there is a new twist in the russia investigation. we're learning how far the white house was willing to go to keep the attorney general on the case. plus, one-on-one with the u.s. secretary of state, rex tillerson talks exclusively to cnn about north korea and how long he sees himself in the job. and extreme weather conditions from bone-chilling cold in the united states to australia's scorching heat wave. hot weather. >> good to be here with you, george. i'm linda kincaid. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. >> and i'm george howell from

cnn in atlanta. newsroom starts right now. 4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. there is new reporting and there's new fallout from a book that had the trump white house on the defensive. both raised two key questions. did the president the obstruct justice and is he fit to serve in that office? big questions and a lot at stake. so far, cnn has learned that at least three top white house officials were involved in an effort to persuade attorney general jeff sessions to remain in control of the investigation into russian meddling in the u.s. election. former press secretary sean spicer, former chief of staff reince priebus and white house counsel damcgann all worked towards that effort.

>> that senior administration official told me, quote, i think it is fair to call it pressure. that is a quote from this official describing these conversations that went on between top white house officials and staff members in the attorney general's office, including the attorney general jeff sessions. and i should also point out, according to the senior administration official, this person described what was going on and the conversations regarding jeff sessions decision to recuse himself or not recuse himself as being, quote, chaos. >> that's jim acosta speaking to anderson cooper. priebus is decline to go comment on our reporting. spicer told cnn he called sessions' office but that was about a news conference. >> jessica snyder has been following don mcgann's role and has more now from washington. >> a source close to attorney general jeff sessions tells cnn white house counsel don mcgann personally reached out to

sessions to try to dissuade the attorney general from recusing himself from the russia probe and it was a direct order from president trump who reportedly erupted in front of several white house officials when sessions announced his recusal in march. >> therefore, i was recused myself. >> sources put it this way to the times. mr. trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed robert f. kennedy's attorney general had done for his brother and john f. contendy and the eric h. holder jr. did for president obama. >> while i was on the phone talking to department of justice officials telling them that jeff sessions had had no choice but to recuse in order to resolve a criminal conflict of interest, we now learn that don mcgann was

pressuring jeff sessions on behalf of the president to do just the.opposite. i think that we are in a neighborhood where i hope mueller is looking at this very seriously for obstruction of justice because it could be. >> obstruction is part of mueller's probe, prompted in part by the president's firing of fbi james comey in may. in this letter to the president, the reported reasoning for removal centered on comey's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of secretary clinton's e-mails. but shortly after firing comey, the president admitted he had russia on his mind. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> the president spent the weekend before the firing at his club in bedminister, new jersey. in the letter, president trump described the russia investigation as fabricated and

politically motivated. the paper reports mueller knows about this letter. a source tells cnn the special counsel has also object stained handwritten notes from former chief of staff rieps priebus. they document the president telling priebus comey assured the president he was not under investigation. the "new york times" reports that days before james comey was fired, one of the sessions's aids asked a congressional staffer was when was any damaging information on comey to undermine the fbi director. the new evidence raises questions about jeff sessions' future as attorney general. the white house suggests he's still safe. >> right now, he's focused on doing his job. we're focused on doing ourselves. we don't have any reason to see there's anything different today than there was yesterday. we feel like we're in a great place and we're moving forward and the attorney general is

going to continue showing up to work this week and next week just like he has every day since we started and keep doing good work and moving the president's agenda forward. >> the white house has started calling out the press amid questions about jeff sessions' future. sessions was not invited to camp david this weekend, despite the fact that this eight other cabinet members will be joining the president for meetings on the 2018 legislative agenda. when cnn asked why sessions wasn't invited, a white house official issued a stinging reply saying this, the press should stop using a long-planned meeting with congressional leaders to take cheap shots at the attorney general. so now it seems the white house is defending the attorney general, despite the fact that the president has often taken shots at him, even calling him beleaguered months ago over twitter. jessica snyder, cnn, washington. >> the book about the white house "fire and furry" hit

shelves on friday and is a best seller. mr. trump has dismissed it as phony and full of lies. >> earlier, he tweeted this, quote, michael wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell his really boring and untruthful book. he used sloppy steve bannon who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. too bad has the president of the united states. linda, keeping in mind the president just months ago complicated steve bannon but now he has a new nickname for him. >> he certainly does. >> it is interesting, yes. as we mentioned, mr. trump is at the presidential retreat at camp david this weekend. he's meeting with congressional leaders and some of his cabinet. >> and the author of fire and furry credits mr. trump for helping to boost interest in the book. for more on that, here is cnn's jim acosta. >> it was perhaps the only on-message moment on the week

for the president, touting his economic record as he was leaving for camp david. >> the tax cuts are really kicking in far beyond what anyone thought. the market is good. the jobs reports were very good and we think they're going to get really good over the next couple of months. the president, who boasts he always punches back made it clear there would be no on-camera comments about the book fi"fire & furry." >> mr. president, have you read the book "fire & furry"? >> mr. trump tweeted i authorized zero access to white house. i turned him down many times for phony book. look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and sloppy steve, a new nickname for bannon. appearing on nbc, he did not hold back. >> according to your reporting, everyone around the president, senior advisers, family members,

every single one of them questions his intelligence and fitness for office. >> let me put a marker in the sand here. 100% of the people around him. >> and wolff thanked the president for driving up interest in his book which was released early due to the heightened demand. >> what i say is where do i send the box of chocolates. you think he's helping you sell books. >> absolutely. not only is he helping me sell books, but he's helping me prove the point of the book. this is extraordinary that a president of the united states would try to stop the publication of a book. this doesn't happen -- has not happened from other presidents, would not even happen if from a ceo of a mid sized company. >> as for the attacks of the book, wolff was ready for that one. >> my credibility is being questioned by the man who has less credibility than perhaps anyone who has ever walked on earth at this point.

i will quote steve bannon, he lost it. >> but the president and friends have fanned out along the air waves to condemn the book. >> we said they spoke once for a few minutes. they had vary short conversation. he repeatedly begged to spooem speak with the president and was denied access. >> slamming wolff's key take away that the president is not fit for office. >> this is so absurd. i'm around the president. i've been around him quite a bit for the past year. i met him 20 years ago. he is not psychologically unfit. he has not lost it, as he claimed. >> secretary of state rex tillerson said he's never raised the issue of the president's mental state. >> i've never questioned his mental fitness. i have to reason to question his mental fitness. >> one cabinet member who won't be president is attorney general

jeff sessions who has frequently been the subject of the president's furry. but the white house says there is no message being sent to sessions. officials here say the white house stands firmly behind him. jim acosta, cnn, the white house. let's get some perspective now from leslie who teaches international relations at sos university of london. good to have you with us. >> thank you. >> the first thing i want to start with cnn's reporting, sources that tell us at least three top officials, trump's former press secretary, former chief of staff and white house counsel were all part of a campaign to pressure attorney general jeff sessions to maintain control of the russia investigation. if that directive came from president trump, is it obstruction of justice? and if so, what will it mean for donald trump? >> well, i think there's obviously a very serious concern and this is one that the lawyers

are going to be looking at very carefully, that mueller's team is going to look at very carefully. i think the key consideration, of course, is that it raises further questions for the public, for everybody, about whether or not the extent of the interference was. but remember, this is a -- sessions made the right decision, right? he had to recuse himself once it became clear that he hadn't disclosed his meetings with the russian ambassador during his confirmation hearings. it's concerning the to those who see a reverse in that decision. it's a question of whether the

investigation is being given the independence that it needs, that it must have. it's continue to go be an incredible source of distraction. it's the start of the new year and we've seen tremendous distraction come out of the white house in a way that's not nearly characteristic of the past nearly a year now. >> some of that distraction is coming from the book "fire & furry" and we are seeing that unleashed from the president on twitter. a man who trump spoke once only good of, he's now sacked quite a few of his team. what does that say about the president's judgment?

>> well, you know, i think there are a couple of things here. one is that the tweets are degrading to the office of the presidency. they're very disturbing, i think, to many people. but, of course, people are also acclimating to the tweets. and there's an ongoing discussion of, you know, do we ignore the tweets? do we take them seriously? what do we do about the tweets? there's a justification of coming out of some sources for why the president's tweets aren't being screened or questions about that. so the method of communication is deeply problematic, i can. but, of course, yes, it raises a broader question about this very public back and forth between those who the president has sought at one time to have as close advisers, even once bannon left the white house, there was an ongoing relationship and even in the past day it's been a bit back and forth. so it's -- again, it's a very

bad sign for a president who, again, has a very important legislative agenda to pursue. he came back, he had a success, not a popular success with the american public, but a success in getting the tax plan through. he needs to push through with the spending bill, with infrastructure, with all sorts of things that he needs to achieve in and very serious policy issues at stake. instead of seeing that focus and discussion, we're waking up to tweets from a president who is in a public spat with somebody who, yes, as you say, was very, very close to him and perhaps still is. >> and there's no doubt there is a lot on the agenda for president trump going forward. but if you look at some of the claims going forward in this book, those around the president treat him like a child because he acts like a child and they say he is not fit for office. the president is comparing the

size of the nuclear button to north korea's nuclear button. what do we make from the revelations in this book? >> the book, i think, for many people confirms what they've been feeling and seeing through the twitter feed, through many of the president's own comments. as to the veracity of the specific details and stories in the book, very hard to know. the author has a checkered record. some of the data that he uses in the book are contested by experts with respect to, say, the campaign data. so one has to tread with a degree of caution. nonetheless, the broader story is one ta i think people aren't surprised by. and it raises the ongoing concern that there are very, very high stakes foreign policy issues currently in lay.

north korea, pakistan, iran. the president has been tweeting about them very erratically. the north korean tweet i think is seen to be inflammatory and potentially creating more -- making a difficult situation perhaps worse than it needs to be. >> we will have to leave it there. leslie, thanks so much for joining us. >> linda, these tweets are official record of the white house. >> official statements from the president of the united states. the clinton foundation is back in the spotlight as investigators are looking into whether the charity improperly

engaged in pay to play politics with its donors. >> after months of the president clamoring for an investigation into hillary clinton, cnn has now learned that one does exist. but it's actually about the clinton's family charitable foundation. a u.s. official tells me that the fbi and federal prosecutors in little rock, arkansas, are looking into whether donations to the clinton foundation were made in exchange for political favors. while clinton was secretary of state and whether any tax exempt funds were misused. but this inquiry isn't entirely new. cnn reported in 2016 that fbi agents in different field offices are opened preliminary inquiries and they didn't get very far and the justice department did agree that fbi agents could move forward if and when more evidence emerged.

time to time, the clinton foundation has been subjected to politically motivated allegations and those have been proven to be false. it tries to maintain independence from the president on one hand while investigating his had political rival on the other. the united states is skeptical about negotiating with north korea, but south korea is set to meet face-to-face with their long time enemy tuesday. what's on the agenda? we'll have that story for you. plus, parts of the u.s. blanketed in snow and forecasters are warning the arctic blast is not over.

you won't see these folks they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. welcome back. the u.s. is reaffirming its commitment to defend south korea against any threat from north korea. that is the word from the u.s. defense secretary james mattis who spoke with his counterpart on friday. >> on tuesday, envoys will meet

in the room you see here near the demilitarized zone for their first high-level meeting in more than two years. as that face-to-face meeting between north and south korea looms, cnn's elise lavit spoke with rex tillerson. >> she asked the top diplomate what it would take for the u.s. and north korea to come to an agreement. >> is that an opening for talks with the u.s. or nuclear tests? >> i think it's too early to tell. we need to wait and see what the outcome of their talks are. president trump had a good call with president moon yesterday morning, which i participated in. their intention is to talk about the upcoming olympics and the participation of north korea in those olympics.

he think it's early to draw conclusions at this point. >> it could be a good sign that north korea wants to engage. >> perhaps. i know some are speculating this may be their first effort to open a channel. but as you know, we've had channels open to north korea for some time. they do know how to reach us if and when they're ready to engage, as well. >> explain to us what the policy is on north korea. do the north koreans have to give up their nuclear program before committing to talks? >> our policy is the complete verifiable irreversible denuclearzation of the korean peninsula. that is a policy commonly held by everyone in the region, as well. the chinese and russia have it as a stated policy. regionally, all the countries in the neighboring area as well as the international community are well aligned on the policy. how we achieve the ultimate endpoint, the final full

denuclearzation, the verification of that and the ir reversibili irreversibility of that is going to take some time. we clearly need a signal from north korea that they understand these talks must lead to that conclusion. >> so potentially thawing relations between north korea and the united states. where does the united states stand on all of this? will ripley live for us in seoul, south korea, good to have you with us, will. from u.s. leaders, we're hearing notes of skepticism, reminders of military options always available. now this statement, we'll see from the secretary of state regarding possible talks. are we seeing north korea and south korea sideline the united states' will to make progress or is there a sense that the u.s. pressure has played a role in this? >> well, you know, we've been speak, experts who do believe that the situation, the maximum pressure on north korea may have been a trigger for north korea

to so quickly agree to these talks. from the time that north korea's leadser, kim jong un, indicated he might be willing to send a delegation to the winter olympics to the time these talks were agreed upon has been the span of a week. that speed is usual and it shows the north koreans are wanting to talk for a reason. they want to get something out of this and what they want to get out of it is the lifting of these increasingly tight sanctions on their economy which are limiting almost all of their legal exports and limiting what they can bring in to the country, especially something vital during the winter months which is their supply of oil. whether or not the united states deserves credit for that, we'll just have to see where these talks lead. these the discussions on tuesday, we're expecting to be very focused about the logistics for getting north korean athletes and a north korean delegation here to south korea just over a month from now to participate in the pyongchang

olympics. there's a lot of skepticism not just from the united states and many around the world that these talks to lead to a break through on north korea's nuclear program. they've dug in their heels. conversations i've had with north korean officials, the messaging from kim jong un is yes, they're willing to participate in the olympics, but they're also going full speed ahead on developing ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. >> and you've been to north korea numerous times, extensive reporting, you've talked to people there. you have a good sense of what the leadership is thinking there. you've always pointed out that north korea wants to talk, is open to dialogue. is that what we're seeing here? >> yeah. we've been hearing for several years from discussions with the north koreans that they do want a dialogue. they want to normalize relations

with the united states. this is a goal that dates back to north korea's founder and president and his successor jim jong ill and now kim jong un. although he hasn't publicly stated it. but the rhetoric from the trump administration, the joint military exercises that are now scheduled to begin sometime after the olympics makes it difficult for north korea to engage directly. but given the fact that they now feel their nuclear program has come to a certain level where they think they have some semblance of leverage, perhaps they will be willing to sit down and try to make a deal. but from all indications, that deal will not involve denuclearzation. the north koreans have said perhaps they would consider denuclearzation if the united states and china and russia and other nuclear powers gave up their warheads. so there's vast differences in what each side wants to get out of this. the united states and its allies want no more nuclear weapons in north korea.

north korea wants to be recognized as a nuclear power and they want sanctions lifted. that's a pretty tall order. perhaps that's why the focus on tuesday is going to be very narrow, just on the olympics for now. but whether or not there will be a major break through, there is a lot of skepticism about that. >> will ripley with the geopolitics there of what's happening. but will, we're getting some information that north korea saying they are likely to participate in the winter olympics. that information just crossing our news room. so a lot of things developing there on the peninsula. thank you for your reporting. we'll stay in touch with you. still to come, we'll tell you more about the author of the best selling book that president trump calls boring. >> michael wolff's career has been anying but boring. we'll have that story ahead. "cnn newsrm" live coast to coast this hour on cnn usa and around theorld live on cnn international. more news on the other side of the break. ♪

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download the xfinity my account app or go online today. welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. you're watching "cnn newsroom." i'm lynda kincaid. >> and i'm george howell. this hour, cnn has learned that at least three top white house officials were involved in the effort to persuade attorney general jeff sessions to remain in control of the investigation into russia's interference in u.s. elections. democratic house member jerry naylor says the incident points to an overall effort to obstruct

and undermine the department of justice. the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. is warning iran that the world is watching how it deals with anti-government protests. nikki haley discussed it on friday and said it was an abuse of power. "fire and fury" is extremely unflatering to the united states president. mr. trump has dismissed it as phony and full of lies, but the author of that book, michael wolff, stands by his every word. michael wolff is not a conventional journalist. many of his critics would argue he's not a journalist at all. >> cnn's randi kaye takes a look at his colorful and controversial career. >> this is the most extraordinary story of our time. >> once a copy boy for the "new

york times," michael wolff is now media's favorite bad boy. at 64, wolff is immersed in a world of media, money, power and politics. >> he's always been very up front about the fact that that's who he wanted to be. he doesn't have an interest in being a shoe leather reporter. he uses media reporting or in this case political reporting as a way to hang out with the elite, that he really is fascinated by. >> michelle cottle, a contributing editor, describes him as part gossip columnist and part psychotherapist whose writing is so distinctive, it is more like art. >> it is his peculiar writing style where he'll set the scene. so he doesn't say someone said and then a quote. he will say this is what they would have said or should have said in these circumstances. so it's a little bit of art that he's sticking in there that makes it not quite a hard quote.

>> in fact, wolff has been accused of inaccuracies over the years and his style is unconventional. he doesn't work the phones and doesn't go out record and off the record. in fact, she says he frowns on conventional reporting, instead choosing simply to observe and take in the atmosphere. wolff has had a long and polarizing career. in the 1990s, he started an internet company. since then, he's written for ""vanity fair,"" new york magazine and "the guardian." >> there's a michael wolff here to see you. >> read michael wolff and thank your lucky stars he's not writing about you. "usa today." >> this is off the record. >> wolff once wrote a scathing book about billionaire media

mogul rupert murdoch. niceties are not his had specialty. >> he will go where other reporters generally won't and that earned him quite a reputation. >> and it's that busy, catty way of reporting and writing that readers gobble up. >> he would make really cutting personal observations about the rich and famous and their wives and their children. he once sent his child as a spy to steve ratner's house when he was writing about ratner. and people were apapalled. but controversy is his friend. >> and that means he's in friendly confines now. randi kaye, cnn, new york. the u.s. secretary of state says he is sticking around for 2018. >> rex tillerson recently spoke to cnn's elise lavit and dismissed reports that president

trump wants to replace him. here is more of what he said in that exclusive interview. >> we had a very successful, in my view, 2018 helping our partners understand those policies. we're now into the implementation and execution of those policies. i think we're going to have a very productive 2018. again, the state department gets stronger every day, understanding of what we're trying to do and i look forward to having a very, very successful 2018. >> for the whole year? >> i intend to be here for the whole year. >> has the president given you any indication that you won't be around for a while? none. >> none whatsoever. >> none whatsoever. >> tillerson spoke at length about russia. he admits ties have been strained against the kremlin, but thinks they can improve. >> here is more of what he said about russian election meddling and areas where washington can work closer with moscow. >> well, it has been a difficult year with russia.

we clearly -- and i've said clearly, the president stated clearly, our two nations should have a more productive relationship. today, it's very strained for all the reasons that i think the american people will understand. having said that, we have maintained a constant engagement with russia, very active engagement. we have to be very open and candid and frank with one another about what both of us -- and i think foreign minister lavrov is as committed to trying to improve this relationship as i am. these are difficult issues. we have made it clear that the keystone is really ukraine. having said that, we have found operations in syria that led to the near defight of isis in syria. >> president trump said this whole russia investigation has been a kind of drag on your foreign policy, that it hurts had you with allies, that there's a lot of confusion. how has that impacted your dealingsing with world leaders in terms of this cloud, if you will? >> it has had no impact.

>> really? >> it's had none. it never comes up in our conversations or my dialogues with world leaders elsewhere. the domestic issues around the russia involvement in our elections are not part of our dialogue elsewhere. i think the rest of the world recognizes it is a domestic issue. it's an important one. the russians and we talk about it and we have said to them, look, it's a problem. >> you think they're going to try to meddle in 2018? >> i don't know. i hope the they don't. >> do you have evidence of that? >> we don't yet. but we know russia has involved themselves in other elections in europe and elsewhere. it is a message we convey to the russians. the way i conveys is i don't know where you do this. i don't know what you think you're getting for this. it's not evident to me as to how it's benefitinging you -- >> chaos in the united states benefits them, right? >> but it damages russia because we're not making progress and they're not making progress with

others. so we try to staif stay focused on the really big issues between us, which is syria and the situation there, the situation in ukraine and eastern europe and creating stability in eastern europe and recognize what russia's concerns are. and we have very important talks coming up on the inf treaty and the stark treaty. at an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council on friday, some very strong and harsh words were exchanged. >> the u.s. requested the session to discuss the recent anti-government protests in iran. while most nations agreed with the u.s. ambassador's stance on human rights, others accused washington of meddling in tehran's affairs and having alternati ulterior motives. >> in 2009, the u.s. stood by while the hopes of the iranian people were crushed by their

government. in 2018, we will not be silent. once again, the people of iran are rising up. they are asking for something that no government can legitimately deny them, their human rights and fundamental freedoms. they are calling out, think of us. if the founding principles of this institution mean anything, we will not only hear their cry, we will finally answer it. the iranian regime is now on notice. the world will be watching what you do. >> it is unfortunate that despite the resistance this council has allowed itself to be abused by the current u.s. administration and holding a meeting on an issue that falls outside the scope of its mandate. putting on display the failure of the council to -- its responsibility in maintaining international peace and security. >> the russian ambassador chimed

in questioning whether according to u.s. logic the council should meet to talk about the occupy wall street movement several years ago in new york. still to come, two planes collide at a canadian airport. how passengers got out, next. and bitter cold weather is still forecast for large parts of the united states and it is cold. >> incredible pictures. stay with us for that.

passengers returning from vacation had to seek safety.

this orange sun wings plane with no one on board was reportedly being towed from a gate when it burst into flames after it clipped a west jet plane that had just landed from mexico. >> the 168 passengers on that west jet plane had had to use emergency slides to get off. none were seriously injured. all right. it is colder than anyone wants to think about in this part of the united states. it is freezing. our meteorologist derek van dam is here to tell us about it. >> 75% of the country is actually below freezing. you have to see this video out of massachusetts. this is a coastal area and we had coastal storm surge from the nor'easter that pushed through. it pushed in some of the water from the osha ycean. the temperature dropped and it allowed the water to freeze on

the roadways and those neighborhood and streets look like a frozen lake. can you imagine seeing that from your house? not pleasant. check this out. we have over 110 million americans under a windchill advisory. it is frigid cold out there. it's take your breath away cold right now. look at this. you step outside in chicago, negative 25 degrees. that's what it feels like on your exposed skin. negative 21 for new york. negative 18 for the nation's capital. it's all thanks to the arctic blast of air. but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. computer models showing a somewhat warming trend. you get rid of the purples and the pinks on the color map behind me and you replace them with greens. you have a smile on your face. you can see it in the seven-day forecast. you have to get through one or two more days in the brutally cold apple. more of the same for washington. i want to take you down under. this is in australia.

we are under an immense heat wave, so the opposite season happening in the southern hemisphere. sydney, one of the suburbs just outside of sydney actually reaching the middle 40s this afternoon. it's local saturday evening within the east coast of australia. so heat wave conditions unfortunately combining with strong winds have led to a high fire danger a across the region and we've seen some impressive brush fires. this, of course, being the fire soap. here is a look at the fire dangers across south australia, victoria and into new south wales. you can see some of the large hadder fires are burning out of control right now. check out these visuals coming from the region. you can see just how stopping the winds are, fueling some of those flames. this could potentially be the worst fire weather in some of these areas for the past two years and potentially the worst since black saturday in february 2009. lots of people talk about that as a benchmark year for brush

fires within australia. yeah. that year i covered the black friday bush fires. horrific. >> it has a long way to go to see that size, but it's of course a dangerous situation. >> thanks, derek. we'll see you next hour. the long time host of jeopardy is on medical leave after undergoing brain surgery. alex trebek is familiar to fans around the world. he posted add video to update his fans on his condition. take a look. >> during the holiday break, i had a slight medical problem. subdural hematoma. blood clots on the brain caused by a fall i endured about two months ago. surgery was performed. after two days in the hospital, i came home to start recovery. the prognosis is excellent. >> all right. and though the type of brain

injury trebek suffered is much more serious than a slight medical problem, he assures his fans that he'll be back to record more jeopardy episodes very soon. we of course wish him very well, a quick recovery. >> he certainly looks like he's doing well there. still to come, if you live in britain, going to the coffee shop could become a little more expensive. >> here is why some lawmakers say that's a good thing. we'll tell you about it. stay with us. k. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free.

right now in the united kingdom, it is nearly 10:00 in the morning. a cup of coffee might be in order, but what if that cup of coffee had an extra tax on it? >> that is what a group of british lawmakers want. they want to charge the equivalent of around 34 cents of disposable coffee cups, the aim, to reduce waste. >> it is a huge problem. it's like 2.5 billion coffee cups thrown away and not recycled each year in britain and the number is nearly 50 billion in america. so in britain, there's enough cups to go around the world 5 1/2 times and in the united states enough to go back and forth to the moon five times. and the trouble is that these

cups are both plastic and paper so can't be recycled. so we want to put pressure on the manufacturers to produce disposable recyclable cups and consumers to reuse re-yob usabl cups. having to pay more, maybe they would bring their own cups. >> we took to the streets of london to see what coffee drinkers thought about this latte levy. >> i tried to recycle them, but i found out that they're not recyclable, which is a bit of a shock. so i'm a business disappointed that it's not actually recyclable. >> they feel completely recyclable. because they feel like cardboard. so i didn't know that. anyone that is doing what i'm doing, stop now and if you have enough coffee, get a cup that you can recycle. if not, stop drinking coffee. >> i didn't know that they were not recyclable at all, no.

and that seems bonkers, absolutely mad. but what can you do? there's no point in penalizing the people who sell the coffee. they need to penalize the people who make the coffee cups. >> that's a fair point. although the tax would raise the average cup of coffee by 10%, lawmakers say if money would go towards building better recycling facilities. thanks so much for watching. >> more news right after the break. stay with us. ♪

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