waitstaff, bellmen, their pay went up almost 16% this year. far ahead of inflation, which is still a concern. >> reporter: labor secretary marty walsh acknowledging there's still a lot of work to do. >> clearly we have some work to do in early 2022 as we move forward here. we have work to do. no question about it. >> reporter: the president dismissing republican criticism that he's out of touch with americans' economic pain. even deploying one of his favorite terms. >> a lot of people are still suffering they say. well, they are. or that i'm not focused on inflation. malarkey. they want to talk down the recovery because they voted against the legislation that made it happen. >> reporter: the omicron variant ripping through the united states also is now delaying president biden's state of the union. >> madam speaker, the president of the united states. >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi inviting the president to deliver his address on march 1st, making it the first time in nearly 90 years the historic address wasn't held in january or february. jake, the one silver lining for president biden in delaying the state of the union address is he has more time to try to get his priorities passed because he has some big pieces of legislation that democrats would like to get passed. right now his build back better agenda, that expansive climate and economic bill, is all but stalled after senator manchin said he couldn't support it. voting rights legislation is something democrats have said is now a top priority for them. but, jake, of course the longer they have, the more time the president has to try to get something else to add in that speech where presidents often tout their agendas. >> kaitlan collins, thanks. let's bring in chris van holland from maryland. he's on the senate budget committee. thanks for joining us. today the jobs report fell far below expectations when it came to the monthly job number, but biden tried to focus on the positives today. the unemployment rate is at 3.9%, which is very low. the first time it's been below 4% in a president's first term. and the most jobs added in any president's first calendar year were added by biden. 6.4% or under his watch, anyway. wages are up almost 16%. we still note and i'm sure you hear from your voters, inflation is still the highest in decades. do all of the positives in that jobs report that biden touted get canceled out if people still cannot afford trips to the grocery store? >> no, jake, first of all, as you said and as the president indicated, overall, this has been a very, very positive year. record job growth as you say. and wages have gone up as well. nominal wages are on the rise, as you say. costs have also increased. but it does look like for lower income americans, wage growth is still exceeding any increase in costs. and this is also why we do want to continue to focus on the build back better agenda, for example, if you look at the costs people are facing, child care remains one of the biggest, you know, burdens on american families. and so we still want to work to get that over the finish line and reduce those important costs, as well as costs of prescription drugs and other prices -- high prices people are facing. >> the hold up seems to be senator joe manchin who doesn't like the bill as it is currently constructed. is there a vesion of the build back better act that he's willing to sign off on, and, if so, why aren't you voting on it right now? >> well, i think there is a version. i think the version he would support includes those efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and the provisions to include -- to reduce the costs of child care. so look, discussions are going to be renewed, as you mentioned earlier. right now we are focused on passing voting rights legislation to protect the right to vote. we just passed the one-year anniversary of the awful attacks on our capitol and democracy, and those attacks are continuing in state legislatures throughout the country. so that is also a priority. we're just going to have to work through both of these priorities between now and the end of february. >> let me talk to you about that election reform bill. you need 60 votes for that unless you change the rules of the senate and manchin and sinema, the senator from arizona, both democrats, neither of themmor board of changing the rules of the senate to pass that bill. there is republican willingness to look at the electoral reform bill. this has to do with how the electoral votes are counted, which is where trump ultimately tried to stage his final attempt to steal the election. your focus and the other democrats are focused on votes being cast but the real danger that we experienced as a country was in how votes were counted, not how they were cast. why not join with republicans and pass and work on electoral count reform where there is bipartisan willingness, where something can be done? >> jake, first of all, i'm happy to look at any proposal republicans or others have on that front. but the reality is that since the last election and because of the big lie, state legislatures have been putting up more barriers to people voting. and they're also talking about changing the rules on how you count votes to allow partisans in states around the country to overrule the count of the vote that initially comes in. so there are different tiers to this system that need to be protected. and what we've seen over the last year is when the big lie failed to overturn the election through violence at the capitol, a year ago yesterday, we have seen that same effort now in slow motion across the country. and so we're not facing the same situation around the country. those states are now trying to make it harder for people to vote. so i think you need every line of protection to protect the right to vote in america. >> you can only do it, though if you pass anything. let me ask you about something having to do with covid. we're seeing this struggle nationwide between virtual learning and in-person classes. a teacher in maryland wrote an op-ed making the case for virtual for now. she wrote, in-person learning is not synonymous with continuous disruption-free learning. at this point in time, a temporary return to virtual instruction is the most effective. one that does not require us to alter or modify plans on a daily basis to reflect our ever-changing circumstances and our increasingly limited resources, unquote. you know, health experts say there is a way for kids to learn in person and that's what they need. what do you tell teachers who say they want to go back to virtual learning despite what health officials say, despite what parents want? >> well, jake, i think all of our preferences to be able to have kids back in the classroom for in-person learning. i do think that decisions need to be based on a local basis, based on the intensity of the current situation, omicron, whether people are -- people are not able to make it to work because they're out sick. but i do think that our overall position needs to be making sure that kids can get back in the classroom. we need people vaccinated and now, of course, vaccines are more available to younger americans. and we need -- we do need better testing. so that schools can take action if there is an outbreak or real spread in a particular school. but i do think the overall situation needs to be, let's try to get back into the classrooms. >> 100%. we need to improve testing. that's very important for the kids and schools and teachers. chris van hollen of maryland, thanks so much to you. appreciate it. credibility questions growing as the head of the cdc is facing fire from all sides. coming up next, we'll talk to a former acting director of the cdc. also, one of the top tennis players is currently stuck inside an australian hotel. the same hotel houses refugees. cnn is going to talk to one man who has been trapped in that same hotel for years. were cook. she always said, “food is love.” so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ i want to make the most of every meal we have together. ♪ at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa.♪ try pepto bismol with a powerful coating action. for fast and soothing relief. pepto bismol for fast relief when you need it most. in our health lead, the cdc is trying to hit the refresh button after a series of cringy, confusing guidance amid the surge of the omicron variant. as gabe cohen reports for us, the agency's direct sor under such intense pressure to get it right, she hired a media trainer to help her with her communications skills. >> as we've articulated, cdc is working on updated guidance. >> reporter: dr. rochelle walensky facing renewed criticism from within the white house and her own agency. after yet another guidance gaffe. a source telling cnn that cdc scientists are increasingly frustrated with walensky's handling of guidance and between her circumventing their vetting process for guidelines and the public criticism, morale at the agency is sinking. >> it really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate. >> reporter: it comes after the cdc cut the covid isolation period from 10 days to 5, making no mention of a negative test. drawing pushback from health experts and contradiction from the surgeon general. >> they have certainly received feedback and questions about the role of testing. >> reporter: as well as dr. anthony fauci. >> i'm saying it's something that absolutely should be considered and i believe the cdc is going to clarify that. >> reporter: they did. saying people can test if they want to. but if they test positive, they should isolate for five more days. the head of the american medical association says all of this is not only confusing but risking further spread of the virus. >> i think the problem here isn't so much the guidance. it's the lack of effective communication about the guidance. >> reporter: dr. tom frieden was cdc director under the obama administration. >> yes, there are some judgment calls. be frank about them. >> reporter: cnn learned dr. walensky is in media training. for months, meeting with a consultant to improve communication skills. today she held a rare solo news conference. >> this is hard, and i am committed to continue to improve as we learn more about the science and to communicate that with all of you. >> reporter: the well-regarded infectious disease expert had no government experience before president biden appointed her. and as often seemed out of step with the white house and dr. fauci leading to some abrupt and confusing changes in guidance. in may she announced vaccinated people could stop wearing masks indoors drawing quick criticism that it was too soon. last february, the white house had to clarify walensky's comment that teachers did not need to be fully vaccinated for schools to reopen. >> dr. walensky spoke to this in her personal capacity. >> reporter: now walensky is under fire for not following the cdc's own playbook for explaining new guidance. a biden covid adviser tells me the cdc has got to do a better job communicating what they are doing and why. and that has to happen quickly. >> that's what happens when you lead with the data and science and not clear communications plan. >> reporter: now dr. frieden is urging the white house to move their covid briefings from dc to the cdc headquarters in atlanta to make this less partisan and let the subject matter experts control more of the public messaging. and the biden covid adviser i spoke with told me this is really a larger coordination problem across the administration between the white house, the cdc, the fda and the national institutes of health. and blame here can't solely fall on dr. walensky. jake? >> gabe cohen, thanks. appreciate it. let's talk about this with dr. richard besser who was the former acting director of the cdc. let's start with our cnn reporting, dr. besser. dr. walensky got media training last fall to help with her personal messaging struggles or challenges. was that necessary? is this so extraordinary? >> it's not at all extraordinary. i am a big believer in media training. the years i spent at cdc, i took advantage of media training whenever it was offered. and then i had the benefit of many years working in media where i had training there as well in terms of communication. so i see that as a positive sign. this is -- communicating science and challenging decisions and subtleties of options and situations that are changing, it's not something that is necessarily innate. you definitely can learn ways to approach that that will help engender trust. will help people follow the guidance that you want them to follow. >> reporter: a cdc scientist tells cnn that dr. walensky issued this recent confusing guidance about isolation using only the advice of a small circle of top advisers instead of what some people consider to be a more traditional process of rigorous vetting by cdc experts. outside public health partners and others. does that raise any red flags for you or is that how it works when you're in the middle of a crisis like covid? >> it's hard for me to comment on that, jake, without knowing all the details. i would say that i thought it was a very positive sign that dr. walensky was doing a briefing from cdc headquarters today. when i was the acting director of cdc during the swine flu pandemic, i relied on those briefings, direct briefings to reporters for a number of things. one is, it helped me get an understanding of what the public was concerned about. reporters often asked really challenging questions that forced us to challenge our own assumptions. and it separated out the science that was taking place at cdc with how that science informed political decisions, policy decisions that sometimes came out of washington. science needs to inform policy decisions, but it's not always the sole factor that goes into them. and that can be a challenging thing to communicate. having the separation will be very valuable. >> one of the problems with this latest confusing guidance i have to say on whether individuals who have tested positive should get a covid test before they leave isolation -- isolation went down from 10 days to 5 -- i have to say this part isn't necessarily her fault. they were asked, cdc was asked, should somebody take a test and cdc ultimately said, well, that's up to you. but the truth is we have a testing shortage. we don't have enough tests in this country. and that's not dr. walensky's fault. that's the biden white house's fault. they promised that they were going to have tests everywhere for everyone whenever we needed them and we're not there. and you yourself have experienced the frustrations of that shortage. is it possible that part of this is also walensky taking blame for biden blunders? >> well, i think that if we were in a situation, jake, where there was an unlimited supply of tests, we probably would say, you know, reduce to five days and test coming out to make sure that someone is still isn't positive. but that's not the situation that we're in. and it's very important that you have tests to determine up front who truly has covid. and so without that, i think that this is the right outcome. the challenge is that when someone says, well, okay, but what if i do test, what do i do? and the guidance coming out was, well, then you should probably continue to stay in isolation for another five days. that leads to very mixed messaging. but i think your point is right. if there was an unlimited supply of tests, what would we do? i think we would ask people to test to know that they're negative coming out. the critical piece there, though is that people are most contagious early on and with each day after that, the likelihood of you transmitting will go down. and so some people will be able to transmit, but most people after five days will not. >> anyone on social media, especially twitter, knows the cdc has become the butt of a lot of jokes over the last week. there's a series of memes, joking about what the cdc might recommend next. an example might be that we've seen that the cdc says, you can now run with scissors or there's another tweet also resonating with a lot of folks that captured the frustration of the moment. quote, stay indoors but also return in person, wear a mask, not that one, the expensive one that you can't find, take rapid tests which you can't find but if you find one, don't buy them because they don't work. you need pcr. there are zero appointments in your area, unquote. you worked at the cdc. how did jokes like that land inside the building? >> i think they sting. the current cdc director inherited a situation that i wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. and that's coming in in the middle of a pandemic after a period of time where public health was vilified, public health was lifted up as the barrier to the end of the pandemic, as the enemy of our economy. and so coming into a situation where the nation is polarized and trying to reassert the importance of following the path of public health, it was an unthinkable challenge to be addressing. and we're seeing how hard that actually is. i hope coming out of this, as a nation, we're committed to supporting our public health systems. our federal system, our state, our local. as you've seen across the country, hundreds of public health leaders have left because of how they have been viewed and treated within their communities. and that's going to have a long-lasting impact on the health of our nation. >> dr. richard besser, thank you so much. the unusual warning from the secretary of state about letting russians into your house. ahead of the key diplomatic meeting. stay with us. your insurance at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows several different whistles. doug blows several different whistles. 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eczema. talk to your child's eczema specialist about dupixent, a breakthrough eczema treatment. - [narrator] introducing the grubhub guarantee: our promise to deliver the food you love on time, and give you the lowest price, or you'll get $5 off your next order. new year, new start. and now comcast business is making it easy to get going with the ready. set. save. sale. get started with fast and reliable internet and voice for $64.99 a month with a 2-year price guarantee. it's easy... with flexible installation and backing from an expert team, 24/7. and for even more value, ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. get a great deal for your business with the ready. set. save. sale today. comcast business. powering possibilities. in our world lead today, nato allies using some of the strongest language yet condemning russia's massive military build up along its border with ukraine following what the alliance called an extraordinary video meeting today involving nato's top liptic officials. cnn's kylie at wood joins us live from the state department. are there any indications the u.s. and nato are willing to make concessions to russia if putin agrees to de-escalate tensions with ukraine? >> jake, that's the million-dollar question here. and publicly, the u.s. and nato allies are saying, no. this is russia's problem. they are the one who have escalated things along the border with ukraine. they are the ones who need to pull back. they can't be awarded for the actions that they have taken. but privately, when you talk to u.s. officials and european officials, they acknowledge that this is a tricky situation. russia is going to need to be given something so that it can domestically say, hey, here's what we got. if they do decide to pull back those troops that are now located along the border with ukraine. but the problem is that the united states is trying to act in lockstep with its nato allies. and they are doing that today. secretary of state tony blinken spoke with nato foreign ministers discussing that they all agree that russia needs to de-escalate things. but the administration is in a position today where they are pushing back very forcefully on a news report that said that they are preparing plans to potentially draw down some of their force posture in eastern europe if russia does de-escalate things with ukraine. they are saying that is not a true report. i want to read to you just exactly what state department spokesperson tweeted about that this afternoon saying, quote, it's not accurate that the administration is developing options for pulling back u.s. forces in eastern europe in preparation for discussions with russia next week. which we told nbc while they were reporting the story. in fact, we have been clear with russia, publicly and privately, that should russia further invade ukraine, we would reinforce our nato partners on the eastern flank to whom we have sacred obligation as allies. jake, this is a tricky situation, of course, because privately, we do hear from folks in the administration that russia is going to need to get something but they're forcefully saying today that they're not going to be amending u.s. force posture in europe because of what russia is doing. >> kylie atwood, thank you. let's get the reaction from russia. nic robertson is live in moscow. is the kremlin saying anything about the strong condemnations from nato allies about russia's military build up? >> jake, it's christmas day here, and there's been nothing official from the government at all. what they have said very recently is they'll not allow the talks to drag on. and there was a little bit of trolling from the foreign ministry basically saying that nato has abrogated on its agreement, you know, two decades ago, not to expand nato eastwards into former eastern europe. you know, that's something we've heard before but nothing from the kremlin here that advances or responds directly to what the strong language that came from that meeting today. >> ukraine isn't the only former soviet republic in which vladimir putin is meddling. he's also flexing his muscles by sending troops into the central asian country of kazakhstan after protests there turned violent. what's that about? >> yeah, the president of kazakhstan said he needed the support that he couldn't essentially crush the demonstrations with the forces that he had so he called on an old regional alliance of former soviet partners. russia is the biggest one. and immediately got a response. russia has got about 70 military aircraft that are ferrying in troops and equipment, paratroopers the first in on the ground. they'll secure government buildings in kazakhstan. also allowed to do some crowd patrol, break up crowds. rules of engagement. if they're attacked by an armed gang they're allowed to shoot back at an armed gang. but it's got everyone wondering, has russia gone in with the stated intention, a limited deployment or is president putin looking at this situation as an opportunity to kind of extend some of his influence and control and reach into some of those former soviet states that his vowed opinion is really should be part of the bigger russia today. >> tell me about the president of kazakhstan issuing this kill without warning order to his security forces. >> yeah, that was chilling. the president announcing without blanching when he made the statement on national tv in kazakhstan. he admitted, said quite clearly he issued an order to shoot and kill protesters without warning on the streets. we talked today with somebody who lives in almati, the biggest city in kazakhstan. he reported heavy, heavy gunfire overnight. seeing bodies on the streets today. people who had been very clearly shot. the government says that 26, what they described as armed terrorists and again, they haven't provided evidence these are armed terrorists who they say trained outside the country. 26 they say were killed. they say 18 were wounded. the numbers just don't stack up. i think there's a lot more to discover about the number of killed and injured there among the protesters. they say there were 26 police law enforcement officers who were killed, who -- 18 who were killed and 400 -- more than 700 police officers who were injured. those numbers don't balance. they just don't add up at the moment. >> nic robertson in moscow, thank you. tune in sunday to "state of the union." i'll be talking with the secretary of state antony blinken ahead of the crucial u.s. meeting with russia next week. we'll also talk to new york city mayor eric adams joining us after his first week in office. plus arkansas' governor esa hutchinson. coming up, the surprising response to january 6th from republican voters. some even saying that don junior and sean hannity sound more like democrats in the text messages they sent to donald trump's chief of staff to stop the attacks. stay with us. which is a lot. so take care of that heart with lipton. because 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get it, let it roll ♪ in our politics lead, former president trump seems increasingly to be in the crosshairs of the january 6th house committee. listen to what co-chair congresswoman liz cheney told me last night. >> january 6th itself was a line you just can't cross. the committee is looking at that. looking at whether what he did constitutes that kind of crime. but certainly it's dereliction of duty. >> cnn's ryan nobles joins us now. we're getting a better idea of the shape of the investigation's 2022 focus. >> that's right, jake. from the beginning, the committee has not ruled out finding criminal charges against either the former president trump over people closely associated with him for their role in what happened here january 6th. your interview with liz cheney last night crystallized the direction they're heading. it seems to be focused on the conduct of trump on the days leading up to and on january 6th itself. what cheney told you was they're looking closely at the former president's action or what she called inaction around the time that rioters were breaking into the capitol. and what she suggested is that perhaps trump not calling them off and telling them to leave could actually be a crime because it prevented the certification of those election results. it's not exactly clear where they are going to find the law to back up those charges. and if they need more evidence to prove it. the other thing we have to keep in mind is this committee doesn't have the ability to charge anyone with a crime if they find evidence of a crime, they then have to refer that to the department of justice which would decide whether or not they'd prosecute. they still have a long way to go with their investigation. they certainly could uncover more, but it's clear they are asking a lot of questions about what was going on in the oval office and in the west wing. and they are talking to more and more people that are familiar with those events in the days leading up to and on january 6th. >> ryan nobles, thanks. in the days after january 6th, republican lawmakers promised to take action, pledged to hold trump accountable and now a vast majority of those very same individuals are silent or, worse, stonewalling the investigation. whitewashing the attack on congress on democracy. so what do republican voters make of this? when asked to briefly describe january 6th a year later using just a word or so, members of a republican focus group used these words. way overblown. scary. misrepresented. out of proportion. republican strategist and pollster chris andersen led that focus group discussion on behalf of "the new york times" and joins us now. kristen, six of the republicans vote forward trump in 2020. 2 did not. was there an obvious divide between them? >> not particularly. we had an interesting array of views in the group. not everyone agreed on everything. but i think it was broadly representative of probably the median, i would say 70% to 80% of the republican party. we didn't have anyone who was firmly never trump. we also didn't have anybody who was full, you know, way down a rabbit hole, you know, i think what you saw in this focus group was a pretty big representation or good representation of what most republican voters are thinking about january 6th. >> and one of the participants told you that january 6th in his view was, quote, overblown. when you asked him to expand, the man whose name is barney said, nobody listened to the warnings saying there's people coming. so it's not a pearl harbor. it's not a 9/11. it's january 6th, 2020, and it's just another day. every day if you live in washington you turn on the news and hear january 6th a hundred times a day. if you go to oklahoma, you don't hear it. so it's where you are and what you hear. was that the prevailing view? did people agree or disagree? >> it seemed as though that was a sentiment a lot of folks in the room would have nodded along with. we started off the focus groups by asking people, name big days that happened over the last year. we just had new year's eve. what were some big events in 2021. and in the democratic focus group, january 6th immediately came up. but in the republican group, january 6th was not named. it wasn't until i prompted, what about january 6th? what word comes to mind when you think about that day that it was even on the radar for these respondents. >> so many republican leaders, right -- during that day and in the days afterwards were absolutely horrified, although now many of them are singing a different tune. but in fact on that day, we now know that there were text messages sent by individuals who are donald trump's supporters, allies, staffers, family members to mark meadows, the white house chief of staff, begging him to come before the cameras to call off the mob. you read some of those texts. you read texts by donald trump jr., fox host laura ingraham asking meadows to tell the then president trump, do something. and two women in your focus group responded this way. gayle said, that's very surprising to me because they're saying what you would almost think -- what you would think almost a democrat would say or liberal would say. and lorna told you, shocking to me. you'd think they'd back the president. that's just astounding. what's the significance of that to you? >> well, i think it's also important to note, gayle, as one of our respondents, she was not someone who thought that january 6th was a good thing. she talked about feeling upset, astonished when she saw what was happening on tv. in some ways i'd imagine on that day she might have been feeling some of those same things that those hosts or that donald trump jr. were texting to the president. hey, this is bad. you should step in and do something. but throughout the group, later on we asked a question about many of these republican or conservative luminaries who have initially came out and said what happened on january 6th is terrible but sort of changed their tune afterwards. i would assume that you think that their initial outrage was probably pretty genuine and that their change afterwards is what's been more inauthentic. but for these voters, they saw it the other way around. they thought that those who came out and initially said this was horrible, this was terrible, trump should not have instigated this or what have you. they said that to them felt inauthentic. that felt like republican people trying to cover themselves and look for jobs and things in a post-trump world. they didn't view that as inauthentic. they -- they didn't view the sort of change of tune as inauthentic. they viewed the initial condemnation of trump as a face-saving sort of measure. >> it's just the upside down. it's just incredible. you also asked how january 6th would be written down in history 100 years from now. you did find diversity of opinion here. >> that's right. some of them said, look, this is not going to be viewed as a positive day in history. for some of themp, they still didn't think it would be thought of as that big of a deal but some said, look, this is what happens when people get very frustrated, when people believe that an election was stolen, and that outrage turns into action. and so, you know, there weren't unanimous in saying they thought january 6th was no big deal. and very few even suggested it was a positive thing, but rather they thought an unfortunate day but just one of many. >> kristen soltis anderson, thank you. the world's number one tennis player is stuck down under. cnn is going to talk to a refugee who has been stuck in the same hotel for years. he paved the way for so many other actors. we'll look at the legacy of hollywood legend sidney poitier. stay with us. how did panera come up with the idea to combine their famous mac and cheese with their iconic grilled cheese? by saying yes. yes to new inventions! yes to clean and fresh ingredients! and yes to living life to the flavor-fullest. panera. live your yes. now $1 delivery. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about 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questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. topping our sports lead today, the world's number one tennis superstar, novak djokovic, is trapped in a canceled visa purgatory in australia. as cnn's paula hancocks reports, djokovic is being held in a melvin hotel that doubles as a detention facility for refugees and asylum seekers. >> fans of novak djokovic voice support outside his detention center in melbourne. >> he's not a criminal. he's a hero! >> reporter: a far cry from his usual welcome, the world's number one stennis star is here until at least monday, when a court will decide if he can defend his title at the australian open or be deported. australia requires people to be fully vaccinated for covid-19 to enter the country or have a medical exemption, something djo djokovic's lawyers claim he has. border officials and the prime minister disagree. >> rules are rules. and there are no special cases. >> reporter: back home in serbia, djokovic's parents hail him as a national hero, being held captive. >> mr. djokovic is not being held captive in australia. he is afraid to leave at any time that he chooses to do so. >> reporter: fellow tennis stars are weighing in. nick cur yost tweeted, i got vaccinated because of others, and for my mum's health, but how we are handling novak's situation is bad, really bad. america's john isner tweeted, what novak is going through right now is not right. there's no justification for the treatment he's receiving. two more individuals have fallen foul of visa restrictions. one has already left the country. renato of the czech republic is the second held in the same detention center as djokovic. her visa also canceled, but not before she had played in a warm-up tourm, adding, she is leaving australia. djokovic will leave park hotel detention in a few days, but a dozen of asylum seekers and refugee inside the building do not know when they can leave. mehdi tried to enter australia by boat when he was 15, part of a persecuted religious minority from iran, today he turns 24. >> we are suffering from exhaustion, we are tired. we've been in detention more than eight years. >> mehdi says he's also been held in an offshore detention center. australia's harsh asylum seeker rules leave some waiting indefinitely to have their cases heard and have been criticized by the u.n.. >> no education, no proper health care, no proper basic human rights. traumatized, insomnia. suffering. suffering. >> reporter: while mehdi welcomes the fresh attention his famous neighbor has brought, he knows it will likely leave with him, changing little in his uncertain future. >> the herald sun newspaper, jake, has published a letter which cnn is unable to independently confirm, but saying that tennis australia told those players that they were able to have a prior infection up to six months and still offer australia, something officials say is simply not true. jake? >> paula hancocks. thank you so much. we have sad news in our pop culture lead. legendary director, actor, and activist sidney poitier has died at the age of 94. in 1964, poitier became the first black performer to win the academy award for best actor for his role in the film "lilies of the field." many of his best-known films including "guess who's coming to dinner" explored racial tensions as the country was beginning to grapple with those social changes in the 1960s. and poitier fought for civil rights and to diversify hollywood. poitier also said he felt enormous responsibility to play complex roels, ones that transcended racial stereotypes. a giant and a hero. may his memory be a hero. coming up, wolf blitzer will speak to ahmaud arbery's mother, after his killers were sentenced to life in prison without parole. that's next in "the situation 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surging. it's another headache for president biden, as a disappointing report on jobs growth adds to the concerns about the u.s. economy. also tonight, the three white men who chased and murdered black jogger ahmaud arbery are sentenced to life in prison, with two of them having no chance of parole. an