than six weeks. and that comes as the u.s. military is becoming more aggressive in its response to attacks against service members in the wider region. we're going to go through all of that in just a moment. plus, the new donald trump dilemma for democrats. party officials seem to be shifting their strategy on how much coverage they want the former president to receive. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, november 22nd. the day before thanksgiving. i'm jonathan lemire, and we're certainly grateful you're starting your day with us. we will begin this morning with breaking news. israel and hamas have agreed to a deal to release some of the hostages kidnapped during last month's deadly terror attack. qatar, which has been -- made the announcement late last night. the term of the agreement include a four-day pause in fighting. during that time 50 women and children will be released in stages. now, in exchange 150 palestinian women and children who are being detained in israel will also be freed. more humanitarian aid will also be allowed into gaza during the pause in fighting including fuel trucks. all of this is likely to begin tomorrow once israeli judges review any potential legal challenges to the prisoner release. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office confirmed the agreement last night in a stement explaining that if the pause in fighting is extended an additional tenostages will be ased each day, but netanyahu made clear that he warned his country's mission is not over. writing that israel will, quote, continue the war in order to return hll of the hostages, complete the elimination of hamas, and ensure that there will be no new threat to the state of israel from gaza. now, the white house is welcoming the hostage release, which is expected to include some of the aricans who have been captive in gaza. in a statement theredent thanked the leaders of egypt and qatar for helping negotiate the adding that he'll be stayn close contact with everyone involved to ensure the deal is carried through. biden added the safety of the hostages is his hhe priority, writing in part this. today's deal should bring home additional american hostages, and i will not stop until they are all released. the agreement only allows for the release of 50 hostages, but it's believed that about 240 people are being held captive. biden administration officials tell myself and others at politico that there's more work to do, but the deal is for some is a sense of vindication. u.s. officials also stressed the deal could still fall apart and that nothing is final until the hostages are brought home and the guns go silent. joining us now one of my coaltogetherers of the piece, national security rorltser for politico, alex ward. alex, good to see you here. take us behind the scenes, if you will, on how the deal went down and why, indeed, many biden administration officials believe it is proof their approach to the wider conflict is working? >> so it was a five weeks worth of excruciating, pain staking negotiations that required the united states, qatar, egypt, israel requiring u.s. officials to travel to the region beyond multiple calls, having biden on calls with hostage families, you know, tons of times where the deal just didn't look like it was going to happen. hamas at one point went silent. part of that was because of the communications blackout with gaza. and only over the last cup of days did the terms come together for the deal that you laid out. for the biden administration they feel that, you know, despite all of the criticism they've gotten from democrats, progressive democrats, i should say, who are calling for a cease-fire and end to u.s. support for israel, some administration officials say, look, the policy is working. you have to support israel in public. that's what allows the u.s. to have any influence over israel. and then you in private push for many thing said including a hostage deal and reduction to civilian harm, and injection of humanitarian aid. and so even though it took 6 weeks, the fact that 50 hostages look like they're coming home including three americans for some biden administration officials they say, look, this works. all the other suggestions especially from progressive democrats, would not work. and the only to do hostage deals that leads to a pause in fighting which then leads to a bunch of other good things potentially to happen. >> so, alex, talk to us about what comes next. and obviously we should note this is all somewhat tentative, if the fighting picks up again, you know, the pause certainly could end, and we'll see about the hostages. but let's assuming this holds for the next four days or so, what is, "a," the plan to get more hostages out, and "b" we just read netanyahu's pretty declarative statement this is not the end of the war. where do you u.s. officials think israel takes the fighting next once it resumes? >> well, there's been some indication that israel would actually escalate its bombing in gaza after this. that said, i think you would see actually sort of a continuation of the same. israel will continue its military operation of gaza. the u.s. will proceed with its two-prong strategy, which is be very supportive of israel's military campaign with the objective to remove hamas from gaza while the other prong being try to alleviate palestinian suffering in gaza as much as possible. and they want to do this through a series of pauses that will include every time there's a pause more humanitarian aid going into gaza, providing water, fuel, hopefully to get some bakeries online so more food can be provided. and the goal here if there's not let's say all hostages removed during this initial pause, which no one expects to happen, there'll be more pauses down the line, and hopefully more hostages released then. so i think this could be the first of a series of pauses we'll see in the weeks ahead of fighting. >> all right, national security reporter for politico, alex ward, great stuff as always. thank you for joining us this morning. elsewhere in the middle east, the united states launched air strikes into iraq earlier this morning targeting and destroying two separate facilities used by iranian proxy groups who were targeting american troops. this marked the second round of strikes conducted by the u.s. in roughly 24 hours. it comes after an american military gun ship opened fire on monday destroying a vehicle carrying three iranian backed militants. the pentagon said those targeted were involved in a missile attack on an american air base in iraq just moments earlier. reuters reports there have been 66 strikes launched against u.s. forces in iraq and syria since october 17th. at least 62 u.s. service members have reported minor injuries or some sort of traumatic brain injury as a result. there certainly have been a growing cry for the u.s. to strike back harder and seems like we are. still ahead here on "way too early," we'll bring you an update on an effort in one state to keep donald trump off the ballot next year. we'll have that, a look at sports, plus a check on the holiday travel forecast when we come right back. y travel foreca come right back. 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some of of the morning's other top headlines. a judge yesterday modified the bond conditions of one of former president donald trump's codefendants in the georgia election interference case. superior court judge scott mcafee ruled against a motion by district attorney fani willis to revoke the bond agreement of harrison floyd yesterday. willis argued that floyd's tweets about the case amounted to witness intimidation. as part of his agreement he was barred from communicating directly or indirectly with any witness. >> here the bond conditions are not arbitrary and capricious because the conditions are a reasonable response to the trial court's functioning of balancing the defendant's rights with the public safety interest while avoiding the intimidation of prosecution witnesses which was the exact purpose here. you can say you know what calling witnesses pieces of -- it don't even malter. i don't find that to be intimidating. do you find they communicated with codefendants? do you find they communicated with witnesses? if you find that, then you find he violated the bond order, and you have to decide do we have an interest as a society in keeping witnesses in this case safe? do we have an interest in ts case of keeping the other defendants from having a fair trial? >> but as nbc news reports, judge mcafee said the posts may have been a technical violation of floyd's bond,ut not every violation compels revocation. he said that the current bond order doesn't addsshe nuances of social media, and that he didn't see floyd's posts as witness intimidation. now, floyd was the former head of black voices for trump, and is accused of working on a plan to pressure election worker ruby freeman into making false statements about election fraud. freeman was one of the witnesses that floyd criticized on social media. the d.a.'s office called freeman's lawyer to the stand during the hearing who testified that there was a spike in her threat level tied to floyd's posts. floyd's lawyers say the d.a.'s office is retaliating against him for rejecting an earlier plea deal. elsewhere in trump legal news, a lawsuit in colorado aiming to keep him off the state's ballot in 2024 will be heard by the state supreme court. the court agreed yesterday to hear appeals filed by both parties in the case. trump took issue with the state's judge finding that he, quote, engaged in insurrection while the voters that initially brought the suit disagreed with the ruling that the constitutional clause about ineligibility does not apply to the presidency. a colorado judge last week ruled that section 3 of the 14th amendment, which says any official who has taken an oath of office, but then engages in insurrection against the u.s., cannot hold another position. does not apply to the executive branch. the clause lists all federal elected positions except for one, the presidency. oral arguments before the supreme court are scheduled for december 6th. and elsewhere, a federal judge in pennsylvania has ruled that incorrectly dated mail-in ballots or ballots not dated at all should still be counted in upcoming elections. now, previously mail-in ballots with no date or the wrong date in pennsylvania were thrown out entirely. that meant in last year's mid-terms more than 16,000 ballots in the state were not counted due to a wrong date or lacked a proper signature or envelope. a u.s. district judge ruled that rejecting the ballots violates a provision of the civil rights act that aims to protect voters from being disenfranchised. if her ruling stands, it's expected to result in more democratic mail-in votes counted than in past elections. republican syleste malloy won a special election in the state of utah yesterday. she'll replace her former boss, congressman chris stewart and serve out the rest of his term in the house. stewart resigned in september after ten years in congress fo citing his wife's ongoing health issues following a streak. malloy, a trump supporter who was heavily favored in the reliably republican district, beat the state senator kathleen reeby, malloy's win puts a woman back in utah's five-member congressional delegation for the first time since 2019. and she will be only the fifth woman in history to represent utah in the u.s. house of representatives. utah has never elected a woman to the u.s. senate. now, weather is slowing down some of the country's busiest airports and highways potentially impacting millions of people with travel plans over the thanksgiving holiday. it's down right miserable in new york city right now. nbc news new york correspondent tom costello reports on the rest. >> reporter: across the eastern u.s., that heavy rain is testing travellers's patience on clogged highways as 49 million americans drive over the coming days. >> whatever happens, we're just going to roll with it. >> reporter: to long and winding airport security lines. >> it's just a lot -- a lot of people, a lot of -- it's just chaos. >> reporter: 5 million people flying. >> we kind of go into this knowing it's going to be a real busy travel time. >> reporter: chicago o'hare, the nation's fourth busiest airport, is united's megahub with 850 inbound and outbound flights each day. it's a 24/7 logistical juggle. for medical and meck kgal issues to weather, catering, fueling, crew schedules, flight delays, passenger and luggage reroutes. >> everyone here is engaged and connected to make sure we can keep the airline on schedule. >> reporter: high stress on the ground and high above. >> so this is an area most people don't get to see. it's the ramp tower for united here at o'hare. >> reporter: the controllers here act as traffic cops directing hundreds of planes moving on united's ramp. all of the ground traffic in the alleys between the bravo and charley concourses, and then departing flights are turned over to air-traffic control. this feels like a pressure cooker job up here. >> it can be. but usually you're too busy to notice. >> reporter: the ramp tower manager. anything from a blown tire to a broken airplane or somebody making a wrong turn can take the field from just relatively quiet to chaos. >> reporter: the big test comes sunday. nearly 3 million flyers nationwide setting a new record. >> that was nbc's tom costello reporting for those traveling today, good luck. still ahead we'll turn to sports. lebron james adds another record to his hall of fame career. plus, we'll bring you highlights from a different nba game where defense appeared to be optional. and we'll show you an early season upset in college hoops. that's all straight ahead. upse. that's all straight ahead. for long-lasting cough and sore throat relief. try new robitussin lozenges with real medicine and find your voice. you know? we really need to work on your people skills. if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start... and move toward 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also earning a spot in the knock out stage the indiana pacers who improve their turning record to 3 and 0 in one of the east group, the "a" group after, get this, a 309-point shootout against the atlanta hawks. the pacers erased 20-point deficit on the road last night to beat the hawks 157-152. let me say that score again. 157-152. no one played any defense. let's turn now to college hap hoop, and baefb got an upset on the court night in honolulu defeating the number one team in the country 73-59 in the maui invitational semifinal round. marquette will take on second round perdue. meanwhile the university of washington i now in the college football playoff position for the first time this season. the huskies leapfrogged florida state in the new rankings joining georgia, ohio state, and michigan in the top four. the seminoles dropped to number 5 after losing quarterback jordan trav frs the season. machine and ohio state looms this weekend. and of course tomorrow is thanksgiving which neenz nfl football. we've got three games. the packers visit the detroit loy ones, the washington commanders, and the knight cap the 49ers play the seattle sea hawks. time now for the weather and a lot of holiday travelers out there waiting to see what michelle grossman has to say what it will be like today. >> not great right now. but we're looking much better as we go through the afternoon. you mention the weather in new york city. hard to get out of bed this morning, but we are improving over the next couple of hours. look at all this clear air. we're looking at dry conditions across most of the country, really wet weather, and we're talking about this storm system we've been talking about for two days straight. it is finally moving off the coast. we still have heavy rain falling throughout portions of of the carolina. that's where you see the brighter colors especially the reds, oranges and yellows. especially the northern part we're seeing snow. we could see up to 8 inches in some pots in northern maine. and we're look at freezing rain. that's not great to travel in. and that's going to linger in the afternoon hour even into the evening hours. otherwise we're looking at this messy commute lingering and even a bit of sunshine in the north east and also the midatlantic, so showers and storms clearing. that is good news. we could see up to 2 inches some spots along the coast and new england, same story with snow. we could see up to 8 inches in some spots. that's where you see the pinks and purples. mostly sunny skies, breezy, not a bad forecast at all. and i love the graphic. >> i was going to say the snoopy graphic a moment ago perfect. >> it's like ding. >> there it is. that's good to hear about the parade tomorrow. michelle grossman, thank you. still ahead