with the house committee investigating the capitol insurrection. in just minutes we ll hear from mccarthy at his weekly news conference, and you can be sure he ll face questions if he takes them about why he s going back on his promise to cooperate with the committee. the panel wants to speak to him because of his repeated contacts and calls with donald trump on the day of the violence siege. investigators believe mccarthy has valuable insight into trump s state of mind in the lead-up on the day of and in the days after the attack. but mccarthy now says he won t cooperate, calling the probe illegitimate and an abuse of power. the committee s vice chairman, republican liz cheney, she is now accusing mccarthy of trying to cover up what happened that day. and that is exactly one year to the day the house of representatives impeached trump a second time for inciting the insurrection. mccarthy, well, he seems to have forgotten his own words from one year ago today. the preside
and treasury secretary janet yellen are set to testify about the threats the new variant could pose to the u.s. economy. we ll bring you updates from that testimony as it happens. let s begin at the white house. cnn correspondent john harwood is there. interesting message, balanced message from biden yesterday. we re concerned, let s not panic, no plannings for lockdowns, and get your booster shot. what is the administration s plan going forward? reporter: as you both indicated, the critical factor to keep in mind right now is what we don t know, but also the market turbulence that erica alluded to just now is an indication of how interrelated all these issues are. that is to say the more uncertainty there is about the omicron variant, the more uncertainty about the persistence of the pandemic and the severity of the pandemic, the more uncertain the economic recovery is going to be, the tempering of inflation is going to be. all of the knock-on effects of this pandemic ar
several developments on the mystery still surrounding the omicron coronavirus variant. at least 19 countries now have confirmed cases of the variant, which has spread to five continents. this morning japan is taking a major step after reporting its first case, shutting down its borders to all foreign travelers. the south african doctor who was one of the first treat patients sick with this new variant calls travel bans an overreaction, especially since there is so much we still don t know. listen. i think it was an overreaction. i do understand that there s a lot of mutations in this virus. i do understand that it might be much more far spreading than the delta variant. people say yes, but i m trying to protect my people. so then the question would be how doon it s not in your country yet? how do you know that a lot of those infections that you are currently seeing that is severe, how do you know it s not related to the omicron? how do you know? here in the united states,
detailed today to fight this highly mutated variant. scientists are racing to determine if the current vaccines protect against this variant and if it spreads more easily. experts hope to have answers in about a week. in the meantime, markets continue to be rattled and the travel bans continue to multiply. more than 70 countries now including the u.s. have issued travel bans against southern african nations. omicron was first detected in south africa, and now has been confirmed in 20 countries. still not the u.s. though. and the cdc director says the u.s. now has far more tools today to fight variants than this time last year. compared to earlier this year when we were sequencing about 8,000 samples per week, we have increased our genomic sequencing capability, and we are now sequencing approximately 80,000 samples per week, about one in every seven pcr positive cases and that s more than any other country. our correspondents are following omicron s impact around the wo
a close look at the surge of meth in america through the eyes of a man who got hooked at the age of 11. welcome to the lead. i m dana bash in for jake tapper. we start with the health lead and new confirmed cases of the omicron covid variant with u.s. health officials racing to ramp up vaccinations and testing before a case is detected in the united states. 20 nations have now identified cases of this new strain. and it continues to have an impact on the global economy. moments ago, the dow finished the day s trading down more than 600 points after the moderna ceo said the vaccines may not have the same amount of protection against the omicron variant. but there is so much we don t know about its mysterious mutations like how dangerous is it? how easily can it spread as scientists race to learn more. and countries cut off travel from south africa where the variant was first discovered. a doctor there told cnn s world s response has been an overreaction. cnn s nick watt st