brooke baldwin. i will see you same time tomorrow. in the meantime, let's take things to washington. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. gas prices have been dropping for 100 straight days. but it turns out what is good for your wallet may not be so sweet for your retirement savings. i'm jake tapper. this is "the lead." breaking news in the money lead stocks tanking on the first full week of 2015 as oil prices fall below the $50 a barrel marker for the first time this decade. could too much of this good thing cause a crash? the world lead new evidence that the missing airasia plane that's likely at the bottom of the sea should not have taken off that day. what has the indonesian government so upset with the airline? and the national lead, from bad to worse. brand-new numbers showing that the flu epidemic which has been especially deadly for children

is growing as kids go back to school. and those flu shots may not be doing enough to stop it. good afternoon, everyone. i'm jake tapper. we begin with the breaking news on the money lead. you can hear the bell there. you know all that extra cash that you've been saving at the gas pump? turns out that could be at the expense of your 401(k). the markets just closed after a brutal day where cheap oil prices sent the dow into a free fall, plummeting more than 320 points. experts say the worst could be yet to come thanks to oil prices predicted to dip even lower as well as that shaky european economy. let's go live to cnn business correspondent alison kosik in new york. alison was this just only a matter of time before this happened? >> reporter: well most investors that you ask say the market is due for a correction. it's been more than three years since you've seen the market actually have a true 10%

correction from a recent high. the market did get hit in september and october. but it's interesting because each time the market got hit, investors came in to buy. keep in mind not saying what's happening today is a correction because what happened today was actually on what's considered low volume meaning there weren't many traders in the game. so it means that any move that they would make would be exaggerated. but one of the catalysts for this selloff, definitely oil prices. oil prices continuing in that free fall, closing below $50 a barrel for the first time since 2009 in april. and for wall street, let'sit's unsettling to see gas prices tank to be in this free fall especially when there's no sense of a bottom. i spoke with one oil analyst who says it's like the new york mets it's a bottoming process. >> interesting. obviously the silver lining in all this is the low gas prices. how low can they go?

>> reporter: the good news is oil analysts who i talked to said what you see on the street in the gas stations is a tape delay of what you're seeing in the markets. that means expect gas prices to go even lower. here's an example. the average price right now, $2.20 a gallon he said he expects by friday to see that average price drop to $2.10 a gallon. keep in mind that's down from that $3.68 from the summer peak. he predicts we'll see the oil bottom out by the end of january. what winds up happening is refineries start to produce this spring sort of formula of gas. then you wind up seeing oil prices go higher. but he does say expect to see gas prices stay in the 2s instead of the 3s for the rest of the year. >> alison kosik, thank you so much. turning to the world lead the shock of the air disaster that claimed the lives of 162 people including 18 children that shock is now giving way to disturbing questions about

whether that plane should have been in the air that day at all. crews desperately have been trying to recover the bodies of victims and wreckage from airasia 8501. it's been a burdensome nine-day search hampered by awful weather conditions from high winds to heavy rainfall conditions similar to what the plane might have experienced when it went down last sunday on its way from surabaya indonesia, to singapore. and now the new questions, for starters the airasia flight only had a permit to fly that particular route on mondays, tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays. flight 8501 took off, of course on sunday. then there's the issue of weather. according to the indonesian government airasia allowed the flight's captain and co-pilot to be the ones researching the flying conditions before taking off. that is unusual because with most other airlines it's up to the carrier to brief the pilots on weather conditions. and up to the carrier to provide detailed information on things like route forecasts and flight plans and fuel estimates.

indonesia's transportation ministry has ordered all pilots to give pilots up-to-date weather conditions. let's bring in cnn aviation correspondent, rene marsh. we've been talking about whether the demand for air travel in booming part of the world has progressed beyond the safety -- the ability of governments to regulate all this air travel. >> when you're flying in this part of the world, prone to severe weather, it really is like flying blind if the pilots don't have sufficient weather information prior to take-off. while we don't know exactly what caused the crash, some are beginning to question whether indonesia's troubling air safety record could have been a contributing factor. >> three more bodies brought to land, nearly a quarter of those who were on board airasia 8501 have been recovered. some still wearing seat belts. also recovered from the java sea, airplane seats, personal

effects and what looks like part of a food cart. >> translator: we retrieved during our one-week operation several objects which were mostly parts of the airasia plane. >> reporter: the main body of the plane and the critical flight recorders still on the sea floor. 16-foot waves and muddy conditions under water mean zero visibility. more than 50 vessels and helicopters an more than 80 deep divers are dedicated to the search. china has sent experts and portable sonar equipment. the "uss sampson" is helping recover debris while the "uss fort worth" deployed sonar equipment. >> we can find things on the sea floor as small as a golf ball. >> reporter: while the investigation into what caused the crash is under way, another investigation is taking form. should aviation authorities have allowed flight 8501 to take off despite massive thunderstorms?

>> thunderstorms in the united states, you wouldn't take off. you'd be on the ground at laguardia or kennedy. >> reporter: today, reports the doomed aerial's pilots may not have received intensive weather data prior to take-off. a top indonesian aviation official tells cnn it's a matter under investigation and insists the standard is for pilots to be briefed in advance on the weather. and concern airasia was not approved to fly the route from surabaya to singapore on the day it went missing, highlighting indonesia's significant safety problems with controlling its airspace. experts say booming air traffic has made indonesia the world's busiest airspace with the weakest safety infrastructure. >> indonesia would be on a watch list from an faa standpoint, one of ten nations where there are serious safety and regulatory oversight problems. >> reporter: indonesian officials are now investigating why flight 8501 was allowed to take off without the proper permission.

a top aviation official tells cnn he hopes the investigation into whether indonesian authorities essentially dropped the ball he says it should be complete in another one to two weeks. if the mrooilt pilots did not receive adequate pre-flight weather reports, that opens a whole new round of questions. why did the pilots fly without it? was there this pressure for them to fly to stay on schedule? we've talked about this being a really busy part of the world when we talk about air travel. so it remains to be seen. if they didn't have that crucial information, why did they fly anyway? >> rene marsh, thank you so much. searching for the plane's black boxes has been like trying to find a set of lost keys in a football stadium. blindfolded. the murky waters of the java sea have made it impossible for divers to see what is right in front of them and add to that the rough weather, huge waves, ocean garbage, you've got a recipe for a very long,

laborious search effort. cnn's david molko is live in surabaya, indonesia. david, bad weather forced crews to call off the search earlier. what's the forecast for the next search? >> reporter: that's right. about an hour to first light here in surabaya. the call to prayer sounding around the city. let's head out to the search zone. as you mentioned, weather creating some difficulties. there was a lot of news out of there, news about bodies recovered, extra debris. some airline seats. not the news that search officials were looking for, which was that they had found the main wreckage. jake the weather here is more in control than anything else. the good news the forecast expected to improve or be about the same for the next couple of days. turns out that the early morning hours, just about an hour from now, are the calmest on the java sea. the problem, we're in monsoon season. so things can change in the afternoon. you get a thunderstorm whipping up and the seas get choppy.

again, below the surface, it's a visibility issue. divers down for the second day couldn't even see their hands in front of their faces. they're going to try it all over again for the third day in a row, try to get a closer look at those five objects on the sea floor and see if they can confirm whether or not they are the wreckage of 8501. >> dave tell me more about the plan to take family members out to the search area. >> reporter: yeah jake they are offering to take the families out into the search zone give them a closer look at what's happening out there. it would involve putting them on a plane, then on a boat out into the java sea, perhaps a chance to lay flowers, offer up some players. families who have been spending their days behind me here at the crisis center police headquarters and the police hospital, mixed reaction. some saying they're happy to take them up on that others saying i'd rather wait here for news. one family member in particular

he had four relatives on board including two young grandkids. he says if this goes into the third week and there's no news then maybe i'll want to head out there, too. the fact that families are already thinking about the third week of the search when it's only tuesday certainly doesn't bode well. that sort of suggests that expectations of what may happen this week, not so good. the bottom line jake searching is slow going, it's slow progress. 149 families still don't have answers. jake? >> david molko in surabaya indonesia, thank you so much. in our national lead today, he is the only suspect to be charged in the boston marathon terrorist attack and today his trial begins with potential new evidence come more questions, such as did dzhokhar tsarnaev and his brother, tamerlan, really definitely act alone? that's next.

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper.

our national lead now, the terror trial in boston jury selection is under way in the case of the united states of america versus dzhokhar tsarnaev accused along with his dead brother, tamerlan of detonating two bombs at the end of the boston marathon. four people were killed in the bombing, more than 160 wounded. tamerlan tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police. dzhokhar was later found hiding in a boat in a backyard in suburban boston. he's now facing 30 charges. cnn national correspondent deborah feyerick has been in court today. she's live in boston with all the latest. deb? >> reporter: jake we can tell you 400 people 400 men and women came together to be considered as prospective jurors. the interesting thing, whether or not they are chosen whether or not they are chosen to serve four months of this trial, they can all say they were in the same room with the alleged

bomber himself, dzhokhar tsarnaev. he sat facing all of them looking apparently very nonchalant nonchalant. dzhokhar tsarnaev in custody now for 626 days most of it in isolation, got his first chance to see some of the potential jurors who will decide his fate. it was four days after the boston marathon bombing when the bloodied 19-year-old discovered hiding in a boat surrendered to an army of police and federal agents who had been hunting him. >> they have a very strong guilty case against him. what everyone is focusing on is he going to get the death penalty or not. >> reporter: the judges kept what appears to be a mountain of evidence and an extensive witness list under seal. prosecutors say dzhokhar and his older brother, tamerlan targeted the boston marathon using homemade pressure cooker bombs filled with nails and pellets in order to cause maximum damage. new videos show dzhokhar leaving the second backpack at the blast

side before calmly walking away. and the note he allegedly scrawled blaming america for muslim deaths is likely to undercut his lawyer's argument that dzhokhar was a troubled young man acting under his older brother's influence. >> a lot of these discussions about was he impressionable or was he evil in and of itself really have nothing to do with guilt or innocence. they have to do with whether he spends the rest of his life in jail or the death penalty. >> reporter: there was a lengthy jury questionnaire, including whether they would consider the death penalty in the event of a guilty verdict. 12 will be chosen along with six alternatives. tsarnaev's sisters visited him in prison. and his parents talked to him by phones. records report he said quote, they are giving me rice and chicken now, everything's fine. everything is good, please don't say anything. prosecutors have said tsarnaev was banned from praying with

other inmates saying he wanted to incite them to engage in jihad. he's spent short periods of time in an outdoor enclosures. tsarnaev became eligible for the death penalty because prosecutors believe he's shown no remorse. just imagine a large glass-enclosed jury room. you had about 150 to 200 jurors there sitting there. facing them was dzhokhar tsarnaev flanked by his lawyers. he paid attention to what the judge was saying but he sat slouched in his chair, wearing a sweater and dressed khaki pants. he was not shackled. he had very long strides, a distinctive walk but he was looking at the jurors, looking at the judge. the judge basically saying to everyone, this is your civic duty. so answer the 100 questions as best you can. he even invoked the names of the

colonists to say, this is your tuitt duty to sit here and listen to the evidence the prosecutors will present against this man who's been accused in these mommings. >> deborah feyerick, thanks so much. i want to take one moment here just to recite the names of the four who were killed since we are mentioning the names of the terrorists. so many times during this segment, the victims were crystal camable, lou lingz nishgs martin richards, and officer collier. there are still so many lingering questions about that terrorist attack. bob baer is a cnn national security analyst. also joining us from boston is brad bailey a former federal prosecutor. thank you for talking with us today. bob, you heard deb say that dzhokhar is still spouting jihadist views and shows no remorse. does that surprise you at all? >> no, not at all. he sound you haded like a believer from the moment he was arrested.

doesn't surprise me at all. i don't think he went through this and carried this out just on the influence of brother. doesn't make sense. i think he's a believer for sure. >> brad prosecutors were trying to negotiate a plea deal with tsarnaev but talks fell apart from the government refused to take the death penalty off the table. how difficult is it for the government to do that in a guilty plea like this? >> in a case like this this is a unique case, jake. often in death cases, when you do try to bargain away the death penalty in exchange for life without the possibility of patrol. here given the nature of the crime, the number of the victims, the fact that it's a terror case the 8-year-old victim who was killed all those factors are the types of things that if there's going to be any type of deal it's simply going to be that tsarnaev might not

contest the guilt faze and might instead just focus on the penalty phase in an effort of just putting the sole question of life or death in a non-death penalty state. >> let me ask you, brad how likely is it do you think that dzhokhar will be sentenced to death? >> well there's a whole process involved. and the first thing that has to happen is they have to make sure they have what we call a death qualified jury. that means all 12 of those jurors and all six of those alternates have to make it clear that they would be open to the death penalty, not that they will, in fact, impose it. they'll be bounced off if they say anything like that. but that they'll follow the rules, follow the criteria and they would be open to it if he's convicted on any of these counts. long way to go to get there. >> dzhokhar tsarnaev and tamerlan are the only two officially implicated in carrying out this attack. but i've spoken to law enforcement officials who have

strong suspicions that the tsarnaevs may not have acted alone. what do you think? >> jake i've heard the same thing from people involved in the investigation, fbi consultants, they didn't act alone, and the sense that they were shown how to make these bombs. tamerlan probably had some combat training when he went to dagestan the year before. but the device -- original said it was downloaded from the internet from the "inspire" article. but it was actually improved upon and there's a question whether there was actually somebody in boston at the time because they never sound a circuit tester in dzhokhar's apartment or the other apartment. so how did they actually make this bomb? and it was fairly sophisticated, the six-second delay and the rest of it. and categorically, explosives experts have told me they had some sort of assistance either in the united states or in dagestan. >> brad questions about whether the tsarnaevs could have done

this alone, are they relevant at all to the trial? >> well anytime you can create some sort of reasonable doubt, anything is relevant. but i think at the end of the day, the focus is going to be on dzhokhar tsarnaev and whether it's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the crimes that he's charged with. >> brad bailey bob baer thank you both so much. coming up he's the republican leader of the house of representatives. but now some members of his own party want him out from his leadership position. why several conservatives are saying they will vote against john boehner for another term as the speaker. we'll talk to one of those republicans next. turns out kim jong-un is not a huge fan of the new u.s. sanctions. north korea has an angry response to them, coming up next. narrator: these are the tennis shoes skater kid: whoa narrator: that got torture tested by teenagers and cried out for help. from the surprised designers. who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer: i love it

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. our politics lead now, the new congress convenes tomorrow with republicans in charge of both the house and the senate for the first time since 2006. but before they can get to work, they have to pick a speaker. and john boehner is now facing opposition.

some conservative republicans are promising to vote against the ohio congressman when they elect their leaders tomorrow. cnn's chief congressional correspondent dana bash joins us now. where is most of this opposition coming from? >> we should put it in perspective. there are going to be 246 republicans in the house caucus. there so far are about a dozen republicans who are saying they are going to oppose the speaker. so it is a very small but very vocal minority of republicans. those who the leadership not so lovingly call the "hell, no" caucus because they often vote against leadership issues. but the whole concept of being elected is that john boehner must not just get a majority of republicans, the speaker is elected by all house members. he has to be selected by 218. he can lose 29 republicans and still become elected as speaker. his aides are monitoring the insurrection but they're not

that worried. here's tom cole. >> this is a last-moment sideshow. but it distracts from our message. we ought to be talking about the republican agenda the possibilities that now that we have the senate. it's not helpful to the conference. i fail to see the endgame here. >> the argument that cole and others make is you can't replace someone with no one. and right now, no other house republican has raised as much money, campaigned for as many people has as much leadership as john boehner. if there is a surprise and he loses 29 votes and doesn't get the speakership outright, there would be a second vote. leadership sources say they would basically go into recess because it will take place in public on the house floor. the republican caucus would convene and try to figure out a what's next. but they're not expecting it. but we've come to expect the unexpected if these house republicans. >> dana bash, thank you so much.

. representative steve king joins me now. he wants a new speaker. why not john boehner? >> it goes back to a long history. but back to 2010 and obamacare, it was clear there was a wave election. 87 new freshman republicans. every republican pledged to repeal obamacare. i brought the amendment to cut off all funding to implement or enforce obamacare. i was blocked procedurally by an act that i think was the speakers. then it took 2 1/2 years for that to finally work its way through the system. but we have to control and manage this constitution. the president is violating it at will. and the actions of the speaker have prevented us from keeping our oath to maintain the constitution. >> what do you say to those who say, you are trying to pass legislation that could never pass the senate and even it did president obama would veto.

you're suggesting a number of votes to make those like you feel good but wouldn't accomplish anything and make the rest of the country come to hate washington even more? >> i would might make that argument. but i say you need to do the right thing. whatever your vote is you have to keep your oath to uphold the constitution, preserve and protect the rule of law. that means pass the legislation with the tools you have send it over to the senate and it's an their conscience. and the voters have an opportunity to judge that. the antithesis of that is we're funding the president's unconstitutional acts. you can argue obamacare's constitutional constitutionality. we've seen this movie before. i don't want to watch it again, jake. >> and lastly on this issue and then i want to talk about presidential politics the people who have talked about running for speaker against

boehner are the representative from florida and texas. anyone else? >> we should anticipate the name of daniel webster coming forward. i've been talking with dan for the last 2 1/2 years. he's a great respecter of the institution of the congress. i think the democrats and republicans want to see the institution restored so the voice and will of this republic can come from the american people through their elected congress. dan would be helpful. i support any one of the three. >> let's talk about politics more broadly, presidential politics. as people likely know you are a republican power broker in iowa. mike huckabee announced over the weekend that he's going to leave fox and he is contemplating running. he obviously won the iowa caucus in 2008. what do you make of his chances? >> well, certainly he's got a strong base in iowa.

it's really interesting to see that he's made this -- it's actually a bold move and sends a clear message that i think all of us anticipate he will be an announced candidate fairly soon. he's got a good base with the evangelical and christian base in iowa. and he's got a good base with the fair tax. mike huckabee starts with a bit of a head start over some of the other candidates. >> what about jeb bush? he will not be attending your freedom summit the iowa freedom summit, according to his office. it's a scheduling conflict. but do you think it's possible that he doesn't want to be associated with you? >> i can't quite speculate that. we contacted governor bush jeb bush months ago, a couple of months ago or longer as i recall. and at that point, he had a scheduling conflict. i think i know what it is. but it's up to him to say that. i respect him for keeping his commitments to his scheduling conflict that he has. people commit to an event that we're organizing if they decide

to change their mind at the last minute, i wouldn't appreciate that. i think he's good to his word. he's not afraid of confrontation or verbal combat. i've seen him engage on issues he believes in. he believes in them and engages in them. i don't anticipate this is anything other than a scheduling conflict. i hope if he moves forward on this attempt to -- or this candidacy, that we see emerging i hope he comes to iowa a lot. and i would remind people that skipping iowa is not a very good idea. >> right. >> and since ronald reagan it has taken a victory in the ames straw poll and a victory in the iowa caucus in order to be nominated and be elected president. and the only two people who have done that since reagan are his father and his brother. >> i want to talk about somebody who is attending the iowa freedom summit that's governor chris christie who got some attention when he was sitting in the owner's box at the dallas cowboys game. he headlined a fund-raiser for you in october where he said i will be a supporter of steve

king for as long as he continues to be in public life. can you say the same about him? are you going to be a supporter of chris christie as long as he remains in public life -- >> that is an extraordinary compliment for anyone to receive. i count chris christie as a friend. i've watched him also in the firing line when he was brought forward for his, i'll say political execution before the judiciary committee when john conyers was chair. that's when i saw the core of the mettle of chris christie. there's a big competition out here. i want to have a level playing field. i'm encouraging these candidates to come to iowa. and i hope to be in new hampshire and south carolina, too. this is a thrilling endeavor that americans have and a wonderful chance to choose the best one out of 320 million to lead us. >> i'm excited to cover it, too. next time i'm not letting you off the hook this easy. but it is early. >> thank you. in other national news, they were trapped more than a day on a plane, including 12 hours sitting on a tarmac.

passengers on this san francisco-bound flight say they had little food or water or even information. instead, they were being told over and over again that they were about to take off. what went so wrong? that story is next. she inspires you. no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache.

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welcome back to "the lead." in national news do you think your last cramped flight was annoying? how about being stuck on a plane for 28 hours? it began when passengers on board a flight to san francisco were forced to sit on the plane for 12 hours on the tarmac. let me say that again, 12 hours while the plane wasn't going anywhere. cnn's suzanne malveaux has all the infuriating details. >> makes you wonder what would you do on that flight right? would you run for the exit or crack open a window or something? frustrating, obviously. they have to explain to their passengers before they believe it's one of the world's top carriers as they like to boast. hundreds of passengers had to endure 20 hours on that plane, the first part trapped on that boeing 777, the second part just trying to get to their destination.

this story is a wake-up call to all who travel. while there's an international body that looks at aviation rules operated by the u.n. there's no real set of regulations to avoid this from happening. relief exhaustion and hugs after 28 hours stuck on a plane. passengers traveling from abu dhabi aboard flight 183 arrived in san francisco, after hours and hours of an agonizing wait. >> they kept telling us we were going to leave 15 20 30 minutes from now for 12 hours. >> because of the bad weather. and the gates -- all the flights were grounded or canceled. they didn't have enough space in the airport to accommodate. >> reporter: a severe fog seen here from a window forced the abu dhabi airport to close for just one hour. but then airplane congestion delays and cancellations followed for days. on ey-183 children seniors and

hundreds of others sat on the tarmac for 12 hours. they say with little food, water or information. >> everybody was fighting with each other and the flight attendants were fighting with us. and we were fighting with the flight attendants. >> they have a website but there was no updated information on the website. you called the number. it just puts you in a loop. >> reporter: the airline released a statement saying passengers were provided with refreshments and were updated about the reasons for the rolling delay. it also said the delay was compounded by the fact they had to replace the original crew with a fresh one because of rules limiting the crew's flight time. what it calledish circumstances which were largely beyond our control. the passengers however, had to endure another 16 hours of flying. in san francisco, worried families became furious, among them the daughter of this 77-year-old. >> to have them waiting, especially if they are seniors traveling, they have to pull

them. >> reporter: not necessarily. while the u.s. department of transportation prohibits airlines from keeping passengers on a plane for more than four hours leaving from the u.s. those rules do not apply to foreign carriers overseas. >> if it had happened in san francisco, they would have off the airline within a matter of hours, three to four hours. at the other end of this flight there are no regulations there. they give people a chance to get off the plane. >> so that same fog delay kept another flight on the ground even longer, talking about 13 hours. it was diverted after an older passenger died aboard the flight. the airline released a statement confirming the ordeal saying flight passengers were informed about the need for a medical diversion involving a 73-year-old male passenger, we apologize to those passengers affected by these delays which were beyond the airline's control and offers its deepest

condolences to the family of the passenger. they're in serious damage control mode. >> they swapped out a crew so there was an ability to get on and off the plane -- >> absolutely. but they didn't allow the passengers to get off because they said there wasn't enough room at the airport for everybody to get off at the same time. in other world news, a merger of two powerful families. don't expect to see photos of the blushing bride in her gown because as with most things in north korea, little is known about kim yo-jong's ceremony. overshadowed by rising tensions between north korea and the u.s. over that computer hack at sony. the u.s. levied heavy sanctions against the country after the fbi claimed proof that the rogue nation was behind the hack. now north korea is firing back with strong words for the white house. let's bring in cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto.

>> another choice selection from north korea's choice, retarhetorical language coming from the north. i looked back at the department of treasury statement when they announced these sanctions and the u.s. using very strong language with north korea as well saying we're holding north korea accountable for its destabilizeing and destructive actions. clearly, the u.s. doubling down on its certainty that north korea was behind the sony hack. >> what is the u.s. trying to specifically accomplish with these sanctions? >> they're trying to strike this delicate balance of achieving a proportional response without making this bigger than it already is. one they want to show we're certain north korea did it two the u.s. wants to punish them in a measurable way but not go too far. these sanctions fairly targeted ten individuals who were in

effect the north's moneymen abroad. the u.s. did not use the nuclear option bad phrase in economic terms, the nuclear option, of cutting off north korea's access to the internet international markets which you could, go after the chinese banks which allow north korea to get foreign exchange abroad. they haven't done that. but you'll remember in the statement, the u.s. said this is just the first step be prepared for other steps down the road telegraphing they're not finished. >> but these ten individuals aren't necessarily involved in the sony hack to begin with -- >> not directly. it was an economic cost beyond cyber warfare imposed in large part but not entirely because of the cyber attack. they say it's in response to its repressive actions at home. and administration official say it's their expectation that it doesn't just affect the ten involved in those three entities other international

entities might say, wait a second, i might want to lay off. >> to be continued, i'm sure. jim sciutto, thank you. wolf blitzer is here with a preview of "the situation room." covering a lot of ground with rear admiral john kirby day. >> we have lots to discuss, not only the airasia search what's going on on that front because two u.s. naval ships are in the area, american divers are on the scene. we'll see how far that goes. got a lot of questions for him on that. and also what's going on -- apparently 320 american troops at one of the bases that the u.s. now has gone to in iraq in the al anbar province the al assad air base over there, coming under heavy fire from isis. how endangered are those american troops right now, what are the contingency plans to get them out of there because you can't trust the iraqi troops for protection. we'll talk about that and north korea as well. when we come back new numbers just out from the centers for disease control

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. in national news with the holiday break over thousands of kids went back to school today in the middle of of what the centers for disease control are calling a flu epidemic. a short time ago, the cdc released new numbers showing 43 states reporting either high or widespread flu activity. the virus has now killed at least 21 children and it's overloading emergency rooms across the country with peak flu season still two months away in some areas. joining me now is the director for the cdc, dr. thomas frieden. doctor, thanks for joining us. the cdc called it an epidemic last week. today seems even worse. how likely is it that it's going to keep getting worse? >> one of the things about flu is it's unpredictable.

we can't say with certainty that's going to happen in the coming weeks and months. but there's a lot of flu out there and there's a lot that you can do to protect yourself. if you haven't been vaccinated get vaccinated. if you're sick stay home. and if you're sick and you have an underlying condition whether it's diabetes or kidney failure or anyone who's very young or very old, there's medicine you can take that will make a big difference and may keep you out of the hospital. >> i know a lot of people who got the flu shot got sick anyway for any number of reasons, there are several strains of the virus, one of them has mutated. explain why people should continue to get the flu shot even though its effectiveness this year is not as good as in past years. >> because the most common strain of flu that's circulating has drifted and the antegens

the makeup of that substrain of influenza is now different from the vaccine strain. we don't think the vaccine is likely to be as effective as we would like. it will still have some level of effectiveness against the other strains of flu that are out there. and if you do get sick the quicker you get treated with a medicine like tamiflu, the more likely you are to benefit from that and reduce your illness by about a day, might keep you out of the hospital or if you're hospitalized keep you out of the intensive care unit or it could even save your life. >> tell the parents who are watching right now, the moms and the dads and the take caretakers how concerned they should be and what they should do to try to keep their kids from getting the flu as they go back to school. a lot of people think the two-week break might mooigt have helped slow down the outbreak. >> first and foremost get a flu shot even though this year's flu shot is not as effective as we would hope it would be, it's still the single most effective

measure we have to prevent influenza. second, if you've got a kid who's got special needs or someone who's under 2 years of age, by all means, if they start getting sick contact your doctor immediately and ask about getting a medication like tamiflu because that can really reduce the severity of illness. and unfortunately only about one out of six people with severe flu get a medicine like tamiflu. and though it's not perfect, it does reduce the duration of illness by about a day. and that's certainly worth it. >> so even if the kid is -- don't just send the kid to bed and give them chicken soup and hope for the best, get them to the doctor sfl thank you so much doctor. right now, dangerous bone-chilling cold is sweeping across the u.s. windchills ranged from zero in kansas to 35 below in minnesota. parts of the east coast including new york and d.c. will see lows in the teens. meteorologist jennifer gray is

standing by for us in the cnn severe weather center. these are the coldest temps of the season so far, right? >> absolutely. and when you have temperatures feeling like 30 and 40 degrees below zero schools in michigan didn't even go to school today. we had temperatures so cold that you could get frostbite if you are outside only a half hour. so we're talking about a dangerous cold. it's serious. minneapolis right now feeling like 15 degrees below zero. tonight's lows 3 in chicago, 3 below in minneapolis. temperatures around 17 in kansas city. these temperatures are going to stay cold for some time. tonight, there is a windchill advisory in for the northern plains the upper midwest, where we're going to see temperatures feeling like 25 to 50 degrees below zero. that's what it's going to feel like when you wake up in the morning in minneapolis. on tuesday morning, it will feel like 40 below. we're going to winds of 15 miles per hour with gusts even higher.

d.c. it reaches you by wednesday when your low is going to be 10 degrees, feeling like 10 or 15 degrees below zero. a look at your high temperatures, 7 degrees in chicago on friday. 1 degree on wednesday in chicago. we'll see temperatures around 5 degrees on friday in minneapolis. 2 on wednesday. new york city temperatures only in the 20s. tuesday, wednesday and thursday. we are going to see snowfall as well. chicago, you could pick up 2 to 4 inches of snow tuesday night into wednesday. and we could also see a little bit of snow in new york city by the time we get to thursday. jake if you're wanting a warm-up, not going to happen anytime soon. a lot of these areas in the midwest aren't going get above freezing for at least another week. >> jennifer thank you so much appreciate it. turning to the sports lead now, once upon a time sports broadcasters were mostly thought of as dorky guys spouting out

statistics. and then came stuart scott who lost his long-fought battle with cancer yesterday. he was a pioneer of sorts in the industry. he fearlessly injected hip-hop and pop culture references into his coverage at a time when that was virtually unheard of. so in a fitting tribute, his former co-anchor, rich eisen, inserted what he called stuart-isms into his broadcast. >> like a man smoking at a gas station, he was about to blow up! jeremy hill as cool as the other side of the pillow! i ain't saying nothing, but that ain't right. can i get a witness from the congregation? >> bring it, rich! >> eight minutes to go in the third, boo-yah!

>> freeman tells dalton you've got to get the heck up out of here. >> scott joined espn in 1993 his last appearance on "sportscenter" was back in june. may he rest in peace. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. i turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." happening now, desperate hunt as searchers prepare to go out after days of rough weather looking for bodies and wreckage from airasia flight 8501. there are now new questions about why the airliner took off at all on its final flight. are other aircraft at risk? north korea fires back. the hardline regime response harshly after the u.s. accuses it of a massive cyber attack. and sole survivor a 7-year-old girl somehow lives through the small plane crash that kills her family and she walks through the freezing woods for help. we have new details. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."