more americans than ever are hospitalized with covid-19 and the situation could soon get a lot worse. donald trump and his allies rack up another loss in court. republicans are facing a new problem because of the president's lies about the

election. >> it's not decided. if you lose your faith and you don't vote and people walk away, that will decide it. >> the chair of the republican party is trying to convince republicans in georgia the upcoming runoff election is not rigged. control of the senate hangs in the balance. live from cnn world head quarters in atlanta, welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "cnn newsroom." so sunday will be a peak travel day in the united states with about 1 million americans flying home after the thanksgiving holiday. health experts fear it will lead to a disastrous rise in co-vid cases in the weeks ahead. hospitals already are getting overwhelmed with co-vid patients.

a record 91,000 americans now at this hour being treated in medical facilities right across the country. but as the nation struggles with the pandemic and high unemployment, president trump, you can kind of see him there, golfing during the crisis, and when he's not golfing, he's tweeting out falsehoods about the election he loss. so far the courts have rejected almost every one of his legal challenges for being without facts, evidence or merit. with the december holidays approaching and co-vid cases skyrocketing, medical experts warn a catastrophe is almost inevitable at this point. 13.2 million americans have tested positive for covid-19 since march. nearly one-third of the cases, more than 4 million people, have tested positive in the last month. we get more from cnn's miguel marquez in new york. >> reporter: here in new york city and testing sites across

the country people are being tested with lines. the length of time it takes to get tested is going down because of the long holiday weekend. the number of cases and deaths go down. the number of people getting tested. all those things go down. as the weekend picks up into the week day, they go up. they expect that same pattern with the long holiday weekend that we're in right now. it's stunning to consider that the u.s. in the last week has added over 1 million cases of coronavirus. that is something that used to take weeks, if not months to get to. not only here in new york where it was horrible in the spring. the numbers are rising not as fast as in south dakota, iowa or texas. but they are rising everywhere. doctors and nurses working so hard and epidemiologists who follow the disease fear that christmas is going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. back to you. >> miguel marquez there.

on the vaccine front, a cdc committee is expected to decide on tuesday who will receive the very first doses. and that's once the vaccine gets clearance. now, a member of the u.s. president-elect's coronavirus advisory board explains who she believes should get first priority. >> certainly health care workers, so doctors, nurses, who are caring for patients in the hospital including patients with coronavirus, should very much be among those first receiving the vaccine. and then beyond that, there are other frontline workers, essential workers, whether that's the people who are working in food and meat processing, people who are the grocery store checkout counter. you know, people who are doing things we can't function without, whether it's with respect to food or drugstores or

teachers, for example. >> a recent poll finds 58% of americans say they would be willing to get vaccinated right now at no cost. that's up from 50% in september. they are floating the idea of paying americans to take the vaccine which would keep americans frthe virus from spread if you look at the experience trying to get people to wear masks, we tried altruism, protect your neighbors. that didn't work. more recently we tried to get people to protect themselves. that doesn't seem to work. maybe money works. i'm all about paying people to do the right thing. sure, so many people in this country are hurting financially. they need stimulus. they need stimulus money. get vaccinated, send the government your receipt and get paid. i'm okay with that. let's do that. >> an infectious disease and global health expert at the university of oxford in england

is with us. good to see you. obviously you heard miguel there. obviously the case count has been staggering in the united states. unlike the first wave, there's nowhere to hide in the united states. the key metric is what is going on in hospitals. what is your worst fear about hospitals right now and what they face in the coming weeks? >> well, thank you for having me. it's grim. and it's going to get really, really bad. hospitals are already struggling with the tide of covid-19 patients. on top of what's always busy in the winter time. they're about to be hit with a tidal wave. what's happening this weekend over thanksgiving is effectively a national super spreader event. we have millions of people traveling, gathering. you know, their households together. and all of these transmission events are going to turbo charge what's happening right now as we approach christmas. we're going to be in a situation where ambulances are driving around trying to find a hospital that can take their patient,

where doctors are having to make decisions about which patient gets the last ventilator, where ppe shortages are going to cause more doctors and nurses to get sick. all that will drive the death rate up to levels we haven't seen yet. it's hard to contemplate. >> and it's a key point. we've been hearing from professionals like you for so long that we can't do our best if we're flooded with patients all at once. i do want to talk about the situation in europe where you are right now. i mean, those countries have announced they will ease some restrictions for christmas. it has to be said that they have flattened -- they haven't flattened the curve. they have actually in some sense been able to bend it a little bit. do you think lifting any of those restrictions for christmas is a good idea? >> yeah. there's some modest but hard win gains in europe. many countries have now been through it like here in the uk. brief soft lockdowns. we've seen some progress.

i understand the sentiment. everyone is desperate to see their loved ones over the holiday. governments are afraid if they tell people to stay at home they'll go out anyway without the rules. the reality is that kind of mixing is going to cause a rise in transmission. my perspective is we're so close. we've seen positive news about three vaccines. people are going to start getting vaccinated, potentially in the next couple of months. by next year, by next thanksgiving or next christmas, next holiday season, the most vulnerable people in a lot of these countries are going to have been vaccinated. let's make sure they're around to enjoy the holidays. i'd rather keep our foot on the gas pedal and have people understand we need to celebrate differently this year. >> it's shame something that's supposed to be a joyous occasion for families may be a tragedy by january or february. when this pandemic started, we

were told therapeutics, drugs that we could be treated with that would mean the disease wouldn't progress severely would be in the offing. how do you think we're doing now getting toward the end of the year? the death rates in both europe and the united states still seem to be frightening. >> yeah. the death rates are high. the number of deaths are high because the number of cases is so high. the actual fatality rate, the number of all the infected people who die has gone down significantly. that's because we've learned a lot. we've learned with drugs like dexamethaso dexamethasone, that can decrease death. all the hard earned knowledge over the last year has actually really driven down the fatality rates. unfortunately, when we see cases spreading in uncontrolled fashion, that's not going to be good enough. >> yeah. not good enough indeed. as you said, some progress on the actual rate of mortality. some people, unfortunately, it

is going to be eye watering really, to see some of the numbers in the weeks to come. doctor, thank you so much. >> thank you. meantime, colorado's governor is the latest political leader to catch the coronavirus. he and his spouse tested positive. he will be working remotely at home and will continue to monitor his health. he's asking coloradans to limit their time in public, wear a mask, and stay, of course, six feet away from each other. still to come -- >> angry over co-vid restrictions, they command their freedom back. we're live in a tense technically dock locked down london. and president trump's conspiracy theories could help republicans in a couple key senate runoffs. we'll explain after the break. -- neuriva has clinically

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the claims of fraud are backed up by any evidence. but that doesn't stop the president from pursuing and spreading some wild conspiracy theories. cnn's jeremy diamond is at the house. >> reporter: when he wasn't on the golf course, president trump on saturday continuing to make baseless allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. focusing on the states of pennsylvania and wisconsin, two key battle ground states president-elect joe biden recaptured from president trump in this latest election. but the president's continued allegations of widespread voter fraud and his conspiracy theories that he's been spreading come against a mounting legal backdrop that is disproving the president's case. more than 30 cases now brought forward by the president's campaign. or their allies have been dismissed in state and federal courts or withdrawn by the legal teams. and the latest blow is coming from a trump-appointed judge writing for the third circuit court of appeals, denying the

campaign's appeal to decertify the results of the election. trying to throw out millions of legally cast ballots in the key battle ground state. the judge wrote, quote, calling an election unfair does not make it so. charges require specific allegations, and then proof. we have neither here. the campaign's claims have no merit. the president is also running into roadblocks on the recount front after his campaign paid $3 million to have two key counties in the state of wisconsin conduct recounts. milwaukee county certified the results on friday. the results of the recount actually found more votes for joe biden. joe biden coming up with 13 2 vote gain in milwaukee county after that recount went through. and the state of wisconsin is expected to certify the results of its election come tuesday. so the question is now how much longer does the president keep this up? we know that privately he and

his advisers recognize it's almost impossible for him to overturn the results of this election. but the president has been charging ahead trying to at least delegitimize this legitimate victory by president-elect joe biden. one key date that the president's advisers are looking at, december 14th. that's when the electoral college will vote for the next president of the united states, locking in president-elect joe biden's victory. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. now, the state of georgia now is ground zero in the battle for control of the u.s. senate. republican strategists and state leaders are getting worried georgia's gop voters may not turn out to vote in the runoffs specifically because of the party's own baseless attacks on the integrity of the election. president trump on twitter trying to find some kind of a work around. he was telling supporters that in his words, they must show up and vote for gop senators, david perdue and kelly loeffler, even though the election was a,

quote, total scam. of course, that isn't true. cnn's ryan nobles was in atlanta for an unusual exchange between the republican national committee chairwoman and some republican voters. >> winning at least one of the races in georgia -- on saturday the republican chairwoman was in marietta, georgia. her goal was to fire up voters to get behind perdue and loeffler. instead, after her remarks, she was peppered for about 20 minutes by trump supporters demanding she do more to help donald trump overturn the results of the election. not only across the country, but specifically here in georgia. listen to an exchange during that event. >> reporter: how are we going to -- work when it's already decided? >> it's not decided.

this is the key. >> how do we know? >> it's not decided. if you lose your faith and you don't vote and people walk away, that will decide it. we have to work hard, trust us. we're fighting. we're looking at every legal avenue. >> how do we get that word out? people are losing their faith. >> reporter: you hear that supporter say why should i go out and vote if the election has been decided. mcdaniel pleading with trump supporters it hasn't and it's important to get out. it shows the tight rope republicans are walking. they desperately need the trump supporters to support their candidates. at the same time, they can't make it seem as though they're not 100% behind donald trump, even while he works to sew discord and distrust in the election system in georgia. republicans hope when the voting comes around on january 5th, they will come home and support the republican candidates. the demographics have changed in georgia as evidenced by the fact that joe biden was able to win

in november. the republicans are hoping they still have the edge going into the runoff election. ryan nobles, cnn, atlanta. the director of the u.s. and the americas program at chatham house, the world house of institutional affairs joins me from london live. rhona mcdaniel. you saw her. she typifies the impossible situation that president trump has put the republican national committee in. especially that chairwoman there, not to be missed here, she's senator mitt romney's niece, one of the most vocal opponents of the republican party to the president. she is now in a position to almost have to plead with voters, saying trust us. we're fighting with you. and yet, the voters are saying trust what? you've told us the election is rigged. >> well, thank you for having me, paula. i think you pointed out the dilemma.

we've seen the polling by some polls more than 70% of republicans across the country feel like the elections haven't been legitimate and there have been fraud. and that makes it difficult to get people to turn out and vote. so the backlash against donald trump's own rhetoric, his own twitter feed, is turning up. i think one of the questions in georgia as we lead up to remember, that race is crucial for who holds the senate. that matters for what policies the next president, president-elect biden will be able to get through. so it's an absolutely critical race for the state, for the country. and one real dilemma is how much will president trump need to turn up to really persuade his base to vote? he's seen as being critical for getting people to vote. there have been a number of people who have said that in georgia in particular, there's also a dilemma which is that when people from outside of the state campaign, it sometimes has a negative effect.

so the difficulties in persuading voters within the state, republican voters to turn up, when they think the results aren't credible, who do you send to the state to help out? those are challenging questions for the republican party. but i think the broader point is the critical one for the nation, which is that as the president continues to sew discord, to sew doubt, to despite the more than 30 legal challenges that simply haven't held up in the courts, there have been no evidence. the judges have turned them away. he continues to contest the election result. and it looks like it's going to have some negative effects for his own party. >> yeah. and not just negative effects for his own party. right? when you look at it, you could be talking in excess of 50 or 60 million people in the united states according to polls who believe that biden somehow won in some illegitimate way, even though there's no proof of that.

if you're president-elect biden, how do you even begin to compromise with a gop who believes that look, most people in our party don't even believe you're the legitimate president? >> well, i think that president-elect biden sees this as his number one priority. this was even before the elections took place. it was clear that america is divided, has been divided, that the need to build bridges across people, across the rural and urban communities, across democrats and republicans, across any number of divides, i think has been very clear to biden. and so he will take that on board, and what we will see is a president who is very constrained by the need to respond to the deep crisis of the pandemic, the economic crisis, but who is going to be really taking on board this priority which is you can't get anything through congress, but you also can't get the

electorate to really support these policies, and it's really information, disinformation, and building those bridges which will be critical to az ability to govern. for those of us watching from around the world and outside the united states, it's clearly the most distressing part of an election that many people across the world are pleased with the results. but they're very concerned at how close the vote was. you know, even with 8 0 million votes, the fact that donald trump received more than 70 million and is contesting the election causes concern across the rest of the world. >> absolutely. because they certainly want a strong american government to go forward at this point in time. leslie of chatham house in london. thank you for your insights. >> thank you. so there might not be a concession, but there is a transition underway. president-elect joe biden will receive his first presidential daily briefing on monday. he's beefing up his coronavirus

advisory board. we have more. >> reporter: it's been a relatively quiet weekend here in delaware where president-elect joe biden has been spending his thanksgiving weekend. but the biden transition team did announce some additional members who are going to be serving on its covid-19 advisory board. one of the new names is jill jam, a mebl of the navajo nation. she serves as the executive director of the navajo nation department of health. one of the reasons this is noteworthy is because this is a community that has been especially hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic. you look at the numbers. some 8,600 cases for every 100,000 people in that community. and this is a community that has had to go on lockdown through around december 6th. now, i will also note that we do expect a pretty busy week coming ahead for the biden transition

team. on monday, for example, we expect biden to receive his first presidential daily briefing since he became president-elect. these are classified briefings that have been on hold until the gsa would formally ascertain that he had won the election. we also expect biden to announce some members of his economic team, one of those names could be janet yellen who is expected to serve as his treasury secretary if she is confirmed. we're also expecting some other key appointments including who is going to be joe biden's cia director and defense secretary. those are more announcements that could be coming in the weeks to come. mj lee, cnn, delaware. up next, chants become shouts and protests turn into scuffles. we'll tell you why london police arrested more than 150 people during anti-lockdown demonstrations. outrage in iran after the killing of a top nuclear

scientists. how the death could be a major hurdle for joe biden's policy. that's ahead. ♪

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welcome back to you viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm paula newton. this is "cnn newsroom." england is technically under a national lockdown right now. but take a look at the scene in london saturday. protesters took to the streets. it wasn't altogether peaceful. they arrested more than 150 people for various offenses. scott mclain that has the latest

on the protests from london and jim bitterman is outside paris for us with more on europe's fight against covid-19. we go to you, scott. a lot of emotion on the streets. i get the idea that it wasn't a very large protest. even though they did end up clashing with police. what's at issue there right now? >> yeah. at first glance the timing of this seems odd. the lockdown restrictions are set to end on wednesday, but that doesn't mean there will be no restrictions at all after that. in fact, the country will be divided into counties and they'll each have their unique set of restrictions you should a tier system, and the vast majority of places, well, you won't be allowed to socialize with people outside of your own household indoors. the protest was organized by a group called save our rights uk. it was created in response to the pandemic. fundamentally, they believe that the lockdown restrictions or the coronavirus restrictions have been unreasonable, and

disproportionate, and without enough parliamentary oversight after lawmakers conceded control to the government to make their own rules without zunconsulting them. the london police made clear they believed it was illegal, the protesters, the organizers, they thought they were covered under a loophole, but legalities aside, the bottom line is when you look at that video, there wasn't a lot of social distancing. there were very few masks being worn by any of the protesters. you could hear them in the video chanting freedom. there were some clashes with police, and as you said, more than 150 people were arrested. and that is quite rare in this country, because police have taken a pretty lax approach to enforcing the actual rules. it seems you have to try pretty hard to get fined or to get a ticket. case in point, if you had to walk yesterday town the thamer river front, you would see

people openly in violation of restrictions. even if police were there enforcing, the rule is they have pledged to engage, explain, encourage, and only fine people as a very last resort. so essentially, you are free to flout the rules with very little fear of any consequences in this country. if there is good news, paula, it's that despite the many people who seem to be oblivious to the rules, there seem to be enough people following them to start to bring the case count down which, obviously, is a good sign. >> yeah. no crushing the curve in britain. at least they are bending it. scott, appreciate that. now to jim bitterman outside paris where certain shops considered nonessential reopen for the first time in weeks on saturday. it is just in time for that all-important holiday shopping season. i mean, how are people in france greeting this, with a sense of relief or a lot of caution? >> i would say relief. in fact, there were long lines outside some stores over the

weekend as people were lining up to try to get in there and do their christmas shopping early. i must say the shopkeepers are relieved about it. some of them depend on christmas sales a month before christmas for sometimes up to 20% of their overall turnover. so, in fact, yes, it's definitely a relief all around. these are small measures, however. the other measure was houses of worship can be open. the curfew and other restrictions remain in place until december 15th when president macron says they'll be reevaluated on the number of cases takes place, and to see if any kind of restriction can be eased a little bit further. in fact, the numbers are going the right direction. the overnight numbers in france indicated the number of icu beds are down and the growth rate and number of cases is going down. elsewhere in europe, there have been protests against restrictions in eastern germany

which leads over the border into poland. basically a couple of hot spots in germany and eastern journger. the government says restrictions in place until at least december 20th. gofss everywhere are trying to figure out, grappling how to deal with the christmas holidays. they want to avoid at all costs a third wave and a third series of lockdowns. so the governments are trying to figure this out. the french government, for example, is going to lift the curfew here on christmas eve. german government is considering some kind of restrictions being eased around christmas time. so just trying to figure out what they can do to help make things better. not only socially but also economically around the christmas period. and, of course, that all-time, sort of the kind of traditional favorite holiday for many europeans that go skiing, and there again, a little bit of confusion the way the approaches are being made.

switzerland is letting skiing go ahead. germany's saying no skiing until next january and in france, even more confusing. they've said the ski slopes can be open but not the ski lifts. so i guess paula, you can strap on your keys, go downhill once and struggle your way to the top. >> so many things i thought i would never hear during this pandemic, jim. and that is yet another one. jim, really appreciate you giving us the outlook in europe. thanks so much. it's no secret that businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic. later in the show small business owners worried about lockdowns and desperate for more assistance. the first fda-approved medication of its kind, tremfya® can help adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis uncover clearer skin that can last. most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. in another study, the majority of tremfya® patients saw 90% clearer skin at 3 years.

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the killing of iran's chief nuclear scientist is sparking fury in tehran. demonstrators torched u.s. and israeli flags on saturday. iran is directly blaming israel for killing the scientist, but as cnn us plains, iran faces a

delicate political choice in how it responds. >> reporter: iran is saying it will avenge the death of the scientist and is pointing the finger squarely at israel for carrying out the attack. a list of actors that would coordinate a this killing in broad daylight is short. israel is neither confirming nor denying any role. the trump administration is being very quiet. the question now is how or whether iran responds. the attackers were able to reach into iran and take out the senior most nuclear scientist is embarrassing for them. it comes almost 11 months after the united states killed iran's most famous military commander, soleimani in an air strike. there is pressure on them to

respond. if iran were to respond in a significant way against u.s. or israeli targets in the region, for example, it could set something off. at the same time, iran knowed that joe biden wants to engage with them. he wants the u.s. to get back into the nuclear deal to ease sanctions and the maximum pressure campaign of the trump administration. so iran could hold off. meanwhile, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu sees the clock ticking down on the trump administration and knows he will have less leeway with a president biden when he's sworn in. biden is not eager to inherit a war with iran and is almost certainly hoping things will be calm when he's sworn in in january so there can be a fresh start. cnn, washington. for now, i'm joined by the deputy head and senior research fellow on the middle east at chatham house. nice of you to be here to try to parse this. it has been interesting to see

the fallout. i'm sure there's more to come. there's no question this has been humiliating for iran. yet, far from deescalating the situation, this might make iran more dangerous. if you're the biden administration, how do you handle this going forward? >> thank you for having me. it's an important question. the biden administration is cautiously trying to design a strategy on how to reengage iran after the trump administration's maximum pressure campaign that was directed to sanctioning iran into new negotiations in the climate of this latest assassination attempt of iran's foremost nuclear scientist, this is going to make things harder. i think there is an opportunity for the biden administration, of course, to work with its allies in europe, the europe countries that have tried to hold together the deal, to message the

iranians, to call for calm, and wait for a proper statement with regard to how they plan to reenter the iran nuclear agreement and use that forum to air grievances and manage iran's return to compliance in exchange for the biden administration's return to compliance. >> yeah. and while the biden administration already has said they're determined for this to go that way, is it really possible to go back to a nuclear deal that is now five years old. it's aging poorly. of course it has to be reframed. but now that israel's opposed to the deal, and has really gotten some ammunition the last four years with donald trump, how can they possibly evolve this relationship, especially when they do have to appease israel as well? >> it is possible to go back to the deal, and, actually, most of the signatories of the deal

think returning to the deal is the first step. by returning to the deal, you try to build back some trust, and you see iran return to compliance which is of foremost interest to the international community including to the israelis. over time with a bit of confidence, you can broaden the spectrum of negotiations and try to address some of the deal's deficiency which, of course, are the timelines of the deal. the fact that the deal didn't address iran's ballistic missile program or role in the region. that's going to require sustained international investment and it's going to require israeli engagement. so they're going to have to be a party to whatever comes next in this sort of covert action. it doesn't bode well for its early relationship with the biden administration. i think it will make things quite tense for them.

>> that was earlier from london. ethiopia is claiming a victory after weeks of conflict. details are difficult to confirm due to a communication blackout. we have been tracking the latest developments from london. two things to update here. obviously to see what's going on with the conflict, especially considering what the ethiopian government is now claiming, but also i am still struck by the terror that so many have escaped there and what's happened to all of them. >> just really heart breaking stories, paula, that are starting to come out from civilians who fled at the beginning of that bombardment yesterday. our team on the ground said they spoke to a woman who was forced to give birth on those desert roads between mekelle and the sudanese border and she's one of the lucky ones because she was able to escape. there are so many she tells us

who were forced to remain in mekelle. we can't confirm the stories. the ethiopian government will not give journalists access, but also access for aid groups. that's having horrible ramifications on the ground. there are 96,000, almost 100,000 refugees stuck in camps in one region with only one or two days' worth of food supplies left. they say they're having difficulty reaching colleagues in the ethiopian capital. if the ethiopian government is serious about opening up humanitarian corridor, first, they have to allow by assessment by aid groups, but also by journalists. >> yeah. that's something they have not allowed so far. in terms of what's at stake there in the horn of africa, can you kind of give us context to it, especially considering that the liberation front, they are

still a player in the region and will continue to be? >> there is a lot of fear among security sources we speak to that the liberation front will find ways to come across that porous border into sudan, that they could potentially start using that stretch of border in south sudan with ethiopia as a staging ground. in addition to the fact that there have been multiple rocket attacks. from the people's liberation front, they have basically disappeared. none of us have been able to get in touch with any of the contacts within the tplf. the ethiopian government says they're in the process of hunting them down but hasn't shown any evidence of success. there's a real worry that this incredibly shaky region will be further destabilized, especially as sudan is going through its own fragile transition phase. and we see the worries reflected from the comments from

president-elect joe biden's transition team. his national security counsel has been tweeting and saying we need dialogue. the african union needs to come in. the ethiopian government for now is refusing to engage in any overtures of dialogue. >> and there's no sign the trump administration is about to get involved. in fact, pompmike pompeo seemed be siding with the federal sources. thank you. we appreciate it. >> thank you. after the break, small business owners hoping for a holiday miracle to just stay open. y, distressed skin that struggles? new aveeno® restorative skin therapy. with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™. robinwithout the commission to ifees. so, you can starte. investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us.

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small businesses have fought for years to survive against online and so-called big box competitors. they've also become some of the hardest hit casualties of the coronavirus pandemic. cnn looks at how they're struggling to survive. >> reporter: there's never been this much riding on holiday season sales. according to the website track the recovery, there's been almost a 29% decline in the number of small businesses open in mid november compared to the ones open in january of this

year. while not all businesses are listed on the website, yelp, that site shows of the businesses listed open in march, nearly 98,000 of them were listed as closed in september. so this is a very crucial time. a lot of these small business owners told me they relied on assistance including the ppp loan. that includes the owner of universal joint, a restaurant in lawrenceville, georgia. they pivoted to opening as a general store when their restaurant had to be jshut down. he said there's more assistance needed? >> without the ppp, which was the loan we all got, probably nobody would have made it. that was a big thing the government did for us. you think what happened in march and april, if that comes back again, tough. it will be really rough for us. and i don't know if we'd make it. >> he said he's concerned for himself and his friends who own local businesses if there were to be another set of

restrictions or another lockdown because of the current surge in cases. it's a question, who would survive that? the commonality among the shop owners is they have a loyal customer base who understand this year more than ever what it means to shop small. cnn, lawrenceville, georgia. so there is something good that may have come from this co-vid crisis. it's actually led to a historic first in u.s. college football. and especially for sara fuller. when some players on vand ir built university's men's team quarantined, fuller got the call. she made the opening kickoff in the second half. the 21-year-old is the first woman to play in a power five football game which includes the strongest conferences in u.s. college ball. fuller had this message. >> honestly, it's so exciting. and the fact that i can represent, like, the little girls out there who wanted to do this or thought about playing

football or any sport, really, and it encourages them to go out and do something big like this, it's awesome. i want to tell all the girls out there you can do anything you set your mind oh to. you can. and if you have that mentality all the way through, you can do big things. >> indeed. fuller even put a sticker on the back of her helmet that reads "play like a girl". she also tend's goal for the women's soccer team at vanderbilt and has clearly made the best of her opportunities. one final note for us, the man behind the mask of one of the greatest cinema villians has died. you never saw his face or heard his face, but the voice of darth vader commanded the screen from the moment he appeared in the first movie. of course, it was another actor, james earl jones who did the voice telling luke skywalker no,

i am your father. prouse had an acting career that stretched decades. he said his favorite role was as the green cross road man. part of a campaign in the mid 70s. mark hamill played luke skywalker. he tweeted and noted he loved his fans as much as they loved him. what a fitting distribute. david prowse was 85. what that does it for us. viewers in the united states, stay with us for "new day sunday". it's straight ahead. it's moving day. and while her friends

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covid-19 hospitalizations reaching record highs. >> the entire america is a hot spot. >> if we don't take it seriously, our hospitals will be overwhelmed within a matter of weeks. >> case after case brought forward by the president and allies being thrown out of courts. >> trust us, we're fighting and looking at every legal avenue. >> an historic moment for college football, vanderbilt university sara fuller breaking down barriers with an unprecedented kickoff. >> zwli wai want to tell the gi there, you can do anything you set your mind to. ♪