top prize has exceeded 1 billion. the next drawing is tuesday, january 10th. good luck. the next hour of cnn newsroom starts right now. i m pamela brown in washington. the top stories for you on this saturday night, republicans search for a path forward of what might be the craziest fight for house speaker ever. i ll talk to the congressman who nominated kevin mccarthy in that all important 15th vote. plus, new details as a virginia teacher lies in a hospital bed after police say she was shot by her 6-year-old student. as football evolves, so does its safety practices. you re in the cnn newsroom. an olive branch this saturday from president biden to the new house speaker kevin mccarthy. the president called mccarthy to congratulate him on his hard-fought win on the 15th vote. it s the kind of civility lacking at times among the speaker s own republican members overnight. moments after mccarthy confronted matt gaetz for forcing that 15th vote, congressman mike ro
i m whitny wild. cnn this morning starts right now. morning, everyone. we re glad you re with us. it s thursday, december 29th. don is off this week. and ukraine is our lead story. under attack. more than 120 russian missiles launched at ukraine overnight. 90% of lviv this morning is without power. we ll take you to crane. here in the united states, thousands of air travelers are struggling to find their way home still. one major airport is launching an investigation into the meltdown at southwest airlines. and the death toll is rising once again in buffalo. the city s mayor now coming under fire for handling of that recovery and the storm. a new migrant processing center is going up in el paso, despite a supreme court decision to keep title 42 in place. we begin this hour with ukraine. president zelenskyy s adviser says russia has launched more than 120 missiles at the country. it happened overnight. a top official in odesa is calling it a massive missile attack in
season. i ll do what the medical experts advise me to do. and i m quite certain they re not going to advise me in the wrong direction when it has to do with his health. his health is the first, foremost and only priority. reporter: this was his second diagnosed concussion this season for tua tagovailoa, kaitlan. there s an overwhelming amount of former players on social media urging tua to take care of his body and mind, let them heal because his long term health is far more important. rg-3 saying he shouldn t play again this season. we ll see what he and the team decide. thanks for the update. cnn this morning continues right now. good morning, everyone. it is thursday, december 29th. don is off this morning. we have a lot of news under way, especially coming out of ukraine where russia has launched a massive attack overnight. missile strikes hitting critical infrastructure injuring civilians. we re live at the scene of one of those strikes in a few moments. al
drop in concussions each season between 2018 and 2021. you re hearing from a lot of players saying are these protocols working, are they doing enough to keep us safe? what would you say to them? we try to use every situation as a learning opportunity and do that in a very transparent manner. tua tagovailoa took a hit and played on despite having an apparent head injury. a few days later he was hit again and con cussed. as a result the league updated their concussion protocol. most everyone agrees with this. going back to the days of joseph mason reeves, rules don t trump culture and history, a history full of big hits and broken dreams. the best you can do is make it safer. but, no, not safe.
yesterday? reporter: he said he noticed something during film session the next day afterwards. and the league s chief medical officer said they didn t notice anything during the game so it s possible the spotters did not see he had a head injury. and it is absolutely possible that no coaches knew he had been con cussed. it s possible that tua himself knew he had a head injury. i speak from experience in my second season in the nfl i hit a running b running back, i ruined his shoulder, and i didn t remember it until i watched film the next day. that s when mcdaniel noticed in this case for tua. realized something right. told him to see the doctors, he was diagnosed with a concussion. here s what he had to say about the uncertainty of tua returning to play this weekend or this