>> stay tuned for "good morning america." have a great day. breaking news in "america this morning," terrifying surge. the u.s. breaking a record overnight for daily coronavirus deaths. >> more shutdowns being ordered and now a massive protest erupting in the streets with business owners and their customers demanding to know why they have to close when other businesses are allowed to stay open. also breaking overnight, president trump's daughter ivanka deposed as investigators look into millions of dollars in spending on president trump's inauguration. what we're learning. plus, in a separate development, attorney general william barr in the hot seat. after contradicting the president's claims on voter fraud. package pause. the new slowdown on shipping after a record-breaking week of shopping. how to make sure your gifts arrive on time. plus, the reality housewife being sued accused of helping

her husband hide millions of dollars. it happened again. yet another monolith suddenly appears. and cashing in on christmas. >> keep the change, you filthy animal. >> how you can get paid to watch your favorite holiday movies. good thursday morning, everyone. one public health official calls it terrifying. we just set a major new record in the struggle against the coronavirus. >> and it is sobering. more than 3,100 people in the u.s. died from the virus in the last 24 hours. that's the highest daily death toll since the pandemic began breaking the previous record set back in april. the mayor of los angeles and many other leaders across the country are urging people to stay home if possible. and cancel nonessential activities. but more mandatory business shutdowns are now fueling more protests. overnight protesters swarming the streets angry at new covid

restrictions. ♪ we're not gonna take it >> reporter: hundreds of new yorkers facing off with police after this bar was shut down for flaunting covid restrictions. the owner arrested tuesday after declaring the building an autonomous zone refusing to stop serving customers indoors despite orders from the mayor and governor. >> it's not a health risk. walmart is not a health risk. the hypocrisy. riots are not health risks. >> reporter: the battle over bars and restaurants raging across the country. in michigan a judge shutting down the effort to re-open. ruling that the state can keep establishments closed under its pandemic order. meanwhile, on the west coast two travelers are facing jail time for flying from san francisco to hawaii even though they had tested positive for covid at the airport potentially exposing other passengers. the white house coronavirus task force now warning anyone who traveled over thanksgiving to assume they're infected. >> it's likely we're going to see a blip in the sense of a

surge upon a surge. >> reporter: dr. anthony fauci criticizing president trump's decision to host a crowded christmas party at the white house. >> it doesn't matter where you are, who you are or where you're doing it, it's a risky situation. >> reporter: it comes as the head of the cdc warns the u.s. could see another 200,000 deaths in the next three months. >> i actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation. >> reporter: hospitalizations across the country now topping 100,000, an all-time high with beds filling up. a children's hospital is now taking on adult patients. the uk approved pfizer's covid vaccine wednesday, but it will be at least a week before the vaccine gets the green light in the u.s. fauci says that's because of stricter safety standards here. >> the uk did not do it as carefully. they got a couple of days ahead. i don't think that makes much difference. >> back in washington just days after that indoor party at the white house, sources say the state department plans to host several holiday parties with hundreds of guests despite health officials warning against

such gatherings. also in washington, the top democrats in congress are supporting a bipartisan coronavirus relief package worth $900 billion. house speaker nancy pelosi and senate minority leader chuck schumer say the compromised bill could be used as a framework to revive talks. one of the moderates behind the bill believes a deal could be reached by year's end. >> i'm giving it better than a 50% chance. i think i'm well over 50% moving to 60% or 70% because i feel good. usually i'm chasing people down and i have a comfort level walking in the republican cloakroom and the democrat cloakroom and talking to all my friends. >> the measure includes $300 a week per week but no stimulus checks. unclear whether senate leader mitch mcconnell will support it. ivanka trump now deposed into the inauguration in 2017. the president's daughter was questioned by washington's attorney general's office, which

is looking into the $104 million spent on the inauguration including events at the president's hotel. the trump organization says ivanka trump's only involvement was connecting the parties and instructing the hotel to charge a fair market rate. attorney general william barr is coming under fire from his boss, president trump. sources say barr's job could be in jeopardy as the president tries to overturn results of the election. abc news has learned trump has filed a new lawsuit in wisconsin taking issue with voting by mail. critics say the legal strategy is misleading and going nowhere. abc's faith abubey has been tracking the overnight developments. faith, good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, kenneth. attorney general william barr recently contradicted president trump on his election fraud claims and now it appears barr could lose his job over it. this morning, sources tell abc news attorney general william barr's job is now hanging in the balance. president trump is set to be livid at barr with sources indicating barr could be fired. one official tells "the washington post" several people

are trying to persuade trump not to do so. barr spent more than two hours at the white house earlier this week after declaring the justice department has not seen fraud that would change the outcome of the election. sources describe the meeting between trump and barr as intense. on wednesday white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany refusing to say whether trump still has faith in barr. >> the president if he has any person until announcement, you'll be the first to know it. >> reporter: president trump is still denying he lost the election, instead pushing his unfounded claims of voter fraud in a 46-minute post on twitter and facebook. meanwhile, overnight election officials wrapped up a recount in georgia where there is a growing rift between the republican party and the president's allies. [ crowd chanting ] >> reporter: outside atlanta trump supporters held a stop the steal rally with sidney powell and lin wood on stage. neither attorneys officially working for the trump campaign, but they've waged

election-related legal battles on the president's behalf. wood called for the state's republican governor to be locked up. >> i want you to go to the governor's mansion. i want you to circle it. i want to you blow your horns until brian kemp comes out and orders a special session of the georgia legislature. get us our legislature. we want to fix the mess that he created, and then he can resign. and then as far as i'm concerned lock him up. [ cheers and applause ] there's a few others that need to go with him. >> reporter: with a senate runoff in georgia looming next month and control of the senate at stake, election officials are urging trump and his supporters to stop the violent rhetoric. >> they don't want to lose the trump supporters. by acting this way they'll lose another one. >> reporter: in the meantime, his attorney rudy giuliani was in michigan pleading with state

lawmakers to interfere with the election process. kenneth. >> faith abubey there in washington, thank you. a search effort resumes in southeastern alaska after a powerful landslide. at least six people have been reported missing after the slide about 600 yards wide slammed into a neighborhood destroying four homes in the town of haines. it was triggered by record rainfall. debris is nine feet deep in some areas. time now for a look at your thursday weather. unusually chilly conditions around tampa bay forced people to be creative like this man who used a spatula to scrape ice off his windshield. that dangerous blast of windy cold air continues across the eastern third of the country with temperatures and windchills dipping into the low 20s. and then a new storm will move into the gulf coast and parts of the midwest stretching into the southeast. it's expected to hit the mid-atlantic with rain and some snow by saturday.

coming up, the big boom heard along the canadian border and the flash in the sky. also ahead, a remarkable message from the driver who escaped this dramatic crash on the track. why a reality tv star and her husband allegedly embezzled money from victims of a plane crash. the lawsuit they're facing next. . yeah, you give molly blue buffalo huh? molly devours it. i love their ingredients. like what? cat chow is pretty similar i think. ok, but blue's more expensive. i did the math. blue's less than 15 cents more a day. we're switching to blue bubbles!

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driver who survived this fiery crash last weekend climbing out of his historic car while engulfed in flames. he has now been released from the hospital. romain grosjean was hospitalized for three nights. he posted a video thanking his fans for their support. he also showed his right hand saying he almost cried when doctors said he could start using it again. we turn now to the real life drama involving one of the stars of "the real housewives of beverly hills" and her lawyer husband. they're accused of staging their divorce to hide money taken from the victims of plane crash victims. andrea fujii explains the allegations. >> reporter: this morning the reality tv couple known for their lavish lifestyle. >> being broke sucks and being rich is a lot better. >> reporter: facing allegations of fraud less than a month after calling it quits. "real housewives of beverly hills" star erika jayne and her husband, tom girardi, the lawyer made famous during the erin brockovich case are now accused of faking their divorce. a newly filed lawsuit claiming the high-profile couple is trying to hide millions of

dollars in settlement money meant for the families of victims killed in the 2018 lion air plane crash. >> the law firm in chicago is saying thomas girardi is trying to hide, he's trying to tuck away this money in this divorce. he's got to presumably give it all to his wife and somehow have the money assigned to her and that way he won't have to pay it back to these plaintiffs or to this law firm. >> reporter: on the show the couple would flaunt their extravagant lifestyle. >> i think it costs $40,000 a month to do erika jayne so that's hair, makeup, costumes, wardrobe and the whole production. >> reporter: but the suit claims they're in debt and used some of the misappropriated money to pay it off and project a public image of obscene wealth at all times. and at whatever the cost. the attorney who filed the lawsuit, jay edleson, worked with girardi on the lion air case and said he figured out the scheme after boeing paid the settlement but clients did not receive their full payments. while the former couple has not

commented on these allegations, girardi has said in the past that fame has made him a target. >> whenever you're out there, you become a bit of a target, but i think if you act honorably even though you're filing a lawsuit against very powerful entities, if you behave in the proper fashion and so forth, you're pretty well regarded. >> reporter: the amount of the lion air settlement is not made public. but the lawyer who filed the lawsuit says the allegations made against jayne and girardi are some of the most troubling he's seen in his entire career. kenneth, mona. >> andrea fujii, thank you so much. coming up, yet another politician admits not following his own coronavirus rules. but first the new limits on holiday shipping. one major delivery company changing the rules. now might not be the best time to ask yourself, 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones

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woman: the #1 pediatrician recommended brand,ourpampers,logist helps keep baby's skin dry and healthy. so every touch is as comforting as the first. pampers. the #1 pediatrician recommended brand . back now with this frigid rescue near fargo. a first responder waded into a river to help bring a dog stranded on the ice back to safety. after he finally got hold of the dog, it was a short trip back to shore. that dog is okay. u.p.s. and fedex are facing a holiday shipping crunch as the pandemic drives up demand for online orders. u.p.s. is reportedly placing limits on some large retailers including gap, nike and macy's. "the wall street journal" says u.p.s. drivers have been told to temporarily stop picking up packages from six stores because they're exceeding delivery capacity and fedex has asked retailers to spread out promotions. pre-christmas shipping deadlines

are more crucial than ever. >> so the message from carriers and from retailers is very unified is if you're buying online, to buy as early as possible. don't wait until december 21st the last week before christmas. >> mark your calendars, december 15th is the cutoff for ground shipping for u.p.s., fedex and the postal service. in texas the mayor of austin admits he delivered a stay-at-home message while traveling on vacation. in a video mayor steve adler asked people not to travel because of rising coronavirus cases but he was actually in mexico. he says he regrets the trip. new questions about how the coronavirus vaccines will be distributed. also this morning hospitals are bracing after the cdc warned 200,000 more americans could die by february. earlier i spoke with dr. ryan ribeiro. dr. ribeiro, first, what are you seeing right now and what are the biggest challenges? >> yeah, so i mean right now we're definitely in a third surge, at least out where we are, it's our third, and it's

our biggest so far. fortunately we've made a lot of progress in our ability to treat the virus, but cases are rising, hospitalizations are rising and now we are seeing deaths rising so i fear we're coming into what could be the deadliest phase of the virus so far. >> you mentioned those deaths and the cdc is warning we could see another 200,000 deaths by february. how can hospitals possibly prepare for this? >> one of the most important things hospitals are thinking about now is how to make sure we have enough icu space for the critically ill patients. the other thing they need to think about is how do you make sure you are protecting the health of your health care workforce as the surge approaches and main your ppe supplies. at stanford we're doing things like we have ipads in every patient care room to communicate with them digitally and not have to go in the room and use ppe every time and use protocols where you can take chest x-rays through the glass doors and nurses who have all of the medication equipment outside the room with very long i.v. tubing to control it

without having to expose themselves and techniques like that are going to be useful. >> let's talk about the pfizer and moderna vaccine expected to be approved for emergency use this month in the u.s. we know there will be short-term side effects, but do we know about any long-term effects? >> i think it's important to remember we do have some long-term data to go on. these studies on these vaccines started back in early 2020 so if you look across all of the vaccine candidates that have been in the pipeline, we have several hundred patients who are now more than six months out from having received the vaccines, and so far no severe long-term side effects reported. just thinking about how mrna vaccines works, they're really only in your system for a few days before they break up. you would not expect some delayed onset, severe long-term consequences to really happen with this type of vaccine. >> our thanks to dr. ribeiro there. after being postponed three times because of the coronavirus, the ravens and steelers finally played their game yesterday. pittsburgh won, but their

linebacker bud dupree suffered a knee injury that could end his season. and the big headline in the nba. the rockets are trading russell westbrook to the wizards for john wall and a draft pick. coming up, the unusual lottery number that made lots of people rich. also, it's happened again. yep. another mysterious monolith has appeared. real progress? when you're affected by schizophrenia, you see it differently. it's in the small, everyday moments. and in the places, you'd never expect. a little sign of hope. the feeling of freedom. and once these little moments start adding up, that's when it feels like so much more. it feels like real progress. caplyta effectively treats adults with schizophrenia. and it's just one pill, once a day, with no titration. caplyta can cause serious side effects. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles or confusion, which can mean a life-threatening reaction or uncontrollable muscle movements which may be permanent. dizziness upon standing, falls, and impaired judgment may occur.

most common side effects include sleepiness and dry mouth. high cholesterol and weight gain may occur, as can high blood sugar which may be fatal. in clinical trials, weight, cholesterol and blood sugar changes were similar to placebo. so if you're affected by schizophrenia, ask your doctor about caplyta from intra-cellular therapies. than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death.

tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. don't let another morning go by without asking your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz. ♪ time to check "the pulse." we begin with a strange winning lottery number. >> so strange it sparked a fraud investigation. the winning numbers -- here they are -- they were 5, 6, 7, 8 9 and the powerball was 10. this was south africa's powerball drawing. >> 20 people will split the

jackpot $7.5 million. lottery officials insist there was no fraud because they are generated randomly without human intervention. next another monolith has appeared out of nowhere. >> this time in california. the ten-foot-tall obelisk popped up along the central coast. hikers say it wasn't there the day before. no one seems to know where it came from. >> it's very similar to the one found in the utah desert last month before it disappeared and the other one that showed up in romania. >> i keep saying our set has another one. look this panel right behind me on -- >> i say he spent too much in here. utah police had a unique chase on their hands. >> they had to catch a wandering wallaroo. >> he jumped in the river where two fishermen brought him to shore. >> and finally we've all watched a lot more tv this year than unusual. >> yeah, but what if you could get paid doing it. reviews.org are looking for someone to watch 25 holiday movies in 25 days and fill out surveys. >> the person chosen will be

paid 2500 bucks. cha-ching. s a combination of two immunotherapies you can take first. one that could mean... a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. it's the first and only approved chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works together in different ways to harness the power of the immune system. opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more days. more nights. more beautiful weekends. more ugly sweaters. more big hugs. more small outings. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. this may happen during or after treatment has ended and can become serious and lead to death. some of these problems may happen more often when opdivo is used with yervoy. see your doctor right away if you have a new or worse cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; diarrhea; severe stomach pain; nausea or vomiting; dizziness;

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checking the top stories, republicans are defying president trump by moving forward with a defense spending bill that includes a pay raise for troops, even after president trump threatened to veto it. the president is demanding that lawmakers repeal an unrelated law protecting social media companies from lawsuits. meanwhile, the president is reportedly thinking about firing attorney general william barr for contradicting his election fraud claims. the u.s. suffered more than 3,100 coronavirus deaths wednesday. the highest daily death toll since the pandemic began and with the first vaccine approval expected this month, former presidents clinton, bush, and obama say they'll get vaccinated publicly to prove it's safe. former notre dame football coach lou holtz will receive the medal of freedom today from the president. he spoke at the convention. today's weather, extremely windy in the west, dry and warmer in the midwest.

rainy and some snow in the south, chilly and then warming later in the northeast. finally, the couple spreading holiday cheer after the pandemic canceled their wedding. >> will ganss has the story. >> this is good stuff right here. >> reporter: in their busiest season of the year, the delivery men and women in a neighborhood outside of chicago are being treated to an extra bit of holiday cheer. >> so sweet for people to do stuff like this. >> reporter: covid safe individually packaged snacks and drinks, compliments of bradley carter and britney peters. they were supposed to be getting married next weekend. >> we knew gifts would be sent to the house with the bridal shower and the wedding and we knew it was going to be a lot, so i already knew i was like, we have to do something. >> reporter: when they were forced to call their wedding off due to the pandemic, the couple decided to give the treats they had already bought for their guests to the delivery workers in their area. brad posting the videos to tiktok racking up an incredible number of views. >> the 100,000 views turned into a million. and it was like, what is happening? >> yeah.

>> i think one guy even like stumbled back a little bit. >> yeah. >> you could tell he was at the end of a long day and so that's what makes it even better. >> yeah. just letting people know that we appreciate them and just a little love because you don't know what people's lives and what kind of day they had. >> reporter: the spirit of christmas especially strong this year for brad, britney and their son, aden. based on the response you've gotten so far, do you think this is something you night continue in the future? >> we're thinking of ideas how we can have the snacks out there when it's raining and snowing. >> yes, i told him, i said, i think i'm going to need a little tent. >> put a little drive-through window on the side of your house. brad and britney moved their wedding back to december 2021. and you know what that means, just as many packages coming their way next year. so that drive-through refreshment window might actually be a good plank. kenneth, mona. >> definitely. >> we can learn a thing or two from them. even a simple thank you will help this year.is a this is a t

>> stay tuned for "good morning america." have a great day. breaking news in "america this morning," terrifying surge. the u.s. breaking a record overnight for daily coronavirus deaths. >> more shutdowns being ordered and now a massive protest erupting in the streets with business owners and their customers demanding to know why they have to close when other businesses are allowed to stay open. also breaking overnight, president trump's daughter ivanka deposed as investigators look into millions of dollars in spending on president trump's inauguration. what we're learning. plus, in a separate development, attorney general william barr in the hot seat. after contradicting the president's claims on voter fraud. package pause. the new slowdown on shipping after a record-breaking week of shopping. how to make sure your gifts arrive on time. plus, the reality housewife