averaging more than 700,000 new cases per day, which is a jump of nearly 500% from a month ago. all 50 states are reporting a high level of community transmission. fueling also the debate over how to keep kids safe in schools right now. a realtime crisis showing no sign of letting up in many places. like chicago, hundreds of thousands of students are once again out of class today as a b battle between the school district and the teachers union over covid protocols enters a second week. what's happening there? >> reporter: kate, this is the fourth day there's been no school but according to the website, this school has opened its doors allowing students inside if they want to grab a hot meal or study independently. the mayor said 70% of students enrolled across the district depend on free and reduced lunch. earlier this morning we heard from -- he said they negotiated over the weekend ending those talks last night at 10:00 p.m. let's look at some of the progress they've made. so far the district has agreed to provide masks to staff. the district has agreed to weekly covid testing for students and staff. the city and the district rejected the union's proposal to return to remote learning district wide. the mayor says she has support from parents. listen in. >> we have we've got enormous amount of parent activism. they are writing letter, e-mail, protesting, holding press conferences. this is an unprecedented level of parent activism all in support of returning to in person learning and we know why. >> reporter: talk about support. group of parents who have ten students throughout the dr districts calling the strike illegal and are seeking lost wages for not being able to go to work and having to get extra child care. kate. >> thank you so much for that. let's dig into this morning. joining me is a member of the fda vaccine advisory committee and the director of the vaccine education center of children's hospital philadelphia. it's good to see you. your hospital came out with a strong statement and clear guidelines for how to keep kids in class even when this is a moment of very high transmission. it's six steps. six protocol, if you will to take to keep schools open and keep teachers and students safe. when you see what's happening in chicago, what do you say? >> i'm sympathetic to mayor lightfoot. i agree with her. we all agree the children's best place is in school. distance learning is contradiction in terms. for many children it's the only decent meal they get during the day. no one has suffered the lack of socialization and development more than children during this pandemic. we all agree that children is better off in school. if that's true, do everything to keep them in school. if they're over five, vaccinate them. the teachers be vaccinated, the bus drivers be vaccinated. any children with any symptoms that might be covid that they stay out of school and hopefully they can be tested but if not, assume they are infected and when they become asymptommatic they can reasonably come back and everybody wears a mask in school. it shouldn't be that hard. i think we have trouble doing -- taking the two weapons that are most important which is masking and vaccination. >> explain why. >> part of it is testing isn't readily available everywhere. sometimes when you get a test, you have to wait a few days until you get the result. third if the test is a pcr test, you can be positive with pcr for a few months even though you're no longer contagious. the thinking was obviously if you have covid, stay until you're completely asymptommatic which will mean if you're shedding virus would be a virus would be much lesser. >> i think you're touching on an important part which is what a lot of people are missing is the evolving understanding of how we can and should use testing at this point in the pandemic when vaccines are so readily available across communities. there's also with this now, becoming a new round of covid misinformation that's hitting people hard on social media. not over vaccine misinformation which you and i talk ld about so much but researchers are saying there's an up tick in testing information. that pcrs don't work, rapids are unreliable. i'm wondering if that trend continues, how danlsgerous is there? >> it is dans. testing is valuable. that's an important test. we're not in a position in this country as to say people are in the united kingdom or canada where tests are readily available. my sister visited from london the other day and bought a packet of tests. we're not there. we may not be there until the end of this month. i think we'll largely be on top of this omicron pandemic probably by no later than mid-february. really only talking about four more weeks of doing everything we should do, which is vaccinate. the children we see in our hospital and oaf five are unvac unvaccinated. this is easy enough to do, do it. >> new york city, washington d.c., maryland probably have peaked. you're already seeing that in new york city and washington, d.c. >> i take sort part in fact that united kingdom and den kmark is usually about two weeks ahead of us are seeing a decline many this omicron peak. hopefully that will be true here. it was story in south africa. this was last winter. last winter we didn't have a vaccine available. we didn't have nearly the level of population immunity as we have this year. this year probably is solid 80% of the population is protected against severe disease. i do think that in combination with the fact this is a winter virus and like all winter virus, it will start to fade as we move into early spring, i'm optimistic it will get better. on the oh hand, i'm a philadelphia ticket season holder so take that with a grain of salt. >> good to see you. thank you so much. now to another developing story. a space heater is being blamed for an apartment fire in new york city that killed 19 people, including nine children. the stories coming out are really terrifying. we're learning more of just the detail offense the harrowing efforts by firefighters the try to rescue victims from the deadliest fire in new york city in decades . >> reporter: they are trying to get an idea if they will be allowed back in. many wanting their belongings, medication. many of them just reliving those horrific moments from yesterday as firefighters arrived here. flames already out of the window and the thick black smoke spreading throughout the building because of a door. a door that was left open to the fire apartment which then allowed fire to seep and escape into the entire building. they were met with the thick black smoke that wound up choking them. 5-year-old, 9-year-olds, young kid vss have died as a result. the firefighters that went in there and try to rescue the kids and people stuck inside. this morning the mayor talked about the heroic efforts by firefighters. take a listen to what he said. >> many of them, their oxygen ta tanks were on empty. they pushed through through the smoke instead of turning back. >> reporter: as we know the cause of the fire, the fire department believes is space heater. the other thing we're learning is the door. why was the door left open. there should have been a mechanism that shut it. that does not appear to have happened here. that's something they are looking into as well. >> dozens of people injured in this and i peers the death toll will rise today. thank you. developing, an out pouring of lovl and support for beloved actor and comedian bob saget who died yesterday. he's best known for playing danny tanner. he was just 65 years old. found dead in his orlando hotel room on sunday hours after performing a stand up comedy show. brian stelter joins me now. the tributes really pouring in. >> absolutely. we're hearing from his co-star, colleagues. even comedians who never met him but wants to be more like bob saget. let's start with john stamos. i'm broken, gutted and in complete shock. i'll never have a friend like him. i love yo so much. it's nice to look back at those classic scenes from full house. >> i know what the surprise is. joey, you're making that chili again. . >> i have a date tonight. i have a date tonight. >> deej, you've got such a good heart. you care about people. that's why people care about you and everybody who knows the real d.j. >> just classic american family sitcom and bob saget was the heart of the show. we heard from the olsen twins overnight who starred with him on full house. they said he was the most loving, compassionate and generous man. we are deeply saddened he is no longer with us but know he will continue to be buy our side to guide us as gracefully as he always has. between betty white a couple of weeks ago, bob saget we are mourning a era of television where everybody would watch together and families. i hope that does go on in different ways. it goes on in the streaming age in a different way. shows like full house, america's funniest home videos, tens of millions watched at the same time. >> absolutely. good to see you. thank you for bringing us that. coming up for us, novak win a court battle. will he be allowed to stay? 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[echoing] get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ some of my best memories growing up were cooking with mom. so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com announcer: tired of pain radiating down your leg and lower back? get relief finally, with magnilife® leg and back pain relief. and get living. available at your local retailer. . tennis star novak djokovic is back on the court after winning one round in court. the controversy involving the number one player in the world is far from over. cnn paula hancocks is live. what happened overnight? >> reporter: kate, the judge decided to quash the cancellation of that visa. what he said was the treatment was, the procedural treatment was not at the airport when he arrived. he said that he was not allowed to talk to his lawyer or wasn't given the chance. wasn't given enough time and the same with the tournament organizers. he couldn't find out any advice or what he should be doing. they said the procedural issues were in place and that is why he's now a free man tonight. we know from his family who have been speaking that he's already been out on the court on monday. clearly, novak is moving on. he's trying to switch his mind and his body to the australian open which starts next week. it's not necessarily 100% a done deal. we have heard from the immigration ministry that the minister himself has the power to be able to step in and say he himself decides that the visa should be revoked. that may come in hours, if it comes. kate. >> all right. stand by on that one. really appreciate it. joining me for more on this is patrick mcenroe. it's good to have you here. what do you think of this whole thing and we're in the moment that we're in right now? >> can you say just a debacle on all fronts. it's unbelievable the twist and turns. i believe there's a few more to come. i agree with the courts decision, with the judge's decision to overturn his visa being denied on procedural grounds. i think it was clear that he wasn't treated well when he got to the airport. he had all his ducks lined up as far as what he needed to get into the country according to tennis australia that runs the tournament. he needed to have a positive covid test and apply and get the medical exemption to get into the country. the border patrol run by the federal government says, hold on a second. if you've got a positive covid test, that doesn't mean you can come into the country as a non-citizen particularly if you're unvaccinated which is we found out during this appeal process that novak is unvaccinated. one of a minority now of professional tennis players. i believe it's at 96, 97% of the players participated are currently vaccinated. >> playing at the level that they are playing at. vaccinated and fine. he tweeted with his team on the court saying, i want to stay and compete at the australia open. i remain focused on that. i'm wondering, as player, as someone who knows this better than anybody, what is it going to be like if and when he does take the court here? >> it's going to be a mad house. i believe novak did the right thing. it was close to midnight when he went to the arena and court. he's won this title nine times in his career. here have the things he will have to answer to when he does address media. that will happen in next couple of days. you tested positive on december 16th home in belgrade and serbia. you received the positive test later that night. we have seen instagram post and videos and pictures of him out and about doing a panel discussion in serbia and with a bunch of young tennis players giving out awards. he's done a lot of great things for charity and australia throughout his career. a lot of questions about if you tested positive for covid on december 16th, why were you out and about for the next 24 hours. maybe legally he could do that. morally, he's got some questions to answer on that front. i believe it's going to be chaotic when he takes to the court, if he takes to the court. there's still that chance that the immigration office can say, we're taking you out of the country. by the way the female player from the czech was accosted at her hotel. she was in the swimming pool taking a swim. she had already been in australia for a week and played a tournament. after this situation happened, they went to her hotel. they told her to pack her stuff and she left the country. she didn't have quite the legal representation or the wherewithal that djokovic had at the airport. >> getting to just what you're talking about. we have seen protesters take to the street outside the hotel where djokovic was detained. people are very upset. responsible supporting him. this is much more than a sporpt sp -- sport story. at its most basic, is this a clear example of a celebrity getting special treatment when there are families in that exact same motel he was held in separated for years due to australia's tough immigration rules. >> there's one male who has been under detainment from iran. he got into at 15. he's now 24 and he's never been outside in australia. it's brought attention to the plight of those refugees. there's a huge backlash from australians who had to deal with lockdowns. they are vaccinated at the percentage of well over 90%. for novak djokovic and others, it's no doubt there's extremes on both sides. my twitter time line literally has one quote saying i'll never watch tennis again. i'll never watch the australian open again and the next one says novak djokovic is stangd up to the australian government. he's the only one with guts to do it. you're getting both sides of this and the people supporting him are being very vocal. he's almost becoming a poster boy for this anti-covid vaccination which can be very, very vocal in this country. >> unbelievable it's making it so distinctly real and happening in realtime kind of in the australian open as we're watching it play out. thank you very much. coming up, the u.s. and russia face-to-face in geneva as vladimir putin continues to amass troops. what will come of today's meeting? 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[cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. . developing now, high stakes talks between the u.s. and russia have just concluded. the talks come as fears grow of russia invating ukraine. cnn alex is live in jeneva with latest on this. ala alex it wrapped up. what's been happening today? >> reporter: the talks did wrap up around seven and a half hours. we're expecting to hear from both the russian and the american sides from the heads of those delegations. the biden administration has opinion saying for several days they're not expecting a major breakthrough. we should get a sense from both the russians and the u.s. about whether the russians are truly committed to this serious of diplomatic talks taking place. we should get a sense from the american side whether they believe the russians are negotiating in good faith and whether the subjects that they discussed with the russians face-to-face are things they can accomplish. remember, kate, the two sides came to the table today with wildly different goals. the russians wanted to talk about things the u.s. dismissed out of hand. the u.s. says there are a number of subjects that can be discussed and, again, this is going to be the first in a series of meetings that will go on the nato and be organization for security and cooperation in europe. all of these talks designed to get russia to deescalate and pull troops back from the border. >> much more to come in the hours ahead. thank you. i'm going to turn now to violent protests have led to nearly 200 people being killed. the president there calling it an taattempted coup. >> reporter: we have a very fast moving situation on the ground in kazakhstan. he called the protests an attempted coup. he said he believes some of the protesters were trained abroad. he didn't provide any sort of evidence to support those claims. the authorities continue their crackdown. the authorities are saying they detained around 8,000 people in relation to those protests. they also say the death toll has risen to 164 with around 100 of those deaths occurring in the largest city. that's where a will the of those really bad clashes took place and a lot of that crackdown happened add well. they are saying the situation is getting under control. they had a day of mourning and the internet on for certain period of time. they also said a lot of that was tanks to the fact that member nations of the collective security treaty organization provided troops. the biggest contingent comes from russia. russian president was on a call of that organization today. he also blamed the west for fueling those protests and he also said that russian troops would remain on the ground there until order is fully restored. kate. >> fred on the porder. thank you very much. appreciate it. joining me for all of this is former u.s. ambassador to ukraine and now the director. it's great to see you again. thank you for being here. let's talk with the talks that just wrapped. i'm curious. if russia's starting point is wanting western troops out of eastern europe and guarantee of no further nato expansion. do you think these talks are doomed from the get-go? >> those positions are things that the united states and nato will not accept. the question is has putin ask for these talks in order to see if he can get concessions from us that justify not sending troops into ukraine and he has to decide if he doesn't get such things what he does next. it's very hard to imagine those russian demands. >> exactly. this is against the uncertain backdrop of what is russia going to do. the secretary of state was asked on abc this weekend about your recent advice that more u.s. military assistance should be give on the ukraine now. a stronger show of force to get moscow to pull back. i want to play for you how the secretary responded to that. >> we have been providing defensive assistance to ukraine, including as recently as the last couple of weeks. almost half a billion dollars this year alone. that's continued. that will continue and if there's further aggression by russia against ukraine, we'll see even more of that. we are making sure to the pest of our ability and other allies and partners and doing the same that ukraine has means to defend i itself. >> do you think that is enough in. >> no. in fact, secretary blinken did not answer the question. the reason we're trying to send the weapons is we're trying to deter russia going in with those troops. putin does not like casualty. that represents a political problem for him. in ukraine can create more russian casualties, that reduces the risk of russia sending the troops into ukraine. i think the biden administration has done a pretty good job in the crisis. they are the ones that put the troops on the boarder with crew yan. they are sending threatening messages. we want to make sure russia does not act on the messages. >> if this is the path that russia continues to take when ever putin feels he's not getting attention, building up force s on the border in order o gain leverage. where does this risk ending up? >> the thing to understand is that russia on the one hand is much weaker than the united states and the west in terpsms military and economic capability. putin has been able to get his way whether it was in georgia in 2008 whether it was in seizing crimea. the west has been intimidated by him. if we do things that the biden administration laid out but do some of things before russia in invade, the chances of invading go way down. he doesn't want the casualties. >> always great having you here. coming up, dramatic video of an amazing police rescue. >> go, go, go, go. >> it's unbelievable. a cnn exclusive. the officers involved in that rescue will join me live. to improve skin 3x better, from dry and dull to firm and radiant. with olay body, i feel fearless in my skin. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: just stop. go for a run. go for 10 runs! run a marathon. instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. narrator: on a faraway beach, the generation called "our greatest" saved the world from tyranny. in an office we know as "oval," a new-generation president faced down an imminent threat of nuclear war. on a bridge in selma, alabama, the preacher of his time marched us straight to passing voting rights for every american. at a gate in west berlin, a late-generation american president demanded an enemy superpower tear down a wall and liberate a continent. american generations answering the call of their time with american ideals. freedom. liberty. justice. for today's generation of leaders, the call has come again to protect our freedom to vote, to fortify our democracy by passing the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act because america - john lewis: we are not going back, we are going forward. let me tell you... you want to be successful? you gotta hustle. you gotta go the extra mile. make a name for yourself. have a firm grip. always dress for success. and you gotta show 'em who's boss. thanks for coming in. we'll get back to you. hustle, sure, but for what matters. when you do, it leads to amazing. welcome to the next level. the all-new lexus nx. ♪ video you have to see to believe. los angeles police officers rescuing a pilot from a plane that crashed but skrusjust mome before a train slammed into an aircraft and it was all caught on tape. the video is graphic. just watch this. >> go, go, go, go. >> it's unbelievable. i've seen it multiple times this morning. i still can't believe it. the pilot was taken to a regional trauma center with injuries but thankfully as you see how close this was, no one else was hurt in this. joining me now on their first national interview are the three, three of the heroes on the scene that day. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> i was just hearing and seeing and reading that you saw the end of the plane crash happen. can you then walk me through what happened next? >> yes, i was returning to the station from another call when in the distance i saw the plane land onto the street, crash onto the street. as i made my way to the intersection that's when i observed the actual crash. the pilot was inside the seat still suffering from injuries. there was air fuel leaking onto the street. at that point i had requested some additional units to respond to assist me with traffic control and attempt a rescue of the pilot. >> officer, did you know -- did you all have a sense of how close this train was when you were pulling him out? >> no. i did not have any idea where the train was. my primary focus was talking to pilot and keeping him calm and alert. it wasn't until i heard one of my co-workers from behind me say the train is coming and we need to get him out now. i never turned to see the train. just focused on getting the pilot out and getting away from the aircraft since it was a lot of aircraft fuel on the ground. >> unbelievable. officer castro, can you talk to me what this experience was like for you. what's going through your mind. i can hear the horn of the train as it's getting closer and closer. i hear someone yelling, go, go, go. can you tell me what was going through your mind at the moment? >> it happened so fast. we didn't really have much time to think. all i could think was trying to get this man to safety and didn't want to look back to see how far the trap was coming. you could hear it coming. we had to make a move fast and luckily we did. >> sergeant, have you had a chance -- we're playing it for our viewers now. have you had a chance to see this video now after the fact? i assume yes. >> yes. from different viewpoints. all of us were wearing video cameras which captured the incident and depending on which angle, it's pretty surreal. again, at the time the incident occurred, we just acted. upon viewing the video, we realized how close we were. >> how close. it's seconds close. seconds. >> yeah. >> unbelievable. >> i estimate it to be five seconds after we extracated him. >> the pilot was taken to the hospital. we don't know the extent of his injuries. i believe i may have seen one report he may have been released. were you able to speak to him at all? do you know anything about how he's doing now in. >> i don't know his current condition. he was awake. when i asked him what his primary complaint of pain was, he said he had a headache. i'm hopeful that's all he had. he did have lacerations on his face. i do not know the extent of those injuries. he was conscious and talking to me. he knew where he was and what had happened. >> really unbelievable. officer castro, what goes through your mind when you see this body cam video now in. >> it's a close call. i'm just grateful we all made it out okay and >> put out a tweet and said you all displayed heroism and quick action. heroism for sure. do you feel like one today? >> you know, i would say no only because this is, occurrences like this happen every day where we handle our business and we are the utmost professional in how we handle the incidents. this incident just happened to be caught on multiple cameras. we do our best to do this type of thing every day where we remain professional and handle our business. >> finally, i don't know -- i guess to all of you if your families have had chance to see this video as well and what they said to you after seeing it. >> i talked to my wife, i try to make sure that none of my family sent my wife any of the videos prior to me coming home and talking to her. my wife does have some concern about me being a police officer. i knew i wanted to be there to tell her what had happened. my wife's opinion on the matter was she didn't know what kind of emotion to express. she didn't know whether to be mad at me, sad, happy, proud or scared. she was just a mix of a lot of emotions and the most importantly happy that i was okay and everybody else made it out alive. >> she's allowed to have all of those emotions any day of the week. i'm sure you deserved every single one of those emotions at one time or another. >> yes. >> thank you so much for being here. it's unbelievable. it's a true pleasure to have you here on the show. thank you very, very >> thank you again. all right. still ahead for us, we are moments away from getting an update from officials on that deadly fire that killed 19 poem in new york. with so many people still recovering from injuries, in hospitals right now. details on that next. worry. the lexus rx, built for a modern families. get $1,500 lease cash toward a 2022 rx 350. ♪ i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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(excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. from one moment to the next, our kids become the most important part of our lives. and even though the years pass, that never changes. we never stop worrying about them. that's why it's important to have health insurance. with covered california, we got a plan we could afford. it includes free preventive care, like cholesterol and blood-pressure checkups. because even though they grow up, they'll always be your baby. covered california. this way to health insurance. enrollment ends january 31st. go to coveredca.com. now back to a tragic story that we are following. this morning a community is mourning 19 people killed in an apartment fire in new york city. it's the deadliest fire in new york in decades. and the mayor of new york city mayor eric adams is warning the death toll could still climb higher. let's get back over to cnn's shimon prokupecz. he's watching all of this for us. cher about to hold a briefing with updates, yeah? >> the maur, we expect him here around 12:30 to give an update and there are still many people, some of them kids, fighting to stay alive, so we're waiting to hear an update on the mayor from that. last time i was with you when i got off the air when i spoke to some women, women here, whose sister -- there was a sister of these three women who lost her three kids, and they were here because they were looking for a place they can gather. there's a sk mo not far from here, and so they were looking for the mosque for a place to go where they can gather and sort of just be together. as you know, many of the people who died in this fire, who lived in this building are from gambia. a lot of them have lived there for many, many, many years, so this was a very close-knit community, and now all they are really trying to do is get together, stick together and try and find some kind of healing here because they have lost so much. we've seen people come to this building to get their belongings and try to get something from their apartments. the fire department has been letting people inside to get some of their belongings and medications but obviously still a lot of questions as we've been reporting on that door-to-door that was left open and was there something wrong with it with the maintenance, and that's something that we hope to hear from the mayor when he speaks at 12:30. >> so many questions around that. does is of people, we believe, are still in the hospital. as you mentioned, shimon, so we'll be looking for this update on the deadliest fire in new york city in decades. shimon is on the ground. thank you, i really appreciate it. thank you all so much for being with us this hour. i'm kate balduan. "inside politics" with john king begins after this break. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. ♪ for skin that never holds you back. don't settle for silver. #1 for diabetic dry skin #1 for psoriasis symptom relief and #1 for eczema symptom relief. gold bond. champion your skin. i always dreamed of having kids of my own. ♪ ♪ now i'm ready for someone to call me mom. at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. for back pain, i've always been a take two and call in the morning guy. but my new doctor recommended salonpas. without another pill upsetting my stomach, i get powerful, effective and safe relief. salonpas. it's good medicine. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. hello and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. omicron is making americans sick at a record pace. the disruption includes millions calling out of work, kid unable to go to school and travelers stranded sometimes for days on end. plus, the united states and russia meet for talks. the goal is clear. avoiding an invasion of ukraine, but there is little insight into how to do it and even less confidence vladimir putin is in the mood to listen. and tomorrow president biden