allowed to protest this way and allowed to tie up traffic on the golden gate bridge, or tie up traffic on interstate 880? in the heart of oakland in the middle of the morning commute on monday, many people wondering why law enforcement isn't taking more action, acting more swiftly to remove the protesters and to clear the roadway. those are questions for another time, as right now the situation is very much ongoing. we'll keep covering it for you here on ktvu, as we ktvu, as we we have been all morning, the news at noon starts now. >> this is ktvu, fox two news at noon. >> and good afternoon i'm gasia mikaelian i'm andre senior. >> we continue to follow that developing news right now that breaking news in fact protesters taking over the golden gate bridge as part of interstate 880 as well. you're looking at side by side pictures here on the left side of your screen, you see the golden gate bridge on the right side of your screen. you see what was happening on 880. it's still happening. in fact, right now, protesters chained to one another as law enforcement in riot gear, clearing them from the roadway.

it created a complete nightmare for the morning commute. and we have team coverage for you this noontime. ktvu amanda quintana and tom vacar standing by live along interstate 80, but first, let's go to ktvu christien kafton. he's at the big problem area at this very moment, which is the golden gate bridge. christian and, it's still showing no sign of letting up just yet. >> yeah, really, in the last minute, since we've started the show, there has been a flurry of activity. we saw a line of chp vehicles coming down off the bridge heading south into san francisco. so presumably that means that they're starting to clear that presence. and if we can go ahead and show you what the bridge looks like now, you can see that at this point, there is still no vehicle traffic. but again, literally 30s ago or so we saw a row of about ten or so chp vehicles making their way southbound off the bridge. they came off the bridge, turned around in a little parking area just to the east of the bridge, and then went underneath, we might be

able to see them, perhaps come up on the other side of the toll plaza in that direction. but at this point, still no vehicles coming across, if we turn, we might be able to see it looks like some service vehicles starting to make their way, southbound on the bridge. it's tough to see. so we're going to have to look in the distance there. joseph. just a little bit to the left, if we go to the left there a little bit, we'll be able to see those service vehicles starting to make their way southbound on the bridge, perhaps an indication that they're going to start, clearing all of the emergency vehicles that were on the bridge again, like i said, we saw a row of chp vehicles that all came off at once. earlier, we saw a bus that came off, presumably again holding some or all of the protesters, so at this point, we are still waiting to figure out exactly when the golden gate bridge is going to reopen, as you said earlier, this protest had been going on, since early

this morning, since around 7 or 8. we talked to people who told us that they'd been trapped here at the bridge for at least three hours. when we spoke with them. i was, running down the hallway, brushing my teeth so i wouldn't be late for work and got the bus on time. >> and now i'm sitting here for an hour. you know, the protest is just not going to help any child in gaza, you know, and or any sympathy, you know, and it's a complicated situation. i know that. but to, you know, to hold up people who are genuinely trying to get to work doesn't help anybody. >> so again, we did see, a busload, it was a golden gate transit bus headed southbound. and that bus had earlier backed up onto the bridge, presumably with the task of, gathering up the protesters and getting them into san francisco once they were removed by law enforcement. we did see that happen earlier,

so we if we can come back to our live shot, you might be able to see some of the chp vehicles now making their way again off the bridge. these are vehicles that are now heading south in the northbound lanes. so this was a very again, large response. a lot of, emergency vehicles making their way to that protest whichever way they could. so that would mean that we're going to see some vehicles again, headed, north in the southbound lanes, south in the northbound lanes, more of those chp vehicles now making their way off the bridge. so this is an indication we don't have a certainty at this point, but this is an indication that some of the law enforcement effort here is being dialed down, presumably because they have those protesters in custody. and if we look on the span, we can see that some of those emergency vehicles, now that fire vehicle backing its way off, you can see those chp vehicles all making their way southbound off the bridge at this time. so that again, an indication that this

is starting to wind down. no indication at this point of exactly when the bridge is going to reopen to traffic in either direction, we can also see in the distance there a tow truck, towing a vehicle off, perhaps the vehicle of some of the protesters who were here, who were unable to remove their vehicle, so again, you can see that ambulance, that fire vehicle backing their way off, and you can see that tow truck there in the distance. we also did have a chance to talk with, some of the protesters here. now, not all of them were on the bridge. some of them were on the south side and the pedestrian area where we were able to meet and discuss what they were doing. they said that they knew full well what they were doing, that this was an intended effect, part of a global effort to disrupt global commerce. they say their message is clear. they want the biden administration to withdraw aid for israel, which they say is harming the people of gaza. we have some sound from

one of those protesters, coming up. >> we're here to stop the flow of commerce. we've stopped it for most of this morning and into independent actions are happening across the nation, and we hope that people will start listening when it hits our economy. >> again, so they say that this was a directed effort at disrupting the economy. they say that that was one of the reasons why they picked these major arteries, the major freeways in san francisco. we've been bringing you that coverage all morning long. and of course, the golden gate bridge, stopping traffic and commerce from going north and south through this area. when i asked that protester whether they were concerned about people, perhaps, getting frustrated, people who perhaps would share, their ideology but don't approve of their methodology, they said, that that they should hope that people would understand that protest is a way of affecting

change. they say that there was precedent for this. they say that the precedent goes back to the vietnam era, the civil rights era. they say that they are conducting the exact same kind of effort here. so again, it appears at this point in time that things are beginning to wind down here at the golden gate bridge. we've seen that outflow of emergency vehicles making their way into san francisco. we did see that bus earlier, presumably with protesters on board making its way into san francisco at this point, we do not have a timeline of when either the north or southbound lanes of the golden gate bridge will reopen. we will continue to monitor developments out here and bring those to you as they occur. for now, we are live here at the golden gate bridge in san francisco. christian captain ktvu, fox two news christian. >> thank you. even before that action on the golden gate bridge started, pro-palestine protesters blocked 880 northbound in oakland, about 12 miles or so south of where christian is. that situation where amanda keenan has been reporting live has developed since 630 this morning. it's part of an economic blockade expected in cities worldwide.

some protesters are still there, but your situation also has changed. amanda >> yeah that's right. so there is one protest left. it looks like still on the freeway, and we could see that two lanes have now opened up so you could see, police there bringing that tarp out again so that they can continue to cut out that final protester that is sitting there from the big oil barrels that they are likely attached to. so we you know, we've been reporting here all morning. this was the first event that started here at 630 this morning. there were six protests, sitting across the freeway, all of them attached to these big oil barrels, which seem to be filled with concrete, something that's causing it to be very difficult for police to get them out of those barrels. they've been

using saws, jackhammers a lot of different tools to try to get them out of there and remove them from the freeway. so right now we've seen five people be removed so far. there's one that is still there. the five people, we've been watching as they kind of have them gathered over there on the freeway there, there are some that are, being detained. you know, they have their hands behind their back with zip ties. initially, they weren't all being detained because we saw some just standing there, one with their fists up in the air, so it looks like recently in just the last few minutes, they have put zip ties on all of them, this is obviously a planned effort today with the goal of disrupting the global economy, this is one of many cities across the world where they're expecting these blockades. but here in the bay area, this was the first one that we saw. and they did have a huge sign this morning when police were arriving that said a 15 that stands for april 15th,

and this is a big day that they were going to have these blockades all over the world to disrupt economic, logistical hubs and try to jam up trade choke points, they say that the global economy is complicit in this ongoing genocide of palestinian people in gaza. so here, on the side of the freeway, we've been seeing more people show up with flags. you could see one gentleman just got here about ten minutes ago with an israeli flag that he's holding up there, and there's a woman with a large palestinian flag. so they kind of were, you know, butting heads a little bit, standing next to each other, trying to put one flag in front of the other, i talked to one supporter who came. he saw that this was happening on social media, and he came to hang his palestinian flag and show his support. so let's hear from him. >> well, there's a genocide going on halfway across the world, and people have to be informed about it, whether it's going to work, whether it's on

social media. people need to stay informed of what's going on. babies are dying. >> now, we have seen many protests like this in the last few months in the bay area, we saw him at the port of oakland, the bay bridge, sfo, and then we're seeing multiple today now on the a 15 website, which is this whole effort that's happening today. they say there's a need to shift now from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy. so that's really what today is about. that is why they're shutting down these areas. they're shutting down 880 the golden gate bridge. that's the whole goal here, so right now we've been watching this, but only two lanes open still. and they are going to continue to work on that last protester that's sitting there, but the first protester, it took them two hours to cut them out of that barrel. and then it's taken about an hour for each to get them out of there. so this could still be here for a couple more hours. still, though, two lanes

are able to move through right now. live in oakland. amanda quintana ktvu, fox two news. >> all right, amanda, thank you for that update. we'll check in with you shortly. here meantime, just up the road a couple miles up the road there, 880 and seventh tom vacar is where there was a protest right by one of the main entrances to the port of oakland, that is really snarled the traffic at the port of oakland. tom, what can you tell us about the protests there ? >> well, there have been some developments here, and they mostly point towards ending this thing. you'll see a one person up on the freeway who is walking down. earlier, five minutes ago, about 20 people came down. a few stayed here, but the rest of them, as you can see, these folks on the left, they're getting ready to leave. and about 20 others walked up the road here, going towards the post office in west oakland. bart now, having said that about people coming down, i did notice that three other people went back up on the freeway where there were quite a few people, well, more than the 20 who came

down that are probably still up there. but again, people have come down and they seem to be loading their stuff up and leaving or walking away, and that is really the situation, right here, right now. earlier, i spoke to a guy named bill abouti who, told me that he said that there's a lot of support for what's going on at the port here, even though it's inconvenient. but there are many protests and many actions here at the port. and he says that, you know, a lot of the drivers, the truck drivers come from all over the world, and they are very sensitive to what's going on in other parts of the world, more so than most americans are. and as a result, they kind of support what's going on even though it's costing them money, time and effort and energy and all of that stuff. but again, at this point in time, this appears to be ending, but it's not ended completely, simply because there are still people up there. as i said, few just went up there. so whatever is going to happen here is going to last for a while. we're going to stick around and we'll be back in a little later in the newscast to tell you

exactly what's going on back to you. >> all right, tom, thank you. it's been a full eight hours now since allie rasmus gave her first traffic report this morning. started off as a normal monday morning. allie. then things kind of went haywire in that 6:00 hour. what are what are the results you still see from your vantage point in the traffic center? >> well, we still see a residual impact from some of the road closures. the total road closure of northbound 880, that was in effect for about five hours. that's where amanda quintana was. and as you heard her say, two lanes in that northbound direction are open. and there's still a pretty significant backup because of that. any time you shut down a major thoroughfare like this and 880 is that roadway that gets a lot of traffic on a normal monday morning. anytime you shut it down, even for a short amount of time, let alone several hours, you're going to have a lingering impact. so you can see that from this picture here. now where you see these two exclamation marks there that is where tom vacar was. that's where his protest

was happening. and that has also led to some traffic problems just north of there in the east shore freeway. now from there, we'll go over to the golden gate bridge. you see here on the traffic map. it looks like it is still shut down in both directions, but here is a live picture that we're showing you. so now you see the chp escorting those cars. some of those drivers have been waiting in that traffic backup on the middle of the golden gate bridge span for, almost more than four hours at this point. now, they are finally moving and getting off the golden gate bridge. this is breaking news just happening. just developing. these are the first pictures we're seeing of chp escorting some of those trapped drivers who were behind a protest that broke out in the middle of the golden gate bridge. now finally, four hours later, being escorted off the road, this is an aerial view from our news chopper, and you can see there was a huge backup here at the golden gate bridge.

for many hours. we saw some of the protesters being led away, with zip ties behind their backs. according to christien kafton, who is nearby the scene on doyle drive on the south end of the bridge. they were able to take some of those protesters that they detained on to a bus on the bridge. but for a couple of hours after that protest had ended, we still saw this backup here. now you see it is finally starting to clear up. earlier this morning, when this protest first happened. there you see it. that is the backup that we saw shortly after this protest happened just before 8:00 this morning. and so those drivers are still stuck, you see there. so it looks like they're going to escort the people who are on the span of the golden gate bridge off first, and then you see at the bottom of the screen there are two chp vehicles. i believe in the next half hour or so, maybe even less than that. it looks like they're getting in the car at any time now. they're going to start escorting this

traffic backup that extends well into marin county. final across the golden gate bridge. so this has been a big traffic disruption for the morning commute for bay area drivers trying to get to where they need to go. you know, the first of these demonstrations happened just before 6:00 this morning. that was the one on northbound 880 at embarcadero, once that happened, and then we saw about an hour later this second protest break out on the golden gate bridge. we started to get the word out to people that driving today was going to not be your normal commute. there. you see live chp escorting the remaining backup. all the drivers who were stuck behind, the span of the golden gate bridge. finally being led across, after several hours being stuck in place there north of the golden gate because of a protest that happened. the pro-palestine protest that happened in the middle of the golden gate bridge, so at least we see some movement here and

some activity, with that, let's send it over to christien kafton, who is at doyle drive on the south end of the bridge. what are you seeing there? and is there just a rush of cars now getting behind you? i guess we have other stuff here, though. >> yeah. so you might be able to make out exactly what you were talking about. >> you can see that southbound traffic now making its way toward the toll plaza. all of this happening in the last, oh, two minutes or so as people are starting to make their way across the span. we did see all those emergency vehicles coming across. is it is this a news page? yes we sure are. it looks like you were trying to get across, to walk across the bridge. how long were you waiting for? we were waiting for about an hour because the protests and. and did you know that the protest was going on, or were you just sort of. >> we just had up here and then they told us we can't walk across because the protests and that disappointed. >> or did you know what the protest was about, i've just realized it's about free and palestine and i completely

agree. but we was really disappointed when we came and realized that we couldn't walk across because they, they said it might take all day to clear it all. >> so then this has to be a relief to see now that you can finally get across. >> yes. >> and presumably you're a visitor where are you from? >> britain. >> no kidding. what part of britain, like the north of london. >> oh, very good ladies. enjoy your stay and enjoy the golden gate bridge. it is now reopened, you can see that we did have those those, visitors who were on foot. we had a lot of people who were looking to go across, cycle across the bridge. and again, now we're seeing that southbound traffic making its way across the bridge. at this point, if we look down there, you can still see that doyle drive. still is still blocked for northbound traffic. we don't know when they're going to start allowing traffic northbound across the bridge, but you can. you can see that we have plenty of that, southbound, video. pedestrians and cyclists, again, all making their way over and across the bridge at this point.

as a matter of fact, we're going to walk up just a little bit farther up so we can actually, show you we're going to wind up on this shot just so that you can kind of see those pedestrians again making their way on the bridge, as well as all that southbound traffic. guys. >> christian, thank you. we'll check in with you in just a moment because that is the big news. but we still don't see that northbound traffic moving yet. we'll check in with you in just a moment. tommy. tucson is a law enforcement analyst. he joins us now via zoom to talk about what we saw unfolding today. tommy, you've been in law enforcement now for, for many years, you've watched this unfold throughout the morning here, that bridge has been closed since eight, ten this morning, what are your thoughts when you when you've been watching this? >> you know, as an american and an as american veteran, i absolutely support the first amendment, first amendment right. but it's clear in the first amendment, court cases have said first amendment right is for every one of us, unless it breaches the peace, if it breaches the peace and it is a hindrance to the motoring public

, which in this case is what it was then it is no longer just a peaceful protest, but it's an absolute blockage of traffic, barricaded traffic, and just, you know, in law enforcement, we cannot allow that because, whereas we support the protest, we don't support, you know, blocking bridges, barricading bridges. that is not what the purpose is. and the traffic is already incredibly congested in the bay area. to add this to it, when it could have been prevented. does not show real concern for the community in the bay area. >> with all that said, you just mentioned a moment ago we saw on the bay bridge, unlike 880 where people had actually, you know, fastened themselves to some sort of barrel or something to keep themselves locked in place. we saw on the golden gate bridge people just holding signs. so why do you think it would have taken police in your experience, more, you know, time? what would they have waited so long to start clearing the golden gate

bridge? >> i would imagine, because if it was in the city, that's different. you have municipal policing that can respond readily to this, like in los angeles, sacramento or in san francisco proper. but on the bridges, it's the california highway patrol, and they have spread the real thin. they are spread all across the entire san francisco bay area. so this type of thing, since it's not actually traffic movement, but it is blocking, motoring of the public took maybe a little bit longer to get situated to take care of this. yeah. >> where we're watching these live pictures now, the, the northbound lane just opened to traffic just a few seconds ago here as people are watching this live and you can see the second wave of cars that were waiting on the other side of the bridge that were blocked by chp making their way. finally, across the bridge toward the toll plaza. as you look live here at the scene, here in the bay area, though, protests are treated slightly differently, in terms of if you've lived in other parts of the country, it really is not

like this. what can you tell people that live in the bay area about what? how it's like here, how it's handled here? >> time pass. as time passes, it will get better. i mean, in la we're used to it. and so we respond quickly and rapidly. but our conditions are different. the bay area is very congested and traffic area. a lot of people in a real small area, so it may take longer to respond. i would imagine, for future, the highway patrol now understands this and they'll be ready to react even quicker. probably calling mutual aid with san francisco pd and the county sheriff to help this, because we can see this is probably going to continue and occur again. and preparation and being ready for it will assist law enforcement greatly. all right. >> tommy tucson legal analyst, our law enforcement analyst, joining us this afternoon to give us some insight into what police deal with on their side of things during protests such as this. we appreciate your time, tommy. take care. >> thank you. >> straight back to our traffic center here to check in with our allie rasmus again for the impact as we are seeing seeing

things sort of unwind here. >> allie, we are at least from the live pictures, we can see traffic moving again and chp escorting those drivers that were stuck on the golden gate bridge. even so, it takes a while after you shut things down, shut down a major thoroughfare like the golden gate bridge or northbound 880. it takes a little while for the backup that remains to kind of clear out even this late in the day. this is, you know, 1220 in the afternoon. this is usually a time of morning or rather day, where you don't have you don't expect any sort of traffic backups, but there is some residual effects from what's happened earlier this morning. as you can see from the traffic maps here in the northbound direction at 880, as you heard amanda say, they are opening more lanes of traffic there, but you can see there's still a lot of heavy traffic around this area. and then take a look at the eastshore freeway leading to the bay bridge toll plaza. this is all backed up because of the

protests that tom was covering at seventh and 880. now here is the map of the golden gate bridge. it's still showing that it is completely closed in both directions, as we see from our traffic or our live pictures. here, rather from a helicopter. traffic is moving here again, but it's going to take a while to clear up all of the traffic back up. that's into marin county. because of this being closed for so many hours. again, it was right before 8:00 this morning that the protest happened right in the middle of the span, shutting down both directions of the golden gate bridge. now let's go back to here where you can see across the bay in the east bay, seventh street and 880. this is where there's another closure off the freeway because of a protest. there that has meant a pretty long commute and some difficult driving on the east shore freeway from the carquinez bridge. the macarthur maze, 31 minutes. this usually at this time of day, should just take

you under 20 minutes. but because of a couple of protests and closures of certain roads, that's led to backups and bottlenecks elsewhere on this stretch of 880 past, the coliseum is in much better shape. earlier this morning, these northbound lanes, which were six miles away from the protest at 880 and embarcadero way off of way beyond where you can see from this vantage point all of this was a parking lot in the northbound direction. now that situation has resolved. golden gate bridge traffic this picture looks different as well, because now we are seeing some of that backed up northbound. excuse me, southbound traffic that was stuck behind the protest for 4.5 hours. now finally moving through bay bridge toll plaza looks okay. although they do have the metering lights on, which is unusual for the middle of the day. all i can guess or surmise is that with so much, so many road closures and protests and blocking of these major roads,

there's just some residual traffic impacts throughout the region that have led to kind of some irregular patterns, including here at the bay bridge toll plaza, but things are improving. it is taking a little while, but for the most part, at least, traffic in most of these spots is moving again, which is different from what we saw just a few hours ago. andre ali. >> thank you. all right. >> let me get back over to tom vacar now. he's over by one of the main entrances to the port off of 880 and seventh in oakland right now. tom, you have an update for us. what can you tell us about the scene there? >> well, since last we saw you a couple of cars have actually pulled up to this line and they've wanted to try to get on the freeway, which is closed. but there's no police here to do this. so one was a silver cadillac and the other one was a silver porsche. and in both cases they sat there for a couple of minutes. the porsche sat for about five, trying to convince these people to let

them through. now they're not going to do that because their colleagues are up there on the freeway. and this is where a police officer, had there been one here, would have just told him to move on. but you know, it was one of those things where it could get out of hand very easily. if tempers get going and all that stuff. but i must say that once again, these protesters were very respectful. they stood their ground, but they did not try to be provocative in any way, shape or form, and as a result, that ended peacefully. now, i can tell you that more people are coming down off the freeway. but i can also tell you that since we last were here, about 25 people have come off the freeway and they've left. they have either walked up towards the post office or they've gotten into cars and they have simply left. so the number seems to be dwindling up there. although there's still a line here. and as you can see up here to the left, some of these people are leaving. but as long as there are people up here, this line is going to remain so that those people can get down off of this

freeway safely. this is the kind of thing that, as i say, this is where tempers can flare, but it looks as though this thing may be coming to an end. you never really know. but in a situation like this where a lot of people are leaving, you know, company, there's safety in numbers, and there just aren't the numbers here that there were before. so we'll keep sticking around a little bit. but if anything else develops, we'll get back to you. but that's the situation right here at the southern entrance to 880, right here on seventh street in oakland, right, right next to the port. back to you. >> all right, tom baker, thank you. we'll come back to you later in the hour. we're taking a very short break now, when we come back, more on the developing news now. major

of interstate 880. in oakland. that 80 action started in the 6:00 hour. this morning we saw protesters chain themselves to each other before. ultimately, law enforcement in riot gear cleared them from the roadway. by the morning commute was a mess. ktvu christian captain has been at the golden gate bridge showing us a changing situation there. christian reasons for tax day. >> yeah, what a difference a half hour makes right? we are now looking at a completely reopened golden gate bridge,

traffic now moving at a what looks like a regular pace in both the north and southbound lanes, all of that has now been reopened, really in just the last 15 minutes or so is when we saw the big change, we did see, some of the arrests happening before the noon hour, and we did see some of the, vehicles leaving, some of the protesters leaving the bridge, presumably again on a big bus. but as you can see now, traffic, now moving smoothly in both directions. tourists also using the pedestrian and bike path, to make their way onto the bridge. we talked earlier with a visitor who told us she'd been waiting for an hour to try to walk across the bridge, and didn't know if she'd be able to do it. now saying that she can do it. coast guard helicopter flying overhead right now, low, relatively low in terms of where it is. of course, we do have a coast guard station, right here close to the northern end of the

golden gate bridge. but again, it appears now that traffic has started to resume its normal pattern, we don't know how much of a backup we have in san francisco or in marin county, but now traffic is starting to move freely in both directions across the golden gate bridge. all of this part of a global protest against u.s. support for israel, we did have a chance to speak with one of the protesters who was not on the bridge, but stayed on the southern side of the bridge to act as a spokesperson who explained that they chose, large avenues, large bridges, large roads, specifically in an effort to try to block commerce. >> we're here to stop the flow of commerce, and we've stopped it for most of this morning. and in the independent, actions are happening across the nation, and we hope that people will start listening when it hits our economy. >> and again, the effort there

really to block commerce, to raise awareness of their issue. when i had a chance to talk with them about whether they were worried that their actions could turn off people who would otherwise be supportive of their, their thought and their, ideology through their methodology. they said that they were not worried about it. they said there's a long precedence for protest. and they say that that protest, now they're using their voices, to try to, tell the biden administration to cut off aid to israel and again, we are seeing that coast guard helicopter make low passes over the golden gate bridge. unclear if this is related in some way to the protests, it does appear to be a relatively unusual pattern for a coast guard helicopter to take, although there are coast guard stations in the area, seeing them make those low passes over and around the bridge is, relatively

uncommon. again, at this point, not clear if it is definitively, somehow tied to the protest that we saw out here that has now come to an end at the golden gate bridge, but we will continue to monitor developments here again, traffic now moving smoothly in both directions. at this point, we don't know what the traffic backup looks like, either in san francisco or marin county, but traffic now making its way north and south across the span. here at the golden gate bridge, we are live at the golden gate bridge. christian captain, ktvu, fox two news and christian just a heads up. >> chp just sends a message out. just a moment ago. it says any media that wants information on what happened here to meet them at the flagpole at the visitor center. so that's where chp is going to be set up right now. that message just coming out, just wanted to pass it along to you since you were on the air when that message came out. the flagpole at the visitor center is where chp will be to give more information about what transpired. >> and if you want to take a look, that is exactly where we are. we are right here at that flagpole. so we will stand by

here at the flagpole at the southern end of the golden gate bridge, hopefully awaiting for that chp update. thank you very much for letting us know. and we will make sure that we stay here and we'll bring you those new developments as they occur out here, guys. >> all right, christian, thank you. so back to 880 now because that's the one that's been going on the longest here since just after 6:00 this morning, the pro-palestinian protesters blocking interstate 80 right by embarcadero. if you're heading northbound and, it's been going on for, for a long time. amanda quintana is there. and amanda, while some lanes are open, they're still at last check at least one protester still trying to free, on the on the northbound lane there. but come on. >> yeah, there's still one protester. and you're right, still just two lanes open, so we've been watching it looks like they might be nearing the end of a freeing this final protester from those big barrels, if you're just joining us, the. there were six protesters that were sitting in a line across the freeway, each of them attached to at least

one. some of them had two big oil barrels that they were attached to, on their, on their hands. so some of them had one barrel on the right hand, one barrel on the left hand. it seems like these barrels have been filled with concrete, something that's been really difficult for law enforcement to get through. we've been watching this has been taking a very long time. as you mentioned, this started at 630. so we've been watching, you know, they have to go through each layer to free these protesters. so you know, they started with the saw. they come in with a jackhammer. we're seeing sparks flying. it's a whole ordeal to get these people released from those barrels. so we have seen five people that have been removed, they're in zip ties, still on the freeway last we saw them. but it's kind of difficult to see around all these vehicles that are here for this. responding to this incident, so this final person looks like they are going to be released here soon. get, get

getting free from that barrel, right now there are two lanes that are open. now, this was the first, place that we saw these protests this morning around 630, when we got here, there was a big sign there were a bunch of palestinian flags. the sign said a 15, so that's a coordinated effort. that's happening today, happening today all over the world. and it's meant to jam up trade choke points and disrupt economic, logistical hubs, because they say that this effort, is because the global economy is complicit in the ongoing genocide of palestinian people in gaza. so the whole point is to stop the global economy, disrupt it. now, i spoke to a supporter who, saw this protest on social media and decided to come and hang their palestinian flag here and show their support, but it looks like let's hold on before we go to that sound, there is this final, protester that you could see,

walking off. now and it looks like they're going to bring them over, to another part of the freeway that where they've been, holding the other five people, but it seems like that is the last person, so they might be cleaning up here soon, and opening more lanes. but let's hear from that supporter that i talked to earlier today. well there's a genocide going on halfway across the world, and people have to be informed about it, whether it's going to work, whether it's on social media. >> people need to stay informed of what's going on. babies are dying. >> we've obviously seen many protests like this here in the last few months in the bay area, port of oakland, bay bridge, sfo, but, you know, they're kind of changing their tune because on the website for this event today, this a 15 event for april 15th, they've been saying there's a need to shift now from symbolic actions to those that can cause pain to the economy.

so that's really what the change is now. that's what they're going to focus on. and that's what today is all about, oakland obviously just one of more than 50 cities that there are these planned protests, but if you take a look at the police here, it looks like they're going to start cleaning up, we've been watching after one protester is removed from the freeway, we see caltrans come out in a sweep up, which must be like the concrete from inside those barrels. so after each protester is removed, they come sweep it up, and then they open one more lane. if they can. so it looks like more lanes might be open soon, but we'll keep you updated. obviously, a very, very long morning for anyone that has been on 880. this started at 630 in the morning. it took more than two hours for police to get through those first barrels, to get that first protester out of this, out

of the way. so this has just been a very long process. and then they had to continue, go onto the next protester, then bring out the jackhammer, then bring out the saw. it's been a very, very long morning out here on 880 live in oakland. amanda quintana ktvu, fox two news amanda thank you. >> chp sending on an update on some of the demonstrations that were taking part. another area was east and westbound i-80 connector ramps to southbound i-80, i-80 rather in oakland, that was also affected, now let's go to tom vacar. he's over at seventh and i-880, right by the one of the main entrances to the port of oakland with much more on the demonstrations taking place there. tom. >> well, first thing we do, take a look at the line here. what you will see is there are a lot of people, more than there have been for quite some while. and that is a lot of those people have come off the freeway. and if you look way up the ramp there, you can see another couple of people coming. this very much looks like it's going

to be over. the other thing that we saw up here is we saw the very slow movement of trucks across this bridge, which is in fact interstate 880 south. the nimitz, there have been trucks and cars going there. there's not one right now, but i see one now. just at the very beginning of the bridge, you can see it's a very slow roll. and because it is a very slow roll, this doesn't mean that this freeway is open or anything, but they are starting a movement. and this is probably, maybe the 10th or 12th truck that has passed through here. in the meantime, i think one of the things that they're trying to do is to make sure that everybody is off the freeway before they do that, and then what happens is the police will come at some point in time and require these folks to leave. and behind there, what is really interesting is they laid out some blockades, some boxes and some tires and things like that. before anybody can enter this freeway, those are going to have to be cleaned up. i must tell you that the protesters did have earlier in the day, several

garbage bags, whichever, whatever trash they created, they've actually bagged up and they're going to take with them. but as you see people coming off, you might see a few of these, barriers that are in the road. they're not very big, but you wouldn't want to drive your car over them. and now if you look back up at the bridge, you can actually see the tops of these trucks that are moving southward very, very slowly. i'm sure it's very much controlled, but they are actually doing what they need to do. so it's pretty likely that this is over at this point in time, as people continue to walk down the on ramp. but the fact is that is the situation here at seventh street and the 880 south entrance. back to you. >> tom vacar. thank you. we'll update that story throughout the day. meanwhile, we're tracking another developing story, the news that the women's federal prison in dublin is shutting down after a sex abuse scandal involving numerous prison guards and inmates. ktvu crime reporter henry lee live outside the prison in dublin to bring us the

latest henry. >> well, garcia, this came as a surprise to many inmates who are now being transferred to other prisons across the country. now, this comes weeks after a judge appointed a special master to oversee reforms here at this prison because of a sex abuse scandal. we don't know if this closure is temporary or permanent. we'll show you some video from earlier. now, we did see some busses arriving at the prison this morning. we do understand some of them are moving some of the 600 inmates at this all female prison in dublin, ktvu has learned. some have already been transferred and the rest are expected to be gone by friday. now federal prison officials won't say exactly when or where these inmates will end up for their own safety. this sudden closure comes just weeks after a federal judge named a special master to oversee reforms at the at the prison. now, the move comes after eight correctional officers, including the former warden, were charged in federal court with having sex with female inmates, including the former warden, who was one of

the suspects. now, seven have been convicted and just last month, fbi agents raided the prison on the same day that officials announced the new warden, an associate warden and a captain were all dismissed. that new leadership was in place, but they are now gone. now the bureau of prisons says it is working on deactivation and says this closure may be temporary. it will result in a, quote, mission change, but it's not clear what that means and how it may affect any reforms. we did speak to an aunt of an inmate who was upset by the closure, as well as an attorney who said the announcement took everyone by surprise. >> she's petrified because she doesn't know where she's going. she's sick and she is supposed to be released immediately, so she's not sure as far as she's concerned and she's not sure what's going to happen. so whether it's a good thing or a bad thing for the prison in general, i can't say. >> i mean, it's a shock. you know, we were not provided any kind of advance notice, which

tells a lot about the approach the government has taken in, keeping the welfare of, the women and others who live at dublin in mind. >> we're hearing varying opinions as to whether this closure is a good thing. now, the attorney we spoke to says it is because of all the issues this prison has experienced, but clearly the women who have been housed here are being uprooted and are worried about their future. now, as far as the employees at this prison were being told, they are not being affected. we did learn that the federal judge overseeing reforms did hold an emergency meeting and told all the stakeholders that the special master will be in place, will be there to look over this transfer, and will make sure none of the women who are being moved will be retaliated against. live in dublin. henry lee ktvu, fox two news. >> big development coming out this morning henry. thank you. meantime, donald trump is in a new york courtroom today for the first ever criminal trial of a former president. the trial is beginning with jury selection,

which could take up to two weeks because of the large pool of prospective jurors. so far, about 50 of the 500 potential jurors have been excused. trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying busins records. the charges stem from a $130,00 payment. trump's former lawyer, michael cohen, made to adult film actress stormy daniels. they were allegedly made to keep her from going public during the 2016 ection, about an affair she had with trump. she has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges, which he says are politically motivated. our turning switching gears now to your forecast. ktvu meteorologist rosemary oroczo is here now with what is going to be looking like hopefully much different than the weekend was. rosemary. >> yes. after a chilly start to the day, temperatures are warmer this afternoon. soon andre and gasia with partly cloudy skies expected for the second half of the day. let's take a live look over san francisco, where we do have partly sunny conditions at this time. start out with a little bit of fog, but at this time we are much warmer in most

areas by nine degrees in novato for the inner east bay, up by seven in concord along the peninsula by four san carlos temperatures ranging from mid 50s at the coastline to six upper 60s for our inland cities and the winds are generally light, we'll see an uptick in the wind into the afternoon, but it shouldn't be too bad. meanwhile, a view here of storm tracker two where again we are partly cloudy for the afternoon today. ridge is building in, and with that we are not only going to remain dry, but we are going to warm things up. here's a look at the futurecast model putting it into place for you. notice the ridge that begins to build in right in here by thursday. it breaks down a little bit. so right now, wednesday perhaps into thursday could be the warmest days before temperatures come down, but still very, very nice. i'll show you that in the extended forecast for today. a pretty good jump in the numbers. pleasant hill expect you to go to 6765 for san mateo. and a

better look at some of these numbers for the afternoon. upper 60s for napa. upper 60s expected in concord as well as san jose. if you're going to the a's game a little bit later today. game time 640. partly cloudy skies, 60 degrees with a west breeze to ten miles per hour. so not too bad, but likely to need the layers or a jacket. your extended forecast here. notice the nice warm up coming our way starting tomorrow. a notable jump in those temperatures. then as we get into wednesday. right now it looks to be the warmest day. the ridge begins to break down on thursday, but friday and into your weekend. dry conditions expected 60s at the coast and mid to upper 60s for our bayside communities. mid to upper 70s for our inland cities. back to you. >> thank you rosemary. a major impact in several parts of the bay. protesters blocked the golden gate bridge, parts of interstate 80, in oakland. we have continuing

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embarcadero, where protesters had blocked themselves off traffic brought to a standstill. some lanes are now open, but at least one protester was still out there when last we checked in with you. amanda what's the update? >> yeah, so they took that protester away and we've been watching trying to see kind of where they're taking them. it looks like they were loading them into this big blue van that appears to have a sheriff's department logo on it. so it looks like all of the protesters have been removed from the barrels that they were attached to. again, these big oil barrels, like 50 gallon barrels that must have been filled with some kind of cement or something that made them really difficult for officers to get through. so all of them have been removed after, you know, using a saw, a jackhammer, so many different things that police had to use to get these people free from those

barrels. now they're being loaded into that van. there are still only two lanes open right now, but it seems like that might change very quickly. we did see caltrans out there, you know, sweeping up, trying to clean up the area where police were working because there was likely concrete, a bunch of stuff there. after having to use all those tools to get those protesters free. so still only two lanes right now. but it seems like that is going to change very quickly here. but this has been a very long morning here on 880, because this protest started at 630 this morning. this was the first protest that we saw here in the bay area as part of this effort. that's a worldwide effort today. it's called the a 15, effort that they've been talking about. it's for april 15th. they wanted all these different organizations to come out and protest today. they wanted them

to disrupt the global economy as a way to show that they want to see a free palestine. and this is all a coordinated effort. we actually initially got some information that they would be at the west oakland bart station , but then they ended up here on 880 and traffic was at a standstill for hours, hours and hours that those drivers were sitting there, kind of watching and waiting, that first protester that they had removed here, it took them two hours to get through with the jackhammer, with the saw, with all of that, to get that protester out. and then it has just taken hours and hours to get all the other people out. so six in total, but they are all gone. and again, just two lanes open right now, but it looks like that's going to change very quickly as the freeway is being cleaned up. live in oakland. amanda quintana ktvu, fox two news. >> all right. let's head just north of where you are, amanda,

to check in one more time with our tom vacar. it's been sort of an on and off situation there where you are. >> well, it's very definitely on if you take a look, you will see that the protesters are still here blocking, blocking the entrance. but if you look up the very end, you will see a whole bunch of people. i don't believe those are police officers. they don't look like police officers, but a bunch of people all the way up there that are still essentially on the freeway, even though it is an on ramp. so while it is true that traffic is moving, on the 880, it is also true that there's still people up there. so this is far from really over, over. now, what this is all about is, of course, support for palestine. and earlier i spoke to a palestinian ethnic, who happens to have been in the united states army and who is a, owns a trucking company called ab trucking. his name is bill abood. and this is what bill had to say both about the port and palestine. alright,

alright. so there you see people coming down, the walkway, if you want to call it a walkway. it's an on ramp. obviously but they're coming down and, if that means that they're being forced to come down, then it also means that they will remove these people and then it also means that then they will clear off anything to make sure that the cars don't hit any barriers there. none seem to be up there anymore. and that is a situation here. i think we're coming to the end of it, but it's been a long morning and we don't really know if it's over. if it's not, we'll see you later. reporting live, tom baker ktvu, fox two news. >> well, tom, from the pictures here that we're seeing, this is still going to be going on for a little while here. we saw the picture of tom down. we didn't realize how heavy duty it was on top of 880. right now, we see some chp officers and looks like more, demonstrators. now than there is chp officers at the

scene, but they haven't chained themselves to anything, at least as far as we can tell, like they did on 880, and, and then we learned on the golden gate bridge, which opened just about a half hour ago, to traffic that indeed some cars were actually had to be towed. so some of the protesters did something similar to what we saw back in november by leaving their car on the bridge. >> are we sure that this is right above where tom is? because i'll be honest. okay. it is. okay. great. i think there's a little bit too much. there's more greenery than i remember there being, but yes. yeah. so this is essentially right above, you know, we saw the overpass where tom is on the ground. so two angles essentially of the same picture here. this is the largest crowd we've seen gathered here. we sent skyfox over. skyfox was over the 880 oakland situation several miles south of here. but we are going to stay on top of this. of course we will have new information for you online immediately. as it happens, this is part of a nationwide day of action, if you will. the morning commute was completely disrupted by protesters in oakland and also on the golden gate bridge, and now there appears to be a

larger sort of action. we see, of course, flags waving. we see police officers, we see protesters. no clashes. if you will. but this is sort of the most face to face action, if you will, that we have seen all morning. >> yeah, we've seen the folks from this is about a few miles north of where the protesters had chained themselves to that to perhaps a barrel with concrete in it. and this is the largest gathering we've seen so far. they're making their way down the highway. nonetheless, we're not sure where they're heading and if they're going to be affected by that overpass that flies over onto 80 northbound, we'll keep following the story. we'll have much more for you online at ktvu.com. and on later newscast starting at 4:00. >> we'll see you (upbeat music) (audience clapping) - [tammi] can you guess what this is? if you guessed kiwi, then you'd be a great contestant on "pictionary". our first celebrity captain is a star of both tv and broadway. let's make way for gabrielle ruiz. and with her are best friends, danny and greer.