This is the cbs evening news with Norah Odonnell, reporting from the nations capital. Odonnell good evening, and thank you for joining us. We are going to begin with breaking news tonight. America is now in covid hell. In just 24 hours, the u. S. Has broken every record set since the pandemic began 10 months ago with more new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in a single day than ever. So Many Americans are now being killed by the virus, four people have died just since this broadcast began. Thats a rate of one life lost every 30 seconds. As we come on the air tonight, more than 100,000 people are now in the hospital with coronavirus, pushing the countrys Healthcare System to the brink. Californias governor says i. C. U. Beds are filling up so fast there, he may soon have to shut down much of his state, ordering people to stay at home to try to stop the virus from spreading any faster. Now, tonight, president elect joe biden says hes going to ask all americans to wear a mask for his first 100 days in office. Mr. Biden also says today he asked dr. Anthony fauci, the countrys top Infectious Disease expert, to stay on in his administration and serve as his chief medical officer. Well, tonight, dr. Fauci is apologizing to the British Government after telling cbs news today that the u. K. Moved too quickly to approve the pfizer vaccine. Weve got a lot of new reporting tonight for you and your family and our seep is standing by to cover it all. Adriana diaz is leading off our coverage in chicago. Reporter good evening, norah. The country is red hot with covid cases with Health Officials from coast to coast sounding the alarm about hospitals nearly at capacity, and that is because of the weight of recordsetting hospitalizations and why today, californias governor issued new restrictions, triggered by the number of i. C. U. Beds they have left. The pandemic has the nations Healthcare System nearing a breaking point. Hospitalizations more than tripled since october 1. I. C. U. Beds are nearly full, and frontline workers Energy Levels nearly empty. Its overwhelming, and were doing the best we can. Reporter its worse in rural areas like cheyenne wells, colorado, where dr. Kurt papenfus is the only fulltime doctor for about 900 people. Now hes hospitalized with covid. I guess it took five different doctors to cover me in one week. If all your healthcare docs are like me, then what the hell are you going to do . Reporter the daily record breaking numbers can be hard to comprehend, but try this just yesterday alone, the more than 2,800 deaths reported in the u. S. Is nearly as high as the death toll on september 11. The 200,000 new cases tallied yesterday is how many people live in salt lake city. And the 100,000 people bedridden in hospitals with covid is nearly the size of green bay, wisconsins population. Thats one reason California Governor Gavin Newsom is instituting stricter stayat home guidelines triggered when i. C. U. Capacity falls below 15 and requiring 100 mask wearing for businesses allowed to stay open. If we dont act now, our Hospital System will be overwhelmed. Reporter but resistance to restrictions remains. There was this maskless indoor wedding in the chicago suburbs, which today Health Officials labeled a possible super spreader event. And last night, hundreds protested shoulder to shoulder on Staten Island after a bar owner was arrested for refusing to stop indoor dining. Meanwhile, the daily average of new cases in new york city is nearing april levels. We just need to do the math. Reporter on the cbs podcast the takeout, dr. Anthony fauci gave our Major Garrett a grim forecast. We dont want to scare people, but if you look at the numbers, we know that that will almost certainly is going to result in a surge superimposed upon a surge. Reporter dr. Fauci is now apologizing for saying this about the u. K. s speedy approval of pfizers vaccine i love the brits. Theyre great, theyre good scientists, but they just took the data from the pfizer company, and instead of scrutinizing it really, really carefully, they said, okay, lets approve it. Thats it. Reporter today in an interview, president elect joe biden said dr. Fauci will be on his team, and hell ask everyone in america to wear a mask. In the first day im inaugurated to say im going to ask the public for 100 days to mask, just 100 days. Reporter the f. D. A. Is set to consider its approval of pfizers twodose vaccine next week. These registration cards will be used to keep track of people who receive them. And with confidence in taking the vaccine still shaky, three former president s say theyre willing to get the vaccine in public. Were also still seeing signs of resilience, like angelina friedman, who just turned 102. She lived through the 1918 spanish flu and reportedly two bouts of covid19. Her family calls her invincible. And then there are emotional scenes like this a chicago nurse helped 85yearold covid patient Florence Bolton connect with her grandchildren through facetime. We love you reporter that incredible pfizer has cut its vaccine supply dowto 100 million due to a manufacturing supply chain disruption. The Company Disputes that claim and says all 50 million doses will be delivered by the end of the year. Norah. Odonnell and the incredible nurses that care for them. Adriana diaz, thank you. Tonight, there are signs that President Trumps support among key political allies may be slipping as the president hints that attorney general william barr could be next in his post election purge of officials who wont back his claims of voter fraud. Cbs ben tracy reports from the white house. Reporter President Trump tonight wont say if he still has confidence in his attorney general. Ask me that in a number of weeks from now. They should be looking at all of this fraud. Reporter cbs news has learned that mr. Trump had a tense meeting with attorney general bill barr tuesday when barr was seen at the white house for more than two hours. President trump is angry that barr publicly contradicted his false claims of Election Fraud, saying the department of justice has seen no evidence that could overturn the election. They havent looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest with you. Reporter after President Trumps 46minutelong baseless video rant about Election Fraud wednesday. If we are right about the fraud, joe biden cant be president. Reporter . Even one of his most loyal allies, senator lindsey graham, seems fed up. To the trump legal team, youre making all these claims, you have to prove it. Doing a video is not proof. Reporter but the trump campaigns claims have been dismissed by several courts for lacking evidence. Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the campaigns latest efforts to overturn the Election Results in that state. This is a swindle. Its a con job. Reporter in michigan, the president s personal attorney, rudy giuliani, trade to rein in his own witness as she made more baseless claims of fraud. What about the turnout rate . 120 . Reporter and ivanka trump was questioned for more than five Hours Tuesday by investigators looking into President Trumps 2017 inaugural committee and allegations donor funds were used to enrich the trump family. Today, ivanka called the investigation another politically motivated demonstration of vindictiveness. And here at the white house tonight, President Trump is starting to lose members of his inner circle. White House Communications director alyssa feria resigned today. This is an acknowledgment that the Trump Administration is coming to an end. Norah. Odonnell ben tracy, thank you. Tonight, the head of the Intelligence Community is weighing in on one of the most explosive claims made by the trump campaigns legal team, that a Foreign Government may have flipped votes and changed Election Results. Director of National IntelligenceJohn Ratcliffe spoke exclusively with cbs Catherine Herridge. Reporter does the intelligence show that any foreign adversary or criminal group had the ability to change the vote results . Not that that weve been able to determine now. At this point in time, were still analyzing all of the intelligence. Reporter so when the president gives a 42minute video on voter fraud allegations, is that intelligence coming from you . So, well, i cant tell you the specific information that i give the president , but voter fraud is not an issue for the Intelligence Community, per se. Reporter we asked the director of National Intelligence about President Trump not approving mr. Bidens Intelligence Briefings for almost three weeks. Former Vice President biden is getting the p. D. B. , the president s daily brief. Hes getting access to all the same intelligence that President Trump is receiving. Hes getting all of the same intelligence. Hes getting full security briefings from my office, which briefs the president. Reporter ratcliffe has shifted significant intelligence resources to focus on china, and for the first time, publicly accused the communist government of working to influence american lawmakers. You say china is targeting members of congress with six times the frequency of russia and 12 times the frequency of iran. What is behind beijings aggressive approach . Through blackmail, through bribery, through overt and convert influence, trying to make sure that only laws that favorable to china are passed. China intends to dominate the world economically, militarily, and technologically. Reporter and ratcliffe accuses of Chinese Communist party of lying to the world about the threat of covid19 and then aggressively seeking to steal the vaccine research. Norah. Odonnell Catherine Herridge with that exclusive interview. Thank you. Cybersecurity experts at i. B. M. Have uncovered a scheme targeting Covid Vaccine supply chains. They say that someone posing as a Chinese Business executive is using socalled phishing emails to gain access to plans for refrigerated transport of vaccines. Well, tonight, the department of Homeland Security is warning officials running operation warp speed to be on alert. Now that that explosive new wildfire in Southern California. Its being fueled by ferocious winds, including a gust of 95 miles an hour. Tonight, it is ranging out of control, threatening homes and at least two firefighters are injured. Cbs Jonathan Vigliotti reports from the fire zone. Reporter sheer panic in silverado canyon, as people race to escape an outofcontrol wildfire. We barely, barely could get out. Reporter powerful winds pushing the flames in all directions, scorching an area larger than 3,000 football fields overnight. We have watched over the past fw minutes as this entire canyon has gone up in flames. Were talking about flames as high as 5060 feet. Where we are a very remote canyon, but on the other side of it, a very heavily populated neighborhood. Some who fled, taking their ranch animals with them. By daybreak, the fire was still 0 contained. This fire is driven by dry vegetation and high winds. Were talking gusts up to 70 miles per hour. You can see firefighters here on the ground trying to stop this om spreadi spreading. Police believe the blaze was sparked by a house fire. Doug sweney has lived through many fires, but none like this. After being up here for 30 years, ive seen a little bit, but this is this is definitely the most it has come down the hill. Reporter firefighters are working to protect these homes from the flames in what has been a historic wildfire season for the state of california. More than four million acres have burned, and with every minute, that number grows. The red flag warnings continue through saturday. Norah. Reporter all right, Jonathan Vigliotti, thank you. We want to bring in cbs lonnie quinn. So, lonnie, what about that fire danger . Is this letting up any time soon . Reporter no, i dont see this thing changing until about sunday. You just heard jonathan say the red flag warnings are in effect until saturday because we have a big High Pressure system over las vegas. That funnels in that santa ana wind, blowing 50, even 70 miles an hour and no changes right through sunday. By sunday, the change you have to look up around the pacific northwest. There will be a low pressure system that moves onshore. The problem is all the rain associated with it stays in the pacific northwest. But the winds change for Southern California on sunday. Number one, they come in off the water, but theyll be lighter as well. So, thats that change. On the other side of the country will change will take place on saturday because a noreaster moves in, were talking more rain than snow. I think it will end in some snow in portions of new england. Its what we call heart attack snow, norah, where its thick and heavy and it takes a lot of energy to get rid of it. You have to be careful when that comes around. Thats for saturday for the northeast. Norah. Odonnell an important warning. Lonnie quinn, thank you. Tonight, Southwest Airlines is warning it may have to furlough nearly 7,000 workers. That comes as 702 americans applied for unemployment last week. And then theres this 17 million are behind on their rent or mortgage and could lose their homes when a federal Eviction Moratorium expires. We get more now from cbs mark strassmann. Reporter sally lee and robert cho would freeze inside their house without this space heater, and the warmth of their nextdoor neighbor. This is an extension cord. He plugged it through his outside line to run it through my house. Reporter your neighbor gives you more power than your landlord. Yes, thats correct. Reporter the power line to their house was cut. Their landlord has refused to fix it for five weeks. Cho is disabled. Lee lost her job managing a Beauty Supply store when covid first spiked back in march. They now owe nearly 9,000 in back rent. You think the landlord is trying to get rid of you . Of course. Definitely, 100 guaranteed. Reporter shes trying to freeze you out . Yes. This is morally wrong. We are talking about lives, human beings, our lives. Shame shame reporter theres a looming American Housing crisis, and evictions are now underway in many states, like missouri and arizona. More than 5. 5 million americans face eviction or foreclosure in the next two months. Sally lee took this video of her thermostat last night. Outside temperature, 28 degrees. Inside temperature, 32 degrees. Im the type of person that i do not like nobody to see my tears. Im sorry. Reporter its been hard. Its been very hard. What is going to happen if we lose our home or apartment . Where are we going to go . Reporter its a genuine worry. Their lease expires next month. Mark strassmann, cbs news, duluth, georgia. Odonnell and there is still much more news ahead on tonights cbs evening news. The surprising move by a major Hollywood Studio that will affect how you see movies next year. And take a look at this why an era of Space Exploration comes to a crashing halt. Dry, distressed skin that struggles . New aveeno® restorative skin therapy. With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. Youre on it. 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