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the broadest categories are those surrounding the former president and we're determined to get answers but at this point i'm not in a position to indicate what we know yet. >> among those reporting for us this hour, we go to tel aviv and florida, and massachusetts. ralph, we'll begin with you and get the latest in israel relative to the developments on the omicron variant. how do things stand? >> reporter: the list of countries with confirmed cases of the omicron variant is get longer and longer. in the last couple hours australia, denmark, and the netherlands all confirming the variant within its borders. in the case of the netherlands, they found 13 passengers on those last two flights out of south africa testing positive for the variant. nearly 50 more passengers on those same two flights testing positive for other forms of covid raising a lot of questions about the security of air travel and who is getting on these flights. meanwhile, one of the big unknowns about the omicron variant and biggest unknown, will our current vaccines work against it? the vaccine manufacturers, pfizer, moderna, j & j all say they are studying the variants and they will make adjustments if necessary. one bit 6 good news, dr. fauci says if adjustments are needed, it will hopefully be relatively straightforward to make those changes. take a listen to what he said earlier. >> what you do is you get the virus, either the whole virus itself or a modification. what we call pseudo virus. you get antibodies from a person that's vaccinated, and you see if they can neutralize this particular virus. if they can, we're in good shape. if it looks like even at a high antibody it doesn't, you have to change and modify what the vaccine is going to be which you can do easily with the kinds of vaccines that we have. >> reporter: the travel restriction picture around the world is changing all the time as governments rush to head off this variant. here in israel in a couple hours time, all foreigners willban ed from entering the country. morocco is cutting off all direct flights into its territory in an effort to keep out this variant. that's the toughest known measure anywhere in the world. the uk also toughening its border restrictions. when you land in britain, you'll have to go in isolation for two days until you can produce a negative pcr test. a very fast moving picture and a very difficult one for people trying to travel internationally right now. alex? >> indeed. okay. thank you so much, ralph sanchez, for that. joining me now is dr. eboni hilton. what's the most concerning thing that you've learned about this variant in the last 24 hours or so? >> the most concerning thing is that it is everywhere. we are targeting south africa as if that is the only place we have to be concerned with. we know that we've seen this variant in belgium, in germany, it's across our globe at this point. we are behind. that's nothing unusual with covid-19. we've always been a step behind which means that we have to be hypervigilant in our protection for ourselves. >> even though the w.h.o. is calling omicron as a variant of concern, "newsweek" is reporting that the first doctor who alerted authorities over the variant says symptoms are mild. what's your take on what we know so far? >> being it's early on, one thing i credit south africa is they have a pristine system because they are used to hiv and tb and have a system to track these things. we'll know we'll get more details and scientists came back and said these were a certain small group of persons that symptoms were mild and were they vaccinated, were they young and otherwise healthy? those are questions we need to know. as we see in these next couple days, we'll get more and more data. what we know for sure is covid-19, even the original strain, was compromised of health of longevity of life and we can't become pacified and tired of trying to protect ourselves from covid. >> in terms of where this is going, researchers say that omicron shares similarities with other variants that are resistant to current vaccines we have but neither of those strains made any significant impact so what are changes omicron follows a similar path or do you think it still could become as dominant as delta? >> it's really too early to quite know. if it does become as dangerous as delta, again, i don't want to minimize the uk variant that we had previously. yes. it was less lethal but that doesn't mean it was not lethal, right. what we see even in the united states leading up to thanksgiving we had an increase of 25% in our cases being reported over the last two weeks. so we know we're already heading into a surge in the united states of america. what i ultimately fear is that people have become fatigued with covid-19 and that with these new variants coming across and breakthrough cases at that people are losing faith in the vaccine and we won't see people get boosted because they are tired of shots. if that occurs and we get behind in being vaccinated and get behind even further in vaccinating the globe so we have to make sure people are practicing basic public health measures which includes simply wearing a mask and n-95 mask at that. >> the u.s. is still dealing with delta and experts are predicting a winter covid surge in the coming weeks whether it's omicron or more of delta or something else that could develop. how much worse could the situation get if you're throwing omicron into the mix? >> very much worse. like i said, what we know at this point is that covid-19 has stuck to the game plan. it has not changed its mission. it has not changed in the fact that we know it's been mutating over the course of time. the only persons that have not respected the game are people. we're not respecting the fact that we need to have global vaccination or the fact that we need to have these measures like mask wearing that we know this is an airborne disease so we're behind the eight ball. the only other thing that's been consistent along this line is anti-vaxor campaign. we cannot wax and wain. masks and whether it's necessary for those vaccinated. we have to be diligent in keeping our message consistent to say this is how we combat and hopefully start to catch up to what covid-19 is doing because right now covid is controlling the game. >> thank you for your candor and advice. appreciate it. while the omicron variant has not been detected in the u.s. yet, they are ready. new york declared a state of emergency in case of a spike in cases amid warnings the variant could be here in the country. let's go to tampa, florida. that's a state that's seen its case numbers drop. so are folks concerned about omicron at all yet? >> reporter: good afternoon to you, alex. well, the short answer is not really. it does not appear to be the case. florida in recent weeks has enjoyed the lowest covid case counts per capita in the nation. right now we see six weeks were 100,000 people. the seven-day average for cases 683 cases and that's in very stark contrast to what we see in other parts of the country including the upper midwest, places like michigan which last week saw 38,000 -- more than 38,000 covid cases alone. there are no new fears sweeping across the country of this potential omicron variant and what that could mean. however, we did speak to some people on the ground here in florida and at this point at least the folks that we talked to say they do not appear to be concerned about this variant, at least not yet. >> i don't put a lot of salt into what they say about those variants and things like that. i hope it doesn't become a big issue but i don't really believe it to be quite honest with you. >> i just heard about it last couple of days and i support vaccination. i support wearing masks indoors, things like that. i had -- my father died a year ago from covid-related pneumonia so i'm kind of tainted against those who say it's a hoax. >> reporter: obviously in florida you have many different cross sections of people with many different views about covid but i will say that overall the covid mandates here are lax. there are no mask mandates. schoolchildren aren't required to wear masks. that's the big concern going forward is what will this mean if the omicron variant tends to spike here. so we'll have to see at this point, alex. >> thank you for keeping watch. in the case of omicron millions of americans are heading back from their thanksgiving destinations. let's go to laguardia airport here in new york. what are you hearing about the travel? any issues people are going through? any concerns about covid v variants? >> reporter: it seems like there is a bit more concern here from the people i'm talking about in laguardia about the possibility of this new variant being dangerous, being something they need to watch out for on a level of say the delta variant. people here say timing of hearing of omicron couldn't be worse because they already had their travel plans set for thanksgiving. many of them now trying to get back home and they have no choice but to do so. of course, as dr. anthony fauci said, there's no cases that have been confirmed of the new variant in the united states but it's possible it is already here. that's the concern i'm hearing from people talking to at laguardia right now. aaa says 53.4 million americans are traveling this year and that's only 5% fewer than were traveling this same time in 2019 before the pandemic hit. so things are starting to get back to normal. something people were hoping for. we asked them how their travel plans will be affected, their future travel plans for christmas or new year's. here's what some of them had to say. what about maybe later in the year if you other holiday travel plans? might it change them? >> it might change them as far as flying. i might just drive here. i'm going over to columbus. maybe it might change things up a bit. >> reporter: do you think this will change christmas travel plans or holiday travel plans? >> i don't think so. i'm getting the booster this week so i'm feeling better about it. >> reporter: and that's the message we heard time and again from people saying their hope is in the vaccine along with the protocols wearing masks and distancing where they can. alex? >> okay. thank you for that update. we're also following the latest on a new somewhat shocking rise in smash and grab robberies that is affecting retailers across this country with more brazen attacks even this weekend. let's go to los angeles now. emily, this is a lot for retailers to worry about. how can they possibly begin to make sure this doesn't happen again in their store? >> reporter: you know, alex, it's an unfortunate question that retailers have to face. they are brainstorming with others trying to figure out how to protect product. some are locking up merchandise. the national retail federation says organized retail crime is a growing threat. >> reporter: shoppers rush into stores for deals and so are mobs of thieves. police call them smash mob thefts plaguing businesses in their most robust time of year. is it chaning the way your family is shopping? >> definitely. my mother's generation doesn't want to go out to shop. >> reporter: more crime. high-end handbags snagged in los angeles and a home depot, nearly ten people running out with sledgehammers and crowbars. >> it's trying to get their hands on as much product as they can specifically during a supply chain crisis to try to get that product into the hands of the online sellers who list that product for the holidays. >> reporter: the national retail federation says 75% of stores report an increase of crimes like,000 during a pandemic. in minnesota, a best buy was hit. they are among companies making changes in response to rising crime, locking up products, hiring security guards and brainstorming solutions with other retailers. >> we see loosely organized groups come together and target our stores. >> reporter: the company ceo on cnbc this week. >> for our employees, these are traumatic experiences and they happen more and more across the country. >> reporter: at least ten people have been arrested in the l.a. area this week and 12 more near san francisco face charges. but dozens remain at large leaving shoppers and stores on edge. california is home to three of the top ten worse cities for organized retail crime. that's according to a 2020 report from one trade group. los angeles claiming the number one spot. alex? >> that's a dubious honor. thanks so much. truth and no consequences could the big lie go unpunished? new comments from the chair of the house intel committee. tel c. vicks' vapostick. it goes on clear and dries quickly. no mess. just the soothing vicks' vapor for the whole family. introducing new vicks vapostick. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will help you create a comprehensive wealth plan for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. 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 with voltaren arthritis pain gel. my husband's got his moves back. now you know. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren, the joy of movement. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. president biden is heading back to the white house right now to face a number of key deadlines that are looming this week. let's go to josh who was left behind in nantucket, massachusetts. that is where the president spent his holiday weekend. i know you'll make your way to d.c. any time now, josh. thanks for sticking around to talk to us. we know omicron will be a top priority. what else is the president facing? >> reporter: any excuse to spend a few more hours in nantucket, i'll take it, alex. the president does have a lot on his agenda but first and foremost he will have to deal with concerns about the omicron variant including travel restrictions he put in place. we know as soon as president biden gets back to the white house, he is expected to have an in-person briefing with dr. fauci and others on the task force to get the latest and discuss next steps. as president biden and dr. jill biden stepped off air force one, they went briefly up to the pool of reporters who gathered to witness his arrival. a few shouted questions about the omicron variant. this is what president biden had to say. >> are you considering travel restrictions to europe? >> i'm having a medical team when i get back to the white house. >> reporter: that's all we heard from president biden about this but it is front and center for the white house as they start the week but they can't let that distract them from the whole host of other looming deadlines that have to be tackled in washington. first and foremost, funding the government. that spending set to run out on friday as well as other deadlines coming up in the middle of the month with a debt ceiling that needs to be raised so the government can continue to borrow money. that's a fight we heard from the senator earlier today. the democrats intend to do whatever they can to divert that crisis which will be negative for the economy and christmas day, december 25th, by that time the white house hopes to have the president's $1.75 trillion spending bill passed through the senate. a deal worked out to get his economic agenda and all of those critical social programs out the door to americans heading into the new year and politically that is really critical for the white house as they are closely watching these declining poll numbers for the president. they know people want to see a record of accomplishment from democrats heading into the midterms less than a year away. >> okay. josh, safe travels back to d.c., my friend. we'll talk to you again. joining me right now, jeff mason, white house correspondent with reuters. so with the president on his way right now to the white house, what is the top priority in the white house after this long weekend? does it align with concerns of the public and let me ask i always feel badly asking you about the top priority when you've got this covid variant to face. can it be anything but that as being the top priority? >> well, i think that's a great way of laying it out. i don't think there is anymore top priority than handling that potential variant and dealing with covid. you know, it's tricky when you're in the white house and it's their job, of course, to handle and juggle a lot of different things. josh laid it out really well. he's got his legislative package coming up. he's got the debt ceiling. he's got spending. there's a lot to do. certainly the reaction that we saw from the markets and just general worries from the world over the last few days about this new variant will undoubtedly move covid back to the very top of the agenda where it has really been already but in terms of washington narratives, that's also a risk for president biden because as all of us focus on that, it will be harder for him and harder for the white house to get attention on that spending bill. >> given that it is a travel day, people have to be thinking about the prices at the pump so you have the president ordering the oil to be released from the reserve and aiming to bring gas prices down to some extent but this is what i was told yesterday. >> it will have an impact. the challenge, of course, is we have to transition off of the fossil fuels to renewable fuels and we need to do that for our economy. we need to do it for our environment. we need to do it for our national security not to have these variance in the price of gasoline at the pump. for those reasons we have to accelerate our program to get off of fossil fuels. >> it's been a similar refrain among the white house and democrats, cut back on fossil fuels. do you think this is the approach they'll continue to take and does that address the public's more immediate concerns of spiking gas prices? >> yes and no. yes, i think they are going to continue that approach. we have asked them -- i asked president biden during a press conference in rome if he didn't see irony in pushing opec to increase oil and now this release of reserves from the united states and other countries. those are all focused on fossil fuels. his answer and other officials' answers have been this is what we have as tools to deal with the problem in the short-term but in the long-term as the senator was just saying, we need to switch to renewable energy and that is his broad long-term strategy but it's the prices at the pump right now that are hurting americans and that are also hurting his poll numbers. >> let's take a look at the january 6 committee because it's continuing its work this week but congressman adam schiff doesn't think they're the only ones who should be investigating the former president's conduct. this is the representative just this morning. >> i am concerned about certain things. in particular, frankly, this is not january 6th related specifically at least to the violence of that day but i am concerned that there does not appear to be an investigation unless it's being done very quietly by the justice department, for example, of the former president on the phone with the georgia secretary of state asking him to find and demand he find 11,780 votes that don't exist. the precise number he would need to overturn joe biden's victory in that state. >> what do we know about this? is there any information that biden's doj is investigating or considering an investigation on this front? >> i don't have an answer to that. i do think that there is pressure for it. i have seen antidotally that pressure increasing amongst democrats with president biden's doj. there's certainly been criticism out there about more not being done. i don't have reporting to say what they're doing but to your question, there is a lot of desire for more from people who believe that the january 6th committee is not enough. >> okay. jeff mason, safe travels home. let's make a date for next sunday. look forward to seeing you then. the next step for the killers of aubrey. we'll have more next. nce with d. >> are you ready to start a great career? >> safelite is now hiring. >> you will love your job. >> there's room to grow... >> ...and lots of opportunities. >> so, what are you waiting for? >> apply now... >> ...and make a difference. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ >> man, i love that song! 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>> thank you, julie, for that. murder convictions against three men in the killing of ahmaud arbery in georgia represent just the beginning in the pursuit of justice in this case. travis mcmichael, his father, gregory mcmichael and william bryan will be sentenced in a matter of weeks. joining us now is al sharpton. you were closely involved in this case. you were wearing your hat as the head of the national action network but looking ahead, does it feel to you like there's a long road yet to be traveled? >> definitely the road is certainly not ended. you have the federal hate charges that will be moving forward and then, of course, all three defendants have announced they're going to appeal the conviction that they just all were given in the state trial that just concluded in brunswick, georgia. so we're going to go through the federal trial. we're going to go through as decided on the appeals so there's still a long road ahead but certainly it was good to see in the judgment of the family and many supporting the convictions particularly when you see in this particular case that we were concerned in the civil rights community part of this that you had a jury of 11 whites and one black in a city that was 55% black but those whites looked past race and looked at the evidence and with courage voted against their neighbors knowing they are giving them a sentence that is calling for life in jail. i think that's a bright sign that these people will be held accountable and i would expect that to continue through the appeal process as well as in the federal trial. >> you know, i'm sure you're familiar with columnist leonard pits who wrote the arbery verdict that justice will prevail and relief that many felt who didn't get justice for racial bias killings and police killings as well but is this decision that profound? shouldn't justice for all be the minimum standard? >> the fact that it is such a relief tells us that it is not expected outcome and is not the minimum standard and i think that's what we're striving for. you know, when they told us the verdict was in, i sat in the courtroom holding hands with the mother and father and the mother had faith until the end there would be convictions. because i had been in the courtroom with people like the mother of a man killed by police in new york and sean bell and others, i was preparing the mother and father for the worst given history. this is an aberration unfortunately rather than the normal. until we can live in a nation where we can say when the evidence is clear that it does not matter the race of the victim, until we get there, we're not where we ought to be as a nation yet which is why we must continue to fight. >> when you compare this, the arbery case outcome to the verdict in kyle, do you believe it's clear? >> you have a judge that seemed like he was part of the defense team and doing outrageous things like saying you couldn't call those who were killed victims but you could call them looters. things that seemed to have his thumb on the scale. i don't think you had an even trial at all in the case where you have those who can bear arms and have intention of dealing with protesters. he said he came because of protests going on in kenosha, wisconsin, in the shooting in the back of jacob blake jr. so how you can say you're going into a case across state lines, get an ar-15 rifle and you were the aggressor there for that reason and say you're defending yourself is not acceptable for those of us looking at these situations. >> getting back to the arbery trial, prosecutors said they had evidence of travis mcmichael using racial slurs on social media and in a text message but that was never presented to the jury. in fact, the prosecution did not appear to reference race as much as the defense did when the jury was not present. why do you think it played out that way? >> i think that the prosecutors were trying to stay right on the state charges knowing that the hate crime trial will bring up the racial language that we hear they have evidence of. i think that it also robbed the defense from saying at the hate trial that this was litigated in the state trial and try to make some reach for double jeopardy. they cannot do that now. they cannot say that race was a factor by the prosecution in this trial and they have to defend these emails and other evidence we hear exists and they cannot claim that this was already litigated and, therefore, it should not be litigated again. >> last question. when you look at these two verdicts, are there lessons you take away in telling us what still needs to be done when prosecuting these cases? >> i think that we must look at the laws in wisconsin around self-defense which means we ought to look at it across the country. i think we also must look at the behavior of judges. but i also think that we can start moving toward the day where we see a fair balance in jury selection despite the good outcome in brunswick, we still should not have trials where you have such a tilted in terms of race or diverity one way in a trial as we saw in brunswick. there are lessons and corrections that we must make to the criminal justice system. and we must keep fighting as much as we were happy with the verdict, we still have things like voting rights bill that is not up, george floyd criminal law enforcement policing bill that is up all which indirectly deal with this matter. let's not forget, alex, there is a prosecutor in brunswick that was charged with interfering with the evidence and not charging these three men convicted of murder. it's chilling to me that the local prosecutor is now facing jail herself because she would not do what another prosecutor did and successfully did it by getting convictioned. >> i agree with you as i always do. thank you. we'll look for you in 2 hours and 15 minutes here on msnbc. a realtime check on the skies as many head home after the holiday and concerns about the new covid variant waiting in the wings. hes here. new aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? 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>> 20 million people are traveling over the course of this week and i just want to note, alex, that our program to keep people in their jobs through the payroll support program, the only industry that got this because unions drove this plan, allowed us to meet demand and kept air travel prices down. in fact, we're even lower than we were. inflation hasn't touched us at all so people have been out traveling getting back to their families and that's great. but as we see this new variant cropping up, we have real concerns because air travel is not going to rebound until we have full international travel back, until we have business travel back and as we see borders being shut down again we have a lot of concerns. we need to make sure the u.s. is leading. president biden has taken this position and u.s. is leading on getting a waiver of intellectual property rights at the wto to manufacture this vaccine and get it spread to the rest of the world. >> a on effort all you did to secure those things for your union members and keeping them employed and the like. when it comes to this omicron variant, when you think about airline and crews have been doing to try to keep themselves and passengers safe, is there anything more they can be doing? you have the masks. you are making people social distance to the best you can before they get on the plane but once they're on the plane they're packed in now. >> yeah. so the airplane cabin because of what we have done, the masks, filtration, deep cleaning and the fact that flight attendants are enforcing those rules throughout the process meant it's one of the most controlled environments inside. one of the most controlled inside environments and we have not seen cases that have been any higher than the regular infections happening throughout the rest of the community. so it can be a safe place because of that control. it's not going to be safe if we're not taking a worldwide approach to ending this pandemic. and making sure that we are getting that vaccine spread -- make sure the mutations are not happening because they tend to happen where the vaccination rates are quite low. >> you let me ask you about the reports of airline workers who are going on strike ahead of thanksgiving. they are pushing for higher wages, health care, retirement benefits. all that makes sense. but has there been any movement on getting employees what they are asking for? because the question is, could there be a possibility of more strikes soon, during the upcoming busy holiday season? >> there will definitely be more strikes, alex. we are not seeing the kind of return to american workers that is necessary. people were really concerned about being able to meet the demand this holiday season. we negotiated where incentives didn't already exist over the holiday period for airlines to put those benefits in place. but that is not going to continue on. people are going to have long term concerns about their ability to retire, their ability to take care of their families and their ability to live on a good living wage and have flexibility at work as well. no longer can we stretch the american worker so far. >> let me ask you real quick about merit garld saying the u.s. prosecutors should go after those folks that are coming after you, the flight attendants, over mask mandates. there are a record number of incidents that have been reported. how hopeful are you that it will be a deterrent. >> it will be a deterrent as soon as people start going to jail. we applaud this. merrick garland taking this step was critically important. people got to go to jail and understand the consequences and keep everyone safe on board. >> safe travels. thank you. >> good to talk to you, too. meantime, early number crunching from the first big weekend of holiday shopping. 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[upbeat music] still fresh ♪ in wash-scent booster ♪ downy unstopables numbers of note on holiday shopping, unfortunately, this holiday season many americans are forced to cut back. a deloitte survey shows lower income americans will spend 22% less this holiday season. meanwhile, households making more than $100,000 will increase their spending by 5%. five times more than what lower income people will. sadly, the survey shows 11% will not buy any gifts this year, that's the highest level since their first annual holiday survey in 2011. that's it for me. yasmin vossoughian continues our coverage in just a moment here on msnbc. oment here on msnbc ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ to unveil them to the world. when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. 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