as americans pause for thanksgiving, the coronavirus rages on. more than 90,000 people are now hospitalized. that's a record, despite the staggering spike in virus numbers and deaths, president donald trump continues to focus on himself. and the election results. we'll look at his falsehood laced news conference in a moment. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm paula newton, and this is "cnn newsroom."

thursday's thanksgiving celebrations in the united states were perhaps the most difficult many americans have faced in their lifetimes. the families of well over a quarter million people in the united states who have died of covid-19 had to mark the holiday without their loved ones. more than 90,000 americans, meantime, could not be with their families because they're fighting for their lives in hospital. that's the highest number since the pandemic began and the 17th straight day of record hospitalizations. and the countless medical staff who care for them also had to sacrifice being at home with their loved ones. current trends point to even more suffering as the nation and the world look ahead to a much different christmas season and hanukah. u.s. president-elect joe biden

and his wife spent part of the holiday making video calls with front line medical and emergency workers. on thursday, they posted this message to let americans know they are not struggling alone. >> i know this isn't the way many of us hoped we'd spend our holiday. we know that a small act of staying home is a gift to our fellow americans. yes, it's a personal sacrifice that each of our families can make and should make to saive somebody else's life. it's also a shared sacrifice for the whole country, a statement of common purpose that says we care about one another, and we're all in this together. >> the biden's were among the many american families who chose to stay home this thanksgiving. the former vice president explained why on cnn.com. we get more from cnn's mj lee with the president-elect in delaware. >> reporter: this thanksgiving was a challenging one for so

many american families across the country who couldn't travel, who couldn't get together with their relatives and family members and do sort of their usual traditions that they would typically be doing, and the same was the case for the president-elect and his family. joe biden has said that in past years, his family has traveled out of state so that they can have a big extended family gathering around this holiday, but instead, this week, they opted to stay back behind here in delaware and only get together with a couple of members of their family and we heard biden talk earlier this week in this national address that he understands the sacrifices that a lot of people are making across the country and he also wrote an op-ed for cnn.com, just a little part of which i want to read. he wrote like millions of americans were temporarily letting go of the traditions we can't do safely. it is not a small sacrifice.

these moments with our loved ones, time that's lost can't be returned, yet we know it's the price of protecting one another, one we can't pay alone, isolate in our only kitchens, scattered, we are healing together. we have heard an empathetic message from the president-elect, saying he really understands the experience of looking around the dinner table and seeing that there's an empty chair, obviously a reference to how so many families across america have lost loved ones because of this pandemic, and a very urgent message from the president-elect as well, urging everybody to please act responsibly around the holiday season because he knows that we can get back to normal soon, particularly with vaccine distribution potentially being around the corner. this has been a pretty consistent message that we have heard from joe biden over the last couple of months. mj lee, cnn.

president trump meantime observed a thanksgiving tradition by calling u.s. troops deployed overseas. but in a news conference with reporters, he remained preoccupied with a fictional view that he won the election. cnn's kaitlan collins explains. >> the president has not taken a question in three weeks since the day of the pleelection. he broke that streak on thanksgiving. taking questions from reporters. as he spoke to us, he repeated accusations of widespread fraud, something his attorneys have been saying without evidence for weeks now. and the president hammered it home, repeating it, talking about the secretaries of state in georgia, criticizing officials there and in other states and saying that if the electoral college certifies joe biden's win in a matter of weeks as they are scheduled to do, he says that would be making a mistake. he criticized that biden is moving ahead with transitioning to the presidency by picking

people who are going to be in his kabcabinet and wouldn't say whether or not he's going to attend biden's inauguration. he talked about whether he would concede once certified. he would not say that, despite being asked multiple times, would he concede once it's certified. >> it's got to be a hard thing to concede, because we know there was massive fraud. as to whether or not i can get this apparatus moving quickly because time isn't on our side. everything else is on our side. facts are on our side. this is a massive fraud. this should never take place in this country. we're like a third world country. >> one thing he said he would leave the white house. there have been theories about whether or not he would actually leave the white house. one thing he did say is he would be leaving the white house on saturday campaigning in georgia

ahead of the runoff that of course is going to determine which party controls the senate. it's really notable, i can't stress enough, the president has had such a quiet period in his presidency where he is not taking questions, and of course now after three weeks, he broke that streak and we'll see if that continues with these baseless allegations about fraud. kaitlan collins, cnn, the white house. cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein joins me now, the senior editor of the atlantic. okay. ron, we don't even need to fact check this, there were no facts. they were just outright lies, and yet, ron, there is a method to his madness, is there not? what is he trying to get at here? >> he is succeeding at convincing a large share of the republican electorate without any evidence that the election was stolen from him. that has several implications. one is that it increases his

leverage in the republican party. he can walk away, and lose close to 7 million votes, he can ark, no, i didn't lose, it was stolen from me. there was nothing wrong with the direction i set for the party. it was a theft by democrats, and secondly, he is making it tougher for joe biden to get a second look, a honeymoon among rank and file voters, which in turn will make it harder for biden to leverage republicans in congress to work with him on almost anything. >> he seems determined, he said he's going to step into this runoff in georgia with the two senate seats. a reminder that it is going set the stage of what the next future of congress will look like. the republicans win back the balance of power or end up in a virtual tie. all of that is in stake, he will go in and do what, do you think, because he seems serious about going to georgia this weekend?

>> he will rally the republican base. that is donald trump's superpower, his ability to turn out more noncollege and nonurban voters and really anyone in either party expected again after adjusting all of their methodology from 2016 to 2020, he turned out more of these voters than last time. he is obviously a very polarizing figure, became the first republican to lose georgia since 1992 when bill clinton won. 1976 for a democrat to win outright the way joe biden is, and the question is in the past democrats have had trouble getting their voters out in these runoffs in georgia, which were designed to make it tougher for candidates favored by minority voters to win. i don't know if that's going to be the issue. this feels more like a battle of the bulge, in which both sides are going to see substantial turnout. >> they have been able to rally both sides, for the president to

continue to come here, given the loss in georgia, an extraordinary weekend if it ends up happening. i want to talk about the contrast, he spent the day largely with his family and out of sight. there was an editorial by the president-elect biden and his wife, the incoming first lady, jill biden, they write we are grateful for the trust we have been given to serve this beautiful, brave, confident nation. you can say that again. the contrast is real but given the fact that donald trump seems to be determined to continue tiny s to insinuate what's the hurdle for joe biden, he's taking a clear road, i'm going to rise a above this. is donald trump going to make that difficult? >> donald trump is going to make that difficult. joe biden is betting that there's a majority of the

country that wants to lower the temperature, that understands even if we disagree, none of us are going away. the evangelical south is not going away, and brooklyn and berkeley are not going away, and there are a number of americans terrified by the level of ask i ri -- acrimony, and they want to lower the temperature. it's not guaranteed that there is in fact a kind of sustainable majority that wants to pull back from this rank. donald trump, i think, was the first president who affirmatively thought widening the divide was in his interest and he has convinced a big section of the country they are being victimized, by metro america, whether biden can reach across that curtain, given how much of the audience has retreated undertheatneath a dom

conservative news sources, we don't know. that is what biden is betting, and he's going to go quite a bit down that road before he gives it up. >> yeah. and the again, so much how far you can go down the road with the lame duck congress. ron brownstein, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. happy thanksgiving. we'll play more of the president's outrageous claims later this hour. health experts warned americans not to travel for the thanksgiving holiday, and now they are warning about a post holiday virus surge. we'll discuss that after the break.

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the u.s. confirmed 110,000 covid infections thursday, and more than 1,200 americans lost their lives. the u.s. has confirmed 13 million infections and more than 263,000 deaths since the pandemic began. the u.s. now on thursday set a new hospitalization record for the 17th straight day.

the covid tracking project reports more than 90,000 americans were in hospitals thursday, sickened by the virus. joining me now is assistant professor in emergency medicine at the icon school of medicine at mount sinai, dr. eric, thank you so much for joining us. listen, the united states took a pause for a holiday, we all know no one took a pause for covid. on the front lines, what is going on day-to-day here, and is it real in terms of the crisis so many people have been talking about now? >> it is so real. i'm sitting here in new york city, one of the few spots that first fell to the initial outbreak of covid-19, and we are starting to see a slow rise in cases. but what's happening in new york city is very different than what's happening across a lot of the country. we are seeing that in even the most rural parts of america, people are not safe outside of

their homes, talking to people without masks on, and keeping less than 6 feet apart, and during a festive holiday like thanksgiving, which is the one opportunity we have throughout the year to be with our family and our close friends to celebrate, especially after such a tiring year, it is a real test of maturity, and also safety to see whether or not we are able to keep our distance, continue to wear masks, because we are so close given the vaccine candidates and where things are headed. >> we are so close. all of us are. and yet, how long do you think we will know, will it be before we know exactly the impact of this holiday on the numbers in the united states? >> it's very tough to tell, and that's a great question. generally speaking two to eight weeks is a time frame from when we start to see what exposures are looking like. so what happens today may not

come to fruition for at least two weeks from now at minimum. that makes it especially challenging being able to monitor and control and figure out what is working and what's not work. we all know that 14 days is the average incubation period. that's why it's so tough to track. >> this issue about what's working, what's not working has been so confusing, and one of the reasons it's been difficult to follow the instruction, if we contrast the united states with europe. it seemed europe was being so much more careful, and yet they went through a tremendous spike, and now they have lock down. what have we learned? have we solved any mysteries about this virus in terms of how it's transmitted? >> we are still learning a lot about the virus. what we are learning especially now more than ever are the long-term effects. what happens after you get hospitalized? what do you come home with? what happens when you are 4 or 5 or 8 or 9 months after your

first hospitalization? i can tell you that i've had patients come into the emergency room where they still feel like they can't run that marathon. they can't even walk up the stairs at home. and these are young adults who had a severe hospitalization. there was even an article in the "new york times" the other day that many people across the country are requiring long-term rehab and therapy. what's so tough is that we don't have a perfect regimen in place anywhere in the world currently that can fix hospitalizations and help cure us of the disease, so we have to continue to work hard at finding a long-term solution. >> yeah, and that long-term solution will be, hopefully, a vaccine at this point. we had news, unfortunately, from the university of oxford and astrazeneca who has that uk vaccine, and there seemed to be some confusion. some people would even say it was an error in the way they conducted these clinical trials

and the dose that people received. do you think from when you saw the information, do you think it is a major concern and are you worried that it will impact the confidence that people will have in the vaccines? >> i think we all have to keep in mind where we are with the three vaccine candidates and we are all in a rush for time. we would love immediate results. we want to see the data, but what's challenging is the data that was released by astrazeneca like pfizer and moderna has only been released in the form of a press report. it has not been published in a peer review journal, and we badly need that. it is true that the astrazeneca data preliminarily raises a few eyebrows, why is it that if you provide two normal doses of the vaccine the efficacy is less than when you receive only a half dose followed by a full dose, but there are some possible advantages with the astrazeneca. it can be refrigerated in normal

temperatures. the company mentioned they would be selling it without a profit involved at least for the duration of the pandemic. so i would caution your viewers to just take a deep breath, let's see what the data shows once it gets released in a peer review journal and then we'll take it from there. >> medicine and science by press release is never a good idea, doctor, so we will definitely wait for the journal articles and the all important peer review. appreciate it. >> thank you. meantime, europe's most populous country is struggling to turn back the tide of coronavirus. germany has now topped 1 million confirmed cases of covid-19. it also reported its largest single day death toll ever on thursday. now, there is a glimmer of hope. that would be in france. the health ministry says a national target of just 5,000 new cases per day could be

reached by mid december and in the uk, it is now set to reintroduce a tiered system of restrictions when a national lock down expires on december 2nd. london will be placed in the second most restrictive tier. now, with us for more on this is melissa bell, live in paris, and salma backbo salma abdelaziz is with us in london. salma, we'll start with you, it is a reprieve rs bbut is it eno to take the burden, the strain off hospitals and health care systems in general. >> reporter: that's the question, and that's the debate. even if you live under the highest restrictions, under tier 3, all nonessential shops will reopen for cryou starting next week. that means let the christmas shopping begin and that has scientific advisers and members of the medical community worried. the british medical association

saying the three tier strategy is full of risks and could very well reverse the game under lock down, and it's important to remember we haven't turned the corner here yet. yes, hospitalization rates are down. in the last seven days they dropped by 7%. yes, case numbers are down but you still have a very high death toll. earlier this week, we had a single day in which almost 700 people lost their lives due to the virus, the highest daily death toll the country has seen since the start of may. you can argue there's a lag in the numbers, the medical community saying that's not enough. the virus is active and out there, at a time when you're pushing people to go out and spend and live their lives at least somewhat normally, and there's also that special christmas time dispensation that three households can come together. a relack sixation of the rules, debate, scientists are saying it's not strict enough but the debate taking place in parliament is they are too strict.

you have a lot of mps, prime minister boris johnson's party, rebelling, saying the restrictions are too high. he's going to have to explain this to the public, the national health service and his own party, paula. >> this is a debate that's echoed around the world. melissa bell, you're in paris. there's great concern for the economy, but what would you say, especially what we have been hearing in the last few weeks that the government is very concerned about the strain on hospitals and what it would mean if those businesses reopened too soon. >> that's right, paula. it was when emmanuel macron announced the lock down on october 30th. it was because of the strain on the hospitals. it had gotten to a point, paula, that they felt that the hospital system wouldn't be able to cope because it had been such a

virulent spread. a couple of weeks ago, above what we had seen in the first wave. there comes a point they can't cope. the fairly strict measures brought in october 30th made a big difference, a drop in cases, and what happens a week after that, ten days after that, you start to see the numbers of people entering icu and hospitals falling. this is what happened. if you look at the last few days, the net number of people in hospital in france, the net number of people in icu is negative. there are more people leaving than coming in. that was the place where the authorities wanted to get. now the key is learning those lessons from the first wave which was no doubt quickly restrictions lifted too fast, and so what they hope is with the staggered lifting of restrictions they're going to manage to avoid the third wave, the french president explained when he announced the plans.

what happens saturday, some nonessential shops will reopen from december 15th, the partial lock down, that is the restrictions on people's movements more specifically will be lifted if those numbers are down to 5,000 or no more than 5,000 new cases. some businesses will be closed until january 2021, restaurants, bars, cafes, and those businesses, this is what the government said yesterday, will be getting fresh economic help to help at least some of them survive. >> definitely a realization that the economy will suffer. melissa bell in paris, salma backbone about abo, thank you. we'll have more on his truth bending claims, that's ahead just after a break. what about rob's dry cough? works on that too, and lasts 12 hours. 12 hours?! who studies that long?

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welcome back to our viewers in the united states and all around the world, i'm paula newton, and you are watching cnn newsroom. we want to return to donald trump's impromptu and frankly stunning news conference at the white house thursday. his first since the election three weeks ago. now, the courts already have tossed out his numerous legal challenges to the election results because frankly they're not supported by any evidence, yet the president still can't bring himself to admit defeat. his answers to reporters' questions are so far removed from reality, we thought it was important for you to hear it and judge for yourself. take a listen. >> we don't know what is last,

if you look at what's going on. you have to really look at what's going on. they're finding tremendous discrepancy in the votes. nobody believes those numbers. those numbers are incorrect numbers. a lot of numbers have already been reported that's incorrect. you're going to see things happening over the next week or two that are going to be shocking to people. if you look at the numbers in michigan, if you look at the numbers in pennsylvania, if you look at fraudulent voting and fraudulent votes, so i can't say what's first and what's last in terms of is this the last one or is this the first one of a second term. we'll see what happens. nobody wants to see the kind of fraud that this election has really come to represent. we are looking at things that are so bad in georgia, day don't want to show us signatures. the reason they don't want to show us signatures is very simple. because we will find thousands

and thousands, it's a very close race, it's hair thin, but we'll find thousands and thousands of discrepancy, fraud, why they aren't wanting to show those signatures is amazing. they're doing recounts and even in the recount, they found thousands of votes that were off, but now we want to look at the signatures, and you will find tens of thousands of false ballots, forged ballots. you'll see it all over. you're going to see a lot of it. you go to pennsylvania, you saw the meeting we had yesterday with pennsylvania. you saw people come up and they went to vote and they said, no, you can't vote, somebody else already sent in a ballot. and this is happening, tens of thousands of times. i think it was 600 and some-odd thousand, 687 votes cast in pennsylvania. the republican state house, they have known it for a long time.

you go to michigan, and you look at what happened in wayne county and detroit. i went there arough a list. i won almost every county, you see it, 78%. 72%. 68%, going through the list, and you get to wayne, and something happened. tremendous numbers, you saw the canvassers, they refused to sign their documents because they said we can't sign a fraudulent document. horrible things went on. that's in wayne county, detroit. but you look at the votes that were just tabulated, look at all the counties. i won almost all of them, except detroit was so egregious. wisconsin they're finding tremendous discrepancy. you just take a look at that. tremendous discrepancy. and elsewhere. so we're going to see what happens. but you can't have somebody assume office and already they want to get rid of america first. i mean, they want to get rid of

america first. you know why, china doesn't want it. china expressed their wish. please get rid of america first, and the biden administration said, that's okay, we'll get rid of america first. we don't want to get rid of america first. we want to put america first. other countries should put themselves first too, i tell them that all the time m i don't know what's going to happen. i know one thing, joe biden did not get 80 million votes. many throwing away, 74 million is 11 million more than i got last time, millions more than ronald reagan got. he won 49 states, i guess, and it's millions more, millions more than hillary clinton got. joe biden did not get, and by the way, joe biden did not beat

barack obama with the black vote. didn't beat him. but they have him as beating him. and if you look at the numbers, the numbers are false. the numbers are corrupt. it was a rigged election, 100%, people know it. that's why you have people marching all over the united states, they know it was a rigged election, and look at what's happening in georgia, a lot of things are happening in georgia, and they are absolutely against showing, i mean, it's a sad thing. they don't want to show signaturings. it can be solved if you show signatures. you're going to find out the people that signed aren't the people that are supposed to be signed. envelopes, they didn't do the ballots. somebody said maybe the envelopes were thrown out. there's tremendous fraud. if you look at 10:00 in the evening, you saw what happened. then you had these massive dumps. nobody has ever seen anything like it. >> you know, for weeks, despite

trying to prove that there has been no evidence, once again, none of what the president said about that widespread election fraud is correct at all. he is not being cheated out of the presidency. joe biden won the election and he will be the next president of the united states, inaugurated on january 20th, 2021. still ahead here on newsroom, the restaurant industry reels under the coronavirus, lock downs, restrictions and nervous customers are all taking their toll and threatening the livelihoods of millions of workers. what restaurant owners say they need to survive. robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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the current spike in cases may be most concerning for elderly americans, they're among the most vulnerable, and nursing homes have been hit especially hard. our brynn gingras takes us

inside a facility. >> at my sister-in-law's house. >> reporter: since the pandemic began, it's the physical connection family kathy, cory and other residents at this connecticut nursing home ache for. >> it's like my heart got ripped out sometimes. >> i'm just waiting. >> waiting for what? >> to be able to hug again. >> reporter: especially this time of year. >> the holidays are all about memories of a family. it's hard enough not being with your family, but when they can't even come up and eat a meal with you or anything or visit, it's hard. >> reporter: in the spring, the coronavirus ravaged the northeast. nursing homes may have paid the heftiest price. to date, resident in long-term care facilities make up 8% of all cases in the u.s., but nearly half of the country's total deaths. >> it's like being in a battle, it's the same mentality. >> reporter: bill white is the

owner of beachwood long-term care in connecticut. to keep residents safe, wit phi put in a system of checks to keep covid-19 from entering these walls. a health questionnaire for visitors. beechwood has gone through periods of denying visitors out right. beechwood had 14 cases since march, three of them residents, the rest staff, a success by all accounts. >> we were really lucky to have precautions taken. we didn't see that everywhere, and the people really paid the price. >> reporter: in the last week alone, connecticut saw 306 confirmed coronavirus cases of nursing home residents, 39 people have died. a sign of where the state may be headed. last week, this once abandoned nursing home became fully operational again.

it's reserved for covid-19 positive long-term care residents. they're moved here to mitigate the virus spreading like a brush fire inside their home facilities. >> the amount of referrals that we're getting and people calling, asking, can we take patients. you know, it's been very consistent since the day that we opened. we haven't had a slow moment. >> reporter: with help from the national guard, the state first opened this facility in april. it was one of four like it needed in the spring to get control of cases. it closed in the summer when the numbers went down. for now, the state is relying on just this building. it hasn't ruled out the possibility of needing more space as cases surge. on this day, eight sick elderly patients were expected to arrive. we talked to charles miller who was one of the first patients admitted. he's a beachwood resident who tested covid positive while recovering from a stroke in the hospital. >> it's tough on the elderly, i think it's tough on everybody. >> reporter: miller tries to

keep a good spirit. >> you look good. >> i feel great. >> reporter: because this thanksgiving will be the first away from his wife and family. >> we have next year. >> yeah, we sure do. >> seeing their loved ones faces, is styles a critical piece in their care. >> miller's goal is to fight the virus, get back to beach wood as they stick together and stay hael healthy, all anxiously waiting for that one thing. >> you'll give him a hug after this is all over. >> brynn gingras, cnn, new london, connecticut rj. some icu nurses are reviving the how it started versus how it's going. they are posting photos of before and after their shifts or how they looked pre-covid, compared to now to show just how hard they're working. cnn talked a short time ago to

the nurse who posted this one. as you see there, she said she only wanted to be identified by her first name but says she's feeling incredibly overwhelmed. >> i can't believe so much is being asked of health care workers with so little resources. we're being asked to take care of this massive increase in patients whereas resources haven't really increased and we are not some superhuman invincible force. we can only do so much. i think at this point we've been through a couple of surges in my hometown, and we are fully expecting the next few weeks to be brutal, and at this point, honestly, we just want to get it over with. we know it's going to be awful and people are going to die, and there's nothing else we can do at this point other than get through it. >> now, one place people turn for comfort, of course, is the local restaurant, normally a place for nourishment, but also

company community, but now restaurants right across the country and around the world are under pressure like never before. in los angeles, indoor dining is banned again with establishments scramble to go survive on takeout and delivery only. they're only allowed 50% capacity and subject to a curfew. the patch work is having a huge impact. it's estimated 11 million jobs could be lost and 500,000 independent restaurants may close. joining me now is cofounder of the independent restaurant coalition, amanda cohen. good to see you, and thank you so much for giving us insight into what it's like to be you right now, and so many different restaurants, owners and employees all over the united states and the globe really, here in the united states.

what has it been like trying to come through this second wave? we saw so much resilience and determination after the first wave. it's my impression that it's much tough they aer this time. >> it's so much tougher. it feels like we're on a roller coaster that we just can't get off of. we don't know if there's more federal aid coming down the pipeline, and we're increasingly getting more restrictions on how we can do business for the greater good. it's hard to handle as a business owner and we just don't know when it's going to end, and it's almost impossible to keep holding on. i walk home every night, and restaurants are just empty. there's nobody in the dining rooms, and it's too cold for customers to sit outside, and it's just bleak out there. >> unfortunately bleak probably sums it up right now. i want to get the impression of what this means in communities like yours replicated all over the country. what it means in communities to

have these restaurants, focal points for neighborhoods, and employment for people who really need it. >> right. so, you know, i used to have 35 employees, i have six. hopefully i won't have to lay off anymore. you know, we're seeing jobs disappear. jobs that aren't going to come back. we're watching the hearts of neighborhoods disappear. the kitchen is the heart of a home. then restaurants are the heart of a city, and we're watching them just disappear, and i don't know when they're going to come back. it's going to take an incredibly long time, so the mood is sort of overwhelmingly depressed. >> yeah, and not helped obviously by the fact that, i guess you guys feel like there is no rescue package coming from the restaurant. i mean, what's on the table now, and do you have any optimism that congress will be able to get it together and pass something? >> i'm holding on to my last little bit of optimism. you know, we do have the restaurant act. it has been passed in the house. we're waiting for it to be

passed in the senate. it has huge bipartisan support. 49 senators have supported it, which is amazing, we just need to get it over the finish line, and it's a revitalization plan for the industry. it will allow us to survive through this pandemic, and then we can be there on the other end so that when the country reopens, we're there, and jobs are there, and you can be there for the customers and for tourists, but we need that money to be able to keep our doors open. >> what's your fear if it doesn't pass? >> we're just going to see hundreds of thousands of restaurants closing. none of us have any money left in the bank. when we first got shut down, we all had some savings and we were able to keep our restaurants running. now in this second wave, my bank account is depletedment i can't put anymore more into the restaurant. i have none left. i'll be in the same situation as

every other restaurateur in the country, i will have to shut my business, and it means millions of jobs lost. diego maradona has been buried near the grave of his parents. players with the italian football club honored the soccer giant as all of them wore his number 10 jersey in their match against croatian club. napoli won the match 2-0. officials say maradona died of heart failure. he was 60 years old. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

all week long we have been sharing stories about par olympians around the world. our last story comes from hong kong where one athlete is excelling in a sport that requires precision and strategy. >> at the hong kong sports institute, yun is playing with

her long time coach, assistant jet li. it has no counter part in the olympic program. >> boccia is a sport for disabled people. the objective is to throw your ball near the target ball. who got the closest will win. >> the game is mixed gender and divided into various categories depends on the function fall ability of the athlete. >> she is 3, she can use a ramp and an assistant while propelling the boccia ball herself. born with spinal atrophy, she is a four time athlete, and ranked number two in the world in her class. she trains five days a week, honing her precision and strategy.

>> being an athlete is a kind of job that i never thought about in my life before. but when i knew about boccia, i found that, okay, quite interesting. i'm not only playing a sport, i can represent hong kong. >> christina macfarlane, cnn. our international viewers can watch superheroes saturday at 6:00 in the morning eastern time, 7:00 in the evening in hong kong right here on cnn. and that wraps it up for this hour of "cnn newsroom," i'm paula newton. thank you for joining us. "early start" is straight ahead. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements-

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welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. welcome to a special holiday edition of "early start," i'm laura jarrett. >> i'm boris sanchez in for christine romans. great to see you as always, laura. >> great to have you. >> thank you so much. it's friday, november 27th. 5:00 a.m. in new york, and we're officially in the christmas season. unfortunately, all the numbers, the trends are heading in the wrong direction when it comes to coronavirus. >> that's right. it would normally be a day filled with leftover, family, friends, maybe some black friday shopping. instead, for the 17th straight day, a new record number of americans are suffering with coronavirus,