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
for his predecessor, benedict xvi, who he says is very ill. the vatican says benedict s condition has worsened in recent hours. and britain is on course to record its warmest year ever, after a summer of heatwaves, wildfires and drought. we ll speak to a climate change specialist. hello, welcome to the programme. we start with the fallout from the announcement that china s borders will be reopened next month. in the last hour, the us announced it would require negative covid tests for travellers from china from the 5th of january. that follows tighter measures outlined by italy, japan, malaysia, taiwan, and india. american officials accuse the chinese authorities of a lack of transparency, as cases of covid have been surging there. our diplomatic correspondent paul adams reports. from the world s most populous nation, alarming scenes china s hospitals overwhelmed, covid infections soaring. the country s abrupt decision to dismantle much of its strict covid regime apparently
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
tonight. a walkout by 60,000 workers could derail the u.s. economy. the biden administration is considering executive action to avoid a shutdown. let s get the latest from cnn s pete muntean. reporter: it is the latest effort to put the brakes on a possible rail worker strike that could deal a major blow to the economy. bosses representing unions and railroads met with the labor secretary in a last-ditch effort to reach a deal by midnight thursday. that s when 60,000 workers could walk off the job in solidarity with train engineers fighting for sick time. a strike will mean freight rail, which makes up 40% of all freight in the u.s., will grind to a halt impacting everything from parts for cars to fertilizer for farming. transportation is a big part of the cost to the consumer and i don t believe there s one person in the country that it won t affect. reporter: starting thursday, some railroads will stop accepting shipments of grain critical to feed livestock and drivin