and an historic trip. the first official visit by an israeli prime minister to the uae. a sign of deepening ties between israel and the arab world. ♪ >> announcer: live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with michael holmes. we begin with the desperate search for survivors after the deadliest december tornado outbreak in u.s. history. dozens of people killed when a series of powerful tornadoes tore through several states over the weekend. kentucky the hardest hit. the governor says in the best case scenario, at least 50 people died in his state. but he says crews are still finding bodies, and he fears the final toll could be much higher. still, rescuers are looking for signs of life as they dig through the rubble, including at a candle factory that was flattened in the small town of mayfield. initially officials feared dozens may have died inside the factory, but a company spokesperson said sunday that most employees fortunately made it out. eight have been confirmed dead, however, and eight others still unaccounted for. of course it wasn't just the factory that was destroyed. the entire town of mayfield was pretty much decimated. tornadoes also caused destruction in several other towns and cities. the heads of u.s. homeland security and fema are now on the ground bringing federal resources in to help. u.s. president biden also just approved a major disaster declaration in kentucky, freeing up even more federal funds. kentucky's governor says the outpouring of support has helped ease some of the heartbreak. >> we're grateful for the outpouring of love. it's the best way i can describe it, from all over the country and from all walks of life. i want to thank everybody for standing with the people of kentucky. we feel it. in fact, one of our -- one of our biggest challenges right now is organizing the amount of people that want to help, want to donate, and want to volunteer. but you know what? that's the best challenge that any of us could ask for. >> cnn's brynn gingras is on the ground in mayfield, where she spoke with one family who managed to ride out the storm. >> reporter: we are seeing electric crews, volunteer fire departments, police departments descending on mayfield, willing to help everybody here get through this. and there is so much work to be done. i just want you to see what's behind me, what i believe is a preschool. this is just some of the damage that is really all across this town of 10,000 people. this particular school is actually blocking part of the street in downtown mayfield, and it was moved off its foundation. you can still see inside the school some of the stuff in there is still intact. it's quite an eerie scene. i got to tell you talking to so many people in this town, the people that call mayfield home, they're stunned. they're in disbelief. they're trying to figure out what the next day and the next day is going to bring them. some of them thanking god that they are alive. we talked to one couple who hunkered down in a crawl space of their home with their 6-year-old daughter. i want you to hear from them about how they survived this storm. >> me and our daughter were sitting on that pallet. this door here is what kept us alive basically along with him, because he was holding it with a lanyard. just a lanyard. >> i never felt something like that ever in my life. it felt like there were ten grown men on the other side of this door trying to pull it off the hinges. >> he's holding the door shut. you're holding your 6-year-old daughter. can you just describe being a mom? >> um, we were just -- i just told her to close her eyes, and she started counting. she's like, oh, like hide and seek, mom? >> reporter: there is so much loss of life as well. still people are being -- there is work to try to rescue them or recover their bodies, particularly at that candle factory where so many people are still missing. we talked to one family who lost a member of their family, a 47-year-old who was working at that candle factory at night. his family now remembering him as just a happy person and missing him this holiday season coming up. so much despair in mayfield, but again so much resilience to move forward from all of this devastation. back to you. >> brynn gingras there for us. now, communities across western kentucky are just starting to assess the damage. cnn's nick valencia is in bowling green with one family's story. >> reporter: families in this subdivision of bowling green are just now starting to come back to their homes, what's left of their homes anyway, and salvage the belongings that they're able to. this shipping container was actually parked on the other side of the street. i want to show you the power of this storm, just exactly what it did to this shipping container, flipping it on its side. you can see the wheels there and the perspective just gives you a sense of what these residents in this community went through just over the weekend here. you actually were home at the time of this. >> yes. >> you live here. >> yes. >> this is unbelievable to see. >> yes, yes. we were actually in the home while the tornado hit. >> what was it like? >> you know, we were sleeping. it was about 1:45 when it started, and i heard sounds. it sounds like gunshots, very loud gunshots. and i got up automatically, and i checked, you know, the living room. and every single window was blown through. everything was thrown in the living room, and the trailer that you were speaking of behind me here. >> right behind us. >> was actually thrown towards my window. >> show us where your window is here. i mean you can see all this debris here that's left behind. you guys are starting to clean up. >> we actually moved this trailer so we can open and get some of the belongings in there. this trailer was actually connected to this wall right here. it was on this wall here. this is my bedroom here. so i honestly think if this trailer wasn't here, the tornado would have ate up my whole home. >> you said there were small children inside with you as well. >> yes. i have a 2-year-old niece and a 3-year-old nephew that were sleeping, and i'm glad god moved my brother the way he did because if he didn't move him for half a second, all that glass that exploded would have been on my niece's head and my nephew's body. >> what do you make of this because you look next door, and next door the homes are gone. i mean your home suffered some significant damage clearly. i mean we're standing on parts of your home here. but what do you make of that? i mean the tornado spared most of your home while leveling your neighbors'. >> yes. i'm glad. i'm thankful i still have my mother and my father and my family with me. my neighbors that have lost their homes are literally one house, two houses from me. it's a tragedy. it's a tragedy. i'm thankful that god has blessed me and my family and all the families around here that are still alive and that are still walking and speaking. i'm blessed. >> you had told us off camera the reason that you have this shipping container here is because you guys were going to move. you were on your way to georgia the next morning. then the storms hit. >> yes, yes. correct. we just purchased a residence in georgia. we packed everything up the whole day prior to the tornado and, you know, we locked everything up. next thing you know, the tornado is -- excuse me -- the trailer is coming towards my window. >> what do you guys need right now? that's the question we're all getting. what can people do to help people like you in your situation? >> the most -- i mean everybody getting together and everybody kind of being there for each other is i think the most we can do right now. just being there for one another. god is great. >> thank you so much. god bless you. thank you for taking the time with cnn. he and his family count themselves among the lucky ones here. just looking at this devastation all around, so much has been made of what happened in mayfield. bowling green, though, was particularly hard-hit, and this is an event that they don't see here. i was talking to other residents here who say they've gotten the alerts on their phones before for severe weather, but nothing has ever materialized. this time it did, though, and it's going to be an event that residents like himo and his family will remember for the rest of their lives. nick valencia, cnn, bowling green, kentucky. forrest lanning is the principal structural engineer. he joins me now from san francisco. it's an important conversation given what's happened. when you look at the magnitude of damage to these towns and neighborhoods, where do you, when you look at this, where do you even start when it comes to rebuilding? >> well, there's going to be a lot of insurance claims, and that's going to need to be sorted out individually. so every homeowner is going to have to have their own battle getting that done. but it's basically going to be first removal of the debris. debris of these type of disasters produce so much volume of debris, and a system is going to need to be done to find out where they can safely deposit it and transport it. so that's going to be a huge operation in itself right off the bat. >> and how long could it take to rebuild a town? i'm thinking like mayfield in kentucky where the destruction just seems to be an almost total. i mean are we talking years? >> absolutely years. it's going to be at least a few years to actually have some part of the city rebuilt because buildings are going to have to be demolished, cleared out. there's going to be -- insurance claims have to be sorted out. once that's done, they can start funding for new houses, new schools or any other type of building. and they need to be designed also. so it's definitely a minimum of a few years. >> yeah. you know, there's so much sadness and tragedy in this, but when it comes to the rebuilding angle, is a situation like this in a way an opportunity to rebuild better, either stronger buildings, things like upgrading services, underground power, you know, even better neighborhood layouts and things? >> absolutely. i worked on the christchurch rebuild after the 2011 earthquake. that was a great example also on how to rebuild, and it gave them an opportunity to build back better, build back more resilient, and also to change certain city planning aspects and urban design of their downtown area. so it is an opportunity for that, but you just have to really balance doing that because building back greener or building back more resilient is going to cost more for construction costs. so you really have to balance that along with not getting in the way of actually people being able to build their houses back. >> yeah. it may cost more in the beginning, but maybe it pays off longer term. i'm thinking greensberg, kansas, hit by a huge tornado in 2007. i think 90% of the town was destroyed. in the years since, it's been held up as a model for building back green. what sort of changes could be smart environmentally? >> well, it's low carbon. greensberg is a great example of doing that. but you also have to keep in mind that i don't believe all the houses and all the residents have returned. so it's not at the same level of population as it was before. so that needs to be taken into account. but getting greener materials is one thing. but you also have to take into account you can't transport materials as from far away because that's a higher carbon footprint. there's a lot of different aspects that need to be thought through on designing your buildings. you've got to make sure all the materials you're using are locally available. >> what would be the priorities, then, to build a different, better town or neighborhood? and i guess what are the potential road bumps as well? regulation, red tape, and so on. what are the priorities? >> i think the priorities is the ones we can actually tackle right now. we can build back greener. we can build back to be a more user-friendly city. building back stronger in the respect of withstanding or being resilient to tornadoes is going to be the biggest challenge because these are extreme events. i mean no house is going to be able to withstand, you know, 200-mile-an-hour winds, even 150-mile-an-hour winds unless you're building a concrete bunker with no windows. property damage is going to happen. now, they need a program for evacuation and alerting systems, but to minimize or reduce or eliminate property damage is going to be the biggest hurdle from tornados. >> it's fascinating and an important discussion as i said. and i know christchurch and i know the work that was done there. hopefully this might be an opportunity as well when the dust settles. forrest lanning with endapt consulting, appreciate your time. thank you. >> pleasure to be on here. now, in edwardsville in illinois, crews are sorting through debris at an amazon warehouse. six people died when the tornadoes tore into that building. thick concrete walls crumbled inward. the roof collapsed. 45 people made it out of the building. an amazon spokesperson says workers had time to find a safe place before the tornado touched down. >> the tornado warning siren actually went off, and we had about 11 minutes from that time to the time that the tornado hit the ground in order to get our employees and our partners into a safe place. >> our managers were on the loudspeakers telling people to get to the shelter in place area. they were also being guided by other managers and other employees who were trying to get everybody to that safe location. we had people in two different sheltering areas. >> 29-year-old clayton cope died in the amazon warehouse collapse. the u.s. navy veteran had been working as a mechanic there for just over a year. clayton's mother says show spoke with her son minutes before the tornado hit. she believes he was making sure others were safe. >> in my heart, i know that he went to try to warn other people to get where they needed to be. between his military training and just who he was, he would have done that no matter whether, you know, he was told to or not. so that's the only thing i can hold on to is i feel like he must have been trying to help someone else. >> now, amid this multi-state tragedy, a remarkable, uplifting story has emerged. katie postin in new albany, indiana, found this photo stuck to her car window. she posted it on facebook and carl swazell from dawson springs, kentucky, commented on the post, quote, to think this traveled so far. this is my dad's grandparents. the photo, in fact, traveled more than 150 miles, whipped up in tornado debris from kentucky. swazell said his family plans to meet with p, 0, stin to retrieve the photo. you can help those in need. go to cnn.com/impact. there you'll find verified ways to provide help for tornado victims. once again, that's cnn.com/impact. still to come on "cnn newsroom," governments around the world reacting to the spread of omicron and pleading with their citizens to get vaccinated. we'll be right back with that and more. it's our holiday savings event on the sleep number 360® smart bed. what if i sleep hot? 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(vo) visible. switch and get up to $200, plus our best ear buds, on us. what if you could have the perspective to see more? at morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. ♪ we see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first. we see a bright future, still hungry for the ingenuity of those ready for the next challenge. today, we are translating decades of experience into strategies for the road ahead. we are morgan stanley. south african officials say president cyril ramaphosa has tested positive for covid-19 and is receiving treatment. his symptoms are mild apparently, but he has delegated his responsibilities to the deputy president for the next week. mr. ramaphosa said in a statement his infection serves as a caution to everyone in the country to get vaccinated and remain vigilant against exposure. meanwhile, some pretty sobering numbers for the u.s. in the covid crisis. according to data from johns hopkins university, the u.s. is now approaching 50 million cases and ticking closer to 800,000 deaths. nearly 61% of the country is now fully vaccinated. that's according to the cdc. and just under 27% of that group has received a booster. now, meanwhile, the omicron variant has been found in at least 29 u.s. states and the district of columbia. experts say vaccinations and booster shots of course are still the best protection against the variant. >> preliminary data show that when you get a booster, for example, the third shot of an mrna, it raises the level of protection high enough that it then does do well against the omicron, which is again another reason to encourage people who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated, but particularly those who are vaccinated to get boostered because that diminution in protection seems to go way back up again. so that's the importance of getting that best and optimal protection you can. >> the omicron variant is prompting governments around the world to act. the british prime minister sounding the alarm on sunday after the uk confirmed its first hospitalizations due to the variant. >> we must act now. today we're launching the omicron emergency booster national mission, unlike anything we've done before in the vaccination program to get boosted now. a fortnight ago i said we would offer every eligible adult a booster by the end of january. today in light of this omicron emergency, i'm bringing that target forward by a whole month. everyone eligible aged 18 and over in england will have a chance to get their booster before the new year. >> starting monday, the government recommends that everyone in england who can work from home does so. face coverings are now compulsory in public, and parliament meets tuesday to consider a mandatory covid-19 pass. in china, authorities are urging citizens against travel during the chinese new year as the country grapples with fresh coronavirus outbreaks. officials say the epicenter of the outbreak has moved from inner mongolia to the southeastern province of xinjiang. for more on this, cnn's kristie lu stout joins me now live from hong kong. so the epicenter of infection is moving. what's the latest? >> reporter: covid-19 cases continue to rise in china, particularly in this joe zhang province. this is a major manufacturing center. it's also a shipping port. on sunday, china reported 80 new locally transmitted cases of the virus, 74 from joe zhang. what we're seeing is the epicenter of this latest flare up of covid-19 infection in china moving from the north, from the inner mongolia region on the border with russia down to the eastern coastal area of zhejiang. this is where alibaba, the tech giant, is located. this is where one of the world's busiest ports is located. this is the world's third busiest container port. you may remember earlier this year in august, there was just a single case of covid-19 that was detected at this port. the entire port was shut down for a number of weeks. that led to shipping congestion, and it wreaked havoc on the global supply chain. and already there are reports about a dozen listed chinese companies have suspended production in zhejiang province because of new pandemic measures that are kicked in and are now enforced. as the number of covid-19 cases rise in china, a number of governments are advising their residents to stay put and to not travel ahead of the lunar new year season. the lunar new year is kicking off january 31st. this is, of course, the time of year when hundreds of millions of chinese travel home for the holidays, especially migrant workers, resulting in what has been called the world's largest annual human migration. but like last year, we have a number of governments, three places right now telling their residents to stay put, including a district in hobe province. it's also one of the host cities of the winter olympics. back to you, michael. >> omicron yet to be detected in china? is that right? are officials concerned, or are they confident about that? >> reporter: chinese officials remain very confident and not concerned even though the omicron variant is spreading all around the world. the variant was detected here at the border in hong kong but has not been detected or reported inside mainland china. over the weekend, we heard from a top respiratory specialist in china. he spoke at a vaccine summit in shenzhen. this is from china's top respiratory expert. he says this, quote, we don't need to be afraid of omicron. by applying the dynamic zero case policy and observing the prevention and control measures, unquote. china is confident in what it's calling a dynamic zero covid strategy. it's a strategy of throwing the entire pandemic playbook at even just a handful of cases. you've got mass testing or contact tracing, snap lockdowns, border controls, travel restrictions, et cetera. i think china is using the word "dynamic" here because it realizes it is very difficult to keep the number at zero. but they do have what it takes with this pandemic playbook strategy to bring those case numbers down as low as possible. back to you, michael. >> yeah. great information. kr kristie lu stout there in hong kong, thanks so much. >> you're welcome. still to come here on the program, israel's prime minister looking to deepen ties during his trip to the uae. the first such visit by an israeli leader. we'll have the details in a live report from jerusalem. also mexico deploying its national guard to some tourist areas to combat a recent spike in deadly gang shootings. coming up, i'll talk with an expert on how mexico's beaches became war zones. we'll be right back. representine connection you share. forever connected. the perfect t gift to give this holiday. exclusively at kay. when you really need to sleep you reach for the really good stuff. new zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. it's non habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. new zzzquil ultra. when you really really need to sleep. 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>> it's an incredible moment. i want to ask you this. last week the crown prince's brother and the uae's national security adviser, they flew to iran for meetings. we know all about israel's concerns about iran and the nuclear program. has that iran trip complicated things at all? >> reporter: well, listen, the emiratis and the israelis share a mutual concern when it comes to a nuclear iran. that's partly what helped push them towards these normalization agreements. and i think that's a really important point to make. so, yes, the emiratis national security adviser was in tehran last week. he even met with iran's president. it was a very rare meeting because as i've noted, the emiratis have seen the iranians as a security threat. but, michael, you can't change geography. a lot of analysts note that iran and the emirates are very, very close neighbors. so for the emiratis, it's also important to try to keep the regional stability intact. on the israeli side, the israelis have been continuing their rhetoric about how they are ready to strike iran. they are getting ready to strike iran militarily if diplomatic talks fail. so this meeting today will be very important for bennett. this meeting with the crown prince, because israel really needs the uae as a strategic partner in the face of a possible nuclear iran. >> all right. hadas gold there in jerusalem, appreciate it. thanks so much. now, a french territory in the pacific voted against independence in a referendum marred by a boycott. early results showed only about 44% of people came out to vote on sunday in new caledonia. the indigenous people called for a boycott even though they largely favor independence. they asked to postpone the vote because they are in a customary mourning period following a september surge in covid infections. france denied their request. the beaches of cancun in mexico's yucatan peninsula are some of the most popular destinations in the word. in recent weeks, the idyllic paradise has been plagued by a spike in deadly gang violence. now the government is responding. cnn's matt rivers reports. >> reporter: the gunfire started on the beach on november 4th, just outside the hyatt resort just south of cancun. authorities said a gun fight between rival drug gangs erupted on the beach, sending tourists fleeing indoors. video from twitter user mike sington shows guests sheltering in place in the hotel, some in a back room, others in the lobby. less than two months before a shooting at this restaurant in tulum, again authorities say between rival drug gangs left two tourists dead. and just in the past week, several men pulled up to a cancun beach on jet skis and fired their guns in the air. multiple security incidents in recent months have some questioning just how safe cancun is. a tourist magnet that draws millions of sun seekers every year. a few say they're rattled by the violence. i don't feel safe here, says this brazilian tourist. as tourists, we don't feel safe. we've seen multiple recent incidents on the news. the federal government has taken notice. nearly 1,500 national guard troops have now been deployed to the state of quintana roo, specifically focusing on cancun and other tourist areas nearby. mexico's president says these are painful events because nationals and foreigners lose their lives, and this cannot be repeated. we have to prevent that from happening, so that's why we have a plan to reinforce security. but all that said, is traveling to quintana roo state and its possible destinations like cancun or tulum too dangerous? tourism officials in mexico told cnn that the vast, vast majority of the millions of visitors that come here each year do so without incident and that any violence almost always stays between drug gangs. though the u.s. government says travelers should use increased, caution, it didn't recommend avoiding the state like it does so many other places in mexico. and the number of tourists has shot up as the pandemic has eased. the government at all levels in hand with the citizenry is committed to protecting each and every visitor, said the former minister of tourism in tulum. crime statistics in the state have largely held steady in recent years too. so there's no doubt that recent headlines have some people spooked and rightly so. drug gangs remain operating and so too does the collateral damage that comes with. but cancun succumbing to crime, becoming an unsafe place for tourists -- those ideas seem premature. matt rivers, cnn, mexico city. coming up here on "cnn newsroom," holiday shopping in full swing, but consumerism is impacting the environment. next we talk to an expert about how to reduce consumption without hurting the economy. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ there's my boy! all the delivery. no delivery fees. dashpass. cough cough sneeze sneeze... 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journalist and author j.b. mac kinnen wrote a book about, the day the world stops shopping: how ending consumerism saves the environment and ourselves. he joins me from british columbia. some nations are worse than others whether it comes to consumption. i'm thinking about the u.s. in particular, where i think consumption grew from 65% from 1990 to 2015 compared with about 35% growth in europe. why is that? why do you think there's this impulse in the u.s. to buy and so often buy things we just don't need? >> i think a lot of it's cultural. the american dream is really built around this idea of economic prosperity. so if you want to consider yourself a success in american society, then you're often doing so by measures like your income and your possessions. and this has had this result where americans do nearly every social thing through cons consumption, from marking the milestones of life to celebrating holidays of course, to expressing love for one another through gifts, to expressing our identities. and the result has been a whole lot of accumulating consumption. >> yeah. and as we said, household consumption, i think it's 67% of gdp. is it even economically smart to rely so heavily on consumer spending? your latest book, the day the world stops shopping, what would happen if we magically did stop spending or at least spending so much? >> my book imagines a 25% drop in consumer spending around the world. for that to happen, the heaviest consuming countries like the united states would have to make even deeper cuts to spending. the short answer is that as we saw in the pandemic, when consumption slows down, we end up with an economic -- you know, a really serious economic crisis. but at the same time, you see this resurgence in the natural world and improvement in the health of the climate. you see that we would immediately start to adapt to these new circumstances and kind of recreate the economy for lower consumption. and as individuals, we would begin immediately to start making a turn away from these materialist, consumeristic values and more towards a new set of values. >> you mentioned the climate impacts, and that's important to talk about. the climate impacts from production, also environmental impacts from what we throw away. what damage is done to our planet by rampant consumerism? it affects pretty much everything, doesn't it? >> it affects pretty much everything, and it doesn't really matter what you buy. it's having an impact. in 2019, the u.n. panel that studies global natural resources announced that since probably about the year 2000, consumption has been the biggest driver of our environmental problems. greater even than the growth in the human population around the globe. so what that means is that how much each one of us consumes now matters more than how many of us there are. and that's playing out in everything from climate to deforestation, toxic pollution, plastics. you name it, consumption is a major driver of it. >> yeah. i remember hearing you talk about, you know, how a t-shirt from the growing of the cotton to the manufacture to the shipping, all of those things till it gets to your door and the environmental impact of that. and then most clothes are worn seven times and thrown out. you know, one thing i wanted to ask you about too, what then is realistic? what is doable in terms of reducing consumption and letting the planet recuperate because there are going to be a lot of people say, oh, you can't cut consumption. it's what drives the world. >> i think we really do need to look at making some kind of transition in our economy and our society. i think we can do that by transforming the economy in ways that allow us all to reduce consumption. the other thing we can do is make changes to how we do business, what kind of business models we play out. and here i take my inspiration from companies like patagonia and levis that, you know, they are moving away from this model of constantly selling new goods and more and more disposable goods and moving towards things like more durable goods, making secondhand sales of their own products a bigger part of their business model, making repair and maintenance of their products a bigger part of their business model. the end result is fewer in goods sold, and you still have this high level of economic activity. >> it's such an important issue for, you know, both -- well, mainly the planet, and i'm glad we're having this conversation. jb mac kinnen, thanks so much. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure. thanks so much. coming up on "cnn newsroom," cnn checks in with one of the very first people to get a covid vaccine one year ago. we'll be right back. [♪] powerful skincare ingredients come dermatologist-recommended, and there's a brand that offers them at an affordable price. try olay skincare. olay regenerist, with 99% pure niacinamide provides 5 times the hydrating power of a prestige cream; while olay collagen peptide visibly firms and reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles; and olay retinol 24 brightens and smooths the skin while you sleep. for dermatologist-recommended ingredients at an affordable price, try olay skincare. a cnn interview about being the first to get a covid vaccine. he became a viral sensation with his british humor. we caught up with him again to see how he's doing. one year later. >> i said what's this thing you're doing the vaccination. yes. >> remember this from a year ago? >> not going to have the bloody bug now. i have granddaughters and i want to live a long time. >> a dash of humor. a zest of dry wit. and good old fashion british common sense. >> no point in dying now. when i have lived this long. >> from newly vaccinated 91 year-old martin kennen. on the day the uk rolled out the first covid vaccine. >> i was sitting here. i'm sure beaming from ear to ear. the entire interview. >> for a brief viral moment. 6 million views on twitter. martin was everyone's cup of tea. gushing headlines. and a star turn on good morning britain. >> who are you? >> when we catch up with him at his london home, he hasn't changed one bit. >> haow have you been? >> i'm still alive. that's the most important thing isn't it? since i saw you. i have been very well. >> how does he feel about the over night fame? >> i never saw any of it. i still haven't seen it. it requires other people to tell me about it. i have never seen what was in cnn. >> we're very fond of you. >> that's it. the fact is, when this thing happened, other people did see my name in the paper. every single london newspaper was there. which rather shocked me. >> so, how is life after vaccination? >> i can't really pretend it's changed at all. i had the injection. i remember going to visit i took my initiative. got on with it. >> one thing inoculation does help with. seeing his granddaughters. >> they love their grandpa. that's the great thing. they care a great deal about me. i couldn't be luckier. >> like last year, martin plans to spend christmas with his family. unruffled by the pandemic. but cautious. he got his booster shot more than two months ago. the vaccination card always in his back pocket. >> do you have any parting thoughts for us? >> i think you're lovely. >> i think you are lovely too. thank you very much. >> he's had another year of being alive. he's lovely. red bull driver finished in first place. at the grand prohibix to catch first formula 1 world title. called the most dramatic ever. close to victory when another car crashed with four laps to go. that meant the race had to restart. and he over took the rival for the win. mercedes lodging a formal complaint or protest after the race. >> now miss india has been crowned miss universe 2021. >> 21 year-old beat out the runner ups in miss south africa. to claim the title. she's an actor and strong advocate for women's empowerment. it was held in israel this year. because of the omicron variant they shut their borders to foreigners two weeks before the event. not many people could go. thanks for spendsing part of your day with us. i had another year of being alive as well. you can follow me on twitter and instagram. "newsroom" continues after the break. hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season. hello and welcome to our viewers. joining us here in the united states. and all around the world. you are watching cnn "newsroom." just ahead. >> again it's where my family is from. a town of about 2,700. the list of unaccounted for was about eight page single space. >> hundreds still missing. homes destroyed. and communities in shock. my guests home was completel

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