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hello and thanks for staying up with us. i'm matt pieper in new york, and here are the top stories on "cbs news roundup." we are learning that the man accused of killing unitedhealthcare ceo has hired a new powerhouse defense attorney. the secretary of homeland security says extra resources are being deployed to investigate suspicious drone sightings in the northeast. and it's the final push on capitol hill this week for president-elect donald trump's cabinet designees. we are learning new details in the murder of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. the 26-year-old suspect, luigi mangione, remains in a pennsylvania prison, but now he's hired a new high-profile defense attorney, and he could be brought back to manhattan as early as this week to officially face charges. cbs's ali bauman is learning more about the conditions of mangione's captivity. >> reporter: new details about luigi mangione's prison cell in pennsylvania.

a 15 by 6-foot space made of concrete. the 26-year-old has a bed, desk, sink and toilet. no tv or window. but he may soon be moved to new york's notorious rikers island jail. manhattan district attorney alvin bragg indicated mangione may waive extradition as early as tuesday as his office investigates the murder of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. >> we could see him be transferred as soon as that evening or that day. >> reporter: mangione this weekend hired new york city attorney karen freedman agnifilo who up until three years ago served as second in command at the manhattan d.a.'s office. >> so this is a big get for him? >> huge get. and we know he comes from a family of means. he can afford the best defense attorney in the country. and by all accounts he has retained one. >> reporter: mangione's dark fandom grows. a crowd-sourced fund-raiser for his legal fund has generated more than $100,000.

sympathy for the victim overshadowed by what appears to be a tsunami of support for the suspect. by those angered at the health insurance industry. ♪ at a dance party in boston this weekend the crowd erupted in cheers when photos of mangione were projected on the stage. a new warning from the center for internet security alerting law enforcement that online support for the suspect could fuel copycat attacks. ali bauman, cbs news, new york. the department of homeland security is sending more resources in the form of personnel and technology to new jersey. it's where reported drone sightings have surged in recent weeks, stirring fear and bewilderment. some members of congress are now urging the government to deploy advanced drone tracking technology. cbs's shanelle kaul has the details. >> reporter: there is concern and confusion over the growing number of reported nighttime drone sightings. incoming white house national security adviser florida

congressman mike waltz told cbs's "face the nation" americans need answers. >> we need to know who's behind it. they could be coming from offshore, and we need to take a hard look at our homeland defenses. >> reporter: dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas insists officials are on it, but he says there is no known foreign involvement in the drone sightings. >> let me set the record straight here, george. there are thousands of drones flown every day in the united states. recreational drones. commercial drones. that is the reality. >> reporter: in a statement new york governor kathy hochul said, "our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to new york state." and is also asking congress to pass a bill that she says would strengthen the faa's oversight of drones and give more authority to state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate the activity. some have called the multiple sightings hysteria. officials say of the 5,000 drone tips received fewer than 100

required follow-up. shanelle kaul, cbs news, new york. the week ahead will be the last working week on capitol hill before the holiday break, and it's also an important few days for some of president-elect donald trump's cabinet picks seeking support for their nominations. cbs's nikole killion is tracking the transition from trump headquarters in west palm beach, florida. >> reporter: this week the holiday rush is on, with more of president-elect donald trump's picks hitting the halls. health and human services designate robert f. kennedy jr. starts his first rounds monday. the independent turned trump ally has been heavily scrutinized for promoting disproven theories that vaccines cause autism. >> rfk jr. said let's go through and have more science and study mre to make sure that the safety and efficacy is there. and that's what president trump is saying. >> reporter: this week at the army-navy game the president-elect hobnobbed with congressional leaders alongside many of his other controversial designees. from kash patel to lead the fbi

to tulsi gabbard for direction, of national intelligence. and pentagon pick pete hegseth. >> i asked him point blank, were you drunk in a bar and got up and said let's kill all the mslims? he said no. >> reporter: while some senate republicans say they're on board -- >> president trump deserves his team so he can get to work. >> reporter: -- others like alaska's lisa murkowski remain skeptical and have suggested they're being pressured to get in line. >> don't get on santa's naughty list here because we will primary you. >> reporter: sparking concerns from the other side of the aisle. >> she believes her job is to do what our constitution tells us. advice and consent. >> reporter: the president-elect is turning his attention to foreign diplomacy. he's hosting a dinner sunday night at mar-a-lago for the widow of slain japanese prime minister shinzo abe. they've maintained a close relationship since her husband was assassinated two years ago. nikole killion, cbs news, west palm beach, florida. with christmas and the first night of hanukkah just ten days

away, record numbers of people this year will be hitting the road and the skies for the holidays. airports are bracing for record-setting travel, and as cbs's kris van cleave reports, if you have not booked travel plans you need to do so quickly. >> reporter: atlanta-area high school teacher jojo de guzman is heading to prague and austria during the upcoming holiday, a trip he's been planning for months. >> i go search for the best flights, the best rates in hotels. >> reporter: de guzman will be among the record-setting 119.3 million aaa expects to travel between next saturday and new year's day, narrowly edging out the previous record set in 2019. most, 107 million, will drive, finding gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon. nearly 15 cents cheaper than a year ago. >> we haven't seen gas prices this low in 3 1/2 years. >> reporter: the nation's airlines also expect a record. more than 54 million will fly, with the travel rush starting next thursday and stretching until monday january 6th.

for united airlines that means nearly 10 million passengers. ceo scott kirby. >> coming out of covid created a new urgency, a new appreciation for travel and experience. >> reporter: but that experience will cost you more this year. domestic airfare for christmas is averaging $371 round-trip, up 8% from 2023. and last-minute flights to europe have surged 38%. busiest days to fly will be the friday and sunday before and after christmas. on the roads aaa says the busiest day to drive will be the sunday before christmas. kris van cleave, cbs news, phoenix. straight ahead on "cbs news roundup," we will take you out to a glacier in the canadian rockies to see the damage done by rising global temperatures. stay with us.

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this is "cbs news roundup." i'm matt pieper in new york. glaciers around the world are melting at a record pace. the united nations has declared 2025 the year of glacier preservation, but there is little the world can do to slow the melting. one place where you can see the damage for yourself is the canadian rockies. the region serves as a vital source of fresh water for millions. cbs news climate correspondent dave malkoff paid a visit. >> look at that view. that's incredible, right? >> reporter: just beyond these rugged peaks in jasper national park is the only place in north america where you can literally drive onto a glacier. >> it's really neat. you can see the tongue of the glacier down there. it looks like it's pretty close but it may be actually way further away than it looks. >> all right. now, is this everyone's first time on one of these tours? perfect. >> reporter: this is the ice

bus. from may to october its oversized tires grip into the ancient ace of the athabasca glacier. >> some of these descend the full 200 meters or about 600 feet. >> reporter: the buses deposit adventurous travelers at the glacier's edge to marvel at the other-worldly landscape. but we are not here to take a touristy photo. no. we are headed to a science station way beyond the safety ropes. >> the only way we could get here is by following our leader, dr. john pomeroy. let's go meet him. >> reporter: pomeroy has spent decades studying this glacier and others like it. >> this has changed a lot since even july. so in terms of safety, a few things. a glacier's never safe. there are areas where there are crevasses and areas where there's mulins. either one of them if you slide into it can lead you into the

ice and then we'd have to get parks canada to come rescue you with the ropes. >> reporter: glaciers are thousands of years of snow all compacted together. immense, slow-moving flows of ice that carve their way through the landscape. >> now, i have to figure out across what i call the grand canyon here. it's a long crevasse, and it's snow-covered. >> reporter: making it harder to see what's underneath. >> so don't walk on this. >> reporter: the athabasca glacier is just part of the bright white columbia ice field. but as we walk closer, we kept seeing these black spots. >> it's dark and it's melting faster than the rest of the ice. >> reporter: everything from wildfires this summer to chimney exhaust has doomed this human connection to the last ice age.

>> you see the soot. it's everywhere here. >> the darker it is the faster it melts? >> yes. so normal clean ice will be refle reflecting about 30% of the sun's energy when it hits it. but when it gets dark like this it's reflecting only about 15%. and by contrast fresh snow is reflecting 90% of the energy hitting it. okay. here we are. home sweet home. >> reporter: we are finally at the weather station perched on the glacier itself to see evidence of that firsthand. >> so here we're measuring the melt rate of the glacier. we're measuring the energy flows into the ice from solar radiation and thermal heat from the atmosphere. we're also measuring the accumulation of snow and how it goes off the ice. but the big thing is the ice melt ratio. we're seeing seven to eight meters, to 21 to 28 feet of downward melt per year of ice here. and that's releasing a tremendous amount of water.

but it also means this glacier is on the way out. >> what is this black tape here? >> well, we put that tape to mark the height of the ice after we drilled in the pole here. >> and that was like months ago or a year ago? >> two weeks ago. and this is a cold time of year. so it's melted this much in just two weeks. most of that occurred in one week. >> reporter: yeah. one week ago it was up to nearly right here. here's a photo of the athabasca glacier taken 86 years ago. and here it is today. starkly revealing the toll our warming climate has taken. you see that little parking lot back there? that's where the glacier used to be in 1980. now it's all the way over there, not only pushing back but also melting down. why is that a problem? well, for one thing, professor pomeroy tells us no matter where you live in the world, whether it's the nile river, the sahara

desert, the great lakes or the mississippi, without snowpack melts there is no fresh water supply. >> if you're in washington state or oregon or idaho, then the columbia river that supports the agriculture in the cities of those states comes from here. this is the source of it. >> is it hard for you to know so much about this? >> well, we've been calling it a crisis for some time, and not much has been happening and the crisis is getting worse. and for this glacier it's mostly irreversible now. we need to be able to slow this down enough so we can change how we manage water so we can keep going. >> reporter: and the only way to do that is a worldwide gut check. cutting down on planet-heating fuels. wherever you are, a glacier is helping to cool your world. it's the planet's freezer. defrosting faster every

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takeoff at new york's laguardia airport. that flash you're seeing is a bird strike. here it is again in slow motion. it knocked out one of the two american airlines jet engines. an emergency landing at new york's jfk airport kept everyone safe. >> pilots are definitely trained to fly on a single engine. >> reporter: back in 2009 the miracle on the hudson involved a bird strike and a u.s. airways plane taking the same route as the american airlines jet. all 155 people were rescued. pilot sully sullenberger became an instant aviation hero. here's a bird strike on a u.s. navy training jet. another in chicago also involving a military plane. more than 19,000 bird strikes were reported across the u.s. last year at more than 700 airports. >> is there anything in your view that should be done to help mitigate the threat? >> the birds are still flying and they will always be flying, and airplanes will always be

flying. so the trick is to keep those two separated. >> reporter: one more reason why bird strikes are so potentially worrisome, last year nearly 90% of them involved commercial hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance

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if you're like me, over the next couple of weeks you'll have the following thought. oh, i should probably get that person a present. maybe it would be for a friend, a neighbor or a business associate. if you don't get them a present, it can be awkward. better to err on the generous side. now, what you get them is obviously up to you. but here's what you should not give anyone this holiday season. don't give them food. you're giving someone a gift, not arriving at a potluck. i understand cookies, candy, and fruit may seem like a thoughtful, delicious idea. but nobody wants anything perishable. instead of food, a great gift would be alcohol. booze never goes bad, and based on the world we live in today everyone needs it. it's not even noon and just thinking about some of the conversations i'll be having this december makes me want a drink. another thing nobody wants is clothing. unless you're a personal shopper, you are not qualified to buy clothing for someone

else. i don't care if there's a gift receipt. that's just like giving someone an errand. instead of clothing a great gift would be alcohol. now, you may think but jim, what if they don't want alcohol? that's fine. then they'll regift it. no gift receipt necessary. here's another no. don't give gift cards. they're unimaginative and lazy. the gift card is just going to be lost. in five years when the gift card is finally found, it will be expired and just provide stress and guilt. instead, a great gift would be alcohol. the alcohol can be used to numb the pain from misplacing all those gift cards. you may think, but jim, alcohol is never the answer. well, sometimes alcohol gets pretty close. finally, don't give someone socks this holiday season. yes, socks are practical, but wildly impersonal. you may think, but jim, socks

will keep them warm during the winter. if you really want to keep someone warm this winter, a great gift would be -- you thought i was going to say alcohol, didn't you? well, i am. because alcohol can warm your heart during a winter which we all know is going to be filled with a lot of awkwardness. you may also think, but jim, alcohol is poison. yes, it is. and like most parents of teenagers i'm going to need some of that poison. if you're thinking of getting me a present this holiday season and wondering what i might want, to be honest, i would appreciate any gift. any gift. as long as it's alcohol. have a good morning, everyone. >> well, that should solve your gift-buying trouble. "cbs news roundup" will be right back.

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it's monday, december 16th, 2024.