good tuesday morning. i'm erica hill. >> i'm jim sciutto. this just in, perhaps some good news, inflation at the lowest level since december of last year. a move in the right direction, just as the federal reserve is poised to bump up its interest rates again. perhaps at a lower clip than they have in recent months. so, is that strategy working? we're going to break down all the numbers just ahead. also ahead, the s.e.c. filing charges against sam bankman-fried, the founder of that failed crypto giant ftx. the 30-year-old set to make his first court appearance this morning, just hours after he was arrested in the bahamas. also right now we're keeping a close watch on this massive winter storm slamming states across the u.s. these are pictures from wayne, oklahoma, after a suspected tornado touched down there this

morning. blizzard conditions and heavy snow spreading from the plains into the midwest. we're going to bring you a live update in a moment. >> we begin this hour on the news of the latest inflation numbers. and the best person to talk about it all, cnn chief business correspondent christine romans here to break it all down. christine, always say the trend is your friend. so what does the trend on prices show us? >> it shows us that prices are starting to cool. you still have inflation in this economy. it is still too hot. but we are seeing definite signs of cooling. 7.1%, that's the slowest price gain since 2021. when you look at the trend, you can see after challenging inflation near 40 year highs, this chart goes all the way back to the 80s, terrible time for inflation, we have up to 9% and now 7.1% is that number. so, look, it is still -- you can feel t e

feel it. compared to last year you got food prices up 10.6%. you have gasoline prices up more than 10% compared with a year ago. a shelter up 7.1% and we just looked at airfares, airfares are up 36% from a year ago. think where we were. we didn't have the exploding consumer demand for services like you do right now. so, you're seeing consumer behavior start to change, you're probably still going to see some inflation in the services sectors, but in the goods producing side of the economy, you're seeing some signs of relief. i think this shows the fed's medicine is beginning to work. there is a long way to go. too soon to declare victory over inflation. i want to be clear about that. the fed has been jacking up interest rates to cool the prices. 7.1% is what fed watchers wanted to see here today, guys. >> i'll take a step in the right direction, even if it is a small one. christine christine, stay with us, you'll help with us the next story as well. quite a story here, the 30-year-old founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange

ftx is expected to appear in a court in the bahamas this morning. the bahamas where they set up shop. sam bankman-fried was arrested, this at the request of the u.s. government. which is now expected to request his extradition to here in the u.s. >> bankman-fried resigned as ceo of ftx last month on the same day the company declared bankruptcy after traders rushed to withdraw $6 billion from the platform in a period of 72 hours. the s.e.c. announcing the charges they filed against bankman fried saying in essence he orchestrated a years long fraud, they claim he knew exactly what he was doing, further charges are expected from the southern district of new york. joining us now, sarah fisher, media report we er with axios. christine romans back with us as well. this happened so quickly there was the arrest last night and now the charges this morning. this crash happened so quickly as well. >> and this was marketed as the entry level way for regular joe

and jane investors to get into crypto, to buy, hold and sell these assets. so you got a million depositors here who are wondering if they're going to get any of their money back. there was something about the character himself sam bankman-fried that enticed individual receivers and also some big institutional names as well. he's a guy who would conduct sort of meetings with analysts while playing video games in a t-shirt and shorts, slept on a sleeping bag in his office, everyone thought he was such an interesting, brilliant billionaire character and they bought into this image he was selling, no cfo, no oversight, virtually no regulation of this corner of the world, just buying into his personality and what he was trying to sell. and a lot of people took it hook, line and sinker. >> small investors, big investors and a lot of lawmakers on capitol hill. they bought into it. he had a lot of fans up on capitol hill. sarah fisher, you've been following this storstorstory.

he's spoken a lot in public. he's answered questions in a number of public interviews in recent days. with a lot of questions wondering whether he spoke to his lawyer before he answered though questions, right, denying this was a fraud. but what kinds of things has he said and how might that impact what is now a criminal investigation? >> well, you make a good point, jim. he has spoken about this in media interviews but he's not sworn or spoken under oath, which would have been a much different scenario. that's what lawmakers were hoping to do today. his imminent arrest and these new charges from the s.e.c. means he's not going to appear today according to representative waters who put out a statement last night. what they're looking to hear is real concrete proof this was not a deliberate fraud. he says he has had some judgment errors, but he says that it was not intentional that money was funneled from his crypto trading platform ftx into his research invention firm alameda research.

and the reason that matters is that billions of dollars of customer funds have been misused for research and even lavish personal expenses like apartments in the bahamas from alameda. that's what the s.e.c. is going to be looking into. that's what the southern district of new york, jim, that's expected to bring criminal charges for today -- later today is going to be looking into as well. >> there is this other question, this allegation he was using customer funds from the exchange to back up the separate entity, which was in effect an investment bank and, you know, there are legal problems with that as well. thanks so much to both of you. >> thank you. this major winter storm impacting states across the country is making its way east at this hour. >> it is a big one. derek van dam is in shreveport, louisiana, where there is a significant threat from strong tornadoes and chad myers is tracking every angle of this from the weather center. derek, i wonder what you're seeing there.

have tornadoes already begun to touch down? >> reporter: no, but they are just to our west as the crow flies, about 2350 miles to our west. we're in that ground zero area but bracing for impact for later this afternoon. we're gauging what is happening in the dallas-fort worth area and just outside of oklahoma city where tornados have left a path of damage already. there was reports of damage in decatur, texas, just to the north and west of dallas-fort worth. and then let me take you to wayne, oklahoma. this is just south of oklahoma city. and you'll see what happened overnight. some of the damage from a tornado, unconfirmed tornado out of that particular region, but buildings wiped off of their foundation, industries snapped over like twigs. this is what we are bracing ourselves across the northern louisiana area because it is trekking eastward. all the ingredients are coming together. you see mother nature doesn't care that it is the middle of december or that it is

approaching the first days of winter. it is like she's baking a cake. if the ingredients are there the cake will rise. all night the winds have been coming out of the southeast, our temperatures are warming up significantly and very quickly. the humidity is here from the gulf of mexico. and the wind is picking up as well. so basically the ingredients are there, now all we need is a cold front to slice the cake and we will get our thunderstorms and our tornadoes. the threat here is a level three of five, an enhancement storm prediction center. they have been tracking this for six days out. well advertised. people from the national weather service here in shreveport say you need to be prepared to leave your home, if you're in a mobile home, if the tornadoes come through. >> chad myers there in the cnn weather center for us. as we look at the broader impact from this storm in the coming hours, not just louisiana that is bracing, what else are we looking at?

>> blizzard conditions on the north side and tornadoes that have been on the ground on the warm side of the storm as derek said. my main concern with the tornadoes, after dark. we have very short days this time of year. so 5:00 or 6:00, dark out there. spotters aren't as accurate when it is dark. tornado warnings are slow, if you're sleeping, you may not get them. a lot of things going on here. big storms heading toward dallas and fort worth right now. few of the tornadoes were on the ground to the southwest of dallas. right now we're seeing some rotation, buttin nothing i beli on the ground right now. they were like 15 minutes ago. tornado watch in effect for that entire area. it is going to slide to the east. it is going to slide toward derek. and then up to the north side, that's where the blizzard warnings are right now. winds, sydney, nebraska, 53 miles per hour. and then you add in the snow, visibility is a quarter mile. that is the definition of a blizzard, has to last for three or more hours.

here is where the storm goes later on today. right here. through the cold front, derek talked about the cold front, as soon as it gets closer to shreveport, that's when your storms are going to fire. also not even just along the cold front, there may be a few storms that could rotate ahead of it in that warm air that derek was talking about. those could put down some tornadoes as well. moving you ahead to tomorrow and into the weekend, yes, there is even a little bit of snow headed to the northeast and new england. that's pretty close to new york city. certainly the northwest suburbs and as we move you ahead further, we'll see some snow when you get upstate and parts of new england. maybe you can go skiing up there. that, back there, that's dangerous. this down here, this is also dangerous. >> so much of the country affected. derek van dam and chad myers, thanks so much. coming up next, an american college student studying abroad in france has not been seen or heard from more for than two weeks now. his parents, they're understandably worried, they're speaking out.

what they told cnn this morning. i'll speak live to seth who returned from a trip to ukraine. what he says the priority should be for the u.s. in terms of help on the front lines. and border patrol officials say they saw a major surge in people crossing illegally into the u.s. illegally. what is fueling this rise and how is the biden administration responding? and the effects are being felt everywhere. that's why at chevron, we're increasing p production in the permian basin by 15%. and we're projectcted to reach 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2025. all while staying on track to reduce our carbon emissions intensity in the area. because it's only human to tackle the challenges of today to help ensure a brighter tomorrow. ♪you said close your eyes don't look down♪ ♪fall into me and i'll catch you darling♪

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while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. french authorities launched an investigation in the disappearance of an american college student who went missing while studying in the south of france. >> the parents of kenny deland jr. say they haven't heard from him in more than two weeks and they say it has been difficult to get any information from the authorities. deland say college senior at john fisher university in ra rochester, new york, and was studying abroad. melissa bell joining us now from paris with more of these details. parents speaking out, they're

having a hard time getting any information. >> that's right. and it seems to be much nor than a language or distance barrier. first of all, what we have been hearing from french authorities who have now opened a meissing persons investigation in france say statement from the prosecutor near where kenny disappeared, the place where he had been studying at, saying they believed or they had no reason to suspect he hadn't left voluntarily. he had been telling people around him he had been struggling to fit in, to make friends, he was planning to travel to marseille and then there is that cctv footage that places kenny on the 3rd of december, several days after he stopped giving any contact to his parents at a sports store just to the south of that city where he was studying, looking well, under no apparent duress. that is why prosecutors here in france are looking at the possibility that maybe he just went on a trip. now, kenny's parents getting more and more distraught, they say it is completely

uncharacteristic and, again, spoke to cnn this mornmorning. have a listen. >> i would say it is just our normal back and forth, he's asking me how i'm doing, i'm asking him how he's doing, how he's, you know, enjoying his studies and if he had traveled to any, you know, spot because he had -- he had been really enjoying the trip and taking pictures. we were in constant contact. if it wasn't every day it was every other day. so, this isn't typical for him. it doesn't feel characteristic of kenny. >> that was november 27th, the last time his parents heard from him. but, again, there is the language barrier, but also the fact that here in europe the laws mean if you're a grown-up and you decide to disappear, you're entitled to do that. even against the wishes or without the oversight of your

loved ones. i think that is part of where the frustration of the delands, what they have been coming up against and the frustration they have been feeling. >> goodness, i hope his parents find something out. melissa bell, thank you for covering. today marks one month since four university of idaho students were killed inside their off campus house. despite numerous tips, officials have u.s. to identify any suspects. police in moscow working alongside idaho state police and the fbi. they remain committed to solving the crime. cnn correspondent veronica miracle is in moscow, idaho this morning. it is a month later. still very few details. one of the family members had been saying some things publicly, but have we learned anything in the last week or two about the investigation and what do folks there in moscow feel about their own safety? >> reporter: well, erica and jim, certainly that's been the frustrating part for not only the families, but for the

community is that very little information has come out if anything. really just a drip drop of facts here and there, maybe that car last week we heard about, the hyundai elantra in the area around the time of the murders. police saying this person, whoever was driving it, may have some information. we want to speak to them. but beyond that, there has been no developments in this case one month later. here in the community of moscow, people are trying to move forward. you see signs that the holidays, christmas, the university of idaho across the way here, it is finals week. students are studying and won't be coming back until next year. everywhere you look there are reminders this horrible tragedy happened one month ago. you see signs all over the community, like this one, that you're seeing, at the front of every restaurant you go inside, and there are people asking for tips and information and police say that they have gotten tips by the thousands.

and in fact they say that those tips have led to strong leads. they just can't share that information with the families or with the community at this time. and they -- i asked last week, you know, why haven't you created a reward for possibly getting more tips and they say the leads have been so strong, they don't want to dilute those leads, and create an incentive at this time they feel they don't need to do so. the police chief said they're working hard. here is what they had to say. >> we're not releasing specific details because we do not want to compromise this investigation. it is what we must do. we owe that to the families and we owe that to the victims. we want more than just an arrest. we want a conviction. >> reporter: the question is when students come back next year, for the next semester, will there have been any developments while they have been gone? >> absolutely. it is a good point. veronica, appreciate you being there and continuing to follow

this for us. thank you. still to come here, another significant subpoena by the special counsel now investigating donald trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. why he wants to hear from georgia's secretary of state next. and we're just moments away from the opening bell on wall street where u.s. stock futures are up a heck of a lot this morning, close to 3% for the s&p. investors reacting to november's inflation report, the consumer price index showing some slowing of inflation. of course they're interpreting that as a sign that the fed perhaps won't raise interest rates as much as they have in the past. we'll be following the market and what the fed does later this week.

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newly appointed special counsel jack smith continuing to move quickly issuing a subpoena for georgia secretary of state braf brad raffensperger. raffensperger, a republican, resisted then president trump's efforts to pressure him to find

the votes necessary for trump to win georgia. that, of course, came in an infamous january 2021 phone call. his joining me to discuss elie honig, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. as we look at this, raffensperger hasn't shied away from talking about that call. he talked about it publicly in a number of interviews, sworn testimony, he's spoken to the house community. it seems that the doj must know what they're going to get from him. you say that's not ideal. why? >> first of all, whenever you have a key witness like brad raffensperger, incredibly important, he's the person who donald trump asked to find the 11,780 alleged votes. when you have a key witness like that, you want to be greedy. you want to keep that witness to yourself. you don't want him testifying in other formats, writing books and

doing media because the more he says publicly, the more there will be available to attack his credibility to try to cross-examine him down the line. there has been a notable change in case here. that phone call you talked about, that became public on january 5th, 2021, the day before january 6th. we all saw it and heard it then. yet in the 20 or so months since then, merrick garland never subpoenaed brad raffensperger. i think we're seeing a different pace now. >> what do you think is behind the pace? is it simply that he operates differently? i'm curious. i know it is hard to know if you're not there in the room. but it is remarkable. >> so i can tell you this, just like people run at different speeds, you have some people sprinters, some people run slow, same thing with prosecutors. i worked in a large -- several large prosecutors offices, hundreds of colleagues, some of them tended to get cases charged really quickly. i tended to be on the quicker side, you might imagine. others really liked to take

their time and be deliberate and merrick garland, whether one is a proponent of his or not, the universal consensus is that he is deliberate, he moves in a judicial pace, he was a judge for a long time. so i think we're seeing different people in charge here. >> okay. i won't read too much into it, except that elie honig is a sprinter. opening arguments began yesterday in the second seditious conspiracy trial. this involves members of that far right oath keepers militia group. this is after two leaders of that group including the founder were actually convicted of the charge earlier this year. what is different about this trial? >> so, first of all, these defendants aren't alleged to be leaders of the oath keepers in the same way that stewart rhodes was. that said, you don't have to prove as a prosecutor you don't have to prove a person was a leader in order to be a member of the conspiracy. needs to argue to juries everyone who is in the movie is in the cast, whether they're the

leading player, a supporting player or a bit player, same thing for a conspiracy, everyone who is in on the agreement is part of the conspiracy. the other thing that prosecutors are going to have to prove here is that the agreement involved the us of force. that's required for seditious conspiracy. they convinced the jury two of the five defendants were in on the plan to use force. that's a key question in this one as well. >> we'll be watching it. thank you. >> all right. on capitol hill, the house and senate expected to pass a short-term extension before government funding runs out on friday. >> senate majority leader chuck schumer said yesterday to be ready to take quick action on a one week extension which would give lawmakers more time to try to secure a longer term full year finding deal. lauren fox joins us. we were talking about having trouble getting to the longer deal. they clearly didn't. they're going to get a week. do we have any confidence they then get to a longer term

funding deal? >> one aide i was talking to yesterday told me they were probably going to be making some progress over the next 24 hours and the sign that they have the short-term deal might actually signal that they are making a little progress on the bigger deal because if they felt like they were closer on the bigger deal, why give themselves just another week. they might have to give themselves more time. that's a lot of reading the tea leaves at a moment when there is a lot of uncertainty on capitol hill on this government funding. but here's what's happening today. the rules committee will have a meeting today. the house will be prepared to vote expeditiously on this short-term spending bill. it will move over to the senate. the senate week usually ends late thursday afternoon, so that might give you a little bit of indication of how quickly this moves in the u.s. senate. at that point, they have another week to continue these negotiations. we should note, they still have not agreed on how much money to spend next year to fund the

government. the fact that that simple outstanding fact is still to be determined tells you they still have a long ways to go. jim and erica? >> fantastic. lauren fox, thank you so much. we have some news just in to cnn, severe weather slamming much of the country this morning in the midst of a major winter storm now reports of tornadoes in texas and oklahoma. ed lavandera is at the airport where sirens just went off. sirens for approaching tornados? >> reporter: we're in the midst of a tornado warning here on the western side of the dallas-fort worth area. we're at dallas-fort worth international airport where everything has come to a halt here at this really strong line of severe storms is starting to make its way through north ntexs this already spawned several tornadoes. you can hear the alarm and the alerts going off here throughout

the airport and in the terminal area. airport employees have been escorting people away from the windows as we await this strong line of storms that is a serious threat of creating tornadoes as it moves from fort worth into the midcities and the dallas area as well. so these alerts going off here at the airport where we have been waiting to board the flight for much of this morning. everything has come to a halt as we wait for this line of storms to move through. >> wow. i know you'll continue to keep us posted. stay safe, my friend. i know you will. appreciate it, ed, thank you. there is some sad news just in to the cnn newsroom here. the head football coach at mississippi state university mike leech has passed away. the school confirming leech died last night after complications from a heart condition. they shared a statement from leech's family which reads, mike was a giving and attentive husband, father and grandfather. he was able to participate in

organ donation as part of a final act of charity. >> the university president had this to say, quote, mike's keen intellect and unvarnered candor made him one of the coaching legends. i'll miss his curiosity, honesty and wide open approach to pursuing excellence in all things. leech was a head coach in college football including time at texas tech, washington state university, he was 61 years old. coming up next, ukraine warns the aid coming in will not touch the cost of an energy blackout. our next guest just returned from seeing the desperate need there in person. i'll speak to democratic congressman seth molten. what he is emphasizing to presidents and colleagues following his visit to ukraine. that's coming up.

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returned from a trip to ukraine as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation. congressman, thanks for taking the time this morning. >> good to see you, jim. >> first of all, to the suffering there right now, this is a deliberate campaign by russia to really make the ukrainian people suffer by taking away their electricity here. not first time we have seen russians target civilians. is there any immediate help that the u.s. and the west can provide to help alleviate that suffering in the near term? >> yes there is fundamentally two things we can do. we can provide them air defense systems, specifically patriot missiles and we have got to accelerate the delivery of those to take these russian missiles out of the sky. the second thing that we can do, which we are doing, and we're doing it, i think, as best we can, is get them the repair parts to fix their electrical grid. of course, it is a race against time and race against how many missiles the russians still have to throw at this problem because we can repair a transformer and

then they can take it out again the next night. so, fundamentally we have to knock the missiles out of the sky. >> that as you know has been an ongoing request since the very start of the war. ukraine pushing for more air defense from the west and more quickly. the u.s. has been and west has been giving some but not everything ukrainians have been asking for and as quickly as ukrainians have been asking for. why is that? and is it the patriots now that you believe will make a real difference? >> i do believe that that's probably the one system that they don't have that will make a big difference. throughout this entire war effort, the administration has done a remarkable job of getting the ukrainians things that they need. and that's why they're winning this war. that and their incredible fighting spirit. but all along members of congress i think on both sides of the aisle have said you're doing the right thing but we need to do it more quickly. and that's certainly the case today. now, a few months ago their

focus was on different things, their focus was on artillery systems. now, the ukrainians need to adjust their defense. >> i want to ask about another topic i know is close to your heart. that is the situation in afghanistan. because last week there was an opportunity to extend what is known as the siv or special immigrant visa program designed to give visas to the many tens of thousands of afghans who served along side the u.s. military, the u.s. government there. there was an opportunity to extend it a pyear. that didn't happen. what is your reaction to that decision? >> this is a betrayal, it is a betrayal not only of our afghan allies, but of our own troops, our troops like myself who made that promise that if you come and work for us, if you put your life on the line for america, we will have your back. and so when senator grassley and folks like him who have no idea what it means to be in a combat

zone to have your life at risk and to put your life in the hands of someone else, have no idea what that means, they're not only breaking the promise that our troops made, they're making it much more difficult for future troops in future conflicts to have that promise accepted by allies that we need. they're risking lives, not just afghan lives, but american lives by this antiimmigrant frankly outright racist approach to this problem. >> i meant to mention you're a veteran yourself there, we have a veteran in the next hour discussing exactly that frustration you're talking about. the most immediate threat are these afghans themselves. i've been trying to help a family that i've known for years get out of the country for more than a year and a half. i have a piece out on cnn right now. they're one family of tens of thousands. and the numbers are just incredible. some 50,000 people already approved ready to fly, that's siv approved and their family members, the state department before the flights stopped were getting 250 people out a week.

at that rate, that's four years for those people and many more behind them. is anything being done to quicken that pace? because while they're waiting, many of those afghans, their lives are under threat? >> they're being hunted down. >> yeah. >> four years means four years for the taliban to hunt down these afghan and american heroes and kill them before they get to the united states. and the state department unbelievably stopped flights a few weeks ago. why? for the world cup. where are our priorities? where is our moral compass, jim? we have to do better. >> you have been saying that for some time. a whole host of voices have been saying that for some time. the process is getting no quicker. it is exasperating how slow it is. and every time you cross through one checkpoint in effect, there is another one. and then there is just the challenge of getting out of the country. the administration is aware of this. why aren't they moving to speed

it up? >> i don't know. but i can tell you that there are veterans on both side of the aisle pushing the administration, and have been pushing the administration and will continue pushing the administration because ultimately the delays that you described is just bureaucracy. it is bureaucracy that is killing people, that sputing th is putting their lives at risk and there are afghans who won't make it here because we couldn't get the paperwork done in time. >> can you explain to folks at home more specifically and in more detail what this means for veterans of the afghan war like yourself? because i've spoken to veterans who say it is in very real ways contributing to the stress, the ptsd they're experiencing. >> because it is a personal betrayal. you put your life on the line for someone, don't think there is any worse feeling than being betrayed. and right now veterans feel like they are betraying our afghan allies because we, we veterans, are being betrayed by our own

government. >> strong words, seth molten, thanks so much for your service and attention to this story. we appreciate it. as i said, if you're interested at home in this story, got a piece on cnn right now about one family's challenge getting out of the country. it is worth reading, you'll get a sense of the difficulty and the threats they're facing. >> yeah. it absolutely is. still to come here, the overwhelming challenge that hospitals have been facing, we have been talking about this for weeks ss since thanksgiving. bed capacity at their highest point this year. so how are hospitals managing the emergency? we'll take you inside next. oh man. always look for the grown in idaho seal. good news! a new clinical study showed that centrum silver supports cognitive health in older adults.

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all right. going up rather than down. the dow is up now almost 600 points. about 1 1/2 percent after a encouraging november inflation report. i believe the market is in bull market territory from the lows it reached earlier this year. >> we like seeing the green arrows. we expect to hear from president biden in the next hour. we'll bring you that statement live. well another story we're following and maybe you and your family have experienced this, my family secertainly has, hospita are swamped with patients with respiratory illnesses. >> medical experts say it is the trio, covid-19, rsv, and the flu and pushing some facilities to the breaking point. stephanie spoke to hospital officials now responding to the surge of patients and at least one with a very clear warning. be careful.

>> for a while i was really worried about covid. >> reporter: ander had good reason to worry after an aneurysm last year in the thick of the pandemic. >> i had like open chest surgery. >> reporter: but he masked up and never caught covid until this month. >> i didn't feel like i was in invincible. i thought it was inevitable that i would get it. >> reporter: he thinks he caught it at an nfl football game where he let his guard down. >> oh, i for got my mask. >> reporter: he's recovering at home. >> this is an unprecedented experience. >> reporter: but across the country scenes similar to this. overflow health care workers are struggling to catch their breath as hospitals fill with sick patients battling a trifecta of viruses, covid, rsv and the flu. >> we've seen an increase in cases since thanksgiving. so covid is up, the flu is up other and other respiratory viruses are up as well. >> reporter: the situation is owe overwhelming at uc san diego health, they had to create space

using tents and parking lots to triage patients. >> we have a bed in the emergency department for patients who are admitted and waiting for hospital beds and reconfiguring hospital space. >> reporter: last week reaching 80% capacity and 8% jump in two weeks and highest since january's omicron surge. >> is the tripledemic as bad as what you saw during the height of covid. >> probably not yet. most rsv in the last decade, and october into november and now we've seen a rapid decline. that, as i said, has overlapped this covid rise which has happened slower and later and now it is superimposed by this rapid rise in flu. >> reporter: and yes, you could get more than one of these viruses at a time.

>> the more viruses and the higher the risk of one of them l leading to more serious zeus. >> reporter: virus spikes in new york and seattle have led to mask up indoors and in crowds. >> it feels like i'm on the upswing now. >> reporter: as for anders, after spending last december recovering from his surgery, he plans to see his grandparents for the holidays after testing, monitoring symptoms and wearing an n-95 mask. >> this is going to be our first christmas, you know, normal christmas. >> reporter: and new mexico is another state to add to the list to add alarms concerning about the viruses overwhelming honts. for two years there were barely any flu cases because were masking and social distancing during the heart of the pandemic so that goes to show tthose procedures do work. and i know people are tired of

it. but if you're getting back together, to pull these bad guys back out. wear the masks. they work. >> we're hearing from it officials and health experts. they're certainly recommending it. >> i'll tell you, the flu is burning through a lot of households. stephanie elum, thank you so much. still ahead, quite a story we're fooling, the ftx cofounder charged with zee frauding at least a million investors he heads to court in the bahamas. we're getting new details about that indictment that came from u.s. prosecutors. they're seeking extradition. we'll have more details next. . yeah, isn't it a bargain? you know that bargainn detergent is 85% water, right? really? it's this much water! so i'm m just paying for watery soap? that's why i use tide pods. they're super concentrated, so... i'm paying for clean, not water! bingo. don't pay for water. pay for clean.

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very good tuesday morning, i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm erica hill. and any moment now president bide