variant. pfizer and moderna have previously said their boosters should offer a high level of protection as well. we will have much more on the pandemic in just a few minutes, but we begin with u.s. tensions with russia, tensions that will be the focus of president biden's call with vladimir putin this afternoon. two world leaders will be speaking for the second time this month. the white house says russia requested the call, comes as the u.s. and nato allies grow increasingly alarmed about russia's buildup of troops along its border with ukraine. over the weekend putin said he would consider a slue of options if the west failed to agree to his security demands. he would not rule out military action. i'm joined by nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in london, nbc news white house cress didn't mike memoli in delaware with the president and michael mcfaul who is now an nbc news international affairs analyst. let's start with richard in london and more on today's meeting between the two world leaders. >> reporter: it has become something of a guessing game among international diplomats, will vladimir putin invade ukraine or not? or stage a partial invasion. negotiations have been under way. detailed talks about ukraine are supposed to take place in mid-january, but before those talks do go forward, vladimir putin said he wants to have one more direct conversation with president biden. once again, president biden and vladimir putin are trying to pull back from the brink of war in ukraine. u.s. officials say this is at putin's request. they wouldn't speculate why, but added if putin wants to talk, president biden is ready to engage, and that the u.s. goal is deescalation. with muddy trenches stretching for miles and fields of land mines, ukraine's border with russia is this morning perhaps the most volatile flash point in the world. a military escalation here could trigger the biggest conflict in europe since world war ii. it's an uneven tale of the tape. on one side are u.s. allied ukrainian troops, they're motivated and battle tested from years of fighting against russian-backed separatists. the ukrainian troops are armed with american tank killing javelin missiles, including dozens recently supplied by washington. but when we visited the front a few weeks ago, ukrainian soldiers told us they couldn't withstand a full russian onslaught for long. >> hope for the best and get ready for the worst. >> reporter: on the other side of this dangerous border stands the full might of russia's powerful army. despite russian reports of a partial pull back from the border region, u.s. officials say a significant force remains in position. presidents biden and putin have already spoken twice about the crisis, in person in geneva this summer and again by video call just three weeks ago. president biden has said u.s. troops wouldn't fight russia directly, but the u.s. and europe have come up with a battery of new sanctions they claim will cripple russia's economy if it moves further against ukraine. putin's goal from the call is unclear. yesterday he was playing hockey with the president of belarus, the russian leader is in the process of strengthening a political union with belarus and he may also want to add ukraine to russia's expanding domains. russia says it has no hostile intentions toward ukraine and is merely trying to defend itself against nato expansion. u.s. and ukrainian officials do not agree. >> richard, thank you. that's the backdrop. so, mike, looking ahead, what is the white house's main objective now going into today's meeting? >> reporter: well, joe, again, it was president putin who requested this meeting. while white house officials are saying they don't quite know why he has requested it, they said it wasn't a particularly difficult calculation on their part to accept that request because president biden as one senior administration put it feels that there is no substitute for direct leader to leader conversation like this, especially with the situation as precarious as the one we potentially face with ukraine. so you have to look at the leverage both sides feel they have in this situation. president putin has it in the form of 100,000 members of his military that he has put on ukraine's borders at various points along the russia-ukraine border, but president biden feels like he has a strong hand as well. we've seen since that conversation the two leaders had earlier this month the white house engaging in continued diplomacy not just with russia at a lower level but with our western allies, some of our nato allies but particularly the conversations we have had with ukraine itself that the white house feels puts the president in a strong position to have this conversation today. they are standing by the threat that the president issued to president putin earlier this month that there will be very severe economic consequences should russia invade. the white house also making it clear as they accept this invitation and look forward to the talks in january that diplomacy is their preferred path and that's why president biden is also going to say he wants to see further deescalation on the part of russia heading into those talks. >> ambassador, we will bring you in here. so should the fact that putin requested this call set off any alarms in the west wing? what do you make of that and who has the leverage here? >> no, i think it's a good sign. president putin rarely asks for calls. i worked in the obama administration for five years, i think i remember one time that he asked for a call, it's usually the other way around. that means he has a message he wants to send to the president. and because the talks have already been organized in january, both bilateral talks between russia and the united states, followed by talks between russia and nato, followed by multilateral talks about european social security at the usce i think it's highly unlikely that he's calling to say i'm about to invade ukraine. doesn't mean there's going to be success in those talks. putin has put out some demands that i think are completely unacceptable, but i think today is a good sign that he wants to talk to biden before those negotiations begin. >> ambassador mcfaul, what do we make of the fact that the call seems to be happening to quickly? we just got word of the call yesterday. what does that tell us? >> well, it's a good sign. it means putin has a message he wants to convey to biden. now, the message may be if you don't do everything i've threatened i'm still going to invade. i want to be clear, this crisis was completely created by vladimir putin. there was no new negotiations about ukraine joining nato, that's all a fabricated crisis by vladimir putin. he is threatening, if you don't do x, y and z i'm going to invade and there is no way in my opinion that president biden or any european leader will accept some of the maximalist demands in these treaties that vladimir putin has floated. but i do think it's a good sign he wants to talk before the more formal substantive negotiations start in a couple of weeks' time and i think it's highly unlikely before those talks are concluded that you will see military action. >> and, ambassador, i mean, aides often spend days, even weeks preparing presidents for calls with advair y'all leaders like putin. what's the type of prep work that likely went into this call? is it okay that it was such a short window? >> yeah, it's okay. the president has a fantastic team at the national security council, many of them i used to work with in the obama administration. they know what their talking points are, they know what their policies are. it does take a lot of prep work, a lot of people aren't taking this holiday off at the white house, but i think it's an important sign, it's always better to talk than to try to infer intentions and motivations through tweets and political statements, public statements. these private phone calls i think are extremely important for deescalation. >> mike memoli, as you said, the u.s. and russia scheduled to resume the security talks next month. does today's call change anything about that, the timeline or anything about those january talks? >> reporter: no, and what it seems has been the case here is we've heard in the form of president putin and his traditional year-end press conference over the last few weeks that he wanted to talk again with president biden directly. so when we heard the announcement just a few days ago of these series of talks in geneva, clearly these had been themselves the subject of negotiations between all of the parties involved, and so what we heard from the white house yesterday when i asked about who would be participating in it, whether today's call between these two leaders might preclude them speaking again as part of those negotiations a senior administration official saying, no, those conversations will be primarily on the u.s. side involving state department officials, the national security council also as well as officials from the pentagon will be participating as well, but that this is an important sort of precursor for those conversations. that president putin in particular seems to want to help set the agenda for those talks about not just ukraine, but a range of other issues. these actual conversations are happening through sort of a diplomatic channel that usually focuses on nuclear proliferation as well as in the current case, cooperation that the u.s. wants from russia as it relates to another major headache involving iran and its nuclear program. this conversation will help set the table for those talks in a few weeks' time. >> ambassador mcfaul, mike memoli, michael and mike, thank you for kicking us off this hour. the u.s. has its worst day ever setting a new covid record just as the country and world get set for new year's eve gatherings. later, a look back at 2021, all of it, well, almost all of t the highs, lows, biggest news stories and biggest moments that made up this roller coaster year. you're watching msnbc reports. l year you're watching msnbc reports. i'm so glad we're finally on vacation. yeah, and kayak made it so easy - searching hundreds of travel sites to find us a great flight. my ears still won't pop after the flight but i don't even care.... what? kayak. search one and done. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep what? to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this before. i've never woken up like this before. crafted with clinically studied plant-based ingredients that work naturally with your body. for restorative sleep like never before. welcome back. fema has a message for some of the states hit hard by covid, help is coming. we learned that 65 more military medical personnel will deploy to arizona, michigan in the coming days to treat covid patients. the cdc is out with a new warning in the past hour telling all americans to avoid cruise ship travel no matter what their vaccination status is. that news comes as covid surges to record levels, more americans have tested positive for covid in the last week alone than they did in the entire first three months of the pandemic. the good news, right now cases are far outpacing hospitalizations. two-thirds of americans over the age of five are fully vaccinated, 68 million of those folks have received their booster shots. joining me now from greenwich hospital in connecticut is antonia hilton, gary grumbach is in the nation's capital and also joining us is dr. peter hotez, the director of texas children's hospital center for vaccine development. connecticut's governor announced the state would distribute 3 million test kits, 6 million n95 masks. how are they rolling all of that out and is it going to be enough? >> reporter: well, joe, frankly the rollout hasn't gotten off the ground yet. as you mentioned they wanted to have millions of n95 masks, those 3 million at home test kits to give out for free to residents and people who work this connecticut all around the state. the goal was to have that launched today, people were going to pick up supplies early this morning, bring them back to their municipalities and start giving them out to people, but we found out late last night through a press release from the governor's office and i spoke to officials in the southern connecticut area that shipments that were supposed to fly out from the west coast last night just didn't leave and haven't made it here. so they're hoping they can get started tomorrow right before the holidays. and the hope was to have those in hand before this critical weekend because hospital systems are already feeling the strain. strain in terms of the numbers of patients who are showing up to hospitals like greenwich hospital behind me here, but also strain to the health care workforce. take a listen to my conversation with the chief nursing officer here. >> we are seeing an unprecedented number of sick calls. we had as of two days ago 45 of our nursing employees that were out with covid, either positive or had exposure, community exposure. this is real and i said earlier you have to trust the science. patients are doing well when they have been vaccinated, received their booster. those that are not doing well are those that are unvaccinated. >> reporter: the team here is really emphasizing that testing is a key part right now of understanding what's going on on the ground, where the positivities are. they are testing about 600 people, more than that a day. while we wait to get our kits on hand in the state they want people to get tests like that before they go to any events this weekend, joe. >> let's go a little bit to the south. gary is in d.c. which is seeing more cases per capita than any other place in the country right now, but the cases may actually be an undercount. gary, what's happening there and what does this mean for the return to school there? >> reporter: hey there, joe. i want to show new line behind me, we are at one of the eight libraries that d.c. has set up to hand out at home rapid tests. we saw hundreds of people in line here before the doors even opened at noon. this is all part of a program they started last week. the city says 108,000 people have picked up these tests, but only 17,000 have actually reported the tests and the results back to the city. that's where that undercount can come in. the city is urging people to take the test and immediately go back on line to a portal and say whether or not you were positive or negative. they say they really want the negative tests, too, to see where in the city are the positives and where in the city are the negatives. this is all coming as d.c. public schools announced yesterday that all 90,000 of their students are expected to show up on tuesday to pick up a rapid test, take that test on tuesday, report that test back on tuesday and if they don't they won't be allowed in the school building on wednesday without a negative test. joe? >> dr. hotez, that line we just saw during gary's report shows d.c. cases going straight up right now, the fear is a lot of the country is going to see that in the coming weeks. dr. fauci said this morning on cnbc cases may be weeks away from peaking in the u.s. do you agree with that assessment? millions of cases every week, how much worse do you fear it could get? >> well, you know, i think the way this is going to work, joe, is we're seeing this kind of regionalization of this big wave, this big firestorm, what my friend mike osterholm calls this virus blizzard. it's starting first in the northeast, washington, d.c. is just unbelievable level of transmission, new york city. this is going to continue probably for a couple of more weeks, then you are now seeing it pick up in pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, illinois. and then it's going to go over the rest of the country and then we will starting to down in new york and washington, d.c. where there is a good possibility. i think what you're going to see whether you want to call it a movable feast or a moving wave, i think that may be the pattern that we've seen. and we've seen things like this before where it picks up in one part of the country first and then it kind of sweeps along and i think that may be the pattern. >> dr. hotez, we know when it comes to helping our hospitals, vaccinations are a key. right now 36% of fully vaccinated adults have received their booster shot, only a quarter of kids between the ages of 5 and 11 have even received at least their first shot. how much does that concern you especially as kids return to school next week. >> what we're seen with omicron is a little bit what we saw with delta in the summer and in texas. omicron is the king of transmissibility, what happens is kids get swept up in that and become infected. it's not that the virus is selectively targeting the kids, it's just that they're getting swept up in the firestorm or the blizzard and that's what you're seeing in new york and washington, what you will see in ohio and illinois. and that will be reflected in some kids being hospitalized, some of them being hospitalized because of other reasons and they were testing and shown to be positive, others actually hospitalized because of their covid. so we are going to see a lot of kids become infected in the coming weeks. so this is going to be very important when we talk about opening schools. i think it's going to be really challenging to open schools in this kind of virus blizzard, this virus firestorm. i have advised places like washington, d.c. and new york if you can hold it off a couple of weeks, recognizing that that's really difficult given all the schools that kids have missed, maybe make it up on the pack end or shortened vacations in the summer, that might be one way to go. i think it's going to be really challenging when you have a virus agent that's looking like it's as transmissible as measles, which is a historically been the most transmissible virus agent. >> yeah, that's saying something if you are comparing it to measles. now, the johnson & johnson announces its booster shot 85% effective against hospitalization in south africa. the cdc, though, has already said people shouldn't get j&j if an mrna vaccine is available. pfizer and moderna. what does this mean? are mrna vaccines still preferred, do you think? >> certainly in the united states the acip committee pretty much made it very difficult for doctors to recommend now the j&j vaccine, which is unfortunate because it is a very good vaccine in two doses and has even some advantages over mrna in terms of, i think, more durable and longer lasting protection because it stimulates a type of cell called cda positive cells. with the acip coming out with that statement it's going to be very hard to kind of walk it back. so right now i think a lot of the emphasis for the j&j vaccine is to try to do damage control to make certain that that doesn't contaminate enthusiasm for this vaccine globally because we really need this along with our vaccine and others to really stop the rise of new variants coming out of the global south out of africa, south asia and latin america. so vaccinating the world is going to be the big challenge in 2022. >> dr. hotez, antonia and gary, thank you all. appreciate it. up next, in 2021 schools, hospitals, the country's meat supply and more were attacked by cyber criminals and the threat is only getting worse. we will talk to an expert next. and guilty, a much anticipated verdict in the gill ain't maxwell case brings that closely watched trial to an end. we will tell you what's next for the now convicted sex trafficker. you're watching "msnbc reports." trafficker you're watching "msnbc reports." he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. 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>> well, there are lots of things that keep me up at night, i would say that 2021 was really the year that there was a significant increase in understanding of and focus of attention on systemic risks. sources of risk that really affect more than just one company, for example, but affect a whole -- have a widespread impact. we saw that with solar winds which happened in 2020, but the implications of which were being felt in 2021 and continued to this day. where fitting into a software developer can have an impact on potentially thousands of customers. colonial pipeline and jbs meat packing were examples of systemic risk because of interdependencies. we had an attack on the corporate network of colonial pipeline that impacted operations. when axios says it became everyone's problem when you have long lines at the gas stations and concerns about increased prices on meat, that becomes a kitchen table issue and that means it becomes a question at town halls for members of congress and then they sit up and notice. but perhaps most alarming, and, again, what keeps me up at night was an attack last february on the water system in a little place in florida where someone was able to remotely access the operations and was in a position to put in place -- to add to the water system potentially lethal amounts of lai, for example. that is what we really worry about. >> thank you for walking us through and reminding us just some of those attacks from this past year and how they did impact us. i want to read you an excerpt from a recent piece in foreign affairs by former principal deputy director of national intelligence sue gordon and eric rosen balk. they write washington's decade spent in the thrall of an outmoded conception of cyber conflict, the damage caused by leaks and sloppiness meant when u.s. president joe biden took office earlier this year he inherited a mess. getting u.s. policy back on track will require his administration to substantially change the way that washington conceives of and carries out cybersecurity. your thoughts on that, and what do you think that approach should look like? >> yes, well, that was another change in 2021 that was very welcome and that was that we saw presidential attention on this issue. i think it was the first time cybersecurity was mentioned in a state of the union address multiple times. and we have senior leadership in the white house, in the national cyber director and a deputy director for national security and strong leadership in my old shop at the cybersecurity infrastructure security agency. so that's a significant change that needed to happen. and the national director can bring a much more coherent approach across government and the private sector. that's the second thing that really needs to change. we need to move from a notion of pushing information across to the private sector to an understanding of the need to fully collaborate in planning, for how to prevent and respond to activities, and an understanding what's going on. a public/private collaboration, operational relationship, and that's something that really does need to change and it is changing. >> in your mind, and we're tight on time here, but how big is the threat right now from state-sponsored actors, rogue nations like russia, china, iran, north korea? how should the u.s. respond to state-sponsored attacks quickly? >> it's a very significant threat. what we've always worried about is the combination of capability and intent. russia and china have the greatest capability and with geopolitical tensions rising, as your earlier segment on ukraine pointed out, and in the south china seas and potentially with respect to taiwan, we should be gravely concerned. not so much that they will take action, for example, to take down the grid, but demonstrate their capability to do so and thereby deter us from taking actions we should be taking in our national interests. >> suzanne spaulding thank you for your expertise and joining us. happy new year to you. >> thank you, joe. happy new year to you, too. coming up, what's next after the guilty verdict in the ghislaine maxwell trial? plus, we have a look back at some of the year's other big trials and so much more from 2021. you're watching "msnbc reports." m 2021 you're watching "msnbc reports." nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: just stop. go for a run. go for 10 runs! run a marathon. instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette. new vicks vapostick. strong soothing vapors... help comfort your loved ones. for chest, neck, and back. it goes on clear. no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick. earn about covid-19, the more questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. welcome back. it's now up to a federal judge to determine how long ghislaine maxwell spends in prison. a jury convicted jeffrey epstein's long time associate of five of the six charges she was facing in her sex trafficking trial, that includes the most serious charge, sex trafficking of minors which could land her in prison for all to 40 years. the judge in the case has not set a sentencing date yet. jurors deliberated for close to 40 hours over six days before reaching their verdict. prosecutors say maxwell and epstein devised a scheme to lure young girls into sexual relationships in three states, as well as the u.s. virgin islands. four accusers testified during the trial. maxwell's attorneys are vowing to appeal her conviction. up next, as democrats look to rescue president biden's agenda in congress we have a look ahead at what's in store in the new year with a top house democrat. you're patching "msnbc reports." democrat you're patching "msnbc reptsor." i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. but my nunormal with nucala? 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>> yeah, i think it is. we're headed into really turbulent waters, i think, in 2022. it doesn't necessarily mean, you know, the end of the world, but we better take that very seriously and i think virginia was the canary in the coal mine in terms of that kind of swing, which obviously if replicated next november would be catastrophic. so we have plenty of time to try to recover, we have a great economic message it seems to me that we can run on. we passed very transformative legislation and we have one more bill to go. so we need to focus on the positive. we need to hone our message. we need to make sure people know what we've done for them during this pandemic in engineering and economic recovery that's almost miraculous. >> at the time in november when we spoke with you you also said the way to get out of defcon 2 was unity, putting aside dysfunction on the president's agenda. that hasn't happened since you made those comments. we know what happened with build back better. so what is the way forward on build back better after the house version basically died in the senate, at least for now? >> you know, we're obviously going to have to sit down and work something out with joe manchin. you know, we came close. i think we can make something work. both sides are going to have to give a little. i think the build back better legislation which passed the house, and i was proud to support it, is transformative. not all of that's going to survive this process, we understand that, but i don't think we want to focus on what didn't get done. i think we want to focus on what did get done. and, you know, the infrastructure investment is enormous and it's going to be transformative for a generation. the huge covid bill we passed back in march has allowed for an economic recovery that's rather astounding. you see it in consumer spending over the holidays, a record. you see it in wall street, a record. you see it in economic growth, nearly a record in terms of 7% growth over the fourth quarter. you see it in the lowest unemployment filings since 1969. so we have a lot to talk about. there's obviously a lot still to be done and the pandemic continues to rage, but i think we have a good story to tell if we tell it. >> you've mentioned messaging a few times now. i mean, do you think the problem is getting things done or do you think you need to do a better job of messaging? >> i think we need to do a better job of messaging. for example, you know, i heard in the virginia campaign which you referenced in the fall democrats aren't getting anything done. well, i mean, we passed a $1.9 trillion covid relief bill in march. huge. it cut child poverty in america in half, one piece of legislation, which rivals anything lyndon johnson did at the height of the great society program. but we stopped talking about it. i think, you know, that's got to be addressed. democrats have to really have a finely honed message that actually we're doing a lot for the average american and it's working. >> president biden was -- finally, sorry, the biden/putin call is coming later today, you are on the house foreign affairs. what are you looking for out of this call? we're tight on time but in a few seconds what do you want to see? >> i think president biden has to reiterate that there are boundaries for both the united states and nato and that we're not going to hand over ukraine's future to vladimir putin. so the russian demands are nonstarters and the russians have to sit down and talk. now, the good news is talks are scheduled, three different sets of talks scheduled in the second week of january. my hope is we can try to deescalate this situation and get russia to understand that ukraine is a sovereign nation and entitled to set its own destiny. >> congressman gerry connolly, thanks for joining us. happy new year. >> my pleasure. you, too, joe. up next, a new vaccine, a new president, an attack on the capitol, historic weather events and closely-watched trials. those are just a few of the things that happened in 2021. it's almost new year's eve which means we're taking a look back on the years biggest moments next. look back on the years biggest moments next i got a fancy grown up lamp to make me feel like a fancy grown up. mhm. adulting ain't easy. ooh! check this one out. waffles loves her dog bed. we can hardly get her out of it. she's kind of a diva. yes, waffles! living your best life. [woof] i'm telling y'all there's no place like wayfair to make your home totally you. ooh! i want that. ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa.♪ try pepto bismol with a powerful coating action. for fast and soothing relief. pepto bismol for fast relief when you need it most. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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. welcome back. as we get ready to welcome 2022 tomorrow night my producers and i dug through this year's archives looking back at almost everything that happened in 2021. some things in 2021. some things we want to remember, some we would like to forget. as you are about to see, this was a history-making year. >> five, four, three, two -- >> reporter: in the closing moments of 2020, as the ball dropped above a sparsely-populated times square, a weary nation cautiously hoped for better times. dreams that were quickly dampened. 2021 was just six days old when a mob of trump supporters stormed the u.s. capitol, hoping to overturn the presidential election. the images from that day captured in the capitol rotunda, speaker pelosi's office, the senate chamber, were portraits from a deadly uprising that stunned the world but failed to stop lawmakers from certifying the election results. >> joseph r. biden jr. of the state of delaware has received 306 votes. >> reporter: in the days that followed, the streets of washington looked more like a war zone as the nation's focus shifted from insurrection to inauguration. at the scaled-down ceremony, president biden was sworn in as america's 46th president. >> i, joseph robinette biden jr., do solemnly swear -- >> reporter: kamala harris became the country's first female vp. the outgoing president refused to stick around for the festivities but couldn't escape another impeachment. >> the president of the united states incited this insurrection. >> reporter: accused of inciting the riots, donald trump became the first american president to be impeached twice. he was later acquitted by the senate. >> donald john trump, former president of the united states, is not guilty. >> reporter: it was a dramatic start to a year still dominated by covid. >> we learned this morning that the pandemic has now taken 400,000 lives in the u.s. >> reporter: as the country emerged from a deadly winter, vaccines became more available, first to the most vulnerable, eventually to all adults and some kids. despite the welcome shot in the arm, more americans died from covid this year than last as the more contagious delta variant surged and hospitals filled again, treating mostly unvaccinated patients. >> now we are treating patients in the hallways. >> reporter: mask mandates sparked rage. at school board meetings. >> let the parents make the decisions. let the kids breathe. >> reporter: as classrooms returned cautiously to in-person learning. >> i would rather wear it because i don't want to get covid. >> reporter: our variablies expanded to include new terms. breakthrough cases. boosters. and by year's end, omicron. as the pandemic raged, so did nature's fury. swears huddled under all the blankets that we have. >> reporter: in february, a deadly ice storm paralyzed texas, leaving millions without power. wildfires continued to ravage the west with hurricane ida carving a path of destruction that stretched from louisiana to new york. and this month, more than a hundred were killed by a series of rare december tornadoes in kentucky and surrounding states. one twister cutting a path more than 200 miles long. it was a year of fatal tragedies. the astroworld concert in houston. a christmas parade in waukesha, wisconsin. a condo building in surfside, florida. >> it felt like an earthquake. who ever thinks a building is going to collapse? >> reporter: the 12-story tower partially collapsed, killing nearly a hundred people while many slept. tragedy reached a movie set in new mexico when actor alec baldwin was handed a gun that fired a real round, killing the film's cinematographer. some of last year's biggest stories led to this year's biggest triumphs. >> we the jury in the above-entitled manner, as to count 1, unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony, find the defendant guilty. >> reporter: police officer derek chauvin was found guilty of murdering george floyd, a verdict celebrated outside the courthouse and beyond. in georgia, three white men were found guilty of murdering ahmaud arbery. in wisconsin, teenager kyle rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges after shooting three men during a protest last year. it exacerbated the growing political chasm in america over controversial issues including abortion and transgender rights. political harmony was not totally elusive. capitol hill lawmakers passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill and overwhelmingly voted to make juneteenth a federal holiday. >> warnock now 83.2%. >> reporter: if you thought our politics would settle down after the last election, think again. the year started with democrats flipping two senate seats in georgia and ended with republicans flipping the governor's seat in virginia. overseas, america ended a 20-year war in afghanistan, pulling the last remaining u.s. troops out of the country. the world watched as the taliban rapidly regained control and desperate afghans tried to flee. >> kabul is falling now. [ sound of gunfire ] >> reporter: the chaotic final days, a suicide bomber killed 13 service members, all of it sparking international criticism for how the withdrawal was handled. president biden stood by his decision. >> after 20 years of war in afghanistan, i refuse to send another generation of america's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago. >> reporter: in october, world leaders gathered once again in person in rome for the g20 conference and in glasgow for the u.n. climate conference. notably missing, queen elizabeth, forced to bow out over health concerns. it was a challenging year for the royal family, starting in march, when prince harry and megan markle sat down for an interview with oprah winfrey. >> there is a conversation with you. >> with harry. >> about how dark your baby is going to be? >> potentially, and what that would mean or look like. >> that conversation i am never going to share. >> reporter: the royals also said goodbye to the queen's husband of more than 70 years, prince philip, who died at the age of 99. his one of many notable deaths this year. former secretary of state colin powell. senator bob dole. actress cicely tyson. broadway legend stephen sondheim. "the sound of music"'s christopher plummer. ♪ edelweiss, edelweiss ♪ >> reporter: and so many more. it was the year "jeopardy" struggled to find a permanent host. britney was finally freed from her conservatorship. there were friends reunited. and blockbusters made their long-awaited return along with broadway and adele. the olympic flame belatedly burned one year later than planned as tokyo hosted the 2020 games in 2021. superstar gymnast simone biles traded high scores for high praise when she withdrew from several events to focus on her mental health. >> i have to focus on my mental wellbeing and that's what i did. >> reporter: tiger woods started swinging again after a car crash in california. and billionaires raced to space. captain kirk took a trip to the final frontier. >> i'm so filled with emotion. it was extraordinary. >> reporter: an inspiring reminder of what the future holds as we reflect on a year dominated by vaccines and hope 2022 offers a shot at something even better. >> and we've got even more to look back on to this year. tune in to msnbc saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. savannah sellers and i will show you more of the milestone moments of this year as we look ahead to 2022. you can watch "goodbye 2021: a year to remember and forget," saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. catch savannah and me at 7:00 a.m. eastern on our streaming network, nbc news now. msnbc coverage continues right now with katy tur. good to be with you, i'm katy tur. the day before new year's eve, and more signs the country is shutting down, not by mandate but by necessity. shortages at hospitals, police, and fire departments and airports. here in new york city, subway lines frozen. not enough mta workers to staff the system. let us start, though, with our crushed health care system. at the request of fema, the pentagon today announced it is deploying more medical personnel to help assist staff-depleted hospitals in pennsylvania, michigan, and arizona. in green bay, wisconsin, 23 naviy doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are providing relief to hospital workers there. meanwhile at the airports, another miserable day for travelers. more than a thousand flights have been canceled

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