actually, if they want to control this app and control the people who use this app, they can do it. it was almost like they proved exactly what the problem was. >> exactly. and that really alienated a lot of lawmakers by doing that. and as you say, it drove the point home. i mean, and, you know, i wrote at the time about the sort of politics of it, and there was a feeling that this, that this would really hurt biden, who was still the candidate at the time with young voters. it would be interesting to see if this does actually go into effect. what are the political ramifications of trump himself saying he basically fears that this will make him unpopular with young people who are so obsessed with this app. you know, there's a statistic that one third of voters under 30 get their news primarily from tiktok. so this is going to have huge ripple effects in populations who do not usually pay attention to politics if it does actually go into effect. >> fair enough. all right. thank you all for being here on this friday, i appreciate it. have a good weekend. thanks to all for you for joining us as

well. back at home. and do have a wonderful weekend. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now. >> apocalyptic images out of los angeles as new fires break out and the death toll rises this morning. an estimated 10,000 structures damaged or destroyed. >> also today, donald trump learns his sentence. >> a judge will hand down the sentence to the president elect, marking the end of the road of the hush money case in new york. >> the supreme court and tiktok know neil gorsuch is not posting a trendy cat video. >> as far as we know. but very shortly, the country's highest court could weigh in on whether a congressional ban on tiktok can take effect in just nine days. i'm john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner. this is cnn news central.

>> we begin with breaking news. a brand new fire erupting overnight, flames now rapidly spreading in northern los angeles county. the nightmare there, far from over as the deadly fire disaster now rages into its fourth day. the new fire is located just outside calabasas. police nearby arrested a man on suspicion of arson. but they say right now they cannot confirm if he is connected in any way to that new blaze. this morning, the wind threat about to pick back up as fire crews face new challenges overnight. an illegal drone collided with a crucial firefighting aircraft. that aircraft now grounded today. the number of dead has doubled so far to ten people. more than 10,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed. and those numbers are sadly expected to rise. and new images of the. unbelievable destruction the l.a. county sheriff says it looks like a

bomb was dropped. >> i have nothing. >> i can't even teach. >> and i'm a first responder. i teach people to save lives, and i couldn't even save my house. and i'm just shattered. >> fox caring for each other. like everyone needs help right now. >> everyone needs help. stephanie elam is live in altadena, one of the areas hardest hit by this. an unusual because normally these fires are often in the hills and now you're seeing them down in the valleys. what are you witnessing there today? >> yeah, sara, it's difficult to see what these people have gone through. i mean, this whole block, it's still dark out here. looks like this behind me right now, which you can see here. you can see that this house has been just decimated. the the chimney, the only thing standing there. and

if you look back in the corner, you can see that there's a gas fire still back there. another one of the dangers. why they don't want people here. also because people have been out here looting. so they are now the national guard has been deployed out here. i can tell you they're out here because we had to get through them to get here today. there are 8000 personnel, including firefighters, battling not just this. the eaton fire, which is now some 13,000 acres that have charred and burned and destroyed livelihoods, homes, the feeling of safety and the palisades fire, which is burning about 20, burned through like 20,000 acres. it has a little bit of containment now, but the number of homes that have been destroyed, it is just astronomical. they're looking at more than $50 billion worth of of losses here. and that number continues to go up. and then when you look at how people are trying to figure out how to put their lives together, you can see here, where do you start? where do you begin? we cover wildfires that are massive, that are large and have all

this acreage. the difference is it's not in densely populated areas. that's the part that makes this so different in the palisades fire walking around, there's entire blocks where the houses are all gone. and i can tell you, since i got here out to altadena, you see some of the same thing here to sara. >> yeah, it doesn't matter if you're rich, working class or poor. these fires have ripped through so many neighborhoods. stephanie, what can you tell me about anything about those ten people who ended up being killed in these fires? >> it's devastating. and that number is expected to go up according to law enforcement. and you are hearing stories of how some people didn't want to leave people behind, and then others who maybe they just couldn't get out and they thought that they would be safe. take a listen to this one woman who lost her dad, 83 year old rodney nickerson, in this fire here in eden. the eaton fire. >> this is where we've been our whole life. and my son tried to get him to leave. >> and my neighbors and myself.

>> and he said, he'll be fine. i'll be here when you guys come back. and he said his house would be here. his house is here. and he was here, too. >> he was in his bed when i found him. >> just the ultimate loss. there were a lot of people who were dealing with the fact that they've lost everything. they've lost their homes. but other people are also dealing with the fact that they've lost loved ones. it's just unbelievable the amount of loss that we've seen here in january. we don't normally see fires like this in january. it is just unprecedented. the amount of loss at this time of the year. it just goes to show you that things are changing here. the climate is changing. we're very dry after two very wet winters where we have all this brush that has grown up. then it dried out and now we are off to this driest start to a wet year ever on record. this is what's leading to the situation that we're seeing here. and that's why people are saying

we need to change how we respond. >> i can hear some of the the sort of alerts going off right now on your phones there, and that hasn't ended because the fires are still raging. thank you so much, stephanie elam. it was heartbreaking to hear. it was like made us all gasp that that daughter found her father dead in his bed from the fires. i know we'll be hearing more devastating stories like this. the loss of life expected to rise. appreciate your time and your crew for being out there during this time. stephanie. kate. >> the fires. they are still raging and officials fear that the danger and say that the danger is far from over. >> but there has been some progress made in containing some of the fires. >> the biggest factor in any forward progress. still, the wind threat which could complicate this fight once again. >> cnn's allison chinchar is tracking this one for us. >> she joins us now. >> and, allison, what are you seeing in terms of the wind, in terms of what they're up against and what the next few

hours look like? >> right. so they're going to have a very short window for the firefighters to really be able to make some huge advancements in those containment numbers, because while things will start to get better, they go right back to being worse on the back half of the weekend. so let's take a look for today. you have an elevated risk around the l.a. area. slightly higher critical fire threat a little bit farther south by saturday. just a very small elevated risk area. but then sunday we start to see those winds pick back up. and especially on tuesday, looking at those winds to really creep back up. so here's a look at all the fires. the white that you see here. those are the winds and the direction in which they're coming from. so for the bulk of the day it's going to be really a north and north based wind. but it will start to shift. it will go to the east, it will go to the west. and that's what's going to make it very difficult for the firefighters, because that can change at a moment's notice. so they'll set up a camp, one spot to be able to fight a fire and have to move immediately. once those winds begin to shift. now, the winds will start today, still in about the 30 to 40 mile per hour range. as we go through the day,

they'll start to creep back down. and by the time we get to saturday, most of these areas really just looking at single digit wind speeds couple into the teens, but overall not too bad. but then we get back into sunday and we start to see those numbers ticking back up again. 30, 40, even 50 mile per hour gusts. so like we said, we've got a very short window here where those firefighters can go out and make advancements in those containment numbers before the winds come back up again in the back half of the weekend. even in the short term, even with the improvement of winds, you're still going to likely have some very bad air quality, not just friday, but through the weekend. you can see all of the dots here, kind of showing what that air quality is. several here in the unhealthy group, and that is not likely to change as we go into saturday and sunday, a major factor that people are going to have to be tracking even after these wildfires are starting to be contained, for sure. >> allison, thank you very much. we've got other more very important stories coming up today that we're tracking in just hours, president elect donald trump will be sentenced

on the 34 felony counts that he was convicted of a hearing in new york, coming up after the supreme court denied a last minute request to stop it from happening. and speaking of the supreme court, oral arguments are about to kick off in a major case over the fight to ban tiktok in the united states, a ban that is supposed to set in just days from now. and we're going to show you some live pictures of snow coming down in atlanta. the roads there, atlanta, of all places, is actually a really good point. states across the south are dealing with a major winter storm that could create some very dangerous travel conditions. we'll be right back. >> kobe believed in himself at the youngest possible age. >> it's one of the most remarkable stories in sports history. >> i don't want to be remembered as just a basketball player. >> kobe premieres january 25th on cnn. >> hey, ryan reynolds here for, i guess, my 100th mint commercial. no no no no no no no no no no. i mean, it's

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shaping history. >> follow all the changes in 2025. >> i, donald john trump, follow the facts. >> follow cnn. >> all right. very shortly, donald trump will officially become a convicted felon just ten days before he will be sworn into office. the second time it is sentencing day in the new york hush money case. overnight, in a54 vote, the supreme court refused to step in to stop it. new york judge juan merchan said he will not impose a jail term or probation. still, trump will become the first president to take office as a convicted felon. cnn's kara scannell is outside the court. what do you expect today? kara? >> well, john, as you said, after numerous attempts to try to stop this sentence, it will go forward as scheduled. >> and in just a short while from now, this hearing will get underway. >> it's expected to take about one hour. >> and how it will play out is that donald trump is not going to appear here in person, like he did during the course of the trial.

>> he is going to appear virtually. so inside the courtroom, there will be television screens where donald trump will be appearing and able to face the judge for the sentencing. the prosecution will go first. they'll make their arguments to the judge. then donald trump's lawyers will have an opportunity to speak. and then donald trump himself can address the judge. as you know, he's been very critical of this judge, very critical of the prosecution. it's unclear if he's going to say anything, but he will be given the chance to do that. after that, judge juan merchan will deliver his sentence. and as you said, he's already indicated that he will issue a sentence of an unconditional discharge. what that means is that there will be no prison time, no penalties and no probation. so trump will be able to leave his his space where he is after the sentencing and move on without anything else hanging over him as it relates to form of punishment. but the judge has said that the reason he's going that route, he said it seemed the most viable option because he thought it was important for the public interest for there to be some

finality of this prosecution. and it also enables donald trump to move forward, to appeal the conviction. he has said multiple times, including again last night in a statement that he is going to appeal this conviction, as he said, for the sanctity of the presidency. that will all continue to move forward. but in a few hours from now, this case will be closed. there will be a final judgment issued with that sentence, and donald trump will be the first american president to be a convicted felon. and it will wrap up this investigation that began in the summer of 2019, when the very first subpoena was issued by the manhattan district attorney's office looking into these hush money payments were made to stormy daniels. trump, convicted of that 34 felony counts. it was the first time an american president had been indicted, the first criminal trial and now the final judgment. john. >> all right. kara scannell outside the court. a couple things to keep in mind here. i think we're going to get an audio recording of this, not live, but we'll be able to hear after the fact what has

taken place inside the courtroom. number two, again, donald trump could speak. what might he say when he knows he may not be? he doesn't face jail time or any probation. he sort of unfettered in what he could say and todd blanche his attorney, his nominee to be a deputy attorney general. how might blanch, temper or not, what he's going to say there. this will be fascinating. kara scannell, great to have you there. sarah. >> all right. breaking. now, we are learning new areas have caught fire in california. but at the same time, some residents are getting their first look at what is left of their homes. olympic swimmer gary hall junior is among those residents who escaped the palisades fire. >> i thought i had more time. i saw the fire charging down the hill and i knew that i had to get out of there. um, i opened up the back of my suv. i loaded a painting. one other object. um, by the time i was going back in from that run, uh, hot embers were raining down from

the sky, and i knew at that point that i just didn't have much time. i could see the embers hitting the roofs of the houses around me, and, um, made that decision. it's time to go. and the medals were in a closet in my bedroom, uh, 70ft away. i didn't have time to go get them. from the time that i saw the first plume of smoke at the top of the hill. i live on lockman lane. um, i had about three minutes between then and, uh, when it came charging towards me. >> this part changed my life. >> superman. crazy. just that simple little thing over the horse. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are literally walking because of him. >> super man, the christopher reeve story february 2nd. >> with fast signs. create factory grade visual solutions to perfect your process.

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ban tiktok in the united states. it's really just days away from going into effect. there was broad bipartisan support behind this ban in the united states. lawmakers agreeing that china's control of the social media platform through its parent company poses a serious national security threat. now, the justices are left to decide if that ban violates free speech. cnn's clare duffy is here. this is a big moment in what has become a very long, drawn out fight. >> yeah, this is a fight that has been going on for years. and these concerns that the u.s. government has really fall into two categories, but both related to the fact that tiktok's parent company, bytedance, is based in beijing. the concerns are that the chinese government could force tiktok to include certain videos or exclude certain videos from its algorithm. potentially, you know, spreading propaganda or causing discord among americans. and then there are concerns that about the data, the user data that tiktok gathers from americans and concerns that the chinese government could potentially access that for

espionage or intelligence purposes. and like a lot of social platforms, tiktok gathers a lot of data from users. things like location data, purchase history, search history, contact information. and so the worry is that the chinese government could force bytedance to hand that over. and so that's what the supreme court is going to have to weigh. here is how much do those concerns matter versus this free speech argument. yeah. >> weighing this i mean, you had republicans like mitch. mitch mcconnell agreeing with democrats like joe biden that they think it's well within the protections of free speech, what they're what they are pushing forward with this ban. but it's now left to the supreme court. the tiktok argument is obviously this violates free speech. that's been the argument since they sued. but has the company responded to these national security concerns? >> so they have the company, you know, pushes back on this idea that they are a chinese, that bytedance is a chinese company at all. they say it's incorporated in the cayman islands, although the headquarters is in beijing. and they also say that they've taken a number of steps to protect u.s. user data and that

they wouldn't or, you know, haven't been asked to hand it over to the chinese government and wouldn't do that. tiktok's ceo, shou chew, addressed this during a hearing on capitol hill earlier this year. here's what he said. >> our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. we have addressed them with real action. the bottom line is this american data stored on american soil by an american company overseen by american personnel. we call this initiative project texas. that's why oracle is headquartered today. u.s. tiktok data is stored by default in oracle servers only vetted personnel operating in a new company called tiktok. u.s. data security can control access to this data. >> and again, experts have actually said security experts have said that the u.s. government's concerns are largely hypothetical. there's no evidence that tiktok has been asked to hand over data or do anything at the behest of

the chinese government, but that it could potentially. and again, you know, tiktok has made these reassurances, but it's been making these reassurances for years. and the u.s. government still feels really strongly about this. >> yeah, they they haven't. lawmakers do not think they have gotten the answers that they are reassured that national security is being protected. great to see you. thank you. this all will be picking up in just a few hours. oral arguments will begin, and we're going to be getting a sense from the justices throughout these oral arguments what they where they could be headed. claire, thank you so much, john. >> all right. the breaking news, a curfew in effect in los angeles as the military now sending in planes to help fight the wildfires all smoky. >> it's all burned out and you could see all the burned cars. and you see, like, there's no houses and stuff like that. it reminds me back to, like, afghanistan. >> a powerful winter storm getting stronger and stronger. that is atlanta right now. not

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used to. meteorologist derek van dam has the very latest. standing outside. that's atlanta. that doesn't look like atlanta normally does there. derek. yeah. >> no. that's incredible right, john. >> this real life snow globe. but this type of snow really strikes a nerve with people in the deep south, especially here in atlanta. we remember what happened with quote, unquote snowmageddon back in 2014, grinding this city to a halt. today, the roads have been treated for the past 18 hours, but the snow and the sleet is accumulating too quickly. and this is the i-75 85 interchange. we're overlooking midtown atlanta, a sight that you don't see that often. it's been several years before we've been blanketed in snow like this, but you can see traffic is flowing, but it is starting to accumulate on the ground, and it's hard to believe, john, that this is actually the same storm system that brought the winds to southern california. now it's moved into the southern plains. it picked up moisture from the

gulf of mexico. so it's no longer a dry storm. it's a wet storm, and it's producing snowfall because the cold air was already in place. in fact, temperatures here hovering around 3132 degrees near the surface. so critical on what type of precipitation falls from the sky. this is a full on snowstorm for places like nashville, memphis schools closed across the board. this will bring in over a half a foot for those areas, especially in the higher elevations. but i want to talk about the deep south that is so ill equipped to to actually handle this type of a weather event. and it all comes down to the freezing rain potential, which we see as a real possibility later today here in atlanta. i want to give you a little bit of an experiment here, so you understand what's happening just directly above me. pretend that this is the atmosphere and these blue blocks. i'm a parent, so bear with me. these are duplo blocks for my kids. this is all of the atmosphere below freezing. what's happening this afternoon, though, is a warm nose of air is going to sneak into the mid levels of the atmosphere. okay. and what that

is going to do is any precipitation that falls through this will be snow until it reaches that little nose of warm air which is above freezing. it melts. and then when it reaches the surface, it doesn't have enough time to refreeze into these beautiful snowflakes we have here. and so that will actually refreeze on the ground cause freezing rain and the chaos that could ensue. so we're really watching out for a potential significant icing event for atlanta. and points northward. john, we'll be watching this closely. yeah. >> look i to always play with my kids legos and say it's because of them. but i do understand what you're saying there, derek a really good demonstration. i have to say it looks much worse there. it really does look much worse there than i was expecting. seeing those cars crawling along behind you just gives you a sense of the trouble facing not just atlanta, but all these cities in the south. it will be a treacherous day. please keep us posted. derek, thank you, kate. >> and back over to california. >> the scenes in southern california, as described by the l.a. county sheriff, as if an

atomic bomb had been dropped, entire neighborhoods burned to the ground, and people are starting to get their first look at what, if anything, is left of their homes and properties. paris hilton posted a video of what is left of her home, saying saying in the caption, the heartbreak is truly indescribable and also saying so many people have lost everything. and cnn's kyung lah spoke with two homeowners who are facing that same reality right now. >> right over here is my kitchen, my living room. oh my god, pots and pans and stuff right there. oh oh, my god. yeah. okay 25 years i've been here. >> easy. 25 gone less than three hours.

>> when you look out at your neighborhood. what happened here? >> it just looked like a war zone here. this is a war zone. look. just like a war zone. >> i saw the fire at 2:00. i took a picture, and at 4:00, my phone went off and it says evacuate, evacuated. and that's what we did. there's nothing. there's nothing left. i literally just have the clothes on my back. there's nothing. things that my grandmother gave me. my granddaughter. she's always making me something. and i put it in a frame. you know, i don't have those no more. >> yvette said that this guy's house was touched by god. >> it had to be because it didn't burn. >> but if his house is touched by god, what happened to the rest of the neighborhood? >> god didn't didn't care about us. there. it shows it right now. but i'm going, let this

go. and i'm going to close my gate and i'm going to get out of here because it's just making me sick yeah. >> so kyung, thank you so much for bringing their stories to us. let's get an update on how the how where things stand and how things are looking. joining us right now once again is brent pascua battalion chief with cal fire. and brant. you have been bringing us updates on the firefighting efforts ever since this started. thanks for coming back on how much progress has been made since we spoke 24 hours ago. >> well, yesterday we were very hopeful that we could turn a corner on this fire and we did. we gained some containment, not a lot. it's going to take a lot more work to to see that number grow. but we're headed in the right direction. and again, we see the winds calmer today. they're still here. but these are the winds we're used to battling and dealing with during these fires. nothing like we saw the first two days. >> so you think the tide has

turned? you think that now you'll be seeing as long as conditions don't pop up and and get worse, that that you guys will be able to start making some real progress. i mean, how much containment could you expect to see to be able to pull off today? >> we're at 6% now with the winds predicted later today. um, i believe we'll still be able to use our aircraft with our ground troops. we'll see that 6% get into the double digits. i believe at least, which is still headed in the right direction, which is what we all want. >> and then how do you square that with what we hear from officials, which is another fire has popped up in the west hills. we are nowhere out of danger yet right? >> we still have this fire weather with the low humidities, the gusty winds. um, but this is what we're used to fighting. that what we saw in the first couple days of this fire was something like, i have never seen, uh, it's it was 60, 70 miles an hour, and

we were just chasing our tail, trying to get people out of the way so we wouldn't lose any lives. >> we heard from. we talked about this, i believe it was yesterday, but we have heard more from firefighters, as well as some residents, about how they had run out of water at the peak of the firefight. and this is one of the areas where as people are grieving, they are beginning to get angry and they are looking to officials to get answers of what went wrong. i want to play for our viewers. just one resident confronting the governor about this. >> why was there no water in the hydrants? >> governor, it's all literally is it going to be different next time? >> last night, the chief of the los angeles fire department said that firefighters had to stop tapping into hydrants altogether. when you add this all together, how much do you think that hampered efforts in those

critical moments before? do you think from a fireman's perspective, something could have been done differently on the front end? better pre-positioning more resources at the ready? that could have made a difference. >> you know, i'm going to look at it from taking everything out of out of place as far as where the water came from, if there was enough say we had an engine at every house, we had all the water we needed. now, with those 80 mile an hour winds and fire all around us, i don't think we would have still made much of a difference. it was something like i had never seen. it was just a blowtorch igniting the thing next to it. what wasn't on fire was soon to be on fire. even if we had hose lines out, water, endless supplies, we still would have saw a lot of devastation here. it was something like i'd never seen. >> well, brant, the one thing that we have heard consistently from every single person, every single resident, every single

official is, thank god for you guys and thank you for your continued work, and it's wonderful to hear. maybe the tide is turning and you can really make some progress today. i know that would probably be great to lift your spirits and all of your colleagues. thank you so much. >> it sure, it sure has. thank you, thank you sarah. >> all right. in altadena, that fire wiped out whole communities. our next guest, raya reynaga, is all too familiar with preparing for disaster. she's a cpr instructor for first responders. but on the first day, the fire raged on her street. she says she just did not evacuate quick enough and woke up to a terrifying scene. raya, thank you so much for joining us. we are looking at the pictures that you take. when did you realize you had to get out of your home at the very last minute, i woke up and it was just pitch black. >> we had no power and i was

just in hell. that's what it felt like. i was just surrounded by flames all around me, and all i could do was just hold my water hose and just. i dropped to my knees and i just started praying, please god, please just save my house. just save my house. this is this is all i have. >> how long? and i just prayed just how long have you lived there? and what did you lose? >> i lived there 28 years. it's my entire life. it's my daughter's childhood home. i lost the bible that was passed down to my mother, and i was passing this bible down to my daughter. and i just lost things that i'll never be able to replace. like my brother's ashes, my

daughter's trophies from cheerleading, all her awards. i lost everything you can imagine possible family photos, keepsakes, all my paperwork. i can't even start to begin the process of just naming the items i had for the last 28 years. >> it is so heartbreaking listening to all of those things. we are though. so glad that you are alive, are safe this morning. can you give me some sense as you're looking at your home and your and you're finally being able to evacuate, what did you see as you were leaving? what did you experience as you were trying to get out to safety my garage was completely engulfed in flames. >> the house next door to me was in flames. my fence that surrounds the backyard was engulfed in flames and all i could see is just smoke and

fire. and i'm covered in ashes from head to toe. >> and you get in your car and. and what did you experience as you were trying to drive out with all of the, the fire sort of surrounding you? yeah. i'll try the fire department had to come get me and i begged them to let me drive my car because i had my cats in there and i had to follow behind them. >> and there was just embers and pieces of houses just falling on top of my car. just smoke everywhere. i wasn't even sure we were going to be able to drive out. >> it sounds like that was so frightening. as we continue to look at the pictures of your neighborhood in altadena, so far, ten people have been killed in these blazes across several of them in altadena. did you know anyone who lost their lives there in

your neighborhood? >> yes, yes i do, and it's one of my daughters long time friend's mother who passed away, who lives a block away from me. and it's just devastating. it's i have no words to explain or to express the depth of hurt and pain that we're going through. >> can you tell us what it is you need? you know right now what you have left and what it is that that you and your family need at this time. >> we need everything. i have this that i got from the shelter yesterday. i'm so grateful for their supplies, their food, their clothing. they provide. my daughter set up a gofundme page so i can start getting together equipment, mannequins, videos, stuff just to go back to work, just to start teaching again. >> and you teach cpr. >> i have no place to live.

>> i have you have nowhere to go. yes, i teach cpr. >> nothing left. i teach cpr and first for first responders, some of whom ended up coming to help you get out from that devastation reinaga, i don't know what to say to you. >> i know this is so incredibly, incredibly difficult. i really do hope that you're able to get some of the help you need, and i'm so heartbroken to see you crying there to you and your daughter, please know that everyone is thinking about you and hoping for the best. for more information about how you can help wildfire victims, you can go to cnn.com/vote. slash impact. >> john, so much loss and it's just not over yet. all right. we are just minutes away from history. donald trump, the president elect of the united states, will be sentenced in the new york hush money case where he was found guilty on 34

counts of falsifying business records. the supreme court overnight refused to step in. and even though there's not going to be any jail time or probation, trump is saying, quote, this is a long way from finished. let's get right to steve contorno in west palm beach, florida. he's not happy with the situation. steve. >> john. that's right. he has been animated and agitated by the fact that he will be sentenced in this case. >> all week he has been posting nonstop on social media about the judge in the case. he held a a press conference earlier this week at mar-a-lago, where he continued to lash out against the judicial system. >> and then yesterday saying at a meeting at mar-a-lago that he intends to fight on. >> take a listen. >> we're going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly, it's a disgrace. it's a judge that shouldn't have been on the case. so i'll do my little thing tomorrow. they can have fun with their political opponent. this is a long way from finished

now, trump has long believed that these cases against him have actually helped him politically, and are possibly a reason why he won the republican primary for president and why he is now the president elect of this country. >> but he still is is aggrieved and angry at the fact that he continues to face some of these cases. >> and he was fighting on up until yesterday, believing that potentially the supreme courts could intervene on his behalf. obviously, they decided not to. and now he will face the sentencing today and likely will become the first felon president of the united states. >> john. >> so, steve, on the international front, what is being done or what is the president elect saying is being done to set up a meeting with vladimir putin? >> john trump has been relatively coy about his conversations or communications with russia and vladimir putin throughout this transition. he has been, you know, sort of putting on display all the other world leaders that he is meeting with and ceos and

stuff, but he hasn't been willing to say whether or not he has spoken to putin. >> well, yesterday he said that they have arranged a conversation for after he takes office. >> listen to what he had to say. >> he wants to meet. and we're going to we're setting it up. we have to get that war over with. that's a bloody mess. soldiers are being killed by the millions. >> and of course, the big question, john, is what does this mean for ukraine and whether or not he will continue to provide us assistance once taking office? >> all right. steve contorno in palm beach, steve, thank you very much. in the meantime, we are standing by for the final jobs report of 2020. four. stock futures down a little bit this morning. wall street a bit anxious to see what will happen. and another just huge case in front of the supreme court set to hear oral arguments shortly about the congressional ban on tiktok, which is set to take effect

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4.2%. now, if these numbers come in as expected, this would paint the picture of overall a healthy jobs market. yes, job growth has slowed from that gangbusters pace from a few years ago, but still, overall looks like it's in solid shape now. when we look at the trend, we can see that job growth has been pretty bumpy the last few months. and i think that chart shows that we saw a significant slowdown in hiring in october, but that was really because of hurricanes and workers who were on strike. then we saw a big increase in november, almost a quarter of a million jobs were added, but that was largely just a bounce back. so investors are hoping for a little bit more clarity after those back to back distorted reports. and one thing we do need to pay attention to is, even though layoffs are low overall, it's also true that businesses have been slower to hire. they're taking their time with hiring workers. and so that does mean that for people who are unemployed, they're staying unemployed longer. on average,

more than five months. that is the highest since april of 2022. and so that is also an issue here. and then lastly, as i mentioned the markets. stock futures just a little bit down this morning. but it does look like investors are on edge here. they're looking for any sign that maybe the economy is weaker than it had been. that maybe there's any cracks in the jobs market. but they're also on high alert for signs that it's hotter. and i actually think it's that stronger concern that is the bigger one because that could lift interest rates even more. kate, let us see it together. >> thanks so much. thank you. really appreciate it. john. >> all right. this morning the future of tiktok hangs in the balance. the supreme court will hear arguments on the law passed by congress that requires tiktok to be sold by its chinese parent company or effectively get shut down in the united states. proponents of the ban say that tiktok is a threat to national security, something of a vacuum for americans personal data. but fans say banning it would be a first amendment violation. summer lucille, known as juicy body goddess, has a huge

following on tiktok advocating for plus size fashion. she's got a boutique as well, and she joins us this morning. summer, great to see you. what do you hope the supreme court does today? >> um, i hope the supreme court stands with the free speech rights of 170 million americans. >> americans that are on tiktok, the livelihood of 7 million business owners that make their living on tiktok. and the millions of content creators and influencers. >> if this ban does go through, what's your plan? >> i'm not for sure. >> i know my business. will i get 80% of my business from tiktok? and so my business grew almost 800% after covid because of tiktok. i'm not for sure. i know it will cripple me and i will be devastated. this is something that has never happened in the united states is this laws have never been

placed, so i have no idea what i'm going to do. if tiktok is banned. >> the law says that tiktok needs to be sold by its chinese parent company to, you know, basically to an american company. would that change your business? i mean, wouldn't you be able to keep going on if they would just sell it? >> i like, i like, i like tiktok experience the way it is right now. um, and to be honest with you, as an entrepreneur, uh, tiktok is a global app. it has billions of billions of users. why would they sell it to one country? their global app? it doesn't make sense. it doesn't make sense. so as an entrepreneur, i wouldn't want to sell my my business to my my billion user global business to one country. i wouldn't want to do that or one entity. >> so we had you on march of last year, and at the time you

told us there is nothing that anyone could say that would make you believe that chinese influence over tiktok was a threat to u.s. national security. has anything changed? there? >> nothing has changed. uh, tiktok is one of the is the safest. uh, app from a business perspective. perspective, from a social media perspective, there's been billions of dollars to protect our our users information and data. they partner up with the best company and one of the best companies and databases in the world, oracle. so my my stance is is is is the same. tiktok is one of the safest apps and businesses and companies in america right now. >> i asked you also at the time, would you ever support a politician who was in favor of the ban? and i think your answer was no. donald trump now says he's against the tiktok ban. how do you feel about his stance? >> that's new news to me. you