hospitalizations among children and straining nations hospitals and testing facilities. also on this new year's day, travel chaos shows no signs of easing. u.s. airlines canceling 2400 flight due to staffing shortages and bad weather. charles watson starts off live in atlanta, disease control headquarters. >> covid-19 getting the u.s. off to a rough start 2022 in terms of getting a handle on the pandemic, the omicron variant fueling sharp rise in cases as millions of americans get ready to wrap up the holidays and return to work or school. uncertainty in terms of what's next is u.s. averages 300,000 new cases a day and hospitalizations among children in record numbers, the nation's schools are sticking with plans to welcome in person learning while a handful of school districts opt to ease back to nearly half dozen georgia schools including atlanta public schools will go virtual when they resume classes next week and then we transition to in person learning in the days to follow. seattle public schools are pushing back first day of class in an effort to test district securing 60000 testing it for students and staff to determine whether classrooms can stay open. >> health and safety of our students and staff is top priority and we want to minimize the spread of the covid virus so testing is one tool to do that. >> rapid spread of the virus turning to another nightmare for healthcare workers as long lines process that testing site and states like florida were covid cases topped a record 75000 infections friday and nations airports where thousands of passengers are left to figure out following another day of flight cancellations in the thousands but relief could be on the way, health officials are looking at south africa with the parents emerged and gain confidence in the idea omicron surge could peak before the month is out, that is the file after hearing health officials in south africa announced their search is already peaked and it's done without a major spike in deaths. >> although queasy cases skyrocketing, the good news is death count is going lower and that's what we want to see. we know it's contagious, it's just managing your symptoms, controlling the spread. here in the u.s., especially new york city, demographics are different, congested soap the peak may last a little longer but i do hope we get a rapid decline as we end with the peak was a hit. >> the positive here, the variant isn't as severe as others in the past so we are not seeing quite as many deaths compared to last year. jon: charles watson, a silver mining. thank you. while president biden spent the new year's holiday in delaware, he's facing states push back against vaccine mandates as the omicron variant spreads across the country. his administration dealing with high inflation and tensions with ukraine, russia over ukraine i should say. rich is live in delaware with more on the. >> good evening, president biden is here in delaware attending mass this evening and answered a few questions on his way back to his house. he was asked by reporters there on his way home, he says he will speak tomorrow to ukraine's president as russia has thousands of troops on ukraine's border and said new year's resolution people should be nice to each other. the president carried over significant challenges from the old one, this holiday season americans were stuck in mind trying to get tests for covid, the at ministrations working to buy 500 million at home, test to send out free. unclear when the kids become available, the president admits he wishes he moved on more testing to month ago. the administration faces or challenges, the federal judge blocked mask and vaccine mandates in texas head start program. friday really the case likely continues in federal court system. on friday, the supreme court is scheduled to hear challenges to the biden administration's vaccine or testing mandate for employees of larger companies and healthcare workers from abroad russia appears poised to invade ukraine for the second time in eight years in a phone call thursday with russian president vladimir putin president biden says he warned russia not to invade. >> made it clear to president putin that if he makes anymore moves and goes into ukraine will have severe sanctions. >> administration officials described it as unprecedented sanctions if russia invades ukraine. according to russian state media president putin responded to president biden's western countries move ahead with unprecedented sanctions than russia would potentially move to cancel relations with those countries. jon: rich, thank you. another concern for president biden in the new year is his party possibly losing control of congress with democrats holding a razor thin majority in the house and senate, nearly two dozen house democrats say they will not run for reelection. florida senator rick scott and others saying they are growing more confident of the red wave come the november midterms. >> democrats will lose because they are responsible for the unbelievable inflation hurting the poorest families, number one. this whole country that up with the debacle in afghanistan sick and tired of the defendant police democrats believe in. immigrants want to be involved in their own kids education, they don't want critical race theory so those are the reasons look at the house, the senate in 22 in the presidency and 24th. jon: let bring in fox news crimp conservator and founder of caldwell strategy consultant, happy new year to you. >> happy new year, jon. jon: let's talk about the 2022 election, republicans seem to be confident they will take back the house, are they getting confident too early you think? >> i think there are a number of ways to look at this, axios put out a poll yesterday showing 54% of americans feel fearful for what 22 will bring in that is problematic for so many people who would want hope for a better year than the last two years. if people feel that way, one of the actions democrats in charge of the white house, senate and congress, whatever actions they make especially if they arrive, that will dampen the ability to retain their majority. however, i will say republicans although pulling favors for republicans by and large, i think many would say especially the fact that we have a democrat in the white house traditionally is about 25 seats lost in that situation for the party in control, i think they need to be consider about the fact that you need to not just say how bad, meaning democrats or joe biden has done a horrible job in my opinion, you need to talk about what you do for the american people because despite horrific inflation we see, the debacle and afghanistan and public work joe biden says he'll stop out covid, but we have not seen, we know the plan of the gop plans to propose if they get control, don't get comfortable in the members of gop do not get comfortable yet, it's likely will take the house and senate absolutely but show the american people why you should be. jon: the republicans sexily tag democrats with the idea of defunding police, democrats locally supported and when you look at the murder rate in this country, it's astounding anybody could support that position, there are 16 cities in the u.s. that saw record homicide in the u.s., stretching from oregon down to tucson, austin texas, indianapolis and milwaukee, jackson mississippi, atlanta, georgia, philadelphia all the way up to rochester, new york. sixteen cities with record homicide, if people don't feel safe, they don't feel good about their country. >> absolutely and we have seen polling from our own fox news here showing people thought there was more crime in 2021 than in 2020. if you look at joe biden's polling numbers, in the 30 percentile of individuals approving his handling of crime and not only that, you look at los angeles county, cook county and chicago and san francisco, new york, a number of these major liberal jurisdictions where crime is completely and totally out of control and the president of the u.s. is not the power of the first, is district attorney, and cook county, we saw 25000 cases including rape and murder but if you don't get tough on crime and going to pull back the deal, department of justice funding and the funding you won't get because were not in active policies making people feel safe, another issue that's going to devastate the democratic party because people want to feel safe and in our country right now, that is not the feeling many individuals are feeling. jon: it may be a reason the nation's largest city just elected a new mayor who happens to be a former cop. listen to what eric adams had to say on his first day in office. >> unemployment remains hi, crime is hi, public cases are high again, but government must do better. our government has been dysfunctional for far too long and created its own crisis long before covid. jon: that sounds like a slap at his predecessor, also a democrat. >> yet and he was on cnn yesterday slapping his predecessor as well saying thank god this is gone. i don't share politics with mayor adams but i sincerely hope he does the city of new york well especially considering crime wave, for someone to get tough on crime, part of the reason he was able to win i believe. the truth is is not enough democrat speaking out about the crime wave that exists in these cities and because of that, there are a lot of individuals especially in suburban areas feel more comfortable electing republicans who have been vocal about this issue, the looting and rioting that took place in 2020, there's a lot of democrat who happen silent, they will again face the voters in 2022 and likely see a republican win and not just republican win. jon: we have to say goodbye but i want to put up on the screen the latest poll results from gallup that asks do you think economic conditions in the country as a whole are getting better or worse? 67% of americans say getting worse, that is not the way you win election. 11 million people still unemployed plus they are sticking up. jon: with visio. a spokesperson for florida governor ron desantis dismissing claims the governor was missing medsurg and covid cases in his state. new york congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez was among those who criticized the governor tweeting, haven't governor's head is% missing for like two weeks? one florida mayor had this to say. >> where is ron desantis now? when was the last time you saw the governor do a press briefing regarding covid-19? >> the governor's spokesperson says who the company his wife cases cancer treatment under summer 29th, the day several critics accused him of being missing in action, multiple staffers say he is not been on vacation and has had private meetings this past week. coming up, remains up almost 1000 structures are covid in snow after the wildfires ravaged colorado. we have a live update on the possible cause and how many are now. missing plus -- tributes are pouring in for betty white, the beloved actress who passed just hours before the new year began. when you have xfinity, you have entertainment built in. which is kind of nice. ah, what is happening. binge-watching is in the bag, when you find all your apps, all in one place. find live sports faster just by using your voice... sports on now. touchdown irish! [cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. in colorado, officials say recent snowfall complicating rescue recovery efforts in the way cover to fires squirting towns outside denver. look at this. on the left thursday night when the flames were devouring acres of land seconds at a time. the right is from earlier today after inches of snow fell overnight extinguishing much of the remaining fire and blanketing some of the rubble. jeff paul is live in louisville colorado with the latest. >> while the fire remains unclear, we are learning the boulder county sheriff's office received a number of gifts. based on information from one of the tips, faith conducted a search warrant, they wouldn't go into much detail what that means but presumed to be related to the wildfires. we are getting an update regarding the number of missing people, it's up to three, one superior and from them marshall area. from homes destroyed in the fire investigators fear they might be dead. they will have cadaver dogs searching the area when it's safe. >> i think it's miraculous three and not hundreds so i am grateful for that but also extremely sorry for those families. i spoke to a granddaughter this morning personally, a friend of a friend they are trying to find grandma and we are trying to find grandma for her. >> the number of homes destroyed is going up, that sits at 991 homes destroyed and more than 100 damaged but because there are so many still smoldering despite the snow, authorities say it too dangerous in some spots for folks to return to assess damage. we did get a chance for a brief moment to get up close to one of the hardest hit areas and here's what we found. >> an odd feeling when you walk into the neighborhoods impacted by this huge wildfire. a few days ago there were homes here and now it feels like an empty lot, and developed subdivision and gives you an idea of people and families who lived here, or in the holiday season, you have charred reef on both sides of what's ideally a garage, you see cars inside, the front of a garage door, part behind it, bricks on top and another burned out, you can still smell smoke and feel in your nostrils as it burns out here despite the snow continues to fall and blanket the damage. this winter weather is making recovery process a little more difficult. we had 8 inches of snow fall in the area, the temperature sits at 5 degrees and will likely get older. because of that, folks are worried their pipes might burst if they can't get into their homes to try to turn on the water a little bit or turn it off completely. we've learned the city of superior turn off the water but folks are still worried about it. officials say please be patient, we are doing everything we can to keep everyone as safe as possible. jon: an awful way to start the new year. thanks. >> purkett over here. [laughter] the camera when the red light goes on, that means the camera is on. >> i know what i'm doing. >> just stick a sock in it. [laughter] jon: betty white doing what she did best making us laugh. the mary tyler moore show, when he of her many iconic roles during her eighth decade career in television. hollywood america mourning the loss of the legendary actress, comedian who died yesterday at the age of 99, weeks shy of what would have been her 100th birthday. senior correspondent, laura ingle joins us live with more on how white is being remembered. >> almost anyone to talk to today has a favorite memory of betty white whether it a famous quote from one of her characters she played or perhaps her general comedic timing, everyone can agree there was no one else like her. after the opera passing on new year's eve, tributes and start pouring in from of many remembering her with love and the laughter she brought to her fans throughout eight decades in show business. while her resume is really long, many people knew her from her work on the mary tyler moore show and rose on the golden girls. so many examples of people laughing, she had fun at her own expense when her wax figure was revealed in 2012. >> the only thing that hurts me, why does she have on a white he? a few decades ago it would have been thrilled. >> snap out of it. [laughter] >> she's just beautiful. >> ryan reynolds who starred with white in the films of the proposal, tweeted this, the world looks different now, she was great defined expectations, she managed to grow old and somehow not old enough. we will miss you, betty. others shared white groundbreaking moments, martin luther king junior center tweeted in 1954 # betty white was criticized after having arthur duncan, a black kat dancer on her show. her response? i'm sorry, live with it. she gave duncan even more airtime, the show was canceled soon after, rest well, betty. # thank you for being a friend. hollywood remembering betty white as fans but stuffed animals and flowers on the hollywood walk of fame, all ages fans say that she was a part of their lives for years. >> she's a member of the family for me and i grew up watching golden girls, watching betty white. to me, she meant so much, she was an icon. >> there was a huge celebration scheduled around a documentary that would release on her 100th birthday, january 17 so producers said they were go forward with their plans calling her a national treasure. jon: we will miss her. laura, thank you. the first half of the new year is crucial for those calling for tougher regulation against tech companies and their executives. tim buck is one pushing president biden to act, that's next. ♪♪ you you i am jon scott, this is the park report. here's a look at our top stories. violence and put up your not slowing down with the new year. at least three people were killed, seven others hurt in multiple shootings across the city this morning. 562 people killed thought of you throughout 2021, a record number of homicides. california beaches are closed including those in los angeles and long beach after 7 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into a global river that empties into los angeles harbor. spelling on thursday afternoon after sewer main line failed. to rivals facing off in this year's college football playoff national championship. georgia bulldogs and alabama crimson tide take to the field for the big match january 10 after semi finals went. more on these and other stories, download the fox news app scan the qr code on your screen or fox news.com/app. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say 2022 is a make or break year for serious big tech reform, some proposals so far addressed antitrust, seek protection for kids, net neutrality and section 230 of the communications decency act, many urging the biden administration to finally take a stand, republican senator jon thune thanked the white house has proven it can get involved in legislative priorities when it wants to so i hope the president and his team step up and provide much-needed long-overdue leadership on this front. joining us now, colorado congressman tim buck member of the house judiciary committee, your committee has been looking at this for a long time, you say the next six months are critical, why? >> they are, we had 16 month investigation of the last congress, we been working a year now on the six antitrust bills that have moved forward out of the judiciary committee, it's important the next six months we focus on those bills and get it passed from the house so we can work with the senate on the language that will become law. the longer it takes, the less working together on the senate side will have. jon: you say both parties are interested in raining and of big tech? >> absolutely. the senate especially the republican leadership is outstanding, senator grassley senator lee and crews, cotton are supporting some or all of these bills and we also have support in the antitrust subcommittee and the house floor, a member of house members have taken up this particular issue is a positive way to rain and big tech for competition in the marketplace. jon: there are national security concerns on the way as well, listen to robert o'brien, national security advisor to present some has to say on this. there's a lot of regulation that needs to take place with big tech but we can't do is destroy the company's so we don't have the skill to do research in quantum computing which is expensive, artificial intelligence big data machine learning, we need these companies here in the united states and we need to regulate them and if we break them up, we turn over the playing field to china so you will have ali baba and tik tok running doing what beijing bids them too. jon: is that a concern of yours, if you break the companies up in the wrong way it could lead to problems? >> is a red herring the companies are creating to try to distract work going on in congress right now. the reality is, the company, what they are working in china, doing what the chinese government tells them, they are not friendly to the u.s., they are friendly to government and we need to make sure we have competition so consumers in the marketplace here in america are able to make sure they get the best product. there's only one supplier of service, we are not getting the best product and that's what we strive for. jon: give us a summation of the problem the way you see it right now. >> really in the area for example of desktop searches, google has over 90% of market share when you have 90% market share, who can determine which information people get in the political system and that is dangerous. it is also dangerous to fan a former president from searches on social media sites so i think the real danger to the political structure comes from these monopolies and how it controls the nation consumers need. jon: it's recently come out facebook mark zuckerberg spent order for billing dollars on supporting candidates friendly to him and causes he espouses during the latest presidential election cycle given contributions like that, are you sure democrats are on board trying to rain and big tech? >> democrats are important and surprises some they are, it doesn't surprise me. if they are interested in making sure big companies don't roll america. i'm concerned with competition in the marketplace, i can guarantee something, i didn't receive the benefits that they did. jon: what is your hope? how would you like to see this go down? >> i would like to see the house past antitrust bills that are important, make sure big tech kat move every case to the northern district of california at home field advantage. does that make sure companies can't discriminate against third-party sellers on the platforms, these are important pieces of legislation and taken as a whole will help create this competition. we get that done in the first six months, we work with the senate, i think by the end of the year we will have a different set of laws that will not regulate but create competition in the marketplace and i think that is essential as we look where we want to go in this country moving forward. jon: who will watch legislation, we appreciate you coming on. >> thank you. jon: u.s. military keeping a close eye on tensions between china and taiwan after the countries traded stern words this new year. beijing also issuing a warning to walmart stores in the united states. lucas tomlinson has those stories from washington. >> speaking from a shopping mall beijing new year's eve, chinese communist leader xi jinping says his country is on the way to becoming the global leader by 2049, 100 anniversary of the people's republic of china and made this dubious claim about taiwan. >> the complete reunification of our plan shared by the people on the taiwan strike. >> taiwan's president disagrees and warns beijing gets any military accenture is on. china launched 150 warplanes near taiwan has two aircraft carriers ronald reagan and karl vincent sailed together with british japanese carriers in the western pacific which beijing viewed as provocative. china launched five bombers after five american congressman visited taiwan. friday china warned warmer against removing products, region the u.s. government accuses china of running labor camps in the country's northwest. home to millions of muslim minorities. beijing said to take down all products from a region without valid reason highs an ulterior motive, reveals stupidity and shortsightedness and surely will have its own bad consequences. a recent interview when asked to name the biggest national security challenges facing the u.s., vice president harris set our democracy and the climate, she didn't mention china. washington post report china is ramping up mining in western social media including a stock and twitter an effort to boost propaganda efforts. jon: lucas, thank you. out with the old and in with the new. celebrations taking place around the world last night ushering in 2022. next, a look at how people partied with covid still raging. ♪♪ headlines from around the globe, north korea leadership said is a food problem in his country during end of your speech without specifics on food scarcity, focusing on the need to ramp up agricultural sectors. in iran, thursday's space launch was unable to put it reloads into orbit after a rocket failed to go to necessary speech. one of the largest missile programs in the middle east suffering a number of setbacks the past few years. israel militaries spokesperson pastor linea military 52 rockets toward the mediterranean sea causing an explosion off the coast. palestinian news agency report malfunction triggering the launch of the rockets. in france, pause in the trial of islam and other suspects in the november 2015 islamic terror attacks that killed 130 people in paris. they purportedly tested positive for coronavirus two week suspension. in south africa, a funeral service for archbishop in cape town today, he was awarded the nobel peace prize in 1984 for nonviolent proposition died sunday at the age of 90. great britain scientists and medics at the forefront countries response to the coronavirus pandemic, knighthoods during the annual honors list, queen elizabeth recognized the achievements of former prime minister tony blair james bond star, daniel. that is a look at some stories from around the globe. around the world, people bid farewell to another year hit by the pandemic celebrations and more social distancing. brian takes a look. >> you wouldn't have said that here in london at the strike of midnight, my entire neighborhood erupted in a crescendo of fireworks, a lot of people stay home with her own fireworks and watch the show on tv, that's with the mayor of modern asked people to do. people were still out there, 61, warmest day on record here in london as well yesterday. omicron is breaking records from 190,000 cases across the uk new year's eve. capita, that's double the number in u.s. sydney australia, the world's first big new year's celebration kicked off, tens of thousands watched, not as many people as before the pandemic but many more than last year. dubai went for it with a spectacular display against the backdrop of the world's tallest building. dubai hosting expo 2020 and put on a show complete with times where inspired midnight ball drop. this morning in rome, st. peter's square pope francis a message of peace, migrants today to mary and jesus on christmas day. new year's eve was more normal this year perhaps around the world than last year but perhaps a far cry from what we had pre-pandemic. jon: thank you. nonprofit organization on a mission to reunite hundreds of service members and their families this holiday season. ceo joins us with more on efforts next. ♪♪ when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. (swords clashing) -had enough? -no... arthritis. here. aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. this holiday season, or an organization called luke's wing has been omniscient to reunite service members and their families. organizations no soldier spent business alone campaign began veterans day, it continues through the tenth of january. he with more on the organizations effort in luke's wings ceo, fletcher. your operation is geared toward reuniting families of service members entered especially, right? >> yes, sir. thanks for having us on, it's always great to see you and thank you to your audience for letting us be on, that's right. we were founded in 2008 with the mission to provide flights for families of leptons for wounded, ill and injured would service members recovering at walter reed and have expanded all over the world and provided more than 14000 airplane tickets. jon: only about 1% of our nations families have members in the service so a lot of people don't know, if you are wounded in action or in training, the government will provide three flights for your family members to see you in the hospital and back to it, right? >> that is right. the other caveat to that is one person can stay by your bedside and the government will provide a dm but the minute you go home, you take the return flight home, that coverage ends. as a result, moms and wives in vibrant and spouses instinctively drop everything they are doing back home and come to the military hospital and refused to leave out of fear, the risk they can't come back a second or third time so we take the risk away, we stop in and say from now on luke's wings covers all of your travel expenses. jon: we have several programs you run and viewers might wish to donate, the first is wounded warrior transportation assistance program, that's what we have been talking about, flights for family members, members of the military injured, training accidents or in combat and receive medical care, you also have major illnesses transportation assistance program, tell us about that. >> yes, thank you. we love to get things acronyms, veterans and hospice care transportation systems program. originally we set out to make sure world war ii and korean war veterans have someone by the bedside as they were passing away, but it was a great way, a final salute to the greatest generation whoever lived and we found many young service members and leptons were reaching out because many of our young service members were battling cancer so as an example we have a servicemember in brooke army medical center right now and we flew his sister for christmas to his bedside from guam and while she's there right now is we are talking, she's been tested to see if she can be a bone marrow transplant donor match so many of the flights who fall in the program, veterans and hospice care are not just for world war ii and korea were veterans but young service numbers battling things like cancer. jon: at the end of the year you get soliciting donations, obviously people like to take the tax deduction before the end of the year, we started the new year already, if people are moved to donate, what can they do and what with their money help your program with? >> thanks, as i mentioned before, we provide over 14000 lights, today is our anniversary, we entered our 15th year in business donating on our website luke's wing.org, it would be amazing. we don't just provide a one time service to our heroes, we commit to providing transportation to them and their loved ones for as long as we can afford it. in 2021 we provide over 1600 flights and no soldier spent christmas alone, 400 right now we are trying to get everybody back to the hospital or back home post- christmas but tomorrow and every day we deliver flights and rotation plans for all american heroes so i want to say thank you to the american patriots walking watching tonight, with their help we were able to provide the 400 or so flights the last couple weeks. jon: i know you accept donations of frequent flyer miles, check that out on your website as well, that is a great way to help. luke's wings, luke's wings.org is the website. fletcher, thank you. we'll be right back. ♪♪ dancing rhinos, look at animal antics from 2021. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> go away. ♪♪ ♪♪ jon: i remember that catch greatest moment. saturday january 1, 2022. i am jon scott, see you tomorrow. ♪♪ applause]. >> ♪ ♪ >> [cheering]. >> greg: yeah! happy almost new year. look who is here the lovely but shorter dana perino. >> [cheers and applause]. >> so excited for 2022 she can barely contain it. here she