major setbacks. where russian forces are heading as president vladimir putin continues to ard air strikes targeting ukraine's capital. thousands of renters in california no longer facing eviction. last-minute extensions state leaders passed. and it's taking years to complete, but starting today, san francisco residents could see an ease to their commute. this is "today in the bay." and an ease into the weekend as we come upon friday morning.

good morning to you. thank you for making us a part of your morning. it is april fool's and, no joke, you see three of us here. no tricks right here this morning. there's a trick people can do with their smart tv, you can go to watch us live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv, and online. we're going to get to your morning commute in just a bit. first we have to talk about the weekend weather. i like to call friday the weekend. >> absolutely. and it's going to be a nice weekend for whatever you have planned. let's get you out the door this morning with a live look in san francisco. we're starting out with a clear view this morning, no fog as of now, and then as we go into today, after our temperatures start out in the low 50s, we're headed for the low 70s today, a few spots reaching the mid-70s. fairfield at 3:00 this afternoon, we're at 76 degrees. 73 in livermore. san jose will be in the low 70s. we'll see more weather like this but it will warm up and we'll talk more about that in a few

minutes. any problems for early-morning commuters? >> not yet. so far this is what it looks like in oakland along 880 in both directions. let's take a look at how the speed sensors are doing. i did see this crash pop up along westbound 580, so i'm going to check traffic reports to see what that's about. as far as going toward the delays, look at this, westbound 580 from grant line road to 680, 68 minutes. that crash is definitely causing some backups. as soon as i get more detail i'll keep you posted and let you know what's going on. but for now, expect delays westbound 580 going into the city from grant line road to 680. you're looking at about 68 minutes. i'll have a closer look at drive times coming up. >> thank you. well, this morning fresh efforts are under way to evacuate civilians in ukraine, and just in, we're learning that the red cross is being blocked from bringing aid to mariupol.

now, this comes as russian officials are blaming a blast at an ail depo in the city of belgrade on an aur strike by two ukrainian helicopters. gas prices are being pushed to record highs. president biden announcing a plan aimed at bringing relief to your pain at the pump. >> reporter: the war in ukraine entering a new month. air strikes continue near kyiv, despite russia's pledge to pull back from the region. >> by producing more oil --naki historic move to combat high gas prices by what he calls putin's war. >> the bottom line is if we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now. >> reporter: they will tap into the strategic petroleum reserve. republicans argue the plan delivers little relief. >> being opened up, 1 million

barrels, is a drop in the bucket. >> reporter: president biden insisting the move could lower gas prices by 10 to 35 cents. >> our effort today is to try to soften the blow on american consumers. >> reporter: russian president vladimir putin telling european countries who rely on russian oil more than the u.s. that they must pay in rubles or risk being cut off. sanctions continue to cripple russia's economy and its military forces are suffering major setbacks. >> he miscalculated that his forces would be able to enter ukraine without facing stiff resistance from ukrainian people. >> reporter: ukraine's president pleading for more tanks and military equipment from the u.s. to help defend his country. president biden vowing to provide assistance overseas and calling on u.s. energy producers to do more to help americans battle high prices at the pump. in washington, brie jackson for

nbc news. happening today, san francisco's first rapid bus corridor opens. they celebrated last night by lighting a new sculpture on van ness. this was part of the six-year $345 million van ness improvement project. muni says taking the bus will get you down van ness 30% faster than driving yourself. here's a picture showing part of the corridor here. you can see the bus line is in the middle of the screen. the rapid corridor will run along van ness from market to bay. and making it in the bay is becoming a bit easier for tens of thousands of renters in california, or at least for the next three months. that's because state legislature passed a bill extending eviction protections for anyone who has applied for help. california will pay the unpaid rent for tenants if they fell behind on their payments because of the pandemic. the bill will stop evictions for

people who have applied for assistance, however it won't give renters more time to apply for help. the deadline was last night at midnight. this morning crews are moving to the next face of the project on san francisco's millennium tower, designed to stop the high-rise from sinking and tilting further. the city has not signed off on some of the more serious revisions. reporter jaxon van derbeken has the story you'll only see here on nbc bay area. >> reporter: as you can hear behind me, work has entered a new phase at the sinking and tilting millennium tower. crews are using this giant jackhammer to dig around millennium's foundation along fremont street, making room for tons more concrete to extend the foundation over the steel piles and finally anchor the building to bedrock. monitoring data shows the tower is leaning 27 inches to the

northwest at the top. that's 10 more inches since work started last year. millennium engineers say they expect the high-rise to tilt a little more by the time the work is done. but some experts fear this new round of digging could make the building sink far more than anticipated. >> i think it's very risky. >> reporter: this local technical engineer wrote inspection officials earlier in march about the plan to dig alongside the building's foundation. >> i am now warning that there are many uncertainties associated with the extrication that is necessary to construct. >> reporter: his fear is removing dirt around the foundation could cause 2 inches of sediment. remember, each inch it sank added an extra 5 inches of lean. >> it could be anything from 0 to 6 inches. i don't know.

but that's the problem. no one knows. >> reporter: city officials told us they'll halt the digging if settlement exceeds limits, but the city is yet to sign off on the plan to use just 18 piles, instead of the originally planned 52. management this week told tower residents to expect some drilling sounds and vibrations until september. jaxon van derbeken, nbc bay area news. >> more on our investigative reporting online, which includes the previous stories on the millennium tower and our exclusive story about how an entry in a journal helped crack a nearly 30-year cold case. you'll find those stories and more at nbcbayarea.com/investigations. shopping being made easier for you. if you're interested in that i want you to stick around because still ahead on "today in the bay," we're going to tell you about the new notification system alexa will now have that will make buying high demand

items much easier. you're watching the "today in the bay."

right now at 4:41, as you're heading out in the east bay, let's see how the day will shape up. it's going to be a nice, mild start. martinez at 49 degrees. at lunchtime it's 66 and warming up into the low 70s for today. really nice friday, but let's see how the weekend shapes up. we'll talk about that coming up in a few minutes. >> and, listen up, tri-valley

commuters, a crash along westbound 580 near greenville road is blocking several lanes, causing heavy delays through that stretch. there is a tow truck on scene. it is a crash involving two vehicles, but the tow truck has already arrived, so hopefully they clear that out. as of now, no word on injuries. we'll have the full report coming up. stocks are set to open higher following the worst quarterly performance for the stock market in nearly two years, with the s&p and dow losing about 4.5%, the nasdaq down as much as 9%, as investors fixated on geopolitics and volatile oil prices. in focus today will be the monthly jobs report. in other news, apple releasing a new program for businesses to set up, manage and install software on worker iphones, ipads and maccs. the program called business

essentials, ranges from $299 a month to $24.99 per month per worker. the product is the latest example of appear offering services with a recurring billing subscription. alexa will start telling users when items they've been eyeing are about to go on sale. the company announced that alexa will notify prime customers up to 24 hours in advance of upcoming sales on their wish list, a reminder about deals, when they're live or ask the smart device to order the item. i'm seema mody. >> thank you. after a decade and a half of service, one park rarng is stepping away. still ahead this morning on "today in the bay," the national park services oldest active park ranger, betty reid soskin, is retiring.

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good friday morning. right now at 4:46, it's going to be a great weekend. we're starting out with temperatures in the mid-40s right now. livermore, 44 degrees. it's 44 in palo alto, san mateo at 49 degrees, and 43 in santa rosa. kind of a cool start, but san jose is at a mild 50 to start, and the sky is clear. our temperatures will go from the low 50s, upper 40s around sunrise to low 60s at 11:00.

it's going to warm up quickly going into late morning, into the afternoon. the seven-day forecast is already up at the bottom of the screen and our temperatures are going to be all over the place. at least it's still nice and mild for now as highs reach into the mid-70s for today. los gatos reaching 72 degrees and 75 in morgan hill. for the east bay, 76 in concord and antioch, oakland in the upper 60s and upper 60s for redwood city. san francisco will be up to about 57 in the marina district and 64 downtown and our north bay highs reach 71 in napa and 74 in ukiah. what's happening here? no rain, but possibly by the end of this forecast, for next weekend there could be some showers moving closer, but in between we do see a big ramp-up in temperatures. take a look at our livermore forecast. we are in the upper 70s for tomorrow, nice, warm start to

the weekend, a little bit cooler for the finish. and early next week we have some near normal temperatures reaching 70 degrees. look at the spike wednesday into thursday, and then coming down on friday. next weekend looks much cooler after that one, as we possibly get some rain moving closer by. but of course the big story is going to be the spike in temperatures by the end of next week for our inland areas. on thursday we're hitting 90 degrees and, yes, it will be early april and we're talking about 90-degree temperatures. for san francisco, there's also going to be a significant warm-up with some upper 70s, but get ready for a nice and sunny weekend. it's just going to be windy on sunday. vianey, you were tracking a big problem coming into the tri-valley. >> yeah, and unfortunately it still looks like it's pretty backed up along westbound 580. let's get right to that crash. this is an earlier crash that happened, but there are lanes still being blocked as the tow truck is on the scene, working

to clear that out. along westbound 580 near greenville road, you can see delays backed up through the interchange and our drive times are showing major slowing. from grant l 680, right now you're looking at about 66 minutes. so over an hour of delays through that area. as of right now, chp is reporting no injuries, which is always something we like to hear, but it is definitely causing heavy delays and a backup there. as far as the bay bridge toll plaza, the metering lights are off and it is friday light on the majority of the bridges throughout the bay area. i'll have a closer look at the tri-valley crash and the rest of your drive times coming up in just a few minutes. >> thank you. pretty much everyone has a take on the will smith slap at the oscars, but some of the more key players have stayed mostly quiet until now. now the show's producer is weighing in for the first time. "today in the bay's" cheryl hurd takes a closer look at what

happened that night behind the scenes. >> oscar producer spoke saying the lapd came to his office and was prepared to make an arrest. battery was the word she used in that moment. they said we will go get him, we are prepared to get him right now, you can press charges, we can arrest him. they were laying out the options. >> reporter: options, he said, rock said no to. >> he was being very dismissive of those options. he was like, no, i'm fine, no, no, no. and even to the point where i said, rock, let them finish. >> reporter: now there's a new video showing the aftermath of the slap from a different angle. it appears it shows jada pinkett smith laughing after chris rock makes mention of the slap, but it's hard to really tell exactly what her reaction was. san jose state public relations professor shawn fletcher says there's a lot we still don't

know. >> we really don't know what his relationship is with will smith. >> there's conflicting narratives now emerging about what happened next. the academy says smith was asked to leave the oscars, but refused. a source present at the ceremony tells nbc news, while there were conversations about asking smith to leave, one of the show's producers ultimately asked the actor to stay. there's one thing we do know for certain, people are flocking to see rock as he continues his nationwide comedy tour in boston. >> purely from a business standpoint, i would bet that chris rock is positioning himself to increase ticket sales as he moves forward through this tour. >> reporter: dr. fletcher says he doesn't think rock will press charges against smith. >> i would say he's not going to press charges because i don't think it's good for business. i don't think it's good for his image, i don't think that he wants to be seen as a litigious

comedian. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay." well, perhaps the bay area's best known park ranger says she's ready to retire, but let's cut her some slack. she recently turned 100 years old. i'm talking about betty reid soskin, the nation's oldest park ranger and for the last decade she's worked at the rosy the riveter national park. she turned 100 last september and a few years ago received the presidential honor from former president barack obama. now, her daughter tells us it does not mean that mrs. reid soskin will slow down any time soon. >> she's been very active with a lot of interviews the last two months. we've been international and all over the place. she is not retiring from life, she's only retiring from the park service. so she's going to go on as betty reid soskin, private citizen. >> she's full of life. on saturday, april 16th, the rosy the riveter visitors center

will honor her with a big celebration. well deserved. on the road to the world cup, today ranks right up there. oh, yeah, next here on "today in the bay," you might even say "today" fans finally get a look at the roadmap and we're going to tell you who the u.s. will play. we are in qatar this morning. this is where some of the critical questions are just hours away from being answered. first, happening now, a new statewide push to hire more literacy coaches in schools. last year state superintendent thurman established a goal to have all third grade students reading by the year 2026. now education leaders are asking to hire more literacy coaches as part of the three legislative measures to establish initiatives. supporters argue six in ten third grade students test below grade level during the 2022 school year. we'll be right back.

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4:56 this morning. for soccer fans around the globe, today is a huge day. today we find out the groupings for the world cup, which takes place this fall in qatar. the u.s. returns to the tournament after missing out the last time in 2018. telemundo's carlos eustice is in doha to explain how it works. >> reporter: we're hours away from the final draw of the fifa world cup. for those not familiar with international soccer, for the past three years a total of 210 countries have been competing against each other to punch their ticket to the final tournament held here in qatar in november.

there's a total of 32 spots available for the final tournament, and the last three will be known in june, one of them being e crane. that game had to be postponed because of the conflict going on, so we'll see if they make it to the world cup. what we can expect from the draw, teams are divided into four different pots and from those pots they'll be distributed into eight different groups. for mexico and the u.s., mexico and the u.s. are in pod 2, which means they can play teams like germany or the netherlands, and they will only face one of the world champions on pod 1, like france, or maybe spain. but also qatar, they take the first position as the host nation. all of this will be decided in a couple of hours and you can obviously watch it on telemundo. it will start at 8:30 a.m., so you can come join us. after the drawing is over, i'll bring you everything that happens and i will see you then.

>> thank you, carlos. you can watch the draw live on our spanish language partner's telemundo 48, and you can watch the draw live on peacock. right about now, bay area commuters could use a break. in some cases that is exactly what they're getting. ahead this morning on "today in the bay," the new outlook for lower gas prices and the big cut you can start taking advantage of as soon as this morning.

right now at 5:00, heavy military losses, new signs of cracks in the russian invasion. the latest setbacks for president vladimir putin in his push to conquer ukraine and the stunning revelations at the chernobyl power plant. >> this morning we are moving you forward. the new options if you're among those seeking the shot and the new outbreak forcing one north bay school to take a small step backwards. >> the bottom line is, if we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now. >> will the president's latest order lead to some relief at the pump? the yut look for bay area drivers and the new cut for some rail commuters starting as soon as this morning. this is "today in the bay." friday morning, we are here. we want to thank you so much for making us a part of your