steel factory in mariupol where civilians are trapped and trying to escape. local police say as many as 1,000 people including many children have been living there hoping for some protection from russia s shelling. vladimir putin s forces have surrounded the place and the new deadline has passed for the people inside to get out before azo azovstal, the name of the steel factory, is destroyed. the situation is so desperate that one brigade commander is asking for a third country to come in and evacuate the civilians and his team who are defending the plant. translator: this is our statement to the world. it may be our last statement. we might have only a few days or even hours left. the enemy s units are ten times larger than ours. they have supremacy in the he artillery and units lotioned ed the ground. we appeal to the world leaders to help us. but let s begin with russia s missile test. state media reports that putin says this launch will, quote, give thought to those
executives say they ll need to cancel many more tomorrow. then, breaking his silence did i embellish my resume, yes, i did. and i m sorry. but i m still the same guy, i m not a fraud. republican congressman-elect george santos admits he lied about major parts of his resume, but wait until he explains his jewish heritage claims. and miami dolphins quarterback tua tagovailoa has been placed in concussion protocol, hours after playing an entire game. welcome to the lead, i m phil mattingly, in for jake tapper. and we begin this hour with the winter travel meltdown plaguing a major u.s. airline. thousands of southwest airlines passengers are still stranded, unable to get to their destinations. some of those passengers is been trying to travel for five days or more, after a massive winter storm battered parts of the u.s. southwest canceled nearly 2,600 flights today, accounting for more than 85% of all flights canceled in the u.s. and the company s telling passengers
In gabe s piece talk about the need for federal action in some way, shape or form. the u.s. transportation department says it will investigate what s happening. is there accountability that you can pinpoint that would actually help change this if the company itself is not willing to do so? you know, i don t know what the federal government getting involved, and if that s their per view, certainly, they can do that, this is a very simplistic problem to fix. something that, like i said, we ve been mentioning and trying to partner with the company since 2016 when we identified these, and it is literally the reinvestment back into the company and infrastructure and better software system to be able to handle crew management or the crew scheduling part of it, and it is the addiction to reassignments, massive reassignments, when something goes haywire, whether it s weather-related or atc-related. that s what s gotten us to where we are. the pilots don t have the tools.
Be reset. so, they re canceling flights to help reset their systems and their crews. the pilots union says the system is so old that the company is having a hard time tracking planes and crews. they don t know where we are, they don t know where airplanes are. reporter: travelers stuck in lines or on hold for hours. calling southwest, calling the airlines, nowhere to be found. i got hung up on multiple times. there s no option to rebook anything online. oh, i ve been on hold for five hours and 43 minutes. reporter: customers trying to track down their lug and. pam says she s diabetic and needs the medicine in one of her bags. kind of scary, but i could do into a diabetic shock. reporter: christmas with her family never happened. now she s just trying to get home. i love my family. and i really had my hopes up. that i was going to be able to see them. and it hurts.