southwest has also been hit with delays and cancellations due to weather, and a three-day series of computer issues. monday, both airlines saw hundreds of cancellations and more than a thousand delays. henry is an airline analyst. >> they scheduled too many flights and didn't have enough people ready to operate the flights, operate the airports, and the companies that they work with were short, too. >> reporter: as american ramped up flights from 2200 a day to 5800 this month, the tsa struggled to have enough screeners. the airline's caterer in dallas didn't have enough drivers. and some american pilots were still in retraining. >> we didn't have enough pilots the fly the planes, pretty simple. and now they're surrendering the schedule. >> reporter: airlines are also dealing with an alarming spike in disruptive passengers. prompting a rare industry wide letter to the attorney general asking doj to send a strong and

consistent message through criminal enforcement. >> we've got to know that the federal government has our back on this. >> reporter: delta tells us they are hiring 1,000 new pilots thof them in place by next summer. they will be pilots offered a job before the pandemic. >> kris van cleave reporting. so let's say your flight is canceled and you find yourself sitting at home with time on your hands. how about taking a virtual tour of the world. mo rocca shows you how it's done. >> reporter: adrian charlie loves to travel. >> so i've been to kenya, i've also been to morocco and camped out in the desert. i've been to cuba, the united arab emirates. madaga madagascar, can't believe i forgot that. >> and for her 50th birthday, she was pulling out all the stops. >> so i had planned first class tickets to paris. i was going to stay at one of

the hotel along the river. >> reporter: and then covid happened. but where there's a will, and wi-fi, there's a way. >> the distance on your right, we get the first glimpse of the eiffel tower. >> reporter: she's talking about this, a virtual reality headset, by a virtual reality, vr for short, she has spent the past year globe trotting. global pandemic be damned. >> this is one of the spaces that i absolutely want to visit. it is the chateau of the monty christo. >> reporter: and she's not alone. some facebook vr groups reporor that t their m membershipp has tripleled in the l last year.. there are an exploding number of apps and experiences to choose from. i'm going under.

immersive is how this technology is often described. and i can attest. as i went kayaking in antarctica, curty of a national geographic app. >> we have a number of experiences that we have put together. one of them is our ocavango experience. >> reporter: whitney johnson is vice president of visuals and immersive experiences for national geographic. >> we stopped to have a lunch at the elephant crossing, not knowing that the migration was about to arrive. >> reporter: authenticity is key, as experienced in this trip in the african delta. >> i'm not inclined to come face to face with an animal in africa. but through this experience you can do that. >> reporter: as you can see, we're in new york. if you really want to get into

vr, you can try this. >> you've got a bar set up here so people can ygrab a drink. >> reporter: jeremy nickel believes very much in the connected power of vr. i met up with him, sort of, on this brooklyn roof top. kind of. >> for the price of a couple hundred bucks, you can get some goggles, get in here, start creating events and making vr something you want it to be. >> reporter: we're meeting in vr as avatars. i'm wearing the cap. >> you can bring people together from around the world to have a social covid safe experience here in vr. >> reporter: in reality, jeremy is in boulder, colorado. i'm in manhattan. but here we are having an experience together, and not in zoom. this does feel more intimate and personal than a zoom session. i just wish you had actual arms

connecting your hands to the rest of your body. >> i hear you. we'll get there. >> reporter: a nickel, a youn tearian minister, has studied buddhist in india, and built this temple in the himalayas for his congregation to meditate. i probably should have visited here first to center myself. boy. as impressive as vr technology is, i found myself feeling a little seasick the first couple times i tried it. and here's another caveat. >> i knew so many people buying these for kids. >> reporter: scott stein is editor at large at c-net. >> i think it's not clear what the optical and even, you know, psychological effects of use thing stuff could be. i don't let my kids use it v ve much at all. >> reporter: but for big kids like adrian charlie, it's a virtual wonderland. >> i haven't (announcer) if you're an american age 50 to 85,

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spray, lift, skip, step. swipe, lift, spin, dry. slam, pan, still...fresh move, move, move, move aaaaand still fresh. degree. ultimate freshness activated when you move. china's communist government continues to tighten its grip on hong kong. police raided the offices of "apple daily," the last pro-democracy news outlet. >> reporter: it's almost as if "the new york times" or "the los angeles times" were closing down. today, "apple daily" stopped

updates its english language website and last night aired its final news show. employees charge that hong kong's press freedoms are now dead. the final signoff for the digital news program, and the thanks and tears started to roll. some staff left with bags and boxes late monday. others still burned the midnight oil for the next day's paper. but after 26 years, these halls may soon go dark and printing presses may fall silent. the company, unable to pay its staff. the government's frozen its assets. last week, 500 police raided these offices, arrests the editor in chief and four other executives, accusing them of calling for foreign sanctions on hong kong and china. this is the heart of "apple daily's" newsroom on possibly the last week of its existence. some people say they're sad because it feels like their own funeral. others are celebrating. laughing, even clapping,

congratulating each other, and knowing some kind of ending is on the way. >> we want to have happy memories in ourself. >> so you don't cry? >> i don't cry. >> reporter: meanwhile, the 72-year-old founder, jimmy li, could spend the rest of his life in prison. reviled by beijing because of his calls for full democracy, he's accused of foreign collusion, too. a red line in beijing's national security law, a reaction to the 2019 people power protests. the u.s. says that law is a tool to silence dissent. hong kong chief executive carrie lamb says it's te protect the country, not prohibit journalism. >> all those accusations made by the u.s. government i'm afraid are wrong. >> reporter: in 2019, li told cbs news he was not afraid for his future. >> i won't mince words. i suppose saying beijing hates you is an accurate statement. would you agree? >> yes.

it's an honor. it's a badge of honor. >> reporter: and "apple daily" has asked the government to unfreeze at least some of its funds to pay staff. we'll know that by friday. if not, the last run after 26 years will publish this saturday. closer to home, scientists in florida are sounding the alarm about a spike in manatee deaths. about five a day since the start of the year. manuel bojorquez has the story. >> we'll have a nice breeze today. >> reporter: captain john has been leading eco tours of florida's indian river lagoon for more than 20 years, introducing thousands to wildlife, including manatees, the so-called gentle giants. you get a sense when people see them they're intrigued by them. >> oh, yeah. people love them. they're a big, lovable creature. >> reporter: each year, they get harder to spot. in florida, manatee deaths are

on track to break a record. 782 manatees are known to have died so far this year, outpacing the 637 all of last year. the problem beneath the surface is the sea grass the manatees eat is disappearing. they're literally starving. >> it's depressing. >> reporter: scientists like grant gilmo glam pollution. >> that's what we think is a primary issue right now. we have documented the disappearance of sea grass. >> reporter: he says runoff from florida's booming urban development dumps chemicals into the waterways. the imbalance causes naturally occurring algae to explode. blocking sunlight and killing the sea grass. and it's not just affecting manatees, correct? fish, the crabs, everything that's dependent on the water out here and sea grass. >> reporter: left unchecked, this could also impact florida's fishing and tourism industries. barry hopes people start to pay attention. if only for the love of

manatees. >> that angels's our hope. we keep showing how valuable they are and search for ways to really take care of them. >> reporter: take care of these gentle giants and an entire

10 years ago, the american bison was nearly hunted to extinction. conservation has brought them back from the brink. and there's a movement now to give them more room to roam. charlie demarr has this story. >> reporter: chad suspect one for small or conventional ideas. and today, he's busy trying to drum up support for his latest. he has spent the last two decades aboard barges cleaning up rivers for his waters foundation. but home is along the mississippi. and if he gets his way, bison may roam high above the river on

the i-80 bridge. >> this might sound crazy, but i want the best west bound lane dedicated to a small herd of bison. people would stop. 42,000 cars are driving over that bridge a day and going. >> reporter: the 55-year-old bridge is on its last legs and scheduled to be replaceded. demolishing the b bridge wououl cocost millioions. >> introduducing the bisonon br project. >> reporter: h he wants t to ra money y to turn ththe bridge in natitional m monument where bis can wander from one state to the other, and people can stop and stay a while. the bridge is in congresswoman busto's districtct. >> chahad is thinking five, six years out. >> reporter: she's on board and has been pitchining the prorojeo the white house. >> we want the bison bridge to be the mt. rushmore of this region, or the st. louis arch of this region. >> why bison? >> there were 60 million bison

roaming in north america at one time. and they were decimated down to 3,000. the bison bridge would celebrate the history of the land, but also because it's a one of a kind, i feel like it's forward thinking, as well. >> reporter: dan palmer raises bison in iowa. we took a ride to see his herd. >> they need all the help they can get. financially and support of it. >> reporter: he's so confident in the project, he's putting money and some of his bison behind chad. >> if anybody can get it done, chad can. >> people who say chad is crazy, what do you say to those people? >> come up with a better idea. it's going to be great for the quad cities, and it's going to be a healthy attraction. > would you stop if you saw bison on a bridge? i think most people would. >> there's going to be animals that live there. >> reporter: his perspective may be different -- >> there's more land to graze over here than iowa.

>> reporter: but his vision is clear. charlie demarr, cbs news, moline, illinois. >> and that's the overnight news for the nation's capitol, i'm jan crawford. it's wednesday, june 23rd, 2021. this is the "cbs morning news." missing the mark. the race to partially vaccinate 70% of americans by july 4th is expected to fall short as a dangerous strain of the coronavirus rapidly spreads. bombshell revelations. a new report on the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. how his killers allegedly received training in the u.s. cattle call. dozens of escaped cows stampede through a california neighborhood leaving at least neighborhood leaving at least one person injured. captioning funded by cbs