hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and around the world. i'm bianca nobilo live from london. max foster has the day off. just ahead -- we expect the former president to ask the supreme court to throw out the two rulings. the one by the colorado supreme court and d the one by the secretary of state in maine. >> we're only hear because donald trump incited the insurrection. >> these were the scenes in western japan on monday as a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the

region. >> the danger of collapses or miamis being inside damaged structures is still quite real. the prsupreme court's 8-7 ruling to strike down one part of the judicial overhaul is unprecedented. live from london, this is "cnn newsroom" with max foster and bianca nobilo. it is tuesday, january 2, 9:00 a.m. in london, 2:00 a.m. in colorado and 4:00 a.m. in maine where a source says that in the coming hours lawyers for donald trump are expected to appeal the decisions in those two states to ban the former president from ballots in their republican primaries. legal challenges in those states exceeded using the 14th amendment insurrectionist ban to

the decisions have been used se pending potential appes. states were rejected and er oregon's supreme court will decide whether tbathe former u.sident from the ballot there over his alleged role in the january 6 insurrection. colorado's secretary of state spoke about the case in her state. >> i also do not believe that there should be some loophole in the constitution for a president who decides to engage in rebellion. when we say no person is above the law, we should mean it. it shouldn't be an interpretation that no person is above the law except donald trump when he tries to steal the presidency. >> the colorado republican party says that it has asked the u.s. supreme court to overturn the ruling that removed trump from the state's primary ballot. elie honig weighed in on whether the court should take up the case. >> this is why we have a supreme court. we have a constitutional issue.

what exactly does the 14th amendment mean, how does it work. we don't know the answer. we've never gotten clear guidance on those questions from the constitution itself, from congress or from the supreme court. the stakes are enormous. this will go directly to the heart of our voting process. and we are sing disparity all over the map literally in the way the 14th amendment is being interpreted and applied. the majority of states who have considered these challenges have rejected them, but now we have two, colorado and maine, who upheld them and thrown donald trump off the ballot. so we need a legal answer and we need certainty before the 2024 election. >> all this playing out ahead of the first test of this year's presidential election. the iowa caucuses now less than two weeks away. trump has maintained a consistent lead in the polls there, but rivals nikki haley and governor ron desantis are hoping for a strong showing. kristen holmes reports from washington. >> reporter: it is officially

the final sprint to iowa, we're looking at between weeks and the candidates will all be on the ground or at least most of them trying to could up every last minute voter that they can, talk to any iowan who might be on the fence. when you look at the poll numbers, you still see that donald trump according to the polls has a very substantial lead. he is the frontrunner. and their goal is to keep that margin really high between him and whoever the second place person is. polls show that that would be ron desantis right now and after that nikki haley. the thing will ron desantis, iowa is critical to the florida governor. he has made this essentially his make or break moment, put all of his eggs in the iowa basket. and is really focused on that. but we have seen some substantial rise in the polls from nikki haley, but still looks as though that would be the order. whatever happens in iowa is really going to set the tone for the rest of the primary and caucus season. right now donald trump is

leading in most states, but there is a part -- or there are several republican operatives who believe that if donald trump is slowed down in iowa, if the margin is not as big as the polls show, it is possible that someone else could take the lead, we could see someone else surge. but right now it is still very early and the big focus still remains on iowa, on the hawkeye state. kristen holmes, cnn, washington. leader of south korea's main opposition party is in the hospital after being stabbed in the neck with a knife. we're told that he is conscious and we're about to show images of the attack that of course you might find disturbing. [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> he was assaulted in south korea's second largest city but since transferred for the seoul

national university hospital. and marc stewart is there for us live. m marc, good to see you. the south korean opposition leader stabbed in the neck while speaking to journalists and voters on the campaign trail. what do we know about his condition and this failure of security? >> reporter: indeed, we are expecting a briefing from doctors here at the hospital once mr. lee is out of surgery. there has been a lot of concern about a vein in his neck and some of the bleeding associated with that. once doctors have completed surgery, they say that they will give usse an update. it is important to stress just how prominent of a figure mr. lee is here. he is a hoistusehold name. he is the leader of the democratic liberal party. he was on a campaign stop helping other candidates in anticipation of the general election later on this spring. you mentioned the idea about

security. these campaign events by nature are very open. it is a chance for members of the public to come face-to-face with politicians. and in this particular case, a man in his 60s went up to mr. lee, asked for an autograph and then talked him with a knife. one of the images we saw after was of mr. lee on the ground with someone applying a handkerchief to his neck to help quell the bleeding. as far as the man in his 60s, we don't know, but what is clear, this is a very politically sensitive time in south korea. if you look at the political landscape, there is pretty much a 50/50 split between the conservative movement of things and the liberal movement of the political landscape. for that reason after this attack, we've heard condemnations from south korea's

president as well as from lee and his officials. no one wanting to pass any judgment. it is that sensitive, that no one wants to take a stance to make it a political moment. as startling as this is, there was a case like this before. a case involving the former ambassador to south korea and as well as former president park when she was on the campaign trail, there was also a knife attack where she was the target. >> marc stewart in seoul, thank you so much for bringing us that story. wooel of co of course we'll check in with you as you hear about more developments. ukraine's interior minister says at least three people have been killed in russian attacks. russia launched waves of ballistic missiles throughout the morning. two people were reportedly killed in a fighre in a residential building and one in

kharkiv. the attacks come after vladimir putin vowed to intensify strikes. clare sebastian is joining me. putin mentioned this being a retaliation for attacks on russian border territory. but does this really mark a departure from the sort of attacks we've seen previously? >> that is the question. we've seen a lot of vengeful commentary from putin. in part we can read it as retaliation for the attack on b belgorod, and putin literally talked about the number of artillery shells that the military could produce versus what ukraine is firing saying that he is trying to exploit the gaps in ukraine's arsenal and exploit the hesitation that we're seeing from ukraine's allies in particular the u.s.

this was overnight a a very lar scale attack. we saw, first of all, some 35 5 drones t that the airport was ae to shoot all of them, but then came the waves of cruise missiles and even the ballistic missiles, russia calls them hypersonic, we don't have the exact numbers but it seems to be a very large scale. zelenskyy now says 4 dead, 92 injured. and these are the two biggest cities, kyiv and kharkiv. so this is a key priority, air defense, trying to protect those cities. ukrainian mp told me if they don't get anymore missiles and systems, kyiv could become the next mariupol. this is a huge problem for ukraine. >> clare sebastian, thank you for that overview. let's go now to the director of the eurasia democracy institute. he is joining us from kyiv.

thank you for being with us. what has your experience been of being in the capital during latest barrage of attacks? >> sirens went off during the middle of the night around 3:00 a.m. and those were warnings of the drone attack which passed uneventfully. and then earlier this morning around 7:00, i would say 7:30 a.m., despite the fact that i have taken to wearing ear plugs, i woke up and my building was shaking from the shockwave. one of the hypersonic missiles being shot over our skies. i was actually afraid that the building might crumble. so waking up this morning, the entire city is in flames in

various parts of the city. water lines are down in some parts of the scity and some powr infrastructure seems to have been struck which reminds us of putin's terror campaign last year. it may be the start of 2024 the start of a renewed campaign to to try to knock out power facilities and our border supplies. >> i'm very conscious of the anxiety and the concern you must feel being in kyiv when i ask you more about looking ahead into the year. clare was just saying how vladimir putin has essentially been boasting. we know historically russia has always had numerical superiority. looking ahead to 2024, how

worried are you about what happens to ukraine's defense and what happens to kyiv? >> i'm very worried. as one of my colleagues, a member of ukrainian parliament, a good friend of i mean, recently posted on facebook, he said that taking stock of the past year, u.s. and west do not seem to have been learning the lessons of 2022 or 2023 as quick as the russians are. the industrial capacity is nowhere what is needed to allow ukraine to put up a successful resistance to the russians. so when you talk about numerical superiority, it is important to mention that ukraine must be very wary of keeping at least its moral superiority to the russians. putin is claiming that all of this is sort of payback for the attack on belgorod last saturday which resulted in the death of

30 russians. first of all, when did he ever need a pretext to bomb us. but be it as it may, i would really caution our government, and i want to believe our government that says that it was a poor work by russian air defenses that caused these fatalities. but once again, our western allies expect a different sort of behavior for the ukrainians. as sweet as this justice seems to be us in ukraine, it won't help us. and i would caution ukraine to proceed very careful and concentrate on strictly on military goals. >> a final question to you on that leadership behind those decisions and those military goals. how secure is zelenskyy and his position in your view? >> ukraine is a democracy, and even though first two years of this war there has been sort of a lid put on democratic debate

in the country, politics is returning to the country. and needless to say, you know, wobbling by the western allies who have not approved major assistance package, both washington and brussels, they are partly responsible for this sort of disarray that has been happening inside ukraine's politics. but as i said previously in an interview for cnn, these attacks by vladimir putin are bringing back this understanding of who the real enemy is. and this morning again, ukrainians woke up realizing who the real enemy is. so i think that ukraine's democracy, as unruly as it is sometimes, will prove resilient in the long time. >> and an important contrast to make, of course russia going to the polls in march, but that is not a free or fair election with the main opposition leader in a

s siberian camp. ukraine a different story. peter, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate your thoughts and stay safe. now to japan where rescuers are racing to reach survivors trapped under the rubble after a major earthquake hit the country's west coast on new year's day. authorities in easishikawa prefecture says the death toll has reached 48. that was the epicenter of the 7.5 magnitude quake which hit near noto monday afternoon. japan's prime minister says access to the northern part of the peninsula is extremely difficult because the main road into the area is destroyed. a top japanese official says more than 100 people are still waiting to be rescued. u.s. geological survey has recorded more than 35 aftershocks and warns that they could continue potentially for days or even months.

public broadcast er nhk reports more than 100 homes and shops have burned down after a large fire broke out in the city of wijima. and thousands are sheltering in evacuation centers. let's go to our journalist covering it for us. thanks for joining us. the japanese government is warning that more earthquakes might follow and prime minister saying it is important it put lives first at this stage. what does that actually mean in practice in the aftermath? >> reporter: well, what it really means is an appeal, an appeal to emergency services to do what they can. and they are up against very challenging circumstances. for example those roads that you mentioned that have been very badly destroyed. even though we don't often see earthquakes hit of this nature hit this part of japan, they tend to hit the western side

more than the eastern side, we know that local authorities are struggling to keep up. so it happened late in the afternoon on monday through the night, it was very difficult to get to all of the incidents that were reported. and as the day has gone on today and we're now coming into the evening again this tuesday for japan, the authorities are catching up in a really big way. what the prime minister has said in an emergency disaster meeting after that meeting was that they would have to secure the routes in any way possible but get -- use any type of transport that they could, so that includes aerial transport and marine transport to reach those that might be in need. speaking of which, there are those that could be trapped under collapsed buildings. and this has been the big concern, this is one of the reasons we've seen the death toll going up over the last few hours. it started out overnight at 6 and now we're up to 48 as you reported. along with that, there

are those concerned about their safety, the fact that they are dealing with the cold and so they have fled to evacuation centers. we know there are about 27,000 people railroad so in ishikawa prefecture who are in those secure spaces. >> manisha tank, thank you very much for joining us. still ahead, an unprecedented ruling from israel supreme court that could have major implications for the war in gaza. plus police say he was kidnapped but never actually met his kidnappers. how online extortion turned into a missing person's case, just ahahead.

welcome back. a ruling by israel's supreme court on prime minister netanyahu's judicial overhaul could have major implications for the war in gaza. the court has struck down an amendment to the so-called reasonableness law which stripped the judiciary of its power to declare government decisions unreasonable. the reform sparked months of nationwide protests and the court's decision could threaten the unity of israel's war cabinet which includes two prominent critics of the plan. meanwhile the israeli military

says it will stop pulling thousands of troops this week in preparation for a new phase of the conflict. a senior official says it shows signs of the gradual shift to lower intensity military campaign. there is also news for people who were evacuated from their home near the israel-gaza border. >> translator: in accordance with the recommendations given by the idf and the defense establishment, we will soon be able to return communities home in areas within a range of 4 to 7 kilometers north of the gaza strip. >> jim bittermann is following developments from our paris bureau. good to see you. how heavy of a blow is this for netanyahu's authority while he is in this deeply controversial war and what impact could it have? >> reporter: you can see it almost immediately after the supreme court decision, the divisions within the war cabinet, but he has within his

war cabinet, prime minister netanyahu, has a parlance who were definitely in favor of this amendment being struck down. the amendment would have weakened the powers of the supreme court and in a sense strengthened the prime minister's hand. but that is not what happened by a ruling of 8-7, in fact the justices said that they were opposed to the netanyahu reforms. and almost immediately afterwards, the reactions from at least two of the leading cabinet members was very interesting to see that this unity within the cabinet. benny gantz, a long time netanyahu opponent, said the verdict must be respected and lesson from the conduct of this past year must be internalized and we are all brothers, we have a common destiny. therefore kind of emphasizing the unity of the cabinet. but on the other hand, a

supporter of mr. netanyahu said that this is a dangerous anti-democratic event and at this time above all a ruling that harms israel's war effort against its enemies. basically saying that the supreme court was adding to the disunity that there is within the country about the war effort. in any case we'll see how it all plays out, but it was not good news for prime minister netanyahu. one of the things that i think that you mentioned there leading into this is that there were several announcements of some import both for gaza and for israel. they are going to be withdrawing with two brigades from the gaza. these are brigades that will be demobilized and sent home. the wartime economy has had a real impact on the israeli economy. and they are going to send another three brigades out for training. so in fact the gaza troop situation will be changing probably in the near future and

probably reflects that kind of drawdown and reemphasis and refocus of the war effort. >> jim bittermann in paris, thank you so much for that. chinese foreign exchange student has been found safe in the frigid utah mountains after police say he became a victim of cyber kidnapping. neither the student nor his parents in china apparently met the kidnappers, they just dealt with them over the phone. nick watt has more on this trend that police say is growing. >> reporter: authorities in utah say that they found this 17-year-old chinese nationalist student at a high school in utah, they found him alone in a tent half way up a remote mountainside. he had no heat source, limited supplies of food and water, and they described him as very cold and scared. now, apparently he had been kidnapped but not in the traditional sense that we know it. cyber kidnapped.

so he never actually came face-to-face with his kidnappers. he was just coerced over his phone and over the internet. so what appears to have happened is that he was contacted by these kidnappers and told that unless he did exactly what he was told, his family back home in china would be in danger. they asked him for a photograph which they then sent to his family in china with a ransom demand and they told the 17-year-old to isolate himself. that is why he was in this tent in the middle of nowhere. the family, they say that they paid around $80,000 into chinese bank account, and they also contacted the high school in utah. the high school contacted the police and the police by looking at this 17-year-old's spending patterns, what he bought, they worked out that he was camping. so search parties were sent out and eventually he was found in this tent. apparently this siscyber kidnapg is an increasing common trend.

targeting specifically chinese foreign exchange students. this story ended well and the student was found alive and well. he asked to speak to his family. he asked for a warm cheeseburger. he is safe. but as i say, this is apparently an increasingly common trend seen in this country of cyber kidnappers targeting these young vulnerable kids far from home. they never come face-to-face. all done online. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. when we return, u.s. president joe biden prepares for the final campaign of his career. but a host of domestic and international challenges could stand in his way.

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here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. welcome back. i'm bianca nobilo. if you are just joining us, let me bring you up-to-date with our top stories. donald trump is expected to appeal two decisions to remove him from primary ballots in colorado and maine today. the colorado appeal will be filed to the u.s. supreme court and the maine ruling to the

maine supreme court. death toll from the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck japan's west coast on monday has now risen to at least 48. rescuers are still working to reach people trapped under collapsed buildings. u.s. president biden has some busy months ahead of him. in addition to the war in gaza, he is hoping to get more aid approved for ukraine and address immigration crisis at the u.s. southern border too. more now from arlette saenz. >> reporter: president biden returned to washington tuesday with a full plate of domestic and foreign policy issues. in a year where he is also trying to convince american voters to give him a second term in the white house. israel conflict dominated so much of the president's attention in the closing months of 2023 and 2024 will be no different. white house physicians are closely watching the coming weeks to see whether israel

transitions to a lower intensity phase of fighting. that is something that the u.s. has encouraged israel do. and a senior u.s. official said they believed that they were starting to see the beginning of that strategy, that tactic, when it announced that they would be withdrawing some of their troops from gaza as israel is preparing for a prolonged fight heading into 2024. now, secretary of state antony blinken will be traveling to israel later in the week as he is expected to start talking about that next phase in fighting with officials on the ground there. but there is also a host of domestic issues that president biden has to tackle once he is back in washington. that includes the border crisis as there has been a recent surge in migrants on the southern border really adding additional stresses to an already strained system. congressional negotiators have yet to settle on a deal regarding border policy changes, even as president biden has said he is willing to make some concessions. there are also big questions

about whether the white house will be able to push through additional aid for ukraine as that debate is currently locked in the fight over those potential border policy changes. the white house of course has warned of what inaction could mean for ukraine on the battlefield. and then there is two major government funding fights looming. in the next five weeks, there are two deadlines that congress will need to try to reach to try to pass additional funding to prevent a government shutdown. of course all of this is playing out against the backdrop of the 2024 election. president biden really has not been doing his day to day campaigning, but that is expected to change in the early months of 2024. he is also expected to ramp up his attacks on former president trump as his campaign believes that he eventually will become the republican nominee. of course president biden has been trailing trump in some recent polling and the president still has much more work to do in trying to keep his coalition

together even as there have been some strains among some groups who have previously supported him. so the president coming back to washington tackling a huge plate of issues as he is heading closer to that 2024 election in november. arlette saenz, cnn, washington. police and the fbi are investigating a deadly car crash in new york that killed at least two people and injured five others. it happened early monday outside a concert venue. the collision was so powerful it launched both vehicles through pedestrian crossings. it took firefighters nearly an hour to put out the flames. bomb squad and arson task force were also called to the scene after at least a dozen gas canisters were found near one of the vehicles. more americans with diabetes will get a break on their insulin costs in 2024 with another leading drug maker now capping costs to help lower the price. meg terrell has those details.

>> reporter: the first of the year marks a major change in the way people who depend on insulin will pay for it. now sanofi is the third major manufacturer to offer a $35 per month price cap, at least on what people are paying out of pocket for their medications. this may be kind of complicated for people to access, they may have to go to the drug maker's websites and download a coupon, but at least it will available across the board from the three major manufacturers. more than 8 million people in the united states depend on insulin to live and according to the american diabetes association, a quarter of those people have at one point needed to ration their medicine in order to pay for it. and that can have really severe health consequences. another thing going into effect starting january 1 is decreases in the list prices of insulin of more than 70%. and the list price is the actual price of the medicine before insurance kicks in or any rebates or discounts are paid back into the system.

and now the reason that is actually happening is because of a biden administration 2021 law, american rescue plan act, essentially it changed the way drug markskers have to pay reba back to medicaid. insulin has been going up for decades. if you look at this graph, this one actually comes from a congressional investigation into drug prices, and you can see how much the list prices have increased. because of this change which goes in to effect january 1, companies that have raised the price of medicines could actually end up paying medicaid for drugs. so losing money on those medicines. so by reducing the list prices by 70% or more, these companies are actually avoiding having to pay these rebates back to medicaid. some analysts put this as hundreds of millions a year in savings the companies will have because they are reducing the list prices of their drugs. so while across the board it is hoped that insulin prices are

coming down for everyone, there is a lot going on beyond the surface here. >> thanks to meg tirrell for her report. the spanish football star is scheduled to testify this hour against the machine who forcefully kissed her. fifa has banned rubiales for all football activities for three years and he has vowed to appeal. he says the kiss was mutual. and hermoso said it was not. and she said she received threatso over her stance. after 52 years, europe's longest serving monarch is about to step down and one result will be the first australian-born queen, that story when we come back.

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it has been more than 124 hours since a powerful earthquake hit japan's western coast and the prime minister says first responders are in a battle against time to rescue people who are trapped under rubble. at least 48 people have died and dozens are wounded according to officials. tens of thousands of homes still don't have power. the central city of wijima appeared to be among the worst hit. entire buildings collapsed after the 7.5 magnitude indicate. and nhk says a fire destroyed more than 100 shops and homes. all tsunami advisories are lifted but the threat aftershocks is not over. at least 35 of those so far. more on that and how this earthquake unfolded from allison chinchar.

>> the initial 7.5 magnitude quake occurred in the late afternoon local time on new year's day in the ishikawa prefecture. you can see here by this indicated dot just off to the northwest side there. and then the subsequent tsunami waves began to take place. you can see the water here in the background breaking over the wall that is there right along this sea. one of the things that we noticed with this particular area is when you zoom down across the suzu city location, you will notice that the water area here, but also this little inlet cove that sits here. think of it like this. when you have the tsunami take place, it is almost like dropping a rock or stone into a bathtub. you get the first set of waves that begin to ripple back out but then hit the edge and come right back in. so you will have the ongoing back and forth because once it hits the coastline, those waves will continue to ebb and flow throughout the next coming hours. for many of these areas, we saw peak observed waves up around

the 1 meter in numerous locations, one even topping out at 1.2 meters before the waves finally started to come back down. now, in this particular case for the tsunami, you have the earthquake itself that happened. that plate gets thrust upward, displacing all of that water that is above it. that water then begins to race o did outward. eventually going inland. and it is a series of waves that move inland as the water ebbs and flows. topography of the coastline also has an impact of how much water begins to pile up and where it may end up being funneled into. one of the growing concerns that is really going to be a concern in the next few days will be the aftershocks. we've already had dozens aftershocks so far, but one thing to note, when you have the main earthquake that was a 7.5, you're already going to see buildings and homes that have structural damage. so after that, any subsequent

aftershocks that take place can then also cause further damage even if they are not as strong. typically with a quake this size of a 7.5, on average you will have an aftershock of magnitude of. 6.5 of high, one of those. an average of ten magnitude 5.5 or higher. so this is going to be the big concern going forward, are any of the subsequent aftershocks causing further damage to some of those businesses and homes in a lot of these areas not just in the next 24 or 48 hours, but really in the coming days. we have breaking news now out of tokyo where public broadcaster nhk is reporting a plane is on fire at one of the city's main airports. will ripley is live this hour in the japanese capital for us. will, you flew in not that long ago yourself. what more can you tell us about the situation at the airport? >> reporter: bianca, these pictures that are coming in from

japan's national broadcaster nhk are -- let me just lead with this. when you look at these pictures, you won't believe that 367 passengers and 12 crew members on board this plane all got out safely. according to nhk. so let me describe what happened. the plane was coming in from sao paulo. and it is packed at this time of year for skiing and sight seeing. and as the plane was coming down the runway, what they think happened is that there was some sort of a miscommunication with the air traffic control tower on either the part of the japan airliner, or a coast guard aircraft. the japan coast guard has a base near haneda airport. the airport is right along tokyo bay. and so these two planes for whatever reason collided. and according to what their initial assessment is, of course this is just the less than an

hour ago when it happened, so they will still do an extensive investigation. but they believe there was a miscommunication possibly and this coast guard plane and this airliner with around 400 people on it collided on the runway. both of the planes in the footage that has been coming in from the airport were on fire immediately. and so the passengers and crew inside would have had literally seconds to collect themselves after the shock of such a major impact, get themselves up, get off the plane, not from the back because there was a huge fire that started in the back of the plane, engines were scraping the ground. but apparently they managed to get everybody out through the front emergency exits of the plane and now the plane still burning as we speak. the plane is on fire completely engulfed. but the miracle of this tragic event in a country that has just been rocked by a major earthquake hours after ringing in the new year, 367 passengers and 12 crew members got away

from this alive according to nhk and japan airlines. extraordinary, remarkable, some might say a miracle. >> miraculous indeed. such good news to know that they are okay. will ripley, please stand by, we'll come back to you right out of this break. thank you so much.

welcome back. we're following breaking news of a plane on fire at an airport in japan. will ripley is standing by for us in tokyo with more updates on this fast developing situation. will, just to clarify obviously because there was this earthquake, there were buildings in tokyo that were shaking. the country has been under distress because of that. as far as we understand, that had absolutely no impact on this situation, this is independent? >> reporter: as far as we know. because the earthquake ended and there were no aftershocks noticeable here, we're about 20 minutes away from where it happened. i arrived just a few hours ago to cover the earthquake. that was our story. and then that in and of itself

very sad for japan to just hours after ringing in the new year to have this massive earthquake and have the number of dead just going up by the hour here. but now this story which the pictures are horrific, but the headline is spectacular, that 367 people and 12 crew members walked away from this alive. they survived this. and at social media videos that we're still working to verify and clear for you, but we've been watching them, passengers that were inside the plane shooting out their windows. you could see the engine on fire, you can see the engine scraping the ground, you could hear in the cabin at least from the one video that i just watched not a surprisingly loud amount of panic. it was almost you could hear the people were startled, but one would imagine that people were very focused if they were all able to get off that plane safely because they would have had just a matter of seconds. this was flight 516 from a tourist hot spot to tokyo. this is their prime season.

and of course this is a holiday weekend, so that plane was packed. it was a full flight. almost 400 people or so on board. this is an airbus a-350, a very popular aircraft that lot of different airlines use. japan airlines has a bunch of them. it has a pretty good safety record. one thing that they were saying on the news, this may be the first known incident of its kind at an airport in japan. we're still trying to verify that. but this is a nation that has bullet trains and never once have they had a fatality on the bullet trains because they are so diligent about safety. and the same is true with airlines. you should see the videos that they play for you when you are about to take off when you are on any japanese airline. it is so detailed and specific about the procedures that you need to follow and clearly that practice, those crew members, that attention to detail has paid off in this case, that all of these passengers were able to get off. one of the passengers posting on social media said in one of his

posts on x, he thought he was going to die. and when you look at these pictures, when the pictures first started coming in, one would assume that this is a really horrific tragic situation and yet it is absolutely a very dramatic picture, but absolutely incredible outcome here for all the people on that plane getting off alive. >> sich good news. such a relieve. and our audience is looking at the live pictures from tokyo. and we can see the airplane engulfed in flames as will was describing all 367 passengers, 12 crew members, able to escape the aircraft in what is just a staggering picture here of flames and -- thank goodness people got out alive. it does look a lot more serious than that just viewing it like that. will ripley, thank you so much. we'll be coming back to you as the story continues to develop here.

that does it here on "cnn newsroom." i'm bianca nobilo. "early start" is up for you next.

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