>> and we have engine start. >> yuccas: plus, up, up and away, the james webb telescope blasts off on a mission to reveal the beginnings of the universe. >> whoo! >> yuccas: and later, a teaching tree. >> the tree is a teaching moment. >> yuccas: this bright symbol of christmas bringing healing light to a family and community during dark times. ing light to a sys this is the "cbs weekend news." . >> yuccas: good evening, i'm jamie yuccas in new york, adriana diaz is off. today, christians around the world are celebrating a christmas tainted by covid. the latest surge in cases fueled by the omicron variant forced people to suddenly change their plans, from how they traveled, to how they worshipped. in the u.s., daily new cases are at their highest level since late summer. the daily average of new covid cases is now at more than 197,000, that is up 65% over the last two weeks. there are more than 70,000 people hospitalized, up 10%. elise preston is in new york where they're seeing a record number of new cases. good evening, elise. >> reporter: good evening, jamie. it is another covid christmas, with the latest numbers showing 44,000 in new york state testing positive in a single day. the latest surge has led some churches to make a difficult decision at a time when many were hoping to gather. new york's majestic cathedral of st. john the divine said it was putting the safety of the community first in its decision to move christmas services online. same story at nearby holy trinity lutheran church, where timothy weisman said he was heartbroken to cancel in-person worship. >> to come together for christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, of promise, of peace of grace. and i just can't imagine gathering people together and me worrying whether someone was going to contract a case because of that. >> reporter: across the country it's a second covid christmas. which for many means another holiday of streaming services online. >> i've joked that we have become televangelists over the past 18 months. >> reporter: with omicron fueling the latest surge, new yorkers waited in the outside for testing kits. >> i'm vaccinated twice, so i didn't get my booster yet, so this helps. >> reporter: even the unvaccinated were invited for mass at famous st. patrick's cathedral, which remained open with covid protocols. >> there will be a place for them to sit where there would be social distancing. >> reporter: covid-19 is also having a huge impact on the nation's blood supply. the american red cross says that centers across the country have less than a day's supply of blood. that's the worst it's been in years. the organization is urging those who are healthy to donate. jamie. >> yuccas: yeah, donate if you can, elise, thank you. the worldwide surge in covid cases is wreaking havoc on people's travel plans this christmas weekend, and cbs' lilia luciano is live at los angeles international airport. lilia, how bad is it? >> reporter: it's bad, jamie. united airlines and delta are now on their second day of cancellations in the triple digits, but the airlines say it's only a small fraction of flights that have been canceled, most will take off as scheduled on this, one of the busiest weekends for air travel. >> merry christmas. welcome home. >> reporter: for many travelers, hoping for a smooth holiday weekend, getting home has been a bit of a nightmare. >> we're going to miss our christmas dinner tonight. >> reporter: nearly a thousand flights have been cancelled in the u.s. tonight, with airports in los angeles, atlanta and newark, new jersey seeing the most cancelled flights. >> i thought it was incredibly stressful two years ago. i have no idea what stressful meant up until now. >> reporter: at issue: a mix of winter weather and the fast spreading of the omicron variant, leading to sick employees and shortage in staff. >> not surprising they have so much public contact that folks with best efforts are coming down with the virus. >> reporter: it is a tough time for weary americans to travel again. airline passengers traveling on christmas eve alone. >> i'm getting to see one of my nieces for first time since she was born in august of 2020. >> reporter: some with cancelled flights will brave the roads,meh cancelled flig joining 100 million others this holiday season and for those whose planes made a landing in time for christmas dinners, the promise of reunions now years in the making. so many flights are being canceled and tomorrow, hundreds more are expected to be canceled, as well. and for those fliers who are concerned about the fast spreading omicron variant, and are stuck at airports, here at l.a.x., while you wait you could get a test, a vaccine or even a booster. jamie. >> yuccas: seems like a good idea, lilia, thank you. some tense moments at windsor castle today, as queen elizabeth and members of the royal family celebrated christmas. british police arrested an armed man on the grounds. authorities say he didn't enter any buildings. elsewhere, pope francis prayed for an end to the pandemic and called for dialogue to resolve the world's conflicts during its christmas day message from st. peter's square. roxanna saberi reports from london. >> reporter: in his annual christmas address, pope francis urged the world to work together at a time when covid is keeping so many people apart. he spoke before a few thousand masked worshipers, far more than last year when the pandemic forced him to speak indoors. far fewer than pre-pandemic levels. the faithful also gathered in bethlehem, but in limited numbers, with israel's borders shut to most international travelers. as the omicron variant rages across europe, the netherlands has returned to a national lockdown. for a lighter touch, like more testing and vaccinations. in france, kids ages 5 to 11 can now get a shot. in italy and in spain, people once again have to wear masks outdoors. in the u.k., where new daily cases are hitting record highs, some people marked the holiday with a booster. >> there is still a wonderful thing you can give your family and the whole country. and that is, to get that jab! >> reporter: the royal family canceled its traditional christmas day church visit. while queen elizabeth stayed home at windsor castle... >> christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. >> reporter: ...where she gave her first holiday address since she lost her husband, prince philip in april. >> for me and my family, even with one familiar laugh missing this year, there will be joy in christmas. >> reporter: many people here in england are gathering with friends and family today, determined to stop covid from spoiling a second christmas in a row. british officials have said they'll wait until after this holiday to decide whether to announce any new measures. jamie. >> yuccas: roxana saberi in london, thank you. president biden is spending his first christmas in office at the white house with family. christina ruffini is there now, with more, and christina, there is a new family member. >> reporter: that's right, there is, the president, the first lady and their new german shepherd puppy commander, on what was essentially a zoom call with armed forces members around the world. president biden said they know what it's like to be missing a member of the family during the holidays. >> jill and i know how hard it is for you, but quite frankly it's harder for your husbands, wives, moms, dads, children, to be apart or on duty during a season of togetherness and we bidens understand that. we still every once in a while look at that empty chair. >> reporter: now, this holiday like the last, has been complicated by covid-19. this time, the new variant. the white house said yesterday it is retaking back a travel ban on eight southern african countries. it will rescind it at the recommendation of the c.d.c. it says the ban gave them time to assess the new strain and determine that vaccines are effective against it. now there is some other good news out of south africa. the government there says, although the new variant is more contagious, it is less deadly than other forms. so a little holiday cheer there. jamie. >> yuccas: yeah, we'll take it, christina, thank you. the world's biggest and most powerful space telescope was lunched today, on a mission unlike any other, to see the first objects formed in our universe just after the big bang. a rocket carrying nasa's james webb space telescope blasted into space from the coast of south america. it is 100 times more powerful than the hubble space telescope, which was launched three decades ago. but as mark strassman tells us, hundreds of things have to go right before the webb telescope can take a single image. >> reporter: from its perch a million miles beyond earth, the james webb space telescope will glimpse the dawn of time like nothing before us. >> the universe is a 13.8- billion-year story, and we're missing key paragraphs in the very first chapter. >> reporter: n.a.s.a. astrophysicist amber straughn hopes webb's discoveries will fill in the blanks. >> we hopefully will be able to see those first galaxies for the very first time. and of course, galaxies are the homes of stars, and stars are the homes of planets, and planets of course are the homes of life. and so this telescope is our going to be next giant leap in our search for habitable planets in our galaxy. >> reporter: webb's 18 hexagonal gold-plated mirrors will align to create one giant mirror. it's 21 feet across, six times larger than the one on the hubble space telescope. for more than three decades, hubble has given us stunning, humbling views of the universe. but, webb will be a major upgrade. like a night vision camera, this infrared telescope will search for heat signatures of the very first light after the big bang. >> we are looking for the of the faintest objects, if the telescope doesn't get cold then it will actually glow brighter than the objects we're looking for. >> reporter: to block the sun's heat from blinding webb, engineers designed a first of its kind sun shield, the size of a tennis court. its five layers will keep the telescope side more than 600 degrees colder than the sun- facing side. >> this material, kaptan, here is about 2 thousandths of an inch thick. >> reporter: and because the sun shield is so big, it and everything else had to fold up to fit inside the rocket. once in space, webb will carefully unfold and rebuild itself like robotic origami. project manager bill oaks. >> it is hands down the complexity of its deployment, the material it's been made of, has never been tried by a nasa mission before. >> reporter: if any one of 344 parts fail, the entire mission could be jeopardized. about one-third involve deploying of that sun shield. 1,300 feet of cables almost 600 pulley assemblies. and it all has to work. a million miles out, no calling a.a.a. >> no, but i'm confident we did everything on the ground to maximize the probability of success of this mission. >> reporter: webb's first images about six months away, worth the wait for the chance to see baby pictures of the universe. mark strassman, cbs news, greenbelt, maryland. >> yuccas: science is so cool. straight ahead on the "cbs weekend news," nashville's journey to recover and rebuild, one year after a christmas day bombing tore through downtown. y bombing tore through downed. downtown. t don't have it. not my uncle, though. he's taking trulicity for his type 2 diabetes and now, he's really on his game. once-weekly trulicity lowers your a1c by helping your body release the insulin it's already making. most people reached an a1c under 7%. plus, trulicity can lower your risk of cardiovascular events. it can also help you lose up to ten pounds. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you 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- oh, darn! - let me help. ♪♪♪ lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love... plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? now get powerful relief with robitussin elderberry. >> yuccas: as families spend precious time together this christmas, in one small town in minnesota, there is a very special tree that's helping to bring a father closer to the son he lost. john lauritsen of cbs station wcco in minneapolis shows us how the tree has become a symbol of love. >> this is a well-orchestrated decorating process. >> reporter: driving by, you can't help but notice the giant black hill spruce on highcroft road. >> it is absolutely the sparkle in the heart of the neighborhood. >> on my way to work, i usually come the long way, specifically to drive by the tree. >> reporter: the man behind the tree's 40,000+ lights is david gigerich. >> i actually bought scaffolding to put the lights on. i have to use a boom lift to get the star on the top. and quite frankly, i spend three weeks putting the lights on this tree. it's the most exhausting yet exhilarating time for me. >> reporter: there's a good reason for that. david doesn't feel alone when he's decorating. he feels like his son duncan is right there with him. >> the best part of duncan-- and everybody who would ever talk about him would say, his warm heart, his warm smile, and his big laugh. >> reporter: three years ago, duncan's life was cut short when he was in a car accident. he was just 19 years old. for david, the grief was almost unbearable, especially during the holidays. as a way to honor duncan's life, the neighborhood bought his family a memorial tree. >> and we went to a tree farm, literally walked over a hill, and it was the "ta da" moment. there was the tree. >> reporter: and over the past couple of years, it has doubled in size, from 15 to 30 feet. that means more lights, more work, which david is just fine with. >> as my oldest son said when he saw the tree for the first time, he said that tree even looks like duncan-- big and burly and beautiful. >> reporter: people who don't know the back story will stop by and take pictures. but for the neighborhood, it's so much more-- a reminder that life is precious. >> this brings us all closese tg together. it's just an extremely-- the tree is a teaching moment, right, for our kids. >> reporter: in turn, the neighborhood has helped david deal with his loss. >> three, two, one! >> whoa! ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: it's proof that no matter what, the love a father has for his son will never stop shining. >> we wanted people to understand what's behind the lights. and it's not just a bright beautiful tree, it's really the spirit of duncan. >> reporter: john lauritson, cbs news, wyzetta, minnesota. >> yuccas: keep shining. and that is the news for tonight. i'm jamie yuccas in new york. for all of us at the "cbs weekend news," merry christmas and good night. captioning sponsored by cbs live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. heavy rain, flooded streets , and downed trees. wild christmas weather hit the bay area, but what will it look like later tonight? >> this is a really scary situation, because i'm afraid of these will go as well. why you may need to change your plans if you are headed up to the sierra. stunning video of the conditions in turkey. >> they were showing promise in that article trials and we wanted to be able to access them. a dose of hope after years of fighting for a cure. spreading christmas cheer for thousands of people in need. we take you inside of a san francisco holiday tradition with some big changes. merry christmas. i'm juliette goodrich. merry christmas, i am brian hackney. a cold and wet christmas across the bay area. we are still seeing scattered showers. things have calmed down a bit since the storm caused dangerous conditions on the peninsula, and blizzard conditions in the sierra. darren peck is joining us now. what can we expect tonight and for the weekend. things have calmed down for now. the area is clearly a focus to this storm, kind of like the organized line that worked across the bay area today and is now here. that is like perfect orientation to drop large amounts of snow. back here at home, the heaviest and most consistent showers are south of the santa clara valley, working their way through the diablo range. what comes next