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this is the second child to die in border protection custody this month. a 7-year-old guatemalan girl who died was buried in her home village yesterday. >> our stations are not built

for that group that's crossing today. they were built 30, 40 years ago for single adult males and we need a different approach. >> reporter: here at the border, there is heightened concern tonight about potential disease and illness spreading within those u.s. holding centers. and that is why as of today, homeland security reached out for medical help to the cdc and other agencies, including the coast guard and fema, asking for help here in hopes of preventing another death. j.b.? >> janet shamlian reporting. justice ruth bader ginsburg is now home from the hospital. ginsburg who is 85, had surgery last friday to remove two cancerous growths on her left lung. the growths were discovered after ginsburg fell last month and broke her ribs. doctors say there's no evidence of any remaining cancer. millions of americans could have trouble getting home after christmas. a powerful winter storm is blowing across the country. parts of the plains and midwest

will get the worst of it. blizzard conditions are possible in the dakotas tonight. powerful winds, floods and even tornadoes could hit the southwest. and the governor of california this week took the unusual step of ordering new dna tests in a murder case going back 35 years. an inmate on death row is hoping the test will prove he's innocent. here's jamie yuccas. >> reporter: it was a horrifying crime scene. douglas and peggy ryen, their 10-year-old daughter jessica, and a neighbor, 11-year-old christopher hughes, all murdered. 8 yolanda josh ryen, his throat slashed, barely survived. authorities quickly had a suspect in that 1983 massacre. an escaped inmate who had been hiding out in an abandoned home nearby. kevin cooper would be found guilty, sent to california's death row, and in 2004 was just hours away from execution when the 9th circuit court of appeals blocked it. years later, five federal judges

in ace sent raised concerns that evidence may have been tampered with, writing, the state of california may be about to execute an innocent man. >> it's extraordinary and it's unprecedented to my knowledge in the united states that that many judges would decide that a person had been framed. >> reporter: celebrities like kim kardashian, legal scholars, and a "the new york times" columnist are among those publicly expressing doubt that one man could have overpowered five people while handling multiple murder weapons. a hatchet, an ice pick and a knife. the new advanced dna tests not available in 1983 will focus on the hatchet, as well as a blood-stained t-shirt. but to prosecutors, the evidence that convicted cooper was overwhelming. how definitive are you that kevin cooper is guilty? >> absolutely. not just beyond a reasonable doubt. i would say beyond a shadow of a doubt. what kind of evilness is inside

of him, i couldn't tell you. but what we can tell you is we have the evidence. that proves he committed these crimes. >> reporter: another inconsistency in this case is the little boy who survived originally told investigators there were three assailants. he did not describe any of them as african-american. j.b., governor brown says he's not taking a position on cooper's innocence or guilt, but that additional testing is needed. >> thank you, jamie. coming up, a warning about gift cards. how scammers are using them to steal your money. and later, an erupting billions of bacteria,

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and try align gummies with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health. gift cards are an increasingly popular holiday present. turns out thieves like them, too. federal regulators say in the past three years, gift card fraud has jumped 270%. tony dokoupil spoke with someone who's been scammed. >> all the stecps that were beig done and taken seemed real. >> reporter: trinidad gonzalez says a man claiming to be her grandson called saying he was in jail and he needed thousands of dollars. he put someone on the phone as an attorney. >> i was hesitant. it was a lot of money. >> reporter: the caller said he would make it easy for the 76-year-old grandmother. purchase cards from walmart and

give him numbers on the back of the cards. he warned her not to answer questions from the store employees. >> they asked me do you know where this money is going to? i said it's going to my grandchildren. >> reporter: that night she figured out her real grandson was home in virginia. by that toint gonzalez who had recently lost her husband was out $4,000. >> i lost too much money, too much money for me to hand over to a stranger like that. >> reporter: according to the federal trade commission, 26% of victims paid scammers with a gift card between january and september this year. that's up from only 7% in 2015. >> it's a huge issue. >> reporter: pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro. why wouldn't a scammer ask for cash or credit card number? >> typically with cash you have to have a meet-up somehow and they don't want to create that risk. on a credit card, that's much easier to trace and easier for the bank to shut down the money flowing to the scammer. rorter: says she hopes her story will put others on high alert. >> i hope it helps somebody,

somebody who likes me think they're smart enough not to fall for it and to question things more because i didn't question anything. >> reporter: to tackle the growing problem, shapiro joined forces with new york's attorney general and three major retailers, walmart, target and best buy. j.b., they took steps to curb fraud and lowering card limits and train employees to spot fraud ever since darrell's family started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. [darrell's wife] uh, honey, isn't that the dog's towel? [dog sfx]

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russian president vladimir putin watched the test launch today of a new hypersonic rocket. russia says it can fly 20 times the speed of sound. it's unclear whether russia's hypersonic weapons are operational or still in a test phase. the u.s. military is testing similar weapons. today, american brady became the first person to successfully cross antarctica alone and unsupported. o'brady made the 921 mile trek on skis towing a sled full of gear. he beat a british soldier who has been making the trip separately. in italy today, nearly 30 le earthquakerigged by the erupting volcano mt. etna. the magnitude 4.8 earthquake damaged buildings in eastern sicily. and we have some good news to share. cbs news white house

correspondent ouija jiang and her husband luther lowe welcomed their baby girl into the world on chris

we end tonight at a children's hospital where the spirit of the season shines brightly, even on the darkest of nights. no matter how kind the nurses and doctors, a hospital can be a scary place for a child and a lonely place to spend the holidays. >> we literally brought christmas here yesterday. >> margie o'connor's daughter teresa is finishing a round of chemotherapy for leukemia. she'll be at beaumont children's hospital in suburban detroit for another month. >> i actually miss going to school, like the social part of it and just, like, seeing outside. sorry. >> nighttimes are the hardest for the 17-year-old. >> nighttime, i feel like, like there's not as many people here

>> the hospital launched sweet dreams with moonbeams. hundreds have turned up to send a message of comfort in the form of light beams. >> it gives kids a connection to anybody outside of the hospital. and it also gives them with a sense of hope because they know that random people are coming in, shining the lights for them. >> message received and returned. >> it's an acknowledgment, i think, from the kids. it's a way to bounce the light off of one another. >> and that is the overnight news for this thursday. now, for some of you, the news continues. for others, check back with us a little later for the morning news andhe troadcast center in w york city, i'm james brown. ♪ we wish you a merry chorus mass and a happy new year ♪

♪ good tidings we bring to you and your kids, good tidings for christmas and a happy new year ♪ ♪ >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> hi, everyone, and welcome to the overnight news. i'm demarco morgan. president trump left the government shutdown and the turmoil and the financial markets behind him and flew off to iraq. the unannounced christmas visit to u.s. troops was mr. trump's first tour of a war zone since becoming commander in chief nearly two years ago. and it comes amid a growing uncertainty of the u.s. role in the middle east. chip reid has the story. >> reporter: president trump and first lady melania trump received a boisters welcome as they signed autographs, posed for selfies and chatted with u.s. troops at al-asad air base air base 100 miles west of

baghdad. it's the first time the president has traveled to visit troops in a u.s. war zone. critics say it took far too long, especially compared to president obama, who visited troops in iraq in his first three months in office. the visit follows the president's stunning announcement last week, that he will pull the remaining 2000 u.s. troops out of syria. during his remarks today in iraq, he repeated his claim that isis has been defeated. >> to personally thank you and every service member throughout this region for the near elimination of the isis territorial caliphate in iraq and in syria. two years ago, when i became president, they were a very dominant group. they were very dominant. today they're not so dominant any more. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: the president told reporters he had given the generals in charge of the syria operation multiple six-month extensions. but when they asked for another one recently, he told them they've had enough time, and

that isis has been knocked out silly, despite the argument from some advisors that isis could mount a resurgence if u.s. troops leave. the president recently called the war in iraq the worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country. but despite that, he told the troops today he has no plans to withdraw the 5200 u.s. troops now in iraq. >> no plans at all, no. in fact, we can use this as a base if we wanted to do something in syria. if you take isis, and if we see something happening with isis that we don't like, we can hit them so fast and so hard, they really won't know what the hell happened. >> reporter: 2018 was a horror show for tens of thousands of people in california. three wildfires in the last two months destroyed more than 20,000 homes and other buildings. the camp fire was the state's most deadly and destructive fire on record. it killed 86 people and left

35,000 others without homes. a lot of those evacuees are having a tough time finding places to live. jamie yuccas reports. >> i lost everything that i had. >> reporter: pictures? >> pictures i can never replace. part of me feels really selfish for just wishing i would have stayed. >> reporter: tabitha and her two daughters are starting from scratch. their homes was one of the nearly 14,000 destroyed in the camp fire. do you have any -- >> reporter: the family is using money from fema to move from motel to motel. brewster wants to keep the girls in their school. so for now she drives them an hour each way. but she'd hope to find a permanent home nearby. >> there's nothing to be had. there's no place to live. >> we're not equipped to negotiate a disaster like this. >> reporter: ed mayor is the executive director of the

housing authority of butte county. >> as of the date of the crisis, there might be a thousand units in butte county that were available. all of those units are spoken for now. >> reporter: california was already facing a housing shortage of almost a million and a half units. with the loss of tens of thousands of homes to wildfires, the state is simply unable to absorb new homeowners. mayor says this disaster could triple the number of homeless people in his county to 6000. >> we're playing musical chairs with housing. it takes someone to move out of a unit for someone to secure a unit. so everyone is just waiting. >> reporter: what do you do in a situation like this? >> well, the difficulty is, is finding viable alternatives. bringing in fema-manufactured housing units, finding family or friends to live with. >> reporter: fema has approved roughly $27 million in housing grants for camp fire survivors and plans to bring in 1300 temporary homes. but mayor says rebuilding

paradise will likely take ten to 20 years. an unthinkable time line for brewster and her daughters. >> i think that every child needs a little bit of stability. there's no stability and it makes me feel a bit of a failure i couldn't find something fast enough. >> reporter: you're not a failure. >> that i just haven't -- i can't live in hotels forever. i'm hoping that something comes together. i don't know. >> reporter: jamie yuccas, chico, california. >> with layoffs looming, it's been an uneasy holiday season for thousands of general motors workers. recently announced plans to shutdown factories in 2019 are bringing back bitter memories in jamesville, wisconsin, where they planned to close plants years ago. what was lost and what lies ahead. >> reporter: slowly, painfully, the one thing that put

jamesville, wisconsin on the map is being torn down and carried away. there are nine decades of general motors history here. buicks and chevys, and confidence. >> and we are on the shop floor here? >> you're actually on the shop floor of what was the plant. >> reporter: gayle price is jamesville's economic director of development. >> we're kind of in a tomb. >> yeah, we're standing where thousands of people were employed at one time. of >> reporter: but ten years ago, gm hit the brakes. the factory never opened again. suppliers went broke. downtown businesses sagged, and incomesed. >> there was a lot of divorces, a lot of people lost their houses, yes. >> reporter: debbie was at gm for 23 years. it must be kind of melancholy there, drive by it and see what's happening. >> i feel kind of sad when i go by, but i'm also glad that they're doing something were it. >> reporter: a developer now

owns the property and the city hopes for six to eight new plants here one day to make something. anything. during the last decade, other businesses have come to town drawn by its many rail lines and river front real estate. and although wages and benefits on a gm scale have never returned, today the area is gaining manufacturing workers. so jamesville is surviving, as is debbie, who went back to school and is now a hospital worker. >> you've got to look out for yourself, you know? you've got to figure out what you want to do and move on. >> reporter: it's a message to other communities bo to lose their gn camps like michigan and warren ohio. here they've learned nothing lasts forever. dean reynolds, cbs news, jamesville, wisconsin. >> the "cbs overnight news" will be right back.

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>> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> with 2018 coming to a close in the next couple of days, we have been looking back at the world 50 years ago in 1968, and one of the most historic events of that year took place during christmas week, the first manned flight to the moon. at the time that was a dangerous endeavor, and lee cowan spoke to a couple of the astronauts who made the flight and lived to tell their stories. >> reporter: although the moon seems ever so familiar, we're really barely acquainted. only a few souls have ever ventured there and back, and of those who have, few are left. bill anders, though, is one of them. >> i'm bill.

>> i'm lee. >> reporter: >> so nice to meet you. >> reporter: still flying high at age 85. >> i figured i'll keep flying as long as i can crawl in them. >> reporter: when you look an apollo astronaut in the eye, it's hard to imagine what those eyes have seen, especially anders. 50 years ago this week, christmas eve no less. he and apollo 8 saw our home as no other ever have, like a holiday ornament hanging over the moon. >> it was ironic that we've done all this work to come and explore the moon and what we really discovered was the earth. >> the year was 1968. little seemed right with the world that christmas. war, riots, assassinations. the mood was hardly festive. says the author of a recent book on apollo 8, jeffrey coogler. >> this was a year of sorrow, of suffering and massive blood shed. and then at the end of the year, we had this moment to do this magnificent thing.

it was serendipity saying, humanity, you guys deserve a break. make the most of it. >> reporter: the launch was set for just four days before christmas. the command module that sat high atop the most powerful machine man had ever built, looked tiny then, and still does. where it sits at the museum of science and industry in chicago. jim lovell sat in the middle street. >> i suddenly found myself 360 feet high. i looked down below, there was the news media people coming in to park their cars. it was still dark. and i thought to myself, they're sending me to the moon. >> the engines are on. 4, 3, 2, 1. 0. >> my biggest remembrance about it was the noise. >> there's the rumble in that building. >> there's no way you could simulate or transfer the noise that that beast put out. >> the building is shaking. >> we're looking good. >> reporter: apollo 8's commander knew this would be a

mission full of firsts. >> man is farther away from home than he's ever been before. 100 times farther away. nd wou never be sa but to borman, only one first really mattered. >> what i wanted to do was go to the moon and come back alive because i knew that would beat the russians. >> we're looking forward to the day after tomorrow when we'll be just 60 miles away from the moon. happy birthday, mother. >> reporter: so, everyone. the russians included, were glued to their black and white tvs. >> what do you have today, bill, for dinner? >> reporter: although it seemed like we were right there with them. >> chicken and gravy. >> reporter: apollo 8 was really very much alone. >> i could put my thumb up to the window and completely hide the earth. now, you have to think about that. over 5 billion people, everything i ever knew was behind my thumb. anythio ea oers

i mean, this was the first time mankind had ever left the earth's pole. >> i think that was the least of our worries. >> reporter: that's true. after all, they weren't just going to the moon. they were going to orbit it ten times. but then it actually happened. on christmas eve, that lonely barren place got some human tidings of great joy. >> we're like school kids looking into a candy store window watching the ancient craters on the far side slowly slip underneath us. >> reporter: but describing what they saw proved almost as hard as getting there. do you remember what you said? >> well, i said it looked like dirty beach sand. very whitish gray like dirty beach sand. >> that's how i described it, thus gaining the wrath of poets worldwide. couldn't he have done better? probably. >> reporter: he didn't even need words in the end.

as it turned out, a single talkg >> oh, my god, look a thatsnhat had precious little film on board and what they had was supposed to be used to take pictures of the moon, not the earth. >> i'll take that on schedule. b >> reporter: but anders did it right anyway. >> that wasn't in the flight plan. hell with that. here was a beautiful shot. >> hand me a roll of color film. >> oh, man. >> reporter: known as earth rise, it became one of the most reproduced images ever, in part, because no other photograph summed up our place in the universe, our small place at that, quite like this. >> this was just a beacon of hope as well as awe. it pointed the way toward a new understanding of who we are as human beings. >> even if for a brief moment. >> even for a brief moment. >> reporter: for environmental crusader al gore, that image was

proof of just how fragile our world is. it's the spirit behind the climate change exhibit at the american museum of natural history in new york. and it's the center piece to almost every climate presentation the former vice-president has ever given. is it fair so twto say that image was one of the catalysts for the environmental movement? >> oh, no question about it. within a year and a half the first earth day was organized. the momentum emerged in the congress for the clean air act, the clean water act. it transformed the environmental movement into what it became in the immediate aftermath of that image. >> reporter: it alone may have been enough to secure apollo 8's place in the conscience of humanity. but it wasn't the final word on that christmas eve night. like send to you. >> reporter: do you have any idea, though, how many people would be listening in and watching?

>> well, we were told that we a that ever listened to a human voice before. >> reporter: but what to say? what words would resonate through the heavens on one of the holiest nights of the year? they settled on ones that already had. from the book of genesis. >> in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. >> it was pitch perfect. they were the words of three, in some ways very ordinary humans. i always say they had very lunch bucket names, frank and bill and jim. what could be more human that than that? >> and god called the light day, and the darkness het. >>eporter: did you know at the time what kind of impact that would have? >> no, but as we, as we flew and allgr w we contemplated it coul'tav don ath meaprie.

>>eptehome three explorers name bore man, lovell and anders. whose names are going down in the history books as did columbus and vasco de gama. >> reporter: they were returning from a successful voyage during the end of one of our turbulent years, a season all about peace. >> we got thousands of telegrams after the flight. the one that struck me the most, thank you, apollo 8, you saved 1968. and i think in a way we helped to heal it. >> good night. good luck. a merry christmas, and god bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.

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christmas is over, but the ou the vatican. seth doane is there.

>> reporter: the vatican is always festive during the holidays, but the most elaborate decorations here won't wilt. in fact, they're centuries old. the sistine chapel which is just over there is visited every year by about 6 million people, and now in a theater just down the street, there is a way to see michael angelo's masterpiece up close and in digital form. lasers, lights, and a under. add distinctly modern dimension to a story that's roughly 500 years old, mickel angelo painting the sistine chapel. images fill the theater. it's an immerse i have experience that even its creative director, marco balach, has a hard time describing. >> it's easier to say what is not. there is ballet, but is not a ballet. there is a lot of beautiful music by john metcalf, but is

not a musical. it's a very technological show. >> reporter: he treated michael angelo as a superhero whose fres co-s in digital form turned rome's former symphony hall into a second sistine chapel. what did you think? >> belisimo. >> you liked it. >> reporter: he's had practice staging a spectacle, notably the closing ceremony of the sochi olympic games. >> usually we do a one off. -- and it's finished and it's gone. this time it keeps going. i open up the door to the fake sistine chapel. perfect. >> reporter: he let us peek back stage to see how the show works. >> what i need to wear. >> reporter: what the cast wears. and how he took inspiration from spectacles the catholic church has staged.

>> this is the coffin of john paul ii, which for -- to me, i love ceremonies. that was one of the best ceremony ever done. >> reporter: balach takes images visitors strain to see in real life and expands and animates them. he pushed to create this production and got the blessing of the vatican. but one skeptical italian columnist wasn't so nice, calling all of the special effects, visual viagra. when you hear critics say this is too much, it's all show -- >> they tell me every time they said, oh, but it's like disney. well, disney is a genius. what's wrong with it? >> reporter: creative director marco tells us he gets some of his inspiration from the immerse i have world of theme park rides. and says he knows he's been successful when he looks around to see audiences enthralled and

not on their cell phones. >> the "cbs overnight news" will be right back.

we end this half hour with a christmas week lesson about looking to the future without forgetting your past. steve hartman found this story on the road. >> reporter: long ago but not nearly as long ago as you might expect, sharecroppers worked this field in south carolina. as late as 1964, bo and lake giles were still toiling liken dentured servants. in fact, their children say they were, by far, the poorest family around. >> we had to pick cotton all day long. >> oh, yeah, you had to pick cotton during the school year. >> we could only go to school when it was raining. >> there was very little food. >> i was praying every day, god, get us out of this situation.

>> reporter: but even as those prayers went unanswered, the giles children knew there was a better life out there, because it was so tantalizingly close. the shack they lived in used to be right there. but in their view, just past this pond here, there was another house. you can see it right back there. it's really just a modest home. but to those sharecropers' kids, picking cotton in these fields, that place seemed like the taj mahal. >> me looking across the street at it, it looked like a mansion. >> they have a bathroom and stuff. >> felt like they were rich compared to our broken down home. >> you had flowers. all of that was a sense of freedom. >> reporter: and all of that is why it felt like liberation when half a century later, the giles family moved across the street into the taj mahal. some of the siblings pooled their money to buy the property which they're now renovating to use for family holiday gatherings. >> linda, come on in.

>> reporter: eventually, the plan is to put the house in a trust so future generations of giles will know the story and learn the lesson. that poverty doesn't have to beget poverty. that through education and determination, poverty can breed success. dorothy became a teacher. ruthie a nurse. roosevelt, chairman of the board. but he says still a sharecropper in his soul. >> you have an appreciation of where you come from. >> across the way over here instead of sitting over there. >> we have a better life. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: this holiday season many americans will be unwrapping presents. but for families like the giles, the greatest gift is the only gift that truly keeps on giving. the sacrifice of those who made all this possible. steve hartman, on the road in

kelton, south carolina. >> and that's the overnight news for this thursday. from the cbs broadcast news center in new york city, i'm demarco mo it's thursday, december 27th, 2018. this is the cbs morning news. soldiers' surprise. president trump and first lady melania take a secret trip to meet troops in iraq. his message about the military's role overseas. record-setting gains. stocks rebound on wall street causing a ripple effect on global markets. and severe weather is rolling across the midsection of the country, bringing snow and gusty winds to millions.