necessarily mean it hasn't already arrived. >> you would predict from looking at the mutations that have been identified that it likely will be more transmissible. you don't know that yet, you have to be careful, assume that's the case. >> do you believe omicron is already here in the u.s. likely? >> you know, i would not be surprised if it is. >> still, a lot of unknowns about the variant. let's get to cnn's elizabeth cohen with more on what we do know about the new variant. >> unfortunately we have detected a new variant which it is a reason for concern in south africa. so what we have done is to act very quick. >> a new covid-19 variant spreading quickly in south africa. u.s. health authorities in contact with officials there. >> we want to find out scientist to scientist exactly what is going on, a bit more widespread in south africa than originally thought. >> researchers say there's reason to be worried. it has more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that gains entry to human cells to cause infection. the covid-19 infections target the spike protein. if the spike changes too much or in the wrong way, it could make the vaccines less effective. learning exactly where mutations are and how they change the spike protein will be key. >> first of all, you want to find out if it evades the vaccines we're to go. we're trying to directly test it. >> scientists started to investigate the impact of the variant on its vaccine developed with pfizer with data expected in the next couple weeks. it isn't the first variant to be detected in south africa. last year, the beta variant was identified there, and there were fears it could spread around the world and become the dominant variant worldwide. that didn't happen. now authorities are working to see whether the new variant will slowly smolder or quickly spread around the planet. elizabeth cohen, cnn, reporting. >> thank you for bringing us up to speed. now to london where nada bashir is standing by. i know two confirmed cases have been found in the country. is contact tracing under way? we expect to hear from officials any minute now. >> absolutely. in the next hour we will hear from prime minister boris johnson joined with chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser to give us update on the latest information. what we know from the health secretary is that two individuals are being asked to quarantine, self isolate for ten days. they're believed to have traveled from southern african region. the households, people they've been in contact with are asked to self isolate and contact tracing is under way. government officials will be monitoring the situation very closely. there are serious concerns about spread of the variant could throw the health care sector under immense pressure. there are serious concerns there. we have seen other countries in europe beginning to tighten travel restrictions, belgium reported one case, now two. there are serious concerns and the health secretary has said the country needs to really be on alert now about the new variant. we don't know an awful lot about it. as mentioned, investigations are under way into transmissibility and vaccine efficacy. they'll be monitoring the case and now two cases reported in the uk. we will hear from boris johnson, the prime minister, in the next hour to get those further updates. what we have also been told is the red list, uk travel restrictions on south africa is extended to include four additional countries. malawi, mozambique, zambia, angola. what that red list means is anyone traveling to the uk from those countries will be required to quarantine for ten days in a government approved hotel at their own expense. the government is taking tough and tight measures there. the government's chief medical officer issued early guidance saying people need to be wearing masks, making sure they are keeping themselves inv ventilatd rooms indoors, encouraging people to get the vaccine already, and those that received two doses to get the booster jab. that's encouraged now. we expect to hear more guidance from the prime minister and chief scientific adviser and chief medical officer in under an hour. >> thank you. we will take prime minister johnson live when he starts that press conference. starting monday, the biden administration is going to ban travelers from south africa and seven other afghan countries from entering the united states. this doesn't apply to american citizens and legal permanent residents but speaks to level of caution the white house is approaching this. jasmine wright is at the white house. this is a decision president biden made yesterday. what do you know that was behind this? >> reporter: they're acting quickly, kaitlan, taking precautions of trying to keep americans safe. that's the bottom line for this white house. in their eyes, there's too much unknown about the variant not to take swift action. as you said, yesterday after news of the fast spreading variant broke, president biden met with his chief medical advisers, including dr. fauci, and told reporters later on that discussion is when he made the decision to institute the ban. take a listen here. >> we're going to be cautious. we don't know a lot about the variant except that it is of great concern to spread rapidly. i spent about a half hour this morning with my covid team led by dr. fauci and that's when the decision was made. >> reporter: you heard the president talk about the process. one big question folks have, why monday. this is so urgent, why not start it immediately. white house officials told cnn it takes time to implement the ban. remember, it is south africa and seven other countries in the region, so monday start date is the time the administration needed to put the plan in place without starting chaos. one other thing the ban does, officials say, it allows time for u.s. federal government workers to kind of investigate these new variants, investigate it before it could have bad consequences for the u.s. here in the states. something that dr. fauci alluded to when he said it was possible there were cases here, although the cdc hasn't detected it. for the president's part in announcing the travel ban, he really called on the global climate to do more in terms of getting vaccine to folks, trying to tamp down on the coronavirus and called on americans to do their part, to get their shots in their arms if they haven't had initial vaccines, get boosted if they haven't been boosted, if it is six months since their vaccine, calling it a patriotic responsibility, trying to make sure this country is able to get over the pandemic for once and all. kaitlan? >> and of course this will complicate that path for them. the white house is monitoring closely. jasmine wright, thank you so much. joining me, dr. mike sagg, associate dean of global health at university of alabama. scientists don't know how dangerous the variant is. it is sending people scrambling. you've seen what we have been talking about, how long it takes to put travel restrictions into place. my question for you is what do we know about how severe the variant is so far? a big question of whether or not vaccines are going to be effective against it. >> we don't know much yet. that's kind of frustrating for everyone, especially public health officials. i think for the general public, maybe the best way to think of this, we think about the national weather center when there's a tropical depression off the coast of africa coming towards us. we don't know if it will be a hurricane, don't know if it will be just a tropical storm, or whether it will miss us completely. in this case, we know the virus won't miss us completely, it will come here. it is a warning, basically saying take cover a little bit. let's not be quick to discard our masks, or go back to total normal. it is also heads up that for those of us that have been vaccinated, time to get the booster if you haven't had it yet, and for those of us that are unvaccinated, time to roll up your sleeve. that's the best way we can protect ourselves and our neighbors. >> dr. fauci and other health officials said there are no detected cases of the new variant in the united states yet, but based on what we know about how other variants spread, how quickly this one appears to be spreading, do you think it is probably already here? >> i don't know to be blunt. i do know that we're aggressively monitoring for it. and this is the stuff that goes on every day behind the scenes and public health laboratories around the country. every time there's a positive test, a sample of those go for for sequencing. that's where you pick up variants. that will be increased in terms of surveillance because of the variant we know is here and will be coming towards us in some way. whether it hits us hard or whether it just kind of glances over us we don't know. the biggest question for me, do the current vaccines actually protect against this particular variant? the science suggests to me that it should. we know when people get vaccines, it is more than just what's in the vaccine, there's a wide variety of variants that are protected, even more than we see after a natural infection. for those people that had covid before and said i'm not going to bother with a vaccine, you still need to get the vaccine for the broadest protection, and the other good news, kaitlan, companies are already working on getting a variant specific to this new omicron variant into vectors for the vaccine that just in case the current vaccines don't cover, they'll be going into manufacturing quickly with that. i don't think that will be needed but we have to wait and see. >> you talk about sequencing, how important that is to determining what we know about presence of this in the united states. that was often something that was a complaint i often heard from other health officials, they didn't feel the cdc sequencing was often up to par. do you think it is in the situation now where they can effectively monitor this variant in the united states? >> i really do. i mean, it did take awhile for things to ramp up but i think we're getting there, if not being there already. i know in my state of alabama, our hospital at uab is sequencing regularly and other hospitals around the state and public health laboratories are sequencing. all those data from sequences are transmitted to the cdc daily and they follow which variants are popping up in different parts. that's how we detected delta back in the day. if this thing gets here, and i think it will, we'll be able to see where it is and see to what degree it is impacting us. i think we should celebrate the science here. we don't know exactly where it is going to go. just like we depend on national weather service, we should depend on public health officials to keep us alert and aware as data emerge. >> you said your home state of alabama, also my home state of alabama, we have a big game this afternoon kicking off. of course you know who i am rooting for. thank you for joining us. we'll be sure to keep talking to you as we learn more about the new variant. >> thank you, kaitlan, roll tide. >> i love that. much more to come on cnn "newsroom." a terrifying black friday for some shoppers after shootings in multiple malls and recent up tick in smash and grab robberies. and broadway mourning the loss of steven sond heim, the man behind the music of west side story. enter the words sweeney todd. >> i like to be in america. ♪ ♪ black friday taking a violent turn. injured three people, including a ten-year-old, and three others hurt in the chaos it caused. one person is detained there. in tacoma, washington, officials say a person has been hospitalized with serious injuries after a shooting there. police are searching for the suspect, motive is unclear at this time. luckily, no fatalities in either incident. it comes as police in california say a group of thieves targeted home depot outside los angeles, stealing hammers, crow bars and other tools. the theft comes as similar tools were used in a number of smash and grab robberies we have seen playing out across the united states at several high end stores in major u.s. cities this month. polo sandoval joins me now. polo, this is something that's deeply frustrating to retailers. what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah. and the big question is having maybe impact on sales, kaitlan. i can tell you across the country it is not, when you consider numbers released by industry experts showing roughly 158 million americans will do holiday shopping from thanksgiving up to this monday. 60% of those sales done in person. w why? there's lingering concern of supply chain disruptions, the big worry from shoppers that they may not be able to get that gift in time. that's why you see shoppers across the country including on fifth avenue, a lot of shoppers trying to make sure they get those gifts. when we heard from head of national retail federation yesterday, he does seem to be confident that a lot of bigger chains have basically been ballooning inventory ahead of the holidays, knowing people the last 20 months or so in the pandemic have been saving, so they have a lot to spend now, and also want to be able to go out and enjoy the holiday. places that are hurting are more of the independent retailers, so-called mom and pop stores that according to experts have lower priority when it comes to distribution. hence, small business saturday, where americans are encouraged to turn to some neighborhood stores that try to get the shopping done. look, whether you head to a small mom and pop shop on the corner or here to the saks store, $843 billion will be spent according to industry experts. that's still not prepandemic levels but still significant increase over the last. >> it is a significant increase. the issue is that you're starting to see people want to go back to stores and do things they haven't been able to do the last year and a half. stores and retailers are now dealing with this. that means new security measures as well. polo sandoval, thank you so much. smash and grabs aren't the only issue retailers are facing this holiday season. they're also dealing with supply chain problems and rising inflation across the united states. we'll speak live to the president of e-commerce for dhl next. ean. my friend stefanie, her skin was dry. i'm like girl you better get you some dove. she hooked me up. with a quarter moisturising cream, dove cleans effectively and cares beautifully. ♪ ♪ don't be fooled by the bike. or judge him by his jacket. while ted's eyes are on the road, his heart stays home. he's got gloria, and 10 grand-babies, to prove it. but his back made weekend rides tough, so ted called on the card that's even tougher. and the medicare coverage trusted by more doctors. medicare from blue cross blue shield. by your side, no matter what. that's the benefit of blue. find your local blue cross and blue shield plan at benefitofblue.com ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us (man) so when in doubt, just say, "let me talk to my manager." next, carvana's 100% online shopping experience. oh, man. carvana lets people buy a car-- get this-- from their couch. oh, how disruptive. no salesman there to help me pick out the car i need. how does anyone find a car on this site without someone like us checking in? 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>> we're seeing sales coming in right where we expected across most of our customers which is quite a positive sign. i am estimated we'll see 5 to 10% growth in sales across the e-commerce market versus last year, which was phenomenal growth last year because of the pandemic. growth in our industry in the shopping forum continues to be strong. >> when it comes to the question of if i order christmas gifts online, are they going to make it there in time, what's your prediction for people? >> right now i think everybody is in great shape. i think there's been a great deal of planning. our organization plans for cyber weekend starting back in january. we are well prepared. i think people across the industry are well prepared and there's quite a bit of confidence at this point in time to deliver. parcel carriers is the next challenge. right now, they have a great deal of work to be prepared to handle expected volumes and planning going on there as well. there's going to be an earlier cutoff as to when parcel carriers accept packages to ensure it gets to the customer. all that is going into planning. there's a high deal of confidence. >> a big part is issues with the supply chain, not just shipping containers hanging over the coast of ports of los angeles waiting to be off loaded, it is getting them off loaded, dealing with a truckers shortage that's getting packages where they're supposed to be going. so far, we know there's effort to work on that, but it hasn't been smoothed over or uncomplicated. how is that effecting what you expect for weeks ahead? >> i think one of the things we incurred in operations is inbound has come in later than expected. however, inventory levels are still high. retailers have done a great job overcoming the congestion issues and supply chain challenges to get inventory in place for the holiday season. they may not have all of the inventory they wanted or the exact units or items they wanted to sell but they do have a lot of inventory to make this holiday season successful. i think overall a lot of great work has been done by retailers to overcome. >> they're kind of in overdrive, trying to deal with those issues. also comes as there's a labor shortage here in the united states and it is a real issue where people are leaving their jobs and employers say they're having trouble filling a lot of the positions that they have. are y'all seeing something like that, how is that effecting you now that we're in this period of trying to come out of the pandemic but of course still concerns about the variant and concerns about what's going on. >> there's been a challenge in the e-commerce market for many, many years because of the nature of the shift of work. this is not a new challenge for us. it has been heightened due to some of the labor shortages that have been reported but it really comes down to winning the war on talent, getting people to be successful. there isn't enough labor to meet the demand. happy to report we have been successful getting labor we need to service our customers. that's being done through having the right tools in place, technology in place that people want to come work there, in addition to compensation strategies. >> that's something you're seeing so many businesses deal with. thank you so much for joining us this saturday. >> thanks, kaitlan. the white house is tapped into the u.s. strategic oil reserves to blunt rising prices, ease the pain of those people on the road paying more for gas. pancake lovers can rejoice in relief. canada is dipping into its reserves of maple syrup. a maple cartel of a thousand producers is dealing with spike in demand in a warm spring that effected harvest. it is dragging out half the emergency stock that will flow into the market. republican congressman lauren gobert is apologizing after her anti-muslim comment about ilhan omar. congresswoman omar says it is not enough, and house leadership needs to act. more on that ahead. and quick programming note. join fareed zakaria tomorrow night here on cnn at 9:00. 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open your nose for relief you can feel right away, helping you take in air more easily, day or night. there's so much new in the new chicken & bacon ranch, but the clock is ticking, so we gotta hurry! there's new rotisserie-style chicken, new peppercorn ranch, new hickory-smoked bacon, new- did you just spike the footlong? sorry, i didn't want the delay of game. save big. order through the app. there's still been no condemnation from republican leaders after lauren gobert made an islam phobic comment. implying that ilhan omar, one of the first muslim women elected to congress might be a suicide bomber. she's now apologizing, omar says it is not enough. sun lynn serfaty has the latest. >> reporter: dome boeb earth making a suicide bomber joke about being in an elevator with congresswoman ilhan omar. >> i looked to the left, there she is. ilhan omar. i said well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine. >> reporter: suggesting she should be concerned she would blow up the elevator. >> only had one floor to go. said oh, look, decided to show up for work today. >> reporter: the viral video posted by patriot takes, affiliate with left leaning groups, claimed to have been shot over thanksgiving break. omar saying the story is made up and boebert is a buffoon. today, tweeting an apology, saying she reached out to omar's office to speak with her directly. i apologize to anyone in the muslim community i offended with my comment about representative omar. adding there are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction. but boebert didn't apologize for other remarks made in the same event, including a homophobic remark about pete buttigieg taking paternity leave. >> he wasn't even put in charge of the supply chain crisis. someone else was tapped for that because mayor pete is still at home trying to figure out how to chest feed. somebody ought to tell him so he can get back to work. >> reporter: gop leadership has been silent in response to the series of derogatory comments. republican congressman calling her trash. >> cancel culture isn't just to keep us quiet, it is to stop the plan and movement of god almighty. >> reporter: it isn't the first time boebert that answered congress with this provocative video made inflammatory remarks. >> i will carry my firearms in d.c. and congress. >> reporter: recently, she defended paul gosar before he was censured by the house for tweeting an anime video showing him killing alexandria ocasio-cortez. >> have nothing to do but looking for ways to get offended. >> reporter: turning the floor speech into a tirade singling out democrats. >> the squad member from minnesota paid her husband, not her brother husband, the other one, over a million dollars in campaign funds. this member is allowed on the foreign affairs committee while praising terrorists. >> reporter: congresswoman omar called for house leadership to take action against congresswoman boebert. says normalizing bigotry endangers her life and lives of other muslims across the world. she did not specifically mention her apology or if her office heard from the congresswoman. sunlen serfaty, cnn. >> with me now, ron brownstein, political analyst and senior editor for "the atlantic." what's your prediction. what do you think kevin mccarthy will do when lawmakers are back in washington this week? >> nothing. look, the pattern has been clear, whether it is marjorie taylor greene, paul gosar, others along the way. as i wrote last winter on cnn.com, extremist wing in the gop has become too big to confront. party leadership is unwilling to discipline any of the members in large part because donald trump has so successfully and relentlessly torn down walls between the mainstream gop and the more extreme voices in american society. there's a clear pattern, someone used the word of normalizing this kind of rhetoric and threat. it is now i think too big to fail inside the gop coalition. >> you mention marjorie taylor greene. she's weighing in. tweeted never apologize to islamic terrorist sim pa theissers and those that fund murder with our tax dollars. she says they're all three undeserving of an apology. when you say this fringe faction is too big to confront, is it just now the main, into the normalized main base of the republican party? >> absolutely. you look at the polling that's clear the last couple years, particularly the trump era, that republicans draw support predominantly from voters that are most uneasy about the way the country is changing demographically, culturally, economically. there are multiple polls the last few years in which a majority of republican voters agreed that the american way of life, traditional american way of life is changing so fast we may have to use force to save it. research institute value survey came out, three quarters of republicans agreed that the values of islam are incompatible with american values. 90% say christianity is under attack. discrimination of rights is as -- and they're threatening american values. this is the dominant faction inside the gop. i still believe the critical question is what does the remaining one quarter of republicans that don't ascribe to these views, don't believe the election was stolen, what do they do. do they continue to give votes to officials that will empower these kind of voices. >> you saw in the video, i think concern is not just that it is lauren boebert making the comment, i don't think that's surprising to reporters that follow her, cover her on capitol hill, but you saw people laughing in the video when she made the comments. does it normalize it also to a degree, islamaphobia? >> absolutely. there's an alliance for this in the republican party and in the country as trump demonstrated. trump drew a line in the electorate, i think clearly it was already headed this direction, he sharpened it as i said between those that are comfortable with the way the country is changing and those who fear or oppose the way the country is changing, growing more culturally and demographically reversed. each time republican leaders fail to discipline or express anything more than the mildest sort of tut tuting over these remarks, they allow that to grow stronger. it is now in position where they simply do not believe, where they believe the faction in the party that accepts and welcomes and as you say celebrates this kind of rhetoric is too big to confront, which makes the question what do the republican voters who don't share these views, don't think the election was stolen, are they willing to keep giving votes to those officials. in virginia, the answer was yes. republicans feel like they're getting the best of both worlds, but it is still an open question, particularly getting to the larger issue of 2024. >> and she has apologized, but i don't think that will stop kevin mccarthy from getting a lot of questions about this, how he plans to navigate this as republicans regain potentially control of the house, he may be speaker mccarthy. thanks for joining us. >> happy holiday. thank you. >> thank you so much. broadway is mourning one of its own today. stephen sondheim passed away. broadway stars are remembering the musical legend. we have more on that next. o ho! not again. oh no. for the gifts you won't forget. the mercedes-benz winter event. get a credit toward your first month's payment on select models. ♪ lisa here, has had many jobs. she's worked in retail during the holidays. as a barista during rush hour. and a nanny to a couple of rambunctious kids. now, all that experience has led her to a job that feels like home. with home instead, you too can become a caregiver to older adults, with a career that makes a difference. ♪ apply today. ♪ we strip in the community garden. i've been stripping here for years. i strip before take-off. breathe right strips open your nose for relief you can feel right away, helping you take in air more easily, 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learn how abbvie could help you save. tributes to stephen sondheim are pouring in after news of his death, ranging from artists he inspired to fans. miranda shared an email he received from sondheim last week, saying he wrote to him saying his ears must be burning from the kindnesses shared from generations of writers he he mentored. he responded it is an a aspect of my life i am proud of. i feel like i repaid what i owe oscar. quite a tribute to mentor and friend and stephanie elam looks back on the huge amazing body of work. stephen sondheim was one of musical theater's most prolific, successful writers, winning eight tony awards, eight grammys, academy award, pulitzer prize for drama. in 2015, presidential medal of freedom. sondheim was born march 22nd, 1930 in new york city. his parents divorced in 1942. and he moved to pence with his mother. in pennsylvania, he became friends with james hammer stein, son of lear cyst oscar hammerstein. throughout teen years, his relationship with his mother deteriorated, and eventually the two became estranged. oscar hammerstein was a constant figure, encouraging sondheim's musical talents through high school and college. >> hadn't been for the hammersteins, i don't know where i would be, if i would even be alive. ♪ ♪ break came when he wrote the lyrics for "west side story" in 1957. in 1962 for the first time he wrote the lyrics and music for "a funny thing happened on the way to the forum." in 1970 he began a collaboration with hal prince that lasted more than a decade. their 1963 play was composed mostly in waltz team and became a commercial success. it featured the hit "send in the clowns." ♪ you hear at last on the ground ♪ >> reporter: in 1979 sondheim wrote broadway's first musical thriller "sweeney todd." ♪ see this one shine, how he smiles ♪ >> what's great about the theater is it's a living organism. where as movies and television are an ember, only alive in one shape and tone. every time you see a movie, they're giving the same performance as the last time. not true of a show. >> reporter: inspiration was everywhere for sondheim. in 1984 moved by a famous painting he penned the lyrics for "sunday in the park with george." ♪ sunday ♪ >> reporter: for that inventive stage craft, he won the pulitzer prize for drama. in 1987 he wrote "into the woods." ♪ now the forest ♪ >> reporter: late in sondheim's career lin-manuel miranda approached him with something he was working on, a musical, then called "the hamilton mixed tape" sondheim mentored miranda. from waltzes to rap, inspired by everything from serial killers to fairytales, sondheim's impact spanned decades and created some of the world's most popular musicals. so no more nudging your partner. or opting for the couch. because the tempur-ergo smart base is our first system that detects snoring and automatically adjusts to help reduce it. your best sleep. all night. every night. save up to $500 on select adjustable mattress sets during the 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they start with up cycled date pits. >> we've created a process where we take the pits. we react them and load them with new compounds and take them through a roasting process. when they come out of that process, they look and smell like coffee. >> reporter: he says this process requires 94% less water and emits 93% less emissions. since the date pits would be discarded, there's no deforestation involved. a acon and mushroom coffee is not a new concept. he wants this to be accepted as a real coffee, not an alternative. we called up a coffee director to make up the mix. he has an industry certification to say he's really good at grading and scoring coffee. >> actually not as bad as i thought it would be. it tastes like cold-brewed coffee, just a bad cold-brewed coffee. >> when we first launched, we thought the coffee connoisseurs would hate us. it's the opposite. people who love coffee also love the environment and want to make better choices. hello and thanks for joining me. i'm kaitlan collins in washington in for fredricka whitfield. we have breaking news today as we are expecting british prime minister to speak after uk health officials have confirmed two cases of the new variant omicron is present in the uk. the u.s. doesn't have any confirmed cases and officials are warning it could be weeks before they have a clearer picture of this mutated variant. dr. anthony fauci is warning it could already be here. >> so you would predict from looking at the mutations that have been identified that it likely will be more transmissible. we don't know that yet, but you have to be careful and assume that's the case. >> do you believe that omicron is already here in the u.s. likely? >> you know, i would not be surprise