money along with some donations to get gifts for others. she is helping provide temporary housing to those in crisis to help get them back on their feet. it's always amazing to see someone who struggles on their own give back to others. >> quite the inspirational teenager. restrictions are tightening in the bay area and across the united states as covid cases continue to rise. new testing has gone into effect at all airports. the delta variant remains the biggest threat. >> we have about 90,000 to 100,000 cases per day in the united states, an 99% of them

are the delta variant. >> we'll show you new york city's plan. also president biden sends a message to china, less than two months before the olympics. the u.s. will diplomatically boycott the upcoming winter games. >> the biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the beijing 2022 winter olympics and paralympic games given the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses. >> how the move affects u.s. athletes. the news at 5:30 starts right now. good monday, thanks so much for joining us, i'm janelle wang. >> i'm raj mathai. get used to this, new rules for all public events and air travel. and in new york city, a vaccine mandate for all private employers. >> chris pollone is in

washington, d.c. with the latest. >> reporter: with cases of the new omicron variant growing in the u.s. and around the world, new rules are now in effect for people coming to the u.s. from overseas. travelers need a negative covid test within 24 hours in order to board. rapid tests and pcr tests are acceptable, but not all self-tests are eligible. >> they checked everything, yes. they were very distribute. strict. >> there are a lot of folks in the private sector who have said to me that they believe in vaccination but are not quite sure how they can do it themselves, well, we're going to do it. >> reporter: children over 5 must show proof of vaccine shots to enter restaurants and other areas in the city. >> it's just hard when you have people up to date on boosters.

>> reporter: omicron has been found in at least 17 states. early data suggests it spreads quicker than the delta variant but most cases appear to be less severe. and while fears grow over omicron, it's still delta killing americans, 1492 on friday alone. >> 99.9% of them are the delta variant. >> reporter: health experts say most of those dying from covid are the unvaccinated. while president biden's federal vaccine mandate for businesses is being challenged in the courts, the senate plans to vote soon on a bill that would overturn that vaccine mandate. it would be a symbolic vote, because if it reached president biden's desk he would veto it. >> investors have shaken off fears surrounding the omicron variant.

it was still in positive territory. anything linked to the reopening of the economy went up, including energy and airlines. we are on the eve of a pivotal meeting between president biden and russian president vladimir putin. a video call is scheduled for tomorrow. the main point of contention, russia has deployed troops and defense equipment along the border with ukraine. president biden is warning president putin that he's prepared to impose severe economic counter measures if moscow carries out an attack on ukraine. they have declined to state whether the u.s. would take military action against russia if there was an invasion. the u.s. finds itself at odds with russia and china. two different issues, russia with border maneuvers and china with human rights. let's bring in larry gerston. what's going to happen tomorrow? any indication? what does putin want? and what will president biden actually say? >> putin wants ukraine back,

that simple. ukraine and russia have a long history together, the language is similar. they had a revolution that overthrew a very russian president. he won't go so far as to take the whole country back but he's certainly threatening to do so. he's most worried about ukraine and nato and the u.s. cozying up any more than they already are. so he's going to push very hard to see that the u.s. does not do anything more to foster that relationship, raj. >> let's go over to china now, the olympics upcoming in february, also an issue here. a diplomatic boycott. we just mentioned that, about china's record on human rights. the diplomatic boycott would mean no u.s. government official would attend the games, limiting a boycott to government officials is a way to send a message of protest without preventing the athletes from going. the athletes are going, officials are not.

china has cracked down on protests in hong kong. >> the athletes have our full support. we will be behind them 100% asw. we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games. >> some who have been hostile toward china have been pressuring the administration to boycott the games or push for the games to be moved. we know the games will not be moved. february 4th i believe is the opening ceremony in beijing. >> where the confrontation is most serious, this is a diplomatic slap on the hand that the u.s. is giving to china. they're not happy with what's going on with human rights, not happy with the tennis play are

player incident. what would be good is if other nations joined. i don't know whether that will happen, but the u.s. is certainly sharing its thoughts, very clearly, with china. and china's pretty upset about it. nothing will happen beyond that. that's why i said it is a symbolic slap more than anything else. >> where are we with the u.s. relationship with china? >> it's not a pretty relationship right now. we're battling each other economically and in sort of a shadow military development. especially if you look at the south china sea. and if you look at china's increasing their missile capabilities with the hypermissile that they are a talking about. hey, this is serious business here, and they are definitely expanding their military, and it's a problem for the united states, because we have not expanded our potential at the same rate the chinese have. i think we can expect to see a beefing up of the military when it comes to these kind of issues

in the year or two to come. >> it will be interesting as we head toward beijing in february. now the news, wall street thinks the federal reserve is going to remove all the easing policies that has helped economic growth. that should help temper inflation, but scott mcgrew says that could also slow job growth. >> so the fed has two missions, and what it does definitely affects you. number one, make sure people are employed. that's working. also control inflation. but these makes are almost always in conflict, because, if you super charge the economy and you get this, you get too much of that. control this and you may interfere with the growth of that. think of the economy as an engine. money is the gasoline. the fed is both the accelerator and the brake. but you only use one pedal at a time. we may know more about what the fed's going to do flex week as

the market committee conductsity conducts its regular meeting. former senate majority leader and republican presidential hopeful bob dole will lie in state at the u.s. capitol this thursday. mr. dole died yesterday at the age of 98. he overcame disabling world war ii wounds to become a long-time republican lawmakerer. he was elected to the senate in 1968 and served until 1996. in 1997 he was award the presidential medal of freedom. the department of justice is cracking down on the state of texas. the state of texas created a new

redistricting plan because population growth largely due to a growth in the black and hispanic population, but the department of justice wants, says the new maps do not include any districts with a majority of black or hispanic voters and accuses texas of diluting the strength of the minority voters. the lawsuit asks the court to stop the state from using these new voting maps. up next, the housing market is hot, but the rental market is higher than usual. she canceled a family trip because a wildfire was nearby but couldn't get her insurance to take her claim. i'm chris chmura. i'm jeff ranieri, tracking rainfall on the way in about ten minutes.

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stuck filing a pretty big travel insurance claim. >> so she asked us for some help. chris chmura is here with our response. >> imagine you think you're going to get thousands of dollars back and you only get $500. >> that's not a good equation. >> she had the misfortune of booking near the caldor fire. it gave her back a whopping $499. but she had bought travel insurance. here is the hitch. she says she kept getting error messages when she tried to file a claim online. so she asked our team to try to help out. we contacted them. in the end it paid susan's claim in full, $7,335. she wrote us a nice note saying thank you so much for your help, we so appreciate you taking the

time to fight this with us. generali said thank you for bringing this to our attention. they offered decent advice. whenever you buy travel insurance, make sure to read the policy, bring a copy with you when you travel. look for different ways to file your claim, and make sure you document the reason for the claim. this could include letters like from the doctor, employment letters or documentation of adverse conditions. what does that mean? susan was savvy with that last little bit. she had an e-mail from the tahoe visitor bureau saying air quality was hazardous during her canceled stay. that is exactly the type of proof insurance companies demand when ask you them to open up their checkbook and start paying out. if they don't pony up, maybe we can help. call us. the number is 888- 996-tips.

we will join you at 7:00 to talk about new rules for international travel. a hot winter market for the housing. historically t's been around 95%, according to real estate tech company real page. economists say the high numbers are likely because the employment market created more high-paying jobs and people are prooefring to live alone now especially as we come up on two years of working from home. >> staying home with your family all day makes you want to move snout. out? >> we will get a little help with the air quality. it's been super gloomy for us. we had a little bit of sun over the weekend, but that is just about it. a look at the current setup.

here's the system we're tracking to the north. a few showers coming our way, a little bit of light shower over the north bay, some toward san francisco peninsula. a little bit for the east bay as well. really, i think over marin, napa, sonoma county, watch out for some slick spots if you head out to the grocery store. everybody's going to have the possibility of showers. this will move out of here pretty quickly. by tomorrow morning i think we're dealing with clouds to start, but we should start to see some sun trying to get in here around 11:00 and into the afternoon. tomorrow will be a better day, we'll still hold onto patchy areas of fog. but things are looking up a little bit more on that front. rainfall as we roll through the next 12 hours. trace. as to .2 of an inch. very, very light. make sure as you head out tomorrow morning to have that

jacket with you. temperatures here in the 40s to low 50s. have you starting off in the east bay at 48. san francisco, 51 and north bay 46. daytime highs as we move through tomorrow, not going to budge a whole lot. jacket weather right through the afternoon. 62 palo alto. martinez, 60 and low 60s santa rosa to napa. these showers are good for us. but i know what you want. you want a lot more. and we've been telling you about the increasing chances and a pattern shift toward the mid or end of the month. this is a very early look, but i want to be out ahead of this to let you know it does look like we'll see a storm system move in with an atmospheric river. based on what i'm seeing now, we'd see rainfall totals, .3 to 3 inches. coastal areas, north bay, even some of the east bay could be

right around the two-to-three-inch mark. this looks good for thunderstorms slowly starting sunday night but really hitting us as we move into monday and tuesday of next week. on my seven-day forecast, a few more chances of spotty showers, dry friday and saturday and a late chance into late sunday and monday. and look at this for the inland valleys. it's going to get cold. bring those pets in. we'll be down in the 30s, close to the freezing mark. we'll likely see frost advisories. we went from no fall conditions to now we're sliding into winter. this is so great to see. >> that is good news, that's cold. in atmospheric river is back. it's coming. nice to hear that word. >> we need it. up next, a lot of eyes were on a chicago courtroom today as

actor jussie smollett testifies in his own trial. the santa rosa native says he did nothing wrong as he stands accused of staging an attack. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪

what's the real story here? santa rosa native jussie smollett says he paid two men for nutrition and training advice, not to help stage a racist attack on himself. he is charged with lying to police about the alleged attack that happened in 2019. the two brothers testified that smollett, who is gay and black, orchestrated the attack to get publicity. smollett's lawyers argue the attack was real. and that they asked the actor for a million dollars each not to testify. in haiti, three more

missionaries who were kidnapped are released. they are safe and seem to be in good spirits. a notorious haitian gang is behind the abduction of 17 missionaries, including five children. the group was on its way home from building an orphanage when they were taken. now the kidnappers have demanded $1 million in ransom, but christian aid ministries have not said whether they paid one. tesla shares back to where they started this evening after a rollercoaster of a day. it comes amid a report that the sec is investigating the company over defects with the company's solar panels. a whistle-blower says they failed to notify about fire

risks. seven months ago he raced to glory at the kentucky derby, but an investigation is under way after medina spirit died today. the 7-year-old collapsed after a workout at santa anita park. an autopsy is ordered to figure out the horse's cause of death. don't worry, it's not as bad as you think, regarding the 49ers, they're still in good shape for the playoffs, we think. laura britt joins me next. hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true.

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well, i'm still trying to forget about yesterday, but i can't stop talking about it many the 49ers made too many mistakes. >> nick bosa said we blew it. but the glass is half full. let's bring in laura britt. not just the niners, but the warriors and sharks. >> i've got to look at what to watch this week. on friday, the warriors got revenge over the suns, but on saturday they fell to the spurs. they're 19-4 on the season and look to get back on track tonight against an orlando magic team that has only won five games this season. steph curry's countdown to passing ray allen is now under 25. you aren't going to want to miss these next few games.

starting tonight, coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. the sharks are coming off of a five-game road trip that ended with a loss to the blue jackets. the good news, that was their last five-game road trip of the season. and they host the calgary flames. you can check out the game on nbc sports california. and it was a really disappointing sunday for the 49ers as they fell to the seahawks. they drop one spot in the nfc playoff picture. it was a game full of mistakes. matt maiocco and i break down the game and what the outlook is for the niners moving forward on the latest edition of "49ers talk," the podcast. you can listen to "49ers talk" wherever you get your podcasts,

you can also listen on the youtube channel. >> she's positive. >> the glass is half full. jessica's here to talk about what's coming up at 6:00. >> right now at 6:00, getting a better understanding of the omicron variant. scientists continue to sift through data, and so far the news isn't that bad. >> what was striking to me that people were admitted for something else and happened to be infected with covid. they weren't infected with covid to begin with. >> some local businesses are worried the new covid variant could shut them down. also, gloomy, foggy and now rainy. jeff ranieri has our updated forecast on this monday night. and that san francisco restaurant continues to apologize and continues to face backlash after refusing to serve cops. >> tired of the way the police are being treated.

something goes wrong here, burglary, robbery, whatever, who are they going to call? >> what police are saying today about the incident. the news at 6:00 starts right now, thanks for being with us on this monday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. it's not a case of if but when cases of the omicron variant reach every single california county. that has businesses worrying and bracing for what could be another round of hardships for them. >> nbc bay area talked with many business owners. >> reporter: gowns, tuxedos and party decorations fill this business in san jose. all they need is the people and party, and that's the rub. >> 100%, that's what we do, we do parties all the time. >> reporter: luiz nunez says his business started picking up in september, but now worries about the omicron variant that could

derail their business. if the new variant leads to a new wave of cancellations, it could send them back to square one economically. >> i just hired a new employee about three weeks ago, actually. i'm going to have to lay her off and keep one part time. >> reporter: health experts say they aren't ready to recommend any closures yet. earlier signs are that it may have lesser symptoms than delta. >> they weren't infected about covid to begin with. are the reasons for going into the hospital. >> reporter: dr. chin hong says even hospitalized patients are showing milder symptoms and do not have to be transferred to an intensive care unit on a regular basis. omicron spreads faster