welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm robyn curnow. coming up on the show, the u.s. surpasses 20 million covid cases as a highly contagious virus variant is now found in at least three different u.s. states. field hospitals are getting ready to go in the uk where the health service is straining under immense pressure. we'll have a live report from london and a blow to outgoing president donald trump as the senate overrides his veto of a massive defense bill. >> announcer: live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with robyn curnow. >> great to have you along this hour. the arrival of the new year has brought a grim new statistic for the coronavirus.

just hours after flipping the calendar to 2021, the u.s. hit 20 million total infections. all indications are, of course, that it will keep on rising. in fact, the coronavirus is racing so quickly through the u.s. population that another 1 million new cases are being added every five or six days. and there's a more contagious variant that could certainly greatly complicate the global crisis. was recently detected in the uk but has now been found in at least 30 countries, hong kong and taiwan. turkey is suspending flights from britain after finding 15 cases in passengers arriving from the uk. the cdc says it's been in the u.s. earlier than first believed after the variant was found in a florida man in mid-december. for the latest on the pandemic here in the u.s., nick watt is in los angeles. nick? >> reporter: from wuhan, where all this began, to new york, not much fondness in the farewell to a terrible year.

>> and 2020 is gone. >> 2020 is freaking gone! >> reporter: 2020 was tough, but -- >> we are still going to have our toughest and darkest days. >> reporter: an l.a. county official says hospitals are, quote, on the brink of catastrophe. >> it's like treading water from 100 feet below the surface. you're already drowning but you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do. >> reporter: in atlanta, a field hospital reopens for business at the georgia world congress center. meanwhile -- >> in many parts of rural georgia, both in the north and the south, there's vaccine available and literally sitting in freezers. that's unacceptable. we have lives to save. >> reporter: they're just not getting the hoped for uptake from medical workers. in west virginia, 42 people were given antibodies, not the vaccine by mistake. in wisconsin, a pharmacist now in custody after destroying 500 doses, taking them out of

refrigeration. >> the administration projected 20 million would have had vaccine dose number one by now. the reality? not even 2.8 million reported. >> states and localities need resources. they need funding. i expected that we would see bumps in the road but i didn't expect we'd see this lack of consistency across the states. >> reporter: and that new faster spreading coronavirus variant now detected in colorado, california and maybe florida. >> i think we have to assume that this strain has been in the u.s. for a long time. >> reporter: december, by the numbers, was the worst month of the pandemic. the most confirmed cases. the most deaths. 10,000 lives lost in the last three days alone. >> we do have these vaccines. we just need to hunker down and get there. >> reporter: and 2020, 345,737 people confirmed killed by

covid-19 in america. in 2021, how many more? here in california, a grim start to 2021. a record death toll reported new year's day. 585 lives lost, beating the previous record which was set on new year's eve. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. republican senator mitt romney is slamming the slow rollout of vaccines in the u.s. as inexcusable. 12,500 doses have been shipped, yet fewer than 3 million shots have been administered. to help explain why, here's kristen holmes. >> state officials that i'm talking to say this rollout of the coronavirus vaccine has been an incredible undertaking. particularly given the fact they are so stretched thin responding to coronavirus as a whole. now we do want to point out why this could be so difficult. one is that states are now in charge of not only actually administering the vaccine.

they're in charge of choosing who gets the vaccine and when. they're also in charge of transporting and storing the vaccine which is a very complicated drug. many of these states don't even have the infrastructure to do that. so they had to put those in place and train people on this vaccine. now we're also seeing incidents within several states that really show how wrong things can go in a complicated rollout like this. for example in west virginia, we know that 42 people went in. thought they were getting the vaccine and instead got covid-19 antibodies. now officials there say they don't believe there's any risk of harm to those individuals, but they couldn't or wouldn't say how a mix-up like that could occur. now in terms of human error or human interference, safeway in d.c. threw out two doses of the vaccine after vaccinating 28 people. there were two doses left and they flew them out. now they're working with the department of health to figure out how to handle remaining

doses. and when it comes to human interference, we have learned in wisconsin, a pharmacist is accused of taking 500-plus doses of the moderna vaccine out of a pharmacy refrigerator knowing that it would render them useless. so absolutely heartbreaking there when you realize how many doses that was. he has been arrested and charged with three felonies. but to end on a positive note here because it's the start of the year, health experts that i'm talking to say they really believe the next couple of weeks, a lot of these kinks will be worked out. the production will be ramped up and more and more people will be able to get the vaccine. of course, that is something we'll be watching closely. >> kristen holmes there. the u.s. senate delivered a rare bipartisan rebuke to president trump on friday voting to override his veto of the national defense authorization act. this is the first veto override of trump's presidency. phil mattingly has more on that

and what to watch for when congress certifies the election next week. >> reporter: what is likely the last official act of the 116th congress and it is quite a smackdown of president trump. obviously, not necessarily something you've seen a lot of, particularly from republicans in congress over the course of the last four years, but this time around, on this specific issue, the national defense authorization act, the defense policy bill that's passed the united states congress with wide bypass margins for the last 60 consecutive years. president trump said he was going to veto it. the united states congress, republicans and democrats alike, by very wide margins, voted to override that veto. for the first time, the president's four years, the u.s. congress overrode one of the president's vetoes. and it was a stern rebuke to the president who made this bill and the veto of this bill a key issue, trying to lobby republican senators on gitwitte. trying behind the scenes i'm told to do the same thing. and for the most part they said

no. and the reason why is pretty clear cut. this is the $740 billion legislation, kind of the road map of u.s. defense policy for the year ahead. it includes a pay raise for troops. it includes outlines of how the u.s. defense policy is supposed to be laid out. it is central to how the pentagon operates and it's why it's passed by wide bypass margins for 60-consecutive years. it did not include a repeal of section 230. not jermaine to the legislation. was the message he was told repeatedly by republican senators and house members who helped draft this legislation. the president opposed the bill on the grounds it set up a commission to remove the names of u.s. military bases of confederate generals. he opposed that. most democrats and a number of republicans had no problem with it at all. certainly wasn't enough to sink the bill. he also called it soft on russia and china, his own republican allies repeatedly told him was not the case on this bill. as the 116th congress comes to an end, the president, with a

pretty sharp rebuke from both republicans and democrats. that doesn't mean the relations with congress are officially over. in fact, republicans, more than 140 in the house, at least 1 in the united states senate, perhaps more, are lining up behind the president this time around when it comes to trying to overthrow or overturn the u.s. election. let's make something very, very clear here. on january 6th, when a joint session of congresslectelectore will be confirmed to be the president of the united states of america. how long it takes to get to that point? that's where the current dynamics are throwing things into question. those republicans when paired with a senator if they raise an objection to any of the slates of electors, that would require both chambers to recess have a vote of up to two hours and then vote. that vote will fail. however many times it occurs. however many times it happens it will fail. democrats control the house. democrats have a decent size minority in the senate and the

number of republicans in the senate are acknowledging reality, that joe biden is the next president of the united states. tangibly, all these objections mean is that it's going to be a very long day. politically, it's become a big, big issue inside the republican party. particularly with republican senators. now senate majority leader mitch mcconnell made very clear this was not a pathway he wanted republicans to go down. you either vote for reality, that joe biden is the next president of the united states, or you vote for president trump. well, that's against reality and, obviously, there are political implications there and political incentives. incentives that republicans who don't want this fight didn't want to have to vote on and yet it looks like that's exactly what's going to happen. just another page in these final weeks for president trump. what it means for the party, what it means for the president himself. what it means for the senators and congressmen that will still be in office when he leaves. everybody trying to figure everything out. the bottom line is this. joe biden will be inaugurated president of the united states on january 20th. what happens to president trump and to the party that he currently oversees, that very

much remains an open question. phil mattingly, cnn, washington. meantime, a trump appointed federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit aiming to give vice president mike pence the authority to reverse the election results. texas representative louie gohmert and several arizona republicans wanted the daughter -- court to affirm pence could. the judge said gohmert lacks the standing to sue. gohmert has appealed to a higher court. iran says it plans to enrich uranium to 20% purity. that's up from the current 4% level and far above the cap imposed in the 2017 nuclear deal. iran told the international atomic energy agency about its decision on thursday. the new enrichment level is far below the 90% considered weapons grade and iran has repeatedly denied plans to build nuclear bombs. last month the iranian parliament called for the increased levels following the killing of its top nuclear

scientist in november. and the u.s. and iran have been rattling sabres with implied threats in the persian gulf as well. sunday marks the first anniversary of the death of general suleimani in a drone strike and the potential of an attack from iran is the highest since his death. the u.s. has flown nuclear capable b52 bombers twice in the past month as a show of force. still ahead on cnn, field hospitals are on standby in england as the nation struggles to contain the new variant of the coronavirus. a live report from london. that's next. also, the chinese city of wuhan was ground zero at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. now we'll look at how far it has come since, when we return. os. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices?

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so despite the global pandemic, this is how more than 2500 people in france rang in the new year. they attended an illegal rave ignoring local restrictions and a nationwide curfew. they were met with violent hostility when they tried to break up the party. similar scenes in london. police responding to 58

unlicensed parties and events across the city. more than 200 were fine forward breaking social distancing restrictions and four people were arrested. meantime, the uk is struggling to curb a new surge of the virus. a spokesperson for the national health service says the nightingale hospital in london is preparing to reopen field hospitals if needed. let's go straight to london. selma abdulaziz joins me with more on that. what can you tell us about these field hospitals being ready? >> well, robyn, to reopen this hospital, a top director at the nhs says this is something that is a last resort and an insurance policy. you have to understand that things have to get pretty dire in order for them to open up this extra hospital capacity. but there is some controversy around it because even if you can open up the space, the question is, who staffs it? where do you get the equipment? national health service staff are already at their brink. they're completely stretched. ventilators and other critical equipment is already being

stretched as well at hospitals. there's reports the military will have to step in to staff this location. and you can see why people are so overwhelmed. i'm just going to run you through the scene here. paint you a picture with the latest figures. you have four days in a row, every day getting 50,000 new coronavirus cases in this country. there were infection rate records broken just this past week. there are now more patients with covid-19 in hospital than at any point before. so a truly bleak picture. yes in some ways this extra hospital capacity will help but what they are calling for is a complete shutdown of the country. and they say unless we turn the taps off, the hospitals will be overwhelmed, will be stretched to the limit this month. robyn? >> let's talk about vaccines. the astrazeneca vaccine coming online soon. in the last hour i spoke to an epidemiologist and he seemed to also think the suggestion that the uk could mix and match different vaccines depending on

where you were was okay. that it was pragmatic health policy. what are folks saying there on the ground? >> well, i mean, the strategy for the vaccinations in this country has been very bold. it was the first country to approve the vaccine and, of course, just a couple of days ago, the announcement by authorities they'll delay the second injection of twhoe-part vaccination program. the idea is you'd get your first dose and you could wait up to three months to get that second dose. and the chief medical officers say that's because that first injection should be able to give people a relative amount of protection, keep them out of the hospitals, prevent them from getting seriously ill and then it allows them to inject more people. give more people the vaccine and keep that health care system from being overwhelmed. again, this is all due to the variant which, of course, is overwhelming this country. there's been a new study by the imperial college of london that says that new variant tripled during lockdown in november. a bold strategy, really

unchartered territory but the authorities tell you, you need a bold battle plan if you'll beat this. >> thank you salma abdulaziz in london. the british government is taking this mix and match approach to vaccines saying it's responsible to use a different vaccine for the second dose if the first vaccine is not available or known. here's a little bit of that interview that i was telling salma about with infectious disease physician keith neil and i asked him if his approach was just minxed messaging. this is what he had to say. >> i think it's a highly pragmatic policy because the first line in guidance is what you do with somebody where you don't know which vaccine they've had. so you know they've had one of the vaccines but you don't know which one it is. do you send them away and not vaccinate them or give them a vaccine that's perfectly, almost certainly going to have an effect. we haven't done mixed trials and there's little evidence from what we know about other vaccines that if you present the antigen which is the virus spike

protein which stimulates the immune response, your body doesn't know which vaccine it's come from. and it responds appropriately. >> the u.s. taking a different take on that, but no doubt the vaccine rollout is still good news. it is slow, it's hess tent but we're hearing astrazeneca coming online soon. how quickly do you think the uk, the u.s. and other places can catch up with the virus? the vaccines start overtaking new infections. >> we've already vaccinated a million people in the united kingdom with one dose. that will give them in the order of 80% protection. we've only got 65 million people in the country, of which only about 30-odd million are in the target age groups of everybody over 50 and those with other risk factors. i think the main thing is we keep getting this vaccine rolled

out to the highest risk groups that will have the most impact on the deaths and hospitalizations. and we'll be coming into the warmer months which we saw the benefits last year in 2020 and by the time the winter comes around again, we'll be thinking, have we got the right flu vaccine? and we should have vaccinated all those at risk and possibly gone down even further. >> so that's potentially still the end of this year. we are hearing about this new variant, this uk variant. what more tan ycan you tell us this? it's a significant change. tripled infections during lockdown. what kind of mutations more do you expect? >> these viruses always mutate. that's part of the nature of the way they're put together. and viruses tend to mutate in two ways. one, to become more infectious because quite clearly, if you've got one virus such as better at spreading, it will spread further and quicker through the

population. they also have a tendency to become less dangerous because you're not very good at spreading it if you're stuck at home or in hospital bed. and we haven't seen any increase in the virulence our ability to produce serious ill innocenness strain. was spreading during lockdown which means we might need to have very tight restrictions to interfere with its spread in many parts of the country. >> okay. it's great to have your perspective. thank you very much, professor keith neal at the university of nottingham in england. thanks for your expertise. >> thank you. current coronavirus levels are not what many countries across the globe were hoping for in the new year. according to johns hopkins university, there are more than 84 million cases around the world. south korea is banning gatherings of five people or more nationwide. it's also keeping social distancing measures in place until at least january the 17th.

the ministry of health says daily cases there are in the high hundreds. japan with a much larger population is reporting daily cases in the thousands. the ministry of health confirms 716 patients were in serious condition due to covid on fri y friday, a new record there. in australia, authorities are making the wearing of face masks mandatory in public indoor spaces. they're also imposing additional restrictions on new south wales after a virus cluster expanded by seven new cases there. the city where scientists say the coronavirus pandemic began looks far different than it did a year ago. wuhan was a ghost town thanks to a strict covid crackdown by chinese authorities. but on friday at midnight, the city was packed with crowds, as you can see here, ringing in the new year. steven jang has more on how wuhan is bouncing back. >> reporter: after seeing thousands of covid deaths and going through a brutal lockdown, the city has largely come back to life in recent months which is why the communist leadership under president xi jinping now

want to showcase it to highlight their success in containing this virus within its borders in contrast to what's going on in the u.s. many people, though, remember a very different story line about wuhan in 2020, including a whistleblowing doctor being silenced by local police last january, and he later died of covid. and also during the last week of 2020, a citizen journalist was sentenced to four years in prison for basically documenting the harsh reality in wuhan in the height of the pandemic. and the city itself may soon be under a global spotlight with a w.h.o. team expected to arrive and investigate the origins of the covid virus. coming up after a short break, atlanta, georgia, converts a convention facility into a field thohospital to han a sharp new rise in cases. plus, georgia voters will determine who controls the

senate this week. just a day later, congress is set to certify the election. it's all part of a big week in american politics. that's also ahead.

welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. it's 30 minutes past the hour. i'm robyn curnow. you're watching cnn. the u.s. is beginning the new year with more than 20 million total cases of covid since the pandemic began. that's far more than any other country and the u.s. death toll is now approaching a mind-boggling 350,000 americans. a more contagious variant of the virus has now been detected in

at least 30 countries, hong kong and taiwan. it was first confirmed in the u.s. just before christmas in the u.s. state of colorado. the governor spoke to cnn about the challenge it presents. >> we are screening more and more samples for this strain, but the good news is the same exact techniques work to control the spread of this strain than the already very transmissible strain. the normal form of covid-19 is extremely contagious. that's why we're in the grips of this global pandemic. so wear a mask. avoid socializing with people outside of your household and keep a distance of at least six feet with others. all very important, tried and true. they might not work quite as well against the new variant but those are the most effective weapons we have. >> meanwhile, here in georgia, there's certainly been an alarming spike in covid infections. the state reported more than 8700 new cases on friday. that is a daily record. right across the street from the cnn center, where we are right

now, a facility that is normally used for trade shows and conventions is being converted into a covid ward to handle the influx of new patients. we get the details on that from nick valencia. nick? >> reporter: 2020 has come and gone, but the latest numbers from johns hopkins shows the pandemic is still raging. in the last three days of 2020, over 10,000 americans died as a result of being infected by the coronavirus. as it stands right now, california seems to be the center of the pandemic, but things here in georgia aren't faring much better. governor brian kemp so concerned with the latest winter numbers of coronavirus that he's opened up the georgia world congress center to act as a makeshift field hospital where there will be 60 temporary beds, acting as an overflow center for the health systems here that have been overwhelmed by the rising cases. the governor addressed his concerns about the rising numbers. >> if the people of georgia will hunker down for a little bit

longer, stay vigilant and do the things we've been talking about, wearing a mask, washing your hands, socially distancing themselves and following the health guidance in our executive orders, we can all have a safe, happy new year. >> reporter: this field hospital is expected to be open until at least the end of january and earlier when i spoke to the governor's office, they said they are admitting patients as of today. a quick note on hospitalizations in georgia. about 5,000 georgians woke up in the hospital. numbers here continuing to spike. >> nick valencia there. a virginia state senator has now died after contracting covid according to a statement from his office. senator ben chafen jr. died on friday after being in a medical center for two weeks. his office remembers the republican as an advocate for jobs in his district. and virginia's governor described him as kind and gracious. he was 60 years old.

in his honor, the state flag will fly at half-staff until his interment. and a judge has thrown out a lawsuit aiming to give vice president pence the ability to reverse the election result. but louie gohmert already appealed to a higher court. the lawsuit sought to affirm that pence has the authority to discard votes in several key states when congress certifies the electoral votes next week. as kaitlan collins now reports from washington. >> reporter: president trump skipped his annual new year's eve party at mar-a-lago to come back to washington early, though the white house never publicly explained exactly why the president was doing that but many sources believed it was ahead of that showdown that's expected on capitol hill next week when the house and senate do meet to certify joe biden's win as the next president of the united states. something that we know the outcome will not be any different but how we get there might given that several of the president's republican allies

are preparing to dispute that. but, of course, as that is coming, the president is also looking to his vice president mike pence and what his role is going to be in that because typically it's just procedural, ceremonial largely. but, of course, now the vice president has found himself at odds with some of the president's allies, including congressman louie gohmert who filed that lawsuit against the vice president that many thought was frivolous and not going to go anywhere because it was arguing pence had the authority to change the votes, which he does not. so we're still waiting for the president himself to weigh in on that. though it does come as he was at the white house and we did not see him on new year's day but what happened on capitol hill was that massive rebuke of the president coming from senate republicans during his final days of office as they voted to override the veto that he administered of that defense bill. kaitlan collins, cnn, the white house. president trump and president-elect biden both plan to campaign in georgia on monday, the day before tuesday's high stakes senate runoff

elections. now the pressure appears to be on republicans to turn out on tuesday because registered georgia democrats have voted early at a faster than expected pace as kyung lah now reports from atlanta. >> reporter: we're getting new numbers from the secretary of state in georgia that shows as early vote is closing, more than 3 million georgians have already voted. this is all before election day on tuesday. democrats are welcoming that news. stacey abrams, the well-known democrat here who ran for governor in georgia, says that it is an early sign that democrats are doing well. >> i wouldn't say it's better. i'd say it's gratifying to see so many turning out. we're pleased with the level of energy and excitement given how often pundits were discounting the likelihood of democrat s performing in a runoff. >> according to current analysis, we're running at or ahead of where we were in 2020, in the november election, but we

know this is just the beginning. we still have to get to election day and i don't count anything until it's done. >> reporter: that early vote number is adding pressure on the gop who also believes the democrats are outperforming what they did in 2020, in november 2020. they need to bring out more of their voters on election day. and a lot of gop are pinning their hopes that president trump, when he's here the day before the election, will be able to increase enthusiasm as long as he stays on message. kyung lah, cnn, atlanta. i spoke to james davis, a political science professor and director of the institute of political science at the university in switzerland and asked him whether visits to georgia by the president or president-elect will make a difference. >> it sounds like the democrats are doing well enough as it is. so i think, you know, vice president biden or president-elect biden, he will come in and try and close the deal. i think where there needs to be some momentum for the

republicans is -- well, they need the momentum, right? they seem to be lagging behind. and the president, as your correspondent just said, has to stay on message. but he really isn't able to do that. we see already overnight he's been tweeting that these special elections, these runoff elections are illegitimate and illegal and it seems hard for me to understand how on the one hand you're championing democracy and on the other hand trying to undermine the legitimacy of the elections. i think the republicans have to be nervous today. >> we also are hearing about this lawsuit trying to compel the vice president to help mr. trump override the election result. we've been hearing it's being appealed. what's the strategy behind this because it certainly is not legal, is it? >> no, i mean, i would encourage all americans to pull out a copy of the constitution or google it if they don't have a copy at home and read article 2. article 2 makes clear what the job of the vice president is.

and that is to basically open the envelopes and tally up the certified results from the states. so there's really no constitutional basis for this suit to go forward. i think what's going on is you have upwards of two-thirds of the republican house caucus joining -- basically a losing effort for a variety of reasons. certainly some of them are under the cult of personality, they're just devoted to trump and whatever trump wants, they're willing to give him. and for some of them it's a cheap vote to try and curry favor with the base of their party and, as senator sasse said already, a republican senator, there are quite a few people looking ahead four years and thinking about how they're going to run for president. so getting on this bandwagon now, making a stand that really cost them nothing, you know, maybe helps them with the republican base when they decide to run for president. the problem is, however, that it really erodes the norms of

democracy and erodes our status worldwide. >> it certainly does for many people watching this. we also see this continued effort on various levels to undermine the election results. what we are expecting, what you are talking about, we're expecting in congress in the coming week, do you see it more of a loyalty test, though, to mr. trump by republicans? and in doing that, in trying to get republicans to be stretching either way, what does that mean for the party after mr. trump leaves? >> i mean, that's the big question, right? the republican party is going to have to do some soul searching after president biden is inaugurated. they're going to have to decide what kind of a party they are. are they the party they've traditionally been, a party that are stands for small government? a party that stands for free trade? a party that stands for a strong american presence around the world or are they the party of trump which is basically a party that follows the whims of someone who doesn't really

understand the constitution, doesn't understand the norms of democracy, and basically is focused on whatever gets him in the paper or in the press on a daily basis. and i think that's an interesting thing they're going to have to watch. >> what do you make of the senate breaking with mr. trump and overriding this override of the veto of the national defense authorization act? it was the first time in the past four years. does that signal anything? >> well, i mean, it does signal that a number of senators aren't too worried about trump in any kind of retribution that he's going to be able to mete out on them should he ever come back into the political fray. it may be a positive sign for some kind of reform in the republican party. but it certainly is a slap in the face for the president in really his last few weeks of office that he suffers this first override of a veto. and can't make him very happy.

>> professor james davis there, thank you very much for giving us your expertise. have a great weekend. >> thanks, robyn. so violence is spiking in chica chicago. after the break we'll head to the windy city where they're linking the brutality to the pandemic. plus, a wintertime tornado here in georgia flips a house on its side. we'll have the latest on the storms that have ripped through the south and the midwest. revitalift hyaluronic acid serum from l'oreal paris. with 1.5 percent pure hyaluronic acid. it visibly replumps skin and reduces wrinkles. wait, do you want to know if hyaluronic acid is safe for your skin? discover the other side of l'oreal paris. hyaluronic acid is a safe ingredient. used by dermatologists. it is naturally present in the skin revitalift hyaluronic acid serum from l'oreal paris. because when we say you're worth it. we mean it. learn more on lorealparis.com.

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u.s. federal appeals court is reinstating the execution date for the only woman on federal death row, lisa montgomery. she's been scheduled for execution in december, but a judge postponed it when her lawyer said she'd been diagnosed with covid. on friday, the circuit court of appeals in washington, d.c., reversed that lower court ruling. montgomery's execution is schedule forward later on this month. she was convicted in 2004 of strangling a pregnant woman in

missouri, then removing the unborn baby from the victim's body. so, of course, the pandemic has brought tremendous hardship to many people, and in some u.s. states, it seems to have contributed to a dramatic rise in violence. adrian broaddus reports from chicago on this troubling link between coronavirus and depression and substance abuse. >> reporter: as the pandemic rages, we've seen crimes spike across the country, including here in chicago. devastating. that's how one top law enforcement official describes the latest number of homicides as well as a former gang member. >> i normally don't talk about it. >> reporter: sometimes, talking about a painful past leads to healing. >> i've been shot ten times at one time, multiple times. and left for dead. >> you've got to do something with this second chance. >> reporter: mentoring from the bed of a pickup truck is robert white. a former gang leader with the black p stone rangers in chicago. >> the average shooter who

really get down in this city ages from 14 to 19. >> reporter: 50-year-old white now works with chicago cred, an anti-gun violence organization. white said the latest homicide numbers are troubling. of the country's largest cities, new york, los angeles, houston and phoenix, all saw homicide increases of greater than 30% compared to the same time last year. but chicago had an increase of 55% from 491 to 762 homicides through december 27th. >> 2020 has been a tough year nationwide for violent crime in particular in chicago. we've seen homicides and shootings, really a staggering number. >> reporter: the united states attorney for the northern district of illinois. >> the shootings and homicides are up significantly. if we look anecdotally at what we're seeing, the offenders just seem to be emboldened. >> reporter: jens ludwig runs

the university of chicago crime lab. he helps people understand what the data doesn't show. f. you look at the gun violence problem, that's usually concentrated among young people, say 18 to 24. if you look at the cdc data on mental health, something like 75% of people 18 to 24 are showing signs of anxiety, depression, an increase in substance use in response to the pandemic. i think one of the things that people haven't maybe fully appreciated is how much the social service sector does to help control crime as well. and everything that the social service sect ambassador does ha been turned upside down. starting with schools, after-school programs, job training, mental health services. everything. >> this has been a challenging year in that regard for a lot of reas reasons. people are walking around wearing masks. that has an impact. >> reporter: as white and his mentee john pledge to help, tears fall faster than both can

wipe away. >> not tears of sadness. these are good tears. i want to be able to like help other folks get through their pain and suffering because it's -- life is too short. >> reporter: remember, some people shot in 2020 will die in 2021 or later. and those numbers aren't captured in this most recent data. adrian broaddus, cnn, chicago. >> thousands of homes in central u.s. have no electricity after powerful winter storms and a record snowfall. darren van damme will have the chilly details. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices? yeah, that's my thing. with at&t business, you do the things you love. our people and network will help do the things you don't.

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a powerful winter storm has left more than 100,000 homes and businesses without power across the central u.s. snowfall ranging from 5 to 14 inches or about 12 to 35 centimeters with a daily record set in oklahoma city which got about half a foot of snow. ice accumulations have downed trees and power lines leaving th tens of thousands of people in the dark in missouri, illinois and indiana. here in the south at least two tornadoes hit east central georgia. one person was injured after a manufactured home was flipped,

as you can see here. derek van dam joins us with more on all of this weather. hi, derek. >> hi. good morning, robyn. good morning to our viewers. we don't really associate winter storms with tornadic development but that was the case yesterday morning, new year's day, across southeast georgia. and there is the manufactured home. on its side. just shows you the force of these brief tornadoes that can spawn during these powerful winter storms. now we do associate winter storms with heavy snowfall and that's what we saw across many locations throughout the midwest and into the deep south as well. we saw some snowfall totals breaking record 24-hour totals just for new year's day alone. wichita was one of them. you can see some of the individuals trying to clean off their driveways. snow blow their businesses in front of the businesses just to keep their houses and homes

prepared for any additional snow that might fall. although it does look like the storm has passed from this region. there are more storms waiting in its wings. some impressive snowfall totals. this was a powerful storm for oklahoma city and wichita. look at panther junction. 24 inches of snow in a 48-hour period. that's two feet of snowfall out of the storm. look, it's not done yet. you can see the winter weather advisory from new england all the way to my home state of michigan. born and raised in grand rapids. like to see that on my weather maps. now the storm is still producing rain along the coastal cities. boston to new york. warm enough to fall in that liquid variety. travel further to the north, the storm gets colder. higher elevation and snow for upstate new york, vermont and new hampshire and maine. another six inches before the storm slides to the east. it's already come to an end across the great lakes state but you can see the forecast accumulations going forward. according to the legend at the top portion of your tv screen, still another 4 to 6 inches,

perhaps locally higher amounts for northeast maine. this is the line of thunderstorms that brought some of the severe weather to southeastern georgia. they are running over the same locations. so as we continue to get this influx of moisture from the gulf of mexico there's a potential for flooding where you see the flash flood watches in effect across the region. there's no rest for our ongoing onslaught of storms. check this out. later today and into the end of the weekend, another storm system brewing. computer models there hinting at the potential for snowfall for new york as well as boston. so keeping a close eye on that one. it's winter, robyn. this is what we expect, right? >> it certainly is. good to see you, derek. >> happy new year. u.s. college football national championship game is set. number one alabama will be facing off against number three, ohio state. the buckeyes pulled off an upset win against the number two clemson tigers at the sugar bowl on friday. meanwhile, alabama -- the tide

will be taking on the buckeyes in the national championship game on january the 11th. want to take you to hawaii where australian surfer mikie wright was in the right place at the right time. take a look. >> oh, my god. >> he saw a woman getting swept away in the current and dove in to action, although they were submerged multiple times under these enormous crashing waves. they did make it to shore safely eventually. now the dramatic rescue was posted on his instagram caption with the humorous caption "hold my beer." i'm robyn curnow. "new day" is next. you're watching cnn. enjoy. the new myww+ gives you more of what you need to help you lose weight!

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the bill on reconsidering is pass passed. >> they overrode trump's veto. >> the margins