and we want to turn to our reporter. if there is anyone that knows the state of mind of putin recently, you just sat down and did an interview with him. i was noting earlier that to speak to putin is an exercise in frustration. you learned that firsthand. what do you think his mindset is as he faces our president? >> well, i think peter alexander is right to point out that this all seems to be going to time. that is a small victory for the biden administration right there. presidthere. president putin is notorious for being late. he is so notorious, for example that, the german chancellor, he was more than four hours late some years ago. so it is quite striking to see this all going to time and then at the same time just before the two leaders met, the news agency here in russia released a series of statements from president

putin's spokesman setting out what the russians think they could agree on. it's really fascinating. suggesting that strategic stability and arms control talks are urgently needed and the two presidents will decide today how to begin those talks and when to begin the talks. suggesting that the return of ambassadors, the u.s. ambassador to here in moscow and the russian ambassador to washington could be agreed at the meeting. and then he said that these talks will go on for as long as possible, saying, "that a vast amount to be covered, too much in four to five hours." so don't be surprised if we actually do find that the talks continue longer than that. that may be a sign there is some progress. at the same time, of course, just as with my interview with vladimir putin, president biden is in there wanting to raise issues that president

example. >> all right. we want to turn to our nbc news international affairs analyst, michael mcfall. and you have literally been in the room for meetings like this ambassador. it sounds like putin isn't playing his usual games. he showed up on time. we've seen in the past where after these meetings he might lob a couple of surprises at the visiting president. what do you expect to come out of today? >> well, it is a good sign he showed up on time. that was a victory for the biden team. they arranged that. i think putin actually wants the headline to be there were baby steps taken towards normalization with the united states. and that would be a giant move given the events over the last several years. you mentioned strategic stability talks. they have the general there, he is vital for the talks. they have an ambassador there,

the gentleman that negotiated the new start treaty. those are signs to me that they want to talk about arms control and come to some kind of agreement to begin talks. now that's very low bar. i want to emphasize. to agree to talk is not much of a deliverable. but i think that's what they want to achieve in this meeting today. >> and what about those who say wait a minute. why are we giving that incentive to vladimir putin? why should we play ball with somebody who literally interfered with our democracy, meddling in our elections, who is turning a blind eye according to u.s. officials to cyber criminals in russian territory, launching cyber attacks against american infrastructure? you know, what incentives does the u.s. have to work with someone like vladimir putin? >> you know, we're here in geneva where ronald reagan met with mikhail gorbachev. reagan is on my mind because of that. he had a very clear strategy for dealing with the soviets that i think is appropriate today. engage when you can when it's in

america's national interests to engage. and on arms control, controlling nuclear weapons in the world, i think that's in america's interest. and at the same time, contain the soviet union or contain today putin's belligerent behavior around the world and don't link those two things. a big mistake the presidents sometimes make is they want to cooperate on arms control so they're quiet about human rights. they're quiet about the list you just mentioned. i think that will be a big mistake for president biden. do both. engage and contain at the same time. but don't check your values at the door when you walk in to sit down with vladimir putin. >> step into the mind of vladimir putin for a moment if you will. we know he is a soviet. that's where he came. from he was a kgb operative. what is his world view? what is his larger strategy here? >> his world view is that the united states is the enemy of russia. that we have constructed

something called the liberal international order which maintains american thoughts in the world and we use our pow to overthrow regimes we don't like including he believes his regime. therefore, his strategy is to weaken the liberal international order, to weaken the united states. he sees himself in an ideological struggle with when biden talks about democracies and awe to beingcies, so does putin. he sees the world in those terms and, therefore, president biden is his chief adversary in the world today. >> let's talk about the gamesmanship. how putin approaches these meetings. we talked a little bit earlier about his approach with reporters. we certainly seen that technique employed over and over again. it's maddeningly frustrating. it's hard to answer in that moment especially by a translator who he says what's your proof? we've seen that technique before used to his advantage.

>> we have. and that's why i think it's a really smart move by the biden team not to have a joint press conference. because when you get back and forth in that what aboutism, especially with the translator, great point, savannah, you cannot hear exactly what he said. you don't exactly know what he said. you can make a misstep in that situation. putin is notorious for surprises. you're right, i've been in many meetings with him. i was in the last meeting between then vice president biden and prime minister putin. and in the press spray in that meeting, he said out of the blue, he said, we just agreed to visa free travel between our two countries which was not true. thankfully the vice president handled that. i hope he handles other curve balls. >> we're witnessing a moment right now. i want to bring that picture to the left full screen. this is what we call in the business of pool spray. the cameras are allowed n rushed in for the room just for the very beginning of the meeting.

they get the picture. then the cameras are out and the business begins. so we have our president joe biden on one side. putin of the russian federation on the right. and for this first part of the meeting, we're only going to have those two aides, the foreign minister of russia who has been at putin's side for years and years and years and anthony blinken who has been at biden's side for years and years and years when he was u.s. senator. blinken was a top aide to biden. later serving in the obama white house and now, of course, secretary of state. these are the pleasantries before the meeting. i want to bring in peter alexander as we watch the images unfold. talk to us, peter, about the prep that went into this meeting because i took note of something that you reported yesterday that president biden had met with many russia advisors, some of whom had served in in the trump administration. in order, i presume, to get a wide range of perspectives on how to approach this moment. >> yes, you're right.

i'm told by a person familiar with that matter that days before president biden left the united states for europe. he gathered with about 10 outside russia experts in the roosevelt room at the white house. it was a two hour session. as you say, there was a range of views discusseded about how to deal with vladimir putin by those who had been in if the room with putin in at the past. among them, previous guest ambassador mcfall who served under president obama. fiona hill served under the trump administration and obama's administration before that. and george w. bush as well. this conversation was focused basically on strategies going into this meeting. it was not told but advised among other things that the president considered not holding a joint news conference. as a result, the president, the white house made the decision that the two men will not speak on a shared stage together, trying to erase any reminders of what happened between former

president donald trump and him in helsinki. the likelihood this is where much of the business gets done alongside two of their top allies, their top deputies folks as you know have been with them for years. president biden saying that he will will be straight. he will be direct with vladimir putin, to communicate with him exactly what the challenges are and what the potential consequences will be on a range of issues. one that's been highly significant and certainly we have seen in recent weeks so much focus on are the ransomware attacks with the fbi blaming criminal russian hackers for targeting the u.s. oil and food. food, beef, pork supply in the united states. just days before this summit, president putin in an interview that took place in russia said he was open to swapping cyber criminals with the united states if president biden would do the

same. i asked biden about that. he expressed an openness as well but said it's up to those countries to hold their criminals responsible. savannah? >> peter, we'll keep our eye on the pictures as long as they come into us. the press in there being allowed, the international press to take a couple of shots. will still photos, video. having been in those rooms for a time or two, it is always an awkward moment. reporters often try to shout questions without much success. i want to turn back to ambassador mcfall. if you have any observations about the body language here. they're seated apart and they're maskless here. looks like the reporters are about to be rushed out of the room. that's what that looks like. let's talk about it. we want to reset relations with russia. then we have the trump administration which to put it mildly had a much more conciliatory tone at least toward russia. we all remember that press conference in helsinki where

president trump sided with putin over the u.s. intelligence agencies. where does biden approach fit on that spectrum? is it a harder line? >> of course it is. we were always back when he was vice president, remember, he was the first person that talked about the reset at the munich security conference in 2009. but it was always about trying to advance american interests. win-win outcomes good for the american people. and in those early days, remember, it was different president. president medvedev and we actually did accomplish some thing goods for the american people. but when putin came back, he had no interest in cooperating with the united states. and then remember, there's been a lot of bad history since that period. he annexed crimea, he intervened military takerly in syria in 2015 to prop up one of the worst dictators in the world today. he violated our sovereignty in 2016 during our elections and

then did it again in 2020. and so there is no room for a cooperative relationship given that i think very checkered dramatic and very depressing history of russian belligerent behavior over the last decade and most certainly president biden understand that's. the. >> and i just want to say, it's the biden's top team that requested this meeting. which is notable. do you think there is an aspect of this that is as simple as president biden coming in and telling putin there is a new sheriff in town? >> i think he wants to talk about the disagreements. he's made that very clear. and putin is fully expecting that. i think the biden administration want to have this meeting so to kind of park in place u.s.-russia relations. they have other things they're focuseded on, especially on the domestic agenda. also china. and they just don't want any more crazies with russia and the

hope is by meeting with putt yun putin, they're not going to settle old disagreements but maybe they'll avoid new disagreements in the future. >> all right. let's watch the images. the there is a still photo just in hot of the presses with the two face-to-face. that is the moment the world is waiting for. you've been in moscow for several weeks now. what's the feeling on the russian street and he what does putin have to accomplish for domestic consumption? >> quite a question. the russian media over the past few days has been presenting this as a victory for vladimir putin, being seen, being invited to a meeting by president biden like this is a positive for the kremlin. just to add color, you were mentioning about what looks like the social distancing in those shots that we just saw with president vladimir putin and biden.

with the interview we conducted with vladimir putin, we came to russia two weeks prior and we had to quarantine for just under two weeks. we had to be tested multiple times. the russian media saying that putin delegation have been tested many times in order to have this meeting. so some interesting color just there. >> all right. thank you so much. and that's the shot of the morning. the two leaders face-to-face. now we know what it looks like in the room. but what happens in the room, we'll have to wait for more word on that. this meeting is expected to unfold over the course of several hours in geneva today. starting with that core four group of leaders. but then expanding. we're expecting a press conference from vladimir putin, a solo press conference first and then followed by president biden. we'll have more coverage from geneva coming up on "today" also on msnbc and nbc news now. we'll bring you live coverage of president biden's news conference as soon as it begins.

right now at 4:30, get ready bay area. it will be extremely hot and those temperatures are going up. we are tracking a major warmup expected to last days. and with those warm temperatures comes fire danger, intensifying, keeping crews busy overnight as flames damage several homes. the action some had to take to try to save their livelihoods. "today in the bay" begins right now. and good morning. i'm cierra johnson in for laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. we're going to check in with traffic in a minute. first we have to talk about the increasing heat across the bay area. meteorologist kari hall is here with our first look at what we could see and feel throughout the bay area today. kari? >> it's going to be a lot hotter today compared to yesterday, and that heat will be ramping up, but actually peaking tomorrow, as we will have the hottest day of the week, possibly of the year, as we are going to see some of our inland valley temperatures reach over 100 degrees. it's still going to be warm this

weekend, with highs reaching into the 90s, but the heat advisory begins today at 11:00 for these areas shaded in orange and for the pink areas, where temperatures will be hottest, where we will have excessive heat warnings. this continues through friday as we have a span of three days of hot temperatures. it begins today with a few areas in parts of the inland east bay and north bay, reaching 100 degrees but then tomorrow even hotter. we'll have more fire danger coming up in the microclimate forecast. >> fire danger is a big concern. on the heat check over the elderly the next couple of days. south bay, peninsula looking great. crashes in san jose cleared from the freeway, same thing through concord. highway 4 showed slowing. we'll check on that probably a slower moving truck. in the north bay, solano county, debris in the middle of eastbound 80 around the truck scales up in fairfield, we'll check that. we'll hand it back to you.

fast-moving, erratic four-alarm fire keeping crews busy in the north bay. several homes were damaged when the flames broke out last night in vallejo. evacuations were lifted around 9:00 last night. "today in the bay's" cheryl hurd has the latest on the investigation. >> reporter: skyline drive blocked off to residents. some still waiting to be allowed back home. a fast-moving brush fire started around 5:15. >> i got a text message from a friend and then he called me, saying that there was going to be an evacuation, we need to get out of here. >> reporter: the fire moving fast towards homes. >> we're expecting really hot weather over the next few days. there's still a lot of brush down there. >> reporter: residents grabbing their garden hoses, pouring water on their roofs and fences. firefighters told some to shelter in place while telling others to evacuate. >> my mom is in her house with two dogs. >> reporter: blinding smoke filling the air.

vallejo fire calling for aid because of hot temperatures and dry terrain surrounding the homes, another big problem, the wind. >> we had 15 to 20 homes threatened and we had ember casting in the houses off of silver view and we had a few backyards and porches catch fire as well. >> reporter: six to eight homes burned, two of them with significant damage. >> just happened really quick. i saw it and i was amazed. that's why i saw that house on fire. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay." as the weather heats up our nbc bay area app is a great tool to have on standby. you can check out the temperature in your own neighborhood, make sure you download it, it's free on the app and google play stores. we'll be right back.

♪ ♪ give dad the gift of lowe's. where he can test things and press things. swing, feel, turn, pick and flip things. like only dads do. this father's day, let dad loose at lowe's. what if you could push a button and less carbon would be put into the air. if there was a button that would help you use less energy, breathe cleaner air, and even take on climate change... would you press it?

good morning south bay. a live look in san jose this morning, as we get started with this wednesday. meteorologist kari hall keeping track of what we can expect, a lot of us are going to feel the hot temperatures across the bay area, kari. we have been talking about that for days and it is here. >> it is here and we're going to start to see the temperatures warming up today as we start out all clear, pack bottles and things to help keep you cool especially later this afternoon if you're working outside. the seven-day forecast is coming up at the bottom of the screen. milpitas today will reach 92 degrees. low 90s downtown san jose and some upper 90s for the south county with gilroy reaching 98 degrees. we should see some triple digits toward concord and antioch today, livermore reaching the upper 90s and danville the same.

walnut creek reaching 98 but notice how nice and mild it's going to be for a lot of our bay area coastline and beaches. we're going to see upper 60s there. head over to san mateo and much hotter reaching 85 degrees. san francisco in the upper 60s and mid-70s in the mission district and north bay temperatures anywhere from the low 90s to 100 degrees in clearlake for today. so here's what's going on. we have hot temperatures, dry vegetation and that causes us to have a high fire danger for today. the fire burn index they measure how dry the vegetation is and if a spark were to get going it could continue to spread quickly and on thursday it's going to be even higher, so unfortunately we do have to be very careful. mike, what's happening with the morning commute? >> a calm commute. we take you out to the roadways to see a smooth flow of traffic,

green along the peninsula,e cle from 87 and 880 over here. a little tiny bit of slowing on 84, not the big news here. the big news is this week we haven't seen the closure which might be the case through alvarado niles. an earlier crash on 205 held people up in tracy but the burst of traffic never impacted the altamont pass, it's a gradual start, easy drive toward the bay bridge and earlier incident moved to the toll plaza parking lot and now cleared from that parking lot as well. back to you. >> thank you. it turns out even the honors for bravery during the capitol siege are being politicized more than five months after the january 6th riot. house lawmakers awarded the gold medal to first responders but 21 republicans voted against the legislation. none are from california. the senate is debating a similar

bill. don't expect a special recall election to take place before mid-september because county election offices this week asked the l t wait at leas long because the print ballots may not be ready before then. the recall question deciding governor newsom's fate will appear on the ballot but registrars say because the contest is still not certified, it's still not clear how many replacement candidates will be listed or how much paper required. asicalical reopens many mall businesses will not, either can't find people to hire or recover from the losses. businesses in san francisco's chinatown were hit especially hard. "today in the bay's" jean elle has more on the plan moving forward. >> reporter: business in chinatown slumped in the months leading up to last year's shutdown. merchants hope the state's reopening will kick off the recovery they are waiting for. san francisco's chinatown is ready for crowds to return.

>> not doing good because we have no tourists. we depend on the locals. >> we're hoping it to be better with the grand reopening. >> some visitors didn't survive the shutdown. laura lee at the cool tea bar says neighbors need help recovering. >> need support from the city, hopefully to open all the iron gates and get all the visitors back into the city in chinatown. >> reporter: on reopening day, san francisco sheriff paul miamoto paid a visit reminding shop keepers his deputies patrolled the neighborhood supporting economic and emotional recovery as many in the community fear being targeted by criminals. >> i want to be down here not just as a member of the aapi community but also as the sheriff, so that people are reassured we're here for them, here to keep people safe. >> reporter: locals and tourists should feel comfortable in chinatown. there are signs recovery is

beginning. >> i say come out. >> reporter: tourists from missouri enjoying the sights and the cookies from the golden gate cookie factory. >> i was trying to find the golden gate fortune cookie, that was my goal. now that i did, it's great. >> reporter: excitement about chinatown the community hopes is contagious. jean elle, "today in the bay." new this morning, a new warning from the state water board, farmers from the central valley to the bay area are being told not to rely on water this year from the delta watershed. smaller rights holders are told the spigot may shut later this summer. according to "the chronicle" east bay mud may be impacted and wider restrictions will expand to include sf puc and it will mean utilities have to rely on other water resources. starting tonight, east bay mud is holding a series of virtual lectures on water conservation. they take place the third week

in june, july and august. a proposeds ait 1 billion new ball park at howard terminal a marathon meeting yesterday lasted several hours as the future of the a's was front and center. the board plans to discuss it again in august. the a's last night continued to roll last night a sean murphy home run on the bottom of the eighth capped off the a's scoring, they won the game 6-4 to notch their fifth straight victory. maybe the weekend justin bieber and harry styles can convince more young people in the south bay to roll up their sleeves, that's what leaders are thinking. happening today they'll unveil a new incentive, concert ticket raffles will take place over the next six weeks for anyone vaccinated at a santa clara county fixed location site or bring an unvaccinated friend or relative. concert tickets will be raffled which include marc anthony.

coming up on "today in the bay" we continue to track the big warmup throughout the bay area, the heat intensifying, why today is just a sample of what's to come. plus a new warning surrounding america's drinking water and it has nothing to do with the drought. the cyber security threat that is under the microscope.

ladies... check it out. so strong. so... not ripped. what're we talkin about... that's the hefty ultra strong bag hefty! hefty! hefty! (whispers) gimme. (confused) give me the bag? get hefty ultra strong at a low price

a moment in history. the two pets meeting between the usa and russia. and new rules gun sellers have to adhere to. first heat and fire head to the bay area. triple digits coming in some spots. "today in the bay" continues right now. it's wednesday morning and good morning to you. thanks for making us a part of your morning. i'm marcus washington. >> i'm cierra johnson in for laura garcia. we begin with the scorcher headed for the bay area. this is a type lapse from our pinole ridge inland, i think we have that video, expect to see the thermostat to jump today and with this comes a threat of fire danger. meteorologist kari hall, this this is why we issued the microclimate weather alert. >> yes, we have hotter temperatures for today. i wanted to show you