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Storm Could Bring New York More Snow Than It's Seen Since 2022; States Of Emergency In New York, New Jersey; Mudslides, Debris Flows Triggered By Relentless Rain In CA. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired December 27, 2025 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[08:00:42]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Saturday, December 27th. Welcome to CNN this morning. I'm Brad Smith in for Victor Blackwell. Hope you're having a great holiday season. Here is what's new this morning.

The Northeast is waking up to a whole lot of snow right now. New York is dealing with its biggest snowfall in years. We'll take a look at the impacts on travel and power outages across the region. Plus, breaking news overnight. Russia launches a massive attack on Ukraine's capital. The timing is notable as President Trump is set to meet with Ukraine's president tomorrow. We'll have a live report on the chaotic aftermath in Kiev right now.

And Congress didn't fix it. So now millions of Americans are bracing to spend more on health care coverage once 2026 arrives, or go uninsured. We'll hear from the director of one enrollment program who says their phones have been ringing off the hook.

This morning, people are facing dangerous travel. A huge post- Christmas snowstorm prompted a state of emergency in New York and New Jersey. Slick streets are making for hazardous driving conditions. In New York, drivers are trying to navigate a mix of snow, ice, and rain that's blanketing the streets there. Some parts of New York could face between 8 inches and a foot of snow. That's more than the city has seen since 2022.

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ZACHARY ISCOL, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: This is the most significant snowfall New York City has seen in years. And we're encouraging all New Yorkers to take it seriously. The last four years, we've dealt with just about every type of climate emergency, Mr. Mayor, but really haven't had a major snowstorm yet. So, you know, God is not done with us yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: The storm is also wreaking havoc for airports and passengers. New York's three major airports among the hardest hit and other disruptions have been reported in Boston. Friday, there were more than 8,500 delays and 1,7000 cancellations. And to the northern Connecticut, residents are also being asked not to hit the roads right now. And in Michigan, tens of thousands of people are waking up without power due to the storm.

Meanwhile, out west in California, at least four people have died since last weekend. Relentless rain has devastated the southern part of the state. First responders have used choppers to rescue people stranded on roofs and trapped in their flooded cars. Look at what the heavy downpours have done to this road. It's a scene of mudslides, debris, and evacuations in the area.

A month's worth of rain in just a few days has overwhelmed the region. Cars been buried in mud, homes destroyed by the floods. And residents are left surveying the damage. These strong storms have caused all kinds of travel chaos and here is a live look at New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. CNN meteorologist Chris Warren is here with more on where the biggest storm threat is. What are we tracking here on the radar?

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right now, it's going to be on the roads is the biggest threat because most of the heavy snow is coming to an end in the Northeast. You're waking up in New York City about half as much as we were expecting this time yesterday, but still more snow than they've seen since 2022. More than 4 inches in Central Park. But the heaviest snow did wind up in Connecticut and north of the city of New York. Here's what's going on for the rest of the day.

Cold front moving through. It's going to be much colder northeast after the system passes, and then we'll be watching that next systems. Here's some of that. The snowfall totals, again north of New York City, almost a foot of snow. Also in Connecticut and on Long island seeing some of the higher totals. JFK only 2.5 inches, but Central Park 4.3. Getting more than 4 inches of snow means this is the snowiest day we've seen since 2022.

In New York, the warnings and advisories are being dropped. This storm is coming to an end, but does not mean that the roads are going to be perfect just like that. Still some dangerous travel out there with some icy conditions, and we're going to be watching that next system.

This is the future radar, what to expect going forward. By tomorrow, it's going to be too warm for snow in the big cities in the Northeast, but snow and wind will be making for a big mess here across parts of the Great Lakes in the upper Midwest, the Twin Cities possibly picking up close to a foot of snow. So that's where the kind of the bullseye, if you will be of some of the heaviest snow going forward.

[08:05:08]

But also on top of that, with this next system tomorrow into Monday, Brad, making it worse for travel, the wind, we know that's tough for airports too. That can really make the delays mount up.

SMITH: Take note and plan accordingly.

WARREN: Thank you.

SMITH: Chris Warren, thank you. Breaking overnight, Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, killing at least one person and wounding 28 others, according to city officials. New video into CNN captured one of the drone strikes outside Kyiv.

Kyiv's mayor says a third of the city is without heat or electricity, including thousands of residential buildings and schools as temperatures remain below freezing. The attack happened less than a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to meet with President Trump in Florida on Sunday. The two leaders plan to discuss the 20-point peace plan that has been in the works by U.S. and Ukrainian officials over the past week. CNN's Nada Bashir joins us now with more on this. And Nada is hard to imagine many greater instances where timing is of the essence like this. What do we know?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, and this has been quite the large scale attack. In fact, we've seen a ramping up of Russia's aerial assault on Ukraine over recent days ahead of Christmas. But this is one of the longest attacks that we have seen targeting the capital Kyiv in some time, lasting nearly 10 hours according to officials. And in fact, those air raid sirens have been going on and off all day, actually, with civilians forced to flee to shelters, of course, for their protection.

At this stage, what we know, according to President Zelensky, is that some 500 drones and 14 missiles are said to have been used in this overnight assault targeting the Ukrainian capital. At least one person confirmed to have been killed, and nearly 30 others injured so far, although that figure could continue to rise as emergency services continue to respond to the destruction that has been wrought by this aerial assault. And as you mentioned, we have seen not only Ukraine's energy infrastructure impacted, but also residential infrastructure, civilian infrastructure targeted in this assault, with thousands of buildings said to be now without heat and electricity in below freezing conditions.

So a very difficult moment for many in Kyiv today. And of course, this comes just ahead of President Zelensky's planned trip to the United States to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to continue to hammer out that 20-point pilot peace plan.

Now, we had previously heard from the Ukrainian president with some positive indications that there had been some progress on trying to hammer out those finer details. In fact, according to the Ukrainian president, some 90 percent of that peace plan had been reviewed at this stage. No firm confirmation from the White House as to where things stand, nor from Moscow for that matter. We know that U.S. Officials have been meeting separately with both Ukrainian and Russian delegations to try to come to some sort of agreement. And what we have seen shifting in the last few days is the position of Ukraine when it comes to ceding territory, in particular, ceding territory in the Donetsk region. That is somewhere that Russia has continually pushed for Ukraine to essentially cede all territory.

Now, Ukraine is saying it may be willing to cede key cities such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. These are key cities which essentially stand in the way of a further Russian advancement into the heart of Ukraine. So this is certainly a significant concession. Russia, in turn, would be expected to also cede territory to an equivalent amount. But again, these are all details which need to be ironed out.

We know that Russia said it might look positively on any such concessions which would see Ukraine ceding territory in the Donetsk region. But again, no firm commitments just yet from Moscow. And we'll wait to see what comes out of tomorrow's meeting between Zelensky and Trump.

SMITH: We'll see what comes in the form of any agreement that comes forward and what the carrying out of that agreement afterwards if we do get one. Nada Bashir, thank you so much.

Staying international. Residents of Nigeria are still trying to make sense of the Christmas Day airstrikes that the U.S. says it carried out against Islamic State terrorists. President Trump acted jointly with Nigerian officials and called the strikes a Christmas present. The strikes included Tomahawk missiles fired from a navy vessel that struck two ISIS camps. CNN's Larry Madowo joins me now live from London.

Larry Trump's Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, says that more is to come. How are people in Nigeria reacting to all of this?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People don't know when that more is to come because in Sokoto, in this northwestern state where the first airstrikes took place, it caught them by surprise. Some shock and confusion among the residents there because they haven't seen the same scale of militant attacks like parts of the northeast of Nigeria. They do have problems with banditry and kidnappings. And the Lakurawa militant group is active there. They are a new lesser known affiliate of Islamic State that's been active in parts of the north of Nigeria. And it looks like this attack was aimed at them.

[08:10:28]

But overall, the state is 90 percent Muslim, and they generally coexist well with the Christian minority there. Sokoto is home to what is known as the Sokoto Caliphate, which is the spiritual home of Islam in Nigeria. And that is why there is this shock and disbelief at why it was the first to be hit. But these airstrikes which we know were coordinated with the Nigerians.

The Nigerian foreign minister told CNN that he had a 19-minute call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He called President Bola Tinubu who gave the go ahead for these strikes. He called Marco Rubio again before the strikes went ahead. But why Sokoto? Here's some criticism from a security analyst.

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AWWAL ABDULLAHI, SECURITY ANALYST: To eliminate and disengage the Lakurawa. It is a welcome development. But to say that the Lakurawas are ISIS or bandits are ISIS, that is where the challenge is. Not only ISIS, but saying that Christians genocide taking place in Sokoto or the entire northwestern state of Nigeria, it is truly a challenge. And then we truly -- there are a lot of questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: A lot of questions. The Nigerian government has always pushed back on this narrative of the Christian genocide. They say they have a security problem, terrorism that affects both Muslims and Christians. And in fact, more Muslims have been affected than Christians. And the other thing Brad here is that the Nigerian government had its hands tied here. The U.S. was going to act unilaterally if they did not cooperate. So they didn't have a choice that to give the go-ahead for the airstrikes to take place.

SMITH: Larry Madowo, some very critical reporting there. Thank you so much for continuing to track the situation.

Sources tell CNN that the Trump administration is considering additional action in its pursuit of the empty oil tanker that the Coast Guard chased near Venezuela last weekend. The Bella 1 fled into international waters when the Coast Guard tried to stop it, and it's still on the run. The White House describes the tanker as a dark fleet vessel, saying it's operating under a false flag and is subject to U.S. sanctions which allows for its seizure. Trump recently announced a blockade order, a move the administration believes could increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's main economic lifeline.

Well, the cancellation of a Christmas Eve jazz performance at the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center. It's prompted some threats of a legal fight.

The concert's longtime host, musician Chuck Red, canceled the annual event after President Trump's name went up on the building, saying he was saddened by the name change. The center's president, Richard Grenell, blasted the show's cancellation as a costly political stunt and said the venue will seek $1 million in damages.

While millions of Americans are about to feel some massive sticker shock, their health insurance premiums are set to jump by hundreds, even thousands of dollars when the Affordable Care Act's enhanced subsidies expire next week. A deal to extend the subsidies faces an uphill battle in Congress. State marketplaces are already seeing the fallout. And more people downgrading to bare bones plans, and others walking away altogether because they can't afford coverage. Let's bring in someone who's dealing with this in real time.

Dr. Xonjenese Jacobs, she is the director of the Covering Florida Navigator Program. It's good to have you here with us. You and your team, we know you offer one-on-one help to people that are trying to make sense of their health insurance options with calls coming in the way that they have this year. I wonder, what are you hearing from people directly?

XONJENESE JACOBS, DIRECTOR, COVERING FLORIDA NAVIGATOR PROGRAM: Well, good morning. We're hearing lots of things, I mean, really in the way of people trying to make decisions about their health care needs. And so we have some individuals who are foregoing that coverage, which we know is like the option that we don't want for people to be able to do. But people simply can't afford some of the premiums that have been happening in this coming year. And so we try to get them connected to federally qualified health centers.

For those who want to continue to explore the health insurance marketplace, we support them with understanding what their plan options are. For many of them, they're thinking about switching to plans that might be in a lower tier. So that should be theoretically less expensive. But what we found is that it's not quite linear with some of the prices this year. So some people are actually choosing to get plans that are in a higher tier, but that might actually cost less than a plan in a lower tier. So that's been a little bit of a wrench in our operations a bit.

And some folks are choosing to go outside of the federal marketplace. And we tell them that if they, you know, explore more options, you know, directly contacting insurers, we're happy to help them to understand what they're looking at, because a major role of the navigators is to help to promote and support health literacy. So we want people to really understand what they're looking at and what they're selecting.

[08:15:17]

SMITH: So let's talk about that just a little bit more as you walk people through their choices, whether it's ACA plans, Medicaid transitions, or just understanding what's changing, what kinds of worries are coming up that feel different from past enrollment seasons that you've seen.

JACOBS: I'd say that provider adequacy in terms of like that network has been a pretty big deal. But most of that is really led by cost. So for individuals who are really looking at their bottom line, but really not even being able to forecast it even so much, so to look at, max out of pockets or like those emergency kind of things, but really looking at what can I afford month to month. And it's really making them have some great challenges with choosing providers because many of the providers that they've had and that they've kept with other networks, they're going to different networks and they're not going to be able to have.

SMITH: And just lastly, as I have to hustle to our finish here, when someone realizes their premium is increasing and they're trying to figure out their next step, how do you walk them through those steps?

JACOBS: Well, the first thing is really trying to make sure that we provide them with that emotional support because we don't realize, a lot of people don't realize that when people are making these selections around their health care needs, it can be pretty traumatic. We have people who have chronic health conditions and who also can expect major surgeries or who need like life saving medication. So that's the first thing is we're providing that emotional support. The next thing that we're doing is we're trying to help them to forecast their needs. So if they know what kind of prescriptions they're going to need or

what kind of doctor's appointments they're going to need to go to or other procedures that they're going to have, we make sure that we walk through the process by looking at each one of those plans that fit within the confines of their budget as well as any kind of providers that they may need to see. And we help them to scale so that they that way they can make an informed decision about their health care coverage.

SMITH: I want to squeeze this in because this is important, especially as we know financial stress is one of the leading causes of stress, and that can stem from some of these rising health care prices. For people who are overwhelmed or thinking of dropping coverage, what do you want them to keep in mind as they try to plan for 2026?

JACOBS: As they try to plan for 2026? I think one thing that's really important about health care coverage is understanding that we can't necessarily forecast those of those surprises. So we can't forecast that we're going to break a bone on a random day within the year. So keep that in mind.

In the meantime, though, there are other entities like low charitable cost clinics as well as in some of the counties in the states. We have different plans that are being offered by county, but always the federally qualified health centers that can provide those sliding scale fee services independent of whether or not you have health insurance. So just get started something and get connected to some kind of healthcare medical entity.

SMITH: Xonjenese Jacobs, thank you so much for laying out some of the options and we'll hope that everyone continues to consider those options as we move forward here. Thank you.

JACOBS: Absolutely.

SMITH: The mother of a missing nine-year-old girl now charged with her murder. How investigators were finally able to find nine-year-old Melody Buzzard's body. Plus cheer is not the only thing Americans are spreading this holiday season. They're spreading the flu. What we're learning about a surge in cases across the U.S., coming up.

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[08:22:38]

SMITH: Okay, this story is getting a lot of attention this morning. A mother pleads not guilty to killing her daughter. Ashlee Buzzard has been charged with killing nine-year-old Melody. She disappeared on a road trip with her mother and triggered a massive investigation across two months and eight states. The criminal complaint says Ashlee killed Melody with exceptional cruelty and viciousness. CNN's Josh Campbell has been following that case for us.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Brad, an update in the tragic case of Melody Buzzer, the missing nine-year-old California girl whose remains, police said were found this month in the state of Utah. Her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, made her first appearance in court on Friday, charged with first degree murder in connection with the death of her daughter. In this brief hearing, Ashlee Buzzard entered a plea of not guilty. CNN has reached out to the public defender representing her for comment.

Authorities gave an update on Tuesday, laying out various items of evidence that they believe connects the mother to this alleged killing. They said that includes forensic evidence, digital evidence, as well as ballistics evidence, including a comparison of ammunition found at the crime scene with ammo found at the Buzzard's family home.

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SHERIFF BILL BROWN, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Sheriff's detectives along with the FBI evidence response team responded and served follow-up search warrants at the home of Ashlee Buzzard. During the search of the Mars Avenue residence, an expended cartridge case was recovered. Cartridge cases found at the Utah crime scene resulted in a NIBIN hit linking them to the single cartridge case that was found at the Buzzard residence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now this all started in October when the young girl's school contacted authorities after they had not heard from her for some time. Authorities launched an investigation. They determined that over the course of days, both the mother and the daughter traveled about 1,000 miles from California east as far as the state of Kansas. Authorities released CCTV footage as part of their investigation that allegedly showed both the mother and the daughter wearing wig.

Police say that at times the license plates on their vehicle were swapped out. The mother returned to California, the young girl was not with her. Authorities say that the mother wasn't cooperative, and she didn't have a plausible explanation about where her daughter was. Police say a couple outtaking photographs in Utah discovered human remains earlier this month and called police. Investigators say they were able to identify those remains as belonging to Melody Buzzard based on DNA analysis. Brad.

SMITH: A case that will continue to track, no doubt. Josh Campbell, thank you for that update. Also, in other cases, flu cases surging across the U.S. But fighting the virus just got a little easier.

Coming up, the new options to help ease the symptoms, and user beware, why New York State is requiring social media sites to carry a warning label.

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SMITH: In other headlines that we're following this morning, investigators in Wallace, Idaho, are now trying to figure out why a gunman opened fire inside a sheriff's office. The suspect injured three people before he was killed in a standoff yesterday. Deputies say that he first shot at a pickup truck outside the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office and then walked into the lobby and started and kept firing.

[08:30:05]

Two women in the truck were hit in their legs and a deputy was grazed in the ear. They are all expected to be OK.

And fans are mourning the death of Perry Bamonte, the longtime guitarist and keyboardist for the band The Cure. Bomante joined The Cure in 1990, and he played on several of their biggest albums and performed more than 400 shows with them before leaving in 2005. He rejoined The Cure for a major tour in 2022. His final performance with them was in London last year. The band says that he died after a short illness and will be greatly missed. Harry Bamonte was 65.

And the University of Michigan has named Kyle Whittingham as its new head football coach. The 66 year old joins the Wolverines after the school fired previous head coach Sherrone Moore. The university said Moore had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Moore was later arrested and charged with home invasion and misdemeanor stalking.

And flu cases right now, they are on the rise across the country this holiday season. In its latest report, the CDC says that flu cases nationwide jumped nearly 15% over the previous week. Nearly 10,000 people have been hospitalized. And Tamiflu is widely prescribed as a treatment for the flu. But it's not the only option. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard has more on what other flu treatments are available.

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: The CDC recommends four different antiviral flu medications for this flu season. One of them is Tamiflu. That one's already widely used. Widely available, it's typically taken twice daily over the course of five days, and it can be administered either in pill form or liquid form. It's approved for nearly everyone ages 2 weeks and older.

Now there's also Relenza. This is typically inhaled as powder form. It's approved for ages 7 and older. There's also Rapivab. It's an IV infusion for ages 6 months and older. And there's Xofluza. Now, this is a single dose pill and it's approved for ages 5 and older. And Xofluza is growing in popularity because of that convenience of having just one dose to take and then you should be good to go.

Now, if you have flu symptoms, it's important to get tested. If you test positive, call your doctor right away because all of those antiviral medications, they are prescription drugs. So you do need to be prescribed the treatment. And once you're prescribed, it's important to start your treatment as soon as possible because these medications work best when taken within the first 48 hours after your symptoms start.

And again, while Tamiflu is widely popular, Xofluza is becoming more well-known. There are slight differences. The side effects associated with Tamiflu are typically nausea and vomiting, but with Xofluza, most people typically experience nausea and diarrhea.

Now, Tamiflu does tend to cost less than Sodapalooza, but with Sodapalooza, you could look into getting manufacturer coupons to help lessen the cost. And for both medications, they do work prophylactically as well.

So if you've been exposed to the flu virus or if someone in your household has the flu, your doctor may prescribe either medication to help reduce your risk of getting sick as well.

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SMITH: Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much. We're all familiar with warning labels on many of the medicines that were just talking about, but New York is now going to require some of those warning labels for social media sites.

This as Governor Kathy Hochul signed the new law on Friday. She compared it to warning labels on tobacco products. The law it actually targets features like infinite scrolling, autoplay and algorithm driven feeds that encourage excessive use violations can trigger civil penalties of up to $5,000 per incident.

And it is worth noting that this is not the first time that we've seen this at the state level. California and Minnesota have similar laws. 2025 it brought plenty of legal and criminal drama, from the daring daylight robbery of the Louvre to Sean Combs trial. We've got the top 10 legal stories of 2025 coming your way.

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[08:38:43]

SMITH: This morning we're taking a look back at the biggest crime and court dramas of 2025. Here's CNN's Jean Casarez with the top 10 legal stories that made headlines this year.

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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At number 10, the Massey murder trial. Illinois Sheriff's deputy Shawn Grayson convicted of second degree murder for shooting the 36-year-old Sonya Massey inside her home. Massey had actually called 911 to report a suspected prowler. But body cam footage shown at trial showed tensions rising after the officer confronted Massey for how she was handling a pot of hot water.

Number nine, held accountable. A jury awarded Virginia teacher Abby Zwerner $10 million after she sued the ex-assistant principal at her school for failing to act before Zwerner's six-year-old student shot her in the chest and hand. In gripping testimony, Zwerner told the jury after being shot she was sure she was going to die.

ABBY ZWERNER, TEACHER SHOT BY 6-YEAR-OLD-STUDENT: I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven.

[08:40:00]

CASAREZ (voice-over): Number eight, shocking museum heist.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's begin with breaking news out of Paris. Priceless jewels are stolen from the Louvre in an audacious daytime heist that took only seven minutes.

CASAREZ (voice-over): It all happened at the Louvre in Paris when thieves stole more than $100 million in crown jewels and slipped away in broad daylight. All eight suspects were later arrested, but the jewels are still missing to this day.

Number seven, Karen Read acquitted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What say you, is the defendant at the bar guilty or not guilty?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty.

CASAREZ (voice-over): A jury found Read not guilty of hitting and killing her boyfriend off duty Boston police officer John O'Keefe with her car.

KAREN READ, ACQUITTED OF MURDER: No one has fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than I have. Than I have and my team. Thank you.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Large crowds celebrated the decision outside the Massachusetts courthouse.

Number six, Minnesota lawmakers attacked. A man disguised as a police officer ambushed two state Democratic officials at their homes. Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed while state senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot, but survived. Vance Boelter was arrested after a two-day statewide manhunt. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder.

Number five, deadly stabbing in North Carolina. Passengers watched in horror as 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was brutally stabbed three times in an unprovoked attack on Charlotte's light rail system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So tell me exactly what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. We didn't see it. There's just a lady right now on the ground with a lot of blood and everybody's screaming that she got stabbed and I don't know if anybody's called 911 yet. People are just freaking out.

CASAREZ (voice-over): The case became a political lightning rod after the public learned the suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, had an extensive criminal record.

Number four.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As to count one, where under defendant Brian Walshe is charged with murder in the first degree. What say the jury? Is the defendant guilty or not guilty?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Brian Walshe, convicted. Jurors in Massachusetts found Walshe guilty of murdering his wife Ana. But unbeknownst to the jury, even before the trial began, Walshe pleaded guilty to illegally disposing of Ana's body and misleading police. Walshe's defense argued that Ana died in a sudden, unexplained death. Something prosecutors told jurors defies common sense.

The defense rested without Walshe testifying or even putting up any evidence to back their claims. Walshe now faces years in prison. Ana's body has never been found.

Number three, Catholic school children gunned down.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We're following breaking news of a deadly mass shooting at a Catholic school and church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

CASAREZ (voice-over): August 27. A shooter fired dozens through stained glass windows into the sanctuary of Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis. Students from the Annunciation Catholic School were gathered inside to celebrate a mass in honor of their first week of school.

The attack killed two children and wounded two dozen others as well as adults.

JESSE MERKEL, FATHER OF FLETCHER MERKEL: A coward decided to take our 8-year-old son Fletcher away from us. Because of their actions, we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming.

CASAREZ (voice-over): The suspected shooter, a 23-year-old who graduated from the school in 2017 died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Sadly, this was just one of more than 70 school shootings in the United States this year.

Number two, controversial plea deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?

BRYAN KOHBERGER, 2022 UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS SUSPECT: Yes.

CASAREZ (voice-over): In a move that blinded sight of the families, Bryan Kohberger took a plea deal before heading to trial for the grisly murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. In exchange for the guilty plea, the government removed the potential for the death penalty.

At the emotional sentencing hearing, the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen had their turn to speak directly to the killer. STEVE GONCALVES, KAYLEE GONCALVES' FATHER: Police officers tell us

within minutes they had your DNA at your calling card. You were that careless? That foolish? That's stupid.

RANDY DAVIS, XANA KERNODLE'S STEPFATHER: You're going to go to hell. I know people believe in other stuff. You're evil. There's no place for you in heaven.

[08:45:00]

CASAREZ (voice-over): Kohberger is now serving four consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

And number one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happening now. Some breaking news coming in. Jurors in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs have reached a verdict on all counts.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs found guilty. But Combs avoided the most serious charges stemming from his federal sex trafficking trial and was found guilty of lesser counts, including transportation to engage in prostitution.

Each day, hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse to follow the proceedings, despite no cameras being allowed in the courtroom. Combs got more than four years in prison and was fined $500,000. His attorneys are now appealing. Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: The season of giving includes giving to those in need. But fewer Americans plan on making charitable. We dig into the reasons why.

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[08:50:14]

SMITH: A new poll shows most Americans are not planning to make end of year charitable contributions and donations. Despite fundraising appeals, people's dollars, they're stretched thin with tighter budgets, rising prices, worry over jobs and an unpredictable economy.

About half of adults surveyed for the AP Newark poll say that they've already made their charitable donations for the year. 18 percent say that they have given and will donate again before the year ends. And just 6 percent plan to donate for the first time this month. The rest, 30 percent say they haven't donated and don't plan to.

Here with me now we've got Laura Hennighausen, who is the director of strategic philanthropy at Purpose Possible. Great to have you here with us.

LAURA HENNIGHAUSEN, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPY, PURPOSE POSSIBLE: Yes, thanks for having me.

SMITH: Let's dive into this a little bit. This new poll shows Americans are giving, but nonprofits, they are saying that they're stretched thinner than ever. From your vantage point, what is driving this gap right now between generosity and the reality that nonprofits are facing on the ground?

HENNIGHAUSEN: Well, it's interesting. The poll actually shows that about 70 percent of people have either given or plan to give by the end of the year, which is on par with last year and years prior. So we're not necessarily seeing that individuals are being less generous, but what we are seeing is that the nonprofits are really suffering from a lot of other existential crises, maybe.

So, we have the changes in federal funding, state funding and other local funding that's changing. And then our area foundations are responding to that. So it's not that we're becoming less generous, but it's becoming that nonprofits need our support more than ever. And if we are not ramping up that support, then it's not keeping pace with demand.

SMITH: You know, it's interesting to track what we're seeing year over year from giving Tuesday as well. They hit another record this year. And individual giving starting to stabilize --

HENNIGHAUSEN: Yes.

SMITH: -- from what we're hearing, individual giving stabilizing a rough stretch that had just moved through as well.

What do you see as the bright spots right now in terms of the donor behavior and how nonprofits can actually build on that momentum?

HENNIGHAUSEN: I think that right now we're seeing a lot of folks responding to great need in the community. So for instance, a lot of our area food banks put out calls, especially when SNAP benefits were in question. And we saw a huge amount of folks rally to donate products, to donate cash. And I think that people do are and will continue to still respond to emergency giving in those crises.

But what we need really are for individuals to give on a monthly basis and a more continuous basis, and not just when something's really bad, but kind of continue that support throughout the year so that nonprofits can expect and know when they will have that support that's needed.

SMITH: this holiday season. I think back to some of the stories that we heard about not enough bell ringers outside of retail places and facilities, meaning less people were actually signing up to bell ringers, less people participating in the service side of nonprofits as well.

Where do you believe that we can actually kind of fill the gap between some of those challenges and making sure that staffing is up to snuff at a lot of the nonprofit efforts? HENNIGHAUSEN: Yeah, that's hard. I think that overall volunteering, I

believe, is up. But I think that with folks really struggling to pay their debt mortgage each month, it's harder and harder to find time to volunteer for those things.

I think that companies that give their employees time to volunteer is really key so that folks can have that extra moment to do that. And I think that finding opportunities for families or for, you know, your friends to get together and go, maybe work at a food bank for one day is really important because the research also shows that people give to people. People give when they're asked, and people give to people. So to have that personal interaction and nonprofits that can leverage that will succeed ultimately.

SMITH: Laura Hennighausen, thank you so much for joining us here on CNN.

HENNIGHAUSEN: Thank you.

SMITH: Appreciate it. Chevy Chase helped define a generation of comedy. From his early days on Saturday Night Live to movie stardom. The CNN film "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not" explores the life and career of this comedy icon. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like a signed picture?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have one available?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I might. I might have one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were at the AFI tribute to Gregory Peck way in the corner. Mary Hart was interviewing someone live and Chevy said, I wonder if I can hit her with this roll.

[08:55:06]

And he whipped it as far as getting it hit her right in the head in the middle of the thing. And then he had to sit down like a kid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was at an event and this young caterer came up with a tray full of chocolate mousse, like shots of chocolate mousse. And she would you guys like some chocolate mousse? And Chevy looked at it and he stuck his finger in one, took it out and went, no, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not" premieres New Year's day at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. And the next day on the CNN app.

Thanks so much for joining me this hour. We have more headlines coming up shortly after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)