Hello. In for Hallie Jackson with a breaking news special report. Donald Trump on trial as both sides now head into the weekend, preparing for bombshell testimony on Monday from the case's true star witness, Michael Cohen. The only person more central to this case than the former president himself, mister Trump's former so called fixer, whose name is all over this case, the indictment, the evidence, the testimony from a lot of witnesses. So far, prosecutors say Cohen is the man who coordinated the alleged hush money payments at the core of this trial, including $130,000 that went to stormy Daniels. But the payments themselves are not what landed Trump in court. Prosecutors charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to how he allegedly covered up those hush money payments and how he reimbursed Michael Cohen. Now, remember, Trump denies any wrongdoing and says he never even had the alleged affairs at the heart of this trial. But the prosecution's case is hinging hard on Cohen's testimony. And Cohen, a now enemy of the former president who served prison time for his own role in the alleged hush money scheme, will be a target of some of the most intense attacks yet by the defense today in court, a flurry of witnesses, adding to the nearly two dozen who have already taken the stand as the prosecution prepares for their last two witnesses, including Colin, indicating that they will be done with their case.

The prosecution will by this time next week. But right now, we're pulling back the curtain on all of today's legal wrangling. It's a lot to keep track of as we look ahead to one of the cases biggest moments with Cohen set to be grilled potentially for day after day after day next week. So for the next 20 minutes, we will explain why everything you just heard matters. We're taking you inside all of the rooms the cameras could not be in, but our reporters were. For the special inside look at the Trump trial. Our teams of reporters and legal and political experts are all on deck, ready to break it all down. Everything you need to know. We begin, as always, with the intrepid NBC's von Hilliard, who is at the courthouse. And he was there earlier today, I should say. Von, take us back. Now we're in the weeds again with witnesses whose purpose is really to get evidence into the record. Right. How does that set up Monday's testimony from Cohen?

Exactly. These were some of the final witnesses that the prosecution is bringing forward. They say they only have two witnesses left, of course, one of those being Michael Cohen. And as part of this process here for the prosecution, they want to bring in some records, including phone records, for instance. So you see employees of at and T and Verizon. You see the individuals like Madeleine Westerhout, who was an executive assistant who sat outside of Donald Trump's Oval office there and was the one who was sort of the gatekeeper for Donald Trump in and out of the Oval Office and the one who was able to execute on the actual transfer of things like checks. But then you also see two paralegals from the district attorney's office who were individuals who have reviewed social media posts by individuals like Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, but also went through hundreds of thousands of those text messages into emails and phone records and were able to parse through and find the relevant of it ones. Does this pertain to the case? And so you saw the prosecution as well as the defense, asking questions about some of the more technicalities around those documents.

You know, von, the jury's gotten to know Cohen pretty well already, right before he even takes the stand. So what have they already been told about this person who is so central to the case?

Right. He's a complicated character. He's already served prison time himself, stemming from the efforts to cover up the hush money payments to stormy Daniels before the election. And when you look at some of the testimony that individuals have already provided, you look at somebody like a hope Hicks, who worked with Donald Trump saying, quote, he used to like to call himself Mister fix it, but it was only because he first broke it. Gary Farrow saying Cohen was a difficult client. Keith Davidson, who was stormy Daniels attorney, calling Cohen a jerk. So really, everybody that has come forward had kind of a similar idea about who, what type of a man Michael Cohen was. He went from one point being his right hand, the personal lawyer, the fixer. And then he went to, in 2018, once this story became public, he turned on Donald Trump, testified up on, on Capitol Hill about him. And when you look at the words that have been spoken about him, they've sort of had some consistencies here. And you see quotes like, I didn't particularly like dealing with him. A pants on fire kind of guy. He created drama. Look at this.

This is the individual who will testify for potentially even three days next week, facing a litany of questions from the prosecution. Of course, Donald Trump's team, because he's going to be the one that lynchpin that brings the prosecution's entire case together and makes the case that he was directed to make that payment to stormy Daniels by Donald Trump.

He doesn't seem to have a lot of character witnesses standing up for him. But listen, last question here. Court ended today with some tense discussion between the parties about Cohen, who has been outspoken on social media about the case, including an appearance this week wearing a t shirt here depicting Trump in a jumpsuit behind prison bars. In light of that, what's the message from the judge now to Cohen? Take a look at that picture, by the way. Exactly.

This is actually sort of a similar message from Donald Trump's attorney yesterday about Stormy Daniels when she left the stand saying she continues to publicly attack Donald Trump, that Donald Trump, the gag order as it pertains to stormy Daniels should be lifted. Well, he's making the same case about Michael Cohen leaving the courthouse today, making the case to the judge that Donald Trump should be able to respond publicly to Michael Cohen outside of the courthouse because he continues to go on things like TikTok and talk about him. And you saw Todd Blanche explicitly say it's becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to talk about this witness, but this witness continues to talk about President Trump. To which Judge Mershon responded, quote, I am directing the people to communicate to Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any statements about the case or Mister Trump. That is the judge acknowledging that this is making it difficult when such a key witness continues to speak publicly and directly, asking the district attorney's office to tell him to pipe it down some.

Yeah.

Hey, Vaughn, you deserve a weekend. Thank you for your great reporting. We'll check back, I'm sure, on Monday. All right, let's break this down with our legal team. NBC senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett, former Maryland assistant AG Debbie Hines are both here right now. Laura, that request from the judge for Cohen to stop breaking, stop speaking about the case. First off, is Cohen obliged to follow that? And second, should he obey the judge regardless?

He's not obliged, but I think anybody would tell him he should follow a judge's stern warning and strong suggestion. Tom, I think one of the things that there's been a fundamental sort of disagreement and clash over as it relates to Cohen is that when he's been out there on tick tock wearing shirts with Donald Trump behind bars and trashing him on social media and the like, it obviously makes prosecutors job much harder. But hes not breaking any rule. Its not as if he was under a court order. Hes not the one that was indicted here. And its something that the judge has tried to convey, which is that when the former president is under this order, its so that it doesnt taint the proceedings. And when you are indicted, you have a certain restriction to some of your liberties even before youve been convicted. And its one of the things that his lawyers have pushed back hard on. But I just dont see the court actually putting the Cohen under a gag order formally, Tom.

But it doesn't help them, does it, when he's kind of, yeah, he's kind of poking the bear, as it were. Let's turn to Debbie here. Yeah, so, Debbie, this was really a setup date right today. The final details in place before we have Cohen on Monday. Any sense of what the prosecution is going to come out of the gate with on Monday?

So I think the best thing that they can do, and it's going to be problematic with Michael Cohen. I think they're going to try to make him, as much as possible, be human, not going to be able to make him be sympathetic, but basically setting the groundwork that he worked for years for Donald Trump.

Trump.

And for many, many years he was trusted by Donald Trump and he was liked by Donald Trump. And there are emails and tweets and whatever that basically showed that up to the point in time that Michael Trump, excuse me, that Michael Cohen decided that he was going to plead guilty. And that's when things change. So I think that's the first thing. And they're going to have to lay out, as a former prosecutor, they're going to have to lay out what the issues are with him through him, that he has basically been convicted of lying.

Yeah. He may not come off as likable, but is he credible on this issue?

Exactly. He's definitely, probably not going to come off as likable. But what the jury of twelve has to determine, do they believe him? They don't have to like him. I mean, as a former prosecutor, I've had to put on drug dealers to get a conviction. And so obviously the jury doesn't like drug dealers, it goes without saying. But you get your witnesses as you get them. I mean, yeah.

Laura, we mentioned how Cohen served three years in prison on charges related to this very same hush money payment scheme. How much of a liability is that going to be for him when, when the defense thing goes into cross examine him?

I think, again, it comes back to credibility, as you two were just saying. Does the jury, by his story, that he sort of saw the light, so to speak, after several years of being one of his fiercest defenders? The only defense tactic here, Tom, is really to say that Donald Trump has been certainly that essentially Michael Cohen, rather has been a victim here. And I just don't know that that's going to, that's going to work. The idea that he's motivated to cash in, and so therefore, that's why he's lying.

Now.

I think that's, that's going to be a bit of a stretch with this jury.

All right, back to debbie here. Michael Cohen has been in lockstep with a Manhattan DA on this case. Big day Monday. What does he do this weekend to prepare? What does this weekend look like?

I think he's going to be talking to the prosecutors this weekend, which is very much legitimate for prosecutors who prepare their witnesses to make sure, sure that their witnesses are in Lockstead with what they should be testifying, what the problems are, what the issues are. I think he should be going over some of the testimony and things he said before because he's clearly going to be cross examined on what he has said before, his inconsistencies, his lies. He needs to be prepared as much as the prosecutor needs to prepare him.

Robert, is he a bit of a hothead, though? I mean, I've watched him on cable tv for years, and he can go off quickly?

Oh, yeah.

That's where my heart goes out to the prosecutors on this one. Really? Absolutely. I mean, we're seeing that. I'm sure the prosecutors, they've so much have said that they told him, do not be posting anything online. That is what I would tell all my witnesses, do not be posting anything online. And does he do posts everything online? So, hothead. That's probably putting it mildly.

Okay, Laura, a lot of, as we discussed, a lot of the so called custodial witnesses today were on the stand so the prosecution can get the evidence into the record. Right. How important are these bit players as the prosecution prepares for Monday?

It's critical. It's not the most riveting testimony to sit through, but without it, they don't have a case. They have to sort of lay the foundation for the invoices, the check stubs, the vouchers, all of the paper that's a part of this case is the case. And so they have no other way to get it in by calling up the person who works at Verizon, by calling up a person who works at HarperCollins. All of these people have to come in, mostly because the two sides are at loggerheads. And so some of the stuff that would normally be agreed to or stipulated in other criminal cases, challenging everything. And so that's why you're seeing a lot more of sort of this laborious effort to bring in some of the more dry facts. Tom?

Yeah. Laura Jarrett at Debbie Hines, thank you both very much. Great analysis. We have some breaking news coming into us right now. Let's bring in Brian Stelter, who can help us analyze this. He's a correspondent for Vanity Fair. Brian, the breaking news is that we just found out Rudy Giuliani's radio show has been counseled over his false election claims, saying that he was fired for talking about the 2020 election. It's 2024. We're still seeing consequences for these false claims about 2020. Right. They're late to the show, one would think.

Yeah.

And that's curious about the timing. I think, I think I know what the timing's about. I'll explain that in a second. But it is related to your conversation a moment ago about the Trump trial, because these cases, whether they are criminal trials that Donald Trump was facing or civil trials that have been, that have been waged by the likes of Dominion voting systems, they are all about accountability for these past elections.

Right?

2016 election interference. That's what the Trump trial is about right now. And we know in 2020 numerous lawsuits have been filed against likes of Rudy Giuliani for, for false claims about voter machines, about voter fraud. Dominion Smartmatic, these are the cases we've heard about for years, and they are far from over. Remember, Dominion and Fox settled last year, but Dominion is waging other cases against Rudy, against Newsmax, et cetera. So I think we're going to see Rudy's radio show cancelation in that light. The owner of the radio station, who is a buddy of Rudy's, he said, I told him over and over again not to be talking about these false claims of voter fraud, but Rudy simply wouldn't stop. And so this owner of the station telling the New York Times this afternoon, we had to make a change. We had no choice. Why? Because the radio station, like Fox, like Newsmax, is fearful of further litigation. So, Tom, it all is of a piece. It's about accountability for these kinds of lies.

Okay, well, Giuliani has just issued a statement to NBC News, and I'm going to read it for you. Cold as I'm getting it myself. He says, I'm learning from a leak to the New York Times that I'm being fired by John Castamandis and WABC because I refuse to comply with their overly broad directive, stating word for word that I am prohibited from engaging in conversations related to the 2020 presidential election that may not quite conform with the facts. Right. You can talk about the election, you just can't spread disinformation and lies.

Yeah, disinformation is the key word. There was a policy shared with all the radio hosts at this conservative talk radio station in the days after January 6, after the attack, saying on air talent should not state, suggest or imply the election results are not valid or that the election is not over. And that's really what this all comes down to.

Right?

Tom, November of 2020 was a contested period. It was a stressful time for the nation. But by the time Rude Giuliani was holding that press conference where his hair dye was falling down his face, melting down his face, by the time that all happened, remember, 2020, this election was dead, signed, sealed, delivered and over. And Rudy, and people like Rudy have held onto it, trying to make a brand for themselves, trying to make money off of this. You know, basically, Rudy's radio show, he gets a cut of the ad revenue. He needs that money because he's being sued by multiple plaintiffs and he has that massive defamation payment settlement against him. This makes it even tougher for Rudy now going forward, having one of his main platforms taken away from him.

Yeah, and he still hasn't paid up on the defamation lawsuit, last I read. Listen, you have followed the long and dramatic fallout between Cohen and Trump. And how significant is it, then for the former president, who values loyalty above all else, that the man who was once his closest confidant could now play a starring role, potentially in securing his conviction?

Look, it's right out of Shakespeare. This is absolutely shakespearean. You know, Michael Cohen's betrayal of Donald Trump, that's the way Trump would see it has been years in the making. Right? Cohen had to go to prison because of his relationship with Trump. Cohen's life has been upended multiple times because of this relationship with Trump. And now to have Cohen testified next week in a criminal trial against Trump is in some ways, it's the peak, it's the, it's the finale of this long sorted story. But as you were just discussing, Cohen is so hotheaded, he has a very short fuse. Last time I spoke with him, he swore to me that he was going to move to Canada if Trump is reelected. And he indicated that's out of fear of Donald Trump. So this is a very complex relationship. And I think in some ways, next week's testimony, by far the most unpredictable. We knew what storm Daniels was going to say. We knew what Hopix was going to say. We truly don't know. Michael Cohen might say at any given moment.

Well, yes. And you're not sure Canada would accept him anyway? Listen, Cohen has been outspoken about Trump both on his podcast and recently with live streams on Tick tock. What do you make of that? I mean, he, he's accelerating this.

You know, I just mentioned Rudy trying to make money off of his brand. That's what my whole Cohen is doing as well. Cohen trying to, to make a quick buck on tick tock, for example, and trying to, I suppose, enjoy this strange moment in the limelight. Right. But, but Cohen has been very visible, very public, and that's been a problem for the prosecutors and the judge. So now that the judge has very clearly said, please, please keep quiet this weekend, that will be a test for Cohen in the next few days.

All right, Brian, thank you very much. Brian Stelter, now to the politics and all of this. We want to bring in our political pros. Hogan Gidley is a former deputy press secretary from the Trump administration and also rather Bissell, my apologies. Basil Smichel is a democratic strategist. Sorry, Bisel, I didn't mean to do that to you. Listen, Cohen has been championed by many on the left for his role in aiding investigations against Trump. Will he still have a place in many Democrats hearts if he fails to win over that jury on Monday, a.

Place in democratic hearts? I doubt that very seriously. You know, it's the kind of thing where you would say welcome to the resistance, but, you know, you really can't welcome him in that kind of fashion because, you know, we still owe into what was just said a moment ago. We still don't really know who this person is. And he's certainly not going tohes, not going to be so cavalier about wanting to promote democratic values, to be clear about that. And so, you know, thank you for your service, so to speak. But there's a long way to go before he becomes part of the resistance, per se.

Yeah. Hey, Hogan, Mister Trump has spoken about the, again today, about the possibility that he could see the inside of a jail cell. Take a listen.

Certain people, anything's even mentioned, he wants to put me in jail.

And that could happen one day, and.

I'd be very proud to go to.

Jail for our constitution. Okay. How much of that is an act? How much of this is energizing for his base and how much of it actually is off putting for his base, for the people who support him? The idea that he could be behind bars? Yes. Is the answer to all those things you just said. Listen, I think Donald Trump has done an outstanding job to this point, taking the weaponization that is clearly targeted against him in a biased fashion and turning it back on those who are coming after him and his supporters, etcetera. When he has these moments between hearings, he comes out and he makes comments like this, but he also talks about policies and issues that many people in this country actually care about. No one's really paying attention to this right now. The verdict, of course, is going to garner quite a bit of attention. But until that time, Donald Trump has brief moments where he can actually say some things like this. And the thought of trying to jail a president simply for saying things in defense of his own case against those who are coming after him is lunacy.

It's unconstitutional, and clearly so. And you saw that today when Trump's attorneys asked if Michael Cohen could please be under a gag order as well. And the judge didn't even grant that. What he said was to Michael Cohen's attorneys, hey, please tell your client not to do this anymore. He's wearing the robe. He's the one who can make that call. He clearly made it against Trump. He's not doing it for Cohen. And I got to tell you, up until this point, we've been having this conversation about a crime, but it's not been alleged.

What's the crime?

I'm still waiting for them to say, here's the charge. Here's what you're guilty of. No one's done that. And they're hinging their entire case on Monday on their star witness, Michael Cohen, someone who clearly isn't, well, he's a convicted liar. He's been in jail. There are a lot of problems with this case so far. Sadly, though, I think it could be baked because of the bias of the judge. Because of the bias. Well, let's process. There's a lot of falsehoods on all sides. On the side, I mean, the former president's track record, I'm being honest and forthcoming also isn't very clear, isn't stellar. But let me ask you, where does this go from here? Well, I mean, again, we're going to have to wait and see what happens on Monday. Obviously, Stormy Daniels entered into evidence a lot of things that the judge didn't want to have out there. Even though he was the one who allowed her to come on and go down that road, he didn't put an end to it. There are all kinds of ways this thing could be overturned on appeal. At this point, the mistrial petitions by the defense obviously have fallen on deaf ears.

But until we see what happens with the actual verdict, it's anyone's guess. To this point, the country's been pretty clear. 67% of those polled believed these attacks are all politically motivated. 56% believe Joe Biden's to blame for them. So it remains to be seen how this actually falls out or what it actually does to the campaign moving forward. Okay, Basil, real quickly, you have the split screen the world transfixed on a former president in court while the current president is, is out touting his successes and trying to win reelection. How high do you think frustrations are right now within the Biden's hq that the president has to play, kind of play second fiddle to this everyday court case in which Trump is, is appearing before the cameras every day as well?

You know, I'm not so sure it's second fiddle, but it is a split screen. And that's important because that juxtaposition is critical. While you see Donald Trump sort of having to defend himself outside of, inside and outside of a courtroom, what you see is Joe Biden out there on the campaign trail doing messaging events. Hes got his cabinet out there doing those kinds of events. And the vice president, by the way, which ive always thought is a very secret but strong weapon in the campaign doing the exact same thing. And if you pair that with, you know, the goings on in Congress and having majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries having to actually save the job of the existing speaker of another party, the lesson to be learned here is that Democrats know how to govern, Democrats understand good policy, and the republican nominee is on trial.

Basil Smichel, thank you very much. Hogan Gidley, thank you very much. Good analysis. We appreciate your time. A lot of other big headlines tonight. We're going to catch you up on all of it on this Friday when we pick up regular programming coming up right after the break. We continue here on a Friday coming on the air with a spectacular and quite possibly disruptive storm forming out in outer space. Particles blasting from the surface of the sun are set to light up the sky, but also could disrupt everything from power grids to your cell phone. We'll tell you what to watch for. And Florida is getting slammed by tornadoes as other parts of the region are looking to recover. We are live on the ground with the latest. Plus, target is trying to avoid a repeat of the backlash over its pride products. Remember from last year, how it's trying to balance its commitment to social issues with the bottom line and the message Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are bringing to Africa the tough topic they talk to kids about in Nigeria. That's coming up later in the show.

Good day.

Happy, happy Friday. I'm Tom Costello. Win for Halle. And tonight, for the first time in nearly two decades, a major solar storm is giving people around the world a chance to see a spectacular light show. The northern light, usually only visible near the Arctic Circle, could be visible as far south as Alabama. But the storm could also bring some problems, potentially interfering with satellite communications, gps, potentially even power grids. So what is the solar storm exactly? Well, it's called a severe geomagnetic storm, and it's caused by massive solar flares, plasma ejections from the sun slamming into the earth's magnetic field. Bill, Karen is joining me now for more on this. And, Bill, we had a lot about, we heard a lot, rather I should say, about solar storms during the eclipse coverage. That was last month, and now it's really heating up. I talked to an astrophysicist today. He told me this is a big deal. Take a listen.

If you still have your solar eclipse glasses from the April 9 eclipse, you go outside right now if the sun is up, and look at the sun only with your eclipse glasses, and you will see a monster sunspot region. These are, this is a very active.

Region of the sun.

It is 124,000 miles across. So that's 15 times the diameter of the earth across.

Yeah, it's huge. You need your eclipse glasses, though. This really underscores, Bill, that the sun is 93 million mile away, but we are at its mercy.

Right.

Why is this affecting us?

I mean, it just happened to be pointed right at us. So that huge sunspot that was erupting. So actually, this is an image of the, you know, we put this black here over this to cover the sun. And what you're seeing is what's shooting out from the sun. And that sunspot has shot out at least seven different mass ejections in the last three days. And it happened to be pointing right at Earth. So that's what's traveling through space right now and heading and hitting us. And that's why, you know, if you go right now, any of the webcams, right, the ski resorts in Europe, I mean, everything's pink. The sky is just pink. There's pictures from Paris, you know, with the Eiffel Tower. They can see this right now, the northern lights. And it's a pink sky across all of Europe. It's really incredible stuff. So as far as our country goes, this is the space prediction center. You can see some of the pictures there that we're showing you. This was actually from New Zealand. Earlier this afternoon, they were hit by, you know, the first solar storm hit about 01:00 eastern time. And the pictures that you're seeing there, it was mostly focused to the southern poles.

So we call that instead of the northern lights, the southern lights. It was an amazing show for them, but now we're seeing it a lot more in the north. So this green line is really the southern extent of where we are predicting that you should be able to see it. If you have clear skies. That's Salt lake city northwards, Denver northwards, Kansas City northwards, St. Louis northwards all the way. Just about Philadelphia northwards, now a little south of there. If you're in a high elevation and you're looking in the northern portion of the sky, you still may be able to see it a little bit at least. But of course, you need clear skies. And right now we are locked in the clouds all through New York, DC, Philly, all beneath the Binghamton area. There's some hope it could start to clear early tomorrow morning before the sun rises, but that's not even a great chance at that either. Tom, everyone know from the northern plains to the west, I mean, this should be an incredible show. You know, if you wake up tomorrow morning, everyone's out with their cameras. It should be incredible.

You know, I was on a call today with the space weather experts at NOAA, and they said people should not panic. But there have been solar storms with more serious impacts in the past, right?

Yes. They grade these, Tom, between geomagnetics or g zero one through five. Five being the most extreme. If only had, like, one of those. It was all the way back in the 18 hundreds. You know, it caused like, massive problems, you can imagine, before they even knew with technology what was going on. But some of the more recent ones, the last time we had anything like this was back in 2005. And then in 2003, on near Halloween, there was one that actually had, you know, disruptions. As far as the power grid went in Quebec, that was a big issue. And there can be some satellite problems. I've seen. I haven't heard anything officially released from Elon Musk or anything else, but I have heard that people have been losing their Starlink and they're asking, is it because of this geomagnetic storm? And those are the type of problems that we would expect to be seeing. Tom, I want to show you some of the things that we do know out of this one. So seven of them. And we do know that that sunspot, we heard the guy say it's about 15 to 16 times larger than the US.

The first one was this afternoon, the peak tonight, as far as all of these storms, because they're supposed to be overlapping, is going to be from midnight to about 04:00 a.m. So if you want to time it where you live and head out, make sure it's before sunrise. But the moon's setting at about midnight and that's the ideal time. Tom, if you want to get out there with your camera. I've seen people, even just with their iPhones with a long exposure, sending back some amazing images you do not need, like, you know, you know, thousand dollar lens for, for this show.

Noah said today you may get a better picture and a better view on your iPhone than your naked eye. By the way, happenstance, I'm flying to Iceland tomorrow, right? I just happen to be flying Iceland. Yeah, I may get a pretty good view, right? I mean, as long as the plane can still fly. And I suspect that there's no issue with that.

Yeah, satellites are the is. I haven't heard anything from any airlines about any of the navigation systems being harmed or anything else. This isn't like unheard of in the airline industry, but yeah, you want to go to Iceland, you possibly see stuff like this. Tom. Now the peak is supposed to be tonight. Now tomorrow night, they're still supposed to be about a g three. You know, tonight's like a g four, so slightly lower on the scale. But I expect to see some good pictures and stories coming from you. And maybe if there's an empty seat next to you, I should go join you.

Well, you'd have to kick my wife out, but. Okay, Bill, thanks.

We can leave you here and I could go.

That's just what I'd expect from you. All right, Bill, thanks very much. All right. More unrelenting severe spring storms with tornadoes are now striking parts of Florida. And another just reported in Georgia late today. Take a look at this. Downed trees, heavy rains up to 70 mph, where something like 166,000 people are without power right now. And this week alone, we've seen a whopping 1500 dangerous and sometimes deadly storms slamming across the country. Texas to Maine, including about 120 tornadoes and counting. Take a look at this. Six inch hail found in Texas in an overnight storm, damaging buildings there, downing power lines. At least one person injured by flying debris. NBC's Priya Shreether is on the ground in Georgia. And Priya, you are standing next to some serious storm damage. What more can you tell us?

Yeah, that's right, Tom. Well, this is the scene that many people here in the south woke up to this morning. Look at this massive. It's a hundred year old oak tree that just fell off of its roots. Fortunately, it fell into the sidewalk. So the homeowners are all okay. They were home at the time. They didn't even hear the tree fall. But as you can see, it's completely wiped out this fence. But the real city that got absolutely slammed today was Tallahassee, as you mentioned. They woke up early this morning to severe thunderstorms and hail and even two suspected tornadoes. Tragically for one woman, a tree fell into her home, and she did die. And so this has been absolutely devastating and heartbreaking for so many. There was also massive damage and destruction at Florida State University, where actually their big top circus tent, this school is known for having a 75 year old circus that's made up with student of student performers, got completely destroyed basically today. And so right now, everyone is still dealing with all of the damage and this destruction. And as you mentioned, tens of thousands of people are still without power.

Tom.

You know, Priya, the south is used to rough weather, but this has been a really rough stretch. Right. I'm wondering, how are people dealing with it? Are they just about done?

Yeah, that's right. You know, I was in Tennessee yesterday, Tom. As you know, we spoke, there was a massive ef three tornado that swept through that city, 140 miles per hour winds. And people there say they're used to tornadoes, but not this sort of level of seriousness. And the people we spoke to today in Tallahassee said the same thing. They're used to hurricanes in Florida, not necessarily tornadoes. So I mentioned Florida State University had a lot of damage. We got a chance to speak to some of the students there about what they experienced this morning. Take a listen.

This is nothing like we've ever experienced before.

And we've experienced, like, you know, obviously some, some pretty strong, like, name storms that have come through. Obviously, those are a little different because we can prepare. I'm not sure there's any preparation we could have done to fully mitigate this.

So as you can see, people have been really scared. This is something they're not accustomed to. And the good news, Tom, is that this weather system is going to be moving off the atlantic coast tonight. So we're going to have a break from the severe weather, at least for the next few days.

Okay? We hope so, Priya, thank you very much. All right, let's get you over now to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. Number one, a federal appeals court has upheld Steve Bannon's criminal conviction for define a congressional subpoena from the House January 6 committee. Remember, Bannon was convicted back in 2022, sentenced to four months in prison, but the trial judge allowed him to stay free pending his appeal. Bannon still has the option to ask the full DC appeals court to hear his case, as lawyers did not immediately respond to our request for comment. Number two, the Biden administration says it will provide nearly $200 million to fight the spread of bird flu in the US. The virus has been found among dairy cattle in nine states over the past couple of months. Roughly half of the money will go towards dairy farms and the other half to the FDA and CDC to include testing efforts and vaccines. Number three, a chinese zoo, get this, is accused of pulling a fast one on its visitors after dying a couple of dogs so they would look like pandas. They're actually chow chows painted black and white.

The zoo says they were clearly advertised as being, quote, panda dogs and the puppies were not harmed in the process. Number four, the WNBA is reportedly heading to Toronto. The team would be the first outside of the US for the women's Pro league and is expected to start playing in 2026. No word yet on the team's name. Number five, the Social Security Administration has released the most popular baby names in 2023. The names are Liam and Olivia are at the top. They're the top two again. Noah and Emma came in second place. Tom is number 82. Coming up, hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars and a Mercedes Benz, all things federal agency, they found at a senator's home. What to expect next week when his corruption trial begins. Plus, why Target is significantly limiting the number of stores that sell its Pride line this year. Remember, last year's really the big concerns we're going to get into all of that coming up next. Back now. And news that Target is offering a more limited pride month collection in stores this year. After facing some pretty intense conservative backlash over its pride products last year, the move now raises new questions about how companies can find the balance on social issues while maintaining their bottom line.

NBC's more Barrett has more.

Tonight. Target toning down its Pride line ahead.

Of Pride month I noticed that Target has some Pride items online, but conveniently not in stores. Not that I really love the whole rainbow capitalism, but the fact that they aren't even trying to get our money this year.

In 2023, the company sold Pride apparel at its more than 1900 stores. But this year, the size of its Pride collection could be significantly reduced, selling its merchandise at select stores but making it all available online. That decision based on historical sales data, Target said in a statement. This comes after target sales dropped for the first time in six years following 2020 three's conservative backlash over its Pride products in store.

Honestly, Target, what is going on?

This is pretty disgusting. At the time, targets that employees were receiving threats, so they removed, quote, items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.

Because we're in 2024, which happens to be an election year, and the topic has more visibility, you know, with voters and also consumers, we're finding out there is a price on principals impressive carrying skills.

Right?

I got some Bud lights for us.

This all follows the controversy after Bud Light's partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Bud Light and F Anheuser Busch.

Nearly a year later, the brand still seemingly hasn't recovered beer sales for Anheuser Busch Embev, which owns Bud Light, remained flat, losing its crown to Modelo as America's top selling beer for the first time in 22 years.

This is some of the residual leftovers from the Bud light problem. No company out there wants to lose sales when it comes to the marketing and the advertising. That's where they don't want to experience the blowback, and that's where you see them slowly walking back into their own closet.

A shift as corporations seemingly shy away from taking a stance on consumer social issues.

And so Maura joins us now, and it seems like what's going on here is target is kind of really a reflection of the broader cultural divides in the country right now.

Right, Tom, for context, just two years ago, I reported on how companies were actually leaning in to take a stance on corporate issues of social issues. Excuse me, because that's what consumers and employees wanted to see. Now, this is a very stark comparison, and it directly relates to the attack on gender affirming care that we've been reporting on the anti trans movement, specifically because the backlash that Target saw was against their trans supportive items as well as pride items for children. Target is taking away its kids line this year as part of their scale back with the pride apparel. And so as all of this is unfolding, it's clear that they're trying to lean into, you know, away from any backlash from one side but might not be considering backlash from the other. The Human Rights Commission actually gave NBC News a statement saying target's decision is disappointing and alienates LGBTQ individuals and allies at the risk of not only their bottom line, but also their values. And so it is a tough balance that these companies have to figure out to navigate but especially in a polarizing year like we're seeing now, it's something that we'll have to continue to watch to see how everyone reacts to this decision.

Tom?

Yep. Maura, thank you very much. NBC News covers hundreds of stories each day. Nobody can read, watch or listen to everything. So our bureau teams have done it for us. Breaking down the highlights in the regions, and we call the segment the local from our southern bureau. A man in Florida has been arrested on multiple charges after biting, biting a chunk out of a sheriff's deputy's head during a music festival. Police say the attacker was a volunteer at the event. And under the influence of multiple substances, he allegedly assaulted the deputy and tried to take his gun before officers restrained him. The deputy was taken to a hospital for treatment. And our DC bureau is reporting that the school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, that we told you about yesterday just voted to restore confederate names to two schools after removing the confederate names back in 2020. The school board about 100 miles south of us in DC, now the first in the nation to reverse its decision on removing those confederate names from public buildings. And out of our midwest bureau contractors in Michigan followed an extension cord to the roof of a grocery store.

They found a woman living there. The woman says she lived at the store's sign for more than a year, furnishing it with a small desk, a coffee machine, a printer, a computer. Police say the woman agreed to leave and she will not face any charges. The corruption trial for the New Jersey senator accused of making himself and his wife rich in exchange for political favors is set to start on Monday. Prosecutors say Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine used the senator's possession position to help the government of Egypt. In return, prosecutors say they received items like what you see here, hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars or Mercedes Benz and more. The couple is pleading not guilty. So are two businessmen charged in the alleged scheme, although a third businessman pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the others at trial. The couple is going to be tried separately with the senator's trial starting next week, his wife's trial tentatively set for July 8. Sahil Kapoor joins me now with more. And so, Hill, do we know more about the recent court filings suggesting Menendez's defense plan may include blaming his wife? What can you tell us about this?

Well, Tom, Senator Menendez has indicated that he'll be present at this trial every day it's occurring. That means probably taking time off. The Senate, which is expected to be in session through most of the rest of May. He has not indicated whether he will testify. He's looking at 16 counts on a whole range of issues, including acting as a foreign agent, accepting bribes, obstruction of justice, writing checks to cover up those bribes. He insists he's completely innocent. And as far as his wife is concerned, those two trials have been severed. And Menendez's lawyers have indicated in court filings that if he's called to testify, he could testify that these actions that they're being accused of were taken by his wife without his knowledge and therefore prove his innocence. That doesn't necessarily mean he will use that defense. It's possible he won't take the stand at all, which would be a common thing for a criminal defendant in his position. But nevertheless, that possibility is out there. And, you know, if he gets his way, then those claims that he's making might not be able to be used in his wife's trial as well. Menendez has bowed out of the democratic primary, but he has kept the door open to running for an independent highly unlikely he would win.

His time as a public official is likely to come to an end regardless, this year.

And this is all happening, though, in the run up to a major election. Republicans on the hill and the campaign trail have already been making allegations without evidence that the president, President Biden, is corrupt. And now we have these indictments against Menendez and another democratic lawmaker, Congressman Henry Cuellar. The GOP seems likely to lean on that up to the election, right? Or is this risky for any party?

Yeah, they're very likely to try. You know, they're already calling, Republicans are already calling Henry Cuer crooked and corrupt. But you got to look at this and see that the Justice Department is indicting two prominent Democrats who happen to be supporters of Joe Biden. It certainly cuts against the GOP narrative that he's somehow using his Justice Department as a political weapon to target his enemies. These two men are certainly, certainly not his political enemies. Now, when it comes to Congressman Cuellar, let's take a look at the charges he's facing. They include conspiracy to commit bribery, actual bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services, wire fraud, acting as agents of a foreign principle, conspiracy to conceal money laundering and money laundering itself. If worst case scenario, he could be looking at years, maybe even decades, in prison. Congressman Cuellar also insists he's innocent. He also insists he won't resign. And he insists also that he will continue to run for reelection in what is a very competitive district that Republicans now certainly think they have a better shot at.

Tom, say, Hill, thank you very much. Still to come from us, how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are bringing their message on mental health to Nigeria and what happened during their pit stop in the UK. We're coming back. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are landing in Nigeria today for a three day visit to promote the Invictus games that Harry founded for wounded veterans. The Sussexes are starting the trip by encouraging schoolchildren not to be afraid to talk about their mental health. Take a listen.

Mental health affects every single person in.

The entire world, and the more you.

Talk about it, the more you can kick stigma away.

NBC's Matt Bradley joins me now with more on this. And, Matt, tell us what Harry and Meghan have planned for the next two days of their trip.

Yeah, so this is the couple's first visit to Nigeria. And so the trip really has three kind of main components here. There's the Invictus games, or the cause that, you know, Harry has embraced for much of his life, which is wounded veterans. And that's one of the reasons why he was visiting London before this trip. It's one of the reasons why he's visiting Abuja in Nigeria. To talk about the Invictus games, in which wounded soldiers play against each other. It's a big, big deal, and it's become global. It's a huge success. Then there's also female empowerment, which, of course, is one of Meghan's big issues, and mental health, which is what Harry and his whole family have been championing for years now. And so they're going to be doing a lot of meetings and talking about that. You know, this is one of the issues that they're trying to drive home in Nigeria, the importance of mental health in a place where there isn't a lot of mental health options for a lot of people who are suffering from it. And tomorrow we're going to get to see Prince Harry playing in what sounds like a wheelchair volleyball game from, played by veterans, which is one of his major causes.

So this is going to be a pretty vibrant, but pretty quick three day trip. It sounds like the couple are then going to be headed all the way back to California. Tom?

Yeah. You know, before, I guess before they arrived, the couple stopped. Stopped in the UK for a service marking the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games. Notably, though, Harry did not stop by to see his father, King Charles. I was reading some of the british papers today suggesting that he had been snubbed. What do we know about what happened?

Yeah, well, obviously, you know, Tom, I mean, the british papers are never shy when it comes to speculating, especially about the royals, we don't know that they were snubbed, if you were to believe the official explanation, which no one seems to these days when it comes to the royals. But what we heard from the king was that he was too busy. And then we also heard from Prince Harry and his people, his camp, saying that they understood that the king was too busy. He is, after all, the king. But, of course, this set in motion a lot of gossip and a lot of speculation like you were reading, you know, whether or not these two men, father and son, are still on the outs after so much has whirled this family, namely Prince Harry's book spare, which was unsparing, if you will, in its criticism of the royal family. And, you know, Harry's older brother William, and actually Charles's wife, Camilla, it was a pretty, pretty harsh book. So there's a lot of bad blood that's still resonating from that. And that might be what we saw on that really brief trip to London.

Okay, call me the skeptic, but the king has cancer. His son comes in from America and the king has no time to see him. I don't know. That seems suspicious to me. You're not going to comment? Okay.

Hard to know. Hard to know. All right, Matt, thanks. I don't have an ear inside the palace.

I wish I did work on that.

Will you? All right.

Matt Bradley, thank you. Thank you very much. When we come back, an NBC News broadcast exclusive by one gay couple says New York City is discriminating against them and the way they want to have kids. That's in our original. Stay with us to tonight's original now with in depth reporting on a topic we're keeping an eye on. And tonight it's an NBC News broadcast exclusive with a gay couple filing a first of its kind class action lawsuit against the city of New York, alleging the city is discriminating against them because its insurance plan does not cover in vitro fertilization for gay couples. NBC News daily anchor Sinclair Issamois has the exclusive.

We met in 2011 in law school.

So youve been married for eight years. Did you know you would want to grow your family?

Yeah. That was almost a prerequisite to, you know, getting into a relationship.

But to meet that prerequisite as a gay couple seeking biological children, Nicholas Majapinto and Cory Brisken needed in vitro fertilization. They expected IVF to be covered by Brisken's insurance, but it wasn't.

I remember also thinking at that time, wow, it's 2021 in New York City, and we're facing this issue. That's wild. And now we're in 2024, three years later, and the policy remains on the books.

Now they're filing a class action lawsuit against New York City officials and offices alleging the city has categorically excluded gay male employees and their partners from receiving.

IVF benefits as gay men. As we're a single man, where there is no uterus in the relationship, there is no path towards coverage.

Historically, infertility has been defined as a disease or condition caused by a failure to get pregnant within a year of unprotected sex involving a female partner. As of March 2024, only seven states, including New York, require insurers to cover IVF for same sex couples who cannot conceive on their own. The couple, who live in Brooklyn, initially filed a legal complaint with New York City's equal Employment Opportunity Commission back in 2022, but NBC reporting found the city said it does not provide IVF benefits to surrogates and as a result, could not provide the requested benefits to Majapinto and brisken. The couple says they only wanted coverage for IVF. At least four other states are now weighing updated IVF coverage mandates.

Everybody in this state who wants to.

Have a child should be able to do so.

It comes as the traditional definition for infertility is shifting to recognizing all persons, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity. But not all states recognize this definition.

Title VII protects people in their employment realms from discrimination.

Attorney Victoria Ferreira specializes in fertility cases.

The argument on the other side, having a baby is elective. Do we then have to mandate coverage for all elective procedures?

It sounds like a philosophical question of whether or not people have an innate right to have a child.

I think you're right. Is there a right to have a child?

And it's also impacting private insurance. Earlier this month, healthcare giant Aetna settled a years long class action suit and will now offer equal fertility coverage to same sex couples, couples like Emma Goidel and Alana Kaplan, who say they spent more than $50,000 on fertility treatment after Aetna rejected them.

It's really gratifying to know that so many people, so many of those people are going to be positively impacted by.

Aetna's decision here, Aetna tells NBC News. In part, we are committed to providing quality care and pleased to reach a resolution to this matter. As for this New York couple's ongoing suit, in response, the mayor's office tells NBC News the case, quote, will be.

A long process for the 300,000 plus city employees who is standing up for them to make sure that this wrong is set right.

These husbands hoping their case can spark change for others. And it's important to add that NBC News reached out to the ten largest health care companies asking about their fertility insurance coverage options. We did not immediately hear back. Now, as for that couple, Corey and Nicholas, they tell me they're expecting an embryo to be transferred soon and are hoping for a child in the next year.

We wish them well. Sinclair, thank you very much. You can catch Sinclair every day on NBC News Daily from two to 04:00 Eastern right here on NBC News. Now that is a wrap for this hour. The coverage resumes right now on news now. Top of the hour. We come on the air with a spectacular and quite possibly disruptive storm forming, where in outer space, particles blasting from the surface of the sun are set to light up the sky. It could also disrupt everything from power grids to cell phones. We'll tell you what to watch for. Coming up, Florida getting slammed by tornadoes again as other parts of the region look to recover. We are live on the ground with the latest and we're setting the stage for what could be the biggest week yet at the Trump trial. You've heard that, but this time we're talking about Michael Cohen's testimony coming up next week. Plus, the feud between the chinese government and the Dalai Lama actually spilling into the afterlife. That's tonight's breakdown. And the the israeli Gaza war even impacting the massive Eurovision competition will tell you what's being done to make sure the israeli contestant can in fact sing safely.

Good day, I'm Tom Costello. I am in for Halle. And a severe solar storm is currently sweeping across our planet and the views are spectacular. Look at that. These auroras, usually only seen at the furthest latitudes north and south, are now all over, like here in New Zealand. And check out the view from the top of the Swiss Alps. Look at that. Incredible. But while it looks beautiful, and it is, it could also cause some problems, like interfering with cell phone services, satellite communications, gps and potentially even impacting power grids, sparking some brownouts or blackouts. We'll see. It's because of this massive nuclear reaction on the sun surface. Solar flares blasting giant plumes of particles at 500 miles/second and then slamming into the earth's magnetic field. NBC's Bill Karen is joining me now for more on this. Bill, I talked to an astrophysicist about the potential disruptions. He told me some of them are already happening. Take a listen.

A g four is really big and we might absolutely see some effects down here on earth. Some, you know, cell phone might not work. Definitely have radio blackouts. Those have already started to happen.

Yeah, he talked about a g four. This is a g four storm. And Bill, it just. I'm always stunned when I do these space stories. We are at the mercy of the star we call the sun, 93 million mile away. Right. How is this going to affect us?

I mean, there's the wow aspect and then there's obviously possible consequences like we've had in the past, you know, going back through history with these. But this one is setting up like the biggest in at least 20 years, possibly 30, 40, 50 years. The pictures in Europe, they're coming from southern latitudes, all the central portions of Italy. We showed you the picture, the cameras. This is the latest image from Zermatt. So this is way up high in the atmosphere. This is Matterhorn. And you could just see this isn't doctored at all. And this is what it looks like across all of Europe. I grabbed a couple other images. Let me take you to Austria. And what got me with this one is that you want to get away from the city lights, but notice the town and the city lights and you can still see the greens, you can still see the purples and the pinks here. I mean, this is a very strong aurora. We just hit k nine this afternoon. It was k eight. So there's a scale of how the magnetic field is doing. And we're at k nine right now. And this is from Germany and this is in the mountains.

And it is so bright that it's actually. The camera can't even really pick it up. There are pillars that are shooting up in the sky here. And this is what is coming to us as soon as the sun sets. And I know a lot of people, if this is on your bucket list, this is the night to do it. Once the sun sets, if you can get in a clear spot and you want to see it about from the southern half of the US northwards, you have an excellent chance. So what happened is the sunspot. We're in solar cycle 26. This is the strongest sunspot. It was pointed right at the earth and it had about seven big coronal mass ejections that headed right for us. And that's what we're getting over the next three days. And so they're saying that the potential southern extent is roughly through about the central portion of the country, Tom. But I'll tell you what I've seen other forecasts on, like the University of Alaska that are much further south. And everything I'm seeing out of Europe saying that this is much further south than expected. So, you know, if you're in, say, places like from Atlanta to Dallas, northern portions of New Mexico, central California, you have a shot.

I mean, pay attention tonight if this is something that interests you.

Yeah. The NOAA space guy I talked today said was Alabama, as far as south as Alabama. And I was on the call with these guys at NOAA, and they said people should not panic. This isn't something that happens every day. But in 1989, I think it was, right, Quebec, they were out of power. It knocked out their power system for like 9 hours.

Yeah, 1989 was one of the bigger ones we've had with the most biggest consequences as far as the power grids go, more recently the 2005. And then there was a Halloween one right around 2003, and both of them had some power outage, outage problems remotely, but it was satellite issues, too. You know, the biggest one we ever had. You know, we keep talking about this g scale for geomagnetic scale. The biggest one, we had a g four this afternoon. There's only been one g five. That's like the top of the list. You know, it's like, if you want to compare it to like an ef five tornado or a cat five hurricane, that's the top, very, extremely rare. That was in 1859. And they had like, telegraph machines that were sparking in people, you know, just in offices. So we don't think this is going to get like that severe, but this is going to be something people are talking about. And if you want to see it tonight, you have to get where you're out of the clouds. And that's probably the biggest thing we're going to focus on. You have to get away from city lights, away from the clouds.

And it looks like about midnight to 04:00 is the peak. Obviously, we see what's going on in Europe right now, Tom, and they're in what we'd call their peak right now. And it's just starting in the evening. I just checked Iceland out for you, too, and so the sun is about to set. So we'll see what that looks like. Looks like shortly. Yeah.

To pick up on Bill's point, I'm flying to Iceland tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to maybe I'll catch some of this. And how long will these storms last here? How long will we get this kind of a night vision like this? These, the aurora borealis views.

Right. So that sunspot, you know, for the last two to three days, you know, had seven big eruptions. We got the first one this afternoon. So we got five or six to go. We're going to get a couple overlapping ones later tonight. That's why it's supposed to be the big peak where it will like pulse at different times. So far, I haven't seen a lot of the greens that you're seeing on your screen here. We're getting a lot of the purples and a lot of the pinks. If you look at any of the cameras in Europe at high elevations, I mean, in Paris with all the bright lights of Paris, you can actually see a pink hue in the sky time. I mean, that is a very strong aurora. You know, this is one that we haven't documented in a long time.

It's pretty cool. Thank you, Bill. We'll be watching Bill. Karen's more unrelenting severe spring storms with tornadoes are now struggling parts of Florida. And another just reported in Georgia late today. Take a look at the downed trees. Heavy rains up to 70, where something like 166,000 people are without power right now. And this week alone, we've seen a whopping 1500 dangerous and sometimes deadly storms slam across the country. Texas to Maine, including a stunning 120 tornadoes and counting. Take a look at this. Six inch hail found in Texas in an overnight storm there, damaging buildings, downing power lines. At least one person injured by flying debris. NBC's Priya shredder is on the ground in Georgia. Priya, you're standing next to some pretty significant damage and I'm sure they're watching the night sky and a little concern tonight.

Yeah, that's right, Tom. Just take a look behind me here. This is just a small glimpse of what many southerners woke up to this morning. This massive 100 year old tree just uprooted from its roots and fell, fortunately towards the sidewalk and away from the house. So the worst damage here is just this fence. And thankfully the homeowners who were home at the time are okay. But that wasn't the case for some. Over in Florida, Tallahassee, the latest city to just get pummeled by the severe weather system. Two suspected tornadoes, a massive thunderstorm system that led to a little bit of flooding and also hail there. It absolutely destroyed Florida State University's circus programs tent. So they're known for the 75 year old circus performance that's made up of students. And now they've essentially lost their home. One woman also tragically died in the storms. A tree actually fell into her home while she was inside of it. So this has just been a day full of destruction and devastation.

All right, Priya, thank you very much. Priya Shrither is watching it for us tonight. Both sides and former President Trump's criminal trial are heading into a weekend of prep for bombshell testimony on Monday from, who else? Michael Cohen, the case's true star witness, the only person more central to the case than the former president himself, mister Trump's former so called fixer, whose name is all over this case. Right. The indictment, the evidence, the testimony from a lot of witnesses so far, prosecutors say Cohen is the man who coordinated the alleged hush money payments at the core of this trial, including the $130,000 that went to Stormy Daniels. But the payments themselves are really not what landed Trump in court. Prosecutors charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to how he allegedly covered up those hush money payments and then how he reimbursed Michael Cohen, all, of course, to hide the affair from the voters. Remember, Trump denies any wrongdoing and he says he never even had the alleged affairs at the heart of the trial. But the prosecution's case is hinging hard on Cohen's testimony. And Cohen, now an enemy of the former president who served prison time for his own role in the alleged hush money scheme, will be a target of some very intense attacks by the defense.

As we come back up on Monday and the week after today in court, a flurry of witnesses adding to the nearly two dozen who've taken the stand as the prosecution prepares for its last two witnesses. And that includes Cohen indicating that prosecution could be done with the case by this time next week. So we've got team coverage on all of this. We begin with NBC's Yasmin Vesuvian, who's been on this trial from the beginning. And you're out of the ring. Nice to see that. Yasmin, we saw a lot of people that you wouldn't know testify in this trial today, but break down for us why these folks are critical, right? They were just kind of connecting the dots, right?

Yes.

So, so stormy Daniels obviously was an incredibly salacious testimony that we heard over the last couple of days throughout the week. Michael Cohen, a lot of folks are going to be tuned into that starting on Monday. Obviously, also, very salacious testimony, key to the story here, key to the linking of everything. But today, we had a lot of witnesses that helped, as you said, tom. Right. Connecting the dots. And it's all about the documents, right? The star witness in this case is in fact, the documents, it is the text messages, it is the phone records, it's the recorded phone calls as well. And that is why they had to have some of these witnesses on in order to admit into evidence some of these text messages and phone records. I mean, we had a witness on from at and T from Verizon as well. Daniel Dixon, Jenny Tomlinson. Georgia Longstreet is a Da, a paralegal, excuse me, for the Manhattan DA's office. And also Jaden Jarmell Schneider also served as a witness today. And their responsibility. More. Tom was collecting much of the social media information, text message exchanges, for instance, between Dylan Howard and Gina Rodriguez, who is the manager for Stormy Daniels, and kind of building the timeline, the text messages beginning in April of 2016 leading up to October 26 of 2016, when Michael Cohen subsequently paid off stormy Daniels.

But in order to admit some of this evidence into record, they needed to have Georgia Longstreet, for instance, the paralegal from the Manhattan DA's office who collected this information to testify in front of the jury. Also, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was in court because two of his employees were, in fact, testifying.

Tom, I saw that. So he was not, he was not actually taking a role in the trial, but he was there as moral support for his attorneys. Is that right? Right.

And he's been there only a couple times before. The last time was also when Georgia Longstreet, who was recalled today, testified on the stand.

Listen, the jury's heard about Michael Cohen. They not heard from him. But what they've heard about him has not always been very flattering.

No. And that's what the defense is planning here.

Right.

They're going to go after Michael Cohen's credibility after, as they did with Stormy Daniels. They're going to say, you're a convicted felon, you lied under oath. This is part of their attack during cross examination. And what I've heard from a lot of our sources is much of the testimony from Michael Cohen is going to rely heavily on documents as well, versus relying more on his anecdotal retelling of what happened and why it was Donald Trump wanted him to pay Stormy Daniels off in the weeks leading up to the November election. Let me just read for you some of the comments we've heard from some of the witnesses so far. Hope Hicks saying he used to like to call himself Mister fix it, but it was only because he first broke it. Gary Farrow, a banker, saying he was a difficult client. Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels attorney. Cohen was a, quote unquote, jerk. Also some of the other words used to explain him challenging, didn't particularly like dealing with him. Highly excitable, pants on fire kind of guy, talking out of two ears, creating the drama. Michael Cohen has been talking out a lot. But Tom on social media has been advised, though, by attorneys for the prosecution, along with the judge, Judge Juan Marshawn, saying, talk to your client ahead of Monday.

He cannot continue to do this.

Yeah. Including this t shirt that shows Trump behind bars. Listen, I don't want to blindside you, but we have some breaking news coming in right now.

Yeah.

Mister Trump's youngest son, Barron, apparently now will not be a delegate at the RNC this summer. Barron has come up quite a bit during this trial, and he is apparently declining to go forward. Any idea, any insight into this Wednesday?

Elected as delegate at large, getting a statement in from Melania Trump with regards to him dropping out and saying, and I quote, while Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments. And just want to reiterate here tomorrow, Don Junior, Kimberly, Kimberly Goldfoyle, who is Don Junior s Eric Trump as well, along with Tiffany Trump, her husband, all serving as delegates at large in Florida to elect the former president of the United States in his run up to reelection as a republican presumptive nominee for president.

Yeah, you wonder if his mom stepped in and said, no, I don't want my 18 year old kid doing this. At least not yet. Listen, real quickly, Mister Trump and his legal team have been really upset about Cohen continuing to speak out about the case constantly in these podcasts and tick tocks. I mentioned the t shirt. He's selling this t shirt of Trump in a prison themed, you know, kind of outfit. The defense called for a gag order, much like the one that Mister Trump is under against Cohen and the judge. How did he react to that? He just kind of, he didn't order a gag order, but he strongly suggested that it would be in his best interest to clam up.

The defense wanted a real amendment to the gag order. They wanted Michael Cohen's name out of it. They wanted Stormy Daniel's name out of it as well. Because right now the gag order is kind of more blanket gag order over all witnesses, over all the jury as well. Hence why it was he was found in violation of a gag order. Just last week when he said 95% of the jury was Democrats. The judge said, no, I can't do that. This is about all Whitney witnesses, current and supposedly also future testifying. However, when it came to Michael Cohen in the lead up to what we now know will be his testimony on Monday, here's what the judge said because he has now changed his tune on it because Michael Cohen has repeatedly gone on tick tock, for instance, to react to what he's hearing coming out of the courtroom. Todd Blanche from the defense saying it's becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to talk about this witness, but this witness continues to talk about the president. Judge Juan Marshawn saying, I am directing the people to communicate to Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any statements about the case or Mister Trump.

And by the way, I was just on, I was just on with Donny Deutch on MSNBC and he said he's talked to Cohen today and it seems as if he's gotten the message. So we'll have to wait and see what happens between now and Monday. But he's taking the stand Monday. Sure to be a huge week, very huge week with this trial can come.

Keep quiet over the weekend. That's going to be a test. Yasmine, thank you very much. We appreciate your great coverage. Danny Savalos is joining us now. Hey, listen, Judge Merchant did not go for the gag order argument against Cohen. Is that something he might reconsider once Cohen's possible days of testimony get going here on Monday, he might. I was in the courtroom today and frankly, I thought that what the judge's conclusion there, it was one that he could have arrived at. I think I would have arrived at a different conclusion. I think Cohen at this point does warrant extension of the gag order. Instead, the judge went right up to that line, almost went that way, but instead told the prosecution to tell Cohen that it's coming from the bench for you to stop it. The problem is Cohen's not going to be intimidated of the judge where as any mere mortal, a direct message from the judge to knock it off and stop talking about the trial would have anybody else shaking in their boots. Michael Cohen knows that anything short of an actual gag order extended to him is free license to keep doing what he's doing.

He's got a podcast. His job is he talks. Yeah. Hey, listen, we saw with Stormer Daniels that the defense's playbook was to discredit, discredit, discredit, right. Cohen is a convicted felon, a known Trump hater. The prosecution needs to call Cohen. He is the center of this case. But putting him up against Mister Trump's legal team, that's a risk. Also for the prosecution. Right. It's different. It's a different risk than the Stormy Daniels risk. And I've said this a few times. Stormy Daniels I view as an unnecessary risk. The prosecution didn't need her. I think they could have gotten every piece of evidence that they wanted and they've already gotten it from elsewhere. Michael Cohen, they do need Michael Cohen, I expect, will have some direct evidence of what Donald Trump told him to do or why he wanted to do it. The problem for prosecutors is that Michael Cohen has credibility issues. That's why they called all these other witnesses and introduced all this other evidence. So that when Michael Cohen is attacked for his lack of credibility, the prosecution will be able to point in closing and say, okay, even if he lacks credibility, look at all these documents and these other people's testimony who corroborate some of the things he said, people whose credibility is unimpeachable, people like hopicks, people like Madeleine Westerhouse.

Look at the documents they introduced. And then even if you think Cohen's a liar, what he says matches up with the things that don't lie and documents and some of these other witnesses didn't lie.

Yeah.

The former DA we had on an hour ago said, listen, I've had on pretty plenty of prosecutions witnesses who did not, who are not necessarily likable. Oh, yeah. Were they believable? And that's the bottom line, Danny. I got to move on. But thank you very much. Danny Savalos. The University of Wisconsin Madison, just in the last few hours, has reached a deal with protesters to clear out the pro palestinian encampment at that school. You can see the encampment being cleared out now. Protesters agreed to not disrupt this weekend's graduation ceremonies in exchange for the university meeting with students to discuss the school's, quote, disclosure and investment principles. Across other campuses in the country, university leaders are using fours to clear encampments before the graduation celebrations. We've seen officers in Rio gear show up to the University of Pennsylvania today, arresting 33 people. That's a day after the state's governor said it was past time for Penn's administration to get things under control. Similar scenes played out at MIT and the University of Arizona today where officers removed encampments. In the case of the University of Arizona, that came just hours before the school scheduled graduation ceremony.

George Solis joins me now from the University of Pennsylvania. And, George, graduation there is just ten days away. What's it feel like on campus right now?

Well, you can imagine it's kind of tense. I mean, a lot of students are prepping for finals, prepping for that commencement here. The tone and tenor very different after police came, of course, and removed that encampment. Something to note, Tom, from the university here. Of those 33 people that were arrested this morning, seven of them were actually Penn students, the rest of them, those outside agitators, outside influencers, as described by authorities. And the university when they take down these encampments. There was discussion trying to find some kind of deal between the encampment organizers in here and the police and the university that did not come. That's why you saw those scenes play out. Of course. The governor also weighing in, saying it was basically time to take this down, the university saying this had become a distraction, and a lot of the students here started to feel unsafe. So that's why all of this played out. Right now there's actually a police presence still on campus making sure the encampment doesn't go back up. And now you need a student id to actually get to that part of the campus where all of this played out.

You mentioned commencement is, of course, right around the corner there, Tom. So the new rules in place right now know, basically think of TSA rules. You can't really bring anything. Some of those rules were going to be in effect anyhow. But nevertheless, with all of this happening, something to consider for those planning to attend the commencement here.

Yeah, George. And I've been struck by how many schools and police departments have said that the people who, that they, who they've arrested were not even students, or a good percentage were not even students. George. Thank you very much. GEORGE SOLIS, breaking in just the last hour, the Biden administration is saying that Israel may have broken international law in Gaza while using american weapons. That according to a report drafted by the State Department. But they stopped short of officially saying that's what Israel has done because they can't make a definitive link. It comes as we're also learning the US is still sending weapons to Israel, even after stopping shipments of thousands of heavy bombs to the israeli army. This is all exposing a possible new strain between longtime allies here over Israel's plan to possibly launch that all out ground assault in Rafa, where a million people are sheltering. And ceasefire negotiations again appear at a standstill tonight. Hamas now says it is going back to square one, and that's going to be a very, very tough situation to watch how grown it has. More from Cairo, Israel says it has.

Enough weapons to go ahead with a large scale offensive in Rafa, despite the fact that the US has publicly objected to those plans and despite the fact that the Biden administration has suspended a shipment of weapons containing 2500 pound bombs. So we understand the US has continued to supply Israel with smaller scale weapons. This is happening as the israeli prime minister has said that he hopes to overcome his differences with President Biden, but that the Rafa operation is necessary to defeat Hamas. Meanwhile, the closure of border crossings into Gaza is causing more humanitarian misery for the civilians displaced in the besieged enclave. Though the US president says that the large scale Rafael offensive hasn't started, tens of thousands of people have heeded calls to evacuate and are on the move right now. We understand from the World Food Program that there will run out of food in southern Gaza if more aid does not arrive by Saturday. And so the civilian population in the Gaza Strip is waiting to see if the large scale offensive have happens. And if it does, will they have anywhere left to go to seek shelter?

Okay Halligrani, thank you very much. Coming up from us, a very scary scene in Argentina. How emergency authorities there say two trains collided. Plus, new plans from McDonald's tonight. Why the chain is looking at a new option to attract more customers. Stay with us. Coming up on the bottom of the hour. And the corruption trial for the New Jersey senator accused of making himself and his wife rich in exchange for political favors is set to start on Monday. Prosecutors say Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine used the senator's position to help the government of Egypt. In return, prosecutors say they received these items here, hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars, Mercedes Benz, and even more. The couple is pleading not guilty. So are two businessmen charged in the alleged scheme, although a third businessman pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the others at trial. The couple is going to be tried separately with the senator's trial starting next week and his wife's trial tentatively set for July 8. Sahil Kapoor joins us now. Do we know more about the recent court filings suggesting Minetnis defense plan may include blaming his wife? What can you tell us about this?

Well, Tom, Senator Menendez has indicated that he'll be present at this trial every day it's occurring. That means probably taking time off. The Senate, which is expected to be in session through most of the rest of May. He has not indicated whether he will testify. He's looking at 16 counts on a whole range of issues, including acting as a foreign agent, accepting bribes, obstruction of justice, writing checks to cover up those bribes. He insists he's completely innocent. And as far as his wife is concerned, those two trials have been severed and Menendez's lawyers have indicated in court filings that if he's called to testify, he could testify that these actions that they're being accused of were taken by his wife without his knowledge and therefore prove his innocence. That doesn't necessarily mean he will use that defense. It's possible he won't take the stand at all, which would be a common thing for a criminal defendant in his position. But nevertheless, that possibility is out there. And, you know, if he gets his way, then those, those claims that he's making might not be able to be used in his wife's trial as well. Menendez has bowed out of the democratic primary, but he has kept the door open to running for an independent, highly unlikely he would win.

His time as a public official is likely to come to an end regardless this year.

This is all happening, though, in the run up to a major election. Republicans on the Hill and the campaign trail have already been making allegations without evidence that the president, President Biden, is corrupt. And now we have these indictments against Menendez and another democratic lawmaker, Congressman Henry Cuellar. The GOP seems likely to lean on that up to the election, right? Or is this risky for any party?

Yeah, they are very likely to try. You know, they're already calling, Republicans are already calling Henry Cuer crooked and corrupt. But you got to look at this and see that the Justice Department is indicting two prominent Democrats who happen to be supporters of Joe Biden. It certainly cuts against the GOP narrative that he's somehow using his Justice Department as a political weapon to target his enemies. These two men are certainly not his political enemies. Now, when it comes to Congressman Cuellar, let's take a look at the charges he's facing. They include conspiracy to commit bribery, actual bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services, wire fraud, acting as agents of a foreign principle, conspiracy to conceal money laundering and money laundering itself. If worst case scenario, he could be looking at years, maybe even decades, in prison. Congressman Cuer also insists he's innocent. He also insists he won't resign. And he insists also that he will continue to run for reelection in what is a very competitive district that republicans now certainly think they have a better shot at.

Tom Sahil, thank you very much. All right, let's get you over now to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. And this is important. Number one, russian troops have launched a ground assault in northeastern Ukraine today. The authorities in Kiev say they were expecting this new offensive for months. Ukraine's defense minister said says it is rushing reserve units to the area. It comes as President Biden announced today the US will send another $400 million in aid to Ukraine. Number two, the Biden administration says it will provide nearly $200 million to fight the spread of bird flu in the US. The virus has been found among dairy cattle in nine states over the past couple of months. Roughly half of the money will go towards dairy farms and the other half to the FDA, the CDC, to include testing efforts and vaccines. Number three, get this. A chinese zoo is accused of pulling a fast one on its visitors after dying a couple of dogs. So they look like pandas. See, they look like pandas, right? They're actually chow chows painted black and white. The zoo says they were clearly advertised as being, quote, panda dogs.

And the puppies they say were not harmed and not bothered. And they kind of like the paint anyway. Number four, I made that up. Number four, McDonald's is working to put out a $5 value meal across the US. It could have things like McChicken or McDouble, four piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink. And it comes at a time when low income consumers are starting to pull back on spending at fast food restaurants. McDonald's declined to comment to CNBC about this. Number five. Social Security Administration out with the most popular baby names for 2023. The names included Liam and Olivia. Again at the top, Noah and Emma came in second. Tonight, news that Target is offering a more limited pride month collection in stores this year. After facing some pretty intense conservative backlash over its pride products last year, the move now raises questions about how companies can find the balance on social issues while maintaining their bottom line. NBC's Maura Barrett has more tonight, Target.

Toning down its Pride line ahead of Pride month.

I noticed that Target has some pride items online, but conveniently not in stores. Not that I really love the whole rainbow capitalism, but the fact that they aren't even trying to get our money this year.

In 2023, the company sold Pride apparel at its more than 1900 stores. But this year, the size of its Pride collection could be significantly reduced, selling its merchandise at select stores, but making it all available online. That decision based on historical sales data, Target said in a statement. This comes after Target sales dropped for the first time in six years following 2020 three's conservative backlash over its Pride products in store. Honestly, Target, what is going on?

This is pretty disgusting.

At the time, Target said employees were receiving, receiving threats, so they removed, quote, items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior because.

We'Re in 2024, which happens to be an election year, and the topic has more visibility. You know, with voters and also consumers, we're finding out there is a price on principles.

Impressive carrying skills. Right? I got some Bud lights for us.

This all follows the controversy after Bud Light's partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Bud Light and Anheuser Busch.

Nearly a year later, the brand still seemingly hasn't recovered beer sales for Anheuser Bush embev, which owns Bud Light, remained flat, losing its crown to Modelo as America's top selling beer for the first time in 22 years.

This is some of the residual leftovers from the Bud light problem. No company out there wants to lose sales when it comes to the market and the advertising. That's where they don't want to experience the blowback. And that's where you see them slowly walking back into their own closet.

A shift as corporations seemingly shy away from taking a stance on consumer social issues.

And so Maura joins us now, and it seems like what's going on here is target is. Is kind of really a reflection of the broader cultural divides in the country right now.

Right, Tom, for context, just. Just two years ago, I reported on how companies were actually leaning in to take a stance on corporate issues, on social issues. Excuse me. Because that's what consumers and employees wanted to see. Now, this is a very stark comparison, and it directly relates to the attack on gender affirming care that we've been reporting on the anti trans movement specifically because the backlash that target saw was against their trans supportive items as well as pride items for children. Target is taking away its kids line this year as part of their scale back with. With the pride apparel. And so as all of this is unfolding, it's clear that they're trying to lean into, you know, away from any backlash from one side but might not be considering backlash from the other. The human Rights Commission actually gave NBC News a statement saying targets decision is disappointing and alienates LGBTQ individuals and allies at the risk of not only their bottom line, but also their values. And so it is a tough balance that these companies have to figure out to navigate. But especially in a polarizing year like we're seeing now, it's something that we'll have to continue to watch to see how everyone reacts to this decision.

Tom.

Yep. Maura, thank you very much. When we come back, the final round of the Eurovision Song contest is set for tomorrow. But there's another reason people are talking about the contest. We're talking about it with our reporter in Sweden. Yeah, we have one. Plus, the feud between China, China and Tibet spilling into the afterlife. That's coming up next. In the breakdown, the long time political and spiritual feud between the chinese government and the exiled Dalai Lama now spilling into the afterlife with Beijing and the Dalai Lama himself clashing over who will succeed the 88 year old when he ultimately passes away, we're digging into why the Dalai Lama is China's red line. In tonight's breakdown, NBC's Josh Letterman has more.

He's the world's most famous buddhist figure, a global beacon of peace and serenity, beloved by people of many faiths. The 14th Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of tibetan Buddhists, but he's also a huge thorn in the side of China. Now, the Dalai Lama is 88 years old, and as he gets older, a long simmering crisis over his replacement may be nearing a boiling point. As a tibetan Buddhist, his holiness is everything. Tenzin Lodo is a university of Virginia student, the son of tibetan refugees. To become a mini version, a mini Dalai Lama for myself is the most highest yet challenging ideal that I've placed upon myself. China's communist government doesn't see it that way. Ever since China annexed Tibet in the 1950s, it's viewed the Dalai Lama with suspicion, you might even say fear. As China worked to suppress calls for tibetan independence, the Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 to India, where he founded the tibetan government in exile in the late 1980s. And again in 2008, violent protests against chinese rule broke out in Tibet. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama for the unrest and insists it has the right to pick his successor.

I've heard people compare his holiness to sort of the pope, but I think a more accurate analogy would be Jesus Christ. You can't imagine the US interfering in the pope's elections or, you know, in the birth of, you know, Jesus Christ or something like that. That's just preposterous. Tibetan Buddhists believe when a Dalai Lama dies, he's reincarnated and that they must search the world to find the new Dalai Lama. For about 500 years, they've used a sacred process that involves seeing visions in a holy lake in Tibet and testing children to see if they recognize the deceased Dalai Lama's old belongings. But Beijing insists the next Dalai Lama must come from inside China, chosen by picking a name out of a golden urn.

They're an atheist state, communist state. They don't believe in religion, but they've convinced that they have to have a.

Dalai Lama of their own who will.

Persuade Tibetans on their behalf that they.

Are part of China. It all sets the stage for the possibility of two Dalai lamas, one picked by China and one by tibetan Buddhists. How will Tibetans around the world respond if China picks its own Dalai Lama? It will be unpredictable. There might be unrest. China's embassy in the US told us the Dalai Lama is a political exile under the cloak of religion, accusing him of engaging in anti China separatist activities. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has kept coy about how he'll be replaced, saying he expects to live well past 100 and raising the possibility he could be reincarnated as a woman. And decades ago, he stepped back from his political role as the leader of Tibetans in exile, hoping to lower the temperature with China.

Since 2001, I completely retired. The elected political leadership, you see carry all these responsibilities. So I think eventually we can teach Chinese how to practice our democracy.

He's also pursued what he calls a middle way, making clear that while Tibetans should be free to live and worship as they please, he's not seeking independence, an approach that seems to be paying off.

China is changing now. Last few years, I have some contract.

That'S raising hope that maybe there could be room for negotiation, even a pre death agreement between one of the world's most powerful governments and revered religious figures. The Dalai Lama has said that when he turns 90 years old, he will issue a letter to monks announcing whether he'll be reincarnated as a human and if so, what the process will be now that birthday is set to come next year, which may be one reason that China is signaling it is increasingly nervous about what happens next. Tom.

Josh Letterman, thank you very much. NBC News covers hundreds of international stories every day. It's awfully tough to read, watch or listen to everything, so our teams around the world have done it for us. And here's a look at what they're watching. We call it the global out of Russia. A bus plunged off a bridge in St. Petersburg, killing at least three passengers today. Emergency services say six others were hospitalized. Security cameras captured the moments before of the bus crashing into another car and falling into the river before below Russia. Media says police detained the bus driver. In Argentina, at least 90 people were hurt today after a passenger train coming from Buenos Aires hit an empty box car. You could see the massive response there to the scene. The head of the city's emergency services says dozens of ambulances responded to take people to area hospitals. The accident is under investigation. Out of the UK, two people in their eighties attempted to ruin an original text of the Magna Carta in a London library. There they are trying to hammer away at the case holding the document. The protesters, one of them an anglican priest, they were quick, quickly stopped by security staff.

Apparently two of the four original Magna Carta documents are in this library. They did not sustain any damage, though. We're told Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are landing in Nigeria today for a three day visit to promote the Invictus games that Harry founded for wounded veterans. The Sussexes are starting the trip by encouraging schoolchildren not to be afraid to talk about their mental health. Take a listen.

Mental health affects every single person in.

The entire world, and the more you.

Talk about it, the more you can keep stigma away.

NBC's Matt Bradley joins me now with more on this. And Matt, tell us what Harry and Meghan have planned for the next two days of their trip.

Yeah, so this is the couple's first visit to Nigeria. And so the trip really has three kind of main components here. There's the Invictus games, or the cause that Harry has embraced for much of his life, which is wounded veterans. And that's one of the reasons why he was visiting London before this trip. It's one of the reasons why he's visiting Abuja in Nigeria to talk about the Invictus games, in which wounded soldiers play against each other. It's a big, big deal, and it's become global. It's a huge success. Then there's also female empowerment, which, of course, is one of Meghan's big issues, and mental health, which is what Harry and his whole family have been championing for years now. And so they're going to be doing a lot of meetings and talking about that. This is one of the issues that they're trying to drive home in Nigeria, the importance of mental health in a place where there isn't a lot of mental health options for a lot of people who are suffering from it. And tomorrow we're going to get to see Prince Harry playing in what sounds like a wheel wheelchair volleyball game from, played by veterans, which is one of his major causes.

So this is going to be a pretty vibrant, but pretty quick three day trip. It sounds like the couple are then going to be headed all the way back to California. Tom?

Yeah. You know, before, I guess before they arrived, the couple stopped. Stopped in the UK for a service marking the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games. Notably, though, Harry did not stop by to see his father, King Charles. I was reading some of the british papers today suggesting that he had been snubbed. What do we know about what happened?

Yeah, well, obviously you know, Tom, I mean, the british papers are never shy when it comes to speculating, especially about the royals. We don't know that they were snubbed, if you were to believe the official explanation, which no one seems to these days when it comes to the royals. But what we heard from the king was that he was too busy. And then we also heard from Prince Harry and his people, his campaign, saying that they understood that the king was too busy. He is, after all, the king. But, of course, this set in motion a lot of gossip and a lot of speculation like you were reading, you know, whether or not these two men, father and son, are still on the outs after so much has whirled this family, namely Prince Harry's book spare, which was unsparing, if you will, in his criticism of the royal family. And, you know, Harry's older brother William, and actually Charles's wife, Camilla, it was a pretty, pretty harsh book. So there's a lot of bad blood that's still resonating from that. And that might be what we saw on that really brief trip to London.

Okay, call me the skeptic, but the king has cancer. His son comes in from America and the king has no time to see him. I don't know. That seems suspicious to me. You're not going to comment? Okay.

Hard to know. Hard to know. All right, Matt, folks, I don't have any ear inside the palace.

I wish I did work on that, will you?

All right.

Matt Bradley, thank you very much. When we come back, an NBC News broadcast exclusive by one gay couple says New York City is discriminating against them and the way they want to have kids. That's in our original. Stay with us to tonight's original now with in depth reporting on a topic we're keeping an eye on. And tonight is an NBC News broadcast exclusive with a gay couple filing a first of its kind class action lawsuit against the city of New York, alleging the city is discriminating against them because its insurance plan does not cover in vitro fertilization for gay couples. NBC News daily anchor Sinclair somewhat has the exclusive.

We met in 2011 in law school.

So youve been married for eight years. Did you know you would want to grow your family?

Yeah. That was almost a prerequisite to, you know, getting into a relationship.

But to meet that prerequisite as a gay couple seeking biological children, Nicholas Majapinto and Cory Briskin needed in vitro fertilization. They expected IVF to be covered by Brisken's insurance, but it wasn't.

I remember also thinking at that time. Wow. It's 2021 in New York City and were facing this issue. That's wild. And now we're in 2024, three years later, and the policy remains on the books.

Now they're filing a class action lawsuit against New York City officials and offices alleging the city has categorically excluded gay male employees and their partners from receiving.

IVF benefits as gay men. As we're a single man, where there is no uterus in the relationship, there is no path towards coverage.

Historically, infertility has been defined as a disease or condition caused by a failure to get pregnant within a year of unprotected sex involving a female partner. As of March 2024, only seven states, including New York, require insurers to cover IVF for same sex couples who cannot conceive on their own. The couple, who live in Brooklyn, initially filed a legal complaint with New York City's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission back in 2022, but NBC reporting found the city said it does not provide IVf benefits to surrogates and as a result, could not provide the requested benefits to Majapinto and brisken. The couple says they only wanted coverage for IVF today. At least four other states are now weighing updated IVF coverage mandates.

Everybody in this state who wants to.

Have a child should be able to do so.

It comes as the traditional definition for infertility is shifting to recognizing all persons, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity. But not all states recognize this definition.

Title VII protects people in their employment realms from discrimination.

Attorney Victoria Ferreira specializes in fertility cases.

The argument on the other side, having a baby is elective. Do we then have to mandate coverage for all elect procedures?

It sounds like a philosophical question of whether or not people have an innate right to have a child.

I think you're right. Is there a right to have a child?

And it's also impacting private insurance. Earlier this month, healthcare giant Aetna settled a years long class action suit and will now offer equal fertility coverage to same sex couples, couples like Emma Goidel and Alana Kaplan, who say they spent more than $50,000 on fertility treatment after Aetna rejected them.

It's really gratifying to know that so many people, so many of those people are going to be positively impacted by.

Aetna's decision here, Aetna tells NBC News. In part, we are committed to providing quality care and pleased to reach a resolution to this matter. As for this New York couple's ongoing suit, in response, the mayor's office tells NBC News the case, quote, will be.

A long process for the 300,000 plus city employees who is standing up for them to make sure that this wrong is set right.

These husbands hoping their case can spark change for others. And it's important to add that NBC News reached out to the ten largest health care companies asking about their fertility insurance coverage options. We did not immediately hear back. Now, as for that couple, Corey and Nicholas, they tell me they're expecting an embryo to be transferred soon and are hoping for a child in the next year.

We wish them well. Sinclair, thank you very much. You can catch Sinclair every dAy on NBC News Daily from two to 04:00 Eastern right here on NBC News. Now that is a wrap for this hour. The coverage resumes right now on news now. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media.