new year s celebration across america are well underway pretty good evening i am bryan llenas and for jon scott and this is a box report. annette new york city nypd is hard at worst beefing up for the ball drop celebration. hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are expected to gather in times square tomorrow night. that may include pro- palestinian demonstrators who could try to spoil the celebration for everyone else. cb cotton is live in times square with more on security preparations or tomorrow night. good evening brian. nypd certainly wants to reassure partygoers there are no credible threats to the celebrations here in times square. the crowd continues to grow by the hour the party is not even begun. security includes k-9 units, drones, surveillance robots thousands of uniformed officers. but also a big number of undercover ones you see the rehearsal happening around me. nypd says it is prepared as you mention for pro- palestinian rallies to pop up.
what happened to the mayor. thanks for your time. newsroom takes over right now. a very happy monday afternoon to you. it s already a busy start to 2023. right now the man charged with killing four idaho college students is planning to waive extradition. what more we re learning about him. plus, tens of thousands of people paying respects in-person to former pope benedict and soccer legend pele. two men who meant so much to so many. we begin with the machete attack on three new york city police officers. sources saying the teen was on a watch list. gloria, what more are we learning this hour? reporter: right, akbby. traveled from maine to attack these police officers new year s eve not far from times square as thousands were pouring into the area to watch the new year s eve ball drop celebration. also just heard from police officials who told me trevor bickford charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of assault. he remains in
reporter: right, akbby. traveled from maine to attack these police officers new year s eve not far from times square as thousands were pouring into the area to watch the new year s eve ball drop celebration. also just heard from police officials who told me trevor bickford charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of assault. he remains in the hospital under police guard and i point out he has not yet been charged with any federal crimes. that remains an option. we heard from law enforcement forces who tell us the u.s. attorney of new york in the southern district was weighing whether or not to charge bickford with any federal offenses. more what we know of the suspect. we know he traveled here on saturday on an amtrak train and traveled here to the area on new
now we re at 378. that number is only going to go up. yeah. obviously concerning. thank you very much. the explosion of covid cases leading to more subdued celebrations to usher in the new year. several major cities have either canceled or altered their new year s celebrations. hoping to discourage revelers from spreading the virus. paula sandoval is live in times square with more. the ball drop celebration will go on but not at the scale we have seen before. yeah. those massive crowds won t be back this year, but just consider alone what we ve seen around the world in some of the world s largest cities, not scaling back but just canceling many of these new year s celebrations. the list goes on and on, paris, rome, atlanta as well.
murthy? well, it s an important question, kate, and look. we heard the stories about the lines. i have certainly seen, talked with people who who are looking for a test saying some have been able to get it, some have had a harder time getting it. we have made a lot of progress this year, getting more over-the-counter tests, quadrupling supply of tests over the last half the year but we have got to do more. and we have got to do more quickly. our goal is for everyone who needs a test and wants a test to be able to access it, period, full stop. and that s the goal that we are working toward and, again, president will have more to say about this tomorrow. london is just now joined paris in cancelling their big new years celebrations over covid concerns. we know new york city is going to be making a decision sometime before christmas. do you think new york can host the ball-drop celebration safely? well, it s a really good question, kate. and a lot of people are asking