-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom, and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, covid surges threatening holiday festivities across the world. tightened restrictions putting many on edge, and renewing urgent calls for vaccinations. plus, it's a no from u.s. senator joe manchin, why he says he can't support the president's build back better plan, and how the white house is responding. and a shocking turn of events in china.

tennis star peng shuai now denies ever accusing a former communist party leader of sexual assault. >> announcer: live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with rosemary church. good to have you with us. and we begin with the threat of the omicron variant in the united states and urgent pleas from top health experts for americans to get vaccinated and boostered. and new numbers show why that's so important. according to data from the cdc, unvaccinated people are 20 times more likely to die from covid than people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted. and yet only around 30% of fully vaccinated americans, about 60 million people, have gotten a booster dose. it comes as the u.s. is heading into what will likely be a brutal winter surge, as the new

variant spreads across the country. the delta variant is already driving a surge in covid cases and hospitalizations. and omicron will only add fuel to that fire. and we're already seeing the impact in some areas, long lines for covid tests have been forming across new york city, as americans try to balance their holiday plans with covid safety. >> we really need to flood the system with testing. we need to have tests available for anyone who wants them, particularly when we're in a situation right now where people are going to be gathering even though they are vaccinated and boosted. it is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter. >> and we're also seeing the impact of the latest surge in other ways. on sunday u.s. senators elizabeth warren and cory booker both announced they have tested positive for the virus. both say they are experiencing only mild symptoms. and we have reporters across the

u.s. covering the covid crisis. natasha chen is in los angeles, where officials say they are seeing cases rise again. but first to new york, where cnn's paulo sandoval reports on another record case count for the state. >> reporter: for three days now, new york state has seen a significant increase in the number of new covid cases. now, in fact a record number of covid cases confirmed throughout the statute here. we have heard some optimism coming from new york city mayor bill de blasio on sunday saying the bringing back of several of these mitigation efforts, also the increase in numbers that, yes, it is happening right now. it is a new reality, but it is a temporary one. but when you speak to new yorkers, there is concern and fear that things are going to get worse before they get better. so, we have seen massive crowds at covid testing sites throughout new york city, people who are trying to secure an appointment to get those tests.

some, it is a requirement. they're going to be traveling soon. but for many, almost everybody, they want to be tested. they want that extra peace of mind, even though majority of them are vaccinated. >> i feel like a couple of people i have been vaccinated also catched covid and had a scare, so just trying to play it safe for the family. >> to play it safe. you never know. even though you're vaccinated, you can still get it. so, it's better to make sure. >> reporter: as recent as last week new york city announced a multipoint approach that is meant to try to slow the spread. that includes increasing locations where people can get vaccinated and also where people can get tested. and even making those home kits available for those who are not able to stand in line for hours at a time. but the big, big advice coming from officials not just in new york city but throughout the country is for the segment of the population that is not vaccinated to get the shot. if they did, to get boosted. if they got boosted, get tested.

paulo sandoval, cnn new york. los angeles county public health has reported quite a rise in daily confirmed cases just in the past week. tuesday there were about 1,100 positive test cases. but by the weekend, saturday and sunday seeing more than 3,500 positive cases, and sunday may be low because of the lag in weekend reporting. so, within a week's time frame we're seeing the tripling of numbers. in california overall the positivity rate is under 3%, which is relatively low compared to other states. but california health officials did notice a rise in covid positive cases in the days following the thanksgiving holiday into early december. and that's why the state implemented new policies beginning december 15th to last for about a month before those policies are revisited. there are three important things there. one is that everyone is required to wear masks indoors across the

state. two is that people are required to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter a megaevent. mega-events are defined as 1,000 people indoors or 10,000 people outdoors. finally, people traveling into california are recommended to get a covid test three to five days after they arrive in the state. already there are some events being cancelled, just like there are across the country due to positive cases. for example, ucla basketball game, even a production of "a christmas carol" downtown in los angeles because of positive cases within those groups. schools, including stanford, are also transitioning to virtual classes after the winter break is over here in southern california. ucla, the uc system, the cal state system, are saying they will monitor the situation for students after they come back from the winter break. back to you. >> thanks for that. well, the spread of the omicron and delta variants across europe is forcing

governments to take decisive action with omicron now dominant in parts of the uk as well as ireland. i'm joined by cyril vanier in paris. great to see you, cyril. how are european countries responding to surging covid cases of both major variants? >> rosemary, first thing is european countries are really scratching their heads. so, most of them have implemented some short-term measures to deal with the peak of the delta variant wave right now and the impending surge in omicron-fuelled cases coming over -- coming to them in the next few weeks. that's the short-term. more longer-term, they're thinking how do we get everybody vaccinated. you have some countries closing their borders. you have france, germany, they've essentially closed their borders to travellers coming from the uk because they think

that will help them slow down the importing of omicron variant. you have some countries that have imposed curfews. that's the case in ireland. you have a country like denmark that has essentially shut down its cultural scene. that's not just theaters and museums and art galleries. it's also entertainment venues. it's parks, zoos. and so you have all these countries -- here in france, this is a notable example, rosemary. france is banning new year's eve celebrations. so, you will not see this year, the fireworks that you typically see at the eiffel tower. and there won't be any street celebrations. now, longer term these countries are asking themselves, how do we get more people vaccinated? some have mandated it. that is the case with austria beginning in february. germany might follow suit. others are almost mandating it. there's the super green pass in italy and something similar to

follow suit in france in january or february which will all but compel the unvaccinated to stay home. >> of course the frustration in the midst of all this, we have the tools to deal with this. some are not using it. cyril vanier joining us live from paris, many thanks. the netherlands now has one of the strictest lockdowns in europe. and many of its neighbors may be forced to tighten their own measures even further. cnn's robbie nadeau takes a look. >> reporter: a collective sigh in the netherlands as the strictest new covid-19 measures went into effect on sunday to try to contain the highly contagious omicron variant. acknowledging it's not the christmas many people wanted, dutch prime minister urged people to stay home as much as possible and said non-essential shops would be closed until january 14th and schools shut until at least january 9th. for many it was a frustrating announcement that dashed many holiday plans just days away from christmas.

this man says, we did everything we could. we're fully vaccinated. and in the end it all goes in the wrong direction. before the lockdown went into effect, long lines of shoppers rushed to the stores for some last-minute christmas shopping. the government also cracking down on how many people can attend holiday gatherings. only two guests will be allowed in private homes with the exception of christmas eve, christmas dave, new year's eve, and new year's day, when four are permitted. previous measures have been violent in the country with violent protests erupting in november. this weekend police clashed with small groups of protesters as thousands of people demonstrated in brussels. and there were also protests in london, paris and cities in germany. many countries are considering reimposing new covid-19 restrictions, the threat of omicron much greater than the pockets of discontent.

italian media reporting that the government could soon make masks mandatory outdoors and require negative tests for vaccinated people to enter crowded public venues. denmark is set to close cinemas, theaters and museums and will limit the amount of people in stores and shops. one resident said it's a bleak way to end the year. >> seeing all the countries, denmark among them, slowly starting to shut down, some of them are even completely shut down. it's a little bit depressing. >> no country wanting a lockdown before christmas, but omicron may make further restrictions unavoidable. cnn, rome. and israel is taking strong measures to slow the spread of the omicron variant, as officials warn a fifth wave of covid-19 has arrived. the u.s., canada, and eight other countries are being added to israel's red no-fly list. and journalist elliott goff kin

joins us live from jerusalem. good to see you, elliott. why has israel chosen to stop travel from these countries rather than just ensure all travellers are fully vaccinated and have a negative covid test, as other nations are doing. >> the short answer is omicron. we've seen the measures being taken in other nations. we've seen omicron running rampant. israel is trying to extend the amount of time it has before the wave hits israel with its full force. so, it's adding these countries to its red no-fly list because it sees that most of the omicron cases that it has in the country have come from people returning to israel from overseas. it's got 175 confirmed cases so far of omicron, 380 which are deemed highly suspicious of being omicron. and it wants to reduce the number coming in from overseas. so, effectively it's just dealing with the omicron spread from person to person inside of

israel. naftali bennett taking to the airways on sunday evening in a news conference to try to get the message across to israelis that time is running out. >> translator: omicron is already here, and it is spreading quickly. the numbers are not yet high, but it is a very infectious variant. and with the rate of infection doubling every two to three days, as we are seeing around the world, we can say that the fifth wave has begun. >> and this tsunami, as naftali bennett describes it, he suggests cases will start spiking in three to five weeks, advising people who work in the private sector to work from home if they can, the public sector likely to follow suit in about a week's time. >> many thanks. and still to come, what's next for u.s. president joe biden's build back better plan now that senator joe manchin says he won't vote for it?

we'll discuss next. and at 35 years old, gabrielle loric will become the youngest president of chile in modern history, ahead reaction to his big win over far right candidate jose cast. 1, 2, 3... yay! ♪ “i got you babe” by etta james ♪ ♪ wait hold up, here it comes! alright, everybody stand up straight. okay now let me flip it. ♪ ♪

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in a major blow to u.s. president joe biden's build back better plan, senator joe manchin says he will not vote for the legislation that would expand the nation's social safety net. manchin has long been a key holdout on the plan, despite months of talks. here's what he said on sunday. >> i cannot vote to continue to with this piece of legislation. i just can't. i've tried everything humanly possible. i can't get there. >> you're done? this is -- this is a no. >> this is a no on this legislation. i have tried everything i know to do. >> the white house issued this sharp rebuke after manchin's remarks. if his comments on fox and written statement indicate an

end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator's colleagues in the house and senate. manchin's support for the plan is necessary for democrats to pass the legislation. and progressives are outraged by what he's done. >> mr. manchin says he's representing the people of west virginia. okay. why don't you do a poll? cnn, do a poll, and you ask the people of west virginia whether or not they want to lower the cost of prescription drugs. you ask them whether they want to expand medicare to cover dental, hearing, and eye glasses. you ask them whether they want to continue the $300 payment to help working parents in these very difficult times bring up their kids with dignity. ask them if they want to deal with climate change. on all of those issues, i suspect people of west virginia, like every other state in this country, would say, yes, do the right thing for working

families. and i challenge -- you know, i told manchin, by the way, i'll pay for the damn poll in west virginia on those issues. >> joining me now from los angeles is cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein. always great to have you with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> after holding out for months, senator joe manchin now says he will not be supporting president biden's nearly $2 trillion build back better bill, essentially killing it off. the white house shot back saying manchin's comments are at odds with his comments with the president, where he pledged to keep negotiations going. so, what suddenly changed, and what happens now? >> yeah, it's a complex situation. i mean, first of all, it's almost unprecedented in two different respects what we saw today from senator manchin. first, presidents in their first year often have a lot of turbulence in getting their core economic agenda through. but in the end, ronald reagan,

bill clinton, george w. bush, barack obama, donald trump, they all passed the cornerstone of their economic plan in their first year. and this would be, you know, a break in that pattern. and the other remarkable thing is -- i think if you could take a census of every elected democrat from the level of mayor up, mayor, governor, house member, senator, maybe even all of the state legislators, i think virtually if not absolutely all of them except joe manchin want to pass some version of the build back better act like what went through the house. it contains priorities for the democratic party for a decade, you know, ideas that have been accumulating since the obama presidency, universal pre-k, paid family leave, filling in the gaps in the affordable care act. and he is saying that his opinion alone should outweigh the entire bred of the party. it's breathtaking and it really

is just a measure, i think, of his calculation of how important it is to his survival in west virginia, a state, by the way, that would benefit enormously from the provisions in the bill from being seen as too far to the left. >> yeah, it has shocked so many, hasn't it? what might this signal about senator manchin's likely next move politically? how can he stay in the democratic party? that's surely not sustainable. >> it's -- first of all, i don't think it is completely inconceivable that there is agreement ahead of a much different nature of the bill. i mean, senator manchin has left some bread crumbs if he does in fact want to get a bill. i mean, you know, he has basically said he would support something at the level of $1.75 trillion, which is an enormous amount of new spending, far more than clinton or obama got in their first year. but he wants it to be for full

ten-year programs, which would obviously reduce the number of programs you could fit in under that budget level. so, potentially you could imagine a world where something like the child tax credit and affordable care act and some climate, you know, meet his standard. but it's not clear that he really wants to reach a deal in the end. and it may be that the climate, above all, is the sticking point, you know, that maybe all of this is just kind of a smoke screen for what is the core objection, someone who's been very close to the coal industry and the fossil fuel industry does not want the provisions in the bill that would move the u.s. away from reliance on those bills. >> and i do want to follow-up on a comment you made because senator manchin does have considerable financial interests in the coal industry, and biden's build back better plan would work against those interests with the $555 billion allocated to fight climate

change. is that what's going on here? >> it could be. you know, if you look at it, joe manchin you think of as kind of a new deal democrat, a humphrey democrat who opposes the cultural liberalism of the party but historically has been basically okay with the idea of government spending money to expand opportunity in a poor state. west virginia ranks 44th in child poverty, it ranks near the bottom in the share of kids born premature. it has enormous needs in poverty. it would benefit very directly from this bill. the level of childhood poverty would be cut in half if build back better was passed. so, it's kind of hard to square his objections to kind of the core domestic programs in this bill with both the need of the state and his previous record, which makes you wonder is there something else going on and could the something else be the climate provision, which have already been scaled back, as you

know, tremendously to try to get his assent. but today in his statement, he really leaned on the argument the bill would transition the u.s. away from fossil fuels too fast, which i don't think there are a lot of climate scientists out there looking at the weather and what's happening with extreme weather are worried we're moving too fast to get away from fossil fuels. but that is a flag he raised today in his statement. >> and we'll look for more reaction on all of this in the hours ahead. ron brownstein, thank you so much. >> thank you, rosemary. leftist gabrielle boric will become chile's next leader after winning sunday's runoff election. he will replace outgoing president se bass yan pennier rah, who is set to leave office in march. >> reporter: he's 35 years old, the former student leader, and has the support of the country's

communist party. boric will be chile's next president. the former congressman and leftist leader garnered more than 55% of the vote on sunday's runoff election. his rival quickly conceded defeat, saying he had called boric less than two hours after polls closed. boric's victory was quickly reco recognized. >> translator: you are going to be one of the youngest presidents of recent times and people should know how to combine strength, idealism, and the spirit of youth with prudence and the experience of gray hair. so, i want to invite you tomorrow to have a work meeting so we can talk about very important subjects for chile. >> after a tooth and nail campaign in a very polarized country, boric was ready to turn the page after he addressed

after winning the election. he thanked his supporters and said he will be a president for all chileans. >> translator: compatriots, i will be the president of all chileans, of those who voted for this movement, of those who today feel the squares of all of chile, of those who chose another alternative, and those who did not vote, we will be there for you. >> reporter: boric made a lot of promises during his campaign, promises that could prove hard to keep. >> he's going to have a hard time. he's confronting a deadlocked conditioning. he's got a constitutional convention. he's got a fractious coalition. it's not clear what the communist party is going to play in the coalition, whether the socialist coalition will join or not. as you say, he's made a lot of promises that cost a lot of money. many of the things coming out of the constitutional convention are social and political rights likely to have an effect on

fiscal spending. so, he's going to have a hard time meeting all of that. >> reporter: leaders from across latin america and the caribbean including president of cuba congratulated the new president-elect. boric will take office on march 11th for a four-year term. cnn, santiago, chile. still ahead on "cnn newsroom," south africa is coping the record number of covid-19 cases, but not as many patients ending up in the hospital. the reasons why ahead. ♪

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minister says hospitalizations are up but still lower than previous waves. and our david mckenzie is in johannesburg. he joins us now live. david, despite a wave of omicron infections in south africa, hospitalization rates are still lower than previous waves. and there's a lack of any new restrictions. what's going on here? how do they explain this? >> rosemary, first the situation. currently there are a very high number of cases in south africa. in fact the positivity rate overnight was more than 30%. that would be considered extremely high during previous waves. but they haven't seen the rush on hospital and severe cases and deaths like they saw in the delta wave, the beta wave, and even the first wave of covid-19 in the country. now, the reasons for this are complex. but it is believed that it has something to do with the amount of prior infection. and even if you get a break

through the infection of omicron, the prior covid infection does have an impact in terms of less severe disease. there's also some 40% of people here with at least one dose of the vaccines. that could also have some impact. but even speaking to clinicians this morning here in south africa, there is a sense, and the numbers are just not nearly as high in the hospitals. and far fewer people are on ventilators at this stage, rosemary. >> so, what might that reveal about the omicron variant? >> so, i mentioned already the mitigating factors in terms of the trajectory of this pandemic. the vaccines, prior infection. but there is a question mark whether the variant itself is less severe. and that has not been answered at this point. most of the people still in hospital are unvaccinated. and while you said there has been a rise in cases in hospital, it's coming off a very, very low base.

so, the proportion of people who are getting the omicron variant who are ending up on hospital is substantially lower than in the delta wave. so, you know, more tests need to be done both in the lab and in the clinical setting, but it is a case that here in south africa at least this wave is far less severe in terms of serious cases. rosemary? >> still a lot to learn. but very interesting. david mckenzie joining us live from johannesburg. many thanks. chinese tennis star peng shuai says there's been a misunderstanding about recent sexual assault allegations made against a former senior government official. details and a live report from tokyo straight ahead. the whole family is covered. i love my job and it pays really welell. there's just no health cocoverage. for $182 a month, i found the perfect t plan. all ththat stress about coverage just went away. for $14 a month, my plan covers my meds, vision and dental.

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newspaper. in a video, she says she's always been free and there may have been a misunderstanding about her social media post. there's been a concern about peng's well being and if she's being silenced by chinese authorities. selina wang joins me live from tokyo for more on this. why are we hearing this denial now, so long after peng shuai's initial accusation was posted? and is this raising more questions than answers? >> well, rosemary, this does leave a lot of questions unanswered. it does not extinguish global concerns about peng shuai and the women's tennis association is calling for investigation. what we do know is this is the first time peng shuai has spoken to social media publicly about the sexual assault allegations. and in the interview, she denies the claims. she was speaking on the sidelines of a cross country skiing event in shanghai.

she was speaking to a chinese news outlet. take a listen to what she said in that interview. >> translator: i want to emphasize one thing that is very important, that i have never spoken about or written about anyone sexually assaulting me. this point needs to be emphasized clearly. first of all, it's my personal privacy. there possibly has been a lot of misunderstanding. >> in the interview she also said she's been living at home in beijing and that she denied she was under any kind of surveillance. there were also photos and videos posted of her at the event, including this video of her talking and smiling. but concerns about peng shuai do still persist. the controversy started with peng alleged in a 1,600 word post dated november 2nd that she had experienced sexual assault from a former chinese vice

premier in the past. that most was removed and the discussion of the topic is blocked on china's internet. she later appeared in photos and videos. the ioc said it held two video calls with her, although it hasn't made those calls publicly available. but the women's tennis association are saying this is not enough. they said, quote, as we have stated these appearances do not alleviate or address the wta's significant concerns about her well being and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion. we call for a full, fair, and transparent investigation into her allegation of sexual assault, which is the issue that gave rise to our initial concern. the wta said earlier this month it would suspend tournaments in china. the wta has asked for further evidence of peng shuai's safety.

he wrote in a letter asking for peng to be able to leave china or asking for a live teleconference with peng without anybody else present. with the olympics less than two months away, china's foreign ministry has said that it hopes that any malicious speculation about peng's whereabouts will stop, and it has said china, quote, opposes the politicization of sport. rosemary. >> selina wang bringing us the latest from that. thank you so much for joining us. for our international viewers, world sport is next. and for those in the u.s., i'll be right back with more news. don't do anywhere. in of toys to fulfill many wisheses. must be carrrried across all roads and all bridges. and when everyone is smiling and hahaving their fun i can turn my sleigh north because my job here is done. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the

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well, back to our top story. health experts warn that the omicron variant is preparing to rip through the u.s. like wild fire. the country is already seeing a surge in covid cases and hospitalizations, fuelled by the delta variant. the u.s. is now averaging more than 130,000 new infections a day. compare that to just more than 92,000 a month ago. but experts warn omicron's arrival could send those numbers soaring to record highs, as the variant races across country.

>> all of the other previous variants pail by comparison in terms of the rate at which this one is spreading, doubling every two to three days, first in south africa, now in parts of europe. and the u.s. is on that exponential curve right now. so, we are in for a world of trouble, i'm afraid, in the next month or two. >> covid is also putting sports leagues across the u.s. in a bind, with professional and college teams being forced to postpone or cancel games. cnn's nadia romero has more. >> reporter: well, normally this time of year would be a great time for sports fans. you've got college hoops, college football, nfl, nhl, nba, so many things to watch and enjoy. instead, it feels a lot like the very beginning of covid-19 pandemic, with so many of those games being postponed or cancelled. so, let's start with basketball. the nba today on sunday cancelling some of its games

sunday and monday, post pponing those games because of covid-19. we're talking about big name superstars on the brooklyn nets like kyrie irving and kevin durant out. we're even seeing that when it comes to college basketball, 20 men's basketball games and 36 women's basketball games cancelled or postponed so far this year. from the basketball court to the gridiron now, nfl saturday doubleheader turned into a single showdown between the new england patriots and indianapolis colts. three games postponed week 15 of the nfl because so many players are out on the covid-19 reserve list. more than 20 players for the cleveland browns, for the rams, and the washington football team. and the nfl saying this past weekend they're having new protocols for asymptomatic, fully vaccinated players. they're not going to test them on a regular basis but instead moving to a more targeted

approach. a big change coming from the nfl. now the nhl making a big announcement on sunday, saying that it will postpone 30 games between december 18th and december 23rd. and that includes cross-border games. so, remember the nhl has teams in canada and the u.s., and they're citing the concerns over federal restrictions and travel concerns over the border. and that's the news coming out of the nhl this weekend. nadia romero, cnn atlanta. well, the u.s. is seeing a jump in air travel, despite increasing covid cases. the tsa screened more than 2 million passengers at u.s. airports on saturday for the third day in a row. the number of travellers over the past few days is nearly the same as pre-pandemic levels, suggesting americans are not cancelling holiday travel plans despite the threat of omicron. and while air travel seems to be making a comeback, the experience for passengers may

never be the same. dr. anthony fauci said sunday that mask requirements on airplanes are here to stay while covid rages. cnn's pamela brown put the same question to dr. mccain, medical director at baylor college of medicine, and here is her response. >> i definitely agree that that's not going to be happening any time soon. when the pandemic first started we thought that this would be something quick that we could tackle, and it's proven that that is not the case. the pandemic is unlikely to be over in 2022. we're likely still going to be talking about covid in 2023. so, masks are still going to be in use. >> so, right now we know testing is hard to come by for a lot of people. we're seeing those long lines and so forth. what should someone do if they are exposed to covid? if they were in a group, someone in their group had covid, what should they do, especially with holiday travel on the horizon for so many? >> if you've been exposed to

covid, you definitely need to get tested. the cdc has changed their recommendation so that if you're vaccinated you can wait about three to five days to get tested if you are not experiencing symptoms. if you are unvaccinated, you should -- please do not go travel and potentially expose other people. >> i'm going to get to our viewer questions. we have some great ones. our first viewer asks, how are the kids handling omicron based on data from south africa and europe? will the kids who have only received two doses have enough antibody response to protect them from severe disease? >> so we aren't sure exactly how children are responding to omicron from the south africa and uk data. we do know, however, that for the 18th week in a row we have seen over 100,000 pediatric cases of covid in the united states, and that number is increasing. as cases spike, cases in children will spike. >> that's really troubling. as a mom of two little ones.

our second viewer asks, is there any real current information on which booster is most effective? >> the pfizer and the moderna boosters are the boosters you should be getting. if you got the johnson & johnson vaccine it's okay to mix and match. but please go get one of the mrna vaccines as your booster. >> for everyone watching this right now maybe feeling anxious what should should they think, what else do you want to tell people who are just on edge given the current state of the pan dem uk demic right now? >> i understand the anxiety. we're almost two years into this and it seems as if every time we start to get things under control there's another blow and another hit. but what i do want people to realize is we are now at a point in the pandemic where we have tools at our disposal that can help us combat this virus and this disease. please go get vaccinated if you're not vaccinated. if you've been vaccinated and you're eligible for a booster, now is the i'm. do not wait. >> all right. and to talk more about the

weather for travel over the holidays i do want to bring in meteorologist tyler mauldin. he's been looking at this very closely. good to see you, tyler. so how is it looking? holiday travel. in the days ahead millions of people will be traveling. >> yeah. hi, rosemary. so we are just, what, five or six days away from christmas. and the week of christmas from a weather standpoint is going to be pretty busy. take a look at the map behind me. there are a couple things i want to point out to you. number one is this area of low pressure moving through the gulf of mexico. number two is a clipper system moving across the northern tier of the country. and then all of these areas of low pressure across the west coast, those are all going to be problematic in the days to come as everyone begins to start traveling for the holidays. look at this area of low pressure moving across the gulf. it is going to spread rainfall over the next 48 to 72 hours across the deep south. you'll notice this looks kind of tropical. but since we're in december it's not a tropical system. if this were to occur back in

like june or july, yeah, i'm sure the national hurricane center would be tracking it. but regardless, it's going to spread a lot of rainfall across portions of the south. and you see a swath of about i would say four to five inches of rainfall from the panhandle of florida all the way up into the carolinas here. and then shifting gears going from the rainfall to snowfall across the pacific northwest where we have winter weather alerts in effect for the pac northwest and going on into the northern rockies. some areas will see more than a foot of snowfall in the days to come. we also have flood alerts in effect here too because of these areas of low pressure pushing down and expanding. this is going to cause an atmospheric river to form, yet another atmospheric river, which is really just a large -- a very long swath of moisture from the pacific pushing on shore, and it means a lot of of rainfall and a lot of snowfall in short order. you can see some of us across the mountainous portions of the

west will be seeing more than -- more than a foot of snow for sure. and it's not going to feel like christmas once we get to christmas eve and christmas day. we've got above average temperatures moving to the east. take a look at atlanta. you're going to be seeing a temperature of nearly 70 degrees come christmas day. your average high is 55. so i can tell you with absolute certainty here in atlanta we're not going to see any -- any snowfall. not a white christmas for us. if you want to see any snowfall on christmas, rosemary, you've mainly got to go to the west coast and up here to new england. >> okay. i think i want to go somewhere warmer. tyler mauldin, thank you so much. appreciate it. well, tiger woods returned to competitive golf. went pretty well. he teamed up with his 12-year-old son charlie for the pnc championship in florida, where they took second place. the fact that i'm able to have this opportunity this year, even a couple weeks ago we

didn't really know whether i'd be doing this. but here we are. and we had the best time ever. he and i out there. i just wish that like i told you guys yesterday, i wish i could have walked down the fairways with him and been, you know, side by side with him the entire time like we were last year. >> the two-day tournament marked the first time tiger has competed since a car crash crushed his leg in february. >> the competitive juices aren't -- they're never going to go away. this is my environment. this is what i've done my entire life. i'm just so thankful to be able to have this opportunity to do it again. earlier this year was not a very good start to the year and it didn't look very good. but the last few weeks to push as hard as we have the last seven months with taking no days off and working our butts off each and every day, and to have this opportunity to be able to

play with my son and to have these memories for us, both of us, for our lifetime, is worth all the pain. >> the father-son duo shot 15 under par sunday and at one point birdied 11 straight holes. but they finished the tournament two strokes behind john daly and his son. well, japanese billionaire yusaku maezawa is back on earth after spending 11 days on the international space station. the fashion magnate is the first space tourist to reach the station in more than a decade. he returned inside a russian soyuz spacecraft and landed in kazakhstan a short time ago. he traveled with his production assistant, who documented the journey, and a russian cosmonaut, who piloted the round-trip flight. the cost of the trip was not disclosed, but some reports have put the price tag as high as $50 million. and thank you so much for joining us. i'm rosemary church. i'll be back in just a moment with more news.

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♪ the barnes firm, injury attorneys ♪ call one eight hundred,est resul eight million ♪ hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom," and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, whether it's delta or omicron, new waves of of covid-19 are gripping the globe. we look at some of the restrictions in effect and what experts say needs to be done. u.s. senator joe manchin faces blistering criticism after saying he won't vote for president joe biden's build back better plan. we will look at what it means for the biden agenda.