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a month. >> call 1-877-538-3882 or visit homeserve. >> com closed captioning brought to you by inventhelp. call one( 800) 710-0020. >> do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call inventhelp today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now( 800) 710-0020. >> luther. never too much new years day at eight on cnn. >> survivors of that airliner crash in central asia now describing their terrifying ordeal for the first time as investigators hope the plane's black boxes will give them concrete information about what was happening. as that plane was brought down. >> plus, a potential rift forming in maga world between the billionaire's president elect trump, tasked with making government more efficient, and

the members of his party who expect aggressive, aggressive immigration policy from the new administration and dismissal denied. a judge slams jay-z's attempt to throw out the civil case, alleging he raped a 13 year old girl back in 2000. we're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central we begin this hour with new assertions over russia's possible involvement in the caucasus kazakhstan plane crash that killed more than half the people on board. a u.s. official telling cnn russian air defenses potentially misidentified an azerbaijan airlines jet, potentially mistaking it for a ukrainian drone. >> the airline said their preliminary findings show, quote, external interference caused that crash and we are now hearing from survivors. a woman from her hospital bed telling reuters, quote, about 20 or 30 minutes after takeoff, we felt two explosions. she

added the plane was supposed to land but didn't. something exploded inside. twice, a man's hand was injured. we panicked. cnn national security analyst beth saner is former deputy director of national intelligence and joins us now. so, beth, um, you know, jessica was just noting a source is telling our colleague oren liebermann at the pentagon that the russian air defenses potentially misidentified this jet. this, of course, when we know there had been a fair amount of ukrainian drone activity in the area and around grozny, where the plane was supposed to land. there's been a lot of back and forth about the communication that was and was not there potentially for these airliners. how much could that potentially contribute to something like this? yeah, absolutely. >> i mean, this is an airspace that has been infiltrated by ukrainian drones repeatedly over the past few months. >> and it appears that there was a drone strike on this area near the airport at this very time when the azeri jet, the

azeri civilian airliner, was approaching. and, you know, it's really it is unfortunately easy in a kind of combat situation or war situation for this kind of misidentification to take place. and i'll i'll just say that, you know, the u.s. in the red sea, one of our most. upgraded destroyers, just shot down with friendly fire an f-18 jet last week. so these things happen. and, you know, even though they both systems should have had this identification friend or foe system that would have correctly identified the. >> aircraft and beth white house national security council spokesperson john kirby did acknowledge on the record today, the possibility, the possibility that this plane was shot down by russian air defenses. what does that tell you that that that's where the official statement from kirby on the record at this point. >> well, i think that they know

some information that probably confirms what is clearly observable by looking at the fuselage of this plane. i mean, it's pockmarked with holes that go from the outside in. it was clearly hit by something, not by birds. as the russians claim. and then i think, you know, the u.s. does have satellite capabilities where it can use infrared and other kind of sensing devices that can identify this kind of fire. it can identify heat and moving heat. that would be this interceptor missile. and they can identify where it comes from. and and they can see that impact via satellite. so there's probably some intelligence that backs up that the plane was struck. that's my guess. >> russia not surprisingly pretty quiet on all of this. dmitry peskov really tight lipped. our colleague nathan hodge, who's also a former cnn

moscow bureau chief, was noting in some analysis that disinformation or perhaps even lack of information from the kremlin could really be trying to hide the cause of the crash. and he pointed out russian state tv today, for example, there was no mention of the possibility that this airliner was shot down. how long do you think, especially with the amount of video evidence there is and what is coming out now and what is being said on the record, how long do you think they can maintain that in russia in terms of that disinformation, if you will? >> well, you know, on the scene in kazakhstan where the crash is, you have azeris and kazakh officials investigating the united states is also offered to help in investigation if necessary. so there's going to be an independent investigation of this that i think will clearly determine through just looking at the strikes on the plane and the damage caused, that it

will be pretty incontrovertible that this was hit by some kind of shrapnel and that it will be air defenses. so i think that this will last, you know, as long as this investigation lasts. but these relationships also are kind of complicated. and russia also doesn't want to admit anything given its own involvement in the mh17. the malaysian airliners that were shot down over ukraine just a decade ago and killed 298 people. russia never accepted responsibility for that. >> all right, beth sanner, as always, great to hear from you. thank you so much for that. >> thank you. happy holidays. >> you too. there are new questions today about the security at the nation's airports. after news of yet another stowaway who was caught on board a delta airlines flight. this latest incident, taking place in seattle on christmas eve. the plane itself was bound for hawaii. the unticketed passenger was

discovered just as the jet was taxiing for takeoff a few weeks ago. >> you'll remember right before thanksgiving, the woman you see here allegedly traveled all the way to paris after getting onto a delta flight at new york's jfk airport without a ticket. this latest incident, the stowaway, somehow got through a tsa screening checkpoint the night before. let's bring in cnn aviation analyst miles o'brien to talk more about this. miles, delta and tsa vowed to step up security after that first incident around thanksgiving. what does it say to you that this has happened? a version of this again just about a month later. >> it wasn't enough of a step up. clearly, there is no question. >> i you know, i think the takeaway good news here, which we shouldn't overlook, is that in all cases, these passengers have in fact been screened. >> they went through. they walked through the x-ray device or the millimeter wave device or their and their carry on baggage was put through x ray devices. so they were screened.

but part of the whole process is to identify who the individuals are, who are going into the tsa checkpoint, and those your i.d. is checked against the no fly list for any individual who might be a potential threat, given some sort of history to the aircraft. and so the fact that individuals got by that is, is a bad sign. and then, of course, the next layer of concern is the agent at the gate who is the literally the gatekeeper for the aircraft and the door to the jetway. now, in all cases, what you have is, you know, basically a lot of people in a lot of under pressure passengers wanting to get on their flight. the gate agents under a lot of pressure to get that pushback on time. the tsa agents having to deal with huge volumes of people and ultimately the humans are the weak point in all of this. so there are some technological solutions that you see a lot more facial recognition being deployed by the tsa, as well as

delta airlines. now, using that a fair amount as you board aircraft. but you know, the whole system is built on layers of redundancy. and the these two points of security failure have pointed out serious weaknesses. >> so do you think then that will lead to a reassessment or even potentially any changes? >> i would hope so. i would have thought after the first event when the individual flew all the way to paris and had to be sent back, i would have thought that delta would have upped its game such that another gate agent wouldn't let that happen. but you have to imagine these scenarios. it's a busy time for travel. you have this scrum of people trying to get on, and there's usually just one individual there, you know, scanning people's boarding passes. in this case, the layer of redundancy would stop the aircraft from taking off. with the stowaway. was the cabin crew. they were able to determine on a full flight that there was one additional person. and that is an important thing. so i think

each step of the way individuals have to who are in that chain of security, have got to be reminded of the importance of their work, even though it is in many cases, an overwhelming lot of pressure on them to do their job and not make a single mistake. and all it takes is one mistake. >> yeah, no. and i hear that. and look, we've all been boarding a plane when everyone gathers around and they can't sit down, they can't wait for their zone to be called, and they're all elbowing each other. it's not exactly pleasant for the gate agent that tries to, you know, get everybody in line. but what do you think that they can do? is it streamlining that process more? what can they actually do to tighten that security at that particular point? >> yeah, it would be nice if people just listened to their zones and kind of follow the rules a little bit. yeah, it's a novel approach. maybe there's a way to incentivize them in a better way, or maybe there should be additional personnel there to, to, you

know, help these gate agents do what they need to do. ultimately, the airlines are all very cost conscious operation. of course. i think, you know, when you think about some of the technology that's being deployed by the tsa, you see in many airports now, as you exit the bubble, the security bubble, these triple doors, which make it very difficult for people to get back in, maybe these gates and the access to the jetways need to have a little more fortification to limit the number of people going on at any given time, because i do think these these gate agents get completely overwhelmed, you know, trying to scan everybody in and people are kind of moving in together. and it's hard to keep track of everything. they're making those announcements. they're making announcements telling people to wait their turn. >> yes, we should listen to them. yeah. um, miles o'brien, we should. i know we always thank you so much. we really appreciate it. all right. new in to cnn today. a brutal body cam video showing a handcuffed inmate being fatally beaten by

corrections officers at a new york prison. and we want to warn you that this video is disturbing. it is very hard to watch. >> the body cam video also shows several corrections officers standing around as this is happening, doing nothing to stop this attack on brooks. new york's attorney general, letitia james, just releasing the video of the beating. cnn's jason carroll is following these developments for us. so, jason, what more do we know about what happened here? >> well, you just saw some of it there, erica. >> it's really very difficult video to watch. new york's governor has now called for 14 workers there at the marcy correctional facility to be fired. new york's attorney general, letitia james, has opened an investigation into robert brooks death to try and find out what happened here. what led up to this? her office has reviewed the body cam videos, calling what she saw shocking. now we again want to caution viewers the video is terribly disturbing. we're going to show some of it to you now. the body cam video shows what happened on actually on december 9th. that's when

robert brooks was transferred to the marcy correctional facility there in utica, new york. it's a medium security state prison. he was transferred from another facility and was taken into the examination room that you see there, carried into the examination room. he is restrained. he appears to be handcuffed behind his back. and then as he's there in the room, he's just randomly beaten by correctional officers over the course of several minutes. once he's there in the room and again, we're not showing all of the video to you, but some of what we can tell you is that he was punched in the face. he was punched in the stomach. he was punched in the buttocks, punched several times, and at one point an officer shoves something. it looks like some sort of a rag or something in his mouth, and then lifts him up by the neck. we see there on the video that we were able to see that his face is bloodied. he appears to be weak at one point, can't even stand on his own. he's

dragged to another part of the room because he cannot stand on his own again. that was on december 9th. he died the very next day. on december 10th. he was 43 years old. he had been serving a 12 year sentence for assault. again, new york's attorney general has opened an investigation into his death to ensure what she called transparency and accountability. >> as in every case, the attorneys and investigators in my office are conducting an exhaustive review of the facts and the evidence. >> as attorney general, you have my word that we will use every possible tool available to us to investigate this death thoroughly and swiftly. >> so let me give you an update in terms of what's happened as a result of what went on there. 13 employees, including correctional officers, sergeants and a nurse, have been suspended without pay. the labor union that actually represents these correctional

officers has said this in part. what we witnessed is incomprehensible, to say the least, and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day. an attorney for brooks family has also weighed in on this, saying, as expected, watching the horrific and violent final moments of robert's life was devastating for his loved ones and will be disturbing to anyone who views the video. following its release by the attorney general's office. we will not rest until we have secured justice for robert's memory and safety for prisoners at marcy correctional facilities. brooks family, of course, is now awaiting the outcome of the ag's investigation. all this now as they make funeral arrangements. guys, back to you. >> all right, jason carroll, thanks for that reporting. let's bring in former nypd detective michael alcazar now. and michael, thanks for being here with us. look, we're just getting our first look at this very disturbing video. as you see it, as you hear these new

details that we're getting, what is standing out to you? >> it's just it's just horrible to watch. >> i'm watching it. i'm getting angry watching it. i can't believe that the excessive force that these corrections officers use, it was inhumane. it was unnecessary. um, i mean, really disturbing to watch inhumane. >> unnecessary. as jason just mentioned, the union called it incomprehensible. the other thing, jessica and i were talking about this during the break that stood out to us is that there there were cameras there. right. and they must have known there were cameras there. which brings up, i guess, two questions. number one, this happened with the cameras on what could happen with the cameras off, and also the fact that this was happening with the cameras on and they knew the cameras were on. what does that suggest to you that they would potentially think that this was the correct course of action? >> it could be two scenarios. >> it could be that they totally forgot they had body cams on in the heat of the

moment, they seem pretty angry. the court officers and you know, they lost their mind. and the other thing is, maybe they thought it was justified. >> i'm not saying it was, but maybe they thought it was justified their action because the the prisoner was resisting. >> what's more disturbing is that there were sergeants on the scene that didn't stop their actions. you know, you're a supervisor. you have to control your corrections officer when you see it's getting out of hand and excessive. >> they should have stepped in and stopped them immediately. you can even see one of them looking at the camera, which to me acknowledged that he knew there was a body cam so it could be a some kind of training flaw. or again, they just forgot that the body cams were on or or they just didn't care. >> are they culpable to the people who stood to the side and didn't intervene? will they be held accountable, accountable legally? >> oh yeah. >> absolutely. >> you are a uniform member of the service.

>> if there a excessive violent force being used, especially as a supervisor. but anybody in a uniform capacity should stop the officers from, from, you know, doing further damage, further further injury to, to the the prisoner. >> is it your sense that this is more widespread than we know? >> i'm not sure if it's widespread. i mean, the video sure makes it look like it's pretty common, like they're pretty comfortable doing this, especially with a supervisor there. so i would definitely have the ag look into it to see if it's something. hopefully that's not common practice, but two sergeants i believe, were on the scene and so many corrections officers and nobody stopped this from happening. it could be something that they really have to investigate and find out if it's if it is widespread. >> yeah, no doubt about it. michael alcazar, thank you so much for giving us some context around that. we appreciate it.

>> still to come this hour, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy sparking a mega backlash over a proposal involving foreign workers. >> plus, requests denied. a new york judge scolds jay-z and his lawyer over their efforts to dismiss the rape case against him. and people across the country hoping for a belated christmas gift during tonight's mega millions drawing. the jackpot soaring to above $1 billion. that and much more. coming up on cnn news central. >> i want to be the greatest player that i could possibly become. oh. oh. >> that's refreshing. almost like attacking your friends on streams.

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made possible by donations. we love good news. >> i'm pete muntean at reagan national airport. >> this is cnn. >> just over three weeks ago now, until the inauguration, president-elect donald trump may have the first republican fight of the new year on his hands a little early. a debate that started where else? >> online. elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, the two men tasked with making the government more efficient, were making the kind of argument you don't hear a lot right now from republicans. for more immigration, specifically for expanding the visa program for highly skilled workers. musk, posting on his platform x, quote, the number of people who are super talented engineers and super motivated in the usa is far too low. think of it like a pro sports team. if you want your team to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. those comments led to a backlash from the maga

faithful, who want to see immigration curbed. so we'll put a pin there, bring in pete. pete, former white house spokesperson under president george w. bush and vice president of hbo's public affairs group, and nomiki konst. former bernie sanders surrogate and dnc reform commissioner. good to have both of you here. and pete. we pick it back up now. obviously, musk and ramaswamy are from big tech. that's an industry that's long depended on talent from overseas, bringing in the best and the brightest. it's probably not a surprise that they feel the way they do, but it is interesting to see them come up against the maga faithful on this. >> well, it is the nature of political coalitions that folks rally around. >> the big message, the big argument of a campaign and kind of suppress some of the detailed disagreements that they might have. and now you have one of those bubbling to the surface. and i got to say, i love this. i love a good, passionate, substantive policy debate where both the

proponents and the opponents are making good arguments. elon musk is right. if we want america to win in this global economy, in this global environment, then we need to attract the best and the brightest. they're not always here just because this is america. they're not necessarily born here. vivek ramaswamy makes a good point that we have we have erred on the side of mediocrity over meritocracy over the years. look at education and athletics in the workplace, where we've moved the bar to make things easier. far too easy at times, rather than going for full on success. and the opponents are making a good point, too, that the h-1b visa program is anti-competitive. and it is exploitative of workers who are stuck in jobs, cannot negotiate higher salaries and wages, and it needs some reform. so this is a great debate to be having. >> so if this could be that substantive, solid policy debate that you're hoping it would be pete nomi, could this

be an area right where we could actually see democrats come to the table? could there be an actual substantive debate between both sides of the aisle here, moving forward to look at a program that maybe could use a little bit of reform? >> yes, that would happen if donald trump hadn't built his entire brand, the maga brand, off of being anti. >> hive off of our immigrant population, who when you look at regions across the country, the areas with more immigrants correlate with more innovation, more economic growth. when it's restricted, there's less r&d. tech companies aren't as successful, there's less growth and wages are low. so we know that immigrants are a key ingredient to the united states exceptionalism. and elon musk, himself a recipient of the h-1b visa, knows very well. the problem is it goes against the entire brand. donald trump built his his political campaigns on which was anti-immigrant. it's their fault that you're not making

money. and so when maga hears that these two want to expand the h-1b visa program, they hear, we americans are not good enough. you want to go find other people because we're not good enough. but the real issue here is, is, as was mentioned by pete, is there's actually a backlog in the in the green card process right now. and the pipeline with the green cards is slowing down. the h-1b visa program. so even though 100% of this is from the cato institute, 100% of the recipients of h-1b visas are receiving market rate or more wages. they're staying in those jobs because we don't have enough visas available, and they're not moving into green card programs. so there's some institutional stuff that needs to be dealt with as well. >> and so, nomi, how like you're talking about the technical part of it, how do you think then, if if musk convinces trump that this is what needs to be done, how do they appropriately message that to so many people who voted for them on, as you note, an

anti-immigration platform i mean, that is going to be very difficult. >> you have to reeducate a large swath of their base into understanding that we actually are pretty inclusive society and that immigrants did build this country up, unlike what laura loomer said, saying that it was white europeans who built the united states. we know very well it was former formerly enslaved people and of course, immigrants who have built the american exceptionalism that we see and feel today. so, you know, it's going to be difficult because we have midterms coming up, and there are members of congress, especially from the maga right, who are going to have a difficult time messaging this pro-immigrant policy to their base that they depend on. and i think that actually fares better for democrats. and there's a little bit of a wedge there in terms of where democrats, yes, can negotiate, but also use it as a campaign mechanism where, you know, the base is going to be very much against this key. the key issue that donald trump built his entire brand on.

>> pete, there was always going to be some divide that was going to happen at some point, right? there was going to be some division, which happens no matter how seemingly in lockstep folks are with the president elect. is this the start, though, of a rift? >> well, i think it's the start of a healthy conversation within the trump built coalition. and a couple of points on what was said. number one, donald trump ran against illegal immigration. he ran against on securing our border and tackling the scourge of illegal immigration in this country. and one of the messaging components i would use if i were elon musk and vivek ramaswamy and others is to say the h-1b visa program is a way of preventing the offshoring of american jobs, particularly when it comes to the tech industry and our interconnected global economy. it would be very easy to have these jobs in india or taiwan or elsewhere, but you make sure

they're in america and that these individuals are paying taxes and contributing to the strength of our communities by having them come here because they are the best and the brightest. and that's why it's an important program. >> and, nomi, just before we go, i'll let you have the last word. any other thoughts on that topic? >> well, the reality is, is that these jobs exist in the united states, and they almost entirely exist here, the uk or canada. so those are not the jobs that are being offshored to india. those are more lower skilled jobs, still very important jobs that tech companies do rely on. and we wish they were here in the united states. but that is another issue that donald trump again ran against. make america great again, bring jobs back to america. why don't you invest in unions? why don't you, if you don't think america is smart enough, why don't you fully invest in our public education system? unfortunately, under the libertarian aspect of these tech companies and these tech leaders, they want to dismantle all of government, which is essentially what makes this country so smart and so strong. we need to invest in our

people, in education. we need to open up jobs, protect our labor force so they don't go offshore, not just at the convenience of these billionaire tech workers who want to take advantage of one small program to their liking. >> all right, pete and nomi, thank you again. happy new year to both of you. appreciate you being here. thank you. thank you. still ahead, the anonymous woman accused of raping her 24 years ago will remain anonymous for now as a new york judge rejects the rapper's fight to reveal her identity. >> kelli stump luther never too much new year's day at eight on cnn. >> we, the lazy, declare that we will recline when we feel inclined and yes, we feel inclined. >> we answered our kids questions all day. it's our time to prioritize. no priorities. why? >> because we put in back to back doubles. so now we'll be putting in extra ot right here. >> we've checked off our to do list. now we're checking off our to list. >> we the lazy, are taking back lazy by getting comfy on our la-z-boy furniture.

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less than $34. go to deal dash dot com and see how much you can save coming january 2025. >> founded by the stars of women's basketball, a new style of three on three six clubs, more action, more access unrivaled coming january 17th. >> a judge today throwing out rapper jay-z's efforts to dismiss a rape case against him, allowing that case to proceed. a jane doe plaintiff alleges she was raped when she was just a 13 year old girl by both jay-z and sean diddy combs. that's 24 years ago. following the mtv music awards. combs's legal team denies that he has sexually assaulted anyone. jay-z, whose legal name is shawn carter, has

aggressively denied those accusations and also wants the accuser's name revealed. >> joining us now, cnn legal analyst joey jackson. so joey, the judge was not mincing words, some pretty scathing language in terms of the decision here, specifically targeted at jay-z's attorney, basically paraphrasing, saying that his attorney is wasting the court's time not helping jay-z at all. how does this set the tone right for moving forward? >> so, erica, good to be with you and jessica. >> you know, judges have thick skin and they understand that attorneys represent clients. >> and i think this particular attorney and jay-z were put in a tough situation. how you're really given allegations by a litigant who is anonymous. the identity is not known. you have to fight against that. and then it's revealed that significant parts of her story have inconsistencies, like her father apparently picking her up at a gas station, the father being contacted saying, hey, i don't remember that. like her naming another celebrity that

she spoke to that evening and representatives saying, hey, you know, he wasn't even in the state. he was on tour in the midwest at the time. so you have to fight against these allegations now. generally speaking, what happens, eric, is that u.s. attorneys don't learn these inconsistencies until the litigation goes forward and you interview witnesses because it's jay-z and it's so public. there's been interviews of this particular alleged victim. and so the attorney got ahead of it, filed a motion to dismiss the judge, saying, hey, it's premature and stop wasting my time. so at the end of the day, the judge will get over it. the case will turn on the facts. it will turn on what happened or did not happen, and everything will ensue. and if it's right, then the the victim alleged victim will be compensated accordingly and jay-z will be held accountable. and if it's wrong, then it will be thrown out. and so that will happen sometime in the near future. >> joey, this is obviously part of the sean diddy combs case, which is a much bigger case. um, diddy is being held in prison right now. how does this affect that case, if at all?

>> so both. yes. so both cases, jessica, are standalone cases. right. so we certainly know that in september p diddy was arrested and he's facing three federal charges for which he could face a life sentence, as well as the forfeiture of his entire empire. so that's criminal. and then, of course, there's the slew of civil cases that relate to monetary damages. we should note that in this particular civil lawsuit, it was filed initially in october. it did not name jay-z, and then it was filed again, amended in december. and then it did name jay-z. so jay-z swinging, saying, hey, this is ridiculous. and by the way, if i did this, then you should go after me criminally. wouldn't this be a crime as to how it will ultimately affect the criminal litigation is it's an outstanding question. and just very briefly, jessica, what happens is prosecutors will vet all of these civil claims, the one we're speaking about now and others as it relates to p diddy. we'll see if these alleged victims are credible. will try if they are credible to use them as prior

bad act witnesses. right. not for the fact that he did these alleged federal crimes, but to show a pattern, to show intent to show that was his m.o. and a judge will have to rule whether they should admit the judge should admit them in front of a trial jury criminally, or exclude them. but be sure that prosecutors are vetting all these civil cases to look for other potential victims, as well as amending the existing federal criminal claims against p diddy. >> all right, joey jackson, thanks so much. happy new year to you. >> and to you. >> when we come back, the odds may be slim. we're talking 300 million to 1. very slim. but what would you do with $1 billion? you can dream about it. yeah you can. the drawing for tonight's mega millions. jackpot. now, just hours away. i can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life has truly joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross

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drawing. and perhaps your winning ticket. maybe you have it. the jackpot now, a massive $1.22 billion. it is the fifth largest prize in the game's history. cnn's maribel gonzalez is live in altadena, california. plenty of excitement building there. how are people feeling about their chances in altadena yeah. >> hey, erica. >> well, they know the chances are slim, but they tell us that the reward is oh so very big. >> and that is what so many people around the country are banking on now here in altadena. we're outside the joe's service center, a spot considered a lucky one by locals. and that is because tw years ago, someone walked into a ticket. and that ticket ended up being a winning ticket. a powerball ticket worth over $2 billion in jackpot prize. today, people are hoping to strike gold once again. now, we

spoke to one ticket buyer, one mega millions hopeful who drove several miles from her home to come here and purchase some extra tickets. this after she's already spent $600 in tickets to give as holiday gifts to her family. >> it's once in a lifetime, no matter what. and then at the same time, if i don't win, the people in the school system get it. and so that's the main thing. the kids, our kids, our future. and if they do win, boy oh boy, what a day, what a day. >> what a day. definitely. now, erica. nobody has won the jackpot in over 100 days. and only three people have won so far this year. let's just say the odds are against everyone. and i'm going to take my notes out because these are some fun facts. the chances of winning any prize in the lottery game are about one inch 24, according to the mega millions website. but for the odds of winning a jackpot, those are

1 in 302,575,350 a mouthful. you're more likely, for example, to win the u.s. presidency or even becoming a movie star. but you know what? somebody has to fill those shoes. somebody has to win eventually. and tonight, erica, people are hoping that it's them. >> i mean, why not, right? all right, i'm crossing my fingers that it's, you know, me or someone i know. i'm maribel. appreciate it. thank you. still ahead here. bird flu. now, a growing risk not just for dairy cattle and poultry farms, but also for cats. as the cdc warns, the virus is mutating in a way that could also make it easier for humans to catch as well. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> i wanted my car to feel like me. a car is a reflection of its owner, right? my dream car was out there. i just needed to find it at a price less fantasy, more reality. look at me now. your dreams might be

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your groups with high quality custom apparel and promo products, all backed by our guarantee at custom dot com. >> do you one of these things? >> yeah, it sounds fun. this looks wild. i went to this last year, the winter classic outdoors wrigley field. >> they're having a new year's eve party kamal adwan wrigley field december 31st blues, blackhawks on tnt and streaming on max. >> new results from samples taken from the first person hospitalized in the u.s. with a severe case of bird flu shows the virus likely mutated, making it potentially more transmissible to humans. that's all, according to the cdc. the agency also saying the mutations it identified were not found in the birds the person was exposed to in a backyard flock, suggesting the virus mutated inside the person after that person was infected. still, the cdc says the risk to

the general public has not changed. it remains low, but there is growing concern over bird flu spreading to other animals. cnn's randi kaye reports that more than half the big cats at a wildlife sanctuary in washington state died after contracting the virus. >> that's thumper, a ten year old eurasian lynx who used to love to play and scratch the decks high above the foliage. >> the video from august was taken at the wild felid advocacy center of washington, a big cat sanctuary where thumper lived. thumper is one of 20 cats from the sanctuary who died in recent weeks from bird flu. >> we thought we were doing everything we could to avoid anything like this from happening. the cats are pretty well split up into 30 by 40 foot habitats. >> the sanctuary's director and co-founder, mark matthews, says the cats enclosures are spread out among five acres. he told me their first cat got sick on november 22nd. the 17 year old cougar, named hanna, wyoming, stopped eating and died the

next day. a day later, this african caracal named crackle also got sick and died. others they lost included this cougar named holly and tabby, a bengal tiger. >> tabby. the tiger was very fun loving tiger. she had a super personality. >> every time i came up, she'd come running. running to meet me. >> this bengal cat, pebbles, also succumbed to bird flu as well as mouse, a jeffrey cat. only 17 of the 37 cats once housed here are left. nico, an african serval, is still in critical condition, fighting to regain the use of his back legs. >> feeling devastated. >> uh, kind of in shock and just taking really good care of those ones who are recovering. >> the disease spread rapidly, and they still don't know how exactly the bird flu entered their facility. >> initially, we thought it was the for bird droppings from waterfowl. we are in a flight

pattern for migratory birds, so i don't know if that's part of the equation or not. so we really don't know at this time if it was food related or not, although we don't know exactly how it got there. >> it just makes sense that it's likely due to migratory birds because we know bird flu is transmitted through the migratory bird. >> population. >> doctor dean blumberg is an infectious disease expert at uc davis. >> it spread through the bird saliva, the feces, the you're in. and so you really can't protect against that in the natural environment. >> the staff at the sanctuary are working tirelessly to disinfect the habitats while also protecting themselves from getting sick. they're wearing ppe, including n95 masks and doing foot baths when they enter and leave. >> the virus may mutate and become more easily transmitted person to person, so the more this virus circulates, and specifically co circulates with human strains, that's going to increase the odds of the virus

evolving to more human to human transmission. and that that of course could could signal another pandemic. >> randi kaye, cnn, west palm beach, florida. >> a pet going missing any time is stressful, but especially around the holidays when we come back, how a florida pooch who ran off decided to let her family know she'd come back home. >> andy, take a seat. >> anderson. >> look at this. >> you're wet. disheveled. there's debris hitting you. >> we need to be ready for new year's eve. >> maybe you are ready. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. >> live coverage starts with cargurus filter millions of listings to land the perfect deal. >> if only you could do things your way all the time. dream. imagine that. get it with gurus. >> yellow didn't pass the

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tapper. next 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. >> probably have plenty of deliveries at your door this time of year. for one florida family. though the present on their porch may really take the cake. our affiliate wjax reporting the comber family of green cove springs had their their dog had been missing for nine days and, well, not much of a holiday without athena. >> yeah. and then very early christmas eve morning, athena returned. ringing the doorbell. >> it was about 2:30 a.m., and she came pawing at the door, ringing the doorbell, which was christmas eve. and then that morning, i woke up to. she had made it on everybody's camera. she's like, i think this is her. i think this is her. >> she had to be home for christmas. the family said the

community stepped in to help search for the four year old german shepherd husky mix, going through hours of doorbell camera video in hopes of finding her. they're now going to microchip her. >> i think that's probably a good call, but we're glad athena is home. she's clearly very smart. she knows how to get in. i know, and ring the doorbell. >> yes. smart girl. >> before we go, a quick programing note for you. the boys are back for the biggest party of the year. anderson cooper and andy cohen. new year's eve live. you will see it right here on cnn. coverage begins at 8:00 eastern. >> honestly, that's really become a tradition. yes. andy and anderson, it's a great new year's tradition. i'm jessica dean for myself and erica hill, thanks so much for watching today. i'll be back tomorrow from 4 to 8 p.m. eastern. thanks for watching. today, the lead with jake tapper starts right now. >> quote i wasn't even sure that i would stay alive. the lead