on friday alone. in los angeles, new cases, they are tripled in the last week. and the surging infections making a real mess of holiday travel for so many people. several major airlines canceling hundreds of flights this morning citing staffing shortages. and we are monitoring all the developments. nadia, you are in atlanta. what is the situation for travelers there right now? good morning. it is ererily quiet here simply because delta for one canceled about 250 flights on wednesday. so some people were able to get those cancellations earlier this weekend a try to make the changes as best they could. but really we re seeing cancellations happening all across the country with major airlines, delta canceling some 283 flights. united 238. and jetblue, 120. just for christmas day so far. but over this entire weekend, we re looking at more than 1,000 flights being canceled here in the u.s. and you can imagine that impact on travelers. i listened to some of them, their frustratio
hundreds of people being forced to evacuate, drinking water and power now a serious question after a huge dam is destroyed in ukraine. so who is to blame? a mother of four is shot and killed by a neighbor over a long-standing feud involving their children. the mother killed was black, the shooter white. police are investigating, but the victim s family is demand to go know why no one has been arrested. a new flash point in the division between church and state. the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country. so is this constitutional? this is cnn news central. massive evacuations are happening this hour in southern ukraine. an important dam on the dnipro river destroyed overnight. one ukrainian official accused russia of destroying the dam to, quote, create obstacles for any ukrainian counteroffensive. russia is blaming ukraine. video shows water gushing through the destroyed portion of the dam you can see there. i want to show you another angle
the coast of myrtle beach, south carolina. tonight, military crews are jam bling to recover the wreckage, and china is responding angrily. meanwhile, president biden says he and u.s. military leaders decided to wait until the balloon completed its cross-country journey and was safely overwater before shooting it down. listen to this. on wednesday when i was briefed on the balloon, i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. cnn has team coverage of this extraordinary moment in u.s. china relations. i want to start with cnn s orin lieberman over at the palm. walk us through what happened earlier today. this was days of planning to get to this point, to figure out how best to shoot this balloon down and where best to shoot this balloon down. in the end, the department of defense recommended waiting until it was out overwater and the prevailing winds over the united states, especially over the course of the past day, took it out over the water
coming to you live from studio 4 at the cnn center in atlanta, miami michael holmes. coming up, the suspected chinese spy balloon s journey ended by a single missile by a u.s. fighter jet. they just shot it. see the smoke coming from it? recovery efforts under way at this hour. the incident heightening already tense relations between washington and beijing. and we have all of the angles covered right here. oren lieberman has the view from pentagon. we have reports from the white house and our ivan watson is live in hong kong with china s angry response. we are about to show you the dramatic moment a u.s. side winder missile took out that suspected chinese spy balloon that caused such havoc this week. the balloon was so high up, nearly 12 miles or 20 kilometers that it took a few seconds for the shock wave the reach the ground. have a listen. [ explosion ] the shootdown happened saturday off the coast of south carolina near myrtle beach. it was a sensational ending t
hello and welcome. coming to you live from studio 4 at the cnn center in atlanta, i m michael holmes. appreciate your company. coming up on cnn newsroom i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. the u.s. has shot down a suspected chinese spy balloon after it traveled across america for days. recovery efforts now under way. china says the balloon entered u.s. air space by accident, heightening already tense relations between washington and beijing. live in hong kong with the latest from there. it s not the only one. the pentagon says a second balloon is flying over latin america. a report ahead. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with michael holmes. we br to show you the dramatic moment a u.s. sidewinder missile took out the suspected chinese spy balloon that has caused so much havoc this week. the balloon was so high up, nearly 12 miles or 20 kilometers, that it took a few seconds for the shockwave to reach the grou