welcome to all of you. welcome to everyone watching in the united states, and around the world. coming up -- >> it is with a heavy heart i must tell you we cannot continue with christmas as planned. >> christmas gatherings are cancelled in parts out uk. medical researchers identify a new strain of the coronavirus. plus a second co-vid vaccine is

likely just hours from release here in the u.s. we'll bring you the plans for the rollout and millions of americans are struggling. but there's new hope at this hour the congress will reach a co-vid relief deal. >> final authorization of moderna's co-vid vaccine is expected any time. it will be the second time in a week that the cdc director has signed off on a new vaccine earlier on saturday a cdc panel recommended the moderna vaccine for americans 18 and older. it says at least 272,000 americans have received their first shot of the pfizer drug since it was distributed last week. unlike the moderna vaccine, this one is authorized for people as young as 16.

but the vaccines are arriving as new u.s. cases have approached a quarter million people in a single day in almost 200,000 on saturday. the head of operation warp speed, the government's vaccine initiative says about 6 million doses of the moderna vaccine are ready to ship today. that means the first shots could be administered as soon as monday. cnn's pete monoteen is outside a shipping facility outside memphis, tennessee. >> reporter: the moderna vaccine shipments begin sunday and it begins here. this is a facility that is the company distributing the vaccine for moderna. it's a strategic spot. we're not far from memphis, the head quarter from fedex, it and ups will be shipping the vaccine. this rollout four times larger than the pfizer rollout of last week and operation warp speed is apologizing to states that did not get as much vaccine than

they initially hoped. here's what they said. >> it was my fault. i gave guidance. i am the one that approved the forecast sheets. i am the one that approved the allocatio allocations. there is no problem with the process. there is to problem with the pfizer vaccine. there is no problem with the moderna vaccine. all right? it was a planning error, and i am responsible. >> the moderna vaccine has an advantage over the pfizer vaccine. it does not need to be as cold. in fact, a regular freezer works just fine for storing this version of the vaccine. 6 million doses will go out sunday and it all begins right here. pete monoteen, cnn, olive branch, mississippi. in the uk a new disturbing development prompted prime minister boris johnson to ease the restrictions -- the new

measures will effect more than 16 million people including those living in london. this comes after british scientists detected a new variance of the coronavirus. it appears to spread more easily and may be harder to detect. england's chief medical officer notes there's no evidence so far that indicates this strain is deadlier or affects vaccines and treatments but the discovery is raising alarm in other european countries. within hours of the vou announcement, netherlands banned all flights from the uk. it seemed like a few days ago the prime minister was mocking the opposition for urging him to forget about easing restrictions. he was making fun of them for wanting to cancel christmas, and now here we are. tell us about these restrictions. >> reporter: you're right. this is something the prime minister really did not want to

do. he did stand in parliament wednesday and said i'm not going to criminalize christmas. but the fact is that the authorities in the last 48 hours, three days, they've been looking at worrying figures and data, and it's all about the new variant you mentioned of coronavirus that the authorities here say is much more transmissable, it is common in london and southeast of england and it's driven the spread and driven the last-minute decision to put the tough new measures into place. take a listen to what the prime minister said about this variant. >> there's no evidence that it causes more severe illness or higher mortality. but it does appear to be passed on significantly more easily. nerve tags early anl cyst suggests it could increase the r by .4 or more. and although there's considerable uncertainty, it may be up to 70% more transmissable

than the old vary yanliant of t disease. >> reporter: there's two numbers to pay attention to. the first, the up to 70% more transmissable. that's concerning. that's high. up to 70% more transmissable and crucially, and this is the part that really scared the scientists and the authorities. the r number. this is a critical piece of data that essentially tells us how quickly the virus spreads, how many people one person who is infected will then in turn infect themselves. what the prooips said there is it could increase that r number, increase that r number by .4. that's a very significant increase. so you are looking at potentially this variant that could spread faster and as it spreads faster, that becomes exponenti exponential. that's why they've put the new restrictions into place tier 4 rules went into effect this morning. so when the prime minister

announced it, it was just a matter of hours. that's why you saw people scrambling toward the train station. tier four rules are like a lockdown. people must stay at home and work from home, and crucially, all travel is banned also a special relaxation of rules that had been set for christmas time for five days are cancelled. dramatic u-turn here to deal with this new variant in the spike that's been caused by it. >> all right. thank you so much from london. all right. let's bring in an associate professor of molecular virology. i want to start with the new train. viruses mutate all the time. i believe there's already been several variants of co-vid, but when i hear the new variant in the uk is 70% more transmisable when co-vid seems already easy to spread, it worries me.

>> and rightly worries you. if all other things are equal between the variants including damage to organs and hospitalization, then this is bound to increase the number of people that will end up in hospital, and it will increase the number of people who will die out of it. because it gets out there more effectively. we need to stress that it's a little difficult to take apart how exactly this has taken over and whether or not it is more transmisable. we need to do experiments to confirm that before we can say it 100%, and those things take days if not weeks to execute. but we are at a stage now, a year into this dreadful pandemic where we know we can't like things pan out and hope for luck. we have to act on the precautionary principle. on those grounds, it's worthwhile, unfortunately, and it hurts me because i had plans for christmas, but

unfortunately, we have to stop the mass movement of people because if this thing is transmitting more efficiently, we're going to explode up the r number, up to 3.5, and that will be a massive, massive increase in the transmission. the consequences early in the new year will be brutal if we don't do anything. >> yeah. i want to get back to christmas later. on what you said, so emphasize it, this variant isn't necessarily more deadly but more people might day because of it. i'm just wondering with the flu vaccine, the efficacy waxes and wanes depending on the mutations, that season, sometimes its efficacy dips to less than 50% depending on how well it's matched. would we see similar implications for the efficacy of the co-vid vaccines? >> so this strain, as well as another strain that's in south africa are a little concerning.

they've got more than just one mutation on the spike protein. these things come in groups. if you have too many differences, then the vaccine has a higher chance of not working anymore. but there's no such thing as a yardstick. how many mutations, it's going to work more or less. it's something that we have to determine, experimentally. the precautionary principle applies. we've seen what happens if we just let things be. these things take over. they overcome our defenses, if you'd like, and they put economy and society at risk. so the right thing to do right now is to contain at least the uk variant in the uk and in the parts of the uk where it's spread out, and do correctly now this time around what we didn't do correctly in february and allow the original version of co-vid to spread like wildfire through the country.

>> to stop that, so many countries, england, italy and so on, they're enacting the christmas lockdowns. here we've been encouraged to cancel christmas, but if thanksgiving is any indication, that's not going to happen. we're sort of being left to our own good judgment. is that a mistake? >> there are many cultural differences that define what the outcomes are, and unfortunately, there is -- one cannot give that in the united states. there's a lot of talk around mask denialist and vaccine denialists and there's no co-vid and all this nonsense. unfortunately, my personal view is there is a substantial risk to the society, to the u.s. society if the heart felt requests from health care professionals and those associated to health care like myself is not listened to. the moment the icu units fill up, the u.s. is in a really bad situation right now, the moment

the icu units fill up, that's it. people will die in the corridors and ambulances. is that what we want for a couple of days of eating a lot and being altogether not to see people again? that's the concern really. we really need to think about what is most important. our loved ones, or a piece of turkey. >> yeah. absolutely. well said, and hopefully people will heed that warn. thank you for being with us, professor. always appreciate it. >> you're welcome. u.s. congress appears close to approving a new round of economic relief and stimulus checks could go out soon to millions of struggling americans but it's not a done deal yet. we'll have the details just ahead. and the u.s. president throws cold water on suggestions from his own top officials that russia was behind a massive cyber attack on federal agencies. i'll have that story after the break. stay with us.

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this is a live shot of capitol hill. now we're looking at it because we're keeping close tabs on the situation after months of

stalemate, u.s. lawmakers appear close to a deal for a new co-vid relief package. chuck schumer said both houses could vote today. a snag was worked out over the emergency lending authority. mitch mcconnell says lawmakers can finally nail down the remaining details of the $900 billion measure. cash payments of about $600 a person are expected to be part of the final legislation. we got the latest from cnn's manu r manu raju on capitol hill. >> reporter: congress is running up against a sunday deadline to fund the government. if no deal is reached, the government will shut down heading into monday, because now government funding is tied to this $900 billion co-vid relief package because the leadership wants to tie the two issues together. but if they don't get a deal on either, will both collapse? we'll be headed into a government shutdown come monday. all major questions remain and

so much is riding on the $900 billion package for relief, including unemployment benefits, people are seeing those dry up in days. $600 for individuals. $80 billion for school and education providers as well as money for vaccine distribution. so much so critical at this moment. can they get there, can they get it passed? big questions remain as we head into a pivotal moment on capitol hill. cnn, capitol hill. and we're learning that president trump is still looking for ways to hold onto power. sources tell cnn there was a fiery meeting at the white house friday as the president seeks a way to stay in office. jeremy diamond has details. >> reporter: president trump isn't just publicly refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election. he is also privately still grasping for ways to possibly overturn the results of the 2020 election.

sources telling cnn the ideas were floated during an oval office meeting the president held on friday that grew heated and ugly at times according to our sources as two people, two allies of the president pushed some really deranged ideas about overturning the results of the election. those two people are sydney powell, the attorney who was part of the president's legal team and has been pushing deranged conspiracy theories about the election, including suggesting the deceased venezuelan leader was behind rigging the election as well as michael flynn, a client of sydney powell and former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to counts of lying to federal investigators before he was pardoned by the president of the united states. now, according to our sources, the president discussed the possibility of naming powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election. he also discussed this idea brought forward by michael flynn just a few days ago.

>> he could honor the -- within the swing states if he wanted, he could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of the states. it's not unprecedented. there are people talking about martial law like it's something we've never done. it's been instituted 64 times. >> now to be clear, there's no indication the president is going to be imposing that in the united states in order to rerun the 2020 election as flynn suggested. but the fact that this was an idea that was being discussed in the oval office with the president of the united states, the president who is refusing to accept the results of a democratic election. certainly it's alarming. and it generated quite a bit of pushback from several of the president's advisers inside the white house including we're told the white house chief of staff as well as the white house counsel. both of them pushing back on

outlandish ideas about overturning the results of the election. our sources telling us at times this meeting evolve into quite a shouting match. as the president is hyping up the voter fraud and trying to overturn the results of a democratic election, he's down playing an attack on the u.s. government. the cyber attack that u.s. government officials believe was conducted by russian intelligence services. the president tweeting on saturday that the cyber hack is far greater in the fake news media than in actuality and goes onto say while russia is the priority whenever something happens, he said he's also discussing the possibility that it could be china that was behind the attack. that notion has been really pushed back on by members of the president's own administration. in fact, it was the secretary of state mike pompeo who on friday said it was very likely that russia was indeed behind the attack. we're told that white house officials were drafting a

statement on friday to ascribe blame for the cyber hack to russia, and now it seems we know why that statement ultimately was not released. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. for more on all of this, let's bring in our next guest, professor of international politics at city university and a visiting professor at london school of economics. we are joined from london. thank you for being with us. i want to start with the hacking attack. president trump says no big deal. probably wasn't russia. might have been china. it seems his administration won't be punishing russia and he's happy to hand this mess off to joe biden. >> well, i think president trump has long admired vladimir putin, and i think has admired the kind of powers he exercises at home, and he's been reluctant if at all ever to criticize anything that russia might do. although, it's clear we're not fully sure what the intelligence is at the moment on this particular hack, but we always know president trump has his own

personal interests. i think there are some business interests and nuclear program building in the gulf. the reform committee was looking at that. and there's also a kind of broader division among the kind of foreign policy establishment about where are russia is a greater threat to the u.s. and west or china. and i think president trump has always erred on the side of china. and i think that is going to -- that balance, if you like, has always been contested throughout this presidency. >> so then how will president biden have to deal with this when he takes office? >> no, he's basically -- i think their strategy is that russia and china are equally threatening in different kinds of ways and china is a power with which to more closely engage at the global level as well as the economic recovery. on climate change and so on, but the way to contain and ingauge

china at the same time is through an alliance with the european union and other western allies and build a transpacific partnership sort of institution to if you like, to contain china that way, and maybe to integrate china more, but it's an alliance between the eu and the u.s. rather than a unilateral type program rather than the type president trump handled. >> the co-vid relief deal. it seems a deal is pretty much done. it hinged on the republican plan to limit the federal reserve's ability to intervene in the u.s. economy. did the democrats cave? after all, it wasn't really even't on the table initially, and republicans seem to have got some major concessions here. >> yeah. it does seem to be that the democrats have caved, i think, on this question. they basically have given up the

power of the federal reserve to have emergency powers from about march this year under the cares act in order to give money to relief to small businesses, to cities and states and so on in order to stimulus the economy in a state of crisis. and that kind of curbing of democratic government power means that they actually have far less room for maneuver and i think it tells us something really big going forward. that is working people's conditions are less important than the power of the republican party to contain the government when they're out of office in order that ordinary people don't get as much relief, because the democratic party, of course, has constituencies among poor and working people at a greater level than the gop. so i think the senate and republicans generally are going to really keep a tight grip on that. and make sure that money continues to go to wall street type interests but not to ordinary people's interest and maybe force them back to work as early as possible through low

benefits. >> now, president trump hasn't been engaged in any of this. he's been too busy trying to stay in office. the fact that people around the president have been reportedly discussing martial law, it seems incredible. i covered an election after a civil war, the ruling party there lost, and as far as i know no one in that administration was floating this. what's going on here? it's hard to imagine. >> well, it shouldn't be too hard to imagine. president trump has said far long time that any result which -- of the election which ends in his defeat is fraudulent and stolen. he even complained about the 2016 election results, actually, when he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million. his argument is he deserved to stay in power for a very long time, and anybody who takes it away is stealing the election. it's an authoritarian turn. what's really important is what is the response of the republican party leadership?

did they call him out early or have they allowed him to normalize the language of martial law and overturning democratic election when all the machinery of the government has said it's the most secure election in history. i think the democrats have been quiet on that front as well. and what that suggests to me which is worrying going forward is there's a normalization of an authoritarian top down government which i think wasn't there as strongly as before. but has been normalized the last few years and may well auger a continued kind of a tendency in american government, and i think the fallout of co-vid and the economic resistance to the economic effects of that could well be connected with this broader authoritarian turn as well. so i think it looks worrying going forward. >> yeah. you have to be seen whether any of this does lasting damage after trump leaves the white house. listen, thank you so much for joining us, professor.

appreciate it as always. >> thank you very much. a second vaccine to battle the coronavirus. now hours away from being distributed to thousands of locations across the u.s. the only thing left is for the cdc to give the go ahead. and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gets a shot in the arm hoping to encourage all israelis to do the same. we'll take you to tel aviv for israel's vaccine rollout. stay with us. xfinity customers, stream hbo and more

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world. i'm kim brunhuber. final authorization of moderna's co-vid vaccine is expected any time. it's the second time the cdc has signed off on a vaccine. earlier they recommended the moderna vaccine for americans 18 and older. the vaccines are arriving at any cases approach a million people in single day. 16,000 americans have cdied of the disease since last monday. with more than 1.8 million coronavirus cases and rising, california is facing a severe coronavirus crisis. the state's health department reported more than 43,000 new cases just on saturday. things are particularly bad in los angeles county. one doctor says it's quickly becoming the pandemic's epicenter. cnn is in los angeles with the distressing details. >> reporter: doctors, nurses here in california battle weary

because 43,000 new cases announced. 272 deaths. and then the hospitalizations at about 18,000, 3500 of them in the icu. when the head of the unit here started a shift at 2:00 a.m., he walked into a perfect storm of covid-19 infections. >> i had a patient this past week who waited too long. i asked them why are you not coming in earlier. it broke my heart, but what he said is i didn't want to take someone else's bed. i didn't want to take someone else's bed. i thought that someone is going to be sicker and needed it more. >> reporter: so as the death toll rises and so does the number of people in the icu, the doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, so many others are playing a role in trying to get the sick in touch with their relatives. >> until you have to go through talking to someone's family and

telling them that we have to take the extra steps because they're not getting any better, or people calling their family and telling them they're about to get intubated because they're not getting any better, it's a feeling. it's indescribable. it's so sad. >> and so as the pandemic rages on in california, what's the solution? this doctor says he thinks that los angeles needs to go back to being a ghost town, meaning people need to stay at home. >> israel is kicking off the coronavirus vaccine efforts. the prime minister benjamin netanyahu was the first in the country to get the shot. he says he chose to do it on live tv to set a personal example. he's urging israelis to get vaccinated as soon as possible. the country has reported more than 373,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths and already has locked down twice. we are joined from a hospital in tel aviv now.

i can see behind you there plenty of action. how is the rollout being received? >> well, it's going very smoothly here at this hospital. they've been lining up pretty much for the last four hours or so to receive their vaccines. in fact, it started off with kind of big beats from music, a d.j. leading hospital workers who were dancing out on the floor. then they got on with serious business of launching this vaccination campaign in earnest. we saw the finance minister, former chief rabbi, the head of the hospital, the former coronavirus also receiving their vaccines. as you say, the prime minister received his vaccine on live tv last night, and described it almost in terms of a significant almost akin to the leaner landings. >> that was a small jab for a man, a huge step for the health of us all. may this be successful. go out and get vaccinated.

>> reporter: and netanyahu doing this on live tv to set an example, to get israelis to follow his lead and get vaccinated. but also to try to be the face of what he hopes will be a successful rollout of the vaccine so he can boot his political fortunes and of what could be a fourth election in the space of two years in the first tpart of 120i. >> what about the palestinians living under israeli control. when might they get the vaccine? >> reporter: they're not part of the israeli vaccination campaign. and actually, over phenomenon they were able to get access to the pfizer vaccine, they only have one refrigeration unit in jericho capable of keeping the vaccine at the temperatures that are required. so what they're hoping to do is be a part of this world health organization rollout under the auspices of an organization called co-vax which is aiming to help poorer countries vaccinate up to 20% of their population.

there are also reports on the palestinian news agency they may try to get ahold of the russian vaccine as well. for now, the palestinians are not a part of this vaccination campaign that's now rolling out across israel. >> all right. thank you so much from tel aviv. well, throughout the pandemic we've been sharing stories about the world's frontline workers. in mexico there are factory worker who make some of the essential products and supplies that doctors need to save lives. but now some mexicans say they feel like they're putting themselves at risk to keep others safe. cnn ease matt rivers as their story. >> medical supplies. now more than ever, essential products, though some are not made in the u.s., but here just south of the border wall in tijuana, mexico. there a sprawling landscape of factories employ hundreds of thousands of mexicans in low wage jobs. they make billions of dollars

worth of u.s. bound exports each year including medical supplies. maria has a job making oxygen level readers in a factory she doesn't want to name publicly. she got sick nerlly november. >> translator: my son was crying outside the clinic, waiting for news. it was horrible. >> reporter: she recovered from covid-19. she thinks she got it at the factory, though she is adamant the factory follows co-vid protocols. some of her colleagues were not as lucky. she said they gave us stats and told us 12 people have died of co-vid. multiple co-workers confirmed that number to cnn. the company didn't respond to questions. for decades workers have said poor labor conditions here are rampant and some workers say a pandemic has only made things worse. the next day we hide this wo

workers's identity. what she says about another factory that's the same could get her fired. we asked, do you think the bosses care more about health or production. definitely the production, no doubt, she says. we're nothing but pawns. she says her work environment is cramped. no social distancing. limited mask wearing. bosses indifferent to employee health. she says we were all in close contact with some colleagues who just got co-vid and still working. now the janitor is working and coughing and the bosses know it but she's still working. base annual salaries are less than $4,000, and if they don't go to work, many may get fired. this reporter says americans should know some of their essential products come at a

cost. she's saying there were conditions, bad conditions before here in mexico, but the co-vid pandemic has only made them worse, made them more intense than they were before. tijuana is in baa haw, california, the mexican state where 17 of every 100 patients have died. the government says it doesn't track the deaths of the workers from covid-19 but activists tell us they've counted at least 500. some of them are now buried in this nearby cemetery. this co-vid victim's coffin is wrapped in protective plastic, laid to rest in a swiftly dug grave. his family is a growing list of those saying final good-byes. halloween, and -- he's saying since halloween he's seen the number of bodies with co-vid here in the cemetery go up.

nearly all of these graves have been dug in the last month in large part due to covid-19. as another funeral goes on to the left, the depressing thing is all of this land behind me has been newly designated and plowed to receive more graves because officials think that many more bodies are still to come. despite the severity, so many have to keep working making critical products for other countries. it bothers me a lot, says maria. some americans don't think about anything but themselves but we're the ones running the risk, and that bothers me. every night thousands of workers like these stream out of local factories. some having spent their shifts making products for the u.s. who knows how many of them are sick? matt rivers, cnn, tijuana, mexico. still to come, what's next for the uk and the eu if they don't strike a post brexit trade deal by tend of the weekend?

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with just two weeks to go before the uk's post brexit transition period expires, the heavy pressure is on for the two sides to reach a trade deal. discussions have been largely stuck over fishing rights and fair competition rules and the uk says it would prefer to leave with no trade deal rather than compromise the independence. that's a viewpoint the british prime minister, the face of the brexit campaign has always maintained. with talks supposed to end sunday, it's not clear if there will be a breakthrough. >> it's been pretty much radio silence through saturday. i mean, both sides laid out their position during the week and coming into the weekend. some progress made. that's the eu view. both sides agreeing that gaps

remain. sitting here sunday morning trying to figure out if the deadline that's expected today but not expected if you will, a deadline that the european parliament says it needs the talks to conclude by because it needs time to ratify whatever deal there is if there is one. the chief negotiator saying friday we're in the final hours of decision making. so sunday morning you're sitting here looking at the british media in particular, who are obviously talking a lot about co-vid today, but there are a small -- there is a small parade of british ministers going across the tv channels here. so listening to what they're saying. matt hancock, the health secretary speaking this morning on one channel about the possibility of a deal today. seemed to indicate that for him, the deadline and for the british government, the deadline for the talks is christmas. i mean, this is what he said. we want to have a deal by

christmas. fisheries does seem to be the big outstanding issue. the rhetoric around that has been the strongest. the senior british government ministry involved in brexit associati negotiations said british fisherman and the uk government want control of the british coastal waters and six to 12 miles out from the shoreline. the eu chief negotiator said he personally doesn't understand why the uk fisherman should have exclusive access to those waters after a transition period, and the european commission president said all we want to get is some predictable for the european fishermen and women going forward. look, i think we're in a place where there are big gaps. this is what both sides say. we don't really know the nature of the talks but both sides say they're willing to keep talking but i think today's deadline is one this i think will perhaps and most likely come and go.

>> we'll certainly check in with you later. thank you so much for staying on top of this for us. nic robertson in london. "cnn newsroom" will be right back. stay with us. got powerful relief from your worst nighttime cold and flu symptoms. so grab nightshift to fight your symptoms, get your zzz's... and get back to your rhythm. feel the power. beat the symptoms fast. do you struggle with dull, dry skin, and find yourself reapplying moisturizer throughout the day? try olay ultra rich. olay's luxurious moisturizer melts into the skin. it's formulated with vitamin b3 plus peptides and shea butter, providing lasting hydration, for up to 24 hours. there's no need to reapply, and no greasy residue. and, for enhanced hydration, try olay serum. just 1 drop has the power to renew a million surface skincells. for deep, lasting hydration try olay.

as the u.s. gets ready for the holiday week, severe weather being forecast for some parts of the country. christmas looking soggy along the east coast with possibility of snow in the south. i'm in the south. all right. start with the storms. but i want to hear whether i'm going to have a white christmas here. >> i'm in the south, too. i join you. and i think we joined millions of others who want santa to have the smoothest arrival possible. snow on the ground and on the roof so he can land successfully with his reindeer. tamerlin tsarnaev te i have to tell you about this forecast it's not looking promising along the east coast. we got blanketed with record breaking snowfall. i was in bors an couple days

ago, there was snow up to our knees in boston. that's going to melt and rain will fall on top of that as well. let's just fast forward into thursday. christmas eve, and this is the storm system we're monitoring. it's a big one. it's a very significant cold front. there is the potential of thunderstorms in advance of this. but what i want you to draw from this weather map is the warm air that's driving in from the south. the gulf of mexico helping feed some of the moisture, but it's going to allow temperatures to rise into the 50s and 60s along the east coast. in the backside, we draw in enough cold air from the north where we transition that precipitation over to snowfall. so for the chosen ones, the lucky few, places like atlanta, chattanooga and upstate new york, that's where we anticipate the majority of the precipitation to be snowfall. a white christmas there. along the east coast cities, it looks like there is a major rain event. let's talk about where we will

100% dpaguarantee the snow. the spine of the rockies, a couple feet of snow over the next several days. look at the northern great lakes and along the spine of the appalachian in the to northern georgia. that's where the potential far white christmas exists. we'll cross fingers, hold thumbs, we want the forecast to verify. christmas eve, you can see the thunderstorms advancing east through the day on christmas. that's going to make travel conditions difficult for anyone who decides to travel during this pandemic, but, of course, that will lead to reduced number of people not only in the air but also on the ground, because of the rough weather that's going to move through. let's talk about what's happening tomorrow. the change of seasons officially becoming winter in the northern hemisphere. summer in the southern hemisphere. this is called the solstice. it's coinciding with a unique phenomenon. we have talk about this. if you have a chance to head out after sunset tomorrow, you get

to see something very interesting. go back to the medieval times over 800 years ago since the last time something of this magnitude occurred. saturn and jupiter, it will appear to be only separated by about a fifth, a diameter of the entire full moon. it's known as the christmas star. it will look like one single star even though there's two planets in there. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. >> all right. well, as we just heard, it looks to be a wet christmas for santa this year, but now we know the jolly old elf will be co-vid free. several children had important questions about st. nic and coronavirus and got a big answer from america's top infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci. >> santa claus, safe with our presents with covid-19 spreading everywhere?

how can we do it? >> will santa still be able to visit me in coronavirus season? what if he can't go to anyone's house or near his reindeer? >> well, i have to say i took care of that for you, because i was worried that you'd all be upset, so what i did a little while ago, i took a trip up there to the north pole. i went there, and i vaccinated santa claus myself. i measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go. >> what can't dr. fauci do? taking the time right here on cnn to let kids around the world know he vaccinated santa himself. there you go. that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'll be back in a moment with more news. stay with us.

ready to roll. millions of doses of moderna's coronavirus vaccine are set to ship across the u.s. numbers of hospitalizations and deaths keep climbing. plus -- >> it is with a heavy heart i must tell you we cannot continue with christmas as planned. >> millions in the uk face last minute holiday restrictions as concern rise over a fast-moving new strain of coronavirus. and the u.s. congress is on the brink of agreeing on a