ivan watson joins us outside of the offices that were raided. what do they got?>> reporter: well, as of now, i think certainly the journalistic community here in hong kong is reeling from the arrest of the six individuals, from the raids that took place on the top floor of this building here. it was one of the last independent voices left in this british colony. with the security and the police saying the six people arrested, this was under charges of, quote, conspiracy to publish malicious publications. and they were authorized under the guidelines to search and seize relevant journalistic materials. among the six people arrested, is a pop star from hong kong, a woman named denise ho, who is an outspoken critic of the hong kong government and the chinese government in mainland china. she was detained and had a concert with stand news. the journalistic organization came out expressing concern about this. the hong kong journalistic association is concerned that the police have arrested senior members of the media and searched the offices of news organizations cont

here's ivan watson. >> reporter: india's prime minister on the campaign trail, addressing packed crowdsstart here early next year, he has made seven trips to india's most p populous state in december alone. at the rallies, most including the nation's leader, are not wearing masks. and little mention for modi's ruling pjb of the covid-19 p pan pandemic. >> it seems unlikely they would like to take the risk to conduct the election in the aftermath of another wave. on the other hand, they are reckless enough to push for holding an election during the covid wave. >> reporter: there are fears of a repeat of recent tragic history. this was the scene in new delhi in the spring of 2021. crematoriums working overtime. death tolls from covid skyrocketing. hospital beds and oxygen in short supply. with the health care system overwhelmed, critics accused modi of putting politics before public health. after encouraging election rallies and large religious gatherings, which would later be declared superspreader events by some experts. fast-forward to today. >> omicron is a concern. don't panic. but b

ivan watson, cnn, hong kong. >>> i am paula newton.mpany, and i will be right back with more "cnn newsroom" in just a moment. he used to have gum problems. now, he uses therabreath healthy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. introducing the all-new gillettelabs with exfoliating bar. it combines shaving and gentle exfoliation into one efficient stroke, for a shave as quick and easy as washing your face. >>> and a warm welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm paula newton. ahead right here on "cnn newsroom," daily u.s. covid cases hit an all-time high as the omicron variant fuels yet another wave. hospitalizations are rising, and experts fear the peak is yet to come. >>> mourning the loss of an american political icon. we take a look at the legacy of former democratic senator harry reid. >>> and hong kong police arrest six people linked to a pro-democra

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. >> i'm ivan watson in hong kong. in new south wales have ordered an urgent investigation into a cluster of confirmed covid-19 infections centering on a school in the city of sydney. 13 infections there confirmed, but what's got the authorities particularly concerned is that three of those cases are of the new omicron variant, and the authorities say that they're nervous because that cluster is not tied to any international travel. most of the new cases of omicron that are popping up in one country after another are linked to international travel, linked to travel from the african continent. that suggests that this new cluster in australia is local transmission. so authorities there are taking it very seriously. >> i'm david culver in beijing, where we are about two months from the start of the winter olympic games and officials are hoping strict covid defenses will keep omicron away. china already has some of the world's toughest containment measures in place. as for those taking part in the winter games, they're goi

ivan watson is following the diplomatic boycott of the winter olympics. fred pleitgen the ukraine high stakes summit. fred, let's begin with you in berlin with sanctions already on russia. what difference will more really make? how will it affect these discussions today, do you think? >> reporter: well, i think it's the main tool really that president biden has in his arsenal. certainly the main one he wants to talk to vladimir putin about. and i think the sanctions that the biden administration has been talking about and has really been talking to allies about as well and also ukrainians are far stronger or would be far stronger than anything that we've seen so far, even in the past couple of years with all the things russia has been doing in and around ukraine. a lot of it could lead to some is he vee economic penalties for russia, could make it difficult. but also could quite frankly take a pretty big toll on european countries that have economic relations with russia. one of them, of course, being germany, getting a lot of gas from russia. in jgeneral

cnn's ivan watson is on the ground in hong kong with details about a raid and several arrests. t more can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning. well, laura, basically one of the last remaining independent media voices in hong kong has been snuffed out because early this morning in the dog days between christmas and new year's, police staged a huge raid, 200 police officers on the newsroom of this online news portal. and also arrested at least seven of its current and former editorial staff, accusing them of publishing seditious material. and hours after these raids and after freezing the company's assets, the company made an announcement on facebook saying, hey, we're shutting down. we're dismissing everybody and clearing our social media. and there is an echo here. this happened earlier this year with the biggest circulation newspaper in the city, apple daily. it was raided, its publisher behind bars. just got new sedition charges a couple days ago. and the effect is celsquelching journalism here. the hong kong government would argue, listen, no, what we're trying to do is re

. >> reporter: i'm ivan watson in hong kong.pendent media voices in this country has fallen. police raided the stand news, online news portal and arrested seven current and form er editors accusing of them printing seditious content. and apple daily, editor and publisher has been forced to close as well. there are dozens of opposition politicians behind bars. street protests once part of this city's culture have been all but banned. the government would argue that it's restoring law and order after the increasingly violent riots of 2019. >>> meanwhile, the taliban taking aeuplt at women's freedoms once again, forbidding afghan women from taking long road trips by themselves. they have to have a male relative with them, showing this is just the latest clampdown since they took power in august. arwa damon is following the story from istanbul. arwa, what is the latest you're seeing? >> reporter: good morning. what do they mean by long distances, kaitlan? it is 45 miles at this stage. so if you are a woman, as one protester pointed

we have cnn's ivan watson live for us with the details. nd here, ivan. >> yeah, it does seem to be picking up steam. you had the biden administration announce on tuesday this diplomatic boycott, not sending government officials on the grounds of china's alleged human rights abuses and as jen psaki, the white house spokesperson put it, the genocide china is committing in the xinjiang region, that china vociferously denies. australia and its prime minister scott morrison, they announced today that they would be joining in this diplomatic boycott. they would not send government officials also because of disagreements over china's human rights record. and just now the uk prime minister boris johnson saying he was going to be conducting a diplomatic boycott. they say it is mostly because of covid protocols, beijing not much of a surprise doesn't like to hear this. and they responded basically saying well these government officials weren't invited anyway. that the games will be a success in beijing, and accusing the u.s. and its allies of politic

. >> ivan watson is out front in hong kong. can have suspicions but there's no need to see if there's any reality to those. just take our word. w we spoke with peng. she is not being detained. she's not being coerced. that seems to be what they are saying even though they actually have no idea themselves. they have had a vid yeseo call her. so does the ioc have any credibility on this? >> look, when it comes to the ioc and its credibility, its track record is spotty. i am old enough to remember the 2014 sochi winter olympics and thomas bach -- the ioc president then -- standing side by side with russian president vladimir putin defending russia's human rights records. and weeks after the games, russia invaded and annexed crimea from ukraine. even more egregious, we learned later that russian intelligence agencies were running a sophisticated doping scheme. doping russian olympic athletes at the games, right under the eyes of the ioc. when it comes to this situation, the ioc, in its defense, says it's engaging in quiet diplomacy.

. >> reporter: i'm ivan watson in hong kong, authorities in the new south wales have ordered an investigationirmed, but what's got the authorities particularly concerned is that three of those cases are of the new omicron variant, and the authorities say that they're nervous because that cluster is not tied to any international travel. most of the new cases of omicron that are popping up in one country after another are linked to international travel, linked to travel from the african continent. that suggests that this new cluster in australia is local transmission, so authorities there are taking it very seriously. >>> now, while the u.s. now deals with the omicron as well as the delta variants, there is hope for a new treatment for coronavirus patients. the fda is considering whether to allow use of a pill that may reduce severe covid effects or death by 30%. the capsule would be the first oral antiviral treatment. fda advisers vote bid a slim majority to recommend emergency use authorization. opponents want to know more about potential side effects. emory university scientist george painte

our ivan watson has been following the latest developments. mean, look, they're talking about sedition here. it seems this is hong kong's posture, right, towards independent media these days? >> reporter: certainly the government and the security force's posture now. they've revised up -- i've just come out of a police briefing at the headquarters here, and they've revised up, saying that seven current and former staffers at stand news have been arrested, that the charges are sedition under hong kong's controversial national security law. the police went on to say that they had frozen some 61 million hong kong dollars' worth of assets and seized computers, electronics and documents, and a half million in cash. we don't know what currency that would be. this has certainly sent a chill through, one would argue, the increasingly beleaguered journalist community here in hong kong. a statement that came out from the hong kong journalists association said, quote, the hong kong journalists association is deeply concerned that the police have repeated

anita: some good news for the beginning of next week, charles watson ivan hartsfield jackson internationalport in atlanta, thank you so much. julie: new york city's vaccine mandate for private businesses is set to go into effect tomorrow, as omicron variant spread across the country other major cities are set to impose similar mandates, david lee is in the new york city live with the very latest this afternoon. happy sunday david. >> happy sunday, ager cities are planning to implement vaccine mandates but the one that will take effect tomorrow morning in new york city is arguably going to be the strictest possibly in the entire country, almost all private sector workers in the city must be partially vaccinated and lesser working from home. it affects roughly 184,000 businesses, testing is not an option. lawyers said the mandate is too burdensome and requires them a vaccination records and fines for violations started $1000 more than 90% of new york city adults are vaccinated in the latest data from the city shows 14000 new covid cases today. according to an infectious disease expert people