Times. And nearly half of American Consumers are returning a holiday gift this week. Find out why retailers are competing to make returns easier. We begin this morning with a look at todays eye opener, your world in 90 seconds. Were he at the scene of an unspeakable tragedy. This will rank as one of the worst losses of life to a fire in many, many years. A deadly fire stuns new york city. 12 people have died. Were shocked by this loss. I hate it. I hate it the. Millions are bundling up to ring in the new year in bonechilling temperatures that are gripping much of the great lakes place and the midwest. Trump tells the New York Times he thinks bob mueller will be fair. Cities around the country are facing security ahead of new years eve. All hands on deck for new york. Certified doug jones as the winner of the special election for the u. S. Senate. Theres a 1 in 15 billion mathematical chance that was not correct. Apple is apologizing for secretly slowing down apple iphones. Its going to cut the price of the Battery Replacement by 50 bucks. Desperately trying to escape police, going off the pier and splashing into the river. He was arrested. And all that matters. Hollywood is mourning the loss of beloved actress rose marie. She was best known for her role as sally rogers on the Dick Van Dyke show. On cbs this morning. A banana banana this video of giving his adorable nephew a banana for christmas has taken twitter by storm. I got a banana. Im going to bring it home. What do you say . Thank you. I got a banana this mornings eye opener is presented by toyota, lets go places. And welcome to cbs this morning. Im Bianna Golodryga with Dana Jacobson and Vladimir Duthiers of our cbs network cbsn. We begin with the deadliest fire in new york city in 27 years. It ripped through a fivestory Apartment Building last night. One block west of the famous bronx zoo. 12 people were killed, including 4 children. And that number could rise. The ages of those who died range from 1 to 63. The cause of the fire is unknown. Survivors inside the building were forced out into the bitter cold with no warning. Don dahler is at the scene of the fire in the bronx. Don, good morning. Reporter good morning. Police officials here at the scee tell us the investigation is active and ongoing. Of the at least 12 people who were killed here, 5 were pronounced dead at the scene. Which indicates the flames were dangerously fast moving. People trapped. We got a baby in there. Also apartment 6, people trapped. Reporter it took only three minutes for firefighters to respond thursday night in the bronx. Get out of the way. Reporter but for many trapped inside, the burning fivestory, roughly 100yearold building, it wasnt fast enough. Im very sorry to report 12 new yorkers are dead, including one child as young as 1 year old. The search of the building continues, so we may lose others as well. Reporter Officials Say the victims killed range in age from 1 to 63 years old. About 170 members of the fdny were on hand to battle the fire. At least 12 other people were rescued. The fire started on the first floor, quickly spread upstairs into this building, fivestory building, with 25 apartments. People died on various floors of the apartment. Looking real bad. What a sad christmas for everyone. Reporter stunned neighbors and victims flooded out of the burning building and into the subfreezing temperatures outside. I just woke up to a bunch of smoke and thats it, man. The whole building was on fire. People were screaming, fire, help, fire, help. Everyone this evening, hold your families close and keep these families here in the bronx in your prayers. Reporter reports say city records indicate the building had a number of safety violations, including a faulty Smoke Detector on the first floor. Which is where the fire is believed to have originated. Absolutely heartbreaking. Done, thank you very much. A deadly cold snap is gripping more than half the country this morning. In western new york, the waterfront along lake erie is crusted with winddriven ice and snow. Parts of the northeast are expected to feel windchills of 20 to 40 degrees below zero. Rock port harper is freezing over for the first time in years. Dean reynolds is in chicago where at least two people have died from the freezing weather. Dean, good morning. Reporter Lake Michigan behind me is beginning to freeze up and chicago officials are urging everyone to stay indoors and, if possible, off the roads. Especially this evening, when its expected to be snowing. I hate it. I hate it. You can see your breath in the car. Its just its crazy. Reporter across the midwest and northeast, millions are shivering. Its very cold out. I dont like the cold weather. Reporter and doing what they can to fight the deep freeze. Thermal, two sweaters, a turtle neck, two pairs of gloves. Reporter water fountains in philadelphia and new york city are now mountains of ice. In new hampshire, boiling water instantly froze due to a record temperature of negative 34 degrees. At chicagos midway airport, it was too cold to fly. More than 80 flights were canceled and nearly 250 were delayed. It was like really hectic and a whole lot of people here. Reporter chicago emergency Officials Say the temperatures can be deadly. Extreme weather is more than an inconvenience, it remains a life threatening event. Reporter shelters are overflowing with people trying to escape the brutal cold. Pretty much die in the street, youll freeze to death. Reporter the executive director of the francis can outreach shelter. He says theyre not turning anyone away. This bitter cold weather is extremely dangerous. A lot of our guests have Health Issues already. We want to make sure they are inside where its safe and warm. Reporter now, the deep freeze is expected to last well but, hey, there are only 174 days before summer gets started. We like the optimism, dean. Thanks for braving the cold. Please get a hat. We want you to get a hat, not just the ear muffs. Dean reynolds, thank you. Daniel niles has it is fridge jill fo frigid forecast. Its been windchills running 10 to 20 below stezero from bos to maine. 10 to 20 below for much of the great lakes and midwest as well. Tomorrow, no big storms. There will be a quickmoving disturbance, some enhanced lakeeffect snow again and some slippery travel across the northeast. Last day of 2017, these temperatures this is without the wind factors in, were talking about some record cold high temperatures for the next several days from the midwest into the northwest. 30s all the way back down to dallas for high temperatures on sunday. And the first day of the new year will feature single digit readings from billings to minneapolis, 11 in boston, teens in philly as well. 30s back down to atlanta. At least the precipitation forecast is quiet. Staying on that positive note, bianna, will at least take a lot of sunshine across the nation for the first day of 2018. Danielle, trying to find something positive, but theres nothing normal about the digital temperature on my watch being lower than the date. Dont like it. Dont like it. I know, its brutal. Thanks, danielle, we appreciate the forecast. The bitter cold could force some cities to change their new years plans. Omaha, nebraska, is postponing its celebration by a philadelphia is considering a delay for the historic mummers parade. For cities like new york that are going ahead with the festivities, police are taking unprecedented measures to strengthen security. Tony dokoupil is in times square where up to 2 million brave people are expected to gather, tony, good morning. Reporter good morning. Its important to point out that there are no specific direct threats to the celebration here in times square, where about 1 Million People are expected to turn up, but with two terror attacks in new york since halloween, the nypd is still putting together some of its strongest security measures in years. As new york city prepares for its famed times square celebration, the nypd is taking no chances. Police commissioner james oneil. I have an abundance of caution. Youll see a Stronger Police presence. Reporter heavy weapons, canine units and snipers in hotels will help protect the nearly 2 Million People watching the clock strike midnight. The increased measures follow a pipe bomb explosion this month in a subway passageway just steps from times square. And a truck attack on halloween that killed eight people. The takeaway from the preparation is people will be safe and they should feel safe. Reporter several cities are stepping up their efforts. The Los Angeles PoliceDepartment Says they will have an increased visible police presence. In miami, random security checks will be in place at its outdoor concert at bay front park. In chicago, extra teams and salt trucks will be strategically placed to prevent vehicle attacks. Following octobers deadly shooting in las vegas, 800 steel pylons, plus snipers and twice as many Rapid Response teams will be there as protection. The department of Homeland Security gave the city its highest security designation. Clark county sheriff joseph lombardo. As always, Law Enforcement cant do this alone, so im asking while you are out enjoying the festivities that you also be observant and notify police if you notice anything suspicious. Reporter back here in new york, the nypd is also closing 125 parking garages out of an abundance of caution. One more of those security measures, markings on the exterior. In the event of a sniperstyle attack, the nypd will be able to identify the floor quickly. No specific credible threat to this city or any other. All right, tony, thank you. President trump says the Current Special counsel investigation is bad for the country. In a New York Times interview, the president denied colluding with russia during the 2016 president ial race 16 times. He also defended his tax plan and took a tough stance on china. Chip reid is traveling with the president in West Palm Beach florida. Chip, good morning. Reporter good morning. The interview took place in the grill room of the Trump International golf club here in West Palm Beach. No white house Staff Members were anywhere in sight. The reporter was introduced to the president by a club member who brought him in as a guest. Russia did not help me, that i can tell you, okay. Reporter President Trump has repeatedly denied that russian interference in the u. S. Election helped him in anyway. And in an interview with the New York Times, the president said special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into russian meddling was bad for the country. It makes the country look very bad and it puts the country in a very bad position, he said. But when asked about mueller himself, the president said, i think that bob mueller will be fair. The president s vote of confidence comes after conservative allies have spent days attacking investigators for political bias. If bob mueller were any more biased, weve have to give him credentials for the mainstream media. Reporter saying, i have absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. This is, again, the biggest tax cut, biggest reform of all time. Reporter the president also fired back at critics of the tax bill he signed into law last week. It will be more money than people anticipate, he said. I know the details of taxes better than anybody, better than the greatest cpa. And he touted his, quote, great chemistry with chinese president xi jinping but suggested he may go after china on trade if it doesnt do more to curb north Koreas Nuclear ambitions. I have been soft on china. China can solve the north korea problem. And theyre helping us but theyre not helping us enough. On other matters, the president suggested he would be open to bipartisan compromise on health care and infrastructure. Hell be talking about those issues and other issues on his 2018 agenda at camp david next week with republican leaders. All right, chip reid for us, thank you, chip. Democrat doug jones will be sworn in wednesday as alabamas newest senator. State Election Officials certified jones victory yesterday. He beat republican roy moore by nearly 22,000 votes earlier this month. A judge rejected a lastminute lawsuit by moore who claimed there was evidence of voter fraud. Alabamas secretary of state found no evidence of that. Jones said on twitter he would work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get washington back on track. Apple is apologizing after admitting a Software Update deliberately slowed some older iphones. The tech giant says the update is intended to prevent sudden shutdowns in the iphone 6. As a side effect, apps and other functions run slower. In a new message to customers, the company says, quote, we know that some of you feel apple has let you down. We apologize. We have never and would never do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any apple product. Apple is discounting the cost of Battery Replacements on certain phones. Dan ackerman is a section eder to at our partner cnet. Great to have you back with us at the table. Apple is apologizing but not for what some of its users are accusing it of doing. Explain how this all went down. Its a complicated issue. What apple did was come up with a not entirely unreasonable solution to a problem thats not very easy to fix. Thats the batteries that we use in everything, as they get older, they dont hold as much charge and they also cant give out energy at the same peak levels. When you have newer apps on phones that really want to do impressive stuff, they need a lot of energy and people found on their older phone, sometimes not only was the battery life not as long, the phones would just shut down. I found that happen to me with my iphone 6plus. They had a Software Update because so many things are determined by Software Updates that come after you buy the original device. That said were going to smooth out some of those peaks, do some Power Management to say the phone cant give out as much energy to the apps as the apps sometimes ask for to make the battery last longer. You have one that will last most of the day. It does make me think when i read this story when you used to have a blackberry, you could take the battery out yourself and put a new one in. With the iphone, its not easy to do. You have to go into the store and have it done for you. Apple is now saying theyre going to allow you to follow your battery life more easier, easily on your iphone. Explain that. Yes, theyre not going to change what the Software Update did in terms of doing the Power Management in slowing down your phone to extend the battery life but they say theyre going to add something to the software for it that will let you monitor it and give you more information, more transparency about whats happening. And thats kind of the entire gave he game here, is providing transparency. The apology after the fact. Thats what people were more upset about, the lack of transparency, they werent telling you they were doing this to your product. How big of a deal was it . We heard sort of a little apology and now a full apology. Thats true. Apple, over the years, theyve had a handful of these situations where theyve done big apologies. The one that comes to mind is what they call antenna gate, which is back in 2010 where first they said youre holding the phone wrong if you cant get a call through. Then they said well give you a little bumper to go around it and were sorry about that. It is rare, but apologies are very important for these big companies. Look at samsung last year when they had their own battery problems. They came to a big apology, a big investigation, shared a lot of information with people and now people are still buying samsung, you know, galaxy and note phones. That apology really worked well for them. You and i have had conversations about this. Psneaking suspicion the reason these phones didnt work is so you would be forced to upgrade to the newest model of an iphone. Is apple addressing that . Theyve denied that, by the way. I think what they were trying to do is the opposite, make your phone feel like it will last longer because the battery doesnt run out as quickly and you dont have to feel like you have to get a new phone. But by making the phone feel sluggish, they did the opposite. I had an iphone 6plus that was getting pokey and i upgraded to a 10 this year. The first thing they did was said, you have to get a new knowone, it felt slow to them. While they did offer an apology, they also explained in their apologies that batteries dont last forever. Its true. Batteries in everything we own, not just phones. It is the sluggishness that leads all of us to new purposes. Fake makeup found online and on street corners can have real Health Consequences for customers. Ahead, what we learned when we a family blames an airline for a greatgrandmothers horrific fall down an escalator. The lawsuit over the womans death after the fall and why the airline says her family made an important error. 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