face covering. and be afraid. that's the warning hackers put on ukrainian websites after high-stakes talks to prevent a russian invasion stalled. >> announcer: live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with michael holmes. with just days to go until the australian open, top-ranked tennis player novak djokovic is once again in immigration detention following the second cancellation of his visa. the serbian star arrived at a melbourne hotel being used as a detention facility earlier. any hope of competing in the open on monday rift rests on the outcome of an appeal hearing set for sunday. as phil black reports, australia's immigration minister has introduced new reasons for why djokovic should be deported. >> reporter: the latest volley landing this match in court, served by australia's immigration minister, alex hawk, canceling novak djokovic's visa a second time, citing health and good order grounds on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so. in a quickly convened court hearing, djokovic's lawyer claimed the minister's reasoning is very different from everything argued in this case so far. the underlying new rationale is not a direct risk to others. it's that mr. djokovic, being in australia, in melbourne in particular, will excite anti-vax sentiment. that's the point. a radically different approach. the matter will likely be heard by a court in detail on sunday, keeping alive djokovic's hopes of a quick legal win which would allow him to play in monday's opening round of the australian open. but no player has ever prepared for a grand slam title like this. once again, the world's number one tennis player must spend the weekend detained by australia's border force. >> cancellation means mandatory detention. >> reporter: this man is a former senior official in australia's immigration department. he says politically the australian government had no choice but to try again. but it's a high-stakes move because there is the possibility that if they push through with this, they lose, and that means more humiliation. >> yes. they will be very aware that legally they could lose this case, and that would be truly embarrassing. it would be a really bad look. i mean the real implication is how badly australia looks in the eyes of the world if it loses a second court case. >> reporter: one immigration lawyer says the minister's powers are wide and not easily changed. >> they would have to articulate very strong grounds that the minister made a jurisdictional error, and under australian immigration laws, i believe that would be a difficult hurdle for them to jump. >> reporter: this unprecedented saga may finally be approaching a resolution, one that could carry powerful consequences for australian politics and the career of one of the greatest tennis players of all time. a preliminary hearing saturday confirmed main arguments will be heard in this case on sunday. but the insight we've received is those arguments are going to be very different this time because the reasons for canceling the visa on this second occasion are different to the first. so unlike the first court hearing, no one's going to be talking about whether or not djokovic was right in thinking he could travel hear exempted from vaccine requirements because he'd recently recovered from covid-19. this time, the focus will be on the potential impact of his presence here among other vaccine skeptics and the potential risk that poses to the australian public. phil black, cnn, melbourne, australia. >> and let's bring in cnn world sports patrick snell. players would like to be talking tennis, but instead they're all being asked about novak. what is djokovic's biggest rival saying at the open this year? >> yeah, michael. great to see you. tell you what, phil black has been very busy as well today. more on that coming right up. you're spot on. you could just sense the frustration, talking rafael nadal here. the spanish legend, who like djokovic is going for a men's record 21st grand slam title. so this saturday they had players media day down there at melbourne park. we all know this saga has been dreing on for days now and it's clear that the man from majorca, nadal, just wants to focus on the tournament itself. take a listen to what he said earlier to our own phil black. >> i'm just a player that i'm seeing it from outside. as i said, i am a little bit tired of this matter now. the thing went too far. i wish novak all the very best, and that's it. i want to play tennis. >> he just wants to play tennis. nadal tiring of what he calls the circus. rafa himself says he really believes in vaccination, that he does have respect for djokovic as both a person and an athlete even if he doesn't agree with what he calls the serbian's way of thinking about how to proceed with this pandemic. that said, though, he feels no one person should ever overshadow the sport of tennis itself. >> it's important to come back to tennis conversations in my opinion. there is nobody in the history of our sport more important than -- than the sport by itself, you know? novak, roger, myself, mcenroe, connors, nobody is more important than the sport because the the australian open will be great with or without novak djokovic. >> great perspectives there as ever. smart, intelligent words as we've come to expect from rafa nadal. >> yeah. now, there was another high-profile star weighing in. what is alexander severe everybody's take on? >> he's very typically forthright is the young german player. he's still seeking his first grand slam title. many in the game feel this year could be his breakthrough year, zverev got to the final of the u.s. open in new york in 2020, so he did come close there. but he feels despite everything that's been going on, djokovic's outstanding playing career and overall record speaks for itself. take a listen. >> i don't know what the perception around the fans is. i know that in the sport, he's still seen as one of the greatest players because his achievements are not taken away. he still won 20 grand slams. he still has the most weeks as number one. he still, for me, yeah, one of the greatest players of all time. so don't -- yeah, i mean this -- this is obviously not a nice thing for everyone, for him especially, but don't question his legacy because of this. >> the reaction, michael, coming in thick and fast on this saturday. zverev also asked if he felt djokovic had been treated poorly. the german responding in part that the serbian player had a visa in his words and wouldn't have just traveled to australia by luck, as he put it, adding djokovic is a global superstar and that maybe people think they can make a big deal out of it just because it's novak. the words of alexander zverev there. back to you. >> kind of wonder which court he's going to be on, the law one or the hard court. patrick, always good to see you my friend. patrick snell there. the u.s. public health emergency declaration has been renewed again. it allows for emergency use authorizations of vaccines, access to certain funds, and deployment of the military. and the cdc updated its mask guidance on friday, urging americans to wear the most protective mask available, like the n95 and kn95. it comes as the biden administration is under more criticism for its omicron response. cnn's nick watt with that. >> reporter: this administration placed all of their eggs in vaccination. >> reporter: there are doctors who agree with those democratic senators, that the biden administration has been too reactive to omicron, not proactive. >> we saw south africa getting ravaged with this virus. we knew it was highly transmissible, but we didn't ramp up our testing capacity. >> reporter: reasons to be cheerful, west virginia's governor is feeling better saying, without question, the fact that i chose to get vaccinated and boosted saved my life. that's all there is to it. and this was the map beginning of last week. cases rising rapidly almost everywhere except maine. today there's a lot less deep red. most of the northeast looking better. >> i'm very encouraged that case counts are dropping now in this area unmistakably. >> reporter: still nationwide averaging nearly 800,000 new infections every day. there are now twice as many new infections a day than there are people getting their first vaccine shot. walgreens and cvs now temporarily closing some stores on weekends due to staff shortages. the national guard deployed to hospitals in some states, and one maryland school district now asking for guard members to drive school buses. new york city's new mayor determined to keep schools in person is now open to other options. >> if we're able to put in place a temporarily remote option, we're welcome to do so. >> reporter: we do now know how you can get your hands on some of those free at-home tests promised by the biden administration. covidtests.gov, the website launches next wednesday, but they are limiting you to four tests per household and say once you place your order, it's going to take them 7 to 12 days to ship that order out. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. turning our attention to europe now where france says a record number of classes were canceled on friday due to soaring cases among students and teachers. the country has seen record high numbers of new cases this week. spain reporting nearly 1 million new cases in the past week. and the second highest number of new daily cases since the pandemic began, more than 162,000 on friday. the netherlands is relaxing some of its covid restrictions. nonessential stores, hairdressers, beauty salons, and other service providers will be allowed to reopen on saturday. the prime minister says it's a big step. it's also, he says, a risk. and i'm joined now by cnn's melissa bell in paris. melissa, when you think about it, europe still grappling with omicron, and it's not peaked yet in most places. >> reporter: it's not peaked yet, and you mentioned the netherlands a moment ago. what the health ministry explained is he announced some of those relaxations of the rules, beauty salons able to open from saturday, it was about learning to live with this particular variant longer term. it is spreading faster than any other we've seen, more widely than any other we've seen so far, with records set in germany, france, spain, the netherlands, and that peak still ahead of us. authorities believe it should come before the end of the month where we should see the peak in hospitalizations and icu entries. but what we're also seeing everywhere is while it is spreading more widely, there are fewer strains on hospitals than there have been with previous variants. so it's all about finding a way to keep the economy, as the dutch have just decided in terms of those reopenings from this saturday, keeping the economy as open as possible while trying to get as many people vaccinated as authorities can. and that's really the focus here in france. in the early hours of the morning, overnight, the french parliament finally passed a very controversial bill and one that's seen a great amount of difficulty that will turn the vaccine pass -- until now, you've been able to have a pcr test rather than be vaccinated to get this pass that allows you to get into restaurant, bars, cafes, cinemas, from next week, once it finishes its parliamentary progress, and that will now happen since it heads to the senate. it will be a purely vaccine pass. that means if you haven't been vaccinated, you can't pcr-test your way out of it. you can't get into those venues without being vaccinated. a final last determined push to get the recalcitrant to go and get their shots. that is what the french authorities are doing and what authorities across europe are trying to do as they hope as best they can to come out of this latest wave, not so much a wave said the health minister a couple weeks ago in france, as it is prove to be a tsunami, michael. >> melissa bell in paris for us. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, after a week of high-stakes talks, there's no signs of easing tensions between russia and ukraine. up next, what the u.s. says moscow is planning to justify an invasion of its western neighbor. plus the british prime minister apologizing again over parties held at downing street during covid lockdowns. this time apologizing to the queen herself. that's coming up when we come back. including the covid-19 virus, on more surfaces than lysol disinfectant spray. lysol. what it takes to protect. finally getting there...is the best! but with febreze freshness in your car... ...driving there is pretty darn good too. enjoy 30 days of freshness with febreze car. ♪ la, la, la, la, la ♪ welcome back. ukraine says russia is likely behind a cyberattack that hit scores of its government websites. officials say as many as 70 sites were targeted with a threatening text warning, quote, be afraid and wait for the worst. it comes just days after high-stakes between the u.s., nato, and russia ended with no real progress. meanwhile, the u.s. says it has information that russia is preparing a false flag attack to justify invading ukraine. for more on all of this, let's bring in cnn's sam kiley live in kiev for us. so, sam, firstly, what to make of these false flag allegations. what's the reaction there? >> reporter: michael, it very much is in the russian playbook. we've seen it back during the chechen wars with attacks on russian civilians blamed on the chechens, arguably conducted by another, that finger in those days pointing at the kremlin. similarly we're seeing u.s. intelligence saying they have information that covert units based in the area of eastern ukraine that's been under russian tutelage effectively since 2014, russian-backed rebels nominally in control, russian forces undercover there, that there are plans they believe to conduct a false flag, an attack on their own side effectively, that the russian rebels would then blame on the ukrainian government and use that as a cause. simultaneously, ukrainians also came out with a statement that they had intelligence over a similar planning for an attack on russian troops in mold var, where there are also russian troops based there. all of this coming at the same time as this very significant cyberattack, a cyberattack more of perhaps symbolic importance than one that actually caused any kind of infrastructural damage or a massive penetration or an intelligence leak. but as you say, 70 websites shut down in what was a pretty sophisticated attack via third-party servers outside the country, we understand, according to government sources here against these government websites with these threatening messages. all building up the level of pressure, michael, on the ukrainian government after the failure of those talks that were all over european capitals and geneva over the last week, michael. >> sam, thank you. sam kiley there in kiev for us. now, the office of the british prime minister, boris johnson, apologizing to queen elizabeth after a new report detailed parties held at 10 downing street last april while covid restrictions were still in place. one of the gatherings held the night before prince philip's funeral. the next day the queen sat alone at her husband's socially distanced memorial. meanwhile, the former head of the uk's covid task force apologized for hosting an event when she left her job in december 2020. an investigation into lockdown breaching gatherings is under way. perhaps unsurprisingly, officials in mr. johnson's government say it's time to focus on other issues. >> he has apologized. i think we now need to move on and talk about how we are going to sort out issues. i've spent the last 24 hours with the eu talking about sorting out the situation for the people of northern ireland, and we now need to get on with that and of course wait for the results of the inquiry. >> a recent poll found only 20% of the british public had a favorable view of mr. johnson. 20%. that's the lowest level since he took office. the former israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is negotiating a possible plea deal in his corruption trial. that's from two sources involved in the matter who spoke with cnn. under the deal, the most serious charge against netanyahu, bribery, would likely be dropped. the sources say the biggest stumbling block is the possible sentence. if it's longer than three months, he could be barred from politics for seven years. netanyahu denies any wrongdoing. denmark's former defense minister, meanwhile, has been charged with leaking state secrets. officials have not released details on those charges, but in a statement, the current opposition lawmaker said he's being charged for, quote, violating the limits of my freedom of speech. he added that he only spoke out on a political issue and nothing that would harm his country. this comes days after denmark's former spy chief was charged and arrested for similar allegations. now, north korea says it has test-fired two ballistic missiles on friday. according to state media, they were launched from a railcar and hit their intended target in the water off the korean peninsula. it's the latest in a series of missile tests in recent days. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken condemning the launch, saying it violates multiple u.n. security council resolutions. north korea says it will be forced to take a, quote, stronger reaction if the u.s. chooses to take a confrontational stance. a chilling day for the news media in el salvador. a report from two groups specializing in cybersecurity allege the phones of dozens of journalists and other members of civil society were hacked using the spyware known as pegasus. else salvador's government is denying responsibility. at least 22 journalists from an influential news outlet were targeted. pegasus is a controversial military gauge spyware created by the israeli company nso group. here's a creative commentary on climate change. a three-ton iceberg suspended over sydney harbor in australia. artists have been performing on top of it for ten hours a day as it melts in the hot sun. the three-day display, called four is part of the sydney festival and highlights the threat of climate change. with northwestern australia recording its highest temperature in 62 years on friday, the display seems rather timely. travelers who want to visit the notre dame cathedral won't have to wait until it reopens in 2024 thanks to virtual reality. a new immersive experience near paris allows visitors wearing 3-d headsets to experience notre dame's history from its construction to the fire that wrecked the landmark in 2019 through its reconstruction. created by the virtual reality startup, the project took two years to complete. it lets visitors dive into a 45-minute trip full of visual sound effects. >> translator: it is quite impressive. i would say that you're a bit anxious at the start, and then you completely forget about the fact that you're in an enclosed space because the environment is absolutely magnificent. you better not be afraid of heights, however. it gives quite an unusual feeling. >> the exhibit opens to the public on saturday at about $34 per person. more locations are expected to pop up later in other cities across the world. i'm michael holmes. if you're with us here in north america, i'll be right back with more "cnn newsroom." for the rest of the word, "african voices: changemakers" up next. welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm michael holmes. the leader of the anti-government group oath keepers appeared in court on friday, accused of seditious conspiracy and other charges in connection with the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. the indictment against stewart rhodes lays out what prosecutors say he did before and after the insurrection attempt. he's one of 11 defendants facing the rare seditious conspiracy charge. cnn's paula reid with more. >> reporter: the leader of the oath keepers, stewart rhodes, made an initial appearance in court today in texas as one of the first people charged with seditious conspiracy related to the u.s. capitol attack. >> even the government says they're accusing him of an organizational role. they admit that they did not commit any violence. they did not hurt any police officers. they did not damage any property. they're charging them as being conspirators, the organizers or aiders and abettors, that sort of thing. >> reporter: but a detailed indictment lays out a sprawling, methodical plot. starting in the days after the election when rhodes allegedly told his supporters, we aren't getting through this without a civil war. prosecutors allege rhodes and his ten co-defendants traveled from across the country to d.c. with stockpiled weapons, ammunition, and other tactical equipment. video from january 6th captures oath keepers wearing military gear, forcing their way into the building in a military stack formation. prosecutors say the group even stationed quick reaction forces outside d.c. to rush into the capitol if needed and that rhodes was planning for violence well beyond january 6th. rhodes' estranged wife also spoke to cnn. >> he sees himself as a great leader. he almost has his own mythology of himself, and i think he almost made it come true, seeing himself as some sort of figure in history. >> reporter: meanwhile, some trump allies, like senate minority leader kevin mccarthy, are refusing to voluntarily cooperate with the house select committee investigating january 6th. even though mccarthy previously supported an investigation and said that president trump admitted responsibility for the attack. cnn surfacing this interview from shortly after the riot. >> i say he has responsibility. he told me personally that he does have some responsibility. i think a lot of people do. >> reporter: yet on thursday, mccarthy said he could not recall such conversations. >> i -- i'm not sure what call you're talking about. >> reporter: but other trump allies are willing to talk. on thursday, former new york city police commissioner and close ally of rudy giuliani, bernard kerik spoke with the committee virtually for over eight hours. and today former acting defense secretary christopher miller also spoke with investigators. cnn has learned that attorney general merrick garland was initially reluctant to bring the rarely used seditious conspiracy charge, but people familiar with the matter say the investigators spent months building the case with help from cooperators, internal communications from the oath keepers, and rhodes himself even provided an interview to the fbi. now, if convicted, this charge carries up to 20 years in prison. paula reid, cnn, washington. returning now to our top story, novak djokovic's legal fight to avoid deportation from australia after the second cancellation of his visa. right now the serbian tennis star is at an immigration detention facility. his appeal will be heard tomorrow ahead of the start of the australian open on monday. the australian immigration minister says allowing djokovic to remain in the country could increase anti-vaccine sentiment. for more analysis, i'm joined by tracy holmes, a radio host at the australian broadcasting corporation. she's speaking with me from sydney. court arguments sunday. first match monday. how do you see the next few days playing out? >> look, it's cutting it very fine, and of course the information just keeps coming thick and fast. we know that novak djokovic is back in detention as you mentioned. he's at the same detention hotel facility where he was prior to having his first visa cancellation quashed at the beginning of the week. and so he's back in familiar turf in that regard. his lawyers have continued to upload documents to the publicly available court website, and we've also had news this afternoon that the court has announced that it will be heard in front of a full court. so three judges rather than the single judge, which means with a full court in operation, there will be no appeal process. so their decision will be final unless, of course, they decide to take it to the high court and challenge the grounds of the finding. but that's getting way ahead of the situation at the moment. >> yeah, i guess if you can keep it going long enough, the australian open will be over, and it won't matter. the serbian president accused australia of ignoring the rule of law, playing politics to win elections. he said they often preach to us about what the rule of law is. do you need to win some elections? do you need to please your public? speak to how politics, domestic australian politics, national politics have played into this saga and the mess that it's become. >> yeah, it has become a bit of a mess. and of course that's to be expected almost in the covid times. nobody really knew what the roadmap was in order to handle the rise in covid infections, to try and keep it out of our borders, our borders were shut down. effectively australia was closed for two years, and this was supposed to be the coming out parade. unfortunately the omicron variant is now ripping through australia in every state and territory. but what we've seen in the past two years is real agitation between the federal government and the state government of victoria. they don't agree with each other ideologically, politically, and that has given rise to a lot of angst along the way. and we saw that in the first visa cancellation where it was decided that up until that point, what australia had been enforcing were the domain of the states. suddenly it was decided that the federal government and border force would start enforcing what they said was their control of sovereign territory. hence we had novak djokovic and a handful of other people associated with the tennis open coming in with exemptions from the victorian government, which were then not recognized by border force at the immigration point at the airport. >> putting your sporting hat back on, what about going forward for djokovic? the french open says he can play there. but in march, the atp tour moves to events in the u.s., which now requires visitors to be fully vaccinated. what's he going to do then? >> well, i guess people often hope that there will be exemptions in place, and it's interesting you mentioned the french open, where the sports minister there said he would be given an exemption. that in itself could be seen as politics because we know at the moment the geopolitical situation, the relationship between australia and france is not good with australia canceling an order for submarines from the french government. and so the french were very quick in coming out in response to australia's first visa cancellation for novak djokovic. so all of these things are playing into each other. obviously it's going to become more and more difficult for players who aren't vaccinated to get in and out of territories. and we already know that a number of players have not come to the australian open because they just didn't want to take the chance. those that did come, we know that there are four that have since left our shores. novak djokovic is the only one who came in on that exemption, and he remains with this rather hefty court case ahead of him. >> it's interesting when you look at the players. we know the australian public and how they feel. the players, world number four, tsitsipas, he took aim at djokovic. he said he made a majority of players look like fools for following the rules. what has been the general reaction of players to what happened and continues to happen? >> look, most players have been critical, and i think are becoming more so as their frustrations rise given they are here also to compete in one of the four majors in the world. and all they get questioned about is novak djokovic. i mean the one thing elite athletes hate being asked about is somebody else. they're very happy to talk about themselves. so there's been none of that in the buildup as you would normally expect, and they're getting a little peeved. and, you know, some of this stems back to novak djokovic not having a vaccination, which is his right. but what has happened since is that everything that has ensued with national and international headlines and a big focus on this means that the other players can't escape it either. >> yeah. you're right. at the news conferences, they'd rather talk about their backhand and forehand, not novak. tracy holmes, good to see you. thanks so much. >> thanks, michael. quick break here on the program. when we come back, how covid-19 has dramatically changed the u.s. workplace as we enter this third year of the pandemic. and which group is at greatest risk? we'll be right back. h jetdry 3i1 to rinse, dry and shine your dishes. solve 3 problems at once w with finish jetdry 3in1. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. welcome back. the latest covid-19 surge in the u.s. driven by the omicron variant has disrupted a lot of businesses, and it's especially putting pressure on essential workers. the problem is they're already worn down after nearly two years of working through the pandemic and a historic labor shortage. and as more people call in sick right now, stores, restaurants, airlines, and other industries are being forced to serve customers less or not at all. catherine rampell is a cnn economics and political commentator. she's also a "washington post" opinion columnist. and it's one of your columns that brings us here. there have been vast numbers of americans forced into isolation because of positive covid cases over the last several weeks. what has been the impact of that on how the country is able to run? >> it's having an impact throughout the economy. early on during the pandemic, of course, covid disrupted lots of economic activity, largely because of either government interventions, shutdowns of entire industries, or at least restrictions on different kinds of economic activity, or because consumers and workers decided to change their behavior so that they wouldn't bring themselves into the risk of getting covid. today the greater disruption to economic activity seems to be the fact that people are, in fact, contracting covid, and you have a lot of workers who are absent from their regular jobs or who have had their commutes or child care situations disrupted because the other workers that they rely on have contracted an infection. so we're seeing these consequences throughout the economy. >> and tell us more about the street-level effects of this. we're talking about hospitals short-staffed. there's a lot of empty shelves at grocery stores. even the effects of public transportation sick-outs, which means people can't get to work. what has been the real world chain effects of this? >> well, exactly as you point out. there are some kinds of companies, industries, factories that have had their own operations sort of seize up as a result of so many workers being absent. we don't know the exact number, for example, here in the united states of workers who have been absent because they've contracted covid or they've come into contact with it. some of the estimates are that at its peak, about 5 million workers had to go into isolation. some of them were paid. some of them were not paid, but they weren't able to do their jobs because they had covid. so there are some workers, of course, who are missing their regular work hours, their regular shifts. they can't show up to the office. they can't show up to the factory, et cetera. then there are those downstream effects because if, as you point out, there aren't transit workers to drive the subway or the bus, to, you know, not just public tanransit, but other private transportation, if airlines are short on flight attendants or pilots, that disrupts other people's ability to travel whether for work or otherwise. then of course at schools, same deal, right? a lot of teachers are out at school, in addition to students. and if schools have to shutter for a while, have to go remote, then that has downstream consequences for the parents of children who now are back at home and have disrupted their working parents' ability to have a regular work schedule. >> and hence shortages of child care too for the same reason. one other aspect of this that i found interesting in your piece that you mention is that lower-income households were among the least likely to have gotten boostered, therefore more at risk of illness. and as you say, that's an ominous sign. >> right, particularly since lower-wage workers are more likely to be in public-facing jobs, in industries like food services, for example. so those are the workers whose jobs are often presenting the greatest risk for coming into contact with covid. and if they are also among the workers who are least likely to have that protection of booster shots, then that means that they're sort of facing this double whammy of higher risk. they're more likely to come into contact with it, to contract it, to get sick, and often they don't have access to sick leave, right? higher-income workers, white collar workers are more likely here in the united states to have contracts, to have jobs that afford them sick leave. so these workers are very vulnerable. we need to get them boosted. we need to get everyone boosted who's eligible, of course, but those workers in particular are at great risk. >> always great to get your thoughts. catherine rampell, thanks so much. >> thank you. a dangerous winter storm threatening parts of the u.s. details from the cnn weather center when 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up to 50% more lotion, puffs bring soothing relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue. tsunami warnings were issued earlier for tonga and american samoa after an underwater volcano erupted. the warning for american samoa has since been canceled. radio new zealand reporting the volcano first erupted on friday, sending a plume of ash more than 12 miles or 20 kilometers into the air. officials warn of heavy rain, strong winds, and flash flooding. the volcano has been active since late december but was recently declared dormant. not so much anymore. well, more than 24 million people are under a winter weather alert in the u.s. right now. a major storm threatening the southeast and east coast. it's set to plow through the region with heavy snow and a crippling ice storm. joining me now is meteorologist derrick meteorologist derek van dam. >> very active in the weather center. here's a look at those 24 million americans under winter weather alerts from the plains to the tennessee river valley, the southeast through the mid-atlantic and across the interior new england region, away from the major metropolitans of new york, philadelphia, as well as boston. that's because we believe this will be a rainmaker for the immediate coastline. let me explain this very complex setup for you. there's the low pressure dropping south out of the arkansas region. you can see this very strong jet stream. that is going to allow for warm air to transpire from the gulf of mexico, and that's going to keep our precipitation type cold rain as this moisture comes in from the south. look at the progression of the storm system over the next 36 hours. you we see the transition to the potential at least of snowfall and a mixture of rain and snow at times as well as sleet. now, this is not something you want to see on a weather map, that shading of pink across the carolinas. that is the potential for accumulating ice. so we've got less than 24 hours to prepare our homes for this potential of crippling ice and snow. so you'll want to just prepare your family as well as your household for the eventuality of power outages as well as burst pipes. take a look at some of these useful tips. >> climate change will create more extreme weather variability across the country. use these tips to better prepare your home and your family against the next arctic outbreak. i've got danny, a home expert, to help share some valuable tips for me. >> these are some easy things i think anybody can knock out in an afternoon. one project is covering your faucets ahead of a freeze. if it's going to be extreme cold water, you'll want to let your faucets drip. another easy project is adding weather stripping. that's going to keep that old air out, especially if you have gaps in the bottom of your window. it's going to seal that off so when you close it, it's going to stop it. derek, you see this gap that's at the bottom of this door. that's going to allow cold air to come in. you want to close that gap off. we're going to use this door sweep that's going to seal it up for us, keep the cold air out. another easy project is you want to cover any of your exposed pipes, especially if they're outdoors or in areas of your home that's not heated. another simple trick for helping to hold the heat in a space is taking a blanket and closing off the opening. this especially works great if the power has gone out that. way you can trap that heat. it's a good idea to change our your furnace filter. that's going to be sure that your furnace is running at capacity. another really important thing to do this time of year is check the battery on your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. be sure to turn space heaters off before going to bed. to keep you and your family warm, a generator is a useful tool when the power goes out during the height of the storm. but remember never operate this indoors and keep it at least 20 feet from your home. know when bad weather is on the way. make sure you have enough non-perishable food and groceries to last several days. make sure you have enough of your family's essential medications on hand, and don't forget about supplies for your furry friends too. always have flashlights and backup batteries ready. portable phone chargers are great to keep around, and candles are a reliable light source in case you lose power. bottled water is also something you should keep on hand in case pipes freeze. if you have a working gas stove, you can also try melting snow for water in an emergency. >> some of the latest computer models indicating anywhere from a half to an entire inch of ice accumulation across the mountainous regions of the carolinas. this storm will evolve along the east coast. keep it mainly rain for the major metropolitans of new york and boston. you can see the accumulation going forward through the course of the weekend. michael, very busy to say the least. >> you know what it's like here in atlanta. we get two snowflakes, it's done for a couple of weeks. good to see you my friend, thanks. thank you for watching "cnn newsroom." i'm michael holmes. do stay with us. we have more news with paula newton in a moment. so you both sleep just right. and it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep p you both effortlessly comfortable. so, you can n really promise better sleep? yes! you'll know exactly how well you s slept, night after night. we take care of the science. all you have to do is sleep. don't miss our weekend special. save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 36 months and free premium delivery when you add a base. ends monday. do you strgle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formulacombins that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. the brand i trust is qunol. one role of a lifetime...one sore throat. but she had enough. she took new mucinex instasoothe sore throat lozenges. show your sore throat who's boss. new mucinex instasoothe. works in seconds, lasts for hours. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. ♪ and a warm welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm paula newton. ahead here on "cnn newsroom" tennis number one novak djokovic is back in detention as he appeals a second visa cancellation. we will take you live to melbourne and belgrade. plus, ukraine recovers from a cyber attack as the pentagon accuses an excuse to its neighbor. we'll go to thos