Amara Walker Reports News Today

the lead starts right now. tensions continue to escalate in the middle east, new details and images just coming in as cnn learns of a new terrorist attack and tell aviv as israel strikes after a barrage of rockets hit along its borders, plus supreme court justice clarence thomas tries to explain after a bombshell report revealed his many family trips on a god in a private jet, all paid for by a billionaire republican mega donor. and thomas never disclosed almost any of it, plus vice pr...

is "cnn newsroom." ♪ u.s. president joe biden will soon be on his way here to atlanta, georgia, just days after eight people were killed in a shooting rampage at a local spas, six of them were asian women. biden was supposed to promote his huge coronavirus relief package, but will now instead offer his support to the community. he will be meeting with the mayor as well as state officials and asian-american leaders. vice president kamala harris who is a black asian-american is also on...

Vaccines. federal health officials are bracing for the first official omicron cases in the u.s. so they say there are likely far more infections across the globe than currently reported. dr. anthony fauci is going to join us to answer all of our questions on this new variant. first as amara walker reports, the rush to get ahead of this new variant is happening in the united states before experts know for sure if its here or how widespread or how severe. >> reporter: omicron is a stark reminder...

Been in the hospital for 76 days. i highly recommend everybody to get the vaccines and really protect themselves because this is no joke. >> that message part of a new ad campaign from the department of health and human services takes a fear-based approach to try to change the minds of the unvaccinated in the united states. this shift comes as the new quinnipiac poll shows half of all americans disapprove of how president biden is handling the pandemic. but as cnns amara walker reports, the cdc ...

Those words may have been their last. amara walker reports. >> reporter: well, some parents and relatives say one of the ways they found out was through text messages from their loved ones. and some of the last communication is just starting to emerge. and as youd emerge, its just so heartbreaking to read these text messages. in one text a student on the ship wrote his older brother, "im on my way to jeju island but the ship hit something and is not moving." the older brother asked is it bad? to...

Been caught. more now on our top story, authorities in south korea are trying to figure out what caused that passenger ship to sink in the waters of the countrys southwest coast. >> yeah, close to 300 people are still unaccounted for. and a massive rescue operation is in full swing, amara walker reports. >> reporter: this is the ferry sewol, now almost completely submerged. the ship headed towards jeju, nearly 500 people on board, 325 of them high school students from just outside seoul on a c...