hush money criminal trial. the potentially critical piece of evidence the jury just heard in court amid michael cohen's highly anticipated testimony.

good morning. thanks for joining us for our midday newscast. i'm marcus washington. well, donald trump's former attorney michael cohen, taking the stand in trump's hush money criminal trial in new york. scott mcgrew. usually you want your lawyer in the courtroom. but seriously, i doubt that trump wanted cohen there at all. no right. he's the former lawyer at this point. he's been telling the world all about donald trump's alleged wrongdoing. remember, he was the one who took a home equity loan out to get the cash to buy stormy daniels silence. the trump organization then paid cohen back about double called it legal fees. well, this morning the jury heard an audiotape of a phone call between trump and cohen about a different woman, karen mcdougal, and how the trump organization bought her story and her silence for cash. here's cohen leaving for the courthouse earlier this morning on the stand, speaking to the prosecution, cohen described the plan and the

financing behind the hush money of two women. mcdougal and stormy daniels, both of whom said they had affairs with trump. trump acknowledges the payment, but not the affairs. cohen also described how worried trump was that women voters would find out about those two women. this is key to the prosecution's case that this is a elections era cover up. trump stopped in front of the television cameras before court this morning, as he usually does, this time flanked by congressman j.d. vance of ohio. alabama senator tommy tuberville, as well both potential vice presidential picks trump once again maintaining the payments to cohen to make him whole from those payments to stormy daniels were legitimate legal expenses. the only thing down in the bookkeeping is that we call a legal expense a legal expense. we don't call it a construction expense. we don't say for concrete work. we don't say for electrical work. we paid a

lawyer a legal expense. now prosecutors don't see it that way. cohen himself is a convicted felon, having been convicted of campaign finance fraud, tax fraud and bank fraud. so no doubt the defense will continue to paint him as someone who cannot be trusted. so far, markets. his testimony really just simply confirms what other has others have testified, testified about previously. no big shockers yet. just a continuing chipping away at the defense. and it's not over just yet. no. all right. thanks, scott. well, within the last hour, oakland's new police chief making his first official public comments, committing to putting his 30 years of law enforcement experience to work fighting crime in oakland. he takes the helm of a department that hasn't had a permanent chief in 15 months. nbc bay area's kris sanchez covering how day one is going so far. kris well, it was pretty quiet as far as we could tell from our camera angles. oakland's new chief, floyd mitchell, shook a lot of hands

this morning from uniformed police officers to civilian workers to some potential new oakland police officers. thank you for joining this this very difficult profession and a very difficult time. and welcome. our chief mitchell addressed this class of pre hires. these are people who are looking to join the police academy. they also he also visited the department's wellness unit and talked with this person who is the department's wellness officer. he also spent part of his morning jacket off glasses on pen in hand, working at his standing desk on what's next. i've spent the last few days attending some lineups to meet my officers. i'm going to spend the rest of this week attending different meetings to get brought up to speed on several different things going on within the oakland police department and within this community. our chief mitchell has committed to spending his first 100 days getting familiar with the oakland police department and with leaders of the city of oakland. chief mitchell led the

lubbock, texas police department until september of last year. and just for comparison, oakland has about 270 more police officers on the force in lubbock. so a bigger force and had more than 100 more homicide investigations last year. both departments did, however, have major problems with their 911 system, so they have that in common. mayor tao introduced chief mitchell in late march, and as i mentioned, he was last in lubbock. but he also spent 25 years with the kansas city police force and is a veteran of the u.s. air force, opd had not had a permanent chief since mayor tao fired former chief lauren armstrong 15 months ago. before that, the opd had 12 chiefs in 20 years and operates under a federal monitor. because of the writers scandal more than two decades ago, the police chief. as he was making his way through the hallways, he talked a little bit about himself, a little bit, a little about his family. he has two grown sons

who are doing their own thing. they live in chicago, but he says that he's very happy to be here in the bay area, making a home. marcus, all right forward to see what he has to do. and has coming up for us. thanks, chris. all right. well, a global call to stop artificial intelligence in its tracks. that is what's happening right now as groups in cities around the world demand action to regulate ai. today, this is all happening a week before an international ai summit takes place. now, one of those protests is happening right here in the bay area in san francisco. and that's where nbc bay area's ginger conejero saab is forced this midday. so, ginger, this all coincides with a big update from open ai. that is true, marcus. but this protest doesn't specifically have anything to do with the updates that are announced today. that was a bit of a coincidence. the protests happening behind us outside of open ai headquarters here in san francisco, because as many of us know, open ai is a major player in the artificial artificial intelligence space. now, there

are several things happening this morning. so let's start with that announcement from open ai. about an hour or so ago, open ai began with announcing its latest updates. they are anticipated to be chatgpt and gpt four updates and possible voice assistance capabilities. these protesters here are not completely concerned with open eyes announcements today. they say they are within the realm of ai's existing capabilities. now here's pause. ai executive director holly elmore. she's explaining what concerns this group has is the dangerous difference between artificial narrow intelligence and artificial general intelligence. but the general the basic difference is. so for instance, there have been, you know, ais that play chess better than any human for many years, but those are narrow intelligences, because that's all they do is play chess, an artificial general intelligence is smart in the same way that human beings are smart. so like a creative and flexible intelligence, we can approach sort of any task

and figure out how to do it, so that's the appeal of general intelligence, right? that's why openai and others want to make it is for this powerful general problem solving ability. but that's also the danger because we don't know exactly what it's going to do. and that's exactly what they are sounding the alarm for. this group that's here is made up of maybe a dozen or so people. now they say they're not your typical group of protesters , but they do care enough to be here and sound this alarm. one man coming all the way from missouri, picking up some friends along the way, to support pause ai's protest. right, and saying driving home the message that we all need to take a moment to pause from ai and learn more. that is the main message that's happening here this morning. now, the international summit happens next week. that is what this protest is originally scheduled to voice out against. that's happening in korea on may 20th. there these protesters are asking for an international treaty of sorts to get leaders

on board and on the same page at the same time. this morning, san francisco supervisor dean preston, also holding a hearing on artificial intelligence at city hall with regards to ai and the upcoming local elections. so there's a lot of talk of ai here this morning. of course, all of this impacting us in the very near future. marcus. yeah, whether you know it or not, ai is a part of all of our lives in some aspect. all right, ginger, thank you. well, now to a follow up to a story we've been reporting on all morning, county public health directors and frontline workers are pushing back on state budget cuts. the directors and workers held a virtual press conference to call on state lawmakers to reject governor gavin newsom's proposed $300 million in cuts to public health. governor newsom says the state has a budget shortfall and that, according to sac, b says in part, quote, we have been sober about reality of what our priorities are. end quote. now, the opponents argue that those cuts would limit california's ability to fight another

pandemic just emerging from one pandemic. and now dealing with avian influenza, a virus that the cdc says has pandemic potential, not to mention resurgent measles, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases. now is the time to stay committed to funding our local health departments, not to cut funding. governor newsom and lawmakers have until june 15th to pass a budget. taking a live look outside in downtown san jose, a beautiful start to our monday. meteorologist kari hall has been tracking what we can expect throughout the week, as well as the day. yeah, it's already cleared up in san jose, was cloudy. take it outside. yeah. so that's keeping those temperatures down. we're seeing the return of the marine layer, the fog and some low clouds in spots. we are still mostly cloudy in san francisco and we will get some sunshine here as well. but then we'll do it all over again tomorrow with another cloudy start as well as some drizzle in some spots. and then looking midweek, we are going to

be warming up a few more degrees and mostly for those inland areas. we'll feel that warmth as we head toward wednesday and thursday as we take a look. now in oakland, we're in the mid 50s and it is a cool morning. we'll eventually make it into the low 60s for today, with some upper 70s for san jose, and we'll see some mid 60s as well for san francisco. so we'll talk about those changes and what you can expect the rest of the week. coming up in a few minutes. back to you, marcus. all right. thanks, gary. well the nfl announcing the matchup for its first game of the season opening night airing right here on nbc bay area. so we'll see baltimore and kansas city, a rematch of the afc championship game to start the season. kick off 2024 on nbc. as you see right there. thursday, september fifth. mike tirico there with that exclusive reveal, this morning on today's show, we also know that the eagles will play the packers the next night in brazil exclusively on peacock. the first sunday night game is still a mystery, along with the rest of the nfl season. the full schedule will be released on wednesday. well,

the race to escape rafa israel urgently warning palestinians to leave as a new report raises questions about israel's military operation. the latest response from washington plus honoring the aa and nhpi community in the south bay. new project breaking ground in san jose, paying tribute to thousands of refugees. we'll be right back

occurred in gaza over the weekend. now, the death toll has now reached at least 35,000 palestinians. and this is all according to gaza's health ministry. israel sent tanks into the northern gaza strip on sunday. this is after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardment. now that area is the biggest of gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and home

to more than 100,000 people. now this all comes just days after a report to congress concluded it's likely that israel violated international law in gaza using weapons provided by the u.s. well, the state department says that it hasn't verified specific instances that would justify withholding military aid to israel, something some lawmakers want the white house to do. but that report also notes that israel hasn't violated terms of u.s. weapons agreement. meanwhile, secretary of state antony blinken is doubling down on the stance on rafah, reiterating that the biden administration will not support a ground invasion absent a credible plan to get them out of harm's way and to support them. the president's been clear for some time that we couldn't and would not support a major military operation in rafah. more than 1 million people are sheltering in rafah amid the war happening today. demolition of a site of the baltimore bridge collapse is scheduled to begin. the demolition was expected to begin yesterday. however, crews pushed that work back due to weather conditions. six people

died nearly two months ago. this is when the container ship struck the bridge at least last of those victims body was pulled from that water just last week. now a month ago, the fbi ordered a criminal investigation into what happened there. well, if you know someone who stutters, you know it can be isolating. but one san francisco filmmaker wants to shine a light on that disorder. this stuttering awareness week and beyond. now 3 million americans stutter. as many as 10% of children. while most will outgrow it, about 25% of those children will continue suffering into adulthood. president biden has been open about his own stuttering, particularly when he tried when he's tired. and you might recall, former president donald trump mocked him for it. that hit a san francisco filmmaker hard. that clip can be really traumatizing. like that. watching that, i felt super emotional and i felt like i was right back in middle school being made fun of and being laughed at in front of the whole

class. now, in her film rock of hope, she uses her personal experience to chronicle one man's struggle with stuttering from childhood through incarceration to using it to empower fellow stutterers. now, she also is hoping that a crowdfund $24,000 to finish that film, and you can find that link to donate at proud stutter.org/donate. she also spearheaded the effort to get the san francisco board of supervisors to declare stuttering awareness week. well, this midday, we continue to amplify the aa and nhpi community. a new documentary is looking to shine the light on japanese americans who were placed in internment camps by the us government. here's nbc bay area's mike inouye. we know the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's definitely the case when it comes to the story of japanese americans during world war two. snapshots of confinement gives us a clearer image. they are not prisoners. they are not

internees. they are merely dislocated people. well, they weren't allowed to leave either. detainees were forbidden from bringing cameras into the internment camps. most of the pictures we've seen have been us government propaganda. but this documentary transforms how history is being understood. despite the ban, there were still able to document everyday life behind the barbed wire. we're able to follow some survivors and their descendants through these snapshots. they now share. south bay native diana tsuchida directed the film project after hearing stories from her dad, who was incarcerated as a child, along with 120,000 other japanese americans. and the director shares these sometimes agonizing stories as she talks about her sister, her older sister being pregnant with twins in camp, and, unfortunately, she dies in childbirth because the doctor refuses to go and get a specialist. it was just an

unnecessary loss that i believe was directly tied to the incarceration. now, this documentary is on pbs and it's linked from our website. you know, the story helps explain why there are very few pictures of my parents during their incarceration as well. right here. now, these are many of our stories, and we have more stories that amplify the asian american, native hawaiian pacific islander stories online at nbc. bay area .com/ a nhp. yeah, thanks for sharing mike. well, you know meanwhile it is a big day today for the vietnamese community in the bay area. san jose city leaders coming together this morning for groundbreaking at the vietnamese heritage garden. they'll actually install a statue. it is called thank you america. it's a monument that the project is just another step creating a space safe space for the vietnamese community. the goal is that one day, that space will host community events, cultural performances and educational

programs at this event this morning, mayor matt mahan spoke about what it means. our shared vision is a garden that remembers the past but looks ahead to the future. that pays homage to the journey that thousands of families took to find a better life here in america. and it helps create that better life by providing a space for people to come together, celebrate and share the rich vietnamese culture with the next generation. now this project, decades in the making, the heritage garden was actually created in 2011. all right, well, a nice day to get out there and do pretty much anything outside today. yeah, it was so cool this morning and cloudy, but now it's starting to clear up and we're going to also be warming up as we go into the afternoon. here is a look at san jose where it is all clear. still looks a little hazy out there, but our temperatures are starting to head up. we're at the low 60s right now, still very comfortable, and we're also

seeing a lot of low 60s here on the map for parts of the east bay. and the north bay is still in the mid 50s, where we had some fog to start out earlier. well, as we go into the next couple of hours, we'll warm it up and make it into the mid 70s. so that's a pretty quick jump in those temperatures between now and 3 to 4:00, when we reach our high temperature for the day. but you'll notice that it will be cooler than it was yesterday. in the past couple of days, as we get a stronger ocean breeze picking up. that's going to help bring us back to some more seasonable weather. we're still a little warm for this time in mid may, but we're also going to see a high of about 75 in dublin as well as much of the north bay. so we're looking at a spike in temperatures there over the next couple of hours, and then we continue to see some slightly warmer temperatures for our interior valleys, with livermore headed up to 82 for a high tomorrow and 80 in santa rosa. and then on wednesday, we're also seeing more of the same temperatures, but fairfield getting even warmer. we started

out with low clouds and drizzle, and parts of the south county this morning, and it looks like that will redevelop again tonight into early tomorrow. also, parts of napa and sonoma valleys will have some fog early tomorrow, but then as it slowly clears, we get more sunshine and also a warm up. high pressure continues to move just to our west and it's driving up the jet stream. those upper level winds that flow and carry those storm systems, it will start to dip a little bit closer to the bay area, which may trigger some weekend storms for the sierra, and also bring us a slight cool down in our temperatures and one of our warmer spots inland, like brentwood, we're going from highs in the upper 80s midweek to some mid 80s for the weekend, so you can see those temperatures changing about 4 or 5 degrees each day. and then the coolest day will be early next week before we start to see it warming up just slightly once again. so nothing major happening here except for a

gradual warming trend throughout the week and a mostly sunny sky, and then a nice little cool down for the end of the weekend where on average we'll see our valley temperatures in the upper 70s. and in san francisco, we're continuing to see those highs in the 60s after starting each day right at about 50 degrees. marcus. all right. thanks, carrie. well, happening now. memorial day could be a very busy one for anyone traveling on the roads or using airports. triple a predicting nearly 44 million people will travel 50 miles or more during the holiday weekend. that's not only a 4% increase over last year, it also exceeds pre-pandemic levels. for the first time, more than 38 million people are expected to drive to their destination. now that would make the highest number for the memorial day holiday since triple a started keeping track 24 years ago. well, not your average birthday party. up next here on nbc bay area news at midday, we're going to introduce you to one south bay woman who went viral after mistakenly inviting everyone on her contact list to her

daughter's birthday party. we're going to tl you the outcomeel

well, it actually landed her on the kelly clarkson show. it imported all 487 of my contacts and invited them to this birthday party. okay, so that's

san jose's emily king. that's a mother there of the one year old accidentally inviting hundreds of people to her child's first birthday. well, she actually lived to tell about it, explaining what happened on tiktok. that clap that clip, i should say, has actually been viewed more than 15 million times on the app. we actually recently spoke to her. she says that she only meant to invite about 35 people. now the story gets better from there for us anyway. part of that what happened with that invite went out. take a listen. so everyone got invited as they're sort of my phone with the emojis. i had derek with the eye roll emoji who was invited, i had this girl, jess, who? i hit her car in a parking lot one time, so it said jess hit her car in parking lot. she was invited. can you imagine that? all your exes have been invited to your one year old's birthday party? yeah, she invited her ex-boyfriend, former coworkers. now to get the full story, all you have to do is watch the kelly clarkson show. you can see the expanded list of rsvp's that she got as well. so

we're going to have that happen to you. you got two kids. we got two birthdays to work. well, you know, i never thought to do emojis or like, you know, any other notes beside the name. so it's just your name in my phone. oh, okay. not mine. yeah. all right. we're going to have sunshine and we're all invited to enjoy it over the next few days. it's going to be warming up to our inland areas in the mid 80s, wednesday and thursday. all right. well, yours does just say kari hall and mine. okay. thank you. maybe a smiling emoji or a sunshine sunshine okay. look thanks for joining us. we'll see you back here tomorrow moing startingrn

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