the little town of bethlehem marks christmas eve in a year where tourism has been blighted by covid. and in herfirst christmas broadcast since the death of prince philip, hello and welcome. 1.74 million people in the uk had coronavirus on december 19, according to survey by the office for national statistics that s up by more than 400,000 people on the figure three days earlier. this equates to 1 in 35 people, or 2.7% of the population of the united kingdom. and in london this rises to around 1 in 20 people likely to test positive for covid 19, the highest proportion for any region in england. it comes amid news of a glimmer of christmas hope from the uk health security agency s drjenny harries, who says new cononavirus data suggests that the 0micron variant may be less likely to lead to serious illness than the delta variant. but dr harries cautions that more information is needed, particularly about the impact on elderly and more vulnerable patients. elswhere, thailand
heartland. recovery efforts ongoing as families begin to process their new reality. devastating tornados leaving thousands homeless just weeks before christmas. i m sandra smith in new york. trace: i m trace gallagher in for john roberts. 88 people confirmed dead across the state and kentucky governor says 12 children are among the 74 killed in his state and more than 100 are still unaccounted for. sandra: hardest hit area is dawson creek, small town of 2500 are dead. the mayor saying 75% of the town is gone. trace: the community is trying to cope with what has happened there. sandra: steve harigan is live in dawson springs. this is unbelievable reality for those people there. this is a tough one, especially in a small town like this, where people have had to fend for themselves and others. there are people going through the wreckage of what used to be their homes, picking out whatever they can of value. just 2400 people live here, 95 people still missing and 13 con
the leaders of russia, and belarus, met in belarus, and they signed a document acknowledging that the ussr. the union of socialist republic was coming to an end. the baltic states had been first to bail out of the soviet union, but by the end of 1991, 30 years ago, all the constituents parts of the ussr had been fighting for, or just declaring their status as independent nations, and it was a landmark moment. 30 years ago, this week. when russia itself, acknowledge that the game was up. the leader of the ussr, mikhail gorbachev, realized that he would have to agree. and before the end of that month, on christmas night, december 25th, 1991. mikhail gorbachev, step down as head of the soviet union. the hammer and sickle flag of the ussr was brought down at the kremlin. the three color flag of the russian federation was rose in its place. and on christmas, 30 years ago, christmas 1991, boris yeltsin, became president of the russian federation. he served as president for eight ye
administration that would allow republicans to subvert election results that they don t like. it has been a leak thing to cover. the news on this bleak beat is always bad. if january six was supposed to be a shock to the system that would reset the republican party to this dangerous course, it works like one day, and then it really did not work. the embrace of all this very dark anti democracy, rule by force stuff, in the republican party has just gotten worse and worse. even since january 6th, it s a drag, it s been a drag to cover it, i ll tell you honestly. but today, bright spots. not being sarcastic, bright spots on a bunch of different fronts. let me tell you about some of them, first of all, in terms of accountability, cnn first to report tonight that one of the key alleged plotters with trump in the senior levels of his justice department, is finally going to come forward and testify. this is jeffrey clark, mr. clark with trump hatched this scheme, by which the justic
these stories are breaking at the last minute and developing as we re reporting them, but let s just get into it. forgive me any straying into the margins and veering out of the lanes a little bit. let me tell you what we ve been working on. first we re going to start with arizona. back in april, republicans in the state legislature in arizona announced they would start an audit with the election results in that state. they hired a contractor to do that audit, a guy who promoted qanon conspiracy stuff online, a guy who had little experience whatsoever with election audits, which is a thing. experts can do election audits. he was not one of those experts. in fact, he had no experience in the field at all. they nevertheless hired him and his company, which appeared to be just him, a company called cyber ninjas, and with that auspicious beginning just conducted a months-long circus in arizona. they started in arizona, they said it would take three weeks. it s five months later a