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>> these are the scenes playing out in airports across the united states, as massive disruptions out southwest airlines made holiday travels stranded. plus, frigid temperatures, and power lines and snowfall have parts of the u.s. this holiday weekend, you will speak to one new york official about the difficulties that remain as temperatures finally take a turn for the better. and, no relief for soldiers fighting in ukraine's hardest frontline, towns as president zelenskyy warns the russian troops will stop at nothing to gain just a little ground.

and get to have you with, us it is the nightmare after christmas, thousands of flights are being canceled across the u.s.. after the monster arctic storm that pummeled much of the country over the holiday. and for southwest airlines in particular, it is and other catastrophe. right now, the flight tracking website flightaware shows more than 2700 total cancellations in the u.s. on tuesday. and of those, more than 90% of southwest flights. the company says it is been forced to scale back its flight schedule to get operations back on track, and get crews in the right places. southwest ceo says it is the largest scale event he has seen. meanwhile, passengers are stranded at airports struggling to get answers on when they will be able to reach their destinations. we have seen incredibly long lines at the airline counters, and tons of luggage piling up baggage claims.

southwest has said these cancellations and delays could go on for several more days. meaning maybe that weekend before many passengers can even revoke. here's more from southwest spokesperson. >> obviously facing some operational challenges this evening with winter storm elliott has moved on to include some challenges with our flight crews being stuck at locations not where they need to be along with the aircraft, as this point we are working to accommodate our customers as best we can, and offer the most options we can to get folks back home, or to their vacation spot or holiday celebration spot at this point. this is the main focus right now, trying to take care of our customers as quickly as we, can and getting them out of this line with their loved ones or somewhere where they can get some rest. it has been a long week, and a primary concern. >> calling the massive disruptions by southwest, or --

as more on the frustration southwest passengers are feeling. >> i wasn't anticipating a, nightmare but it became -- >> christmas maybe, over but for thousands of passengers to travel nightmare goes on. >> they canceled our flight, and they said they can't help us. >> so we don't know what to do. >> southwest airlines at the top of the list for cancellations. the airlines ticketing counter out baltimore airport a zoo. denver airport -- even longer. >> we had to wait in line, and we are still in line, and nobody is giving us any direction on what line we need to get in. it is a total you know what show here. >> for those trying to rebook, good luck getting through. >> southwest pulling the airlines, nowhere to be found, got hung up on many times. >> the's southwest doesn't give any answer, they do not answer the phone, there is no option

to rebook anything online. i must have been on hold for five hours and 43 minutes. >> passenger jason shows the proof. in a statement to cnn, southwest airline said is experiencing disruptions across the network as a result of the winter storms lingering effect of the totality of operation. in the wake of dangerously -- airlines canceling thousands of flights on monday. >> they were scheduled to fly on saturday, and canceled flight after canceled flight until this morning on standby hoping they will get on. >> thousands more flights delayed. at airports across the nation, long lines and chaos. frustrated passengers and luggage piling up. --

>> i'm just happy to my family for christmas, and i'm off -- >> others having creative solutions to -- >> instead of -- for a rental car, if i'm able to get one. call a -- i'm driving a rental cargo van down to national tennessee. >> southwest airlines -- with consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind, us continuing challenges, and customers employee in a significant way that is unacceptable. the airline adding, quote, we recognize -- sincerely apologize, but that is cold comfort for the hundreds of passengers here in

denver and across the nation. cnn, denver. >> kathleen -- former airline pilot for flightaware joins me now from washington state. thank you for being with us. >> right to be, where shower here under happier circumstances. >> absolutely agree with you. of course we are seeing these long lines from passengers stranded at airports around the country, due to this bad weather, most of the passengers of southwest airlines, that same carrier has -- how likely is it that we will see more southwest cancellations coming? >> it is really stunning that it looks like we are already over 60% of tomorrow's cancellations, which are already almost 3000, clearly unprecedented considering weather has been considerably and these will be southwest

airline cancellations. we also see that the company has made a statement, now of course everything is subject to change, but they have made a statement saying that really you cannot rebook on till 2023, until january 1st. so it is going to be very difficult for people right now that are stranded to actually get to their destination on southwest, they may have to just switch to another carrier, try to sort this all out later. >> that just seems unacceptable, doesn't, it let's look at, that why we are seeing it is mostly passengers of southwest airlines that are being impacted by this? what has gone wrong with their company? >> well it is a couple interesting things, you know, southwest has had a great reputation, and no really outstanding customer service, so i'm sure this really hurts them hard, you have to look at the last worst day of cancellations and 2022, the day that -- until friday for 2022 was february 23rd. not a holiday, a lot of people don't remember, it about the airlines canceled because of

weather offense that they knew a major i storm was coming across the u.s., airports like dallas-fort worth shutdown, airlines canceled thousands of flights, preemptively. what help them is that people did not get stranded, the problem with what has happened now is we also know again that the weather event was coming, and it was going to be almost nationwide. but the airlines did not cut too many flights, southwest, refused some had a few cancellations, but they try to maintain those holiday schedules, for the obvious reason that the one thing passengers want forgive you if you don't get them where they want to be. so that kind of hit, they also have a point to point network, they are not have been spoke like american and delta. you are more of a short haul, short medium haul. so that means when those pilots leave only given they like minneapolis, they go to midway, to kansas city, down to houston, to dallas, to phoenix, switch cruise, and off to lake ontario for the night. the issue with that is a desirée difficult ones those cruise, once those planes get

out of position to reject a whole system. it is a little easier in eight point spoke, and that is a different system than health southwest operates. >> yeah, that is interesting, because the u.s. transportation department says this massive disruption is unacceptable, which of course implies it is avoidable, so let's look at how southwest needs to change to try to avoid this happening again. >> well one of the things that southwest has said is that they recognize, they have had some technological challenges, especially with what appears to be their crew scheduling system, it is probably outdated, and that is going to need some work. we have pilots, we have crews, we have flight attendants ready to fly who have airplanes, we just don't have them in the same location together. that is definitely a problem that needs solving, the d.o.t. as you mentioned has already gotten on board with this, the d.o.t. just months ago launched that airline traveler consumer dashboard to try and get the airlines to give better

customer service and give passengers an outlet to find out, what am i doing if i'm stranded someplace exactly? so i think we look to see more government involvement and getting this issue figured out. >> yes, that's what we do see that. because bad weather of course has been the biggest factor in the late and canceled, flights this holiday season, but we've seen this play out before, and it is becoming a recurring problem in this, country isn't, not just with southwest, what needs to happen within the airline industry generally to improve the customer service, someone was just a nightmare wasn't it? >> well one of the things people forget is that it seemed like it was a nightmare, but actually if we look back to pre pandemic, the levels were about the same for that summer also. so people tend to have a bit of a short memory on that. but if we look at the highest cancellation day so far this, year which was last friday, we actually have to go back a decade to hurricane sandy to

have seen that kind of impact. but, if we look for the second worst day, they're actually was an ice storm ten years ago widespread blizzard sort of did the same thing, so there are some weather situations that are just beyond what the airlines can safely handle. but the thing again we have to remember here, is that it has been 13 years that the u.s. curious of not had a single fatal accident. we have weathered the pandemic, weathered hurricanes, weathered the storm, we have to at least take pride in that we have the safest form of transportation in the world right now going on with the u.s. carriers. so at least that continues to be a very bright spot. >> all right, kathleen, many, thanks for joining us thank you. >> thank you. >> well the severe winter weather warping the u.s. has now killed at least 49 people nationwide. more than half of those deaths

took place in erie county in new york, which is bearing the brunt of the devastation. and is now being called ground zero. some parts of western new york remain buried under more than a meter of snow, that is around more than three feet, a few hours ago the u.s. president issued an emergency declaration for the state which frees up federal resources for disaster relief and other counties that escaped the worst of the storm are sending staff and supplies to erie. in western new york road travel remains treacherous and many areas of buffalo still paralyzed. the city is under a winter weather advisory for another 12 hours or so, cnn's miguel marquez picks up the story. >> an unprecedented storm, devastating and deadly, hitting western new york. >> we now have what we talk about not just today but generations the blizzard of 22. >> parts of buffalo pummeled

with up to 43 inches of snow, and hurricane-force winds, the death toll of at least two dozen people in the area. >> this can be a lot of welfare checks, unfortunately i have a bad -- i think this whole going to go up it is just gut-wrenching. >> erie county new york brought to a standstill with people trapped in their homes, and cars. this was the first time in buffalo history that they could not respond to emergency calls because of how severe the conditions were. county officials sending and specialist trucks to rescue the rescuers. >> i couldn't see two feet in front of my vehicle, and we had a rescue -- so we brought in snowmobiles, you tvs, atvs, when fireworks are getting stuck and heavy equipment, you can imagine what happens to the public. >> while most major highways have at least one lane clear for merchants are traffic, many residential roads are still impossible, with vehicles

abandon in the middle of the street. >> we have had snow plows, major snow plows, and rescue vehicles, i saw it myself, varied and snow. >> officials urging residents to stay home. >> stay off the road so we can continue to rescue people, get them safe, and make sure that the roads are clear so we can reopen our community as soon as humanly possible. >> buffalo under a driving ban, but that has not stopped some from taking advantage of the situation, police have made arrests for looting. videos on social media show looters at work. merchandise being carried out on foot. >> people who are out looting, people are losing their lives in this harsh winter storm is just absolutely reprehensible. >> all while thousands of homes and businesses are still without power. one family who lost their -- try to make it to a hotel on christmas. >> you couldn't see anything,

you couldn't see a stoplight, it was like -- the intersection. >> their prayers answered by airport firefighters, who are able to rescue details along with dozens of other chopped drivers. >> those guys were amazing, at the firehouse, and -- miguel marquez, cnn, western new york. >> later this hour i asked buffalo council member about the damage and casualties and if people are staying off the roads. that is a little later. still to come, a difficult situation on the front lines. ukraine's president gets an update on what his troops are facing in the donbas, plus, china uses its covid restrictions even further and the latest changes could make it easier to visit the country. details on the major policy shift just ahead. ice works fast... to freeze your pain and your doubt.. ♪ heat makes it last.

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ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is describing a difficult situation in the donbas as his forces are in fierce battles with russian troops. among the cities seeing ongoing fighting is bakhmut in the donetsk region. mr. zelenskyy says ukrainians must be prepared for any possible russian attacks, and had this update on the frontlines. >> bakhmut criminal and other areas in the donbas that require maximum strength and concentration now, the situation there is, difficult painful, the occupants are spending all their resources available to them. these are significant resources, to squeeze so at least some progress. >> in the meantime, ukraine security service says it has neutralized more than 4500 cyber attacks this year. one officials this energy and

military facilities and government databases are among the typical targets. well it is just after ten in the morning in st. petersburg russia where president vladimir putin is hosting the second day of an informal summit of the post soviet commonwealth independents states. the group includes belarusian president alexander lukashenko who mr. putin met with in minsk more than a week ago. cnn's clare sebastian is tracking developments for us, she joins us live from london. good morning to, you clare, so what is expected to come out of these meetings at the summit? >> yeah, rosemary, as you say, it's an informal summit, an annual affair of a group of post soviet states, including you -- not ukraine or georgia which dropped out during that one 2008. there's an informal senate, and it is is nine testament the alliance with economic insecurity, of these countries, obviously the significance this year russians to play the role of a peacekeeper in this group,

and that of course is tested because of the war in ukraine. russia is the aggressor, putin did acknowledge sort of security challenges this year saying challenges and threats to the security smear especially from the outside is that are growing with every year, nelson all its there have been disagreements between some of the members of this particular group i think the most dramatic example of which are the very deadly clashes we saw on september briscoe on the border between -- armenia of course that conflict those flare up over the disputed territory of -- so that is one area of this. but i think the objects were taken into account as, well russia is continuing to present itself as not isolated on the international stage even as efforts by the western ukraine to step up and try to isolate ukraine. of course in the last day, trying to secure rushes injection from the united states -- security councils without a significant to president putin and of course on the economic sphere as, well he said trade

between multilateral trade between the groups had grown more than 6% between genuine october this year, that may be due to some of the displacement of russian trade from its western allies. so critical optics, but also practical alliances here, rosemary. >> all right, close to, bastion many thanks, joining us live from london. well china is taking a major step towards reopening its borders after nearly three years of covid restrictions. the country has announced that from january 8th it will no longer require inbound travelers to quarantine on arrival. they will still need a negative pcr test, but the process will be more streamlined, china also says it will call covid an infection instead of pneumonia, saying it is more in line with the characteristics and danger level of the disease. even so, these changes come as the virus is spreading uncontrollably putting huge strain on the health care system.

cnn's kristie lu stout joins me now live from hong kong with more on this, so, christy, what are you learning about china ending -- inbound or international childless. >> well, look, an unprecedented covid outbreak is still underway across the country, and yet with this policy change it is very welcome news for scores of chinese nationals who have waited, years almost three years to be able to have the chance to travel overseas, they have the chance to reunite with loved ones abroad, you know it will begin starting shown you area the eight. that is when china is going to lift all 14 restrictions for international arrivals, international rivals will still have to take a covid test to enter china, but no longer have to submit that covid test to a chinese embassy or consulate in order to get a code. there is still a lot that remains unclear, we are unsure how easily chinese nationals will be able to travel overseas, we also are not sure about how many flights will be allowed into the country, but the excitement over this announcement is palpable, and

you can see that clearly on the search result of trip dot com which is a popular chinese online travel booking site. it announced earlier today that within half an hour of the policy announcement, that searches for popular overseas destinations jumped to a three year high, we're looking at a list of the top ten such destinations including mike, how, kong japan, thailand, south korea, singapore, malaysia, united kingdom, and people across china go online and start planning verifications to go overseas, meanwhile in chinese leader charging thing finally spoken out and addressed the unprecedented covid-19 outbreak that is underway as a result of the easing of china's zero covid policy, this according to the state broadcaster cctv which issued the following statement, let's bring it up for you, saying this, quote, she jinping of a sized in the country is currently facing another covid outbreak situation, and new responsibilities. we need to conduct our patriotic health movement in

the more targeted manner, unquote. an emphasis on the were targeted there, because this is a very perilous situation for china right now, as china and ears of its tough zero covid policy, it is facing an unprecedented wave of covid-19 infections, cases and deaths as we have been reporting with hospitals absolutely overwhelmed, the national health commission is now saying it may reintroduce certain pandemic will choir manse including the reintroduction of -- if the outbreak is severe. back to you, rosemary. >> all right, christy loose, tell turning us live from hong kong. many thanks. weather winter blast bearing past new york has yet to -- i will speak with a buffalo official about what his city is enduring, and why first responders are struggling to reach those in need. plus, new revelations are emerging as we dig into all the evidence released by the january six select committee.

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travelers report waiting in the ten hours on hold to speak with customer service, and southwest has already canceled on -- tuesday. more than 60% of its scheduled flights. at least 49 people have now died from the severe winter storm that has hammered the u.s.. most of those deaths were in the western part of the new york state, which is still reeling from the disaster. some areas remain buried under more than a meter of snow, that is over three feet. a few hours ago, the u.s. president approved an emergency declaration for the state. allowing federal resources to help with disaster relief. >> joining me now is -- a council member from the film or district in buffalo, new york. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> so let's start with the situation on the ground in buffalo right now. -bent has this blizzard been in

terms of damages, and casualties of course? >> yes, the city of buffalo experienced power outages of 30,000 residents, many who i represent, with so far a total of 27 fatalities. that number is growing. right now i'm in my house in downtown buffalo, we are just a few hours ago neighbors found a body under a snow pile just a block from my own house. it was truly a horrific scene. >> yeah, that is just horrifying. and you and other buffalo officials have been advising residents to stay off the roads, to allow ems and other emergency officials to get to those most in need. has that been happening for the most part? or are you still struggling to keep people off the roads? >> during the beginning of the storm, it was a struggle. and, what i want folks to know

is, when you are driving during a travel ban, it is really a threat to public safety. we see instances of cars being abandoned, being stuck on roads, and really presents a huge harm to the community where we cannot have emergency personnel or the department of public -- to come down the streets. i think it is truly a scary time during a storm, workers were abandoning ambulances, unable to respond to calls, and that is why it is so critical for the community to listen to all updates and stay off the roads and to really pay attention to the advisories the governments are giving, and the city of buffalo. >> yeah let's hope people will take heed of that warning. and, you know how many people might still be trapped in cars, homes, or perhaps other

locations? >> we don't know, but with power finally returning to the city of buffalo, we went from about 30,000 outages, to now we just have a report where we are about 4000 people without power. we believe that us power begins back into the homes and the snow is cleared, neighborhoods will be going to check on neighbors, and hopefully we don't discover more instances and -- have deceased. >> yeah, let's hope you are right there. i, and what additional resources does your city need at this particular point? >> really, at this time, we need folks to stay off the roads so that all of the equipment in the city of buffalo can come and start clearing those snows and make sure we are not just doing primary and secondary, streets but also sidestreets so we can get to residents. i want folks to really know that during a storm, the most

vulnerable often suffer the most. these are folks that need kidney dialysis, senior citizens, those within the disability, and those that need lifesaving treatment every single day. we have also had instances where people have had to give birth over the phone, help with 9/11, operators, you know that is really a scary thing. i want to make sure people know that, i even have friends living with a disability that have not had -- since thursday. they would rely on the services, just for their safety, and for their personal care. >> it is terrifying for all those people as you say. certainly, trying to gift without home via a phone, just incredible to think that is even possible, right? thank you very much for joining. us appreciate it. >> thank you for having me.

>> well, to the philippines now, and a week's worth of rain caused heavy flooding in that country. some rivers rosa high enough to damage breaches, and swamp villages on christmas day. the floods hit the southern part of the philippines, forcing nearly 46,000 people to evacuate their homes over the holiday weekend. in some areas, witnesses say the water rose above the chest, and the coast guard said it had conducted multiple rescues. the bad weather coincided with a busy travel period in the country, of course with many people caught in the storm asked they are trying to get home for the holidays. well, back here in the united states, where the supreme court could rule this week on whether to keep the controversial trump era border restriction known as title 42 in place. the policy which allows border officials to quickly expel migrants to slow the spread of

covid was due to expire in the last week. the courts chief justice stepped in to put determination on hold. it's left border city scrambling to house thousands of migrants as temperatures plummet, more than 400 migrants stayed at a convention center in el paso texas over the christmas weekend many were not so lucky though sleeping outside and freezing weather. but despite the hardships, a source tells cnn border agents in el paso are encountering as many as 1600 migrants a day. officials are concerned those numbers will surge even more if title 42 is terminated. well the house select committee investigating the january 6th capitol attack has released more transcripts from interviews conducted during its investigation. cnn's sara murray reports the latest batch of documents reveal how a key member of the trump white house found out

about the riot. >> the entire white house -- >> donald trump's former white house press secretary. >> the violence we saw yesterday at our nation's capital was appalling. >> did not realize the full extent of the violence that the capital until she settled into eating turkey sandwich for lunch on january 6th. she's telling that january six committee, i naturally went back to my office to eat lunch, but i eventually turned up the volume on fox news. she is saying she was still piecing together what was playing out at the capitol, not nearly sitting die as the attack unfolded. i had no way shape or form would eat a turkey sandwich if i thought the capitol hill is being ceased. white house officials learned of rioters storming the capitol on january six, just one of the details emerging as the house select committee releases new batches of transcript some of the thousand witness interviews. >> the select committee intends to make public the bulk of its non sensitive records before the end of the year. >> a separate transcript revealing how the white house

crafted a press release in december 2020, calling for the firing of anyone who accepted the election results. >> hours earlier, then attorney general bill barr told the associated press, -- anybody that thinks there wasn't message brought in 2020 election should be fired. the press release was never sent, and -- resigned from the white house later that month. since, then he hasn't held back and criticizing trump's election lie. >> i was demoralized because i thought, if he really believes this, stuff he's you know, lost contact with, he has become detached from reality. i went into this, and would, you know, tell him how crazy some of these allegations were. there was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were. >> you trickles transcript revelations coming -- that the justice department

bring criminal charges against former president trump. >> there is a conspiracy to defraud the united states, to exchange an honest to goodness presidential election for counterfeit election. >> trump's legal team downplaying the committees finding. >> they report itself is not much of value, written by politicians for political purpose. >> and is missing its criminal referrals, even asked trump faces scrutiny from the doj special counsel that is now investigating his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. >> i mean 80 reelection -- the department of justice does not follow. >> when it comes to the committee, ever leased agreement, referrals release the final report, but so far only scratched the surface when it comes to policing all that underlying evidence. they released fewer than 100 transcription interviewed roughly 1000 witnesses so we have many days of more transcript of relations ahead. sarah murray, cnn, washington. >> u.s. republican george santos admits he lied about it multiple parts of his resume,

during his campaign to become a lawmaker. congressman-elect from new york confirmed claims that he lied about attending university and his work experience published in the new york times republican leadership has been noticeably quiet since the revelations were made, santos says even though embellished his credentials, he said, and i'm quoting him directly, here we do stupid things in life. >> i am not a fraud, i'm not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictitious character and ran for congress i've been around a long time, a lot of people know, me they know who i, am and i'm not going to make excuses for this, but a lot of people over state -- i am not saying i'm not guilty of that. >> all right, we will take a

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the south korean president says his country will speed up the launch of its military drone unit which will monitor north korean military installations. the john unit already in the works is getting this extra push up to north korea, flew several drones into south korean airspace on monday. cnn's paula hancocks is live in seoul, she joins us now with details. so, what more are you learning about this? >> well, rosemary, that is really the latest development. the fact that the south korean president -- has commented on this now. we did not hear from him on monday when the jones come across into south korean airspace, but what he said is he believes this has shown that the military does not have a readiness for this kind of incident. as you say, he is trying to speed up this unit, specifically for the drones, and he also blamed the previous administration for the fact

that this unit was not up and ready before. >> i think our people have just witnessed how dangerous it is to have north korean policies solely relying on the north goodwill and military agreements. >> so this has been called a provocation by the south korean side, what exactly happened as on monday morning by 10:25 in the morning the military started tracking these drones. now according to the military tracking lasted about five hours. so there were five jones that crossed into south korean airspace, one of them came close to the south green capital seoul, according to the -- west coast. so at this point, we understand from one of the spokespeople that they say it is a clear provocation, and an invasion of our airspace. what the south korean a response immediately was

fighter jets being launched in the air and also attack helicopters being sent up in the air. there was one incident, we understand, one fighter jet did crash. but, the crew was able to safely eject. now we also know there were reconnaissance aircraft sent by the south korean defense ministry in the particular korean border area. we understand from the military, some did go into north korea. military -- sorry, airspace as well. they actually took photos of the military installations, so that in a sense was a bit of a-for-tat by the south korean's. it is fairly unusual for this to happen, but not unprecedented. we had an incident back in 2017 where one of the drones was actually found crashed, and it appeared they had taken photos at that point of a u.s. built miss all the fans system. rosemary? >> all right, paula hancocks, many things. well a boat full of refugees

has finally reached indonesia. the u.n. refugee agency says it had been shifting at sea for nearly a month, officials say all those on board survived the treacherous voyage from bangladesh, where about 1 million are living in squalid conditions after fleeing ethnic violence in myanmar. nguyen says another boat carrying 180 refugees on a similar route is still missing at sea. with all on board presumed dead. the u.s. state of washington, thousands of people were left without power after four substations were vandalized near tacoma on christmas day. it appears -- told cnn they have been been able to identify a suspect or a motive behind the attack. >> for power substations in washington state vandalized on christmas day, knocking out

power for thousands, and impacting holiday plans for many. the piers county sheriff's office is deputies found evidence of forced entry and damage at all for stations. -- >> there is a good possibility they are related, we will be investigating to see if this was coordinated by specific group of people. >> roughly 14,000 customers were impacted. -- reported last month substations are than washington and oregon. and, a similar incident just weeks ago when power substations in north carolina, we are about 40,000 customers were left in the dark for days, with temperatures dipping into the 40s. schools and businesses were forced to close until power was restored. no motive has been announced, and no arrests have been made in those attacks. >> we are aware of those things, we will see if any was an attack. >> the fbi issued a bulletin last month to private industry wording of threats to electricity infrastructure by

individuals -- racially or ethnically motive ideology to great civil disorder and inspire further violence. >> the potential attacks on critical infrastructure are being promoted by the right-wing. they see as a way to show disruption, to show power, they also viewed as a way to start a race war. december 25th attack that is hitting three or four substations is being done to make a statement. >> we don't know what the motives are at this time, but again, just a really terrible way to welcome everybody on christmas morning. >> amanda clark is one customer who had a rude way beginning. >> i woke about 5:30, and the power was out. >> she's a shout holiday party plans were 12 people are home, but without, power she had to cancel. >> it is scary in our small little community that something like that would happen. >> josh campbell, cnn, los angeles. >> and just ahead, the u.s. military academy is starting to remove all references to the confederacy on its campus.

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>> fried wnba star brittney griner was able to spend christmas with her family after being locked up in russia for ten months. and she has not forgotten other americans who are still detained abroad. she took to her instagram account and asked followers to write to paul whelan a u.s. marine veteran imprisoned in russia. griner says the letters she received during her detention gave her hope. well, any known references to the confederacy will soon be gone in the united states military academy. cnn's oren liebermann explains what is being done to remove. >> the united states military academy, more commonly known as west point announced it will start the renaming process for 13 different items and

locations at the school that are named after or in some way memorialized or commemorated the confederacy. chief among those or commemorations of general robert the commander of the confederate army during the civil war. so for example, here is a list of some of what will be replaced, or renamed, or changed in some ways. but, it does not commemorate the confederacy. there is a portrait that will come down, a bus -- reconciliation plaza, as well as a bronze jumped in the rain entrance of the science will there. that is essentially an image, or a display that shows in one of the parts of it a figure wearing a hood that's as crew clocks clan, that's who will be replaced and certain facilities will be renamed. for example, -- -- all of this will be a process, superintendent of the school -- multi phased approach, so this will take some time. in terms of what will come next, or what these names will be changed to, there's a committee at west point that will go through this process and look at recommending different names that are more suited for being

west point. now all of this is part of the naming commission set up back in late 2020, of the objections the veto of former president donald trump, with the naming commission got bipartisan support and its effort was to look at military facilities and bases that are renamed, or in some way commemorate the confederacy and come up with recommendations for the change. so the first part of, that military facilities, for example -- for liberty and -- fort eisenhower. the second part of that focus on the military academies. so west point in and estates military academy and others. the rest looked at some of the other facilities, or, roads or names, or building throughout the u.s. military. it has worked, it is report is not completed, now the process of changing those names. so they no longer commemorate the confederacy. oren liebermann, cnn, pentagon. >> and thank you so much for joining us. i'm rosemary church, we will be back with more cnn newsroom after a short break. do stay with us.

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