paula hancocks focuses on north korea where kim jong-un has called for an expediential increase in the nuclear arsenal and becky anderson sits down with football reg end wayne rooney to talk about his career. the new year and sushi. first, elizabeth cohen looks at how close the world is to breakthroughs and treating serious illnesses including alzheimer's disease. >> a pipeline of new drugs might -- might provide some hope and relief to people suffering from certain medical conditions as early as 2023. one of the most anticipated new products is a drug which doesn't cure alzheimer's but clinical trials show it appears to slow the pro guess of the disease by 27%. doctors say that could give patients a longer quality of life but there are concern over possible side effects like brain swelling and bleeding. >> the people will remain stable at their current level of function for a longer period of time. maybe six months, up to 12 months, and for people who are planning their life and dealing with day-to-day activities, this could be a very meaningful postponement of the deterioration of th

so let's turn to cnn's paula hancock. she joins us live from seoul with the latest on this. paula, what more are you learning about this deadly plane crash? >> reporter: well, rosemary, as you say the black box has now been found, so that will be handed over to civil authorities to help with the investigation into finding out exactly why this happened. what we've heard from the police chief in the district is that they have managed to retrieve 68 of the passengers at this point, the bodies being lifted from the gorge where the plane crashed by crane. they say they've then transported them to a local hospital, and loved ones and relatives have been invited to come to the hospital to identify those that were killed. now, at this point there is still a search ongoing. there are four yet to be accounted for, though we have had heard from the same official the chance of finding anybody alive is extremely low. so that is the priority on the ground at this point. but when it comes to the actual investigation itself, we know that there is a five-person group that has been created alo

let's bring in cnn's paula hancocks. she joins us live from seoul, south korea. aula. how are people in china coping with this surge in covid cases after beijing ditched its zero covid policy? >> reporter: rosemary, a tale of two countries at this point in china. on the one hand, we do have what seems to be some kind of return to normalcy. the fact that you do have congestion back on the streets of beijing. people are still going and deciding to go back shopping and going around the town. so certainly it does seem to visibly be some kind of return to normality. but of course, it could very well be a demographic difference that you would have the younger people out on the street or potentially those that don't have underlying conditions and aren't necessarily at risk of being hospitalized. on the other side, you do see, we're hearing from teams on the ground and anecdotally, there are full hospitals. that the hospitalizations have been significant. and you also hear of concerns of those within the country itself of even trying to go to a pharmacy and buy some medic

let's bring in cnn's paula han hancocks. she joins us live from seoul, south korea. la, how are people in china coping with this surge in covid cases after beijing backed off its zero covid policy? >> reporter: really a split at this point. when you talk about the capital, beijing, for example, you can see that there is some sense of normality coming back. the fact that there's congestion on the streets. you can see people shopping. it is busy once again. but of course, there is the other side of it as well where hospitalizations are significant. where we hear people saying that they are unable to find basic medicine, like fever-reducing medicine, to be able to treat themselves at home. so you do have two very different perspectives at this point. and of course, it's made more difficult by the fact that we don't have actual data or numbers to go by. so it's very much anecdotal. it's our teams on the ground seeing what they are seeing when it comes to hospitalizations, when it comes to an increase in the number of people at crematoriums, for example. so beijing has sai

paula hancocks has the story. >> reporter: exactly, max and bianca.ountries are adding their names to the list as well. the concern not just that there could be an increase in covid cases in the country once travelers start internationally once again from china, but also the fact there could be variants in the near future given the sheer scale of the virus that is swirling around. it is really dual reality in the country. you have on the one handsome people trying to get back to normal. people out and about shopping but on the other side you also have an increase in hospitalizations. you're hearing about the strains on the health system. i heard from one pharmacist that said basic drugs are hard to come by. >> reporter: there's a shortage of all the cold and flu and fever medicine including rubbing alcohol and thermometers that have been out of stock. i think because around the country all the goods are allocated to big hospitals and cities but here in the towns and villages we're more isolated and less medicine is available. >> reporter: the world he

. >> paula hancocks live from seoul. thank you very much, indeed. >>> ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is calling a deadly attack on an apartment building in dnipro a war crime. the mayor says 44 people were killed after a missile slammed into an apartment building. rescue crews are working around the clock to find more survivors. this was the result of an air defense counter missile. they only strike military targets. ukraine's president is vowing to bring those responsible to justice. claire sebastian following developments for us now. clarify why the building got hit. they weren't targeting it. >> they were not. they said it was ukrainian missile defense. what exactly they were defending against, we don't know, max. ukrainian air force says they have no doubt that this was a russian cruise missile. an extremely blunt instrument to be using anywhere near a civilian area and one known to be extremely inaccurate. the wreckage revealing even more evidence of that. the death toll up from 44. we just heard from the m

cnn's paula hancocks joins me from seoul with more.le have been supporting this journalist throughout because they feel it was politically motivated. >> that's right, max. we've certainly heard many of her advocates and human rights advocates say this is a victory. the human rights watch said the acquittal is a boon for press freedom in the philippines. she spoke outside the court. she was clearly emotional saying it's not just a win for her and for others but saying it's a win for every filipino who's ever been unjustly confused. she had pled not guilty. she had said they were politically motivated saying it was from the previous administration, from president due duterte. she has been covering his bloody war on drugs. that's why they became a target. there are still legal battles they have to win. rapla saying there's three active cases at this point but certainly today they see as a victory. we spoke to maria ressa earlier today. >> it's been a tough six years or so, right? this is -- the world was really turned upside down. in less

cnn's paula hancocks has more. >> reporter: kim jong-un wants bigger and better nuclear weapons callingincrease in north korea's nuclear arsenal. south korea believes they, too, should have nuclear weapons. >> it is very striking from how it's gone from a fringe discussion to very mainstream. >> reporter: south korea is protected by the u.s. nuclear umbrella but for some the pledge is no longer enough. not helped by former u.s. president donald trump who turned traditional alliances on their head suggesting the u.s. shouldn't be defending south korea citing expense. >> the alliance was on thin ice during the trump administration and so on some level it's a natural response for south korea to seek out ways to increase the autonomous defense. >> translator: of course north korea doesn't want south korea to have nuclear weapons. now they can ignore them, but they will be nervous if we have enough nuclear weapons as we have enough nuclear material to make more than 4,000 weapons. >> reporter: the poll conducted finds 55% supported south korea having its own nuclear weapons. others shohei am