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floating above the continental united states, and we don t know what data it s collecting. you can see it right there on your screen and it s visable to people on the ground in montana. at least it has been since wednesday. today beijing confirmed it is theirs, claiming it is a, quote, unquote, civilian research air ship that went off course, but minutes ago, the pentagon flatly rejected that claim, calling it a surveillance balloon. secretary of state antony blinken s upcoming trip to china has now been postponed. the pro vocative move is inflaming a u.s.-china relationship already on the brink with tensions over everything from taiwan to tiktok. cnn s natasha bertrand is here to break it all down for us. natasha, there is so much to talk about here. so let s start at the beginning. what do we know about this balloon? yeah. so here, just to get a sense for the scale of this thing, this is the balloon, and what we know about it is that it is the size of about three bu ....
southwest. of. 2800 u.s. flights already canceled today, 2500, about 90% are southwest. challenge for our flight crews being stuck in locations not where they need to be along with the aircraft. at this point we re working to accommodate our customers as best we can and offer the most options we can. cnn s lucy kafnov is in denver. i wasn t anticipating a nightmare but it is. reporter: christmas is over but for thousands of customers the travel nightmare goes on. they canceled our flight. they said they can t help us so we don t know what to do. reporter: southwest airlines at the top of the list for cancellations. the airlines ticketing counter at baltimore s bwi airport a zoo. denver s lines for the southwest ticket counter even longer. we had to wait in a line that was four hours and it was horrible. nobody is giving us a direction on what line to get in. it s a total you know what show here. reporter: for those tlieg to call to get through, good lu ....
we re still in the tlhroes of this life threatening situation. good morning, everybody, it s monday, december 26th. don and kaitlan are off, i m glad to have sara sidner with us. good morning. let s talk about the death toll rising in new york from the storm. thousands of delays and cancellations impacting many air travelers many failing to make it home for the holidays. in a cruel, dangerous and shameful stunt, the white house blaming texas governor greg abbott for sending residents to the home of vice president kamala harris on christmas eve. first, though, a storm for the ages in western new york state. at least 17 weather-related deaths are being reported this morning, most in the buffalo area. governor katy hochul has requested emergency disaster relief from the biden administration. a state of emergency remains in effect. this has paralyzed so many parts of the state and the country, bringing this region to its knees. more than 12,000 customers are sti ....
of cnn this morning. it is sunday, december 25th. of course you know, we ve all been waiting for this beautiful morning. i m amara walker. good morning and merry christmas to you as well. thank you for spending part of your holiday morning with us. just ahead this morning, fighting racism from a one horse open sleigh, after getting hate mail for put putting up a black stanta in his yard santa in h yard, one man fights back. and how dollar stars are quickly becoming the go-to destination for shoppers. and we re going to introduce you to this year s cnn hero of the year, with a heart warming moment as she accepted her award. first let s get you caught up with this morning s headlines with whitney wilde. good morning and merry christmas to you, if you re celebrating at home. we begin with this brutal weather storm. at least 22 deaths are blamed on the storm and more than a quarter million people are without electricity. more than 3,400 flights were cancelled ye ....
the list of deaths. we could see more when everything is said and done. there is still a big concern for people stranded in their cars, when there was whiteout conditions. people would get lost in the storm. people were making contact with people stranded in cars. the mayor saying 200 individuals, they could still be out there, that they are trying to make sure they get safe. there s also some frustration in the voice of officials here, as they say that people do not are not really getting it right now. and braving the streets. that should be off in the distance here. we don t know where they could be going. only essential travel is allowed right now. they are clearing the streets to be drivable, just like the one you see here in downtown buffalo, and allow first responders to basically make it out to calls if necessary. but as far as the storm, this has been just it has not sto stopped. erie county officials say the storm is going to hover over buffalo, and perhaps ....