disruptions this holiday weekend. several major u.s. airlines have canceled more than 1,000 flights over staffing issues. so if you're planning a last-minute trip home, you're going to want to check your flight status, if you can get one. and amid all of this, don't forget what health experts have been saying for months, vaccines and boosters are keeping people from getting severely sick. and right now they are our only way out of this. let's begin with cnn's alison kosik, who is in new york. sear surging cases causing disruptions around the country. >> reporter: yes, but the biggest hurdle for so many people this christmas has been the struggle to get tested for covid-19. the race has really been on for millions of americans to get a test before traveling or joining family gatherings. here in new york we saw long lines over the past week, people waiting in the cold. also raleigh, north carolina, miles were a mile long. look at these pictures. this was christmas eve, with some people waiting up to two hours in traffic just to get to the testing site. and hawaii, at one testing site the line actually wrapped around several blocks with some waiting two and a half hours to get that test. covid-19 also causing disruptions to sports and vacations, the nhl, the national hockey league, announcing that its regular season won't resume until tuesday. previously the league planned to resume games on monday, following a pause in play. on board a carnival cruise ship several people tested positive. the ship had departed miami on december 18th. it is expected to return tomorrow. royal caribbean facing a similar situation. 55 people tested positive for covid, a mix of crew and passengers. in a statement, telling cnn that 95% of people on board the ship were fully vaccinated when it left for fort lauderdale last week. we see a spike of cases here in new york state. just yesterday there were 44,000 new cases. that's a jump of 14%, breaking the previous day's record of 38,000 cases. we are seeing hospitalizations in new york rising, but it's at a lower rate. data showing that hospitalizations rose 4.6% from thursday to friday. amid all of this, new york governor kathy hochul announcing that new york will shorten the quarantine time from ten days to five days for those in the critical workforce. this includes nurses, police officers, grocery store clerks, bar tenders and cooks. this move means that after you have a positive test here in new york, if you're fully vaccinated and you're in the critical workforce, you can go back to work five days after that positive covid result. if you are asymptomatic and you wear a mask, the governor had argued that the ten-day rule caused unnecessary staff shortages in frontline jobs. amara? >> so that move makes sense, also in the medical world. thank you so much for that, alison kosik. joining me now is dr. rob davidson, an emergency room doctor in west michigan. doctor, merry christmas to you. thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. first off, i know a lot of families are gathered, friends are gathered, maybe some of them watching the news. but while people are enjoying the holiday, there are people who are also hospitalized. can you tell us what you're seeing in your hospital? >> yeah, we're still deeply mired in the delta surge. thank you for the merry christmas. same to you. i mean, we have been at this more about six or seven weeks now with delta as the dominant variant in our hospitals across west michigan, and our case numbers coming into the er and our test positive rates are all trending downward. we're still 20% of those test positive rates, which is still extremely high. but we were around 30% just a few weeks ago. the problem is people with covid-19, particularly 85% of our inpatients are unvaccinated. 95% of the icu patients are unvaccinated. they stay in the hospital a long time even if they survive, five, six weeks, so our hospital crunch is still there. we haven't seen the really high numbers of omicron cases like they've seen in bigger cities on the coast. i'm sure that's coming, you know, in the next several weeks or so. hopefully the data so far suggesting it's a milder disease will hold true. but i'm in a county with only a 45% vaccination rate, so we just don't know for those unvaccinated people what this is going to be. it could be another bad one. >> i'm sorry for what you're seeing and going through. i'm sure you're feeling overworked, as well as your colleagues. i understand your daughter, doctor, who is vaccinated and boosted, she just tested positive for covid. what kind of symptoms is she experiencing and how is she doing? do you think that this would not be the situation if she were not vaccinated? >> well, she's young. young and healthy. so the vast likelihood is she would be doing okay. but she's doing great, actually. symptoms are gone. just sitting and waiting for a couple negative tests to come out of isolation or for the full ten-day period out of isolation sometime middle of next week. she is a college student in new york and she is being told by contact tracers at her university that they believe more people have covid that are students there than don't have covid. so it's just kind of blew up. mostly vaccinated, but, again, the vast majority are going to do just fine. they're not going to end up in the hospital, they're not going to overwhelm the system and that is the beauty of being vaccinated and boosted. it keeps you out of my emergency department, keeps you from leaving your family and it allows the entire system to work like it should. >> and for the skeptics who are saying, this disease seems to just produce mild symptoms, so should i worry about getting vaccinated? isn't it partially, too, preventing more variants like these from popping up? >> absolutely. i mean, globally that is certainly true, and even in this country, like the county that i work in with over 50% who are unvaccinated, these variants pop up. and when this virus is spread around between multiple people. but really in the end, we don't want people dying, we don't want people in the hospital for four or five weeks, ending up on disability or rehabilitation hospitals, learning how to walk, bre greeting again. that is the reality of covid for unvaccinated people. and we still don't know about omicron for the unvaccinated. in south africa the data looks good, but it's a much younger population. in the uk it looks good, but it's a highly vaccinated population. in pockets of the u.s., this could be similar to previous waves. we just have to wait and find out. and the next wave, we don't know. there will be more variants. we don't know if a more virulent comes along after omicron. i think it's a crazy notion to think you're just going to avoid getting it or you might be the lucky one to roll the dice and not end up extremely sick. >> it looks like we're going to have to learn to live with covid and different variants of it. i had a similar experience to you, or i should say my husband did, driving around, going to different pharmacies to find covid-19 rapid tests. it's not that easy, and when dow find it, it's not exactly cheap. let's listen to what president biden said about testing in an interview with abc news this week. >> go to the pharmacy, we hear this over and over again, empty shelves, no test kits. is that a failure? >> no, i don't think it's a failure. i think you could argue that we should have known a year ago, six months ago, two months ago, a month ago. i've ordered half a billion of the pills, 500 million pills -- excuse me, 500 million test kits that are going to be available to be sent to every home in america if anybody wants them. >> doctor, don't you think that we should have had those 500 million test kits, i don't know, a month ago? >> sure, i think this administration has been forthright in saying we want to do better and we will do better. i think from my standpoint at the emergency department and working some shifts in the icu, it's about vaccination, vaccination, vaccination. we could have all the tests in the world and the people i take care of, i'm being told by staff in our small town, they'll see people in the er one day getting a positive test and the next day they'll see them at a grocery or big box store walking around without a mask. for the folks who don't think this is a big deal, you could have all the tests in the world and it won't help the situation we're dealing with, hospitals and healthcare folks who are at the brink. >> i want to get your opinion on this and i think i've been asking a lot of health experts and officials regarding the definition of being fully vaccinated. dr. fauci has made the rounds and said several times it's just semantics, especially when it comes to osha and mandating it when it comes to specific jobs. i spoke with one physician last week who said maybe it was semantics for delta, but now we're dealing with omicron. i don't think it's really semantics now. let's say it is about semantics. why not just call this a three-dose -- a three series vaccine rather than adding a booster to it? it almost sounds like a booster would just be optional. do you think that fully vaccinated needs to be a three-series vaccine? >> absolutely, and i think we can call it an undeterment series vaccine. we don't know yet how many. polio is four, it used to be five. rabies was five, now it's four. we don't know what covid will be. in large part it depends on how many people get their primary series and third shot. the more people who don't do that, the more this thing is going to spread around getting more variants and it's going to be in the population potentially affecting people who have gotten their second shot or third shot or perhaps fourth. flu is an annual shot. the one you had last year doesn't help you this year. we just have to be ready to not really worry about semantics, just worry about the reality on the ground. for us and this delta surge, i have not seen a single person with a third dose who has ended up being hospitalized. not a single one. i have seen some people who had their first two shots in january, february, and then i see them in december, and they're sick enough to be hos hospitalized. with the third dose, our hospital has seen extremely few. >> you have not seen one patient hospitalized who had a booster. doctor, thank you so much for joining us on this christmas day. all the best toi. >> thank you. so if you are planning on flying home tomorrow, you may want to grab your phone and check the status of your flight real quick, because airlines are having to cancel thousands of flights as we speak. we're going to have a live report next. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." and along the ride, you'll have many questions. challenges. and a few surprises. ♪ but wherever you are on your journey. your dell technologies advisor is here for you - with the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. ♪ ♪ hey tristan! ♪ ♪ hey lexus... play holiday music! ♪ ♪ we've been waiting all year to come together... have a happy and safe holiday season from lexus. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means asking for what we want, and need... and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. living longer is possible and proven with kisqali when taken with a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor alone. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. avoid grapefruit during treatment. kisqali is not approved for use with tamoxifen. ask your doctor about living longer with kisqali. there is no place like home y'all! and these people know that there is no place like wayfair. i never thought i'd buy a pink velvet sofa, but when i saw it, i was like 'ah'. and then i sat on it, and i was like 'ooh'. ooh! stylish and napable. okay now. i can relate to this one. i'm a working mom with three boys. [ yelling ] wayfair is my therapy. amen, kim! yup! i'm hiding from my kids, as we speak. so if you are planning to fly this weekend, be sure to check with your airline before you head out. according to the tracking website fly to where, more than 1,000 flights have been canceled for today and tomorrow, and a lot of the blame, of course, falls on omicron. this extremely contagious variant is now grounding flight crews. cnn's nadia romero has the latest from atlanta's hartsfield jackson airport, one of the airports most impacted by these cancellations. nadia, what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, amara, you said it, you have to check with your airline before you get to the airport. we've talked to a lot of people who said they were glued to their phones, they weren't able to sleep overnight, making sure that they didn't get an alert from their airline their flight had been canceled. it's starting to pick up at the airport, cancellations this morning. very few people that we saw coming and going because of all those cancellations. omicron, of course, is the big culprit. also the weather is to blame for some cancellations we saw during the beginning of this week. we also learned from tsa there are more people who went through tsa screening on christmas eve than last year, than 2020. of course, that was before the vaccine came out and people felt more comfortable about traveling. but we haven't reached pre-pandemic levels this christmas holiday yet compared to 2019, which is a big difference from what we saw during thanksgiving. it was packed at this airport, it was loud, busy, people were coming in and out. a crazy time it was. we had reached those pre-pandemic levels, breaking record levels of travelers around thanksgiving. definitely not seeing that now. and we can attribute that to omicron and all of those cancellations. but we did speak with some people who were coming and going, who were excited to get on their flight, but also taking safety precautions as well. take a listen. >> we came this summer. we didn't come last christmas because covid was bad. so with the variant, once everyone got vaccinated we thought if we took the proper precautions and we knew our airline does a good job. we're just trusting them for that. >> reporter: and that has been a common theme of people we've spoken with who are traveling, were very proud to tell me they've been vaccinated, even boosted. there was one little girl who had reindeer, like a headband on and she told me that her vaccination for covid didn't hurt as bad as getting her flu shot. she was very proud of herself for being fully vaccinated. that's what we're hearing from people. they've gotten their shots, they're wearing their masks, but they want to see their families. they're going to do what it takes to do it. >> i bet the little girl is the one that will be the most compliant with her mask on that flight. quick question, i'm sure there are people stranded at the airport as a result of these flights being canceled. have you heard from any of those passengers? >> reporter: yeah, most of those passengers, because we're in atlanta, are going to be victims of layovers. so maybe they were able to get on the first leg of their flight and then they were stuck here in atlanta. we did reach out to some airlines and they're sticking to their company line and basically saying you need to check with us before you come to the airport. they're offering no change fees, they're offering you help to get another flight. but if you're stuck, you're stuck. there's no worst time to be stuck in an airport, sleeping on one of those hard benches, than on christmas day. >> nobody wants to be stranded anywhere, especially in an airport on christmas day. nadia romero, thank you so much. good to see you and merry christmas. so let's say you're one of those stranded travelers, unfortunately. brian kelly, also known as the points guy, joining me with some tips, very important tips to help you navigate this travel dilemma caused by all of these flight cancellations. brian, merry christmas. what is the first thing you should do if you find out your flight is canceled? >> the first thing you should do is go online and see what other flights the airline has. when you're at the airport people like to talk to a person, but the longer you wait in line, those last remaining seats will be snapped up by the people in front of you. so go online immediately, and if there's no other flights to your destination on the airline you're flying, check other airlines. flights might be expensive, but if it really matters that you get home to see family, you might want to book on another airline because you are owed a full refund, not a voucher, if the airline cancels your flight. so you'll get the money eventually. >> should you take the option of a full refund or is it better to have them rebook for you? >> if they rebook for you, they're not going to charge you anything extra. if you buy a ticket on another airline, you're going to have to shell out the cash. i also highly recommend use frequent flyer miles. one of the silver miles of the pandemic is airlines will get you cancel your frequent flier ticket up to departure with no charge. you can always have a backup reservation on another airline that departs later than the flight you're leaving on. if your flight is canceled, you can take the later flight. if your flight goes out on time, you can cancel and get all of your taxes back. >> i'm sure a lot of people don't have much mileage because we were in a pandemic year last year. how long does it take, though, brian, to get a refund for a canceled flight? will i see it pretty quickly back into my bank account? >> no, unfortunately not. some airlines are better than others, but it may take a billing cycle to get back, which is why so many people are at the mercy of the airline to rebook them. but if you have the extra cash, you will eventually get that money back. here's one other tip. use a credit card that gives trip cancellation or delay n insurance. if you're stuck on christmas day, the airline is not going to put you up in a hotel, they legally don't have to. you can ask nicely, but it's on you. if you've got a family, those extra fees, the ubers can really add up. so use a credit card that will cover all of those expenses, and there are a lot of them out there. >> it gets complicated because a lot of people take connecting flights. if one flight is canceled, then you've got -- there's a whole slew of problems because you also have hotels or car rentals that are also linked to your reservation. how do you lose money and your hair -- how do you avoid that under these circumstances? >> i highly recommend if you are stranded call the car rental, call your hotel that you're going to. they do have a lot of compassion, especially around the holidays. even though they're not technically -- they don't have to refund you if your flight is canceled, a lot will. be proactive and see if you can get refunds or change your reservation. once again, try to use a credit card that will protect you because there are cards that will cover all the other costs beyond just the flight. >> is there any way to get ahead of the situation? you know this situation -- i don't know that it's going to get any better with omicron spreading so fastly and, of course, this variant is so contagious it's grounding a lot of flight crews. any other advice you can offer up to us? >> no, i would just say leave with a good attitude. this is going to happen, even before omicron we've seen meltdowns from american airlines and spirit. now it seems to be delta and united that are heavily impacted. this is the state of travel today. certainly omicron makes it much worse. until the cdc decides to -- like they recently did for hospital workers, cut down the quarantine period for those vaccinated to five days, if we've got a ten-day for anyone exposed with omicron, which is so many people, we're going to continue to see these staff shortages. the airlines simply can't just hire tons of new trained employees to fill the gap. >> and if you have the option of driving to your destination, which i do next week, which is from atlanta, georgia, to florida, i think we'll do that nine-hour drive with two little children. i just don't want to have to deal with cancellations and then having to change all your plans again. i'm so glad we spoke with you, brian kelly. thank you. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. coming up, a 14-year-old girl shot and killed after an officer opened fire inside a store. what police are saying next. you're live at the "cnn newsroom." we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. ("this little light of mine") - [narrator] in the world's poorest places, they're shunned, outcast, living in pain. you can reach out and change the life of a suffering child right now. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes and your act of love can change a child's life forever. please call or visit operationsmile.org now. thousands of children are waiting. house on his ability to unite the country, but now nearly one year into his presidency, the polarization that came to define the trump era hasn't gone away, to say the least. if anything, the red state/blue state divide is becoming more cemented due to republicans at the state and local levels chipping away at federal rights with restrictive laws on abortion, voting, lgbtq issues, and even on who counts the votes. cnn's senior political analyst and senior editor for "the atlantic," ron brownstein, calls this the great divergence. he is joining us now. ron, your piece is frightening, but it's also sobering and, look, it's very much our reality, right? you write this, quote, the result through the 2020s could be a dramatic erosion of common national rights and a widening gulf of great divergence between the liberties of americans in blue states and those in red states. ron, talk us through this warning, starting with what we saw from the 1960s regarding laws having to do with segregation, abortion and same-sex marriage. where do you think we're heading? >> the basic trajectory of national policies since the 1960s, both from congress and the supreme court, has been to expand the roster of rights that are available to americans nationwide in every state. we saw that sbin the civil righ act and title 9 outlining sex discrimination in the 1960s, and the supreme court ensuring one man, one vote. stopping state bans on interrac interracial relations, and reo, and into this century with the supreme court decision nationalizing the right to gay marriage. what we are seeing accelerate is an axis of red states, republican officials in red states supported by republican appointed federal judges are now beginning to move in the opposite direction. we see the very real possibility that the nationwide right to abortion will be rescinded by the supreme court, in which case roughly half the states are poised to immediately ban or severely restrict a boring. we see the same kind of movement on first amendment rights, on how people can talk about race in classrooms, the most explicit restrictions on teachings since the trial of the 1920s, and on voting as well. so it is a big reversal and there is the potential for an enormous divergence in the coming years if democrats can't use the one lever they have to try to resist this, which is the unified control of government and nationwide standards on all of the questions we're talking about. >> what about the counterargument, look, what we're seeing is states' rights, this is what federalism is supposed to look like? >> look, this has been attention throughout american history. the question is, what are the minimum rights that all americans are guaranteed? we heard states' rights in the 1850s on slavery and that's what led to the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment, guaranteeing equal protection in every state. we heard states' rights from pressie versus fergusson whunti the filibuster in 1964. the question is, what is the floor of nationwide rights that should be available to all americans, no matter what state they live in. that floor, by and large, has been getting stronger since the 1960s. as i say, now you are seeing red states with support of federal judges and justices becoming more aggressive about ripping up those floorboards. should the right to vote be available equally in every state, should the right to abortion be available in every state, should transgender kids have the same rights in every state. that is the issue we'll be grab ling with more and more in the coming years, because absent federal action, this divergence is going to widen. >> absolutely. you talked about the only way to resist these efforts against these civil rights is to have a unified control of the white house and of congress, and of course that is not what we're seeing at all, especially when it comes to voting rights and abortions. all these bills are stalled in the senate, although these bills have passed in the house. you also say in that article, quote, that stalemate is rising anxiety among democrats who feel the party is sleepwalking through an escalating emergency. how do you wake them up? >> look, it isn't the broad party. i think most of the democratic party recognizes the magnitude of what's happening and the divergence we are seeing and how this is really only the front end of what we may see in the coming years. the issue are a handful of senate democrats who will not change the filibuster. i mean, as you know, the supreme court signaled, at least five of the republican-appointed justices signaled they may overturn roe. the house passed legislation codifying roe, creating the right to abortion nationwide. the senate could do that, but it can't do that because of the filibuster. even more ominous is what's happening on voting, where there is legislation that passed the house and legislation that all 50 democratic senators have endorsed that would reverse many of the restrictions on voting and many of the dangerous partisan controls that are being created to influence the counting of the voting. but that is being blocked by the b filibuster. what's happening in lgbtq rights, the house has passed legislation that would override that, the senate being blocked by a filibuster. the magnitude of the choice in the next 12 months can't be overstated. republicans need five seats to win the house. there are only four midterm elections since the civil war where the party out of the white house hasn't won at least five seats. so the odds are high that democrats will not have unified control of government after november. this is their window if they are going to push back against this divergence. if they let this window close, judging by the actions of the supreme court, there is not going to be a lot to stop red state governments from rolling back some of the rights that americans have thought to be guaranteed and nationwide guaranteed since the '60s and '70s. >> frightening. and, yes, this is a window that is narrowing. just 12 months, which will be critical and consequential for the democrats and our civil rights. appreciate you joining us. merry christmas to you. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, a shark attack on christmas eve kills a california surfer. that is next. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." slash music studio. the daybed slash dog bed. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash classroom. and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ [school bus passing by] [kids laughing] [bikes passing] [fire truck siren] [first responder] onstar, we see them. 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[echoing] get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ this is a terrible story in california. an parent shark attack claimed the life of a surfer yesterday on christmas eve. it happened at morro bay in san luis obispo county. a fellow surfer found a body floating in the water friday morning. first responders pronounced the victim dead at the soocene. the coroner has identified the victim and is identifying next of kin before releasing his name. beaches remain open, but authorities have ordered people to stay out of the water for the next 24 hours. investigators are working to determine exactly what happened. the lapd says they will release body cam footage by monday after they believe a 14-year-old girl was fatally shot by an officer's stray bullet this week. police responding to a report of a man assaulting another woman inside a north hollywood store opened fire, killing the teenager and the suspect. lapd's police chief promising there will be a thorough investigation. cnn's lucy cavanaugh has more on this tragic story. louie, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, tragic and devastating is how the lapd police chief described this officer-involved shooting that led to the death of this 14-year-old girl. officers say they were responding to multiple calls of a possible active shooter at this north hollywood burlington store on thursday around noon. when they arrived, they found the suspect, who was, they say, assaulting another woman. she was transported to the hospital with injuries. they confronted the suspect, opening fire. the suspect was killed, but a subsequent search of the premises led to a gruesome discovery. take a look. >> a subsequent search of the upper floor, we found a hole in the wall, and behind the drywall, solid wall that you can't see behind, we went behind it and it turned out to be the dressing room. and what we did is we were able to locate a 14-year-old female who was found deceased in that dressing room. >> reporter: now, we know that teenager, the 14-year-old girl, was shopping with her mother. the los angeles times reports she was shopping for a dress. the violence just two days before christmas, sparking questions about why a weapon was fired at this store. the suspect was not found to have any weapons on him and authorities said that the preliminary assessment determined that the bullet did, indeed, the stray bullet came from the officer's gun. we also know the state attorney general has opened an investigation. the lapd police chief, meanwhile, promising full transparency. take a listen. >> we're doing everything we can to gather as much, to be as transparent as possible, but we also recognize there's nothing that can be done for this poor family, except for us to express my sorrow, my apologies, that this tragic outcome occurred. >> reporter: now, lapd policy is to release all body cam footage within 45 days of a shooting, but in this case the police chief promising to release these materials by monday. amara? >> gosh, i don't even know what to say. so heartbreaking. appreciate you. thank you. we'll be right back. >> man: i g any chances when something happens to it. so when my windshield cracked... my friend recommended safelite autoglass. they came right to me, with expert service where i needed it. ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: that's service i can trust... no matter what i'm hauling. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the #1 cold shortening brand! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam. zinc that cold! every business is on a journey. and along the ride, you'll find many challenges. ♪ your dell technologies advisor can help you find the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. ho ho 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. there is no place like home y'all! and these people know that there is no place like wayfair. i never thought i'd buy a pink velvet sofa, but when i saw it, i was like 'ah'. and then i sat on it, and i was like 'ooh'. ooh! stylish and napable. okay now. i can relate to this one. i'm a working mom with three boys. [ yelling ] wayfair is my therapy. amen, kim! yup! i'm hiding from my kids, as we speak. millions of americans are under winter weather alerts this christmas day. cnn meteorologist tyler moulden has more on what to expect for the rest of the holiday weekend. >> we've got a clash of two air masses today across the u.s. though it is christmas day, it's feeling more like may in the southern tier of the united states, from the southern plains to the mid-atlantic, records are in jeopardy today all the way through midweek next week. temperatures this time of year in the south should be in the mid-50s. today, though, we're topping out in the 70s and 80s, so it does not feel like christmas. the heat is going to linger around into next week. it will cool off a little bit, but still 20 degrees or so above the average. cooler air can be found across the northern states. now, up here in new england and the northeast, this is where we could see snowfall pile up and we're looking at ice poe toenctoe potentially as well. this one weather system pushing over will give way to a wintry mix, and on its heels is another system which will be moving into the northern plains and great lakes as we get into tomorrow. that will bring snowfall and that will be confined to the northern plains, specifically north dakota and going into minnesota. this is where we could see almost a foot of snowfall. elsewhere, lighter amounts. but then we're looking at snow across the central and northern rockies, as well as the cascades, and multiple feet of snow in the sierra nevada. we could see up to 6 feet of snow, isolated areas up to 10. that is insane, but it's much needed more that snow pack. we're looking at a little bit of rainfall that's much needed as well. we have a terrible drought, so we'll take any precipitation we can get. roughly 30 million people are under winter weather alerts because of all these systems moving over, and once each system pushes by, we'll see another one replace it. we are locked in this pattern for not only this holiday weekend, but going into next week as well. >> thank you so much, tyler. like the jacket. there's been no shortage of major media moments this year. here's cnn's chief media correspondent, brian stelter. 2021, the year the media and the world tried to get back to normal. the pandemic is now a subject of sk scripted dramas and some things have changed forever. here are our top ten media stories of the year. number ten, de-platforming donald trump. twitter permanently banning the president just days after the capitol insurrection, while facebook gave him a time-out. >> facebook says former president donald trump will not be allowed back on its platforms until at least january 7th, 2023. >> while trump cries censorship, social media ceos are trying to figure out where to draw the line. number nine, tv news turnover. chris cuomo out at cnn after text messages showed how he helped his governor brother fight sexual harassment allegations. both cuomos are out of jobs. soon the 9:00 p.m. time slot is in for a change with rachel maddow renewing her contract, but expanding into documentaries and preparing to leave her daily hour. they also need to replace brian williams who signed off in december with a warning. >> for the first time in my 62 years my biggest worry is for my country. >> at fox a different departure, lou dobbs ousted without an explanation. at the end of the year chris wallace announced he was leaving fox on his own terms. he's joining cnn in its forthcoming streaming service. number eight, oprah winfrey's bombshell interview that shook the royal family. claims that there were concerns about baby archer's skin color. she said she felt so alone she contemplated suicide. >> i didn't want to be alive anymore. >> when a co-anchor called o pierce morgan for his rants, he stormed off. >> i'm done with that. >> you continue to trash her. >> see you later. >> i'm being -- >> sorry, can't do that. >> this is absolutely diabolical behavior. >> he then left the network. harry and meaghan are making podcasts and tv shows, which leads me to number seven. streaming wars. hollywood giants are trying to get bigger, investing more and more streaming is the focus of at&t's deal to spin off warnermedia and combine it with discovery. if okayed by regulators re sregw company would take shape in mid 2022. in 2021, shows like "squid game" and "ted lasso" won attention and awards and they kept experimenting with movies in theaters and on tv at the same time. and scarlett johansson sued showing that the rules are being rewritten every day. number six, daring reporting from afghanistan as the taliban encroached on kabul and the u.s. withdraw turned chaotic, reporters became the eyes and ears of the world. >> told me to stand to the stand because i'm a woman. >> reporter: clarissa ward documented the taliban's takeover oand earned praise fro fellow journalists. behind the scenes hundreds of others worked to evacuate endangeredreporters, drive he is and other afghans who worked with western media. those who remain face a hostile climate. number five, the continuing crackdown on global press freedom. this hong kong, police raided n arresting top editors. a month before that, a dissident journalist arrested after his commercial flight was forced down in essentially a state sponsored hijacking. >> have we seen anything like this before? >> no is the short answer. >> countries around the world are rolling back the rights of reporters and sometimes in brazen ways. the committee to protect journalists said a record high number of reporters are behind bars now with china being the worst jailer. number four, the woke wars. it is an awakening over racial and social injustice to some, but overreaction to others. is it cancel culture or consequence culture? and whatever it is called, has it gone too far. these debates raged across media all year. >> it will eventually get to straight white men are not allowed to talk. >> this is called a purge. it is a mentality that belongs in stalin's russia. >> canceling dr. seuss isn't stupid, it is intentional. >> of course dr. seuss wasn't canceled, his legacy company simply decided to stop publishing a few titles that had racist imagery. but free speech issues are real and alternatives are emerging who want to by pass publishers and other gatekeepers. a new model that brings fresh debates over free speech. number three, january 6 denialism. the big lie about trump winning the election led to the big deny. desperate attempts to erase the violence reality of the riot. >> you see people walking around and taking pictures. they don't look like terrorists, they look like tourists. >> fox's highest rated star trying to rewrite history when the media barely covers the real news about the aftermath or the new efforts to subvert democracy at the state level. what we are losing in america is a sense of shared reality. but the big lie may cost its crusaders. >> breaking just a short time ago, fox facing a $1.6 billion lawsuit accused of spreading election lies. >> and that was just the beginning. two voting tech companies have filed multiple suits against fox news and other networks and a series of blockbuster books continue to reveal what really happened during trump's final days in the white house. number two, the facebook reckoning. a whistleblower was heard around the world first through the facebook files, a series of washington street journal stories based on leaks from inside facebook. and then frances haugen stepped forward. >> i believe facebook's products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy. the company's leadership knows how to make facebook an instagram saver but won't make the necessary changes because they have put profits before people. >> she alleged that the company's own research showed its platforms can be toxic for children and society at large. but the company failed to take action. mark zuckerberg pushed back saying many of the claims didn't make sense. anti-social media was a through line for the entire year. bringing us to the number one media story of 2021. the vaccine disinformation divide. reliable info about covid-19 vaccines helped people get vaxed and protected. but anti-vax lies and distortions went viral from facebook to fox, in ways that worsened the pandemic's terrible toll. the right wing media machine took conspiracy theories from the fringes and moved them to the mainstream. >> radical left wing fanatics who are bent on forcing each and every american to get themselves injected with an experimental unproven drug. >> fox news demonized dr. fauci. >> people say he doesn't represent science, he represents joseph. >> and it cost lives. several right wing radio hosts who resisted vaccines died of covid. tv stars who claimed to respect their audience actually put them at risk. big tech platforms said that they tried to clean up the garbage, but the vaccine divide is a sad reflection of a choose your own news culture. it is incumbent on everyone to choose carefully. brian stelter, cnn, new york. what does it feel like to sell your car to carvana? it feels amazing. when you get a great offer in seconds... (all cheering) it feels too good to be true. it's kicking back and relaxing as we pick up your car. and when you get paid on the spot, it feels like scoring big. you know the feeling. you just never imagined you could get it from selling your car. well, with carvana, you can. experience the new way to sell a car. ♪ this little light of mine ♪ - [narrator] in the world's poorest places, children with cleft conditions live in darkness and shame. they're shunned, outcasts living in pain. you can reach out and change the life of a suffering child right now. call operation smile, or go to operationsmile.org. just $30 a month can help volunteer surgeons and nurses provide free surgeries to waiting children. you'll give a child a chance to smile, to come out of the shadows and shine. please call now. thousands of children are waiting for surgery, living lives of isolation and loneliness, waiting for someone to help them, someone like you. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes, and your act of love can change a child's life forever. it's the most joyous time of year. especially at t-mobile! let's go to dianne. i got the awesome new iphone 13 pro and airpods, and t-mobile is paying for them both! and this is for new and existing customers. upgrade to the iphone 13 pro and airpods both on us. only at t-mobile. hello everyone. you are live in the "cnn newsroom," i'm amara walker in atlanta. merry christmas to you. we begin this christmas with covid cases racing toward a record high here in the u.s. amid the fast spreading omicron variant. the u.s. is now averaging more than 182,000 new cases a day. that is a 48% jump from last week. covid deaths are up 30% from a week ago but still nowhere near peak levels. and right now there are more than about 69,000 people

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