had with tiktok and figures he can probably help solve that issue. i certainly wouldn't underestimate him on this. let's remember, though, what really, if bytedance would sell tiktok? tiktok does not have to go away. it's that simple. i know i'm making it simplistic, but that's really what needs to happen here. and tiktok doesn't need to go anywhere. >> all right, jamal, your last thought. are we going to see tiktok sold in the new year? >> they want to stay in business. i think they're going to have to sell. i think the national security environment that they will be pretty clear about selling tiktok. first of all, donald trump also did not win youth by 34%. that's just right, right? quantifiably not true. so we should all remember that. lastly, for the democrats, the democrats are looking for a place to be reformers. it's not about left versus right all the time. it's about insiders versus outsiders. reforming the supreme court is one of these issues that's very hot with young people. and if democrats pick up that mantle, it's a way to get on sides with the voters they need in the future. >> all right. thank you to our entire panel. thank you for

joining us this morning. appreciate the conversation. i'm danny freeman, cnn news central. start right now. >> a christmas eve stowaway. a second incident for delta of someone sneaking onto a flight without a ticket. how this happened again after that incident that you're looking at right there in just a month. >> breaking overnight. the second black box has been recovered from a downed passenger jet. a u.s. official now weighing in. early indications suggest russia caused the deadly crash. and chaotic scenes as south koreas parliament votes to impeach the prime minister and acting president. less than two weeks after impeaching the president. i'm sarah side with kate bolduan. john berman is out today. this is cnn news

central. >> right. so new this morning, a stowaway discovered on a delta flight moments before takeoff. yes. another one. same airline, different departure city and different destination. in case you were wondering, this time, it happened on christmas eve in seattle. and delta says the honolulu bound flight left. the gate was taxiing when the person was discovered. now, this is the second time in a matter of weeks that delta is dealing with this. and you'll remember the saga just before thanksgiving, when this woman was snuck onto a paris bound delta flight and made it all the way to paris, which then triggered weeks of drama to get her back to the states to face charges. cnn's carlos suarez is at atlanta's hartsfield international airport. carlos, what are you learning about this latest incident? >> well, kate, good morning. >> so it appears that this passenger was able to get past a tsa security checkpoint

without a boarding pass the night before this christmas eve flight, as you mentioned. >> this flight was from seattle to honolulu. it was delta flight 487. this passenger was able to get past the security checkpoint the night before this flight. and then the day of the flight, the passenger is able to get on board this plane without a ticket. now, at some point, as the aircraft was taxiing out for departure, the crew there identified that this passenger did not have a ticket, and so they went back to the gate and somehow the passenger was able to get off the plane before authorities arrived there, though, they were able to take that passenger into custody in a bathroom at this airport in seattle. now, delta, of course, was quick to put out a statement saying in part, quote, that as there are no matters more important than safety and security, delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and

then apprehended the passenger, whose identity has not been released. kate was arrested and charged with trespassing. >> kate, you lay out the details that are known perfectly, but there are a lot of questions still that need to be known about how this happened, how that person was able to get off and then be found in a bathroom later because he got off before the authorities even showed up to the flight. tons of questions. much more to come clearly on this. but also today i am noticing quite a bit of activity around you my friend. this is also one of the busiest travel days of the year. how's it looking from the world's busiest airport? >> yes, kate, so no doubt. of course, the next couple of days are going to be quite busy at airports across the country, including here in atlanta. in fact, the next couple of days are really the top three days for air travel across the u.s. here at atlanta's hartsfield jackson international airport. the folks out here tell us that they expect to have well

over 357,000 passengers come through this airport today alone, making it the busiest travel day of the year for this airport. of course, it wouldn't be a holiday travel season without talk of cancellations and delays. yesterday we had nearly 800 flights across the u.s. that were canceled. a quick look at the flight board. according to flightaware, at this hour, that number is creeping up. we're at about 300 flights that have been canceled, in large part because we have some bad weather that is going to move across the south. so for folks that are going to be traveling today, in the next couple of days, just keep in mind that it's going to be busy. kate. >> absolutely. carlos, thank you very much. sara. >> all right. as millions get ready to head home or travel for their new years destination. fun. severe storms could hamper travel. strong tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail expected to hit the south this weekend. then those severe storms will head east. meteorologist elisa raffa joining us now with the very

latest on this. where are the worst storms expected to originate. and then of course, i think there will be a shift yeah. >> today we're really worried about the south and then going into tomorrow, the pacific northwest will continue to be a problem through the weekend as well. >> we already had some problems on the ground in dallas yesterday because of some heavy rain. you had some ground stops at both airports today expecting some problems across the south. could be some delays from new orleans to atlanta because of the storm. that will continue to swirl. and then the atmospheric river doesn't stop along the west coast. we'll continue with some rain and snow from seattle down towards portland and san francisco as well. the storm that we're watching across the south will continue to pump some strong and severe storms that will be possible. right now, we don't have too much in the way of watches. a lot of these storms have kind of degraded on the overnight, but by tomorrow we're really worried about this outbreak of severe weather. that's likely we have a level three out of five, enhanced risk of severe weather there in that bullseye from

louisiana into mississippi. and then it switches east as we go into sunday. you can see that bullseye across the southeast from charlotte down towards the florida gulf coast. now we're looking at that threat for tornadoes could be on the stronger side. we're talking about ef2 or greater possible. it is december, right. so we don't usually talk about tornadoes, let alone tornadoes. this strong in december. when we're talking about, you know, tornadoes in december, it's not impossible. it is on the more rare side. but if you're going to get them, they are most likely along the gulf coast. texas and louisiana already had reported tornadoes from yesterday. if you look at from the entire year, december is one of the least likely months that we can get tornadoes. you can see averaging 43 in the month, much, much less compared to the nearly 200 over 200 in the spring months of march and april. and this year has just been so incredibly active. we've had, almost 2000 tornadoes since january 1st, way above the average. so as we

continue to go through the day today, those showers and storms will continue to fire up a line of storms that can bring you the damaging winds, the large hail, and some of those tornadoes that pushes east going into tomorrow. with that even greater severe threat, you can see those storms. look at them blowing up and igniting. and a lot of that rain starts to push to the east. so by the weekend we're looking at more of those problem spots up and down the east coast. as these storms continue to shift east, look at where we can find some moderate delays from washington, d.c. up to new york by sunday. also notice the pacific northwest is nonstop with headaches because of the rain, the snow, and the gusty winds that continue as that atmospheric river really just doesn't let up. >> sara, it's rough out there. all right. thank you so much. elisa raffa. thank you. appreciate it. >> kate, coming up for us, a second black box now recovered from the crash site in central asia, just as some of the survivors of that fiery crash arrived back in azerbaijan, where the flight originated. plus, a judge rejecting jay-z's move to dismiss the

sexual assault lawsuit against him. and that judge also had some harsh words for jay-z's attorney in the process. and an amazing moment caught on camera. a dog missing for more than a week returns home and rings the doorbell. haha and it has been one wild year. >> i know that whole live stream was crazy. >> what you have been following actual news, right? oh boy. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn and streaming live on max. >> you didn't get where you are playing it safe. you seek opportunities. others don't. your growing ambition needs a partner built for growth. with markham now a part of cbis, discover new ways to accelerate growth from insights that drive the bottom line to technology that powers enterprises. your

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you're overpaying for car insurance. go to finance buzz. com now i'm rahel solomon in new york and this is cnn all right. >> breaking overnight. the second black box has been recovered from the wreckage of that deadly azerbaijan airlines plane crash in kazakhstan. those boxes will likely play very key roles in determining the cause of the crash. as a u.s. official now saying that russia's air defense system may be to blame for bringing that plane down. 38 people were killed in that devastating crash. but remarkably, 29 others survived. this morning we are seeing the first images of 12 of those survivors arriving back in azerbaijan. five of them in, quote, serious

but stable condition. cnn's nadia bashir is joining me now from london. not a new information is coming in every minute this morning about what happened. what are you learning? >> that's right. >> we are continuously getting updates from the authorities there. just in the last few moments. azerbaijan's state news agency reporting, citing azerbaijan airlines, that they have found that the plane may have faced an external physical and technical interference. so that may be a crucial part of this investigation. as investigators and officials and authorities continue to examine the evidence. and as you mentioned, sara, they have now, of course, located the second black box, both of those black boxes will be crucial in piecing together those final moments of the flight, providing flight data as well as recordings from within the cockpit. but we have heard from authorities saying that it could take around two weeks before they are able actually to fully assess the data

included in those black boxes. so it may be a while before we have any information on that front. but of course we are learning more details around what may have caused the plane crash. there has been a lot of speculation as to what led to this fatal crash. early reports, of course, that the plane may have collided with a flock of birds. there were also questions around nearby drone activity. the crash, of course, occurred shortly after a drone strike in southern russia. but now, as you mentioned, we have heard from one u.s. official who has said that this crash may have been caused by russian anti-aircraft systems. now, this, of course, echoes earlier reporting that we had heard from reuters, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with the ongoing investigation, that that plane crash was in fact caused by russian air defense systems. there is speculation that this may have been a case of mistaken identity, with russia perhaps attempting to target what it believed to be ukrainian. drones were clearly

not the case. but again, we are still waiting for those firm and final conclusions by the investigative body. a commission has been set up by the kazakh government, and there have been calls for people not to speculate. but as you can imagine, a lot of questions as to what led to this deadly crash. >> absolutely nada. bashir, thank you so much. and we'll be discussing this more in the coming hour. all right. samples of the bird flu taken from the first severe human case in the united states, shows signs of mutations that could make it easier for that virus to spread. we have details from a brand new cdc report and a delivery driver under arrest after police say she stabbed a pregnant woman 14 times over a bad tip. air. >> 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.

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hurry hurry hurry. >> so new this morning. the cdc is now saying a sample. the first severe human case of bird flu in the united states shows new mutations of the virus. but despite the new find, the cdc, cdc still maintains that the risk to the general public remains low. let's bring in cnn's meg. cnn's meg tirrell for much more on this and this mutation in the virus. what exactly does it mean? meg, what are you learning? >> yeah. kate. so first, the good news. >> this is a mutation that they've observed or a set of mutations they've observed in this hospitalized patient in louisiana that seems confined to this patient in louisiana. they did not find these this set of mutations in the birds from which they think that this virus was this patient was infected. and there is no evidence that this has been passed on. so that is the good news. the more concerning news. and that's using sort of cdc term, they say this is

concerning. this shows that the virus has potentially mutated in this patient. to give it a better way to potentially infect the upper respiratory cells in humans. we haven't seen human to human transmission of this bird flu virus. and a big reason for that is it's not very good at infecting the cells in our upper airway, our nose and our throat, for example. and so what they're seeing is that in this patient who's been hospitalized, the virus mutated in this way to sort of gain these mutations. and these are similar mutations to ones seen in a patient who was hospitalized in canada as well. and so this has not spread beyond this patient that we know of. so the cdc still says the risk to the public is low, but it shows that it can potentially do this. and we should be trying to limit the virus's spread to people from animals as much as we can. >> yeah, exactly. and thank god for the cdc for tracking this and finding the mutations so they can try to get in front of it and on and in terms of tracking and trying to get in front of, well, let's call it pandemics. you also have some really interesting new

reporting about work that researchers are doing on the beaches of new jersey to try and beat the next pandemic. what's this all about yeah, so we need to know what's going on with this virus, not just in people, but of course, in the hosts that keep giving it to people or giving it to things around people from which we end up getting it. >> and those, of course, are birds. so our colleague brenda goodman did this fabulous report. it's on cnn.com. there's beautiful footage of these beaches where every may researchers return because horseshoe crabs are mating and laying eggs. and what that does is brings hundreds of thousands of birds of all kinds of different species to these beaches in cape may, new jersey, where they poop a lot after they eat those eggs. and that poop, these researchers say, is really a treasure trove for research about viruses. and so they collect hundreds of samples from this bird poop, and then they sequence it in labs, and they figure out if there are flu viruses in there. now they did this last may. they did not find h5n1 in those samples. however, they have

been doing more research in ducks around the country, and they did find it in ducks in tennessee in november and december. and all of this research really gives us an idea of where h5n1 is in birds, how it's getting introduced into our bird populations in the united states as these birds travel really long distances in their migratory patterns. and so this really gives us an insight into what's going on with this virus that, unfortunately, is swirling all around us and unfortunately causing these these risks that scientists are quite worried about. >> so fascinating. it's great to see. meg, thank you so much for that. we're also following some breaking news out of south korea. lawmakers there vote to impeach the acting president in a rowdy session of parliament. it's the second major impeachment of the country's leader in just two weeks. what this growing political crisis for one of america's closest allies now means. and look at the seven stocks driving nearly all of the recent market gains and what has them soaring.

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>> presented by state farm on tnt. >> the political crisis deepening this morning in south korea after parliament voted overnight to impeach the acting president. this is happening barely two weeks after lawmakers impeached the president and stripped him of his powers. after he briefly ordered martial law. now the country is on its second acting president in less than 14 days. cnn international correspondent hanako montgomery joins us now. what led up to what happened and then what happens next? >> hi, sarah. >> i mean, we're talking about two impeachment votes in the span of less than two weeks. i mean, this is unprecedented not only for south korea, but also, frankly, much of the democratic world. now, there are a number of reasons why the acting president han duck-soo was voted to be impeached today. but what really stood out is actually what the main opposition party leader said during today's vote.

give this a listen, yoon suk yeol. >> we will remove yoon suk yeol from office, uproot his loyalist forces and fully suppress the insurrection. until that moment, we will pool all our resources and fulfill our historic responsibility. >> now, some background on the events leading up to today's vote. as you described, south korea was plunged into a political crisis earlier this month when the president, yoon suk yeol, declared a very short lived martial law. then shortly two weeks after that, the country's parliament voted to impeach the president, and he was stripped of his duties. but in order for the formal impeachment process to actually end a constitutional court ruling, upholding this decision is required. but critically, and this is the problem facing south korea right now. they don't have enough judges within the constitutional court to issue such a ruling. and actually, it's the job of the acting president han, to fill those vacant spots. but he's

refused to do so, which has led to this political deadlock we're currently seeing in the country. now for south korea's future. what happens next? next in line to fill the spot of the acting president is the country's finance minister. but this political saga is still far from over. in fact, this crisis, this political game of of musical chairs, if you will, is coming at a really critical time for the country as it's preparing for the next trump administration. there are a lot of questions and concerns about how well south korea can actually engage in diplomacy and maintain stable u.s. south korean relations when its own political leadership isn't stable. and sara, the question that still remains to be answered is when will all this political uncertainty in south korea actually end? and frankly, that's anybody's guess. >> sara, we think we have wild politics here. well, guess what south korea's trumping. pun intended us. hanako montgomery. thank you so much. appreciate it kate.

>> let's talk more about this right now. joining us is washington post columnist josh rogin. it's good to see you. josh i mean yun pulls off this baffling move on december 3rd that lasts all of a matter of hours. but the political crisis, it's very clearly triggered only seems to be getting worse, not better. what do you think of this? >> yeah, it's really crazy. kate. >> the president of south korea attempted a military coup, failed, and is now clinging to power. >> and he might actually succeed. he might actually be able to stop his own removal. and. sound familiar? you know, this is the beginning of south korea's political crisis, because what's going to happen now is it's going to take months for them to sort this out. and while that happens, south korea is going to be politically rudderless and the country is just in complete turmoil. i think in the end, my prediction is that the president will have to go. the people want him gone. he faces criminal charges. but how we get there could be a

long and winding road, and we just don't know exactly how that's going to happen yet. >> and i think what happens during that long and winding road is an important one. when you're looking from the united states perspective. i mean, as hanako montgomery was saying, this is the first time south korea's impeached an interim leader. it means that yet again, one of america's most important allies continues on without really, i'll say, really anybody in charge who can really take charge of government and military there. how is washington looking at this? >> yeah, it's a real disaster for u.s. south korea relations on a couple of levels. first of all, as we just heard, it's really hard to make friends with the trump administration if you don't have a government, if you don't know who's leading your country. so every leader in the world is trying to get in good with the trump administration. south koreans are on the sidelines because they're too internally messed up right now to play that game. and then for the u.s., we need south korea on a lot of important things, like standing up to china, dealing with north korea. there was a whole process to make peace

with south between south korea and japan. all of that is up in the air. all of that is going to be more difficult. south korea is also helping ukraine against russia. uh, is that going to continue? so south korea is dysfunction is not just a problem for south korea. it's a problem for the region. and the world. >> is there any silver lining to this? like the people in the parliament pushed back and didn't allow the martial law to take hold? do you see any silver lining here? josh? >> i do, and talking to south koreans, they they are proud of the fact that the military coup failed. they're proud of the fact that, uh, the, the south korean military didn't shoot the protesters and they didn't shoot the lawmakers who tried to go and do their jobs. and south korean democracy survived. i guess that's a silver lining. if you want to find one, and you know that you can look around the world and see a lot of democracies that are sort of slipping towards autocracy. but in south korea, at least for

now, that seems not to have succeeded. and although it will be a tough road ahead eventually the south korean democracy will be restored one way or the other. >> look and yoon suk yeol is waiting to see what happens to him. he has defended his move. just so everyone is clear. he's defended his move to declare martial law as an act of government governance. he's denied charges of insurrection, but in the meantime, as this winding road continues, is it clear to you what it means for u.s. efforts to counter the threats, the ongoing threat, nuclear threat and beyond from north korea? because, you know, north korea is watching this and i'm sure quite happy what they're seeing. >> right. i mean, north korea is fighting against the in russia. they're ramping up their missile and nuclear technology. they're threatening the region. they've turned their back on south korea. and any process to reunify. so that's a really dangerous situation. it's not really a situation where you want a south korea that's in total

chaos. and the wild card here is not actually south korea. the wild card is trump. because president trump tried to make friends with kim jong un. it didn't work, but you could imagine him trying to trying again. and if he does that, that's really kind of the most important thing that can happen to south korea. so you would think that they would want to be involved and they can't be involved right now. so there's a lot going on in the world. we've got ukraine, we've got china, we've got north korea, we've got the middle east. not a good time to have a major ally in total chaos, and especially as we transition in our political leadership, that's a lot of moving parts that are not working together right now. so i think south koreans hopefully will get their act together sooner rather than later. and then hopefully the trump administration will be able to reset us-south korea relations on that basis. >> but you raised something really important going forward is what is donald trump, the president elect's view of what's happening in south korea right now? i don't think that is something we do not know. that is an important question going forward to answer what relations will be

like. josh, it's great to see you. thanks so much for coming in. sara. >> all right. donald trump may have won north carolina, but a democrat will lead the state next year. governor elect josh stein handily beat trump's initial pick, mark robinson, in november. but for stein, the results were not just about robinson's scandals. and now the only battleground democrat who did better than donald trump has a message for his party. cnn's isaac de vere has more on this. what is the lesson that he is trying to impart to democrats so that they, too, can win? >> yeah, that's right. sarah. josh stein, the governor elect in north carolina, is a prosecutor. >> he has been in politics for 20 years. he had ties to the incumbent democratic administration. sounds familiar to kamala harris, except in north carolina, a state that kamala harris was desperately trying to win and had been working to win even before she became the nominee. over the

summer, she lost. josh stein won, but josh stein won with 171,000 more votes than donald trump got winning the state. >> it's a huge win in north carolina, almost 15 point margin for stein. and with it, he swept in a lieutenant governor who's a democrat, a state superintendent of schools. he broke the supermajority in the state legislature. it's a really big win for democrats in a state that donald trump won. and when i was getting into the reporting of this and talking with stein and his team about it, they said, look, this is actually the kind of thing that democrats need to really think about how they make the appeal to people on what they care about. so when stein, he was attacked on immigration, he was attacked on being soft on crime. what he did was talk about his record doing things like reducing the the rape kit backlog in north carolina, fighting the fentanyl crisis. when he talked about abortion,

he talked about not as an ideological thing, but about respect for women. i sat with him recently in asheville, north carolina, obviously a place that is recovering from that hurricane earlier in the fall. and i said to him, what? what is this? people have been calling all the time, i assume. and he said, yes, it's evidently it's not a satisfying answer because people continue to come back to me, but how but how but how? and look, i worked very hard. the team around me is extremely strong. we ran a savvy campaign, he said to me, but i don't think any of those things matter. if voters don't believe you are fighting for them. and that is the task in front of the democratic party overall, as they try to pick up the pieces from the november elections, think about how to win in all sorts of places around the country, but especially in places like north carolina, where there is clearly a way for democrats to win. and there is clearly a need for them to start doing better as the population shifts around the country and the electoral college going into the 2030s will require democrats to actually win in north carolina in the last nine

presidential elections, it's gone for the republicans eight times. but in the last nine gubernatorial elections. now, this is number nine. it's gone for the democrat eight times. so that is the kind of coalition building and thinking about issues that the democrats all over the country are trying to study and think about how they can do better at going forward. >> yeah, it's not just what you're doing to to to let people know you're working for them. it sounds like his message is there's also the messaging on the other side of that to let people know what is being done for them as well. isaac dovere, thank you so much. appreciate it. it's great reporting, kate, if one thing has become clear this week, it is that the president elect elect is fixated on wanting to retake control of the panama canal and also obsessing once again on wanting to buy greenland, all leading to kind of a constant refrain of is he serious or is he trolling? >> cnn's alayna treene has new reporting now and insight from inside the trump world. >> reporter well, donald trump's fixation this week over wanting to take control

over the panama canal, as well as the revival of his desire to purchase greenland, a danish territory, is really part of a larger negotiating tactic, i'm told. one trump adviser told me his interpretation of what donald trump has been saying this week is really that he wants to force foreign leaders to the negotiating table to bolster united states trade, but also to try and curb both russia and china's larger influence over the global region. now, as it relates to panama, specifically, donald trump believes that panama and as it relates to the panama canal specifically, is taking advantage of the united states and its companies. he really is pushing for a new agreement that would lower the price that different american vessels pay for passage throughout the panama canal. he also believes that many chinese companies are controlling the ports around the panama canal, essentially giving them more control over which ships can pass through and again, what the prices are for other countries. now, as it relates to greenland, i'm told

that donald trump's kind of fixation on that has been about trying to curb russia's influence in the arctic region, and that's part of why he's continued to say that he wants to buy greenland, even though we know that its prime minister who controls the danish territory, has said that greenland is not for sale, just like it wasn't for sale back in 2019 when he first floated this idea of trying to purchase the country. now all to say, this is what one of the trump advisers told me. they said, quote, everything has to be looked at in terms of curbing russia and china influence, while also protecting the economy. now, to be clear as well, to go back to the panama canal here and what donald trump has been saying, donald trump has actually been fixated on this for several months now, i'm told. and i would actually point to an august interview he did with tucker carlson on x, where he brought this up. he said that he believed that the former president, jimmy carter, who negotiated this treaty to give panama control over the canal despite it being u.s. made, was a stupid idea. he believes that panama is taking advantage of the united states,

and that he would potentially want to negotiate some sort of different deal with panama if he were to be elected president. >> all right. historically, stocks rise after a presidential election, so the trump bump nothing new, but something unprecedented is actually happening. when you take a closer look. just seven out of more than 500 stocks, now known as the magnificent seven, make up nearly all of the gains since november. cnn's matt egan is joining us now. okay, so what is so magnificent, magnificent about these seven stocks. and clearly it is not my ability to speak well, sarah. >> these seven stocks are clearly living up to the hype. they basically put the entire stock market on their shoulders and carrying it higher. so we are talking about what's been dubbed the magnificent seven. this is amazon, alphabet, apple, meta, microsoft, nvidia and tesla. now all seven of their no surprises. and really they all have two things in

common, right? they're all massive. they're also all a.i. plays, right. they're investing heavily in artificial intelligence. and they are believed to be the likely winners in this a.i. arms race. now, the combined market value of these seven companies has now spiked above $18 trillion trillion with a t some context that is more than the entire gdp of china. and since election day, these seven stocks have accounted for the vast majority 86% of the returns of the s&p 500. it's really stunning. now, we have seen this trend play out really all year because these seven stocks account for more than half of the gains of what has been a very, very strong year for the stock market. if you were to exclude these seven stocks, the s&p 500 would only be up 13% this year, when in reality it's up almost 30%. so still up just wouldn't be up by quite as much. now we know a.i. has been the hottest part

of this bull market. of course the question is how long will that continue? and the answer to that question, i think, is massive in terms of the stakes for really the whole stock market. >> yeah, it seems like if those seven catch a cold, the rest of the seven cough, the rest of the stock market catches a cold. how does this level of market concentration sort of look like or stack up globally? >> yeah. >> well and historically sure. >> well we have seen this play out in the past though, just not to this extent. we saw something similar in the late 1990s, before the bursting of the.com bubble, also before covid. that chart on your screen shows the level of market concentration for the top ten stocks, and goldman sachs has found that the top ten stocks in the s&p 500 right now account for 36% of the value of the entire market. that is an all time high. now, as far as what this means, there's positives and negatives. as long as the a.i. boom continues, this could mean more and more gains for the

market. but to your point about if one of them catches a cold, it's not really ideal to have the whole market rely on just a few players. it's kind of like a football team. if it totally lives and dies on just one player, that's probably not going to end up well in the long run. so we need to pay very close attention because for the market to continue to shatter records next year, either this rally has to broaden out or these seven stocks have to stay magnificent. wow. >> matt egan, thank you so much. thanks. that's really interesting. all right. new this morning a judge denies jay-z's efforts to dismiss the case, accusing him of raping a 13 year old girl. the scathing language the judge used in the decision and stabbed over a bad tip. a pizza delivery worker is in custody this morning accused of stabbing a pregnant customer. 14 times.

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>> kate. prime minister benjamin netanyahu probably only gets riled by one thing more than being in the dock himself. and that is when accusations are made against his wife. so he's come out quite as expected, really, with all guns blazing, decrying these allegations against his wife as a new blood libel, saying that this report on israel's equivalent of 60 minutes, known as uvda, goes out on channel 12, went out on thursday and saying that this report was biased and false propaganda. his justice minister has said that this is once again extreme and extreme. in his words, extreme selective enforcement. itamar ben gvir, the extreme right wing national security minister in netanyahu's government, calling for the attorney general to go. not for the first time, i should add. now, specifically, the attorney general has said, and i'm quoting here, that an investigation should be opened into suspicions of witness harassment and obstruction of justice. and as you say, this relates to prime minister benjamin netanyahu's own corruption trial, in which he's standing trial for

alleged breach of trust, fraud and bribery charges that he vehemently denies. now, there's no investigation just yet. and certainly we're a very long way off seeing this come to court. i should note that sara netanyahu does have legal issues in the past that she's had to deal with. she was convicted in 2019 of misusing public funds. and the reason why this matters more than just being a bit of tittle tattle, if you like, about the prime minister's wife, is because many people will draw a direct line from the prime minister's legal problems to the plans to overhaul the judiciary. that went on for the best part of a year led to hundreds of thousands of israelis coming out onto the streets in protest at what they saw as an attempt to weaken the powers of the supreme court. and some would even draw a line from that into how this effectively led hamas partly to believe that it was a good time to carry out the october 7th attacks, because israel was so divided. kate. >> yeah. great reporting,

eliot, and that that through line is definitely part of this story for sure. really appreciate it, sara. >> all right. we are getting new details this morning telling details on the preliminary investigation into that deadly christmas plane crash in kazakhstan. investigators determined, quote, physical and technical interference caused the plane to plunge from the sky. those details are coming from the airline itself, according to state media. in azerbaijan, where the flight originated overnight. we also learned that authorities recovered the second black box at the site of the crash. now, a u.s. official is telling cnn that early indications suggest a russian anti-aircraft system may have downed that plane in a case of mistaken identity. russian officials, well, they are urging people against speculation while the investigation continues. joining me now is cnn military analyst, retired lieutenant general mark hertling. thank you so much for

being here. happy holidays to you. this is an awful, awful scene that we have looked at on christmas day, seeing this plane fall out of the sky. russia initially said it was likely a bird strike that caused this crash. now the airline is using words physical and technical interference in their initial assessment. what can you glean from those words? what do they tell you? >> well good morning sarah. and it just reinforces the words that are being used. what actually happened and that the physical interference was probably a weapon system that caused dysfunction in the aircraft in a variety of ways. the technical interference is something that has been speculated about electronic warfare jamming, the fact that some kind of external technical operations causes caused the aircraft to not only avert their landing a couple of times in grozny, but

also shift to another. several has been reported. several potential landing locations that they were denied. so we're talking about the potential of both a weapon system and some kind of dysfunction on the ground, which caused the the the lack of the ability for this aircraft to to land correctly with all its passengers on board. >> when you look at the plane and the video that has been coming in, what do you see without being at the scene that makes this clear that this was not likely a bird strike? >> yeah. well, first of all, the the external factors that show the the holes in the side of the aircraft have to do with the type of air defense systems, the weapons the russians use. they have a couple of short range air defense pieces of equipment. one is the book, the kind of system that shot down mh17 back in in 2014. this one was more likely, in my view, something called a panacea, a weapon system. it also is a

short range system, and it has a missile that can either hit the aircraft directly and cause an explosion, or it can explode off to the side of the aircraft or in front of it and cause shrapnel damage. the amount of holes in the side of the airplane in the aft part of the airplane tells me that this was an air defense system, and certainly not a bird strike, which was the russians first conclusion or excuse for it would be a better term to use. so when you see a lot of shrapnel on the side of the plane, what that does is disrupt either the avionics or the control systems. and in this case, it looked like it actually affected the rudder, some of the ailerons and some of the other pieces of the aircraft that caused the disruption and the movement of the plane, but also the eventual crash as well. the film showing the airplane going up and down and trying to gain some type of aerodynamic form. >> yeah, it was terrifying

pictures watching it sort of fall out of the sky. russia still has not admitted its role in the downing of the commercial mh17 flight over ukraine. do you think there will be any consequences if it is determined that indeed russia shot this passenger flight down? >> well, during mh17, the consequences against russia were a lot of sanctions, a lot of world condemnation. they've already received much of that. sara, from their invasion, their illegal invasion into ukraine. so i'm not sure how much more can be resolved. but the fact of the matter is, this is going to affect the airline industry going in and around the territories of russia. and also some of the caucus states, like we saw this airplane going to azerbaijan and perhaps even places like georgia. it's too close to a war zone and there is too much of a dysfunction within the russian military that they can't control their air defense and their

electronic warfare against civilian aircraft. so i think it may have effects in that regard to to close down some of the airports and some of the air travel into this specific area. >> lieutenant general mark hertling, thank you so much for coming in on this holiday week. we really appreciate your time. >> okay, so a federal judge in new york has denied rapper jay-z's efforts to dismiss a case accusing him of raping a 13 year old girl. in the new ruling, the judge also condemned the tactics that jay-z's attorney has been using. the judge writing, quote, his lawyer's relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks is inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client. the court will not fast track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it. the judge also ruled the accuser could remain anonymous, despite efforts to have her identity revealed. jay-z has repeatedly denied all allegations. a florida woman could be spending the rest of

her life in prison, after police say she stabbed a woman 14 times in front of that woman's five year old daughter. and here is why the violent incident allegedly started over an argument about a tip on a pizza delivery. 22 year old briana alvelo is who you're looking at delivered the pizza, then left and allegedly later broke into the victim's motel room and then stabbed her in the chest, arms, legs and stomach. the woman was taken to the hospital, is recovering and in stable condition, according to police. alvelo, though now facing a bunch of charges, including for home invasion with a firearm, attempted murder, kidnaping and aggravated assault. a family in florida had their christmas wish come true with their beloved dog, who had been missing for a week, showing back up on their doorstep christmas eve. and not just that, the dog rang the doorbell. >> it was about 2:30 a.m. and she came pawing at the door, ringing the do,