6:00 for a full hour of news. >> that is just how i do it. those updates always on our website and we will see you in 30 minutes. captioning sponsored by cbs >> duncan: tonight breaking news in new york city. multiple people are dead. several of them children after one of the worst fires in the city's history. the mayor calling the numbers. >> a horrific, horrific, painful moment for the city of new york. >> duncan: also tonight, covid keeps surging, setting new records. nearly five million cases this past week. the fast-rising numbers burdennening hospitals nationwide. and back to class or not. >> i'm lilia luciano in sant monica where it st a rush to get tested before school or work tomorrow. >> new normal, california

updates covid protocols for health care workers, what it means for all of us. we'll get a checkup from dr. david agus. plus tensions mount in eastern europe. >> here on the front line in eastern ukraine, ukrainian soldiers supported by the u.s. are fighting against separatists backed by russia in freezing conditions. >> duncan: and later, more monarchs, the beloved butterfly returns in big numbers to california. >> what i love most about monarchs is they can help so many other inseblght-- insects. >> this is the cbs weekend news, from new york with jericka duncan. >> duncan: thank you so much for joining us. it it was a devastating day here in new york city, one of the deadliest fires in decades has killed at least 19 people including nine children. dozens of others have been injured. the massive fire broke out just before noon. it it began in a third floor apartment of a 19 story building in the bronx.

investigators believe the cause was a spice heater. at-- a space heater, at least 200 firefighters responded. cbs's tom hanson is there for us tonight, tom? >> good evening, jericka. well, the scenes described paint a terrifying picture for the hundreds of people living in this apartment comploks. one woman we spoke to said the smoke was so think she couldn't even see the steps in front of her and neighbors said they felt helpless as they watched the tragedy unfold. >> a horrific, horrific, painful moment for the city of new york. >> firefighters say they arrived just three minutes after the call went out. >> it was pitch black in my house, in the daytime, the fire, they were putting out the fire and all you could see was black smoke in front of my window, black smoke. >> the new york city fire commissioner said the door to that apartment was left open allowing smoke to pour out and filling the rest of the building. >> this smoke extended the

entire height of the building, completely unusual. members found victims on every floor in stairwells and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest. >> the victims were returned to nearby hospitals. now this may be the deadliest fire since 1990, that is when an arsonist set fire to the happyland social club in the bronx. 87 people were killed in that blaze. >> so many lives forever changed today. thank you. the latest covid surge is setting new records, straining hospitals and causing more uncertainty. right now the u.s. is averaging about 700,000 new cases per day. that is double from the previous peek a year ago. cbs's lilia luciano is in santa monica, this latest covid variant is not backing down. >> it's not, not any time soon, jericka, here in l.a. county it has been relentless, today we hit yet another pandemic record

of new cases and with the spiking number of cases, of course, there is a spiking increase and the demand for testing. >> anxious americans are standing in long lines and stairing at empty shelves in the scramble for scars covid tests. the rush feels like omicron's rapid spread. >> a lot of people are walking around with mild illness or asymptomatic infections who don't know it tarnd spreading it. >> new covid cases are soaring with 98 percent of americans livering in areas at high risk for infection. hospitalizations are up nearly 30 percent. straining many medical centers. >> i don't know when it will be, i don't see one. >> when millions of kids return to school tomorrow, they will face covid cost staff shortages and increased infections. more than 5400 schools reported disruptions of in-person learning. >> it is completely empty. it is pretty crazy. there is no one there. >> as chicago stalemate with teachers to return to class drags into a second week, the nation's largest school district, new york and los angeles, are staying open.

>> everyone is trying their best to keep kids in school so at the end of the day, that is the best place for kids to be. >> omicron outbreaks and bad weather still have airlines struggling to rebound. this weekend more than 5,000 flights were cancelled. this testing site is free por people who have an appointment but for those who want to get their hands on the rapid at-home test, those have been hard to come by and the biden administration hasn't started shipping them out yet. it could still be weeks before they reach people's mail boxes and cases are spiking almost everywhere. jericka. >> duncan: lilia luciano, testing is key, thank you. to australia where the world's top ranked tennis star gets his hearing today. novak djokovic who is not vaccinated a reached in melbourne for the australian open but his visa cancelled when he arrived. he has been restricted to a hotel ever since. a court will decide if he gets to stay and play be o or be required to leave the country.

>> the world health organization reports covid cases spiked by 71 percent around the world last week. c, about s's elizabeth palmer reports from bangkok tonight. >> for the second winter in a row, covid is exploding in northern europe. france is reporting more than 300,000 new cases a day. and in britain hospitals are operating at capacity with some routine treatments postpones. >> the omicron variant does appear to cause less severe disease. but covid is still lethal. and the u.k. became one of only seven countries this week to mark 150now covid-- 150,000 covid deaths. >> by contrast asia covid deaths remain low but china's government is on edge. as it puttings its finishing touches on facility for the winter olympics next month, an army of health care workers is fighting to keep the virus at bay.

heavy-handed tactics include welding shut the doors of anyone suspected of having been exposed to the virus. in spite of the invasive monitoring, though, the outbreaks haven't top stopped. the latest was in tianjin, commuting distance from beijing where the city's 14 million residents are now being tested en masse after two omicron cases were confirmed. in the northern city of jian state tv showed government food delivers that have come of the 13 million citizens going during their lockdown that began on the 23rd of december. china has now rolled out a vast booster program for anyone over the age of 3. most western public health officials think it's zero covid policy is unsustainable. but so far there is no sign of china changing course. elizabeth palmer, cbs news, thailand. >> for more now on covid's winter wave we're joined by cbs news medical contributor dr. david agus, want to start

with news that came out of california this weekend where the state health department said health care workers who test positive but are asymptomatic can return back to twork. what is that about and what implications do you think that has for health departments across this country? >> thanks jericka, good evening. what california did actually is say only at last resort, so there is no other option, you have no workers, you can bring bck those workers. and if you are covid positive du only care for people who are covid positive. certainly we hope it doesn't get to that situation but we have to tir ca for people in the hospital. and this is a last-ditch effort to enable them to get the best care, to it to give a chance to trillion get through it. >> i want to turn to a word freding flu rhona the idea that you could flu and coronavirus virus, is there such a thing. >> it sounds like a disney character. but yes, we've seen a handful of cases where people infected both with influenza virus and covid-19. the virus, the coronavirus that causes this syndrome. so it it happens, right now they

are both treatable with the pfizer pill, a tamiflu like drug, where looking for it, the pcr test people get look for multiple different viruses. >> dr. agus n lilia piece we heard over 5,000 schools closed down in-person learning because of concerns of covid. what do we need to know moving forward when it comes to keeping chish safe and in school. >> closing an entire school is a drastic measure. the hope is we don't have to go there often. with testing at least twice a week we can identify children who are infectious and keep them home and hopefully keep the schools open. the key is going to be testing. >> all right, dr. david agus, thank you. >> today government officials in kazakhstan claim the country has been stabilized. the announcement follows days of violence fueled by antigovernment protests. officials also reported at least 164 had-- 164 people have been killed. security forces backed by russian troops have been given shoot to kill orders. now to the crisis in eastern

ukraine where russian force there appear poised for an invasion. tonight u.s. and russian diplomats are meeting in geneva for talks aimed at diffusing tensions. cbs's holly williams has more from the front line in ukraine. >> here in ukraine they have been fighting a war against separatists who are backed by russia since 2014. and we've spent the last two days in freezing conditions in the trenches that now slice up this country. it it is a conflict that has cost more than 14,000 lives according to ukraine. but now this week russia has amassed tens of thousands of froops, up to 100,000 by one count, along ukraine's border and there are fears from here to washington of a russian invasion. now russia's president vladimir putin claims that russia is a victim of western aggression and he is demanding security guarantees in return for diffusing this crisis including rolling back nato troops from eastern europe. but some people here believe that president putin is

deliberately ratcheting up tensions in order to stretch concessions from the u.s. and its allies. the u.s. gave ukraine nearly half a billion dollars in military assistance last year and president biden has threatened sanctions if russia invades but has ruledded out sending american combat troops. jericka? >> duncan: a story we continue to follow, holly williams, thank you. straight ahead on the cbs weekend news, it's return season. we'll show you what happens to all those unwanted gifts and the impact on the environment and economy. plus documenting the deadly capitol riot for history and the smithsonian. and later, monarch butterflies, in record numbers.

>> duncan: the holiday shopping season is behind usk but not the holiday return season. ups says it will handle more than 60 million returned packages through january 22nd. the highest ever. we get more now tonight from

krrk bs's janet shamlian. >> packages are a frequent front door delivery. and those purchased online were a big part of the holiday, topping 20 percent of sales. the more startling number is the e-commerce return rate, 25 percent compared to 8 percent for a physical store. >> and this is what that can look like. mountains of cardboard and plastic packaging with valuable merchandise inside. >> the retailers really aren't equipped to take the product back. >> the typical retailer hasn't invested in this yetk and you will see all their returns come backk they pile up, they sit and often quarterly or twice a year they might liquidate them for pennies on the dollar, or even potentially destroy them. >> tobin moore is the c.e.o. of op tor to that helps companies deal with a tsunami of returns. >> we have these new rackings behind me, we put in cases. >> this mass ich warehouse outside nashville is one of three dozen optoro uses across

the country. processing merchandise for sellers like american eagle, target, bed bath and beyond and others. >> workers use optoro software to check in the merchandise ensuring a rebound-- refund then relisting the product for a new sale.ck it to the retailers warehouse. they are held here until sold again. the volume here is incredible. on just these two racks there are more than 120,000 items that came in as returns and most will leave this warehouse as a new sale within a week. >> ther are housed here, it is the most efficient thing, wherever that good comes back, if you can get it tbak to stock from there it means less shipment, less touches, less waste. >> abby mcdonald used happy return, a service that collects customer's unwanted goods for hundreds of companies that sold them. it's postage and boxfree. >> did you put it online. >> i have the code. >> a qr code is all you need. >> mcdonald's sent back a dress

she bought online from the women's clothing company draper jane. >> and it goes to my office which made it easy to pop out at lunch and drop it off here for free. >> paper source lexes like this are among 3800 collection points nationwide, an average of 20 returns from multiple sellers, shipped in a single box, reducing waste and expediting turn around time. >> not everything is resold. almost 6 billion tons of returned items will end up in landfills after the holiday season. >> if an item is the wrong fit for a consumer, finding the right one for that returned product is key. >> our technology connects every turn t returned contract no matter the condition to its next best foam home as efficiently as possible. >> minimizing shipments and getting the product back into stock quickly, a win for buyers, sellers and the planet, janet shamlian, cbs news, lebanon, tennessee. >> duncan: sounds like a good deal. still ahead on the cbs weekend news, one year later,

documenting history following the seige on the capitol. blank

blank. >> duncan: the smithsonian museum of american history continues to collect items that tell the story of what happened on january 6th. and the larger impact it will have on our dem-- democracy, nikole kill onhas that story. >> in is not a day that goes by had where i don't think about it. >> it is still hard for andy kim to shake the images of january 6th. >> i remember walking in to the house, into the rotunda and it just, my heart sank. >> till his instinct kicked in. >> i just started to clean up. >> there was a lot of just trash, and clothing, flags, wht

really compelled me to do t when my mother brought me to show me the capitol building. >> it felt almost personal. >> exactly. i hurt so much and i just remember thinking like is there anything i can do to try to have our country move forward on this? >> the image of kim in his blue j crew suit instantly went viral and is now part of a collection that will eventually go on display at the smithsonian. >> you don't always associate political history with clothing. >> claire is curator at the museum of american history which unveiled some of its items from political-- retreated to law enforcement badges and slashed bulletproof vest. >> it is incumbent for future historians, researchers and the american people to say there were a lot of things happening this day, a lot of things that happen in history, and not all of them are easy to talk about. >> do you think congress has legalled? >> no, not at all. in fact, it has become in some ways a moment that has divided

us even further. >> maybe that exhibit can be a first step. >> i think certainly understanding the truth of that day needs to be a first step. you cannot have reconciliation unless you have the truth. >> to set the country free, nikole killion, cbs news, washington. >> duncan: well, next on the cbs weekend news we remember a concert promoter who helped conceive the 1969 music festival at woodstock.

>> duncan: to north carolina now where skiers got an unexpected shock while on a chair lift. at least two skiers were hospitalized thankfully with no life threatening injuries after getting doused with a hydrant of freezing water. it happened friday at the beach mountain resort when the hydrant normally used for snow making was knocked over. scary times. one of the creators of the 1969 woodstock music festival has died. michael lang died saturday in new york of non mays peace and music, the festival drew up to 400,000 people to max yasgur's farm. michael lang was 77 years old. >> the monarch butterfly thought to be on a path to extinction, are suddenly back. 7

>> finally tonight, big rebound after years of decline, monarch butterflies are back in big numbers. cbs's carter evans explains why. >> at the crack of dawn the golfers here are not alone. >> you want to count in groups of five or ten. >> researcher richard rachman is also on the green counting monarch butterflies just hanging out behind the 9th hole. >> is this pretty typical. >> absolutely. here we have a few hundred that are clustering close together. they just look like pinecones or dead leaves, most people walking by would never even see them. >> an estimated 200,000 migrating western monarchs are spending the winter here in california. last year only 2000 were spotted. and they were thought to it be on the verge of extinction. >> some of the biggest factors that are impacting monarch populations are insecticides used in agriculture and habitat loss. as more people are moving out

into rural areas and developing in suburban areas with. >> is there a big comeback. >> i think it's way too early to tell and we'll need a few years of decent numbers in order to see if this is really a comeback. >> in cool weather the monarchs clusters in trees only flying off to feed and pollinate when temperatures rise, conserving energy in spring when it is time to reproduce, future ger raise-- generations will fly to other western states for summer before making the long journey back to california next winter. >> what i love most about monarchs is they can help so many other insects and so many other animals and plants if we help protect them. >> carter evans, cbs news, los angeles. >> duncan: another example of how we are all connected. that's the cbs weekend news for this sunday. later on cbs, "60 minutes." i'm jericka duncan in new york. we thank you so much for watching, have a good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

live from the cbsn bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. small businesses scrambling with a dip in customers and staffing shortages in the raging kpix outbreak and the measures people are taking to keep themselves afloat . >> we have learned that in person education is what they need, and remote learning doesn't support there mental health. >> a major south bay school district pushing for k not what health department wants. shots ring out sending a victim to the hospital and what we know tonight. later a bombshell about a tv icon and the sad announcement about a man known

for his legendary role on the full house. thank you for joining us. tonight covid infection rates soar in the bay area and some small businesses see fewer customers scrambling to fill shifts. >> right now the states seven- day covid positivity rate is up to 21.7% and da lin shows us how some business are taking matters into their own hands to protect employees. >> reporter: the kpix surges forcing businesses to make big changes and this store is closing for the next two days because of staffing issues and some stores are bringing back capacity limits. assign outside of nathan and company on college avenue and oakland no ha tw customers at a time. capacity restriction. >> reporter: their smaller store has a limit of six people. and only one worker behind the register each time and other employees have to spread out.