deniners and anti-vaxers. we have a real problem here. he's letting exactly wrong people in and pushing out people that might provide objective analysis and truth. >> reporter: and analysts have other concerns following the suspension of those journalist accounts. >> it might become a place people don't trust the news there anymore. twitter has long served as a place where people can get information. >> reporter: at the center for counting digital hate says elon musk now has to worry not only about the criticism but also about losing his advertisers. >> thank you very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett out front starts right now. out front next, brocking news tonight the january 6th

committee will likely urge the justice department to prosecute trump on multiple criminal charges including insurrection. plus a deadly barrage of rocket attacks across the u.k. ukraine has newly intercepted video where putin's forces are now abapdening their weapon. and the american college student missing in france is alive, turning up in spain more than two weeks after he first vanished. so what happened? the father and step-mother are my guests tonight. let's go out front. out front tonight, breaking news. cnn learning the january 6th committee will likely urge the doj to prosecute former president trump on multiple criminal charges including insurrection. this is according to multiple sources, and they say the other charges include obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government. now, moments ago the former president responded, his

spokesman writing the january 6th unselect committee held show trials by never trump partisans who are a stain on this country's history. well, the committee is meeting on monday to present its findings and recommended referrals. and throughout the committee investigation we've heard from multiple witnesses that trump was heavily engaged in every aspect of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and while these referrals against trump they don't carry any legal weight, they do send a powerful message that a congressional committee believes the former president committed multiple crimes. so let's go straight to evan perez out front live in washington for us tonight. so evan, what more can you tell us about the january 6th committee's plans here? >> pamela, you're right. this is a powerful message from a bipartisan committee that has interviewed hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. they've got thousands and thousands of hours of testimony from people who were there. they were there around the former president, and the fact

they've arrived at these recommendations is something the justice department is going to take and take a look at. they're going to want to look at the evidence in particular because one of the things the justice department has been interested in is the interviews that were conducted and the transcripts of those interviews, which could be useful for the investigation, the criminal investigation that prosecutors already have ongoing and of course is now in the hands and being overseen by special counsel jack smith. now, as far as these charges are concerned or these recommended charges, a couple of them are ones familiar to the just department, of course obstruction of an official proceeding. this is something we know a federal judge has already signaled as something he believes the former president was involved in with one of his lawyers, john eastman, when the committee was trying to get ahold of those communications between that lawyer and a former president. as far as insurrection is concerned, that could be a little bit more complicated for

the justice department because of the way the statute is written, but no doubt about it this is an important moment for this committee. >> it certainly is. all right, evan, thanks so much. let's dive deeper into what evan laid out there. let's bring in kaitlyn polance, ryan goodman. also elie honing, former cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. ryan, let's ickick it off with you. here we have a committee going to ask the doj to pursue multiple charges against the former president. and we just learned just coming in my colleague jamie gangel learning from a source that will include assisting an insurrection. how significant is this development? >> i think it's a very significant development. it's not one that anybody anticipated even those of us who have followed the committee very closely. it's especially important

because it's the one charge that would tie the former president to the violence that so many americans saw on their tv sets and elsewhere. and that's the big question many americans would have is is there any criminal liability on the part of president trump for the violent attack on the capitol? the other charges, obstruction of the proceedings, using a lawyer to do so, or pressuring mike pence or using false slates of electors, those are separate. and this one goes right to the heart of the violent attack, and it is going to be a more difficult one for the justice department to take up so it would be important to see what evdenchary record the committee lays out. >> from talking to sources they've been trying to figure out not only the criminal referrals but also what evidence to lay out because as we know, doj has its own january 6th investigation which st. now headed up by a special counsel,

right? so how does a referral factor in to a trump indictment? >> i don't think a criminal referral is going to have much impact on the doj. in terms of applying political pressure doj has prided itself on being above political pressure. merrick garland has made that his mantra. but i think the evidence is going to be crucial and we're in an unusual situation here where doj has been seeking the committee's evidence for months now. usually prosecutors have way more information than congress has. in this case we know for sure congress has some information that doj doesn't have. merrick darland has said publicly we need to see all their information. so i guarantee you prosecutors at doj are eagerly awaiting this report like we all are in the public domain and figure how the evidence supports or does not support the charges. >> doj is going to do what it's going to do, but there's also

the perception aspect of this. trump was out with this statement tonight of course bashing the committee, calling it partisan and a stain on the country's history. is there a risk of politics casting a shadow over all this, and will that figure into how the daj will handle all of this? >> it is a shadow from the justice department. and the attorney general has tried to make clear he's not political. he and the president have distanced themselves. they're in the same branch of government, and i'll tell you the justice department does not ever want to be put in the same bucket as congress. they are very, very separate and he's often at odds with one another even. so there is possibility that there could be political pressure that builds the house select committee would see what they want to see as far as prosecutions. that doesn't mean the justice department will follow what their suggestions might be, but this is washington.

merrick garland is the attorney general. his office you can sort of see down the mall to the capitol building, and so this is always a political environment. garland, one of his blind spots generally would be politics. he was a judge for 23 years before taking on the position of attorney general, so there are members of congress that probably are hoping that there would be politics factored into it, but it's a very delicate situation, and we're going to have to see how garland plays it going forward. >> yeah, and have to see if doj does bring any charges against the former president. i mean ryan talked about this a little bit, but to dive into it a little bit deeper, how solid is the case to pursue these charges? it seems like some -- you can have an easier case making than others, potentially. >> well, i think we have to be careful when we take on this question in sort of two respects. one, we don't know everything the committee has. we certainly don't know everything the doj has. two while the january 6th committee made what i think was

a compelling chamination we don't know whether some of these witnesses may have made prior statements that were inconsistent, for example. that said, given what we have from the january 6th committee, that to me looks like a rock solid foundation for prosecutors. if i was a prosecutor and someone walk me through all the transcripts of the hearings we've seen i'd say this is a great start, let's get to work. will they charge, will they not charge i don't think is something we can predict with specificity right now. >> yeah, and i think that's really a fair point. look, there is a lot we know but there's still a lot we don't know, right? and we're going to find out more next week of course when the committee gets together and releases its final report, but the bottom line is you've noted this many americans they're going to want to see someone held to account for the violence they saw on tv as hundreds stormed the capitol. how much do you think that is weighing on the committee's decision here? >> i think it has to weigh on the committee's decision.

and to me i thought the committee might at the minimum still issue a finding that donald trump was responsible for the insurrection on january 6th. the fact they're going a step further and saying, no, we actually mean for criminal liability purposes and that he could be charged under the federal criminal code is where they've pushed this, and i think that's historically taking a step back and thinking about that an incredible moment for the country having congress say that about a former president i think that alone is one step in that direction. >> my sources have told me and my colleagues jamie gangel and amy grayer that the committee has not just been focusing on donald trump and whether to send a committee referral to doj on trump. there are others that they focused on heavily during the hearings over several months including john eastman, including rudy giuliani, including justin clark. so there's still a lot more to

find out about potential criminal referrals next week, right? >> right, pam. so those four names have been circulating as the other four top people that could be facing criminal referrals from congress. jeffrey clark, that former doj official, mark meadows who was in the white house, giuliani and eastman. and when you step back and look affthese four names none of these are surprises. and to see the committee make a move like that, it would not be surprising at all because eastman and clark specifically, we know they are already the subject of pretty robust justice department negotiations and even earlier today in the federal court there were nee court filings unsealed that showed many searches and investigative steps taken, and so you know those people at least two of them we know are being part of an investigation and looked at right now by the justice department.

>> including as you say jeff clark. >> thank you all. up front they, quote, freaked out and laid down their arms. it is a growing problem for putin, russian troops refusing to fight. plus elon musk is on the defensive after facing global condemnation for suspending journalists who cover him on twitter. i'm going to talk to one of those reporters who was banned next. and we have an update to a story we've been following, the american student who went missing in france is alive. so how is he doing? what was he doing during those two weeks that he vanished without a trace? well, his father and stepmother are out front. we'll be right back. this cough. [sfx: coughs]

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which is a lot. so take care of that heart with lipton. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support a healthy heart. lipton. stop chuggin'. start sippin'. tonight a deadly blitz, rockets rained down across ukraine. according to ukraine's defense ministry 76 missiles were fired and take a look. this is the aftermath, entire blocks destroyed, crucial infrastructure damaged and at least three dead. this as outfront obtains a new intercepted call that ukraine's defense intelligence says is from a russian soldier. >> translator: by the way, the men regiment 346 are being taken to -- remember you said a month ago, home.

>> translator: is that everything? >> translator: no, these are the ones who laid down arms. remember i told you they freaked out and laid down arms or whatever they are called. in other words, those where refuse to fight are beingen taken there for training and then to the front line as contract soldiers. >> this fits in to other intercepts. that's why russia is blanketing the air waves with ads, playing up the war. just watch. >> translator: participants in this special operation receive many benefits from the government. sasha is happy. he now has the kind of salary he couldn't have dreamed of before, a new profession, new friends, career advancement, free health care for himself and his family, government benefits, also the staturef a combat veteran and therefore respect.

well-done, sasha. be like sasha. >> russias you see there laying it on thick. will rippley is out front in odesa. >> reporter: without warning, a massive russian missile attack targeting cities across ukraine on friday. the military says around 40 of those missiles aimed at the capital kyiv forcing thousands underground. subway stations becoming temporarily bomb shelters, train service suspended for hours. scores of students like katiya had to miss school. >> i've sat here about three hours. i want to go home. >> reporter: ukraine says air defense shot down most of the missiles but not all. several deafening explosions shook the country. the strikes killing at least three in central ukraine, terrifying people near the points of impact. thermal and hydroelectric power

plants and substations taking direct hits, triggering an energy emergency with widespread blackouts. ukraine's president says all their targets today are civilian, namely energy and heat supply facilities. as a result of this war the meaning of the word terror for most people will be associated with the crazy actions of russia. ukraine's second largest city, kharkiv, also plunged into darkness, many forced to brave freezing temperatures just to line up for a warm meal. people need to be fed, she says, we're cooking on a wood stove. ukraine's military monitored russian jets above belarus during the strikes. moscow staging joint military drills in recent days key this warning of a possible attack

from the north. lukashenko announcing his friend and ally russian president putin will be in minsk on monday, two strong men strengthening their alliance. we'll never be enemies of russia, we'll never look disapprovingly at russia, he says. if it were otherwise we'd be like ukraine. obedience in belarus, resistance in ukraine. this democracy under siege defying danger with a smile. the power grid across ukraine remains incredibly unstable tonight, pamela. even on this street the building behind us was plunged into darkness the last couple of hours. the lights have just come back on for them. but we know there are millions of people without electricity, without heat. and in parts of ukraine the temperatures are subzero. it is a deep freeze and the official start of winter hasn't come yet. it's coming next week. in terms of this meeting

happening in belarus between putin and lukashenko they're watching closely. they're suspecting they could be plotting a ground invasion on kyiv although it comes with a caveat often misinformation is used by both the cukrainians an russians to try and throw off the other side. >> will rippley live in odesa, thank you. and out front now retired army lieutenant general mark hurtling, he's a cnn analyst. as russia keeps terrorizing ukraine with just this brutal barrage of deadly missile strikes, what do you think is going on here? do you think putin is trying to open another front in this war? >> he is, pam. but before we talk about that, can we talk about the disparity between ukrainians dancing in the subway continuing to be resilient and russians

attempting to get sasha to join a special military operation where they failed miserably? >> yeah, what was that ad all about? can we just talk about -- >> it's ads to try and recruit soldiers but never seen anything like that before. i'm sorry, going back to your question. is putin and lukashenko attempting to coerce another northern attack toward kyiv i think, yes, they are. and it has to do with the fact, pam, you know, if you look at the basics of things, warfare is made up of a constant shifting between offense and defense. forces are either attacking or defending, and that's what's happening on the eastern front and the south eastern front. it's a slugfest out there both in the donbas and kherson and the southern region. what russia is attempting to do is open up another front, to draw forces, ukrainian forces away from the front line in the east up to the north to defend kyiv. can they do that, i don't know.

what they're attempting to do that with are these new mobilized soldiers which they've been training. but you've got to remember these are all raw recruits, and they're being allied with bella rugz. there weren't a whole lot of armies that were worse than the russians were. belarus was. you're talking about an alliance in the north it's quantity certainly, there's going to be a lot of people involved potentially in a northern attack. but i still think ukraine can handle it. the problem is they're both dealing with a limited number of forces to conduct these operations against each other. >> no, absolutely. and now you have ukraine's military chief warning that a major russian offensive of about 200,000 troops could be unleashed possibly on kyiv as soon as next month. and when i heard that my first question was can this russian military with all its problems

even pull that off? >> no -- in my view, no, and certainly i don't have the kind of intelligence that general zelenskyy of the ukrainian force has. but truthfully, you know, they've been attempting to mobilize, and it just takes time to get forces not only trained in the individual skills that soldiers need but in the combined arms team skills they had need to conduct that offensive. i had a mentor once who told me the key to victory on the battlefield are the three ts, teamwork, training, and trust. the russian military does not have any of those three. they've had failure in training, don't have very good teamwork, and the trust is abysmal between the soldiers, the leaders, and the government. >> and now they're putting out recruitment ads that look like they're targeting like kids, like fifth graders. it looks so juvenile. general hurtling, thank you so much. >> pleasure. well, out front next elon

musk is firing back tonight mocking critics who say he's gone too far by now abandoning journalists. a reporter who just had his account suddenly suspended responds. plus the u.s. struggling tonight to rescue americans trapped in peru at the country quickly descends into chaos. a state of emergency has been declared, and tonight food is running short. a place of many wonders... and full of life. i open my eyes: earth is our pandora. ♪ ♪

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tonight elon musk is mocking his critics who say twitter's suspension of several journalist accounts amounts to censorship tweeting, quote, so inspiring to see the newfound love of freedom of speech by the press this is after the twitter accounts belonging to multiple journalists including our own donee o'sullivan were suspended for reporting on an account that tracked his private jet. tom foreman is out front. >> everyone is going to be treated the same. >> reporter: elon musk is on defense over twit's sudden banning over several high profile tech journalists including some of "the washington post," "the new york

times," and cnn, claiming they violated twitter policy by sharing information about an online account tracking his private plane using publicly available information, what he calls assassination coordinates. musk says that is the same as doxing, the practice of targing someone by publicly sharing their address and other private information. >> you dox, you get suspended, end of story. >> reporter: but for others musk's actions show something else. >> i think this is about elon musk having very thin skin, and he does not like when people are aggressively reporting on him or his companies, and he doesn't like when people are very sharp in their criticism of his him. and if you look at the group of people who were banned, all of them had that in common. >> reporter: the new twitter boss has posed as a champion of free speech lifting a ban imposed on former president donald trump after the january 6th riot, freeing the account of congress member marjorie taylor greene which had been frozen over coronavirus misinformation. musk even tweeted just over a

month ago my commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk. but now that account has been banned, too. >> i think the action we've seen from elon musk are extremely disturbing. >> reporter: without doubt the sharing of private information about public figures can be dangerous, and musk recently tweeted that a man had confronted a vehicle carrying his son. but -- >> instead of going to the police what he did was publish a picture of that individual and asked his 120 million followers to identify them. >> and tom is with us now. tom perhaps coincidently musk is highlighting the release of it the so-called twitter files. what did they show? >> the twitter files is a long thread talking about the idea that the fbi and twitter pre-musk are way too cozy and

that the fbi and twitter were working together to suppress concerns being raised by the right about election practices and all sorts of things like that. this is real click bait for people on the right who want to say, yeah, that's the problem. others have looked at it have said it's a messy process. we as journalists have always checked in with agencies to make sure what we're reporting is true. if it's not, we try to do something about that and make sure the truth get out there. so the twitter files exciting to the right not so much everyone else. out front now a prominent journalist whose twitter account was suddenly suspended. hi. so let's look at the tweet that twitter told you was why you were suspended. you were pointing out that the elon jet account that tracked musk's private jet was still on facebook with a link to it, and tonight your account on twitter, it look like this. have you heard anything else on twitter about your suspension,

how long it might be? >> i have not. i've been mostly relying on elon's tweets to see when we'll be reinstated. that does kind of imply reinstatement is coming at some point. to circle back to the tweet you mentioned when i posted that on wednesday never in my wildest dreams i would imagine i would get in trouble for that. at the time you might remember that was in the news the elon jet account because it'd been banned on twitter despite elon saying his commitment to free speech extended even to that account he did not like and thought endangered his family for reasons that are unclear to me. when they posted that on wednesday morning i certainly thought it was innocuous, and hours later elon announced a pull aacy even linking to that account he's constrewing as a threat, as doxing. when i tried to log into twitter yesterday evening after getting

messages from people my account had been suspended, i had a notice at the top of my account indeed i'd by permanently suspended and here we are. >> yeah, and you must have been pretty darned surprised by that. last night musk said posting a link to someone's personal information is the same as posting that information outright. let's take a look at some of this heated back and forth with journalists. >> i never posted your address. >> you posted the link to the address. >> we posted a link in the course of reporting about elon jet we posted links to elon jet, which are now not online and now banned on twitter. >> you dox, you get suspended, end of story, that's it. >> elon, i have to ask i think what's everyone is wondering it's highly unusual for journalists at "the washington post" and "the new york times" to have their twitter accounts suspended, and it just so

happens, you know, you're the boss in charge. you know, so what's the deal there? oh, i think -- i think elon has left. >> so of course we should note here musk does own twitter. it is a private company. he essentially can do as he pleases. why should the public be paying attention to this story, aaron, for those of us who maybe aren't on twitter or aren't, you know -- aren't as a engaged in that community? >> that's a good question. i can't really begrudge people for not caring. i've actually been sursurprised today how much people do care. i've been doing media hits all day including some international hits, including some international outlets who have asked me kind of about the spree speech aspect to this and i explained to them elon musk owns the platform, the rules are his to determine at this point. and if he wants to kick people out of his playground so to speak he's welcome to do that. i do think twitter has been very

vital for reporters in the last decade or so gathering information and talking to sources. to the extent journalists are trying to inform the public about things going on, losing access to a vital tool that can damage society more broadly in terms of getting clear information out, accurate information out. i can certainly understand if you're not on twitter sort of seeing this as an obscure story. to me obviously it's a vital professional tool given i run a newsletter business. i had 800,000 or so followers or had that many. but again if people don't care i can't blame them for that. >> i follow you on twitter. i'm more of an observer than a tweeter myself. but it is a vital tool i use a lot in my reporting to see what's going on, and i think that context you gave is important. aaron rupar, thank you so much. >> thank you, pamela, great to join you. out front up next the missing american college student studying in france has been found alive in spain. so what happened during those

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tonight the american college student reported missing more than two weeks ago while studying abroad in france is alive tonight. his father getting the news as he was speaking with our producer that his son was actually in spain. so the big question tonight what was he doing for two weeks and why did he seem to vanish without a trace? melissa bell is out front. >> reporter: after more than two weeks word from an american student who vanished in france, the moment the family of kenny deland jr. had been waiting for. >> and then he just stopped and said, wait, wait, it's kenny, i have to go. and the line went dead. >> reporter: a cnn producer was on the phone with kenny deland sr. when he got the call from his son. >> it was about 15 minutes later that he called me back, and he just said he's alive. >> reporter: the family later

releasing a statement saying in part, we are so happy to announce that kenny is safe. kenny is in spain and his mother is in france preparing to see kenny and hopefully bring him home for christmas, adding without the media's help kenny would not have seen himself in the news. the 21-year-old senior at st. john fishery university in rochester, new york, had been studying at the university of -- his parents said they hadn't heard for from him since november 27th. >> for him to not reach out with no correspondence, this is very uncharacteristic of my son, and this is what creates all the worry that any parent could ever feel. >> reporter: his fellow students reported him missing on november 29th prompting a prosecutor to launch an investigation and prompting his parents to create a website seeking answers. he was reportedly seen at a store on december 3rd about a 90-minute drive from the school.

during the search the woman who'd hosted deland in france told cnn she thought he may have left voluntarily. on thursday interpol issued a yellow notice which are used to locate missing persons often minors or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves according to interpol's website. and now a day later part of the mystery that sparked a multinational search thankfully solved. now, pamela, one of the things we learned yesterday only was that as he left his house, his host mother's house on the 28th of november carrying just a change of clothes, his wallet, a phone was that he also had his passport with him. now, did that signal the intent to cross the border, we don't know for the time being. all we know he was found today in spain and that is where he finally called his father from after 17 long days of no news at

all. >> and out front kenny's father and his stepmother, jennifer deland. hi to you both. i'm sure you both are feeling so much relief tonight. kenneth, you waited 17 long days to get this call finally from your son. tell us about that moment and what he said to you. >> well, like they said earlier i was on the phone and the call came through when i was -- you know, i could believe my eyes he was actually calling because i've tried nearly every day on whatsapp to reach out to him, and it was -- it was pretty emotional. i was not showing great composure when i was talking with saska. the stress of the situation was really building, so it was a

pretty good feeling to be able to talk to him, and yeah, it's just -- it seems surreal the whole situation. and now it's finally, you know, last chapter where we're hopefully going to get him home for christmas so -- >> you say hopefully. jennifer, are you worried that he won't be home in time, that you can't say for sure the ending is so happy right now? >> it's hard to say. we're remaining hopeful, which is what we've been trying to do. we were just really trying to stay strong and positive that, you know, especially with this weekend coming up hoping that he would be home. so our emotions have just been all over the place, so it's kind of hard sometimes to believe, i

guess. >> i'm sure. i can't imagine all the roller coaster especially today. and as you said, kenneth, you're allowed to not composure on a day like today where you had feared the worse and then you get a phone call from your son. tell us a little bit more about what he said to you. i mean, what more can you tell us about what he's been up to for two weeks, like you said you reached out to him on whatsapp, why he wasn't reaching out. >> he didn't -- he didn't really disclose a bunch of details yet. he did say he was in spain, which completely caught me off-guard. i took the phone upstairs and i woke up jennifer and i made sure austin was up so they could hear kenny's voice because we're all just waiting with bated breath

for him to come home. and he may have mentioned that, dad, stop contacting news outlets, you know, but i said, but, ken, this is what parents do. we're worried about you, you know, i'm going to contact as many people as i can to get the word out there. and he said, well, you got the word out, dad. i saw myself on the news. >> and that's -- that's why he reached out, right? so the last sighting of kenny was captured on this surveillance video from december 3rd at a store about 90 miles from campus. that was two weeks ago. jennifer can you tell us anything more about why he left france without telling anyone? >> i honestly can't because we -- we just really didn't discuss a lot of details today. we were just trying to tell him how happy we were to hear from him and how much we loved him and missed him and can't wait to

see him. we have lots of time so we figured, you know, we're just going to let him know how much we love him and -- >> yeah, i think it's -- i think at this point it's show him how much we love him, you know, get him home, coordinate the -- you know, the -- he's got to get from spain to wherever his mom is. and believe me there'll be time for asking questions, and i'm sure you guys will probably want to reach back out and he'll get the good parents interrogation process with a bright light shining on him and whatnot, so no worries there. >> yeah, i know. and reporters are a nosy bunch, we like to know the answers to everything right away. but understandably --

>> well, so are we. >> so are you, and as you said you'll be interrogating in due time. but tonight you're feeling that relief and you're feeling the happiness and the love for your son. kenneth and jennifer deland, thank you for sharing your time with us tonight. >> thank you. >> yeah, i do have to add saska and melissa really were, you know, paramount in getting answers, and a shout out goes out to both of those ladies for all that they did for us, and, you know, we really appreciate it. >> they are wonderful journalists, that's for sure. thank you both. well, out front up next on this friday chinese leader xi jinping absent as he pulls a 180 on his all-out war on covid, but the virus is tearing through china. and tonight an expert and his country says coronavirus is no worse than a cold. plus tourists trapped. the u.s. now taking action to

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covid. a prominent epidemiologist in the country now saying it should be called the, quote, coronavirus cold. this as major shift for the chinese government after nearly three years of forcing the public to live under its zero covid approach, stoking fears about the virus, and forcing residents to go to government quarantine facilities. when even just a single case in a city like shanghai with 25 million people could trigger lockdowns. not anymore. outfront, live from beijing, what's going on here? the chinese government now trying to downplay covid. how is the healthcare system, how are the people now coping with this outbreak? >> reporter: i mean, he cannot overemphasize, pamela, just how jarring of a contrast this is for a country that's been going through these harsh lockdowns and zero covid rules for the past three years. a lot of people were caught off guard by the sudden reopening and feel like they weren't given enough time or resources to get

ready. across the country fever medicine, antigen test kits are incredibly hard to get and out of stock in the capital. the only way to get antigen tests in beijing right now are through the unofficial sellers on social media. people across china are relying on friends and family overseas to try and send medicine. it is hard to get delivery of anything right now especially groceries with so many drivers down with covid. some districts in beijing are actually encouraging residents to volunteer as delivery drivers. considering how obsessed the government is with control it is striking how little preparation there has been for this dramatic exit from zero covid. the country now scrambling to boost the elderly vaccination rate and increase icu capacity. at a state media event some health experts even admitted we were not super prepared in, quote, certain aspects. the chief infectious disease doctor at a beijing hospital said there have been outbreaks among doctors, nurses, other staff members, putting a strain on the system. >> where the president xi

jinping in all of this? >> reporter: he hasn't made any public remarks on this pivot away from zero covid. the last time he was quoted in state media was november 10th where he vowed to unservingly carry out, quote, dynamic zero covid, pledging to resolutely win the battle. then on december 7th the government announced the drastic u-turn on covid. xi boarded a flight to saudi arabia for a state visit. this isn't surprising since he is often silent during times of uncertainty like the early days of the wuhan outbreak and lockdown. experts say xi appears to be temporarily distancing himself from this. he doesn't want to tie himself too closely to the reopening in case it leads to nationwide chaos and devastation. >> thanks so much. outfront next american tourists fearing for their lives as they suddenly find themselves in the middle of violent protests in peru. tonight a scramble to get them out.

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tonight plans are under way to evacuate americans trapped in peru. a country that has descended into chaos after the removal of the president there who was arrested after plans to dissolve congress. at least 20 protesters are now dead. in the ancient city hundreds are stranded. the mayor there warning they are now running low on food. he is also pleading for helicopters in order to help with evacuations because the only way in and out of the town is by train and those services have all been suspended. thank you for joining us. "ac 360" starts now. good evening. obstruction of congress, conspiracy to de fraud the united states, and insurrection are the three criminal charges the january 6th commit