a terrific job. karen agnifilo is doing a terrific job doing what mr. dickey didn't do while the case was pending in pennsylvania. to your point, great words, sara. he's she's humanizing him and making him realize that he's not the animal that some believe he is. and and ultimately she's going to go down that road of that mental defect, of that insanity defense. but one of the things she has to do, at least for now, is sort of rein things in and control what is being said. because if that message is wrong, you know, we forget this is brian thompson, this is a tragedy. but let's not lionize him. she doesn't want to lionize him. she really wants to deal with joel seidman, the prosecutor, and judge carroll right now in the state court, in that courtroom, the same way she'll do that in the federal court, regardless of the theory of being stalking or what, or this being some sort of terror act, which, again, i think is inappropriate and won't won't stand at the end of the day. but, you know, she's doing what she can with the tools that she has to make him look like a real person, that someone that should be

concerned and cared for and make sure he gets that fair shake in the courtroom. >> jeremy saland, thank you so much for your analysis. you know, this is a case that's been watched by so many people and there's so much interest. there were even, you know, women in the court yesterday just there to see mangione. we will see how all of this plays out, both cases as they go along parallel lines. appreciate you. a new hour of cnn news central starts right now this morning they are shocking. >> but could they lead to charges? for the first time, the public can see for themselves some of the text messages at the center of the house. investigation into matt gaetz, what he allegedly said to the women that the committee says he regularly paid for sex and drugs. the new legal questions now being raised and more millions pouring into president elect donald trump's inauguration. the latest top

dollar owner being being revealed today. and the big question why are so many major companies eager to donate to this? but first, a major breaking news. american airlines grounded all flights over a technical issue, and moments ago, it appears the faa is lifting that order. john berman is out today. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner. this is cnn news central. we're now just learning it appears that the faa is canceling the ground stop that brought american airlines to a halt this morning, just last hour. the airline announced they had grounded all flights in the u.s. during this very busy holiday travel day due to what they called a technical issue with unspecified detail. the u.s. airlines saying in a statement this a technical issue was affecting american flights this morning. our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our

customers for the inconvenience. let's get over to cnn's derek van dam. a lot happening as i was just even walking back into the studio. what is the very latest with this ground stop or not? >> right, exactly. and there's so many avenues to this story coming on. the crux of the busiest day of the travel season this week, right. everybody heading to family, relatives to see their loved ones during the christmas holiday rush. and now we've got this ground stop which has now just been lifted. according to the faa. but we are still monitoring whether that could compound the issues here across the eastern seaboard. remember, we've got reagan national airport, we've got jfk, laguardia. these are all major hubs from american airlines, which just last hour had our ground stop from the faa because of this technical glitch. and now we have to play catch up with, of course, the thousands of travelers that are commuting in and out of those airports. so what you're looking at now behind me is the

current look of the flightaware website, where we're tracking all u.s. bound airline traffic, and you can see just how busy it is in and around the major hubs here across the east coast. but what you're also noticing here is also the weather that is moving through these hubs as we speak. so we've got about 120 million americans traveling this week. look at how many people are traveling by air. nearly 8 million people, roughly 6.5% of that total. so this is going to impact a lot of people. add to that the combination of the rough weather, and this could cause some serious headaches along the airspaces here along the east coast. so here's the cold front moving through already bringing snow to laguardia and into jfk as we speak, stretching further south. it's warm enough where near washington, washington's reagan national airport. they actually have a mixture of rain and snow that could lead to some localized freezing on the roadways. so the potential for a glazing of ice is possible here. so that will, of course,

compound the travel headaches that people are already dealing with at the airports, but also on the roadways. i-95 in particular, okay, derek, thank you so much for putting it all together for us. >> i want to bring in right now, uh, i want to bring in right now, anna mcallister from one of our affiliates. i believe she's just boarded a flight. anna, can you hear me? >> hey, kate. good morning. >> i can hear you. >> great. thank you. tell me you're in fort lauderdale, right? what have you been seeing and what's happening there? now yeah. >> so i'm flying out from the fort lauderdale international airport, and i'm heading to philly to see family for the holidays. and earlier, this flight was supposed to leave at 7 a.m. we got there. we're waiting to board the flight. and then the announcement came over the loudspeaker saying that there was going to be a delay. they were having serious technical issues, saying that they weren't able to scan tickets, not able to board luggage onto the flight. and then we were told that we're going to get updates every 15 minutes. so people were sitting

there patiently. a lot of people wearing santa hats. there were so many children there as well. a lot of parents really concerned about getting home for the holidays. we were waiting. we found out there was going to be that ground stop, so it was pretty chaotic for quite some time. but now we are on the flight. >> yeah, because i was going to say, and just minutes ago we did get the latest update, which is american airlines is started resuming service, which makes sense because you've now boarded the flight. the faa has has suspended that nationwide ground stop. do you have any what are you hearing from folks and what does it seem like now that everything seems to be back online and hopefully momentary glitch and a lot of everything is back online. i'my i'm watching as people are boarding the plane, but it's still pretty uncertain if, you know, if we're going to be able to fly, to fly out, we're still waiting to get a little bit more information, hopefully from the crew here. once everybody has taken their seat.

but we're just all grateful to just be on the flight. i mean, we're watching as kids are running around. like i mentioned, just parents really concerned that they weren't going to be able to get to their destination and possibly be stuck at the airport on christmas eve. >> yeah. no kidding. i mean, any parent knows the moment you hear ground stop and you have little ones in an airport in a terminal, your heart just literally stops. anna mcallister with our affiliate wfor. thank you so much for jumping on the phone. good luck. you're one step closer to getting that flight off the ground. thank you. and we're going to continue seeking more information from american airlines, from the faa on the ripple effects, the kind of the fallout from this, to see what this means for your christmas eve travel all around. >> sarah, it is true. even when there's just a little bit of a delay, it does have a ripple effect. we will see what happens this morning. let's hope everyone gets to where they're going. all right. this morning. text messages reveal what the house ethics committee says is substantial evidence that matt gaetz paid women for sex and drugs while he was in office, the committee's report

found. gaetz spent tens of thousands of dollars on sex and drugs for at least three years. in some of the texts cnn review, gaetz allegedly asked women to get him drugs, and one woman complains about not being paid. gaetz has denied the allegations. he says he may have partied and womanized, but said it was nothing criminal. cnn's marshall cohen is joining us now. marshall, just give us some details of what exactly you've been seeing in these text messages revealed by the ethics committee. >> hey, sarah, there's a lot in there. it is a and disturbing report on the former congressman, matt gaetz. so the republican run house ethics committee said that there was substantial evidence that gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex and drugs, all while he was serving in congress. most importantly, the panel also found that gaetz had sex with a 17 year old high schooler in summer 2017. the

report concluded that this violated florida's statutory rape laws. now, over the past few years, as gaetz has faced all this legal scrutiny, he has vehemently denied that he ever paid anyone for sex. he also denies any illegal drug use. and in a social media post after the report came out, he said, quote, there's a reason they did this to me in a christmas eve eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where i could present evidence and challenge witnesses. but look, there was a lot of evidence the committee examined 14,000 pages of documents. the committee interviewed many of the key witnesses, the report even includes texts like you mentioned, of gaetz allegedly asking women for drugs and haggling over payments. there are texts from one of those women telling a friend, quote, matt never paid me. how much did he pay you? the friend said she got $400 and offered some advice. ask him for the money.

quote before you have sex. there's even a detailed ledger of payments between gates and multiple women using cash app and venmo. some of those women later testified that those payments were indeed for sex or drugs. and of course, i should point out that the justice department looked into many of these allegations, but never filed any criminal charges against matt gaetz. sara. >> that's right. and matt gaetz did have the opportunity to speak with the ethics committee. he chose not to. marshall cohen, thank you so much, kate. >> this report, that investigation and the reaction to it raises a whole host of new questions about what does the future hold for this republican firebrand who was just recently a nominee to be attorney general in the next administration? joining us right now with new reporting on this is national political reporter and author of the bulwark bill newsletter, mark caputo, it's good to see you. mark. thanks for coming in. and you have new reporting, kind of digging into with your sources into this question of, okay, you have this. now, what does this mean for matt gaetz, the

man who has always successfully sought the spotlight for so many years? in part, you write in a normal time in state, matt gaetz's political future would be over after monday's release. but these are not normal times. it's the trump era, and this is not a normal state, meaning florida. it's florida, the heart of the bill. what does that now mean? what are you learning? >> well, for the time being, gaetz is flirting, at least publicly, with running for office again statewide for either governor or senate in 2026. a lot of people still think that's a very difficult bridge for him to cross. but what's telling here is that everyone is saying, look, we don't know the public, the voting public, voters tolerance for scandal is different now than it used to be. one of the people i spoke to for the story, a top pollster for ron desantis, who also was a top adviser to elon musk's super pac that

helped donald trump win in the november elections, said the news media. and a lot of critics do a lot of pearl clutching. but voters don't approach politics as sacredly as the press does, and they view politicians as all sort of flawed, and they might actually give gaetz. i know this is going to be tough for some people to believe a measure of credit, if he owns up to it, says it's in his past and he's moving on now. even that person i spoke to says, look, i don't know what's going to happen to gaetz's future. but again, the fact is, we don't know. and in the past we kind of did and we're definitely in a new era, a new world of politics where these sorts of things don't stick to a lot of candidates. obviously, they didn't stick to donald trump as much, but one thing about donald trump's teflon is so far it hasn't been transferable. if matt gaetz decides to run again for office in 2026 and if he wins, it's going to show that we are indeed in a new time and place. >> this gaetz tweeted was quick

to tweet last night that he essentially is getting support from donald trump on this. you know, i got a great note from president trump. he sent out. do you get the sense that gaetz's political future depends on donald trump? trump's endorsement can, i don't know, inoculate him from his own record. >> i to a degree, i wouldn't phrase it that way. donald trump is still the star of the maga verse around which everyone sort of revolves, and his endorsement and republican primaries in states like florida matter. so if matt gaetz runs and if donald trump decides to endorse him, those are two big ifs. i would definitely not count out matt gaetz winning his office right now in our state's dynamics, the republican who wins the primary is an odds on favorite to win statewide, win a general election. one thing that should be noted is that when matt gaetz withdrew his

nomination as attorney general, from what i'm told, the sources i've spoken to, who spoke to donald trump and were briefed on this, he didn't get a commitment from donald trump to get an endorsement. if he decides to run again. so it's still up in the air of a whether matt gaetz runs and then b, whether donald trump endorses. we got a few months, a few years to figure that out. >> that's true. sunday on sunday at the conservative conference in arizona, gaetz had his future plans on his mind, kind of saying, my fellow floridians had asked me to i the governor's mansion and also, as one option is potentially run for the senate seat that marco rubio is going to be going to be vacating. i mean, do you see what are you hearing from your sources? is that trolling his critics, or is it more wishful thinking, or is it actually you think laying the groundwork for an actual political. i don't know, resurrection i don't think we

know. >> you know, my feeling is it's a tough row to hoe, but these are really strange times that we're in, and it's difficult to sort of separate out the signal from the noise, especially two years out from the precedent for any of this. >> it seems. >> correct. also, in the meantime, matt gaetz, after he resigned from congress, got a gig as a pundit or having his own show, i should say, on the right wing one america news network. it's also good for him. public attention wise, to draw attention to himself by saying he might run for governor, saying he might run for senate because it's going to cause more people to tune in, watch what he's going to say, and increase his clout that way. so there is a certain benefit. you know, i'm at msnbc, for instance, years ago, joe scarborough, a former congressman, actually, matt gaetz succeeded or sits or sat in joe scarborough's old congressional seat in florida. he used to flirt occasionally

with running for senate or running statewide, and that caused msnbc to boost his contract and the like. so there is precedent for this on national television or in the national media, with florida politicians. i don't see why matt gaetz would view this any differently. i do see, however, the possibility of being maybe 50 over 50 that he does seek higher office again. now, whether that's in 2026 or not, you know, get back to me in a few months or a few years. >> the thing that sticks with me is that we heard from him and we can end it. here is republican senator from indiana, senator jim banks. he made the point basically saying, like, we should take this seriously. the american public can look at this report. but he also says the country expects us to move on. and i think what we can leave here is, is it move on from past matt gaetz, or is it move on with matt gaetz? and that's exactly what what i will lean on for your reporting going forward. it's good to see you, mark. thank you so much thanks, kate. >> appreciate it. bye. >> thank you. see you. coming up for us, donald trump's pick to run the fcc has a harsh

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$34. go to deal dash dot com and see how much you can save. >> 2024 was a wild ride. >> it was like the craziest roller coaster ride i've ever been on in my life. that was an whooping. >> tom foreman and special guests look back. all the best. all the worst. 2024 thursday at 11 on cnn. >> more big money from big corporations is flowing in for trump's presidential inauguration in less than a month. as you know, he'll be sworn in as the 47th u.s. president. ford is the latest company to pledge 1 million bucks. and not just that, they added a bonus a small fleet of cars. the automaker joins big tech companies like amazon and meta in making top dollar donations to trump's inauguration. joining me now, fredricka newton, cnn political, national politics

writer, fredricka. in 2021, you know, i remember, you know, there was some talk of this, although it wasn't as publicized. joe biden took in about $62 million in donations from corporations for inauguration events. are you seeing a difference in who and how much for donald trump? >> we are seeing a lot. we don't yet know what the total number will be. in fact, we won't know until after the inauguration, about 90 days after when they have to file reports with the federal election commission. but it seems as though every few hours a company is saying, hey, i'm giving to i'm giving two. what you've also seen is sort of a parade of ceos down to mar-a-lago president elect donald trump's florida resort meeting with him and trying to make friends and get a seat at the table. i mean, keep in mind that some of these folks have been at odds with donald trump or donald trump has been very angry with them. if you consider metta, the parent company of facebook, he's been highly critical. he views

social media companies as having a bias towards conservatives. so you see people talking to him in person as they're announcing these donations. so that's one of the things that's very different. also, keep in mind that donald trump's first inauguration, i mean, you mentioned how much joe biden raised donald trump set a record with his first inauguration was nearly $107 million. so it seems as though they are working at a pretty fast clip here to to at least make that raise that amount. >> yeah, it's interesting to note donald trump himself saying, you know, before everybody was fighting me, and now everyone wants to be my friend. and it's no truer statement seems to be made, especially with these companies looking to try to figure out how to get along and make money when donald trump is in office. fredricka, scouten, thank you so much. i appreciate you coming on and merry christmas. happy holidays to you, kate. >> see also new reporting today in a letter obtained by cnn,

the incoming fcc chairman, brendan carr, writing to disney ceo bob iger and leveling a warning, speaking of abc's negotiations with local affiliate networks, carr writes dear mr. iger, americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately and fairly. this is the latest sign of what many expect is to come in trump's second term. as brian stelter reports, carr is signaling he intends to wield a heavy hand in the top spot at the fcc, taking a different, very different approach than his predecessors. ing us now with more on his reporting is cnn's brian stelter. what kind of message, brian, are you do you see in what carr is writing in this letter? >> right. >> it's a little bit of a lump of coal in disney's stocking, and it's an early signal of how carr is going to treat this. usually pretty sleepy agency. and i say that with lots of love for the fcc. but normally what the fcc does is

oversee wireless broadband, make sure that broadband is deploying across the country. for example, we know that the fcc licenses local tv stations, but the fcc hasn't denied a license in many years. it's basically a rubber stamp. now, it seems like carr is signaling he wants to treat the agency differently. right now, the agency might not have that much power, but he does have the power of the bully pulpit, and that's what he's using by writing this letter to iger. you know, he's choosing abc. he's choosing disney. one of the biggest media companies. and really going to disney first. notably of course abc just settled that lawsuit from trump to the tune of $15 million. so actually carr is citing that in the letter and saying, look, you and the national media, you've lost trust. carr is using a narrow issue called retransmission consent. and abc's negotiations with affiliates. but really, he's making a broader point. he's saying, i am watching you. you're on notice. and in that way, kate, this is a lot like some of trump's other picks

for other agencies. they are signaling they want to wield power more aggressively in a second term. >> it's a great point. it's not the narrow issue. it's the it's the signaling of what is of how the approach is the tone, the approach, the handling and the focus could be very different this time around. is has disney or iger responded? >> no. >> no response. i've reached out for comment. i have not heard back. disney might try to brush this off. you know they have relationships with the fcc. they know they are regulated. they know how this works. so these major media ceos, they might try to ignore or just politely respond and and not care too much about these kinds of letters. but i do think this is important because it is signaling a change in government approach. judging from the social media reaction, some look at this and say it's commendable that carr is trying to pressure media companies to be responsible to regain trust and most importantly, to invest in local media. but carr is really signaling, among other things, is that he's going to be a friend to local and an antagonist to national media,

and a friend of local. well, local media needs some friends, needs some investment. so there's that reaction. but the other reaction i'm seeing to this letter is from people saying, look, carr is using his bully pulpit on trump's behalf. we know that trump has threatened local tv stations and national owners. he's called for abc to lose its license over that presidential debate in september. so it's going to be notable to watch and see how appointees like in this case, carr at the fcc, how they how they manage what trump might want from them and what's actually in their legal abilities in order to take action at these agencies. >> i mean, very clearly something to watch and something you're going to be all over. brian, thank you so much. great reporting. coming up for us this morning, the family of missing journalist austin tice, still holding on to hope that he will be found in syria after the fall of the assad regime. he was kidnaped there back in 2012. his family joins us next. and a trip to the sun. what scientists hope to discover on this first of

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store, android and m taylor. com so unforgettable. >> more than incredible. are you not entertained? >> what are you ready for? guarantee the. unforgettable ready to watch on tnt, trutv and stream b r sports on max america. >> we're glad to have you all back this morning as a huge transition of power plays out in syria, one american family is still stuck in a painful purgatory. >> they still don't have the answer to one question where is their loved one? austin tice tice, a journalist, went missing in 2012. the state department says he was imprisoned by the assad regime. his family has been pleading for help ever since he disappeared earlier this week. we learned from top u.s. hostage envoy that the group that has overthrown assad was, quote, being helpful in the ongoing search for tice kidnaped 12 years ago. here now for an update. are austin tice siblings, simon tice and megan tice malone. thank you both for

joining us. i want to talk to you about the united states sending their top hostage envoy to syria just last week. have you learned anything new about austin's status in syria from envoy roger carstens, who who was on the ground in syria and talking to the the new leadership there, trying to get some answers? i'll start with you, simon yeah. >> thank you so much for having us. >> um, so we have been very encouraged by the fact that roger has been on the ground in syria, and we are just continuing to push everyone who has any ability to do so to help us find austin and bring him home. >> you now have, like the rest of the world, seen this sort of overthrow that happened so quickly. and you've seen the jails that have been opened up and worse, the morgues and mass graves in syria. um, do you

have any thoughts? megan and the family talking through this for all these many years as to exactly where austin might be, any ideas that you have come up with? >> um, we haven't had to, you know, kind of come up with our own ideas. we've had intel that has been provided through different sources for the last 12 years. you know, this is not we're not chasing a white rabbit. we know that he is alive. we know that he is. well, um, you know, his exact location is something that can change at any given moment. so, you know, at is not so much our focus as much as connecting with the people who can help bring us home. bring him home to us. >> your mom recently sent a letter to vladimir putin asking for his help finding austin. and he responded publicly, saying he would ask bashar

al-assad about austin. assad is now in russia. what do you make of this? and do you think that there is any chance that assad would be cooperating or knows where he is? simon. >> yeah, i mean, unfortunately, we just don't have the perfect clarity that we want in terms of knowing where austin is. and so we are put into a position where we have to ask anyone who we think would have the ability to, to help us. um, and so with putin and knowing that he has such a large amount of influence in syria and with assad being in syria, we're hoping that this commitment from putin to ask assad about austin will lead to, um, hopefully some big breakthroughs in the case. >> megan, i want to ask you about this because you were talking about different leads that you guys have been able to to get throughout all these years, sa'ar al-ahmad told nbc news that he was in a

prison cell just recently with austin, and the last that he saw him alive was in 2022. have you been in contact at all with him? >> with my brother, with the other gentleman? yeah, we saw her. no, i not i have not personally um, he, you know, he has been in contact with different people that we are working with, um, and sharing his story and sharing what he knows, um, which we are very grateful for. >> i do want to get your thoughts on what you thought when you saw another american, another american male who was who was found in syria. a lot of people did not know that he was there. he emerged in a video. his name is travis timmerman. that day when that happened. simon, what what were your thoughts? because there were a lot of details coming out and people were not sure

exactly who they were looking at when they found him. >> yeah, yeah. >> and that was definitely a time of kind of a high emotions. i would say. um, there was the kind of the absolute joy and excitement, enthusiasm for travis and the fact that he is safe and was being well taken care of by the people who found him. um, and then, of course, there was that kind of devastating disappointment in knowing that it wasn't austin, um, and that we are continuing to look, um, and we are incredibly thankful to our partners on the ground in syria. so that's hostage aid worldwide has been helping tremendously in looking for austin. um, and so we just hope that the search continues, and we're very thankful to see that americans are being treated well when they are being found. >> now, we should note that austin was was just there doing his job as a journalist, trying to cover the story in syria when he was when he was taken.

um, megan, to you, how are you in the family getting through this on a day to day basis? i know it has to be so, so heavy. and especially as we are, you know, coming towards christmas and the holidays. >> yes. um, it's been weighing so heavily on my heart, on all of us. i think, to be so close for this many weeks now, you know, we really feel like this is a window of opportunity and windows don't stay open forever. and i think just it's been such an interesting space to be in. i have two young children. they've never met austin, you know, and having this big, heavy thing and being on the verge of our seats, just waiting any moment now. and also, you know, being in this time that, you know, creating holiday magic and trying to keep the spirit of christmas,

it's it's been a really, really challenging time this year especially. i'm so grateful that so many of us were, you know, that we were all together in dc when we were, um, and i am just really still hoping and praying for a christmas miracle. >> and we will do the same. megan tice malone and simon tice, let us hope that you hear from your brother austin for christmas. appreciate you guys. all right. still to come this morning. ski lifts collide, spilling skiers down on to the slopes. why? one witness says they were lucky it happened when it did. we will explain. >> this holiday season, find the perfect gift at cnn. >> underscored from the latest fashion to expert approved tech to the best beauty finds. >> discover it all at underscore. com.

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time ago that who is at the airport there that the gate agents announced they could not scan tickets and they could not board luggage. a rough start for so many trying to get on their way this christmas eve. we're still waiting to see what kind of impact this stoppage could have. the ripple effects on what is to be one of the busiest travel days of the year. one measure of just how busy it's all going to be. aaa reports 119 million people will be traveling 50 miles or more from home, which is more than the previous high set in 2019. joining us right now is travel expert, managing editor of the points guy, clint henderson. it's great to see you. thanks for jumping on a ground stop for a major airline like american. even short lived, how far are you seeing? or could the ripple effects go in terms of the disruption, even after they've renewed service? clint. >> yeah, well, just to give you one example, i've been tracking a flight, leaving jfk, going to san francisco. >> that flight is now delayed three hours. so it does have a ripple effect. the good news is it seems to have been resolved

fairly quickly, so hopefully there won't be any kind of cascading issues. american airlines said they are sorry for the inconvenience to passengers, but the good news is, like most fallout we've seen from these incidents lately, it's it's being resolved fairly quickly and it hasn't had the domino effect that we saw back in 2022. for example. >> yeah, i think everyone's still i feel like they're hurt from that example. but things have been resolved a little traumatized from that one for sure. that was so wild. more broadly, clint, looking at the numbers, the busiest day ever in airports was, i believe it was the sunday after thanksgiving. tsa screened more than 3 million people. then tsa also saying ten of the busiest travel days on record are just have happened in just the past six months. what are you expecting for christmas and new year's, and what should travelers be preparing for? >> so more of the same. and you know, this is why i recommend, especially during the holidays,

that you get to the airport a little earlier than normal. i'm the three hours early kind of guy. but, you know, airports now have so many amenities. lounges, restaurants, shopping that i don't mind spending a little time at the airport. and of course, i have all those clear and tsa precheck, but there's even some free screening things you can do, like getting a place in line at orlando airport and things like that. so definitely check into that stuff. but overall, the airlines are handling things better. you know, we've only really seen one major meltdown this year that was crowdstrike and that was an i.t. failure. so fingers crossed that that we're on the upswing. i think the airlines airports have the staff they need now. so that's that's a relief. >> i have personally gone to 180 on this. i used to be screaming at the last minute, jumping on the plane at the last second, loving to see if i could kind of beat the buzzer. and i'm, i'm now the three hours early person. i'd rather not have the stress and i'd rather sit and drink several more cups of coffee before taking off. so i have taken your advice for sure. let's

look back at this past year in travel. as i mentioned, it's just been a huge year for travel. what were the biggest travel trends that you saw in 2020 for? >> so people are traveling farther to more exotic destinations and they're going for longer. we've done some polling. we've been tracking the trends very carefully. obviously, the average length of vacation instead of four and a half days is now five and a half days. so i think what you're seeing happen is a lot of people are extending trips because of work from home policies. so whereas they maybe could only get away for the weekend before, they're now extending those trips by a day on either side. so that's a big trend that i expect we'll see continue. and also just the popularity of travel. i think social media has really impacted that. i think people see their friends selfies in front of the eiffel tower or in tokyo, and they want to they want to copy that trip. so i think i think you're seeing a lot of excitement around travel. and really this is this

dates back to the pandemic when people were stuck at home. i think a lot of people decided that what they wanted to do was to travel more. >> and so what do you then, what are your predictions for 2025? because i find it interesting, because it was such a huge year for travel. but also this was the year of inflation, and this was the one of the years of inflation and people struggling to pay for their groceries. and so you kind of have this combination of factors, and i'm wondering what you think it all means for the year to come. >> yeah, i think that's one area that folks are. they don't care how much it costs. we haven't seen a lot of price resistance from consumers. i will say, over the last five years, airfares have actually come down slightly overall, and i regularly see deal alerts. so there is deals to be had out there and people are taking advantage of those, but people are just not as price sensitive as they used to be when it comes to travel. i think that's the one area people are willing to splurge on right now. the other interesting thing that's happening is the strong u.s. dollar is certainly

helping for international travel in places like tokyo, in places like europe, the u.s. dollar just goes further. it can be cheaper to go to europe than it can be to go to las vegas, for example. so that's that's one of the things that i'm watching. the return of business travel is a big is a big part of this. and then no let up in demand for leisure travel. i just, you know, american airlines just added a direct flight to bozeman, montana for leisure travelers. so airlines are making more decisions based around the consumer who loves to travel. >> ooh, i love that. i like learning more about more direct flights. fan of more direct flights. >> wait a minute before you go, please. what are your thoughts on gate lice? oh, on. because one of us i. i'm proudly skips lines. >> i am a i am an adorable louse when it comes to i'm okay with it. clint. tell me i'm fine. >> it's. >> she's been going into the

wrong group, but now we know why. >> because it is called harmless rebellion. it is her. it hurts no one, and it just gets it. just scratches that itch of like, can i get away with it? and now, apparently i'm called lice. >> clint is like, i'm not. >> no, i think it's i think it's it's fine. but the airlines are instituting technology to catch you. american airlines is trying out this thing where they beep. if you're in the wrong boarding group and you scan your boarding pass, it'll it'll it'll alert the gate agents. and it's embarrassing. so they're sending you the back of the line. so just be aware. they may they may catch you. >> i just realized i am going to be flying american soon, and it's not like this is a private chat room. i'm going to be having this conversation on right now. so, clint, um, come help me and whatever airport i'm going is with my camera to film the beat that happens and then scream, shame, shame, shame, embarrass. my daughter is going to be like, i knew you were the most

embarrassing mom ever. oh, what are we doing now? oh, you're going to continue. clint, you just thank you for anchoring with us. we really appreciate your time. sarah. >> anytime. >> yeah i'm going to do tease now coming up for us donald donald trump has his eye on the panama canal with the president of panama is now saying in response. and does non-negotiable really mean non-negotiable in the next trump term? and going where no man made object has gone before. what we could learn from our closest look at the sun. >> 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. >> long after guests leave, viruses and bacteria linger. air fresheners add a scent, but only lysol air sanitizer helps erase the trace, eliminating odor and killing 99.9% of viruses and bacteria in the

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it if i didn't truly believe it. >> i'm warren lieberman at the pentagon, and this is cnn well, santa claus might be speeding through

the skies tonight. >> a fast flying manmade object made history just hours ago during a trip near the sun. look at that. so cool. nasa's parker solar probe flew within 4 million miles of the sun. the closest humanity has ever come to the massive star. and the flyby happened at 430,000mph. that is fast enough to fly from tokyo to washington, dc in under one minute. cnn's space and defense analyst kristin fisher is joining us now. i love that idea of getting to dc under a minute. anyway. okay, so what are some of the things scientists are hoping to learn and exactly how close is this probe getting? >> well, sarah, you you gave some great stats, but just to kind of put this in perspective, imagine the distance between the earth and the sun were about the size of

a football field, right. >> what this would mean is that nasa's parker solar probe just got to like the four yard line. so it's really, really close. it's still, as you said, about 3.8 million miles away from the surface of the sun. but that's okay because it's still the closest that any human made object has ever gotten to a star. and the point of this solar probe is to try to figure out why the sun's corona, that's the outer atmosphere of the sun. what you see, kind of like whisping out during a total solar eclipse. they want to fly this probe right through the corona, not the surface, because they're wanting to figure out just why the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the surface of the sun. so that's one of the things that scientists are trying to figure out today. >> one of the many mysteries that we still don't have answers to. i am curious, even though there's a few million miles in between the probe and

the sun, it's still closer than we've ever gotten before. how does it not just like, burn up so thanks to some engineers and scientists at the johns hopkins applied physics laboratory in maryland, they've come up with a pretty cool way to keep this probe cool when it's this close to the sun. >> they actually have water pumping through the solar arrays that, power this probe. as it's making these close approaches to the sun. they also have several inch wide carbon foam shield that protects it from these really hot temperatures. so even if it's getting to be about 1800 degrees fahrenheit on this closest approach to the sun inside the probe, it's still only just about 340°f. so that's how they keep it all functioning. but sarah, they still lose comms. the mission control loses communications with the parker solar probe during this close approach. no total blackout for several

days. hopefully they'll hear back. they're going to get like a beacon signal that they're going to be waiting for on friday. that's when they'll know if the parker solar probe survived this close pass that just just happened. >> yeah, the parker solar probe could change the whole idea of flying too close to the sun. if we are able to get communications with it and it survives all this and sends back. god knows, untold pictures. kristin fisher, thank you so much. really appreciate it. i love these stories, kate. >> so hawaii's kilauea volcano, one of the most active in the world, erupting again on monday. it was erupting lava nearly 300ft into the air. it was the first eruption in three months. the spectacle on hawaii's big island drew crowds to volcanoes national park to watch it all in real time. it is always so beautiful and scary to see when you see those images from a distance, authorities say nearby communities not in danger. thankfully, and scary moments

at a lake tahoe ski resort when two chairlifts collided. specifically, witnesses say that one chair on the lift slid backwards. you can see it there, slammed into another, sending skiers falling to the ground. at least five people were hurt and taken to the hospital. the resort says it is now investigating what caused that very scary malfunction. and a massachusetts police officer is being credited with saving christmas for dozens of families after he found and returned a huge stash of abandoned amazon packages. the officer made the discovery while patrolling a wooded area early sunday morning, and police later learned the packages had been left behind by what they are calling a stressed out amazon driver. officers returned the packages to amazon. stress getting to everybody these days. a new hour of cnn news central starts now.