklahoma city and dallas. highs into the low 90s for san antonio. and that's a look at your forecast, frances, back to you. >> appreciate it, angie. pretty soon, it could be only mayors in the building. in california, they swore in their new mayor, martin short. he will go at it as mayor for the next two years. he follows in the big footsteps

of other names like jane lynch and david hasselhoff. but he won't handle any policy-making. his term is a promotional one. "early today" is back in a minute with judge judy gaveling in a fight of her own. cnbc's steve sedgwick will tell us what sent gamestop shares back toward the moon. sto shares back toward the moon. bar. anti-dandruff shampoo made with only nine ingredients - no sulfates, silicones or dyes and packaged with 45% less plastic - giving you outstanding dandruff protection and leaving hair beautiful and moisturized. major dandruff protection, minimal ingredients. job done. new head & shoulders bare. [sneezes] can a can of lysol take care of my snotty sofa? can-do mildewy tiles? can-do

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these meme stocks rushing around in 2021. our viewers may or may not recall that gamestop was an emblematic meme stock with 2400% at one point. a little more moderate at this point, rallying around 70-odd percent. very interesting to see a lot of short traders on wall street. a little bit of pain in the hedge funds. kraft heinz is exploring the sale of oscar mayer meat. the business is known for hot dogs, bacon, ham. and this thing called bologna. it is a rare taste. but apparently people aren't eating as much bologna anymore.

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lied ♪ ♪ you run to atlanta when you need a few dollars ♪ >> kendrick lamar is riding grade-a beef to the top of the charts. it debuted at number one on this week's billboard hot 100. despite the two stars consistently trading barbs, the beef has gone mostly quiet since drake released his last response. the hard part six on may 5th. here's the thing. if they ever resolve this, what's going to be the material? it's clearly doing so well. everybody's streaming it. it clearly helps them out to keep this going. >> i enjoy the flowchart that is this whole rap beef. ellen degeneris is taking the stage one last time, and she's got some stuff to say. she hwill return to netflix fora final comedy special. in a statement, degeneris confirmed the finality of the set while cryptically declaring

it. this likely refers to the allegation of a toxic work environment. a lot of people going to tune in when they like ellen or not to find out what she's going to say about the end of her show and all those allegations. >> i want to know how deep and detailed she's going to get. when we come back, the wnba's latest star. and the finest in pup pageantry comes down to one top dog tonight. comes down to one t dog tonight.

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back! >> dallas fans are waking up this morning knowing what it's like to be thunder struck. despite trailing until late in the fourth quarter, oklahoma city rallied to beat the mavs. the thunder evened up the series ahead of a return to okc. the world's oldest skydiver is on top of the world this morning. the world war ii vet jumped out of the plane for the first time at 103 years old. now he did it again at 106. >> reporter: for al, his daredevil days took off in his golden years. al first trying his hand at skydiving in 2017, as a way to celebrate his 100th birthday. >> oh, wow! wonderful! >> pretty amazing, isn't it? >> fantastic! >> reporter: his second skydive at age 103, earning him the guinness world record for oldest

tandem skydiver. but since then, swedish great grandmother, rut larsson broke that record in 2022. ♪ ♪ al upping the rivalry, vowing to take that title back. teaming up with texas governor greg abbott. >> he says he'd jump with me. he's a man of his word. >> reporter: the pair jumping from 9,000 feet last november. >> what do you think, al? we just broke the world record! >> i lost my breath. >> you lost your breath? >> i can't hardly talk. >> you're looking good, buddy. >> i wasn't paying any attention to that. i was just paying attention to what was going on. it was a little bit unusual. it's chillier than i'm used to. >> reporter: now, guinness world records has made that attempt official. at 106 years old, al is still

smiling. >> you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. >> reporter: happy to be back on top of the skydiving world. >> every letter i write, every christmas card i send keeps it, always. >> we did it again. >> we did it again! >> and hopefully he'll keep smiling when he does it again maybe at 107 years old. our thanks for that report. thanks so much for waking up with "early today." i'm frances rivera, have a great tuesday. great tuesday. hi, i'm todd. i'm a veteran of 23 years. i served three overseas tours. i love to give back to the community. i offer what i can when i can. i started noticing my memory was slipping. i saw a prevagen commercial and i did some research on it.

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