Our special Holiday Edition of this week, a week we mark each year with our special Game Changers edition. There is a big developing story right announce and we want to get right to it. Thank you and good morning. Im dan harris in new york. We are tracking breaking news. Just nine months after malaysia air flight 370 disappeared, another passenger plane from an airline based in malaysia has vanished in that same part of the world. Flight 8501 was in the middle of what was supposed to be a short twohour flight from the indonesian city of surabaya to singapore when it disappeared from radar. More than 160 people were on board, including children. Abcs david kerley is tracking all of this. Good morning to you. Reporter it will be an agonizing night for families. It is now dark over the java sea where a handful of aircraft looked for this missing jetliner. This is the actual mane missing at this hour. People spent the afternoon looking for any sign of the jetliner which was carrying 161 people, mostly indonesians. Flight 8501 took off Early Saturday Morning heading for singapore. 42 minutes into the flight the jet runs into severe weather, thunderstorms and turbulence. The pilot asked to turn and to increase altitude significantly from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet. The jet then jet disappears off radar. Call centers are set up for those wondering about the passengers which include 16 children and one infant with a crew of six. The a 32 was just 8 years old. Air asia is a low cost Startup Airline and has a good safety record, but the mystery is what happened to this aircraft and where it is this morning. The search has been called off now that its dark over the sea. President obama has been advised about the situation. Another mystery surrounding a south asian aircraft. Thank you. Lets bring in our aviation expert, Steve Ganyard who is a former marine corps fighter pilot. For many of us when were on planes and in that moment when we hit turbulence we all try to remember, at least i do that planes are built to withstand bad weather. Given that what could have possibly gone wrong here . Lots of things could have gone wrong, dan. I think were sort of grasping at straws. Why should a seemingly perfect good airplane drop out of the sky at 32,000 feet. I think the first thing we look at is weather and we see quite a bit of weather in the area. They were moving around to avoid some of the thunderstorms. We shouldnt get too pulled off on this idea that it was just weather. There may be other factors as the investigation goes on. The question on everybodys mind this morning is how is this happening again, in this age of high tech how have two planes simply disappeared from radar . Its really discouraging. If you think back in march when we lost the malaysian aircraft off the coast of australia, we think its off the coast of australia and we said never again should we lose an airplane. Here we are almost 24 hours into another missing aircraft. In this day and age, theres enough technology that we should never again lose an airplane. We should know right where it is right now and we ought to have ships and rescue aircraft out there right now. Just to be clear, every time a plane crashes, it does go off radar, but youre saying there should be more of an indication here than theres . Right. The fact that after a full day we werent able to find wreckage or any indication of this aircraft, it just says we have to improve the way we track airplanes and we shouldnt be able to lose them. Once we can find the area you look at the sea where this is, its a vast area of big ocean. Tlaets not theres not a lot out there so getting folks out there to look for that airplane is going to be tough. That said its a very shallow sea so its not like the coast of australia thats very deep water. So if we can get to the proximate area well have a good chance of recovering this aircraft, finding that black box that will tell you what truly happened to this aircraft. Perhaps this wont be as an enduring a mystery as mh 370 continues to be. Just one last quick question here. David mentioned that this is an airline with a good safety track record. What more do we know about this airline . It is. Its a startup. Its been around almost a decade. It flies the a 320 which is a terrific airline. No red flags popping up about this airline. No safety problems that you would say, oh, well thats to be expected. In this case very good airline, very good airplane a plane thats designed to fly around weather like this well trained pilots. It seems like this is a total mystery at this point, dan. We keep saying it is a mystery. Steve, thank you. A reminder were tracking the story all day long at abcnews. Com. Well have it very latest on world news tonight. Now though back to george and our special Game Changers edition of this week. And now a stunning year of politics at home. A year that saw republicans solidify the hold on capitol hill and set the stage for a president ial campaign thats drawing in big names and big money earlier than ever. Chief White House CorrespondentJonathan Karl has been tracking it all. Reporter it was obviously a big year for republicans, but 2014 was an especially big year for republican women. Thanks to all of you we are heading to washington. And we are going to make them squeal reporter their biggest winner joni ernts, the first woman elected to the senate from i wau. I grew up castrating hogs. Reporter the first to launch a Campaign Like this. Washington is full of big spenders. Lets make them squeal. Reporter but she wasnt the only woman to make republican history. There was Shelley Moore in West Virginia. For the first time in the history of West Virginia we are sending a woman to the United States. Reporter in utah mia love became the first black republican woman elected to the house of representatives. In new york, the youngest woman ever elected to congress. When the 114th Congress Gets seated in january, there will be a Record Number of woman serving, 107 total, 20 in the senate and 87 in the house. Could you make the argument this was the year of the woman . Yes and no. There are more women in congress than before but incrementally the same same of women in the senate and the same women governors. Were seeing different kinds of women, women of color. And were seeing more powerful positions. Reporter the top of the Party Remains almost exclusively male. Theyre building up a bench of leaders, understanding that maybe at the very top levels of the party its predominantly male. They need to start cultivating new and fresh talent. Reporter the top of the Democrat Party on the other hand im back reporter 2014 was the hear Hillary Clinton solidified her standing as the presumptive democrat president ial nominee. Supporters under the banner ready for hillary set up a shadow campaign. We asked bill clinton about them in iowa. Theyre like energizer bin err bunnies. Theyre everywhere and ready to go. Theyre going to be disappointed if she doesnt run. Do you think theyll be disappointed . I will be not baited. I will not. I cannot be baited. Have we ever seen such a formidable frontrunner on the democrat side . Yes. Hillary clinton in 2008. The but this is not about nostalgia. There are other candidates out there that will pose a threat. Campaigns matter. Absolutely. But i still believe that she is the best positioned candidate in the field right now. Reporter but for mrs. Clinton, 2014 didnt go exactly as planned. What happened in 2008 was that hillarys canadasy got in front of any rationale for it. The danger is that thats happening again. You hear ready for hillary. Its like ready for what. Reporter her first big interview was with diane sawyer. If i run for president t the way i think about it is the two most important questions are will you run and can you win but whats your vision for america and can you lead us there. Reporter she seemed a little out of touch. You have no reason to remember but we came out the of the white house not only dead broke but in debt. Reporter while its true the clintons left the white house in debt because of legal bills, they quickly made millions. The next day she tried to clarify her remarks on good morning america. I fully appreciate how hard life is for so Many Americans today. Its an issue that ive worked on and cared about my entire adult life. Reporter the next round of headlines was about her huge speaking fees. 200,000 or more for a single speech. Over the summer mrs. Clinton found herself at odds with president obama on foreign policy, suggesting in an interview with the atlantic magazine that his failure to build up the Syrian Opposition led to the rise of isis. Soon she was clarifying her remarks again. We have disagreements as any partners and friends might very well have, but im proud that i served with him and for him. She wont be able to sit on the sidelines of national controversies if she really gets into the race and i think that will begin to erode some of that favorability she has been able to build up. She spent four and a half years off the Campaign Trial and i think she had to regain her political footing and i think she will start off 2015 knowing exactly where shes going and hopefully inspiring others to follow her. Reporter shes still the no doubt about it frontrunner but her most talked about potential challenger is another woman. Elizabeth warren is now the hottest ticket inside the democrat theetic theater. Theres no question there will be a movement to try to encourage her to run, and there will be a movement to encourage other democrats to get into the race. So this is not going to be a walk to the white house. Its going to be a very very challenging run to the white house. I asked her if she would consider running for president two years ago. Could we see you running for president in 2016 . I have five words for that. No, no, no no no. Absolutely not. Reporter her answer has changed. I am not running. She is now saying i am not running. Nobody is running right now. Right. Thats just a statement of fact. She only speaks in the president tense. So whats going on . She feels an incredible vacuum inside the democratic party. I think she feels an incredible volume vacuum in the country. People want someone whos fresh with new ideas, who will talk about the future fight for the middle class. Sounding familiar. Yeah, well you know i think its refreshing to have her voice not only in the leadership in the senate because shes part of the leadership now, but its refreshing to have her voice out there in the public sphere. What would it mean to have a democratic primary where you had an all out battle and the two that were battling were women . It would be good for america. Great for the country. Remember, the United States is ranked 95th in the world i wouldnt disagree with that by the way. We were ranked 95th in terms of females in office. We have a long way to go. Reporter a long way to go but getting there. Jonathan karl, abc news, washington. To those new threats from overseas from russian president Vladimir Putin aggressive and unpredictable and from the terrorist group isis who threatens the security of the west. Heres martha raddatz. Reporter this was a year the country veered from crises to crises. The malaysian flight shot down. Reporter from the reemergence of a cold war adversary bent on asserting its super power to the emergence of a new and brutal terror group bent on destruction. They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent unarmed civilians. Reporter brutality aimed not only at iraqis and syrians. The fighting has just bye gung. Reporter but americans and the west. Isis grew from the remnants of al qaeda in iraq quickly evolving to one of the worst terrorist organizations of all time. They have the capability over time to pose a significant threat to us. Reporter despite initial reluctance by the white house to get dragged back into another middle east conflict the president expanded air strikes from iraq into syria. Pounding isis targets relentless relentlessly, something we witnessed first hand aboard the ussh. W. Bush. The deck of the Aircraft Carrier is busy any time but during this air campaign it has been especially intense. The air campaign has held them off in certain areas, but the iraqis certainly havent been able to take much territory back. The momentum has been stopped. The key will be can we turn it around. Thats dependent on iraqi forces and other forces in the region being able to hold them. Reporter as complex and nontraditional a threat as isis poses the cold war a deadly tug of war. Reporter 2014 brought back an all too familiar foe. Confrontations with mig fighter jets glimpses are submarines off the shores of europe echos of the cold war that began in spectacular fashion. Russian president Vladimir Putin, forbes most powerful man, was ready to shake up the american dominated world order, and he sat down with george. Youve put so much into these olympics going back to 2007. So i wonder now, how do you define success in sochi, and is your personal honor and reputation at stake . No, no. You see, i want it to be a success for this nation. Reporter but putins olympics were plagued with controversy, construction, billions over budget and a backlash at russians antigay law, banning homosexual propaganda. Gay athletes feared persecution. President obama in a direct challenge appointed high profile gay athletes to lead the u. S. Delegation. What do you say to americans who see russia and you not only as a rival but unfriendly adversary. Between major countries there are always Common Grounds and points of contention. I think history will remember those olympics as the launching pad of the transformation of Vladimir Putin. Russias attempt to assert itself on the International Scene and then what follows puts a really, i think, dark color on that event. Reporter what followed is putins hard line response to the uprising in neighboring ukraine, the country erupting into violence as russian backed separatists tried to seize control. Russia expanding its empire an exes crimea. The United States slapped sanctions on russia. It does not have to be this way. This is a choice that russia and president putin in particular has made. Reporter in july a malaysian passenger jet over ukraine is accidently blasted out of the sky by separatists reportedly using a russian supplied missile, killing the nearly 300 passengers on board. The responsibility there is in moscow no question about it. Reporter putins resurgence is taking a heavy toll at home as the russian ruble loses more than half its value and food prices rise more than 25 . Despite these economic hardships, putins approval religion ratings remain high over 80 . His power is singular. Theres not a great deal of opposition, whether in the streets or other institutions of power. Its all him. Reporter but 2014 did see the dismantling of one cold war relic. After decades of antagonism the president reestablished relations with communist cuba. Today america chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past. Reporter despite that thaw, the new threats that emerged throughout the year are far from resolved. Martha raddatz, abc news washington. Much more ahead on this special edition of this week. The goalie who took the world by storm. Were talking to tim howard next. Remember all that ice water dumped on everyone from celebrities to president s that unforgettable story. Plus regulars on their Game Changers of 2014. The ferguson protestors are my Game Changers for this year. They changed the National Conversation about Police Accountability and raised important issues about whether or not the military should be sending reference to local government. Robin williams. In his life he made us laugh and cry and in his death he shined a light on depression and Mental Illness and hopefully all of us can do something about it. Push your enterprise and you can move the world. But to get from the old way to the new youll need the right it infrastructure. 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It might not seem that glamorous having an old pickup truck for an office. Or filling your days looking down the south end of a heifer but. I wouldnt have it any other way. Lo ok at that, i had my best month ever. And earned a shiny new office upgrade. I run on quickbooks. Thats how i own it. Will soccer star tim howard try for the world cup when hes about to hit 40 and the inspiring story behind the ice bucket challenge. Were back in 90 seconds. With aches, fever and chills theres no such thing as a little flu. So why treat it like its a little cold . Theres something that works differently than overthecounter remedies. Attack the flu virus at its source with prescription tamiflu. And call your doctor right away. Tamiflu is fda approved to treat the flu in people 2 weeks and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. Before taking tamiflu te