we have team coverage with jacqui heinrich who is covering the president from massachusetts, but we begin with jonathan in atlanta with more details on this omicron variant. >> katy hochul signed executive order freeing up hospital space for potential surge in covid-19 patients. it takes effect in december 3rd and will be reevaluated on january 15th, governor heck ho l said in a statement that while the omicron variant has yet to be detected, it is coming. first identified in south africa, but dr. anthony fauci said he wouldn't be surprised if it's already here. doctor: we have not detected it yet but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you're already having travel related cases that they've noted in israel and belgium and other places, when you have a virus like, this it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over. >> to protect yourself against omicron the cdc recommends pretty much the same strategies of the earlier versions of the coronavirus such as physical distancing and wearing masks and public indoor settings and communities with high-transmission rates. health experts recommend vaccinations and boosters for those who are eligible. >> it's for sure the case that the vaccines are going to continue to work against this variant. the question is how decreased their effectiveness will be. they'll work but they may not work as well. >> moderna has announced it is testing current vaccine to neutralize the omicron variant. that new booster, griff, would likely be ready for clinicals trials in two to three months, back to you guys. griff: jonathan live from atlanta. alicia: president biden banning travel from south africa and 7 neighboring countries starting monday in response to rapid spread of new covid variant. jacqui heinrich where the president is spending holiday weekend. jacqui: president biden was not surprised of the concern of variant in the stock market. this always happens when covid is on the rise and if you've been vaccinate today get your booster shot saying there's a whole lot that you don't know about the variant. >> every american who has not been vaccinated should be vaccinated. number 2, everyone eligible for the booster shot should get the booster shot. that is the mine male that imp should be doing. we always talk about -- [inaudible] jacqui: after u.s. health officials spoke to south african scientists of how fast the new variant is spreading and whether vaccines are effective against it the president made the decision to shut down travel from south africa and 7 neighboring countries we are told out of abundance and caution. the restrictions announced quickly but don't take effect until monday and medical experts say that that will considerably lessen benefit and no indication of that, he did reverse course slight i will saying that he would be surprised if it wasn't here already and just not -- had not yet been detected. in the meantime the center for disease control said today no cases of the variant have been identified in the u.s. to date. the cdc is continuously monitoring variants and the u.s. variant system has reliably detected new variants in the country. we expect omicron to be identified quickly if it emerges in the u.s. the president made case of intellectual property protections to be waived to be manufactured globally. the president saying that the new variant makes the case more than ever before and the pandemic will not be over until global vaccinations are a reality. alicia. .alicia: jacqui heinrich traveling with the president. griff: house armed services transportation infrastructure committee. congressman, thank you for taking time on a saturday. we want to get your reaction to this variant, very troubling news coming friday after thanksgiving. congressman: certainly was and my family enjoyed thanksgiving and as the evening came omicron came in the news. all of us are concerned about this. we are going to do the things that are public health practices, wear your masks, social distancing, get vaccinated and get your boost, those are the things that we can do to protect ourselves and frankly to protect others as well as to protect our economy. griff: congressman, yesterday the president talking about the booster and if you're not vaccinated do so. it's a patriotic duty. some are remembering what the president said in 2020 on the campaign trail as related to the former president and covid deaths, take a quick listen. i want to get your thoughts on that. >> anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the united states of america. griff: i play that for you to ask you is it time for the white house to maybe retool their messaging as many now are starting to worry about things like lockdowns and mandates? >> well, if we are all vaccinated and we are boosted, probability of a lockdown or any mandate beyond getting vaccinated is very, very unlikely. we can protect ourselves. this is something that each one of us does have a patriotic duty if you're care about the economy or even yourself, for heaven sake's get vaccinated or get boosted if you've already been vaccinated. those are the simple things to do and wear a mask along the way. one of the things that the president did say is to waive the proprietary of this vaccination. we do know that delta emerged from india where there was very low vaccination rates. we know that the vaccination rates in south africa are also very, very low so the new variants are emerging from these countries and that are not vaccinated. for heaven sakes let's vaccinate the world. we have the resources, the world has the resources. the major economies can do it and we need to do it to protect ourselves. if you're worried about the job you ought to be worried about not being vaccinated. griff: the new variant clearly congressman will not be good for the supply chain crisis, the bottleneck created because of covid and your thoughts on how we address that now, it's not going to get better. congressman: two things that we can do, first of all, realize that all of us, in fact, the entire world was at the stoplight and suddenly it turned green and everybody rushed to go shopping at least in the united states. so we should not be surprised that there would be bottlenecks all along the way. with regard to the ports, we have introduced an ocean shipping reformat with johnson, my republican colleague from south dakota to address the fact that we have not updated the regulatory requirements for international shipping, the reciprocal responsibilities since 1998. and that was before china joined the world trade organization. so we have seen an enormous change in the way in which the world trade has occurred but we've not updated our regulatory requirements. we need to give the federal maritime commission the power to regulate, to deal with the extraordinary charges that are facing exporters from the united states and also i do know that in my district and in bessie johnson's district the agricultural community has just been slammed by the inability to get empty containers. those containers are going back under the ships headed back to the western pacific and loaded up probably 10 to 15 times more fee than the agricultural shippers from the united states could possibly pay. griff: congressman, even before your bill or any legislation like it could be passed, are there things that we can do today, now, like for instance we saw the president you and britain act quickly on a travel ban, are there things that can be done right now to help prevent the supply crisis from getting worse if, indeed, the new variant adds to the misery? congressman: well, there are, and a lot of those things are taking place. the president said this go 24/7 at western ports, la and long beach, they are not yet at 24/7. one to have port operators is operating close to that. we have also seen a 30% reduction in the backlog at those two ports, so it is beginning to thin out, but there's a whole series of just simple operational things that need to take place, take the containers off the chasses and that requires space so the cities of long beach are creating space so those containers can be taking off the chasses and chasses can be used. there's a simple operational things, 3 ships, all of those, also there are ports, the oakland port where i was just a couple of days ago has space available so those ships could move north to oakland or they could go through the panamá canal and get directly to the east coast. griff: congressman garamendi keep us posted on the ports on the west coast. >> thank you. alicia: joining us now for reaction from the gop side republican pennsylvania congressman lloyd smocker, he sits on the house ways and means committee. congressman smocker, thank you so much for being here. i want to ask you something about something that congressman garamendi said, he pointed out as the world health organization pointed out the variants are coming from countries that have low vaccination rates. do you believe this puts pressure on red states in the united states to push their vaccination efforts even more? congressman: well, listen, we should be concerned about this new virus. it's been amazing in the united states that we have developed in a very short period of time a vaccine that's effective against the virus. i think it will still be effective against this virus and i do encourage everyone to get vaccinated but i also think that's the decision that every individual should make with their doctor. this is a health decision that should not be mandated by the government, you know, we talked about -- in fact, dr. fauci talked about herd immunity at the beginning of -- of the coronavirus and he was talking about when 70% of the population is either vaccinated or has natural immunities due to having contracted the virus. we will have achieved herd immunity. we obviously are concerned about this new variant and we encourage people to get vaccinated but, you know, it's going to be very, very important that we follow the science and we are still seeing today the impacts that, you know, students' education. we are seeing the impact on mental health, we are seeing the impact on those who lost their jobs and business has been shut down due to governors and the president making decisions that, i think, was overreaction and did not adequately factor in the impacts of shutting down the economy, so that would be a mistake to do that again but, again, as i said, we need to follow the science and see what develops and we encourage everyone to get vaccinated. alicia: in terms of the travel ban and the biden administration deciding to start it on monday. this gives us the whole weekend for folks to continue to travel. what is your take on this, do you think it should have started immediately? >> well, i think the travel ban if i understand is just for south africa. we have not yet seen a spread of this virus to many other countries, certainly not into the united states. and so as i said, we should follow the science and i think that travel ban going to effect for south africa at this time is the right move and we should just continue to watch that as things progress. alicia: we do know that the united kingdom did announce its travel ban from south africa and surrounding countries and we know today they have identified two cases of the omicron that they have isolated the folks and are doing the contact tracing. so as dr. fauci pointed out today, it's a little bit of a different message than he had yesterday that he wouldn't be surprised if we start to see it here and it could come eventually. but i do want to move on to the economy here and the inflation crisis here because on tuesday the president tweeted this miami and i want to get your response, first we will read, we are experiencing the strongest economic recoverfully the world even after accounting for inflation our economy is bigger and families have more money in their pockets than they did before the pandemic. america is the only major economy in the world that can say that but congressman as you know, yesterday americans woke up to a major selloff on wall street and filling gas tanks at a much more expensive rate than they have over the past number of years. do you think this is really the time for the president to be issuing this message of optimism and prosperity? congressman: well, listen, the president needs to admit that the policies that he's implementing and democrats in congress are implementing is causing this inflation. it is a tax, it feels like a tax on the middle class when you go to the pump and gas is 61% higher than it was at the beginning of this year. it feels like a tax, it feels like your dollars are not going as they did and every purchase that you see today we are seeing the inflation. you just simply cannot print money and spend trillions and trillions of dollars, expand the money supply without having this impact on prices and you're going to see with the build back better or what i refer as build back bankrupt, spending trillions more. this will continue to exacerbate what we are seeing and we are going to continue to see inflation grow if that bill is passed in the law as well. so the president needs to take -- figure out, understand that the policies they are implementing are causing this and we need to stop massive expansion of the supply and spending money that we don't have. alicia: congressman lloyd smucker, thank you very much for your time. tomorrow he will have an interview with director for the national institute of health drr local listings for time and channel. on media buzz, howard kurtz will interview brian kilmeade on two high-profile cases. that's tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern, griff. griff: alicia it was black friday chaos from coast to coast yesterday. gunfire breaking out at crowded shopping malls injuring four people including a child. the details next. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. so many people are overweight now, and asking themselves, "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional starvation diets don't address insulin resistance. that's why they don't work. now there's release from golo. it naturally helps reverse insulin resistance, stops sugar cravings, and releases stubborn fat all while controlling stress and emotional eating. at last, a diet pill that actually works. go to golo.com to get yours. where's mom? she said she would be home in time for the show. don't worry sweetie, she promised she'd be here for it. oh! nice shot! thanks! glad we have xfinity. with wifi speeds faster than a gig. me too. 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[screams and laughter] yeah! xfinity brought us together after all. get started with xfinity internet and ask about wifi speed fast than a gig. click, call or visit a store today. alicia: chaos breaking out in two malls on black friday in washington state one person was shot in an alleged dispute in two groups sending to lockdown as holiday shoppers hid inside store for safety. police say no suspects will be arrested. in north carolina another shooting wounding 3 people including a 10-year-old child who was hurt by a ricocheting bullet. the child appeared to have non-life threatening injuries. the conditions of the other two were not released. another 3 were injured as shoppers fled for cover. one suspect is in custody according to authorities. griff: more flash mobs saw robberies shaking up two los angeles county stores last night as large groups of looters ram sacked a home depot in a high-end store officials issuing city wide tactical alert after the latest theft. christina coleman live in los angeles following all of it. hi, christina. christina: hi, griff, a lot to follow. heartbreaking update to one of those crimes, oakland pd has confirmed the security guard who was shot protecting a news crew during attempted robbery on wednesday has died. the security firm that he worked for has identified him as kevin nachida, former police officer, investigators are trying to track down the suspect who shot nashida, his death comes after week of smash and grab robberies in multiple locations in california up and down the states. just yesterday on black friday while holiday shoppers were out in full force, group of 15 to 20 suspects stormed a home depot store in lakewood and stole crowbars, sledge hammers before jumping in a bunch of get away vehicles. some now fear what those thieves might plan on doing with those tools. these robberies are leaving many people holiday shoppers on edge. >> every christmas and go do macy's thing and the skating and puppies in the window, i don't want to go now. frightened me seeing the news. christina: just another very scary incident there that the holiday shoppers are having to deal with. in the los angeles area group of robbers targeted nordstrom store and got away with a bunch of high-end merchandise. it's unclear police made any arrest in that case. law enforcement has beefed up patrols at shopping centers and the governor says there's be more highway patrol officers on the road to try and prevent the crimes and stop people from getting away in the get away vehicles but critics still say california soft on crime approach is leading to this surge in organized retail crime. a week ago today roughly 90 suspects took part in that massive smash and grab robbery just east of san francisco and dozens of suspects from that incident alone are still on the loose. griff. griff: thoughts and prayers go to the family of the officer. terrible news. christina coleman live for us in los angeles. christina, thank you. alicia. alicia: griff, the transportation security administration sound alarm of record number of passengers trying to get checkpoints with guns. tsa stopping woman with loaded handgun day before thanksgiving. alexandria hoff joins us with more. >> while the rest of us are stressed out about it the condensation going to pass screening, tsa reporting 20-year high of weapons being confiscated with atlanta jackson airport holding the record with more than 450 guns found this year. last saturday holiday travelers there were scrambling when a passenger who had been pulled to a side for secondary screening lunged for the loaded gun inside causing it to discharge. 3 people were injured and the man still at large. amid the holiday rouge found two loaded guns in pittsburgh on wednesday, the 3,020,032nd gun of the year was found with 6 bullets and one in the chamber. thanksgiving day, the tsa in new england posted they found loaded 357 magnum including 5 rounds in woman's carry-on bag. happening all around the country and it's taxing an already covid strained industry. tsa is warning passenger that is they need to know policies before heading to the airport. >> if you are traveling, for example, with items that are not allowed in carry-on luggage, self-defense items, knives, tools over 7 inches. we see those all of the time. they belong in checked baggage. >> in order to travel with firearm, can be checked in locked container and, of course, it can never be loaded. alicia: our political panel weighs in on the new covid variant and possible battle ahead of vaccine and mask mandates next. ♪ ♪ ♪ alicia: new york governor kathy hochul declaring state of emergency, one of the first states to take precautions against the covid variant after the world health organization named omicron as great concern. >> i would not be surprised if it is. we have not detected it yet but when we have a virus that's showing this degree of transmissibility and you're already having travel related case that is they've noted in israel and belgium and other places, when you have a virus like this it's ultimately going to go all over. alicia: joining us gianno walleo caldwell. president biden is listening to advisers and won't begin travel ban until monday, however, we just heard dr. fauci who has changed the tune a little bit within the last 24 hours saying it's inevitable it's going to be here and he's one of those advisers. do you think the biden administration should have acted sooner? >> alicia, only time will tell. the president is obviously listening to senior team and recommending the best policies especially with regard to getting american citizens home from any number of 8 countries on that list. obviously the president over the holiday weekend is urging caution for the american people as well as reencouraging folks to get -- not just vaccinated but boosted, i so appreciated alicia you and griff having the republican and democratic congressman on john garamendi and smucker on encouraging to get vaccinated and boosted. 10% of the population is fully vaccinated. we need to get the numbers up because we don't know how the variant will play out once it reaches our shores. alicia: gianno, i want to get your response to what kevin had to say but in addition i want to let everyone know that you're in london right now and we are now hearing from health officials in the united kingdom that two cases of omicron have been detected and they have been isolated and how are things there and also what do you think about what kevin said? >> well, interestingly enough 80% of the people here in the uk over 12 have been fully vaccinated. that is led to reduction of mandates for covid across the entire uk especially mass. you go in restaurants, you don't see people wearing masks, whether restaurants or cooks in the kitchen. it feels like a sense of normalcy but obviously everyone is cautioned of the new variant. speaking of kevin, though, i'm really intrigued because we saw last year joe biden and kamala harris, two people that he supported said that any shut down of people coming over from africa and african countries was racist and they said that trump was racist for that and now that we are seeing this shut down at least from african countries like zimbabwe and other places i'm wonder if kevin is willing to go on the record and give his opinion about joe biden seemingly implemented a racist policy that he suggested trump was racist. i'm wondering, are you willing to say that joe biden is racist today or what? alicia: yeah, what about that, kevin? the message that president biden is giving now is similar to what the message was that the former president was giving in 2020 except at that time he was also attacking him as racist? >> yeah, alicia. i don't want to dwell in the past in this. no, gianno, i will speak to this. you had a president and former president who knew the science behind it and knowing how deadly the virus was and we were working on assumptions at the time that were not fully accurate based on what the president was saying. the former tendency it was well to act what was actually driving the decisions with the travel bans now knowing how deadly the virus is and that it passes through air which we did not know at the time, i think, hindsight is 2020 and we have to move forward as a country. this it is right decision for president biden to make with health experts. it was the right decision that president trump made with his health experts, we just needed more details at the time. alicia: kevin, i just have to follow up and ask you, does it mean that the president should then apologize to the former president for calling him a racist when he implemented a travel ban at the time especially now that we have learned more? >> i mean, i don't know what good that does other than getting the american people vaccinated. if that would help trump supporters get vaccinated because that's what we are seeing in terms of holdout, absolutely, the president should come forward and say he was wrong at the time. the president was focused on getting the american people vaccinated. again a lot of the holdouts are supporters of the former president. if that would do it, by all means, let's have it. alicia: gianno. >> what's particularly interesting to me i hear so much of the rhetoric. we heard it across 2020, politicization of covid-19. trump made mentioned things in press conference where is the survival rate would have been increased by 200% that was -- i can't pronounce the nail right now. you understand what i'm talking about. medical experts said no, don't prescribe the patients. that was wrong, people died because of that. they died because of the misinformation and they died because of joe biden's misinformation and -- >> they died because of president trump's misinformation, unfortunately. >> as president in the office that can handle the situation. more people have died on his watch than they ever did under donald trump and donald trump literally, literally legitimately tried to help the american people get beyond this. there should be freedom of choice when it comes to vaccine mandates especially if you're not a certain age and you're not overweight or obese or preexisting conditions. people should make those decisions for themselves. alicia: i want to get to where we go from here because as dr. fauci pointed out, it's going to be here, we are going the find it if it's not already here. i want to put up a portion of it because it hits on what do we do now knowing what we know and we will read it here, quote, we are living in the era of persistent pandemic. we need policies that let us live through it while still actually living. that strategy can't be, quote, everyone go back home, again, and stay there. the cost of further lockdowns would be heavy from eating disorders and opioid overdoses to small business failures and school kids falling behind. besides pandemic fatigue is setting in even in blue states, kevin. >> amen. and what gianno said was important in the outset. they have an 80% vaccination rate and they don't have the mask mandates and people are living their lives going around before the pandemic because of those high rates of -- of vaccinations. that's what we need in this country to return to some semblance of normalcy. that's the way that we are going to get out of this. it's our patriotic duty as the president talked about over the weekend and that's what we need to focus on as a country. alicia: last word here. gianno: last point 80%, of course, over the age of 12 but, again, people have rights and they are doing it because they want to do. >> it's their duty. patriotic duty. alicia: okay, gentlemen, thank you so much. we are not letting you go just yet but our political panel is going to stay with us to talk about the fallout over bail reform laws that some say help lead to the wisconsin parade massacre and other crime. stay with us. that's in the case. ♪ ♪ ♪ griff: from home depot to high-end retailers such as louis vuitton and some looters are taking advantage of new strategies as the bail reform debate rages on. we are back with our political panel, kevin and gianno, thanks for staying with us, guys. topic very important. there's been a lot of discussion this week but we did see, gianno, yet another smash and grab this one out in los angeles county at the home depot. how do they stop this? why isn't this getting under control? gianno: i mean, why would they stop when they are getting free rein from county prosecutors and city officials all over. i would imagine that the people in the city of chicago if they know they that can get away, they will continue or san francisco or any city whatsoever. we saw from 2020 to 2021 that there was an increase at least one category of crime in 63 of 66 of the largest police districts. we also jurisdictions i should say. we also saw county prosecutor like kim foxx out of chicago, cook county prosecutor who brought 25,000 felony cases including murders and rapes. this has gotten completely out of control and we can now look at the democrats and say, look, your defund the police movement in new york when you defunded a billion dollars or other places across the country it was not a success, it was a complete failure and as a result more people feel unsafe, 73% of americans feel that there's more crime this year than there was last year. griff: and it is up 30% or more across the country and not just in chicago, so kevin, i want to ask you about a piece that was in the wall street journal by kimberley strassel that headlined democrats have a waukesha problem, progressives spent years pushing water down bail rules, forego prosecutions release prisoners and even defund the police, the governors, mayors and prosecutors who indulge the demands uniformly have d's behind their names, how big of a problem is this for your party? >> yeah, griff, it's a huge problem and as a democrat i reject any fundamentals calls to defund the police. that breaks my heart. this democrat is supporting law enforcement. we need more resources for community policing and law enforcement. we need more resources for public defenders and prosecutors so that we can move these individuals through the criminal justice system more quickly especially with regard to violent crime offenders and one of the reasons why i supported president trump over nominees in my party both in the primary and in the general election because he's always had the backing of law enforcement going back to years as a senator from delaware. he's provided more resources and the department announcing cops on the street thanks in large part to the biden administration's work on that. we need the crack down on violent criminals across the board and we need to crack down on petty criminals across the board and you highlight, griff, all of the things that we are seeing in the west coast and high-end stores, this is horrifying and we need more resources for law enforcement to counter that -- griff: you mentioned trump's name but i think you meant biden. it's not just the calls from defund the police that we saw last summer in 2020. it's now in the wake of this waukesha christmas parade massacre by this guy that was out on a thousand dollar bail just days earlier to commit this horrific crime. you also in the same span of time of about 24, 48 hours you have aoc, congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeting about new york city excessive bail and you've got rashida tlaib, another member of the squad basically saying close federal prisons and let people out. it's almost like they don't even care that soft on crime leads to the destruction that we are seeing, gianno? gianno: yeah. a couple of things. i will answer your question real quick and respond to kevin. i think bail reform was absolutely needed for reasons of petty crime especially. you jump a train in the city of new york you get arrested, sometimes you're in jail for months awaiting trial or whatever the case may be. this happened across major cities for very, very petty crimes and in that situation i think absolutely bail reform is needed. if it's a misdemeanor depending on what it is. sure, those things are necessary but in a lot of case what is we have seen is not been petty crime. it's been crime that has put the lives of individuals in steady danger and the fact that they know someone will get out of jail quickly would make them not even want to testify i would imagine, their lives are still in danger. those things absolutely need to change. now to kevin's earlier point about joe biden and him being a senator and being a supporter of police. we have to also keep in mind joe biden ran in 2020 and he was not a big supporter of law enforcement. he might have made the comments but he was one who also suggested that there should be a defund the police and clarified, oh, maybe that's not what i was really saying. he's not been a supporter of the police and the 90 bill was terrible for the african-american. that wasn't training for very specific things like there should be training for diversity and how you deal with african-americans and particular communities, how do you interact with folks, that should have been in there but it wasn't and he doesn't justify for policy that would pull back the detrimental for the 1994 crime bill. donald trump did with the act. griff: i will leave you the last word, kevin. >> president biden has supported police. he was asked multiple times about the defund movement and he fundamentally rejected that. they were having -- hold on real quick. i appreciate the conversation because we are in agreement that we need reform especially for the petty crime issues because we shouldn't have people wasting away waiting for hearings and the same breath can also provide more resources as i said before for prosecutors and public defenders to move those violent criminals off the streets so that there is not bail for these individuals like we saw in wisconsin. and this person has not business being on the street. griff: kevin, gianno, we have a hard break coming. we will leave it there. you guys have a great weekend. >> happy weekend. alicia: just in time for the holidays, emotional reunion of father and son after afghan war and taliban take other that threatened a musical talent next. ♪ ♪ ♪ xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like movie night specials, xfinity mobile benefits, and the chance to win tickets to see watch what happens live. hey, it's me. plus, get holiday gifts for everyone on your list with great deals on fan favorites from today. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards. so many people are overweight now, and asking themselves, "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional starvation diets don't address insulin resistance. that's why they don't work. now there's release from golo. it naturally helps reverse insulin resistance, stops sugar cravings, and releases stubborn fat all while controlling stress and emotional eating. at last, a diet pill that actually works. go to golo.com to get yours. look, if your wireless carrier was a guy, you'd leave him tomorrow. not very flexible. not great at saving. you deserve better—xfinity mobile. now, they have unlimited for just $30 a month. $30. and they're number 1 in customer satisfaction. his number? delete it. i'm deleting it. so break free from the big three. xfinity internet customers take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings. or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds. alicia: at home in afghanistan ahmad was a well-known musician. bryan llenas sat down with vanus and his son after they were reunited in new york city. bryan. >> so many organizations like fox stepped up to evacuate those in need. fox helped and his 5 family members and we were there when father and son reunited for the first time. one of afghanistan's most famous musicians. >> it's my life, it's my love. the music is my love. >> judge on tv competition show afghan star. >> pretty famous i would say. ♪ ♪ >> ahmed's son is himself a wrote noun classical pianist studying in the u.s. for six years. they reunited in new york city after 5 years apart. >> for me it was unbelievable. i couldn't believe that i was hugging him. >> i was very excited to see my son after 5 years. reporter: ahmad left afghanistan after taliban left threatening note in case. >> did you believe the taliban was going to kill you? >> maybe, maybe. >> it was extremely difficult for us to even practice so my dad was practicing very privately. reporter: scared the fanoos family contacted leslie and leslie reached out to fox corporation who was able to get ahmad, daughter, son-in-law and 3 grandkids out of the country. >> for afghan music to be exiled means that afghan music will continue. reporter: days after reuniting ahmad watched son perform for fr refuges in new york. >> when i listened to him it gave me chills. he sing with love. i think that's the most important part of him. reporter: especially grateful to u.s. veterans, his message to them is don't lose hope, don't think you did nothing. he says thanks to u.s. troops he, his father and afghan music have hope for a better future. alicia: so nice for the beautiful picture. ♪ ♪ >> if we are all vaccinated and we are boosted, the probability of a lockdown or any mandate beyond getting vaccinated is very, very unlikely. >> we're seeing impact on mental health. we're seeing the impact on those who lost their jobs, business has been shut down due to governors and the president making decisions that i think was an overreaction. alicia: lawmakers speaking out on the new covid variation hacked be the most contagious -- that could be the most contagious yet and could make our current vaccines less effective. welcome to "fox news live," i'm alicia acuna. griff: and i'm griff jenkins. we're about to talk to dr. marc siegel many a moment to get the full diagnosis of this new covid threat. but first, we're just getting word now crossing the wires, the cdc and state department issuing a do not travel warning for eight african southern countries. we will get more on that, and we have team coverage with jacqui heinrich who's covering president many massachusetts, but we begin with jonathan the serrie in atlanta -- jonathan serrie many atlanta with more details on this variant. hi, jonathan. >> reporter: hi there, griff. new york governor kathy kathy hoe cull has signed an executive order postponing elective surgeries, the move designed to free up hospital space for a potential surge in covid patients. takes effect december 3rd and will be evaluated on january 15th. she said we continue to see warning signs of spikes, and while the new omicron variant has yet to be detexted in new york state -- detected in new york state, it's coming. so far the u.s. has reported no cases although researchers are still determining of course caron's transmissibility, severity and potential resistance to that vaccine. international health officials are concerned by its rapid spread through southern africa. >> so omicron is named a variant of concern because it has some concerning properties. variant has a large number of mutations, and some of these mutations worrying characteristics. >> reporter: the spike protein, the part of the virus that penetrates human cells. moderna has announced it's already testing the effectiveness of its existing vaccine against omicron as well as a higher dose booster. additionally, the company says it's developing a new booster that specifically targets omicron. if history is any guide, it will likely be ready for human trials anywhere from 2-3 months from now. griff, back to you. griff: all right. jonathan serrie covering all of this in atlanta. jonathan, thank you. alicia? alicia: the biden administration is saying it will be guided by the science when it comes to the ott spread of the omicron variant, but concerns are are riding that the latest strain of covid-19 -- rising that the latest strain is already here. jacqui heinrich joins us from nantucket where president biden is spending the thanksgiving holiday. >> reporter: news of this new variant first i americaned, the markets went -- emerged, and the markets went crazy. the president said he wasn't concerned, wasn't surprised, also saying this is what typically happens when covid is on the rise. he encouraged every american to get vaccinated and those who have already had their first and second shots to get their booster shots. he said there's a whole lot we just don't know about this variant. >> every american who's not been vaccinated should be responsible and get vaccinated. number two, everyone eligible for booster shots should get the booster shot. that is the minimum that everyone should be doing. you know, we always talk about freedom, i think it's the our patriotic responsibility. >> reporter: after u.s. health officials spoke to south african scientists about how fast the new variant is spreading and whether vaccines are effective i havest -- effective against it, the president made the decision, we are told, out of an abun cannes of caution -- abun cannes of caution. the restrictions don't take effect until monday, and some experts say that will considerably lessen their benefit. at just one day after -- also just one day dr. fauci said there was no indication the variant was in the u.s. today he seemed to reverse course slightly saying he would be surprised if it wasn't here already. >> you know, i would not be surprised if it is. we have not detect detect thed it yet, but when with you have a virus that is showing this cree of transmissibility and you're already having travel-related cases that they've noted in israel, belgium and other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go, essentially, all over. >> reporter: the centers for disease control said yesterday no cases of this variant have been identified in the u.s. to date. also the cdc is continuously monitoring variant withs, and the u.s. variant surveillance system has reliably detected new variants in this country. now, the president also made the case for intellectual property protections to be waived for covid vaccines so they can be manufactured globally, making the case that in this pandemic will not be over until vaccines are globally available. he also said he does the not expect to impose or announce any new vaccine mandates despite the ones that he has issued being tied up in the courts. alicia? alicia: jacqui heinrich in nantucket, massachusetts, thanks. griff: a little more -- ♪ ♪ griff: a bit more on that travel advisory. now, travel advisory for eight southern african countries matching that of those that the president announced stopping the flights from. you see them here, south africa, he sew though, botswana, mozambique, namibia and ma law i by. let's bring in dr. marc siegel, fox news contributor, professor of medicine at the nyu langone medical center. dr. siegel, you've been on top of this for us. i want to start with what is the latest you are hearing on this new concerning omicron variant? >> well, first of all, i didn't have, i want to set the scene with this by telling your viewers that there are thousands of variants that have emerged already with this virus, but there's only five that have been identified as variants of concern, and this is fifth. the world health organization seems to have been behind the delay on this again because by the time it was identified, it had already spread to several countries as you've just been reporting. it's been found in europe. i believe that it's very likely it's in the united states already. i think we're putting a travel advisory in effect, which is good, but i think it's probably too late to stop it from coming here. you should realize, griff, that we are not as on top of genetic sequencing here in the u.s. as they are in south africa or in the u.k. or even in europe. so a statement that it's not here yet isn't as reassuring as you would like it to be. but here's thing, we don't know how much of a threat this variant really is to us. we know it's got a lot of mutations, but we don't know how rapidly it spreads. it would have to outcompete the delta variant. viruses are trying to find a home. they're trying to find a host. the delta variant has a huge advantage because it's so highly transmissable. there's signs of trouble with this, but we don't know clinically whether it will spread to the extent that delta is or even more. griff: c. siegel, we're hearing across the country that this new omicron is a variant of concern, as you mentioned it, but what does that mean? >> well, it means two things. first -- it means three things. first of all, is it going to be more severe than the other variants of the virus in terms of the disease it causes. that hasn't happened yet. looking back at pandemic histories, viruses tend to get with milder over time because they want to survive. generally, when new variants spin out, they're not more severe, they don't get you sicker or kill you more easily. that's one thing we have to monitor for. second thing is it going to evade immune response, the vaccines, the treatments. the new antiviral drugs that are coming out, for sure, are going to be able to combat this, this variant because of the way they're designed. i think the vaccines will also work, but will they work less. and that's why moderna is out there already creating a booster that's going to take weeks as you said, griff, but that booster would target this variant directly. and the third thing that variants do is they spread, how rapidly they spread. i already said we're watching that carefully to see if it outspreads delta variant. the delta variant overcame the alpha variant because it spread more rapidly. how rapidly it spreads, how severe an illness it causes and does it said our treatments and antibodies. griff: dr. siegel, we saw the president urging americans to get vaccinated and to yet a booster as well in light of this new variant. what do you say? >> i agree with that. i think -- and i wrote in the "wall street journal" this week even before this came to light that everybody should get boosterred, and this is exactly the reason. because you want the best possible protection available to you. if you haven't had covid yet. if you had covid, i kind of count that as one shot, but otherwise boosters, for sure, because you want to be immunized as much as possible. the other thing we need, by way, is an antidote to all the fear, and i've written about that too. i mean, we have to report the news here, griff. but remember, this variant hasn't taken over yet. we're afraid because of the previous variant. we're afraid because of politicians making pronouncements in advance of things, closing things. we don't want to go back to a situation of lockdown here. we're afraid of that, but really we jump to the worst case scenario in our minds. this may not end up being what we're afraid of. griff: well, it's a great point, dr. siegel. we are concerned because we learned in many cases the lockdowns did more harm than good. my last question to you is how important are these tests, rapid tests, pcr tests? because i know you've talked a lot about it. >> by the way, you just made a great point. i agree with that, the lockdowns create more harm thanked good. in terms of the testing, we don't have enough. and the rapid tests absolutely will pick up, and so will the pcr test. in fact, that nasal swab picks it up in a way that's characteristic for this variant. if you were actually in a lab, you'd be able to tell because of the pattern it has. i want rapid tests available to every american so that if they came in contact with this or the delta variant, they would know it right away. the biden administration has been behind on this. now's the time to get tests way more available and very inexpensive or even free. griff: get the test and get your booster. dr. mark cycle, thank you for your time -- dr. marc siegel, thank you for keeping us posted. alicia: we have breaking news from across the pond. united kingdom prime minister boris johnson is announcing new measures to combat the spread of the new omicron variant of covid-19. at least two cases have already been identified in the u.k. johnson is declaring all new arrivals must take a mandatory pcr test. the prime minister adds they'll be tight oning up rules on mask wearing, but it shouldn't affect the loss by palty -- hospitality industry. black friday seemed almost back to normal. stocks plunged as global markets were rattled by fears of this new covid variant. joining us now is chicago capitalist pig.com founder and fox news contributor jonathan hoenig. jonathan, thank you so much for being here. let's begin with this big selloff on friday. we can put numbers up there so folks can get a little reminder of what everyone woke up to and what happened at 1:00 eastern time. what are your concerns right now? the president says this is to be expected. >> well, i mean, a thousand points is a pretty big drop, it's about 2.5%. the worst day of the year for stocks, and it has everything to do with, as you said, covid, this new variant. not variant itself, but lockdowns that are not just expected to come, but, in fact, are coming in austria, in the netherlands, some increased security, if you will, in the u.k., in slovakia. so this is putting a lot of fear in markets, and you saw the travel stocks in particular down sharply, united, carnival, many others. and the work from homes like netflix, for example, all up. this is exactly the pattern we saw towards the beginning of pandemic when the lockdowns were beginning. we're seeing it once again. friday was a short day, so there was light volume, but there's a lot of reasons for concern especially given what happened last time around as the pandemic started to rise up. alicia: right, exactly. and president biden, you know, really signaling a lot of positivity when it comes to the economic recovery, but, you know, we have folks who are filling up their gas tanks, they know it's more expensive, going to the grocery store is so much more expensive, supply chain problems. all of these issues coming right now, so i can hear folks at home going this is what good news looks like? >> exactly right. wages are up, but that bogeyman, inflation they always say it's a silent tax. people are feeling it because as their wages are going up, inflation is going up even faster. you don't have to be a harvard economist, just know that $100 ain't what it used to be. as the government inflates money supply, goods become more scarce. we've seen that. a lot of the holiday shopping, even cyber shopping goods are not available and p of course, they become more expensive. not just for gas, of course, at the highest price in many years, but across the economy writ large. government prints more money, spends more money, and everything goes up in price. every american is feeling that, for sure. alicia: and we are at a critical point for retailers right now in this long weekend. we have black friday, we have small business saturday, we have cyber monday in addition to the supply chain problems that you've been talking about. i mean, this is a really important time, isn't it? >> it's vital. although i tell you, i think a few years from now we're going to look back and that foot of americans -- footage of americans fighting over big screen tvs, we're going to laugh at that because it's the beginning of a holiday shopping season. cyber monday, that term is less than even ten years old because in the old days those real great deals were only at the malls, only at the big stores. big name competitors whether it's walmart, amazon, the rest, they're tumbling to compete to give us great deals, great opportunities, great values despite the hardships with the supply chain. big companies are doing their best to fulfill our christmas wishes, but inflation, supply chain, a lot of these factors are hard especially on those small businesses you talked about given that this is small business saturday. alicia: right. and do you think folks who aren't able to shop weekend, they weren't able to go out yesterday -- i was working so, you know, i wasn't exactly out there shopping it up, but are these deals going to continue all the way through christmas? >> yeah, i think the deals will continue. it's do or die for a lot of these big retailers, small retailers as well. but the accessibility. we're so used to, for example, overnight shipping, two-day shipping. it wasn't too long ago even in this country that shipping was 6-8 weeks. so whatever your holiday plans are in terms of getting together with the family, don't wait until the last minute. in previous years it was closed, you usually got it, this year it will simply be unavailable if you wait last minute. alicia: and how concerned are you about these travel bans and to where they could extend, how this could impact the tourist industry and just confidence in general? >> look, not just the tourist industry. i mean, i lived and traded, as we all did, through the last lockdown period. for a lot of those stocks, liquidity the simply dried up. people weren't willing to trade or invest at all, and that's the uncertainty when government starts to get into the picture and literally forcibly closes people's business across the board. companies are are innovative, they come up with ways to deal with the public safely, i think as long as government doesn't get involved, as we said, forcibly shutting down communities, businesses, churches, i think the economy can survive and prosper as well. alicia: jonathan hoenig, happy saturday. have a good one. >> be well. griff: as thousands more migrants held to our southern border, the -- head to our southern border, the biden administration has yet to plan how it's going to treat the new covid variation threat. we'll talk with tom homan next. ♪ ♪ xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like movie night specials, xfinity mobile benefits, and the chance to win tickets to see watch what happens live. hey, it's me. plus, get holiday gifts for everyone on your list with great deals on fan favorites from today. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards. so many people are overweight now, and asking themselves, "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional 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president trump. tom, thank you for taking time on a saturday. will we add now to this problem fact that when i have been covering caravans, there are migrants from all over the world to include african countries, what is your reaction to the news of this new variant and the problem on the border? >> i think the biden administration needs to take title 42 seriously. now under trump title 42, everybody was turned back because of the pandemic. and the entire time in the four months that president trump had title 42 under his command, i think they released a total of 56 people into the united states. could have significant medical concerns. look, right now 85% of family units are being let in, all unaccompanied children let in and many single adults who have issues have been released in the united states. so i think this is the time president biden's already sopped travel from african nations. you know for a fact 150 countries come through the southern border. now's the time to take title 42 seriously and stop people from coming into the country during crisis. griff: and interesting, the travel ban doesn't stop until monday. you would have think they would have done it right away. they did issued today this do not travel to those countries. but what we have seen and i have documented is the pipeline that goes from all places across the world from south america through the panamanian jungle, all the way through central america, all the way to our board, this comes as we hear the administration may be trying to reinstate remain in mexico. now, mexico has not agreed to that. i tweeted just about an hour ago the fact that they said they're awaiting a response from the u.s. so my question to you is what will that do? if they did do that, would it help in and do you think they're going to? >> they're going to do everything they can to slow-roll it. they don't want this to be success. remember, they had to be sued to do that. i was a part of that lawsuit in texas. and when the court found against them and said, no, you must implement remain in mexico to help secure or border, what'd the biden administration do? they appealed that decision to secure the border. so, look, they're not taking this seriously, they want to slow-roll it. i don't think they're going to have it at the level the trump administration did. i'm hearing rumors from my sources inside that may be 200 removals a day due to remain in mexico -- under -- [no audio] griff: well, these things happen, the technical challenges of live television. we'll work on getting tom back. but what tom was talking about there is this sort of back and forth between whether or not remain in mexico which has been count ordered will be put -- court ordered will be put in place. and i was telling tom about fact that mexico has not yet agreed to do it. it's a two-way street. now, what it would do is for all migrants that are applying for asylum will have to wait in mexican cities. that includes tijuana and juarez. those cities are already burt bursting at the -- bursting at the seams with migrants. you would be adding a lot plaintiff people. mexico's main concern according to a release yesterday is they want the united states to provide and give access to medical care. in fact, against covid-19. all of this coming as this news of omicron variant being unleashed. you're looking now at our flight fox team there in la are joya. and in the conversations i have had in just the last 24 hours with border patrol agents there, they're very concerned about this and the lack of enforcement. i think we've got tom back. tom, i want to come back to you because you were just weighing in on whether or not this remain in mexico policy is going to be reinstated and if it would help. >> i think they're going to slow-roll it, i think there's going to be a small fraction of what the trump administration did. rumors that i hear from my sources is maybe up to 200 removals a day. and when you talk about 6-7,000 arrested a day and only removing 200? that's going to have a small impact. if they did it the way trump did it, trump was a game-changer, trump administration. it caused an 86% decline in illegal immigration. 35-year low. and most of it was because of the remain in mexico program. biden should implement it the same way trump did, but they're not going to. griff: i think what we really need to hit today is how concerned are you to see no change in the surge? already the october numbers doubled that of last october. november already passing last november. the surge continuing, little being done by the administration to stop it. meeting with this new covid variant. >> look, it's more than an immigration issue. i don't care what people's opinion is on illegal immigration, this has turned into a public health issue because of the covid variant, because of the opioids coming across already killed 100,000 young americans this year. we talk about criminals, how many of 400,000 gotaways are criminals? they're estimating 600,000 gotaways this year. and on top of all that, it's a national security issue. when half the border patrol's not on the line because they're processing family units, that's when bad guys come across, known suspected terrorists come across. they've arrested 14 on the fbi screening database. how many of that 400,000 were known suspected terrorists? this is a huge issue. it's a national security issue. griff are griff and last question with just 15 seconds we've got left, should we be hearing from secretary mayorkas about this? >> secretary mayorkas, every time he opens his mouth, he's lying to the american people. he's an embarrassment to the position he holds. he still says border's secure, border's closed. 1.7 million entrants and 400,000 gotaways? they had 600,000 releases. they chose to release 600,000 people into this country. that's not a secure border, that's open borders, and this is their design. this is mismanagement, this is incompetence, this is their plan. open borders, and they're not going to attempt to secure. griff: former i.c.e. director tom homan, thanks for taking time. >> thanks for having me. alicia: a brand new legal debate about bail reform and the easing of property crime laws with high profile smash and grab thefts in major cities across the country, next. ♪ ♪ ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. scan the code on screen to try for free. ♪ alicia: following the tragedy at the waukesha christmas parade, elected officials are reconsidering cash bail. in wisconsin state representatives reintroduced a resolution to amend the wisconsin constitution that would allow judges to consider a defendant's danger to the community when setting bail. but to discuss legal aspects of the reform laws, joinings now is attorney andrew stoltman. good to see you. in the last hour, we talked about all the political implications of bail reform, so we're going to try to stay on the legal side of all of this, and i'll begin with that congresswoman. the tweet she put out when floating this to reintroduce this legislation, she wrote, quote: i will continue to insure that felons with a criminal history are no longer let go with unreasonably low bail and placed back in our communities. so, you know, the note i see -- what really caught my attention is felons. that it has to be a felon. is there, like, you know, a legal problem here that you see? if someone isn't a felonsome let's kind of lay this out. >> look, i would be happy even if you just focused in on felons, right? it's such a common sense concept that some people commit such bad felonies, they shouldn't be released. this gentleman, this defendant who ran over those people in waukesha, there's no way given his background -- battery, sexual assault, he tried to run over his ex-girlfriend -- he never should have been granted bail. it's a common sense issue, and it's hard to believe that the progressive section of the democrat a party has hijacked this and turned into it a political issue. alicia: right, exactly, because it does kind of split down party lines. the day after this tragedy occurred, we know that congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez was actually talking about bail reform and excessive bail in her state alone. so each state is obviously going to start looking at this. it seems like they're going to have to. but when you hear messages about excessive bail just 24 hours after a tragedy such as this, it's pretty tough. >> it's tone deaf, and make no mistake about it, it's going to be an issue in the 2022 mid-year elections, and it's also going to be the an issue in 2024. politicians' number one responsibility is to keep their people safe, and when you're flooding the streets with criminals, with bad guys, bad women, that's a huge issue. crime rates in chicago up 30%, crime rates nationally up 30-50%. this is a primary reason for that massive surgery. surge. herb liver what about the argument from the other side that it unfairly targets people who are poor? >> look, that's been the argument that aoc and people in her party have hammered on for a very long time. but once you get arrested, once you've been accused of trying to run over your girlfriend or kill somebody, guess what? you kind of forfeited that right to be given the benefit of the doubt. and if you can't get enough bail money to bail yourself out, tough, okay? and we're going to have more problems like what we had in wisconsin. it's a massive political issue, and it's just common sense. you don't flood the streets with these criminals. alicia: okay. and also we're talking about the crime rate that's been going up in cities all over the country, and we've been watching these smash and grabs happen in these stores. we've seen them in wall green's, nordstrom -- walgreens, nordstrom, and the videos are really terrifying if you just think about the being there and going shopping. and a lot of these shoplifting charges in states like california, they're a misdemeanor depending on the level of money that we're talking about that's that taken. louis vuitton are, or obviously, you go right past that. so what needs to change here? because thieves continue to -- we see them every day. >> it's amazing. and it kind of reminds me of the old adage in real estate, location, location, location? where are these smash and grabs taking place? in california which passed proposition 47 which decriminalized, took it from a felony to a misdemeanor, anything under $950. and you're seeing it also in chicago where you have j.b. pritzker and kim fox, right, eliminating cash bail, not prosecuting the bad guys. so you're not seeing this in a lot of different areas, you're seeing it in the two states that have de facto the decriminalized looting and that sort of activity. and that's what we're seeing now in california and in my great state of illinois. alicia: when we talk about bail reform, it either has been pushback, you know, from folks on the right and folks on the left they're just trying to change it, but now when we see such a tragedy as we did in waukesha, do you think that will calm things a little bit to stop all this talk when they see what can happen when someone is let out on such a low bail? >> yes. it's exhibit a. it's page 1 in any argument against eliminating bail. and remember, it's not bail reform, it's the elimination of bail, right? and when you have a degenerate like this individual who killed six people in milwaukee -- or in wisconsin, that's exhibit a for why you don't eliminate cash bail. alicia: okay. we talked about politics and the law, but sometimes they go hand in hand. we can't help it, right? >> exactly. alicia: thank you so much for being here. >> anytime. thank you. griff: president biden speaking out about the growing tension between russia and ukraine, the president in a response next. ♪ ♪ keep with me in the moment♪ ♪i'd let you had i known it, why don't you say so?♪ ♪didn't even notice,♪ ♪no punches left to roll with♪ ♪you got to keep me focused♪ when you really need to sleep you reach for the really good stuff. ♪no punches left to roll with♪ new zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. it's non habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. new zzzquil ultra. when you really really need to sleep. ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us ("this little light of mine") - [narrator] in the world's poorest places, they're shunned, outcast, living in pain. you can reach out and change the life of a suffering child right now. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes and your act of love can change a child's life forever. please call or visit operationsmile.org now. thousands of children are waiting. alicia: russia's military billup near ue is raising concerns of a possible coup, an accusation that maas cow has rejected as fear-mongering. many 2014 russia invaded ukraine and annexed crimea at that time. kitty logan is live from london with the latest. hi, kitty. >> reporter: hi, alicia. yes, both the u.s. government and nato say they're concerned about what they call a significant russian military buildup near border with ukraine. in recent weeks, there's been a noticeable increase in the movement of russian troops and heavy weaponry in those areas bordering ukrainian rebel-held territory. the intentions of russia not clear. ukrainian president has accused moscow of planning a coup, though he's offered no evidence to back that up, and russia says these claims are are simply prop began da. when russia -- propaganda. in 2014 the international community responded with sanctions that failed to prevent the russian takeover of crimea, and shortly after this, as you mentioned, russian-backed rebels seized power in eastern ukraine leading to a seven-and-a-half year conflict still ongoing costing 14,000 lives so far. as recent reports indicate, hundreds of daily ceasefire violations amid rising tensions and breach of a peace deal. now, the u.s. supports the ukrainian military with equipment and training to help country stand up to threats from russia, but it has stopped short of a more direct involvement. nato says it's monitoring the situation. secretary blinken is due to attend the meeting of nato's foreign ministers next week. topic of discussion will, of course, cover ukraine, but the question is what can nato do, how can it respond to possible further russian moves? back to you, alicia. alicia: kitty lo began in london, thanks -- logan in london, thanks. griff: remembering a musical theater legend. a look back at the life and career of stephen sunday heym. what a pain in the... alice? if it's "let's wrap this up" season, it's walgreens season. wow... that's so nice! the gift of ancestry®... is a walk through your history. do you remember who this is? where the more you discover... wow! ...the more you come together. i can see... the nose... this holiday, give the gift of family. give the gift of ancestry®. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ alicia: one hand, one heart. from the classic musical west side story. a remake is set to come to heaters again this christmas -- theaters again this christmas. lyrics were written by broadway legend stephen sondheim who passed away yesterday at the age of 91. his career spanned from the '50s all the way up to today. new york fox 5 reporter chris welch looks back at his life and legacy. ♪ maria, i just kissed a girl named maria ♪♪ >> reporter: if you needed proof of stephen sunday sondheim -- sondheim's staying power, look no further than fact that 1957's west side story will head to the big screen once again next month. ♪ >> reporter: who of his other shows, assassins and company, can be seen both on and off broadway today. >> he really bridged the gap from the golden age to the modern musical. and, i mean, the classic golden age musical, and then he did company which was beginning really of modern musical. >> reporter: in fact, company's director dedicating this evening's performance to him. >> he was truly the greatest artist that we in our lifetime possibly will ever know in this art form. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> reporter: bernadette peters, often called the foremost interpreter of sondheim's work, thanking the man she called a friend. he gave me so much to sing about, she wrote. i loved him dearly and will miss him so much. stephen pascual currently starring in assassins writes: i don't think there's an example of9 another person in any other field that is the size steve was to ours. stephen sondheim was born in 1930. mayor bill de blasio calling the new york city native a legend, writing: one of the brightest lights on broadway is dark tonight. dark tonight but perhaps stage will light up with a new sondheim show just one final time as he he had an appearance on the late show in late september. >> we had a reading of it last week, and we were encouraged. and where we come from. ...right here? ohhh my god. where? discovering things that were a mystery, that's what ancestry® did for our family. it's the season of smiling. discovering things that were a mystery, and at aspen dental, we make it easy to gift yourself the smile you deserve. new patients, start today with a full exam and x-rays, with no obligation. if you don't have insurance, it's free. plus everyone saves 20% on their treatment plan with flexible payment solutions for every budget. we're here making smiles shine bright so you can start the new year feelin' alright. call 1-800-aspendental or book today at aspendental.com muck. griff: there's a brothered hood that members of our military carry with them for lives. one example is a special operations where a foundation insures the educational needs of fallen service members are met. joining us now is miker is rely, a former navy seal, and the bid concern widow of a fallen navy seal. mike, tell me about foundation and why you to got involved. >> absolutely. griff, you know, it's understood amongst veterans that come home that it's our responsibility to take care of the ones who do not. so for these children who lost their mothers and fathers, we have a duty to make sure that they have every educational opportunity so that they move on to prosperous careers. the special operations warriors foundation is the organization that insures that for families much like we have on today. gary: and, carrie -- griff:. carrie, let's talk about your husband first. your husband was a member of the seal team. he died ten years ago in august 2011 in the very famous unfortunate helicopter that went down, call sign extortion 17. many know that story, but tell us about your husband. >> my husband was a very quiet man but a huge personality. he absolutely loved what he did. he was a true patriot and wanted to serve his country. he was also a big personality in the fact that he loved his children and wanted to give back, and so when foundations like this offer help and educational guidance to children, he absolutely would have stood behind this. griff: well, carrie, tell us how the foundation has helped you. >> is so my son was 18 months old when his father was killed in extortion. so he wouldn't necessarily receive governmental benefits for education until he became of age to go to college. however, he's been tutored since he was 3 years old not only in french, but spanish. so he's excelling incredibly. griff: so our viewers understand, the story of extortion 17, 31 service members, 17 of them navy seals, were killed aboard a chinook in afghanistan when it was shot could be by an rpg. mike, how important is it for you, someone who's served and been in those dangerous places, to see keri being taken care of, to see that the legacy of extortion 17 is now this, coming together to support one another? >> it is, my number one purpose as well as taking care of my own family. yes, we have that duty for hose that that return to take care of keri, to take care of cass who looks just like his father. the men in extortion 17, i knew all of them, i help raise funds, and i also take the it very seriously that we have to maintain and uphold legacy of these men, celebrate their lives and let every american, as many americans as we can know about their stories because these were men of character. they were flawed men, like every man, but they stood for something and even more importantly died for something hay believed in. griff: and we are so thankful for their sacrifice. you can see legacy expeditions.net on the bottom there in case you want to help. mike, keri, thank you for your time and service. >> thanks, griff. griff: all right. well, that's all for us. alicia, it has been great covering the news with you on this saturday. alicia: so great to see you too, griff, and that was a wonderful conversation. "fox news live" continues with molly line and arthel neville. griff: i'm griff jenkins in washington, thanks for watching and have a safe and happy weekend. ♪ arthel: the world is on high alert as the u.s. and several other nations impose travel the restrictions on south african countries after the emergence of a new covid variant. the cdc and state department now warning americans not to travel to those countries. hello, everyone. welcome to "fox news live," i'm arthel neville. welcome, molly. molly: glad to be here, i'm sitting in for eric shawn. omicron is classified as a, quote, variant of concern. the u.k. today becoming the latest country to report cases