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aarp, the magazine president biden breaks his promise and pardons his son hunter. >> why he says he made the decision despite telling americans multiple times he would not, as his press secretary tries to defend the decision. >> some are linking the timing of the parting to another one of president-elect trump's controversial administration picks, this time his choice for fbi director kash patel, and why that name is concerning for members of both parties and an unwelcome trend this holiday season. >> a spike in respiratory illnesses and a type of walking pneumonia that's filling up children's hospitals across the country we're following these major developing stories, and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central we begin this hour with a

stunning reversal from president biden as his time in office winds down, issuing a full and unconditional pardon of his son, hunter. >> it's something the president repeatedly vowed that he would not do. >> let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is? >> yes. and have you ruled out a pardon for your son? yes. you have. >> i am satisfied that i'm not going to do anything i said. i abide by the jury decision, and i will do that. and i will not pardon him. reporter. >> the pardon means that hunter biden will no longer be sentenced later this month on federal tax and gun convictions. and it spares him from any chance of going to prison, which was very much a possibility. the move also grants hunter biden clemency from other federal crimes that he may have committed during a ten year period. here's first lady jill biden, just moments ago doctor biden what gigi sohn the pardon for hunter

we have cnn senior white house correspondent m.j. lee here with us now on this story. m.j. what more can you tell us about the president's decision and what went into it? >> well, brianna the white house is fully aware how badly this looks for the president and the white house, given that this marks a total reversal, a total about face for a president and a white house, that repeatedly, as you just showed, had said unequivocally that the president would not pardon his son. >> it is a decision, we are told, that was made over the weekend, as the president was spending the thanksgiving holidays with his family in nantucket. officials are stressing that this wasn't a decision that the president made lightly that he really wrestled with the decision going back and forth before landing on the decision to eventually pardon his son of course, the white house is getting a ton of questions about this reversal including white house press secretary karine jean-pierre as she was on her way to angola, where the

president will be spending a couple of days. reporters asking her to explain why the president decided to do a sudden 180 and she made clear notably that this actually did in part have to do with the results of the election in november. take a listen do you think this would have happened if harris had lost the election look, i'm not going to i'm not going to get into into the election. >> it is a no. i can answer that it's a no. and what i can say, this would not have happened if harris hadn't lost the election. >> the pardon would not have happened if harris had lost the election. >> i can speak to where we are today, and so i can't speak to hypotheticals here, where we are today the president made this decision over the weekend. >> he thought about it. he wrestled with it and brianna, based on our reporting, and if you also take a look at the lengthy statement that we got from the president last night, it is clear that essentially boil down to this, the president, as a father felt

like he needed to do this to protect his son. >> one white house official that i spoke with said that the political opponents of the president and their treatment of hunter, that was something that really swayed the president as he made this decision. this official said that he saw the treatment as being cruel, that he felt that hunter biden had endured enough. and one thing in particular that really swayed the president was this belief that his political opponents wanted to break hunter biden, even as he was going through his recovery process through the various addictions that he had been battling. this is what the president said about that in his statement last night. he said there has been an effort to break hunter, who has been five and a half years sober even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution in trying to break hunter. they've tried to break me, and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. now, as a reminder, the president, of course, lost his other son, beau, back in 2015. hunter is his last remaining living son.

clearly somebody that he is very protective of. and i think it is not at all a coincidence that as a part of his statement last night, he specifically said this. i hope americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision. >> yeah, and he also lost a daughter decades ago at an extremely young age. m.j. lee, thank you very much. boris. >> president-elect donald trump is seizing on biden's decision to pardon his son. writing on social media, quote, does the pardon given by joe to hunter include the six hostages who have now been imprisoned for years? such an abuse and miscarriage of justice? point of fact, those imprisoned for their actions on january 6th are not in any way hostages. meantime, the president elect has announced plans to tap kash patel as his new fbi director. the longtime loyalist is a controversial figure who has vowed to dismantle the justice department and take on the so-called deep state, a pick that now tees up a potentially explosive confirmation battle in the u.s. senate. let's take you now live to cnn's kristen

holmes, who's in west palm beach, florida, near trump's mar-a-lago estate. kristen take us inside this decision by trump yeah, boris, a very windy west palm beach, florida, right now. >> so i apologize if you have any trouble hearing me, but what we were told is that it came down to two final candidates for president-elect donald trump. one was the missouri attorney general andrew bailey, as well as kash patel, now staunch loyalist to donald trump. as well as his family were pushing kash patel but obviously patel. patel is incredibly controversial as you noted. now, it came down to the fact that they were having these different interviews with these various candidates and donald trump just wasn't that impressed by bailey. that's what multiple sources told us, that he wanted to go with someone who was a firebrand, a bomb thrower like kash patel. now obviously, again, this is incredibly controversial and is going to set up a fight when it comes to congress because of the fact that patel has no real experience with the fbi. he's not a former agent. that's generally a role that goes to a former agent. the other part of

this is the fact that he has essentially said that he would go along with whatever it is that donald trump wants to do including gutting the entire fbi. and there's a lot of questions as to what exactly that would look like. now, i do also want to point out to one thing, because one other thing because this is something that's going on right now. we have just seen reporting in the new yorker about another one of donald trump's controversial picks, who is currently up on capitol hill pete hegseth, who has been nominated to be secretary of defense in this reporting, which was done through a whistleblower account that was given to the new yorker. it says that that pete hegseth was forced out of two roles in which he ran veterans groups because of misconduct. and one of these whistleblower reports, it says that he sexually pursued female staffers. it also says that he had was repeatedly intoxicated during his time as a leader of these organizations. the reason i'm pointing that out is because we obviously know that donald trump's team had been on edge when it came to hegseth

because of that 2017 sexual assault allegation that they were unaware of how this plays into that is something we're going to be watching closely as we were told that donald trump's team also told hegseth pretty directly they didn't want any more surprises. unclear if this is a surprise. one thing to note when it comes to allegations of intoxication, there was another letter here that was obtained by the new yorker that says that he was passing out, that his his behavior was despicable. one thing that we know about the president elect, because of his brother's relationship with alcohol abuse, it is not something that he tolerates from the people around him, obviously, something to watch closely. >> yeah, a really important point there. kristen trump also made some announcements on a few other noteworthy picks. tell us about those yeah, it certainly seems as though he is rewarding family and loyalists in this. >> we know that jared kushner's father, whom donald trump pardoned, is now going to serve as the ambassador to france and his daughter tiffany's husband's father is

going to be an advisor on middle east issues. i had heard from a number of people that this was likely to come, but one thing to really keep in mind here, as we look at the picture that donald trump is painting, is who it is that he is tapping. he is clearly looking to people who are going to serve him loyally, who are part of his family, not going through the channels that he went through back in 2016, 2017, when he was naming people, he was essentially given a list of more establishment republicans. now in this case, he is rewarding so many of these people with ambassadorships or with high level jobs. one of the other things to keep in mind here is generally these ambassador jobs go to high level donors. that's one thing that donald trump has been giving his high level donors actual cabinet positions like howard lutnick or linda mcmahon, who has been nominated to be the head of education. so something interesting that he is clearly doing in this quest to surround himself by people he believes, who one will fulfill, what he wants to do, but two will be loyal to him kristen holmes

live for us in west palm beach, florida. >> thank you so much for the update. kristen. a lot to discuss with andrew mccabe, former deputy director of the fbi and cnn senior law enforcement analyst. andy, thank you so much for being with us. let's start with hunter biden. what was your reaction to the news that joe biden would pardon him? and what do you think the fallout is going to be from this long term? yeah, i was a little shocked. i have to say i'm i'm sure that this decision was torturous for president biden. >> it puts really pits him against two things that we know mean very much to him his respect for the system of justice and his role as an institutionalist preserving those sorts of institutions and his love for and desire to protect his son so he had no easy choices here, but nevertheless choosing to issue this pardon for whatever reasons he did after so many times saying he would not, is a really bad look for him. and i think it's potentially a destructive thing for his party. i think it's a it

creates the appearance of hypocrisy and i think it will. it could go to supporting what i think are misguided opinions. but nevertheless people's opinions that the system is somehow stacked in favor of democrats against republicans. i think this looks like the nation's head democrat using the system for his own benefit. >> and republicans are really seizing on the time frame here, right? including the senator elect from indiana, jim banks, who said, joe biden issued a pardon to hunter biden for any crimes that he might have committed since 2014. why such a specific year? well, hunter biden just so happened to join the board of burisma, a ukrainian energy firm. in that same year, 2014. so corrupt what do you make of the time frame here? >> well, i mean, my initial impression was this is the president's desire to protect him for the longest period that reflects the president's time of service in the white house. but nevertheless, the effect of

that very broad ten year time frame is ironically, it will perpetuate the the conspiracy theories and the accusations around hunter biden. they'll never be resolved criminally, but it gives his detractors the opportunity to say, oh, well, he must have done something in 2014 to require a pardon. going back that far. >> i'm curious about a specific portion of the pardon. the text of what the president put out. he writes, quote, the charges in hunter's cases came about only after several of my political opponents in congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election then a carefully negotiated plea deal agreed to by the department of justice unraveled in the courtroom with a number of my political opponents in congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair reasonable resolution of hunter's cases. part of the reason it fell apart though, had to do with a disagreement between hunter's attorneys and the judge over whether other

potential charges against hunter could be processed in the future. right. so how much stock do you put into this rationale it's really hard. >> that's really hard to say. i think that it definitely has the impact of generating more of that sort of speculation. right. the range of the pardon, the depth of it going all the way back to 2014, however there are reasonable arguments that could be made to say that hunter biden was treated differently than other people who were engaged in similar criminal conduct, and who would likely have not been prosecuted to this extent. of the law. hunter biden endured a, what, five year investigation in which these are the only charges that came out of it? so i think this narrative that he was the subject of some sort of unfair persecution, there is some facts to back that up. it's clear that the president believes that's what's going on here and that most of it was

generated, targeted towards hunter because of president biden's role in the white house. >> if it weren't for biden's pardon of his son, the story that we would be focused on today is donald trump saying he wants kash patel to be his fbi director, who is an incredibly controversial, maybe the most controversial pick of anyone that he has made so far but i also wonder if you think this, pardon, that joe biden has made of his son increases the chances that the senate may confirm patel when it could have been in question before you know, i'm not the uh, that requires a level of political analysis that may not be in my wheelhouse, but i can say that the act of the pardon is and we've seen this already in commentary across the board, generating a fair amount of frustration and anger, particularly on the republican side, that perception, that anger, that feeling that the other side is working the

system to benefit themselves and their family members could very well have an impact on how aggressively some senators who harbor legitimate questions or concerns about kash patel or any of the other nominees. >> it could change the way that they approach those hearings. i think that's possible. i wouldn't predict outcomes, but i think it's possible effect and lastly, andy, i wanted to give you an opportunity to respond to donald trump tying this pardon to the january 6th convicts. >> what did you make of that? >> you know, kind of classic donald trump. it's not those two things are not related in any way except maybe in the terms that he intended. is this some sort of a threat like, well, you're going to pardon hunter. i'm going to go out and pardon a bunch of people that you don't think should be pardoned. so are we now one step deeper into a government that takes policy and legal positions based on vendettas. very possibly. >> andrew mccabe, appreciate the analysis. thanks for joining us. thank you. still plenty more news to come on. news central, including the syrian civil war flaring up and

escalating quickly after a new rebel offensive and joint syrian and russian airstrikes. this renewed violence comes after years of relative quiet. so why is this happening now? >> and we have closing arguments in the manslaughter trial against a former marine accused of putting a subway passenger into a chokehold killing him. in doing so, what his defense team is arguing next. then later, why? elton john says he has lost his eyesight. you're watching cnn news central who should be the 2024 cnn hero of the year it's your chance to weigh in. >> discover the life changing work this year's honorees are doing. then cast up to ten votes a day, every day. visit cnn heroes dot com giving giving. >> that's possible through the power of ai with intel. so those who receive can find the

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reignited today. >> rescue workers inside northern syria say dozens of civilians have been killed as syrian and russian jets intensify airstrikes. some new video into cnn shows the moment of impact from one strike on the streets of aleppo. watch this shoot the gun stunning footage there. this is all in retaliation after syrian rebels launched a surprise attack and seized control of large areas in recent days. let's get some perspective with cnn military analyst, retired u.s. air force colonel cedric leighton. colonel, thank you so much for being with us. the syrian conflict sort of came to a standstill roughly a decade ago, and this is the most intense action we've seen in about eight years. why now? well, it's a really great question. and there are so many different things that that actually have happened in this whole thing but first of all, they have you know, when you

look at syria in general, you see all these different rebel groups right here. so we've basically had a static map for the last about ten years or so but there have been actions that have been going on with all of these different groups. and especially this group. right here, this area right in this in this green area, this part, these syrian rebels have been very active in the idlib province area and in now in the aleppo area, and that has made a difference because now, even though there have been instances every day for the last ten years or so now, we've actually seen momentum because all the different elements that are supporting the syrian regime are now weakened. syria and the conflict in syria is sort of a battleground for a multitude of regional players. talk to us about who's backing bashar al assad, the president of syria, and who's backing all these different rebel factions. right so the main backers of assad are russia, iran and hezbollah.

and each one of these countries is occupied with other things, countries or groups in this case, of course, hezbollah has been decimated by the israelis. the major attack took out a lot of their leadership and iran has been dealing with israel, and they've been busy in that sense. they've also tried to support proxies of their own, like hamas and hezbollah. they've not been very successful against israel. and of course, russia is wrapped up in ukraine. and now with georgia heating up. russia has basically had its hands full, although it of course has bases in syria. and they're mainly right here in the western area of of the country so the rebels who's backing them so who's backing the rebels? so this actually is quite interesting because you have turkey, the united states and saudi arabia, as well as a few other gulf countries that are backing different parts of the rebel coalition and that rebel coalition is actually quite, you know, quite a major group that has all kinds of things going on because they are now

under this umbrella group, more or less an umbrella group called hayat tahrir al-sham, or rts for short, former al qaeda affiliate basically running the show in idlib but groups by turkey and groups that have been previously supported by the u.s. have backed hts, and they are basically coalescing in this one group that is designed to get rid of assad that's their main goal right now, is to get rid of bashar al assad. fascinating that it's a former al qaeda affiliate that's sort of the umbrella group over this. the u.s. came close to a more expansive role in syria back in about a decade ago, when former president obama talked about there being a red line and asking assad not to cross that red line, and using chemical weapons against his own people and that sort of thing. it didn't come to fruition. but there is expansive evidence that assad has committed war crimes against his own people. absolutely. so he's ruled syria since 2000. he took over from his father, hafez al assad

who was an air force officer who himself took over in a coup d'etat. he's assad junior has been accused of using chemical weapons, and there's ample evidence that he did that. and in fact, his war crimes are so bad that france issued an arrest warrant last year for crimes against humanity. so assad is in deep trouble if he loses his position of power in syria. right now? yeah, we'll see how the rest of this conflict goes. colonel cedric leighton appreciate the analysis. thanks so much. you bet brianna. >> let's talk more now with someone who has been covering this conflict in syria for more than a decade. cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward and clarissa, it really stands out how quickly the rebels were able to regain so much territory, capturing aleppo yeah, brianna. >> i mean, for those of us who covered this since 2011 and who have been watching syria closely, this has been a moment where your jaw just drops open because we haven't seen these kinds of territorial gains from

the rebels in more than eight years. it was in 2015 that russia decided to cast its lot behind bashar al assad carrying out a very ruthless aerial bombardment campaign that effectively ended the syrian uprising quashed the rebellion and since that point it has been largely a state of no peace no war. but as you heard, colonel leighton sort of lay out there for you, essentially the backers of al assad in the form of russia, in the form of hezbollah in the form of iran, have been distracted by other battles. and so the rebels really saw this as a moment to exploit the vacuum and try to make another push within a matter of days. they are now in complete control of idlib province. they are in control of the city of aleppo syria's second largest city. the center historically of its commerce. they are making pushes in the northern aleppo countryside and most recently, now they have

been issuing warnings to people who live in hama, the central city, the fourth largest city in syria that they should avoid any space or place near members of the regime, giving an indication that they are preparing for an offensive there as well so certainly, this is a moment that i don't think anybody saw coming, and there's a lot of anxiety now as to where this goes. >> yeah, i mean, that's the question, right? what does the future hold? is it more of the same. what are the prospects for an internationally brokered peace plan between the rebels and the syrian government? as you see it i would say the prospects of a sort of formalized peace deal are very dim. >> it has been quiet in syria for years but it was more of a sort of no war, no peace situation, rather than an actual brokered peace. there is so much daylight between the different sides in this

conflict and i do think it's important as well to just highlight that beyond the sort of fighting forces you have, half the population of syria who were displaced from their homes during the worst of this fighting. you have true atrocities that were carried out by the regime of bashar al-assad using poisonous gas against his own people, using nerve agents like sarin gas against his own people. so this is a war that has been absolutely devastating to the ordinary people of syria. and yet there are very real concerns as well about who these rebels are and what their end goals are and how much unity really exists between them ultimately. because, again, as you heard from colonel leighton, there a lot of different cooks in the kitchen, a lot of different backers with competing agendas. and given the broader context across the region of, you know the incredible destabilization that you have seen since

october 7th, i think there are very real concerns that many do not want to see the syrian civil war reignite again clarissa ward live for us from lebanon. >> thank you for that. there are higher prices that could be on the way after president-elect trump threatens 100% tariffs on several countries, we'll talk about why. just ahead can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn. >> i joined sofi because they've helped millions of members earn more money, save more money, borrow better, and invest for their ambitions. join a generational player. sofi, get your money right. >> this is my coffee shop. we just moved into a bigger space,

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>> president-elect trump is seven weeks from returning to the white house, but he's not waiting for that to defend the american dollar with a threat to russia, china and other nations belonging to the brics economic coalition, trump posted that he will impose 100% tariffs on goods from each nation if they move away from the dollar and create their own currency. >> brics, of course, stands for brazil, russia, india, china and south africa. the founding nations of the group, which this year expanded to include five more countries. and they've been weighing making their own currency to reduce their reliance on the u.s. dollar. president-elect trump says that if that happens, the brics countries quote, should expect to say goodbye to selling in the wonderful u.s. economy. joining us now to discuss is jeff stein, a white house economics reporter for the washington post. jeff thank you so much for being with us i should point out, russian president vladimir putin said at a brics summit just weeks before the 2024 election that the group was, quote, not considering this issue. its time has not come yet. we need to be very careful in act, act

gradually without any rush how real is this threat of brics countries abandoning the dollar it's a very good question. >> it's a little hard to assess. you know, over the last 50, 60 years, the u.s. has come to dominate the global financial system. and what that means is that if you're russia or brazil or india and you want to make a trade, let's say for oil or for other crucial commodities you often have to use sort of the dollar based financial system you have to transact in dollars to make that transaction happen. and that gives the u.s. this incredible choke point, right, to say we're not going to allow this or that transaction, at least theoretically, from occurring. and that's sort of powered the rise of us financial sanctions. and so these countries i think, have increasingly explored saying maybe we don't want to be dependent on the u.s. dollar and the u.s. financial system for making these trades. and that sparked this wave of interest in alternative payment

system. that said, as you're pointing out, this seems years at a minimum away from actually occurring. and it raises the question of is trump just sort of making a threat about something that's not actually occurring so he can declare victory? i mean, if he goes out and says that we will impose 100% tariffs on canada if montreal invades on maine and they don't do it, then he can say, look, i prevented montreal from invading maine that obviously is not going to happen in either scenario. but perhaps prevents, you know, gives trump the impetus to say, i got something done. >> be careful this is how you start things, jeff. these ideas. no. but so this idea talk a little bit about here first. right. you know the idea of hypothetically would it allow some of these countries like china russia and iran, which recently you know, expanded brics did to include iran to circumvent western sanctions by abandoning the dollar i think it's a real thing worth

taking seriously. >> i mean, the global south in particular, but also, you know, obviously russia and china have become increasingly ostracized and increasingly pushed out of the u.s. financial system by our own economic sanctions, by our own financial penalties, which are, you know people here would say with good reason, are responding to bad actions taken by those countries. but it spurred this interest in saying, you know, if if the u.s. can with with a sort of a flip of a switch, you know, prevent a commodity from getting into china, that they need, let's say, to power, you know, their ai or their other sort of semiconductor industries, for instance, which which the u.s. has effectively done at what point do those countries say we need to build our our own network of payment systems to prevent the u.s. from hitting us? and i think part of the big problem here, right, is that these countries are very factionally divided among themselves. so while they are sort of ostensibly unified in the idea that they oppose

sort of western hegemony and want to be able to do these important trades outside sort of the all seeing us eye at the same time right. putin, for instance has an icc warrant out for his arrest. and so he, you know, was not able to go to south africa, which is another sort of founding, quote, unquote, brics member for their conference last year india and china are also unified in this ostensible alliance, but are becoming increasingly divided as sort of the next rising superpowers. india has actually strengthened its ties over the last couple of years with the u.s. to counter china's rise. so it's it's a little hard. i mean, the impetus makes sense. the rationale behind it makes sense. but there's a lot of reasons to be suspicious that that this is a real threat to the obviously trump, especially at the start of his administration, wants to set this threat up to be as menacing as possible so he can take credit if it doesn't materialize. a lot of the experts i talked to said there's, you know, this thing doesn't exist yet so him threatening it, you know, and precluding it from happening is

is kind of a threat without a purpose at this point. >> yeah. lots of key imports from brics nations. we can't forget that. jeff stein, thank you so much. we appreciate you being with us thanks, guys today the jury will hear closing arguments in the new york city subway chokehold trial. we'll have the latest from new york next. plus, a major announcement from one of the greatest pop stars of all time. elton john says he has lost his eyesight. what else? he revealed next cnn heroes on hollywood meet and celebrate the honorees, then find out who will be hero of the year. >> plus, a special tribute to michael j. fox cnn heroes, an all star tribute sunday at eight on cnn. >> my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis held me back. but now with skyrizi i'm all in thanks to skyrizi i saw dramatically clearer skin and many even achieved 100% clear skin. don't use if allergic serious allergic reactions, increased

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man inside a new york city subway car last year. prosecutors say that penny held on for more than six minutes, even after the victim, jordan neely, stopped moving. witnesses say that neely had entered the train acting erratically and yelling frightening some passengers. penny is charged with second degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. let's get the latest from outside the courthouse with cnn's gloria pazmino. gloria, how are these two sides wrapping up the case you guys, good question that's right. >> now, for nearly more than two hours, we have been hearing from defense attorney steve rasor, tried to put the jury back into the subway car. he has tried to paint this picture for them, describing a subway car filled with passengers that he said were, quote frozen in fear. now he has tried to do this, to try and explain why danny daniel took action. he said that those passengers were

afraid when they saw jordan neely get on the train and began acting erratically, and he said that penny stepped in to protect others because of his training as a marine. that he felt the need to make sure that other people were safe. now, he said that it's actually not an accident, that there's no video of the entire struggle between penny and jordan neely because he said, people were frozen in fear and did not start recording until jordan neely had been subdued by penny. now there's another very interesting point that rasor has tried to make so far, and that is about the amount of pressure that penny used while he was holding neely in that chokehold. that's important because the city medical examiner said that neely had died as a result of pressure applied during the choke hold. in fact, he has been referring to that choke hold as a quote, civilian restraint. and he has said that he could have used a

different maneuver that he was trained on. but decided not to do it. the reason for that rasor said, quote he's an architectural student. he said of penny. he's a surfer. he's a musician. he's a caring friend, brother and son. that's the softer side of danny that informed him not to to choose, not to use a textbook marine chokehold very interesting point by rasor here considering that the marine trainer who showed penny how to do this maneuver testified that he had used it incorrectly. another point razor has been making is that the prosecution was rushed to bring charges as a result of political pressure. you might remember just how many protests there were here in the city following the incident. we are expecting the defense to wrap up their closing arguments in the next few hours. >> for us gloria pazmino live

outside the courthouse in new york city. thank you so much, gloria. brianna now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour. >> the florida woman convicted of letting her boyfriend suffocate inside a zip suitcase for hours is moments away from being sentenced in his death. sarah boone was found guilty in october of second degree murder. prosecutors said that her boyfriend voluntarily climbed into the bag during a game of hide and seek but boone then zipped it, recording herself, taunting him and ignoring his pleas to get out. she went to sleep, they said with him still trapped inside, and she is facing up to life in prison. also, after a disastrous tenure, intel ceo pat gelsinger is out. he took on that role in 2021, tasked with reviving the tech giant. but under his leadership, intel's stock has tanked 61%, due in large part to intel missing the ai boom and being surpassed by most of its rivals. and sir elton john says he has lost his eyesight. he told a london audience at a performance of the devil wears

prada musical that he still cannot see months after suffering a severe eye infection in his right eye, and to my husband, who's been my rock because i haven't been able to come to many of the previews because as you know, i've lost my eyesight so it's hard for me to see it but i'd love to hear it and it always sounded good tonight. >> okay the iconic musician who wrote the score for the show has previously said his condition has affected his ability to work and the holidays they are here, so is unfortunately, the uptick in respiratory illnesses. >> but at least one in particular is putting a real strain on children's hospitals. we'll have that next there are amazing things that are happening all over the world, things that can make our lives better. >> that's the goal of my podcast to try and find the secrets to a longer and happier and healthier life, and then we bring those secrets to you. listen to chasing life wherever you get your podcasts. for more

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luther. >> never too much new year's day at eight on cnn closed captioning brought to you by book.com if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. >> call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000 as the thanksgiving holiday winds down the season for respiratory illnesses is just getting started. >> pneumonia is now straining the resources of some children's hospitals. and it's not the only disease raising concerns. cnn's meg tirrell is here to discuss. so meg why is it that kids are especially vulnerable right now to pneumonia and other viruses well boris, i mean, kids are always at a bit of an increased risk. >> i mean, they've got smaller airways so if those are getting inflamed, it makes it harder for them to breathe. and in particular, they have been harder hit than usual by a kind of walking pneumonia caused by a bacterial infection. the bacteria is called mycoplasma

pneumoniae. and this has really been an elevated level since august especially among kids ages 2 to 4. and that is putting some strain on children's hospitals. and of course, you never want children's hospitals to be at high capacity and particularly not as we are heading into the real respiratory illness season right now. nationally levels of covid are low and stable. we haven't seen them increase as we usually do into the winter season, and we could still see that coming levels of flu and rsv are starting to rise, and experts tell us they expect you know, about a week after thanksgiving, we could really start to see what that trend is going to look like. but boris, one thing that's really concerning health officials right now is low vaccination rates really across the board for all of these illnesses. flu rsv and covid. but particularly if you look at pediatric flu vaccination rates, you can see there the light blue line is this year's season in terms of the vaccination rate for kids. and the orange is the last season before the covid

pandemic. you can see we're tracking about 12 percentage points lower in terms of the pediatric flu vaccination rate than we did before covid, and that's really worrying public health officials because they find kids who are hospitalized for flu usually are the ones who haven't gotten their flu vaccine. >> boris meg tirrell, thank you so much for that update. a controversial pardon leaves democrats doing damage control. ahead, how president biden's decision to pardon his son hunter has divided the party. just seven weeks before he leaves office cnn heroes, an all star tribute meet and celebrate the honorees then find out who will be hero of the year. >> plus, a special tribute to michael j. fox, cnn heroes, an all star tribute sunday at eight on cnn. >> my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis held me back. but now with skyrizi, i'm all in. thanks to skyrizi, i saw dramatically clearer skin and many even achieved 100% clear skin. don't use if allergic

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