with qualifying internet. thank you so much for joining me again at top of the hour on cnn newsroom. we begin this hour with an air travel meltdown. it isn t all the weather s fault, let s be clear, more than 4,000 flights grounded today again, nearly 09% on southwest airlines. southwest patients from raleigh, denver, are all lining up at ticket counters looking for answers. many customers are completely fed up. i m traveling with my senior citizen parents for their christmas vacation. i have an autoimmune disorder. i don t have medications. we have nothing. we brought no carry-ons. we ve seen a lot of families who are sleeping on the floor and it just breaks my heart. if my boss is watching this yes it s true i just didn t just blow off the day i m actually standing in the airport doing nothing and i do have a ticket and i hope to come to work at some point in my life. i love that he had some levity there. with new year s eve with just days away nearly 2500 fligh
coast and alaska. undersea volcano near tonga erupted with such force the ash cloud blew 35 miles into the stratosphere. the boom was heard in alaska. and tsunami waves took two lives across the pacific in peru. at number nine, some of the world s most important rivers fell to sobering levels, from italy to germany to the not so mighty mississippi, where the army corps of engineering is still dredging as fast as they can to keep billions worth of goods and gans and gaen moving . number eight. the u.s. most ambitious climate laws in history. unwavering conviction, commitment and patience, change does come. four days of secret horse trading with chuck schumer put the inflation reduction act on the president s desk.