Nearly half of u. S. Consumers are returning a holiday gift this week. Find out why retailers are competing to make returns easier. But we begin this morning with a look at todays eye opener, your world in 90 seconds. Were here 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. Millions are bundling up to ring in the new year in bonechilling temperatures that are gripping wuch of the upper great lakes and the northeast. Its going get worse. In an interview President Trump tells the New York Times he thinks bob mueller will be fair and believes there was no collusion. Security is being boosted around the world on new eve. Doug jones has won the special election for the u. S. Senate. Theres a one in a billion mathematical chance that was not a fraud. Apple has admitted to cutting down connection to the iphone and will cut the price of a battery. He splashed into the river. All that and all that matters. Rose marie has diechld she was best known for her beloved role as sally rogers on the Dick Van Dyke show. On cbs this morning. This is a great tweet. What do you say . Thank you . Its a banana. Announcer this eye opener presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. Im Bianna Golodryga along with Dana Jacobson and vladier duthiers of our streaming network cbsn. Norah odonnell and gayle king are off. 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 four children. 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. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Police tell us the investigation is active and ongoing and of the 12 people killed, five were dangerously fast moving. People were trapped. Someone said, there was a baby in there. Apartment 6, they were trapped. Reporter it took only three minutes for firefighters to respond to the fire in the bronx. But for many trapped inside the roughly 100yearold building, it wasnt fast enough. Im very sorry to report 1 2 new yorkers are dead including one child, 1 years old. The search of the building continues, so we may lose others as well. Reporter the victims 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 others were rescued. The fire started on the first floor and quickly spread up the five flights. People died on various floors of 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. It was a bunch of smoke. Thats it. People were screaming, fire, help, fire, help. We knew there was trouble. 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. That is where the fire was believed to have originated. Vlad. Absolutely heartbreaking. Don, 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 are expected to feel 20 to 40 degrees below maines Rockport Harbor is freezing over for the first time in years. Dean reynolds is in chicago where a few people have died from the freezing weather. Good morning. Reporter good morning. You can see behind me Lake Michigan is beginning to ice up and chicago officials are urging people to stay inside and if possible off the roads, especially tonight when its expected to be snowing. I hate it. I hate it. You can see your breath in the car. 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 avoid the deep freeze. Thermal, two sweaters, a turtleneck, two pair of gloves. Reporter water fountains in new york city are now mountains of ice. In New Hampshire boilingat at chicagos airport it was too cold to fly. More than 80 flights were canceled and nearly 250 were delayed. It was really hectic and a whole lot of people here. Reporter chicago Officials Say the temperatures can be deadly. Extreme weather is more than an inconvenience. It remain as series of potentially lifethreatening events. Reporter shelters are your flowing with people trying to escape the brutal cold. Youd pretty much die in the street. Youd freeze to death. Reporter he says theyre not turning anyone away. Its bitter cold weather. Its extremely dangerous. A lot of our guests have Health Issues already. We want to make sure theyre inside where it safe and warm. Reporter now the deep freeze is expected to last well into next week. But, hey, its only 174 days until summer starts. Dana . We like the optimism, dean. For all of us in studio, thanks for braving the get a hat. We want you to wear a hat, not just the earmuffs. Dean, thank you. Reporter all right. Danielle niles of wbztv has more. Its stretching back into upstate new york and northern maine. 10 to 20 below zero for much of the great lakes. Feels like zero in new york city right now. Tomorrow, no big storms. There will be a quick moving disturbance, enhanced lakeeffect snow across the northeast. Last day of 2017, look at these temperatures. Its without the wind factored in. Were talking record cold high temperatures for the next several days. 30s all the way back down to dallas. The first day of the new year will feature singledigit readings. 30s all the way back down to atlanta. At least the precipitation forecast is that positive note, well take a lot of sunshine across the nation for the first day of 2018. Danielle trying to find something positive but theres nothing good about the temperature being lower than the date. Dont like it. Well, the bitter cold could force some of cities to change their new years plans. Ohm harks nebraska, is postponing their celebrations for a week. Philadelphia is delaying its parade. For those going ahead, police are taking unprecedent measures to strengthen security. Tony due kopi is at times square where over 200 Million People are expected to brave the weather. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Its important to point out that the new York Police Department says there attack but theyre preparing. Atz they prepare far their famed times square celebration, the nypd is take nothing chances. Police commissioner james oneill. Out of an abundance of caution, youre going to see a Stronger Police presence than youve seen in years. Canines, aerial spotters and snipers in hotels will protect the almost 200 Million People watching the clock strike at midnight. It follows a pipe bomb explosion this month at a subway passageway at times square and a truck attack on halloween that killed eight people. Our takeaway from this is people should feel safe. Reporter selves around the country are stepping up their efforts. The Los Angeles Police didnt says they will have an increased visible police presence. In miami regular security will be in place at its outdoor teams and salt trucks will be strategically placed to prevent vehicle attacks. Following octobers deadly shooting in las vegas, 800 steel pylons and rapidfire defense teams will be in place. Clark county sheriff joseph lombardo. As aushlgs Law Enforcement cant do this alone. Im asking while youre out enjoying the festivities, be observant and notify police of anything suspicious. Reporter back here at new yorks times square, the nypd is shutting down 125 parking garages. One more, markings on the exterior of the Tall Buildings so in the event of the attack, theyll be able to identify the floor very quickly. No credible threat here or any other city at this time. Tony, thank you. In a New York Times interview the president denied colluding with russia during the 2016 president ial race 16 times. He defended his tax plan and took a tough stance on china. Chip reid is traveling with the president in west palm beach, florida. Good morning. Good morning. The grilling took place in the hotel. There were no white house Staff Members anywhere in sight. He was introduced by a club member who brought in the reporter as a guest. Russia did not help me. That i can tell you, okay . Russia has repeatedly denied that russian interference in the u. S. Election helped him in any way and in an interview with the New York Times, President Trump said special investigation by robber mierl is bad for the country. It makes the country look very bad and puts the country in a bad position, he said. Himself, he said, i think bob mueller will be fair. The president s vote of confidence comes after conservative allies have spent days attacking political investigators for bias. But the president did suggest a willing bs to intervene saying i have an absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. This is, again, the biggest tax cut, biggest reform of all times. The president signed back at the critics of the tax bill he signed into law last week. It will be more than we anticipate. I know the details better than anybody, better than the greatest cpa. And he touted his quote with great chemistry with chinas president xi jinping but may go at china on trade if it doesnt do more to curb north Koreas Nuclear ambitions. I have been soft on they can solve the problem. Theyre helping us, but theyre not helping us enough. The president suggested hell be open to infrastructure and health care. Hell be talking more on that at camp david next week with republican leaders. Vlad . 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. The judge rejected a last manufacture ben. Alabamas secretary of state found no evidence of that. Jones said on twitter he will 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 iphones. Its done to prevent sudden shoulddowns in the iphone 6, but as a side effect, other apps run slower. They said, we know 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 editor at cnet. Great to have you at the table. This is confusing. Explain how this all went down. Its a complicated issue. What apple did was come up with an entirely not unreasonable solution to a problem thats not easy to fix. Thats batteries that we use for everything, as they get older, they cant give out the energy at the same peak levels. When you have apps on your phones that want to do on their older phones, the phones would shut down. That happened to me with my iphone 6 plus. They had a Software Update. Most are detaermed by the updates, that said were going to tune up these peaks. Theyre trying to make the battery last longer. Its interesting. This did make me think when i read this story, when you had a blackberry, youd take the battery out yourself and put a new one in. With the iphone, its not easy to do. You actually 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 slowing your phone down to extend the battery life but theyre going to add something to the you monitor it and give you more information, transparency of how much space you have. Thats why i think people were more upset is the lack of transparency, that they werent telling you they were doing this to your product. You mentioned an apology. How big of a deal is this . We first heard of a little apology and now a big apology. Thats true. Over the years theyve done these big apologies. One was antenna gate that happened in 2010 where they said your call wont go through if youre holding the phone wrong and then they came out with a bumper. Look alt what happened last year with samsung when they had problems with their own batteries. They issued a big apology and shared a lot of information with people and people are still buying galaxy and note phones. That. The reason they did it is so you would upgrade to a newer model of iphone. Theyve deny thad. What do you think . I think they were doing the opposite, they didnt want you to feel like the batteries would run out quicker. They ended up doing the on sichlt i had an iphone 6 plus that was getting pokey. I upgraded to a x when i gave it to a friend. They said, oh, man, youve got to get a new phone. Its rare you get an apology from apple. They explained that the batteries dont last forever. Its true. Its the slug itch finance that gets us ordering new things. 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He lost his balance for nearly two minutes an lost his ski. Couldnt exactly stop well. Im imfwresed though. I would try to stop on two skis. Welcome back to cbs this morning. Here are three things you should know this morning. Two people blame for hacking more than 100 washington, d. C. , Police Surveillance cameras just inauguration have been charged. Investigators think the breach was part of a widespread ransomware attack. The suspects were arrested two weeks ago in romania. A photographier is accusing someone of an assault. The allstar tried to kiss her at a mall. She said she screamed and resisted until he gave up. Quote, after a solid ten minutes of fighting. Suh noe denies the allegation. Major League Baseball is investigating. Theyre testing at least nine childrens Makeup Products for possible asbestos con tam nation. They have voluntarily been pulled from store shelves. A mother claims she found asbestos in her daughters makeup. Claires said in a statement, safety of our customers and products is our top priority. The items can be returned for a refund. Counterfeit makeup is raising concerns. U. S. Customs and Border Protection seized a Record Number of counterfeit goods last year worth over 1. 4 billion. Fake items are now more common than knockoff handbags. Jamie you cao yuccas visited