strategy to convince the judge to allow the trumps to keep running their company. plus, is there real hope for a hostage deal that could lead to the release of 80 women and children held by hamas. prime minister netanyahu telling msnbc military pressure is key, even as the hospital system is collapsing. i'll speak to one man who was with his brother just moments before he was taken hostage. l.a. in the midst of a computer nightmare after a massive fire forces officials to shet down part of a key frae way indefinitely. investigators say they've completed their investigation into what started the fire as the city lays out its plan to help the 300,000 people who use that road each and every day. we start with day one for the uphill battle for the defense as donald trump and family fight to hang on to their new york business empire. trump's lawyers at the civil fraud trial calling donald trump jr. to the stand. he asked the courtroom sketch artist to make him look sexy. sounding a lot like his dad, she describes their projects as the finest, the best, the greatest and spectacular. his move reflecting the fact that trump is answering questions from the defense this time around, an opportunity to expand on the history and, quote, incredible things the trump organization has accomplished over the years. this is just the first step in what's expected to be a month-long effort to put distance between the trumps and their company's financial statements that the judge already ruled are fraudulent. the goal is to might gate any fine and allow the trump family to keep doing business in new york. i want to bring in nbc's vaughn hillyard outside the new york city courtroom. paul butler is a former federal prosecutor, georgetown law professor and msnbc legal analyst. vaughn, set the stage for us. what are we learning from don jr.? >> reporter: i can tell you that letitia james was sitting here over the testimony the last three hours. shortly before the lunch break, she got up with her jacket in hand and walked out of the courtroom. the last three hours have been very different than the previous weeks of testimony when the judge repeatedly cut off witnesses for not answering the questions of prosecution. today is the first witness called by the defense in what we have heard from don jr. in there is a meticulous calculation on his part as to why the value of the properties were listed as what they were. just take doral in florida, for example. in the last few minutes donald trump under questioning from his own defense attorney was articulating why doral was valued at $1.3 billion, making the case that they redid the golf course, redid the ballrooms at the resort. for don jr. this is the opportunity, just mere feet away from the judge to articulate and make the proclamation that the judge was wrong in his bench ruling, his bench decision that he, his brother, his father and others in the trump organization committed financial fraud and that when he's making his decision about whatever penalties they may incur, they should take into account the full perspective that it is the international corporation that is the trump organization and the robustness and the detail that goes interval ewing each property on a subjective basis. that's what don jr. and his defense attorney were attempting to lay out in the first three hours of the defense's call in this case. >> paul, the defense has spent a lot of time letting don jr. talk about how great the company is, they basically turned a swamp into trump national golf course. they were at the forefront of manhattan condo development and on and onment to what extent, if any, is that relevant? if you're on the prosecution's team, what are you looking for that you might want to delve into as part of your cross? >> it's totally irrelevant which is why tish james walked out. defendants are allowed to make inconsistent arguments in court. don jr. saying these are magnificent properties, worth way more than what the financial statements claim. the problem with that defense is the judge has already found as a matter of fact and law that the financial statements were lies, that they vastly overstated how much the properties were actually valued at. so the judge is basically already decided this issue, to protect his verdict, he's going to allow donald trump jr. to make this argument, but it's discredited. >> i want to bring in msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin. i know you just came out of the courtroom. i understand there was entering interactions between donald trump jr. and the judge. tell us about those and how they went over in court? >> reporter: they generally went over pretty well. donald trump jr. has really been fairly jovial and con jeenl on the stand today as he was last week, even more so today under friendly questioning by his own lawyer cliff robert. at one point donald trump jr. turned to judge engoron and said, your honor, i would tell you it's a pleasure to be here but the attorney general would sue me for perjury. the judge had to laugh at that. the judge had been indulgent of donald trump jr.'s testimony, as he said right before the lunch break, do you really want to risk a reversal over one stupid document? what i took from that comment is you're winning, you've already won. nothing he's telling me about how spectacular these properties are is going to change my mind about the bulk of the evidence that you presented to me already which he had said earlier in the trial, they had enough evidence to fill an entire courtroom with respect to the fraud that they have been trying to prove and have proven already. chris, this is largely irrelevant testimony, but testimony that everyone is being fairly good natured about nonetheless. >> let's talk, paul, about what might be relevant testimony. "the washington post" did an analysis of the prosecution case. and i want to read for you a little part of exactly what they wrote. legal analysts and other observers say the testimony thus far, meaning, again, the prosecution case, has potential shortcomings, including that no employee has testified that trump ordered the values to be manipulated who previously admitted to lying under oath and has a well-documented admited grudge against trump. there's also no trial of record leading directly to trump who famously avoids communicating by email. the defense has also argued as you know, paul, there's no evidence or testimony that shows any of these big banks were hurt, in chris kise's words, a trump lawyer, quote, there is no victim. can you unpack those claims? >> chris, of the 25 witnesses the state put on, the former president and his adult children and michael cohen got the most attention, but they were not actually the star witnesses. the star witnesses were the accountants and number crunchers who demonstrated that the financial statements were prepared in inconsistent and irregular ways. in a case like this, the most probative evidence isn't even witness testimony. it's the thousands and thousands of documents that led the judge to find fraud even before the trial started. it's true that the defendants are claiming there's no victim because they say the banks didn't lose any money on their deals with the trump organization. but the state presented an expert witness who said banks lost more than $168 million in interest based on that fraud. if the judge credits that testimony, he doesn't need witnesses from the been, themselves. chris, remember, this is a judge trial, not a jury trial. on the main issue of fraud the defendants have already lost. the trial is focused mainly on how badly they lost, in terms of how much cash money they have to reimburse the new york state taxpayers. leticia james wants $300 million. >> paul butler, vaughn hillyard and lisa rubin who every day runs out of the courtroom to be with us in the 1:00 hour. another story in d.c. the secret service says an agent pro whouz protecting president biden's oldest granddaughter opened fire on a group of suspected car thieves overnight. i want to bring in nbc's allie raffa. what do we know about what happens mere, allie? >> reporter: secret service is saying just before midnight last night in the georgetown neighborhood, right outside the apartment of naomi biden, president biden's granddaughter. they observed three people breaking the window of an parked and unoccupied government vehicle. they say an agent discharged their service weapon. they don't believe anyone was struck. secret service says the offenders immediately fled the scene in a red vehicle and a be on the lookout order was issued. they say there was no threat to the protectee, in this case this president's granddaughter naomi. there was no indication this was a targeted attack because of her relation to the president biden. they don't believe nay ohm my biden even witnessed what was goings-on outside her apartment when this happened. it's important to note the backdrop this comes against. a significant uptick in not just carjackings but also violent crime in general here in washington, d.c. over the last year. there have been more than 800 carjackings and more than 6,000 reports of stolen vehicles here in d.c. you'll remember just a few weeks ago representative henry cuellar was carjacked a couple blocks from the capitol billing. the rate of crime has risen so quickly, so much that the city has even implemented a task force to address this. it's important to note that d.c. mayor muriel bowser as we speak is holding a press conference to talk about, quote, new initiatives to support public health and public safety. chris, we expect her to face some questions about the secret service incident last night. >> allie raffa, thank you. up next, holding out hope. i'll talk to a man whose brother was kidnapped october 7th during the music festival attack. we're back in 60 seconds. back is [sneeze] dude you coming? ♪ alka-seltzer plus powermax gels cold & flu relief with more concentrated power because the only thing dripping should be your style. plop plop fizz fizz winter warriors with alka-seltzer plus. right now the largest hospital inside the gaza strip is no longer functioning. the world health organization calling the situation dire and perilous. a neurosurgeon inside al shifa hospital tells nbc news, quote, we are collapsing. he says about 2,000 people are crowded inside including 36 babies whose incubators spped working when the hospital ran out of power. three prematureies have already died according to the gaza ministry of health. another doctor there shared this heartbreaking picture with nbc news on saturday. those babies packed in beds. he says they resorted to turning the air conditioners to heating mode as they try desperately to give the babies as much warmth as they can. al shifa isn't unique, with doctors working in darkness, using flashlights from their craig melvin phones at the indonesian hospital. israeli defense forces say a humanitarian corridor is open for those trying to flee south. a 62-year-old man seen here walking with his cane tells reuters, quote, it's a journey of torment. nbc's raf sanchez is in tel aviv. update us on what i believe were talks over the weekend about the idf opening an' vags evacuation route from al shifa and two other hospitals. is that on going? what are you hearing? what's the latest? >> reporter: the israeli military did say over the weekend they were trying to open a humanitarian corridor from al shifa hospital, the main hospital in northern gaza to get people out safely. hospital officials are telling us today there are still hundreds of patients trapped inside as well as several thousand people seeking shelter hoping it would be a safe zone amid the fighting raging in northern gaza. israeli military forces are merely blocks away. hospital officials are telling us there's no safe way out, not just for the people seeking shelter, but also the patients seriously ill, unable to move. chris, there is no situation more desperate right now than atf the several dozen prematurely born babies who were being cared for in the neonatal unit sheaf ha hospital. you saw them in the intro. the incubators no longer have electricity. they're now individually swaddled and being kept on beds up in the surgery unit at the shifa hospital. staff say they're doing whatever they can to give these tiny, tiny babies a chance of life. that involves manually pumping their lungs to keep them breathing. it involves, as you said, turning on the heaters in the air conditioning to try to provide some warmth. i spoke earlier to the head of neonatal care at the al shifa hospital until several weeks ago when she was forced to move. she said she has no doubt in her mind that more of these babies will die if there's not an urgent, uth solution. there's a similar situation at the al quds hospital in northern gaza. the palestinian red crescent society says today it was trying to organize a convoy of ambulances to get people out of that hospital, but those ambulances were forced to turn back because the fighting is too intense there. all of this, chris, is coming back to this question of fuel. without fuel according to humanitarian organizations, there can be no life. they can't distribute aid, can't keep the lights on at these hospitals. the israeli military said they delivered some 300 liters of fuel to the al shifa hospital over the weekend. they say hamas blocked hospital officials from accepting it. hospital officials are saying they couldn't take it directly from the army. it wasn't safe. they were trying to set up some coordination where it would be delivered by the red cross, but even if this fuel had reached to hospital, they say this was 300 liters. they need some 10,000 liters per day just at al shifa hospital to maintain minimum basic operations. this is a picture we've seen all across the strip. the united nations is saying their huhn efforts will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours if they don't get more fuel. chris. >> raf sanchez, thank you for your reporting. a powerful visual from tel aviv this weekend, the words "bring them moment. >> reporter: illuminated lights representing those captive in gaza right now. prime minister benjamin netanyahu on "meet the press" talked about all the conversation about a possible deal for the hostages' release. >> we heard that there's an impending deal of this kind or that kind. then we learned it was all hoka, it was nothing. the minute we started the ground operation, things began to change. >> is there a potential deal, mr.rime minister? >> there could be, but i think the less i say about it, the more i'll increase the chances it materializes. >> one of the hostages is 22 combrrd guy dalal, here he is smiling with his brother. less than 15 minutes after this photo was taken gal says his brother was taken by hamas. gal, thank you for coming to talk to us. what is it that you want the world to understand right now? >> thank you so much for having me. i'm here to tell my story and i want the world to understand and to know about the hostages that were taken. my brother, along with his friends and many other people came to this festival to celebrate peace and love. this is a spiritual festival. the people who were taken from there, they shouldn't be a currency in this war and shouldn't be taken hostage. we don't know anything about their condition right now. it's so hard. i haven't heard anything from my brother in more than five weeks. it's so devastating. >> how do you and your family even begin to cope with that? >> you know, we were shocked and we were so -- we had the worst part -- i can't even put it in words. after a week, week and a half, we realized that the world doesn't understand and we need to speak for my brother and speak for the hostages so they won't be forgotten. we're trying to put as much -- to have as much international pressure from everyone that we can, from people with power, with governments so they will let the red cross get in. just so we know who is alive and have a sign of life. >> do you feel as though israel -- anyone with influence is doing everything they can to make that happen? >> i'm sure they're doing everything that they can, but i think always you can do more. that's one reason that i'm here. i'm here trying to speak to as much people as i can and try to speak with as much influence that i can. i didn't just say this is a spiritual festival. these people that are there, th really don't belong to this war. my brother he only believe in peace and love. that's the language he speaks. that's what we know at home. >> you tell us that you want him not to be forgotten. you wear that shirt, you told me before we came on the broadcast, that you wear that shirt with his photo on it every single day. what do you want people to know about him, what's important to humanize him and help people understand why it's important? >> my brother is not just look like me -- >> he does look like you. >> i know. i get it all the time. people say why i wear a t-shirt of myself. he's my best friend. we hav seven years apart from us. we love the same music. we hear the same bands. we go to the same concerts. we see the same movies and tv shows. this was his first spiritual festival. i went there just to make sure he's okay, to watch over him. our relationship is just full of so much love. i can't see my life without him. it's not just me. we have 280 families waiting for their loved ones to come back home -- 240. sorry. this is just so hard. my brother, he loved japanese, he wanted to go visit japan right now. he loved the culture of america and japan. even beside that, he's the most loving person i know. >> i know it must be important for you to hang on to one thing, and if that one thing is that he knows somehow that you and your family are doing everything they possibly can, maybe that you would even do something like this, do you feel like he would know that? >> of course he knows that. i know it's making him strong. but even though it's more than five weeks, and we don't know in what condition he's been kept. we don't know how they're treating him and we don't know anything about it. as strong as he can be, we don't know if he gets the minimum human rights, you know what i mean. it's so hard to think about his condition right now. >> well, we want you to know that we're going to try to continue to tell these stories because they are important. i can't imagine what you're going through. our thoughts are with your family. his name is guy dalal, gal, thank you for coming on and speaking with us about your brother. >> thank you very much for having me. >> we'll be right back. having me. >> we'll be right back to boost your skin's barrier for quenched, dewy skin that's full of life. neutrogena. hydro boost. 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