hello and welcome to our

viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom," and i'm rosemary church. just ahead -- >> this feels like a bucket of cold water because we don't know what to do now. >> uncertainty and anxiety at the border for thousands of asylum seekers after the u.s. supreme court ruled to keep title 42 in place for now. plus, thousands of new flight cancellations only adding to the frustrations of many travelers left stranded by southwest airlines' holiday fiasco. and from one extreme to the next, why warmer weather could actually spell trouble for parts of the u.s. >> live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with rosemary church. >> thanks for joining us. well, the u.s. supreme court has ruled to keep title 42

temporarily in place while legal challenges play out. it's preventing the biden administration from winding down the trump era border policy. after 19 republican-led states filed a lawsuit saying this would result in a migration catastrophe. title 42 allows border agents to turn away migrants in the name of covid prevention. and with no clarity on when it will be lifted, thousands of migrants at america's southern border are wondering when they'll be able to seek asylum. although disappointed with the outcome, the white house says it will comply with the ruling. >> won't decide until june apparently. and at this time we have to -- but i think it's overdue. >> cnn's laila seyla santiago w more on how migrants are reacting. >> reporter: there was a bit of

a disappointing mood in many of the conversations i had with the migrants here. there was one mother saying she was fleeing violence in venezuela, and she took months bringing herself as well as her two young children, including a toddler all the way here. said they had been robbed in mexico, and that her intention had been to cross into the u.s. legally, but because of title 42, she was sent back. hearing that that remains in place for many of these migrants, not just this mother, many of the migrants we spoke to kind of echoed that same sentiment. as you can see behind me, these are migrants that have nowhere to go at this time. the city says that they have capacity at shelters, but many of these migrants say they fear getting on any sort of bus, not knowing exactly where they will end up, not having trust in any sort of individual who may be trying to help them. so the city is saying that this is an issue, trying to find a place where they can put some of the migrants that have come up that are refusing to go into shelters and staying on the

sidewalk here where you will see children and toddlers under blankets, sleeping overnight. the other big thing that the city is also continuing to do is they are moving ahead with their contingency plans. they are working on two vacant schools to serve as potential shelters in the future. because despite this decision from the supreme court that keeps title 42 in place, they still expect to have a lot of migrants because of what they're seeing across the border, seeing a lot of migrants just waiting for their moment to enter into the u.s. whenever that may be. i did speak to one shelter who said to me, an organizer at one of the shelters who said that he too was disappointed with this decision, saying that this is something that could extend the bottleneck that they're seeing and put unsustainable pressure on law enforcement on the border. but for republicans, this is a win. the republican states that

escalated this legal fight, this is a win for them. governor greg abbott here in texas was very quick to tweet when this was announced. leyla santiago, cnn, el paso, texas. airlines have already canceled more than 2,700 flights in the u.s. for the day ahead, and the overwhelming majority are from southwest airlines. the weather was initially to blame, but many are now pointing the finger at southwest's aggressive flight scheduling and outdated infrastructure. the company is apologizing, but says it will take several days to get back on track. >> i want everyone who is dealing with the problems we've been facing, whether you haven't been able to get to where you need to go or you are one of our heroic employees caught up in a massive effort to stabilize the airline, to know that we're doing everything we can to return to a normal operation. and please also hear that i'm truly sorry.

>> u.s. transportation secretary pete buttigieg says southwest airlines will be held accountable and must make sure this does not happen again. well, many southwest passengers are not just looking for a way home, they're also looking for their luggage. unclaimed bags are piling up in several major airports across the u.s. cnn's adrienne broaddus reports. >> reporter: the travel nightmare continues at chicago midway. normally this is where people wait for their luggage. but as you can see, the luggage is here, waiting for people to pick the bags up. there are a few travelers here looking and searching for their bags, but southwest has said they will not pull any luggage for travelers who had canceled flights. and there have been more than 3,000 canceled flights on tuesday alone. the majority of them coming from southwest airlines. we talked to one loyal traveler who always flies southwest.

he says this is the worst in his 20-year history. >> no one knows what to say. even the poor agents sitting behind counters have quietly admitted that this is absolutely insane. absolutely clearly it seems like southwest has lost their ability to control the situation, and there may need to be some type of federal intervention to help them rectify what has caused i'm sure millions of dollars of damage to families that otherwise have been depending on these days just to get some type of r&r. >> reporter: as you can see, some people are having luck. they've been able to find their bags. however, we're told this line here is only for passengers whose final destination was midway. meanwhile, we also heard from another family who drove 14 hours. they drove from dallas, texas, to chicago midway to retrieve their luggage. for now, i'm adrienne broaddus in chicago. back to you.

>> and for more on all of this, let's bring in zach griff, senior travel agent for the points guy. he is live for us this hour in kona, hawaii. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> so why are most airlines back on track after this winter storm while southwest continues to struggle with stranded passengers and mounting unclaimed luggage? how did the carrier fail so miserably? >> yeah, well, look, the weather across the united states was quite unprecedented in the week before christmas. and so the airlines had aggressive schedules for this holiday period, and many were faced with multiple cancellations and delays because of the weather. and what we saw is that the airlines made those cancellations and then started quickly recovering their networks, except for southwest. southwest was faced with two

major issues as they sought to recover the network. the first is the fact that their planes fly very interesting routings. they don't necessarily go from hubs and back to hubbs. they zigzag across the country. and this has led to flight attendants and crewmembers being out of place. additionally, what we're seeing is that the crew scheduling system hasn't been able to keep up with the rate of cancellations that southwest has had, which has led to this utter chaos meltdown that we've seen over the last few days. >> and it has to be said that this does keep happening to southwest airlines. so why haven't they made the necessary updates to their outdated techsystems and also done a better job with staffing and connecting those staff with flights? i mean, it does beg the big question, doesn't it? >> yeah, for sure. you know, it's worth mentioning, southwest is the largest domestic carrier. they're also an ultra low-cost

carrier. so they are a budget, a discount carrier. so investing in technology is something that they've been talking about for a while, but it may not necessarily have been a priority for the airline as much as it's been to keep fares as low as it can. this has been a project that's been in the works. it's happening right now at the absolute worst time possible. so this meltdown during the busiest travel period for the holidays that we've probably seen ever on record, having a meltdown like this is just unprecedented. >> and of course there is a price for that delay on updating, isn't there? on monday, the day after christmas, southwest canceled nearly 3,000 flights and delayed about 700. and the situation didn't improve on tuesday. and now more than 2,000 flights are being canceled for the hours ahead. so how will this likely impact southwest's future in terms of whether travelers will come back to them as a company?

and what about the carrier's executives? will heads roll as a consequence, do you think? >> it's going to be really interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. i think the focus right now, especially for passengers who have been stranded, who may have been trying to get to their families is when will southwest actually get back to normal. and it's worth mentioning that right now the airline is not rebooking passengers through at least friday as they work to stabilize the operation. they're slimming down the number of flights they operator in order to get their network back in order. so through the new year, if you are traveling with southwest, odds are that you may be disrupted. and it's worth considering finding a backup. as for what's next for the carrier, it's too early to tell, but it will really depend on how southwest really recovers here in the next few days. >> and hoy should travelers be compensated? especially those who perhaps never even made it to their family christmas gatherings?

you can't get that back, can you? how does the airline compensate that loss and all the others who are still stranded in various airports across the country? >> it's a question that's been on my mind and on so many people who have been disrupted over the last few days. southwest has gone out and said that they will reimburse any reasonable expenses that have been incurred as part of the disruption. so whether that means that you needed to take a hotel room or a car rental, or maybe you bought a train ticket for your final destination because of southwest's cancellations, the airline has opened up an online form that you can use to submit your expense for reimbursement. the airline hasn't gone out yet and said what compensation they're going give, but as you mentioned, the department of transportation has reiterated to southwest the need for them to make customers whole. and it will be interesting to see what happens next as

customers go out and try to get their refunds and compensation from the airline. >> yeah, that will probably be a nightmare in itself, no doubt. zack griff, thank you so much for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you. well, a deadly deep freeze with huge banks of snow and so many stranded people, but some relief is finally arriving in buffalo, new york. plus, the u.n. releases a grim new report on the civilians killed in russia's war on ukraine. the toll of ten months of conflict and what lies ahead. that's next. nothing kills more viruses, including the covid-19 virus, on more surfrfaces than lysol disinfectant spray. lysol. what it takes to protect.

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so call now for free information. buffalo is trying to recover from the deadly blizzard that's been paralyzing parts of western new york for days. the massive storm has already killed more than 30 people in erie county, with authorities scrambling to find people who might still be stranded. and they're getting a hand from a group of snowmobilers. the hamburg snowmobile club has been delivering critical supplies to residents in areas hard to reach ever since christmas eve. that's after police asked for help with search-and-rescue

efforts. the snowmobile group's vice president says they delivered more than 100 meals in four hours on monday. members also pulled vehicles out of ditches and got nurses to and from work. cnn's athena jones has been covering the deep freeze and whiteout and shows us the situation in downtown buffalo. >> reporter: hi. the city of buffalo is making progress digging out from that monster storm that hit a couple days ago. you can see the streets of downtown buffalo are empty. that is because of the driving bans that are in effect all around the city, and those bans are in effect so that workers can clear all of the roads that they possibly can to make sure that the city's emergency operations can come back to functioning at 100%. at one point during the storm, the sheriff of erie county said that more than 400 calls for emergency services went unanswered. officials also want to make sure that the roads are clear so that the trucks bringing supplies, food to grocery stores or supplies for drug stores can get

through. many of the main roads are now passable. lest less so for the side streets. i want to show you one of the things that we observed all over the city of buffalo. you see here these cars piled under maybe about a foot of snow. we've seen several cars along the main roads, of course along the side streets. some under much more snow than that. that is important because among the people who lost their lives in this storm, several were found in vehicles. so that is something that authorities are going to be checking as they work to clear these roads. local authorities describe a two-day operation to create open lanes. listen to the erie county executive talking about how they're going to go about clearing these roads. >> it is a two-day operation. the coordination that's going on between new york state, erie county, and the city of buffalo, a two-day operation to create one open lane for every street in the city of buffalo, to fully restore emergency response.

>> and officials said they're going to be able to count on the help of 100 military police to help enforce these driving bans and make sure that people aren't on the road unless it's an emergency so that they can make as much progress as possible making sure all the roads are cleared. another reason it's so important to clear these roads, they say, is the temperatures are going to be warming up over the next couple of days. and with more than four feet of snow having fallen in the last few days, that's a lot of rapid melt that could take place. so officials are concerned about flooding. that is yet one more driver of making sure these streets are cleared. athena jones, cnn, buffalo, new york. >> those warmer temperatures will be felt across much of the country. but new storms are now brewing out west. cnn meteorologist tom sater explains. >> from one weather extreme to another. as fast as the temperatures drop, they are warming up. high temperatures today, still cold enough for the snowpack to hang around.

chicago, 24. st. louis the freezing mark. buffalo only 24 degrees. but look at denver. already a high of 60 today. rapid city, 57. overnight, they had a windchill of minus 10 degrees. snowpack across the u.s., and of course canada still very high and getting heavier in the mountains from british columbia down to the central rockies. a lot of snow in the upper midwest. winnipeg picked up 200 centimeters of snow. that's the earliest they picked up that much snow. and then you get into ontario. of course travel bans still in place in and around buffalo. the governor of new york has opened up the freeways, thank goodness, and it is an advisory, the warm-up begins, but with problems. we're not going to see temperatures warm up and refreeze. they get up above freezing in buffalo and stay that way. however, rain comes in saturday, sunday, and monday. and with this massive warming coming, the flood problems with ice jamming the drainage areas. we could see the the water main

breaks. above average? how about much above average for the east. staggering. out to the west, however, the first in a series of storms have moved in. heavy mountain snow. heavy rainfall coastal rain. about 100,000 lost power in coastal areas of oregon because trees are down and winds so high. the atmospheric river is like a fire hose. it's not one system. it's a series of them. this is a multiday event that will see this atmospheric river. burn scars could create debris flows. it's going to be flash flooding as heavy rain in san francisco is heading down towards l.a. and the border. it's the high mountain snowfall from the front range of the rockies and already the warnings are in place. excessive rainfall from coastal areas of the pacific northwest all the way down into southern california. so big travel problems here. flash flooding is going to be a concern. when you look at the new year's day, the first week of the 2023,

above average precipitation, which is good news although it comes with a flip side. and even though temperatures are warmer in the east, it's rain for most locations, which is good news for everyone. back to you. in central china, state media reports one person has been killed in a major car pileup involving more than 200 vehicles. it happened on a bridge in the city of zhengzhou. many injured were reportedly trapped in their vehicles and had to be rescued by a local fire department. in ukraine, russian shelling hit a hospital maternity ward in the southern city of kherson on thursday. that is according to an aide to ukraine's president. they say doctors managed to complete a cesarean section just before the attack and, quote, miraculously, no one was injured. shelling also reportedly hit infrastructure in other parts of the kherson region, causing

civilian casualties. and this comes as the u.n. human rights office says at least 6800 civilians have been killed since russia's invasion began. the office says it believes the actual figures are considerably higher. meanwhile, ukraine's prime minister says power outages are decreasing as critical infrastructure appears streamlined. but the country's energy minister says the situation remains really difficult. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy says the country is preparing for the months ahead. >> translator: we continue to prepare our security and defense forces for the next year. this must be a decisive year. we understand the risks that there are in the winter. we understand what we have to do in the spring, and hence we understand what results the security and defense sector has to achieve as a whole. >> the gremlin appears to be making good on threats to ban

oil exports to countries that impose price caps on russian oil and petroleum products. vladimir putin signed a decree banning the exports on tuesday. it's a move seen as largely symbolic. countries that implemented a $60 per barrel cap on russian crude have largely already banned the import of russian oil due to the invasion of ukraine. the price cap policy is aimed at moscow's remaining oil buyers. companies that provide shipping insurance and other services. russian opposition leader alexei navalny says he is being injected with an unknown drug while being held in a high security prison. the prominent putin critic made the claim in a series of tweets on monday. he says it's part of efforts to withhold medical information from him as he battles worsening back pain. and joining us now with more on this story is clare sebastian. good morning to you, clare. what more are you learning about

alexei navalny's claims? and of course conditions that he is dealing with right now in prison. >> rosemary, he is basically accusing the russian authorities of making his health problems worse and withholding proper medical treatment as a way to try to hurt him, to chip away at him physically and mentally. in a series of tweets, he outlines how this is done. take a look at this one. see how the system works when you're system ordered them to hurt them badly. i have a problem with my spine. it's clear what to do to make the problem worse. keep me as immobile as much as possible. this is a reference to the fact that we know the conditions he has faced in his penal colony, he has been reporting it, have been getting increasingly worse. in june he was moved to a high security facility. in november he reported being put in a cell-type room, sort of solitary confinement of sorts that he is only allowed to sit on a school for 16 hours a day. and he says this is making his back problems much worse.

he tried to get proper medical treatment. he filed a request for a doctor. he said it took a month and a half for one to arrive and then they didn't tell him anything about his diagnosis. after that he says they started injecting him with an unknown substance. gave him a vague response to his questions saying what it was, saying it was b victims. vitamins. he had to file a request for his medical records which turned up almost illegible. he continues to do this to fight for his rights in prison through his lawyers, through the courts. and he also continues, rosemary, to do exactly what the russian government does not want him to do, is to openly criticize his treatment, but also the war in ukraine. and it should be noted that his situation right now, he was sentenced to another nine years in prison in march, the month after the war started. this war has gone hand in hand with an intensifying crackdown on free speech and dissent inside of russia. >> all right. our thanks to clare sebastian,

bringing us up to date on that story. and still to come, fresh details in the january 6th committee's investigation into the u.s. capitol attack. what we're learning from newly released witness interview transcripts. back in just a moment.

president biden says the white house will comply with a supreme court ruling to keep title 42 in place for now. the trump era restriction allows border patrol agents to immediately turn back migrants at the u.s.-mexico border to protect against covid. the court plans to take up the matter in february, but a decision may not come until

june. the biden administration wants to end the program and has been preparing for a surge of migrants seeking asylum. a new batch of witness transcripts reveals more details about the january 6th committee's insurrection investigation. jessica schneider has the story. >> reporter: we're now seeing the intricate details of all four time cassidy hutchinson testified before the committee, the last time in june 2022, really the most illuminating. by that time she left her trump world attorney for a neutral counsel who told the committee she really needed to correct some of her previous testimony to clear up the record about what she had previously said. the details she gave are indeed damaging. first off, she told the committee that she saw mark meadows burning documents in his office fireplace about a dozen times. and that amounted in her estimation to once or twice a week. that was between december 2020 and january 2021. and at least twice she saw meadows burning documents

after meetings with republican congressman scott perry, who of course was subpoenaed by the committee, but he never complied. in addition to, that hutchinson also told the committee how discussions about some qanon conspiracy theories really permeated the white house after the election. she said that mark meadows brought it up. also congresswoman marjorie taylor greene, she made mention of in far right-wing political movement that of course has those outlandish conspiracy theories. and then cassidy hutchinson said she had this exchange with white house trade adviser peter navarro. and at one point i sarcastically said oh, is that from your qanon friends? because peter would talk to me frequently about his qanon friends. have you looked into it, yet, cass, you really need to read this. make sure the chief cease it. and when she was asked by vice chair liz cheney if navarro was being sarcastic, she said "i did not take it as sarcasm."

we're also getting details from white house press secretary judd deere. he said he heard gossip that trump in fact was considering conceding, and even considering inviting the bidens to the white house. judd deere told the committee he was looped in on this, on these conversations, because he is the one who would have been arranging the press access for any sort of visit to the bide dense. obviously neither of those things happened. instead trump refused to concede and held on to the claims of a stolen election. jessica schneider, cnn, washington. a man convicted in the plot to kidnap michigan's governor has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. a federal judge handed down the sentence to adam fox on tuesday. a jury convicted him, and an accomplice in august of kidnapping, conspiracy, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

prosecutors said fox was the leader of the 2020 plot to kidnap governor gretchen whitmer from her summer home. they had asked for fox to be sentenced to the maximum of life in prison. fox declined to speak on his own behalf during the sentencing hearing. as beijing continues to peel away layers of covid restrictions, other countries are taking precautions to make sure incoming travelers are not bringing the virus with them. all travelers from china will be tested for the virus upon entering japan and india, and will have to quarantine if they test positive. india has expanded the restriction beyond just mainland china, also requiring anyone coming from japan, south korea, hong kong or thailand to undergo testing. italian officials are also testing every traveler from

china who comes through the international airport. well, the change in china's restrictions also means some chinese citizens will finally be able to return home after years away due to the pandemic. cnn's selina wang has more. >> reporter: china is finally dropping quarantine and loosening its borders. many people here are rejoicing after years of note being able to leave this country. according to trip.com, searches for popular destinations jumped ten times within half an hour of the announcement. this news also means that many chinese nationals living abroad can finally go home. it is a bittersweet victory after so much sacrifice. the world's harshest quarantine is no more, as covid sweeps through china, the country is scrapping quarantines for travelers from january 8th, and promising to gradually reach the tourist loman. china has severely limited who

can go in and out of the country, drastically cutting the number of flights and forcing all arrivals into government facilities. i went through multiple quarantines in china this last year, lasting as long as 21 days. there is no choice where you go or what room. once the doors close, you can only open them for tests and food pickups. workers spray in the halls every few hours. food delivery is not allowed. but breakfast, lunch and dinner are part of quarantine fees. all of that is soon going away. it's a huge relief for chinese nationals living overseas like this woman in new york city. >> i really want to go back to my home immediately. and right now i'm very emotional. i'm almost in tears right now. >> when is the last time you went home to china? >> so, yes, before i lost several of my family members during the pandemic. i lost my beloved golden

retriever. i feel like i missed everything. >> how is your family doing now in china? >> most everyone does covid. and they are suffering. my grandpa, i cried so badly. at that moment, i don't know if will get chance to see him just got covid. and i hope he will be okay. >> reporter: on chinese social media, people have been sharing everything they lost during three years of border controls, while they were stuck out of their home country. one writes, "i received the bad news of my father's unexpected death while i was in a quarantine home, but i couldn't go back to see him for the last time. another writes because of the pandemic, i didn't even know that my grandma passed away, and i heard it from my mother a month later. this new change finally ends china's ban on nonessential

travel for chinese citizens. "i feel like the pandemic is finally over. the travel plans i made three years ago may finally become a reality," she says. it's exciting news for potential travelers, but at home, the country is struggling to grapple with an explosion the covid cases. >> the hospital is overwhelmed from top to bottom. there was no preparation. nobody knew. there was no stockpiling of medications. >> reporter: this viral video with the southern city of guangzhou shows a man kneeling, breaking down, and begging the nurse to let him see the doctor after waiting for hours. fever and cold metsds are nearly impossible to get at drug stores across the country. antivirals are also extremely hard to get. but in a major move, beijing has announced it's going to start distributing paxlovid to community health centers in the coming days. so there is chaos and confusion. but with zero covid in the past,

finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. but now as china is finely loosening its borders, some countries are increasing restrictions for travelers from china. they're worried about the spike in cases here. japan's minister said travelers from china will be tested for coifed on arrival. those who test positive will have to quarantine for seven days. japan has plans to increase flights. india has put in place similar testing guidelines. selina wang, cnn, beijing. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, anlooking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, what are the three ps? the three ps life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase,

and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80, what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate starting at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information.

cnn's fred pleitgen has been covering russia's invasion even before it began, and not just from ukraine. he has also reported from inside russia and belarus. as the conflict nears its second calendar year, he looks back on his experiences. and a warning to our viewers, this report contains disturbing images. >> we had a rare opportunity to

get inside belarus. and this was a few days before the invasion for joint exercises between the russian military and the belarusian military. and we were filming this, the exercise. there were tanks, a lot of helicopters in this exercise. and then all of the sudden lukashenko showed up, the belarusian strongman. and i immediately confronted him. >> the united states has said there will be severe consequences for belarus if an attack on ukraine were launched from bella russian territory and their army. do you fully support russia in its course? >> translator: do you still believe we're going to attack ukraine from here, or have you already overcame this mental block? >> he kept ranting at me. at some point, he went away, went into his helicopter and flew off. a few days later, the invasion then did begin. one of the things that really

stood out to me is we were doing a live shot on our morning show. and while i was doing that live shot, the russians launched multiple launchinging systems towards ukraine. you could see them in our live shot. you could hear them obviously in our live shot as well. there is more rocket to speak fires right now. if you i don't look into the sky, you can see it there. if you pan up, there is another right now. you can see in area, the russians firing artillery rockets towards ukraine. and at the same time, we've also seen them move in, heavy, heavy armor through the road i pointed to before. we saw howitzers going down that road a cup of minutes ago. >> that's where you could see the war has started in full force. we have to keep in mind that this is really the time that full-on war has come back to europe, which is quite a scary thing. but then of course a very important thing to document as well. >> as russian forces retreat

from the area north of kyiv, in their wake, scenes of utter destruction. whole blocks of houses flattened. ukrainian authorities saying they believe dead bodies are still lying underneath. but here the dead also lay in the open. ukrainian national police showed us this mass grave in bucha, saying they believe up to 150 civilians might be buried here, but no one knows the exact number. people killed while the russian army occupied this town. >> we were going around bucha. and obviously we found the mass grave to be an awful sight. but it really hadn't dawned on me how important all of this was going to be. and so we were driving around the area. there was no cell phone connections so we couldn't really communicate with our guys at headquarter. and then we got back into the cell phone connection area. and i got an email that said there are reports of a mass

grave in bucha. and i wrote back, we just came back from that mass grave. and with that, it just became this gigantic international story. and the next couple of days, we went back to bucha pretty much every day and into the surrounding areas as well. it was really much worse than almost anything i've ever seen. everywhere we went, there were dead bodies. there are not many things i think in the world that have truly moved me and shaken me, but i do remember that a couple of weeks later, after i got back home, and i was talking what had happened in bucha. it was something that definitely i did feel very emotional at this point, just remembering that -- the fwings that we saw. if it was definitely devastating to witness all that. but at the same time very important to shine the light on it and to document all of that

for the wider public. and another thing that really stood out in the reporting is also the -- the way that the russians dealt with their own troops. we also got the chance to go to chernobyl. we were the first team to go to chernobyl. >> reporter: the russians imprisoned the security staff inside the bomb shelter, the interior minister told us. no natural light, no fresh air, no communications. so the russians kept 169 ukrainians prisoner here at the entire time they held this place. then when the russians left, they looted and ransacked the place. we went to the edge of the red forest, and we obviously didn't go into the actual contaminated area. but we went to the edge of the world and we found a russian mill ration there, one of those military meal rations. we held the meter to it and it

mixed out. it showed the russian fores that were there must have faced radioactive contamination, simply because their superiors were so negligent, or didn't care about the safety of their own troops. that was definitely something that also stood out. and of course the utter destruction, the scale of the destruction that we saw around the kyiv area and all the way up to the north, to the belarusian border. it was insane that day. there were some pretty tough battles that had been fought there. just to give you an idea about the scale of the destruction, you have houses like these that were completely destroyed. but if you look over here, even large residential buildings have been flattened. this entire building was flattened. it was connected with this one before. but now there is nothing left of it. covering this story has been extremely dangerous. it's been extremely important to be in a lot of these places. and i think in many ways, it's been life-changing for a lot of

the reporters who were there. so we're taking cover here because we just had incoming artillery fire. we're going to wait and hope that there is not any hits anywhere close to us. i think 2022 will be remembered as being the year that full-on war has come back to europe. something that many people thought would be impossible after the horrors of world war ii. but unfortunately, it turns out that there are still some who believe that war is the answer. >> fred pleitgen there. new questions around the treatment of an iranian football star's family. just ahead, a closer look at why ali dia's wife were forced off a commercial flight.

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iranian football legend ali daei says he is looking for answers as to why his wife and daughter were pulled off a flight that was originally bound

for dubai on monday. daei has been a vocal supporter of the ongoing anti-government protest in iran. cnn has the latest. >> he is one of iran's most legendary soccer stars, but he has also become a notable critic of the iranian regime. now ali daei says a dubai-bound flight carrying his wife and daughter was rerooted and forced to land on kish island where the pair were removed by authorities. officials have yet to offer a direct explanation as to why the soccer star's family was removed. but in a new retracted article, iran's state-run news age reported that daei's wife and daughter were barred from traveling as they hadn't informed authorities of their decision to leave the country in advance, despite being ordered to do so. meanwhile, iran's semi official official news agency said daei's wife had been barred from

leaving the country by court order over her alleged participation in what they describe as riots. the pair are not have been arrested and he is in the process of arranging for their return to tehran. but he also said he was not aware of any travel restrictions placed on his wife or daughter. this comes amid ongoing anti-regime protests in the country, which have been met by violence and repression by the regime's security forces. the footballing legend himself has been a vocal supporter of the protest movement, writing in a post on instagram in september that instead of repression, violence, and arresting the iranian people, the regime should solve their problems. in november, daei said he had rejected an official invitation to the qatar world cup in a show of solidarity with iranian protesters at home. but now there are fears that daei and his family may become the latest in a spring of notable iranian figures who have faced repression at the hands of

the regime for showing solidarity with protesters in iran. nada bashir, cnn, london. >> and thanks for spending part of your day with me. i'm rosemary church. "cnn newsroom" continues with bianca nobilo, next.

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