vladimir putin of severe sanctions if russia invades ukraine. u.s. intelligence agencies say russia has been building up military forces on the border with ukraine. 75,000 troops, enough to begin an offensive within a matter of months. here's c.i.a. director bill burns. >> we don't know that putin has made up his mind to use force, but what we do know is that he's putting the russian military, the russian security services in a place where they could act in a pretty sweeping way. >> in case that happens, the white house says it's readying a range of sanctions aimed at putin's inner circle and the russian economy more broadly. >> we have consulted significantly with our allies and believe we have a path forward that would impose significant and severe harm on the russian economy. you can call that a threat. you can call that a fact. you can call that preparation. whatever you want to call it. >> for more on this high-stakes phone call, let's bring in white house reporter jasmine wright in washington. good morning. what do we know about biden's message to putin and the sanctions that could be on the table here? >> reporter: well, christine, sanctions on the table are aggressive. that is how they have been described to cnn. they could target as you said, russian oligarchs, russian banks, russian debt. one nuclear to remove the country from the payment plan, swift which is what most banks use -- which is what a lot of banks use across the country. officials caution that no final decisions have been made. let's take a step back because as laura and you pointed out, this could be one of, if not the most critical call of president biden's nearly one-year presidency. and so white house officials say he will be really clear in kind of setting up what could be the impact to russia if they proceed down this route. here is white house press secretary jen psaki. >> it is an opportunity for the president to underscore, of course, u.s. concerns with russian military activities on the border with ukraine and reaffirm the united states support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of ukraine. it's also an opportunity to discuss a range of topics in the u.s. and russia relationship, including stability, cyber and regional issues. >> reporter: so there we heard psaki giving a run down on the call. both sides expect it to go a long time. last night, president biden spoke to european officials as they are looking to be on the same page going into the call today. and officials say that president biden will talk to ukrainian president zelensky in the days after today's call happening, and just about five hours really trying to read him out and consult him very closely as things go ahead. but, laura, i have to point out this is a critical call for the president heading into tuesday. >> yeah, being watched by everyone in washington, republican senator joni ernst urging the president to be very clear and very strong to putin on that call. thank you so much, jazmine, nice to see you. mike pence's chief of staff marc short is cooperating with the committee. it will give investigators insight into a trump high-ranking official. the committee subpoenaed short a few weeks ago. cnn's ryan nobles has more. >> reporter: laura, christine, this is no doubt a significant development for the january 6 select committee, that they are getting cooperation from marc short, who is the former chief of staff to the vice president mike pence. and short was with pence in the days and weeks leading up to january 6, and he was with him here on that day. pence part of a group of aides and advisers to pence who were evacuated from the capitol as the rioters stormed the building on that day. so there's a lot the committee probably wants to know about the time line of events on january 6 itself. but short also has unique insight into what pence was dealing with in the days leading up to january 6. of course, pence was being put under enormous pressure from the former president donald trump and allies outside of the white house to try and intervene in his role as president of the senate, to try and prevent the certification of the election results on january 6, including one key meeting in the oval office with conservative lawyer john eastman who was floating this pretty much debunked legal theory that somehow pence had the authority to prevent the certification of the election. of course, pence said that he did not have that authority. he refused to take that step, which was part of why some of the rioters that were here on that day were looking for pence. some even saying that they wanted to execute him. so, the fact that we have a key player in pence's orbit willing to communicate with the january 6 committee, at least answer some questions and hand over documents about his experience on that day, gives us a level of insight cboe just how willing the pence world may be willing to cooperate on a broader scale. now, we should point out that marc short was subpoenaed by the january 6 select committee. this was information that we were not made aware of until cnn broke this story. so marc short, key player in all of the activity leading up to january 6, cooperating with the committee as they try and get to the bottom of what happened here on that day. laura and christine? >> ryan, thank you for that. gop congressman devin nunes is leaving the house at the end of the month to become the c.e.o. of former president trump's new media company. nunes would have faced a tough reelection next year in a district that leans more democratic. he was previously chairman of the house intel committee, and led gop efforts to discredit special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. more on this story later this hour. >> and the investigation into that media company already. all right, former president donald trump was a lot sicker than the white house admitted to when he had covid. that is according to chief of staff mark meadows, the chief chief. they down played just how ill trump was. his blood oxygen levels dropped down to the 830s. normal levels were 90s. trump viewed it as a sign of weakness. trump only relented after he said, better to go under your own power now than be carried out in a gurney in two days. >> so he apparently has quite a bit to say and is yet at the same time trying to claim executive privilege shields. >> same contradiction. >> we will see how that works. up next, actor jussie smollett taking the stand, insisting he never staged any sort of attack against himself. plus disturbing testimony from the trial of ghislaine maxwell ahead. fries or salad? 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firefighter maggie gronewald knows how to handle dry weather... ...and dry, cracked skin. new gold bond advanced healing ointment. restore healthy skin, with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin. welcome back. in just a few hours, jussie smollett will be back on the witness stand to face more cross-examination today. the former empire actor testified monday in his own defense, trying to convince jurors that he did not stage that hate crime attack, but instead was a victim of sloppy police work. cnn's omar jimenez has more from chicago. >> reporter: christine and laura, jussie smollett testified five hours on monday, and things ended with cross-examination where jussie smollett denied tampering with the noose seen around his neck just after the alleged hate crime attack back in january of 2019. he denied tampering with it to make it look like a more certifiserious lynching. he did tell jurors he took it off at one point, only to put it back on because his manager said the police needed to see the evidence. now, before cross-examination began, the defense went through piece by piece some of the major points of the prosecution's case in this. specifically they went back to the car ride the osundairo brothers where he initially proposed the fake attack and that is what happened. smollett testified that didn't happen at all. they drove around and smoked blunt. he asked if at any time he talked to abimbola osundairo about a hate crime and he said no. at the empire studios, he said he was offered security and was denied it. the prosecution argued part of why smollett created this alleged scheme in the first place because he felt they weren't taking the hate letter seriously enough. he testified bola asked to be his security guard, and those requests only intensified after that letter came, and that's important because the defense has argued that the brothers wanted to intimidate him into hiring bola. at least bola for security. and separately he testified that he and bola had had multiple sexual encounters, which bola also denied during his testimony. but that's important because ola osundairo, the brother, argued homophobia may have been a potential motivator of what was a real hate crime attack. cross-examination is where things left off over the course of yesterday. that's where things will pick up today. the judge previously had hoped that things would be over, that it would be in the jury's hands at least, by today. he was 100% certain is what he said. now he's saying things may spill into tomorrow. christine, laura? >> all right, omar, thank you for that. we know you'll be there for us. chilling new testimony in the trial of ghislaine maxwell. a woman who claims jeffrey epstein sexually abused her says maxwell set up their meetings. the woman also vividly described for jurors what she says she witnessed at epstein's homes. more now from cnn's kara scannell. >> reporter: a second accuser testified monday in the sex trafficking trial of ghislaine maxwell using the pseudonym kate. kate told the jury she met jeffrey epstein when maxwell brought her to a room where epstein was naked and she was instructed to give him a massage. that incident and a similar one soon after included sex acts, kate said. after both incidents, kate asked maxwell if she had fun. she was given a school girl uniform maxwell said she wear to serve epstein tea. the encounter also turned sexual. epstein had a voracious sexual appetite and asked if she knew other girls that were cute, young and pretty like you. she said kate's ambition was to be famous and her past substance abuse called into question her memory. kate acknowledged on examination she stayed with epstein until 2011 and emailed him while he was in jail for state prostitution charges. during the hour-long prosecution questioning, she didn't testify about her dealings with maxwell. the jury said they couldn't convict maxwell based on kate's testimony because she was at the age of legal consent at the time of her alleged assault. they seized evidence in 2019 from epstein's manhattan mansion including binders of cds and bins of hard drives. the jury also saw photos of epstein's massage room, but the judge blocked prosecutors from showing them school girl uniforms and a stuffed tiger, items they wanted to show 9 jury to corroborate the testimony. the jury is expected to see photos found on the cds seized in epstein's mansion. christine, laura? he a cara, thank you for that. it will be interesting to see if she testifies in her own defense. >> so many trials going on where defendants testify. tensions continue to escalate between russia and ukraine. a top ukrainian official has for the world next. ♪ i see them bloom ♪ ♪ for me and you ♪ ♪ and i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ a rich life is about more than just money. that's why at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner so you can build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding doesn't have to be. we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org. it's the winter jewelry sale. get 25% off everything. ♪ ♪ this is how we shine... at zales. the diamond store. 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 where's mom? she said she would be home in time for the show. don't worry, sweetie. she promised she'd be here for it. ooh! nice shot! thanks! glad we have xfinity, with wifi speed faster than a gig! me too! woah, look! mom is on tv! she's amazing! (cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 do you believe russia will invade? >> i not believe -- i will not believe that russia will have a victory in ukraine. it's different. because it will be a really blood massacre. and russian guys also will come back in the coffins, yes. >> ukraine's defense minister talking to cnn about the imminent possibility of an invasion by russia. satellite images indicate an unprecedented troop buildup near the ukrainian frontier. enough for moscow to mount an overwhelming invasion. that has the u.s. and "cnn today" owe ton high alert even as russia denies it plans to invade. let's get the latest now from cnn's fred pleitgen with the latest. fred, how are ukrainians viewing this biden/putin call and how important is that for an off ramp in these tensions? >> reporter: i think they view it as something that is of the utmost importance. you can see that from some of the statements we've been hearing from ukrainian officials the past couple of days. you heard the ukrainian defense minister warning that russians would be killed if there was an invasion. one of the interesting things that he told our own matthew chance in that interview, i think was also that the ukrainians say they don't want american troops necessarily as suppo support but what they do want is material support and weapons systems. that would be something that would be very important. but, of course, in total, the main thing right now for the u.s. and its allies is to try and solve all of this in a diplomatic way, and there definitely everyone is looking to the phone call of president biden and the russian president vladimir putin. and in that regard, certainly the big question is how will president biden try to solve all this. one of the main things he has talked about has been massive sanctions should there be an invasion by the russians. he's saying he would make clear to the russian leader vladimir putin that the cost will be very high for an invasion of ukraine. and williterally a couple minut before we went to air got this from our moscow office from the kremlin. i want to paraphrase it. this is the spokesman for vladimir putin saying no need to expect any breakthroughs from this conversation. this is a working conversation, in which tensions are escalating in europe off the charts. of course, this requires a conversation on a personal level. again, that's the spokesman for vladimir putin. so obviously the russians view this as very important as well. the russians are saying what they want is guarantees that nato would not -- ukraine would not become a member of nato. the u.s. has rejected that demand. nato has rejected that demand. certainly the ukrainians have rejected that demand as well. the other thing we're hearing, fresh information that we also got, is that the ukrainians are saying they are seeing this pro-russian separatist in the east of ukraine, also fortifying their positions both with snipers and with heavy weapons as well. you can see a volatile situation as that call is due to take place in a couple hours, guys. >> fred pleitgen for us. thank you, fred. three missionaries taken hostage, you remember that story? they've been released after months of captivity in haiti. we will bring you the very latest next. ♪ ♪ this is how we shine... at zales. the diamond store. at intra-cellular therapies, we're inspired by our circle. a circle that includes our researchers, driven by our award-winning science, who uncover new medicines to treat mental illness. it includes the compassionate healthcare professionals, the dedicated social workers, and the supportive peer counselors we work with to help improve - and even change - people's lives. moving from mental illness to mental wellness starts in our circle. this is intra-cellular therapies. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. ♪ this flag isn't backwards. it's facing this way because it's moving forward. ♪ just like the men and women who wear it on their uniforms and the country it represents. they're all only meant to move one direction which is why we fly it this way on the flanks of the all-new grand wagoneer. moving boldly and unstoppably forward. (vo) what's better than giving a better phone this holiday season? oh! i know, i know. giving a better phone on a better network. how much better? ranked #1 in network reliability 16 times in a row better. the most awarded for network quality a whopping 27 times by j.d. power better. yeah. and verizon is ranked #1 in customer satisfaction for small business wireless service better. this round's on me. holiday better with 5g from america's most reliable network. because everyone deserves better. good tuesday morning, everyone. this is "early start." i'm laura jarrett. >> and i'm christine romans. just about 30 minutes past the hour. time for our top stories to keep an eye on today. it's one of the most critical calls of biden's presidency so far. a video meeting with russian leader vladimir putin today. the two leaders will discuss the russian forces amassed at ukraine's border. white house says the u.s. will respond to any russian invasion of ukraine with sanctions and, if needed, additional troops in europe. three missionaries kidnapped in haiti in october have been released. the group of 16 americans and one canadian were abducted after visiting an orphanage. the mother and child were freed on sunday. two others were released last month. the remaining 12 victims are still being held. medina spirit, the winner of this year's kentucky derby died. the horse collapsed just as he was finishing a routine workout at the santa anita workout. the trainer bob bafford said the 3-year-old champion suffered a heart attack. the man who assisted the shooter's parents are talking to investigators. he said he did not knowingly help james and jennifer crumbly evade law enforcement. >> the complaint we filed today alleges texas violated section 2 for redistricting plans that a bridge the rights of latinos and black voters the ability to vote on the basis of their race. >> merrick garland saying they are suing the state of texas. a plan for redrawing congressional districts devised by republican lawmakers violates the voting rights act. the january 6 committee is getting significant aid from a top aide of mike pence. marc short who was vice president pence's chief of staff was subpoenaed a few weeks ago. he was a key witness on january 6. being at pence's side during the attack at the capitol, short was aware of how trump pressed his vp to overturn the results of the presidential election even though pence could not. joining us to unpack all this with three questions in three minutes, let's bring in cnn political analyst, white house reporter for the "washington post." so nice to see you this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> so, marc short, this is significant. this is one of the closest aides to the former vice president. he's at pence's side during the insurrection as they are racing all over the halls trying to stay safe. what do you expect he might actually say to the committee? how frank and forthcoming do you think he'll be? >> well, he is certainly a valuable witness or person that the january 6 commission has called, and he's valuable in a number of ways. as you mentioned, he was literally by the vice president's side when the insurrection was unfolding. but he was in the room in a series of critical meetings leading up to the insurrection. i'm talking about a january 4 meeting with president trump and vice president pence and conservative attorney john eastman who wrote the infamous memo. he has kind of been there at these key moments throughout. and i think you're seeing in recent interviews that he has the ability to be kind of frank and candid, and i'm thinking about the, i'm thinking about the recent interview that he had with, you know, david axelrod in his podcast where he acknowledged some of the rhetoric coming from president trump, calling these insurrectionists patriots. and marc short saying, that's wrong. so i think the january 6 commission believes that he could be a valuable resource in their investigation. >> meantime, congress has an awful lot of work to do and the calendar is so cruel this december. senators mcconnell and schumer are doing everything they can to make sure the united states doesn't default on its debt december 15. any chance they make this work? >> there is certainly a lot of pressure right now to make it work among senate leaders. and what's been really interesting is to watch that coordination between senate majority leader chuck schumer and senator mcconnell, the minority leader. they did come and provide the votes that were needed in october when we went through the standoff before. mcconnell said that was the last time that he would do so, but you're seeing a different tone coming from mcconnell now. both sides say the talks between the two leaders are productive. they are confident, at least mcconnell is, that the country will not default according to comments he gave recently. but at the same time, the leaders have yet to kind of disclose that way forward. and the deadline that the treasury department has set out is next week. so it's not just mitch mcconnell who has to be on board. he has to get nine other republicans on board with this p plan and can he do that is yet to be seen. >> devin nunes is about to leave the house at the end of the month to become the c.e.o. of the new trump media and technology group. the group has come under scrutiny by the sec from what i understand. set that aside. i want to talk about the politics. he was a significant player for the republicans. obviously a huge ally of the former president. what does it tell you that he has given up this house seat, this coveted house seat in california? >> right. well, we've been hearing a lot lately over the last several weeks, several months of high school democrats retiring. it is almost certain republicans will take the majority next year. devin nunes was actually in line for a very powerful position, the house ways and means committee. that is the person who oversees tax policy, a key role for the republican party in any configuration. the fact that he has chosen to be -- to stay in trump's orbit really kind of completes the transformation that devin nunes has undergone over the last several years. he used to be the republican who kind of called out the fringes of his party, you know, back not so long ago. five, seven years ago. ever since the start of the trump administration when he was in that key role as a house committee, house intel committee chair, he really has turned into a trump ally at all costs. >> five or seven years ago seems like a lifetime. those are dog years. thank you so much, appreciate it. more on the former president's media ambitions and new scrutiny from the feds. investigators investigating the shell company in the return to wall street. he announced a new social media venture he claims will, quote, stand up to the tierney of big tech. he claims to go through digital world, a special purpose acquisition company, a spac. it's a blank check company create today trade publicly before merging with an existing company. now, the trump spac deal facing scrutiny from the securities and exchange commission in filing digital world it received a request for all communications between it and the trump media technology group. wall street self-regulator finra is looking into it. he began discussing digital world before it went public which spacs are not supposed to do. senator warren speaking about it saying nobody is above the law. to covid now. new covid cases among children in the united states reaching 133,000 last week. that's about 2,000 more than the week before, and still extremely high according to the american academy of pediatricians. known cases of the omicron variant still a small percentage of the total, but it's spreading. in the u.s. cases identified in mississippi and texas bring the total number of states to 19 now. worldwide omicron has been found in five new countries, including russia and thailand for a total of 47. in south africa, positivity rates of new cases of covid has jumped by 24% in the two weeks since the new variant was first detected there. let's bring in cnn's larry madowa live in johannesburg for us. larry, i have to assume this jump in the positive test right has south african officials worried. what's the plan to address it? >> reporter: they are quite worried because you mentioned that jump in positivity rate. two weeks ago the positivity rate was 2.3%. right now it is 26.4% in the last 24 hours. to get into the statistics for a second, that means it is an increase of 1,048% in two weeks. sturgin surging across the country and all the provinces. the travel ban, flights leaving the country so everybody is scrambling to leave. even though most places coming to the u.s. and uk and most of europe they have to quarantine and all that. officials are encouraging people to try and get vaccinated even though there is still hesitancy about that. there are people who either for cultural reasons or because of misinformation and conspiracy theories, a lot of it actually from american right-wing political commentators. they are reluctant to get vaccinated. president ramphosa saying we have enough vaccines. it is compelling. that is the only way to stay protected. people are taking some confidence in the fact the preliminary data seems to indicate that the omicron v variant might be more transmissible but less severe. they think they will survive it if it comes down to it. not what authorities are hoping to hear, but doing what they can. vaccines may be mandatory and some companies are doing so. but in the wider public, a huge deal of concern, anger about the travel bans. one me have we are of the south african tourism board said it's time for south africa to stop depending on the west. >> if africa is going to rise, africa is going to have to look to africa and to africans. this is a reminder of the selfishness of the west when it comes to issues like vaccine, sharing their vaccines or sharing their knowledge. so the reminder that for africa to thrive again, africa must look to itself and not -- we need to get over this need to get validation from the rest of the world. >> reporter: this omicron variant was only discovered because south african scientists were on top of this, and so leaders here say the world should be applauding south african scientists and not putting in travel bans. for the south african nations now cannot travel to most parts of the west. >> all right, larry, thank you for that update. france taking new steps in its response to the latest wave of covid there. the prime minister says france will mandate masks in primary schools immediately and will close all french night clubs starting friday for four weeks. vaccinations for children age 5 through 12 are not currently available in france, but will be on december 20th. in the past 24 hours, more than 6200 new cases were reported among children age 6 to 10 years old. private sector employees who work in new york city will have to be vaccinated. that is according to mayor bill de blasio. this applies to 1,084 businesses. kids age 5 to 11 must show proof of one vaccine dose for entertainment, dining and performance venues. everyone 12 and up must do the same. >> now to this cold case. the justice department has officially closed its investigation into the killing of emmett till. a 14-year-old black teen from chicago visiting family and mississippi back in 1955 when he was tortured and murdered after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. now, in 2017 a historian said she confessed her original story about till, was a lie. but d.o.j. now says it can't prove that the woman actually recanted to that professor and lied to authorities. leaving till's family disappointed but resolute. >> whatever we do, we can't bring him back, but we can carry on and let america know we need to know the truth, and that's what we look for. through his deteath we can see w far we've come and how much work we have to do. >> even though we don't feel we have justice, we still must move forward so these particular hate crimes will not continue to be done and no justice is found. with that, let's move forward. let's look at the future, and let's figure out how we can continue to make a change. >> the fbi spoke to carolyn bryant donna repeatedly as part of the investigation. but she denies ever lying about her accusation against -- the sad truth about this is anyone who could actually be held culpable, actually prosecuted for this has long since died. the statute of limitations has long since run, even if the fbi investigators could prove that she lied, the statute of limitations has run on this case. and so the family is just left sort of with this unresolved haunting case. we were all taught about this case in school, and yet it's never faded from view. >> one of the most grisly cases from that era. a painful moment in american history. to not have the facts is sad. we'll be right back. it's the winter jewelry sale. get 25% off everything. ♪ ♪ this is how we shine... at zales. the diamond store. find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. the tempur-pedic breeze° makes sleep...feel cool. because the tempur-breeze° transfers heat away from your body... ...so you feel cool, night after night. save up to $500 on select adjustable mattress sets during the tempur-pedic black friday event. at intra-cellular therapies, we're inspired by our circle. a circle that includes our researchers, driven by our award-winning science, who uncover new medicines to treat mental illness. it includes the compassionate healthcare professionals, the dedicated social workers, and the supportive peer counselors we work with to help improve - and even change - people's lives. moving from mental illness to mental wellness starts in our circle. this is intra-cellular therapies. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 bad in buffalo in december. the conditions during last night's bills and patriots game blew away the game plans. andy scholes has the bleacher report. hey, andy. >> they looked at the weather and said, we're not even going to try to throw the ball. not gonna do it. the wind gusts in buffalo were up to 50 miles per hour last night. the feels like temperature was in the 20s. the snow was blowing sideways. throwing and kicking the ball an adventure. rookie quarterback mac jones attempting three passes all night. completing two of them. the patriots ran the ball 46 times under two minutes to go. bills had 4th and 14 in the red zone. belichick dialed up the blitz and josh allen's pass knocked down. belichick shogi motion on the side lines. hands up, big smiles, hugs his son. patriots win 14-10. the first time since 1974 a team won while attempting three passes or less. patriots now won 7 in a row and are the 1 seed in the afc. >> we played kind of the way we felt like we needed to play to win. you know, in the end we scored enough points, being tough, being disciplined, being resilient and dealing with a really good football team. you know, conditions that were somewhat challenging. >> somewhat challenging. all right. the heisman trophy finalists were revealed with four players in the running for college football's most prestigious award. michigan defensive end aidan hutchinson. kenny picket, c.j. stroud, bryce young. all four will be in new york city for saturday's ceremony. the winner will be revealed. young is the overwhelming favorite to win, the sophomore throwing for 43 touchdowns and just four interceptions guiding the top ranked crimson tide to the football playoff. after missing a pair of games with a calf injury, on a 27th birthday, guess what? scored 27 points leading milwaukee 112-104 win. that's the 10th game for the defending nba champs. if you anger steph curry, jerry harris steals it from curry and lays it in. curry then gets the ball and is going to cross over harris and get to half-court, and then bank it in at the buzzer. curry's reaction after doing that, pretty great. he scored 31, the warriors won 126-95 to improve to a league best, 20 and 4 on the season. back to monday night football, props to the bills' mafia for braving those conditions out there. i mean, it was wild. i'm sure a lot of them bundled up and made it through the game. they were kind of used to it there. look at this shot. i wonder how warm is a darth vader costume? >> they don't look cold at all. >> is darth vader costume warm at all? >> i think the plastic helps insulate. >> i spent time in chicago. i went to cold games. thanks, andy. >> hawaii's governor declaring a state of emergency due to heavy rains and catastrophic weather there. the national weather service expects 10 to 15 inches of rain from a storm system with as much as 25 inches possible in some areas. here's meteorologist pedram javaheri. >> christine and laura, good morning, guys. yes, the big story across the hawaiian islands has been the incredible run of weather we've seen in recent days. just the 48 hour totals, we'll show you what we're talking about here. some areas exceeding a foot of rainfall. as much as 2 feet possible. a few isolated locations. initially it was the eastern periphery of the islands. the most population dense, oahu and honolulu now kind of underneath the radar here as far as the significant amount of rain that is in store. flash flood warnings in place across oahu. flash flooding imminent in honolulu and points west of the region seeing the brunt of what the system, very slow-moving system has to offer this area. again, could see an additional round of heavy rainfall, maybe another 6 to 8 inches in spots. what's impressive about all this, the hawaiian islands had been in large part across a significant drought. much like the western united states dealing with excessive drought. it's been the case across this region as well. but a lot of this comes in, brings with it some benefits. but, of course, flooding here, the amount of it seen in a short time period what's going to be concerning. guys? >> all right, pedram, thank you so much for that. >> let's get a check on cnn business this morning. looking at markets around 89 world, asian shares rebounded. europe opened stronger, strongly higher in paris and frankfurt. stock index futures look like they're going to have a strong morning here. wall street rebounded to start the week. the dow rose yesterday 1.9%. that's enough to erase last week's losses. the broader s&p 500 and nasdaq both gained 1%. remember last week the wild swings after the omicron variant was identified? the theory/hope/speculation right now on wall street is the variant proves to be mild. however, inflation still a worry. wall street gets a fresh read on consumer price inflation on friday. ford motor company delaying its return to office date to march because of new coronavirus concerns. assembly line workers returned in may of 2020. office workers getting ready to head back next month, but the new variant shifted the company's plans. delayed plan affects 30,000 employees. workers have until december 8 to be fully vaccinated. omg, here's bzfd. buzzfeed, the digital media brand known for lists, quizzes and articles began trading monday on nasdaq as a public company under the ticker symbol bzfd. it opened at $10.99. it jumped 40% and then closed at $9.62. despite all the bells and whistles there is still uncertainty as some investors pulled out. buzzfeed raised $16 million going public. finally for you this morning. steven kolbert has thoughts on new york's expanding its vaccine mandate to include children. here are your late night laughs. >> this is not the only new rule for the city. with shots now available for kids, all children between the ages of 5 and 11 will need proof of at least one shot before entering restaurants, theaters, and gyms. that's great. we have to make it safe for our 6-year-olds to heit the leg press. come on, madison, do you think zooma gives up? goals are dreams, standards are accountable. now squat, my man! squat! [ applause ] >> that was good. >> i for one am glad that children need to get vaccinated. it's protecting them, protecting us. >> i know. all my little cost centers have been shot. >> cost centers. i still love them. >> i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. 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