>> alison should know. >> what is internet anyway? what do you write to it like mail? >> a lot of people use it and communicate. i guess they can communicate with nbc writers. alison, can you explain what internet is? the crisis in venezuela. deadly clashes break out as truck loads of aid are set on fire at the border. in chicago, a judge sets r. kelly's bond at $1 million. the singer facing ten counts of criminal sexual abuse. also ahead this hour, three upcoming events that could have a big impact on the rest of the trump presidency. we're breaking down what you need to keep up with next week. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm george howell. the "cnn newsroom" starts right now.

4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast, our top story, venezuela's humanitarian crisis takes another deadly turn. officials say that five people were killed near venezuela's border on saturday as troops clashed with protesters trying to bring aid to the country. at least two trucks carrying aid were set on fire on a bridge here. opposition leader juan guaido who organized the protests indicated the president nicolas maduro was responsible. he urged troops not to support maduro's regime. >> translator: your loyalty, members of the armed forces, who burns food in front of the hungry. how many of you, soldiers, have sick mothers?

how many of you have children in school without food? you don't owe any type of obedience to those who sadistically because there is no other expression for it celebrate that aid doesn't enter a country that needs it. you don't owe any type of loyalty. >> so far more than 60 members of the armed forces have defected from the maduro government. in the meantime, the united states is, again, blasting mr. maduro's aid blockade, in a tweet the secretary of state mike pompeo called the president, quote, a tyrant and said the images of burning trucks were sickening. the u.s. also announced a meeting between the vice president mike pence and juan guaido, set to take place monday in colombia. officials have closed some of the border crossings between venezuela and colombia so she can evaluate the damage from the clashes. our nick paton walsh was at the scene of the protests as they unfolded and filed this report.

>> reporter: it was build as a new dawn when the opposition planned waves of venezuela refugees would take aid back into their home land across the busiest border bridge with colombia. but it was closed. blocks blocked physically by police and violent pro government gangs. the young police taunted or begged into changing sides. i'm venezuelan, she said, holding up an i.d. and my father was a sergeant. the hunger. the water you're drinking, she says, it is colombian because your president doesn't give you any. bring it out here to us. i eat or drink soda whenever i want here, he says. the hardest pain is how my grandfather died because he didn't have medicine.

for a brief moment, the anger dissipated. the police lowered their shields, talked calmly, but down the road, the promised aid convoy arrived and huge crowd, intent on pushing through. tensions are mounting here. the shields have gone back up again and the protesters are recommending people start to move back. this is why. a slow march of opposition protesters. peaceful in as far as they would not take no for an answer. but fast collapsed into tear s gas. the day's lofty goals soon lost in a routine exchange of hatred. rocks, rubber bullets and rocks thrown back.

do you expect that to happen today? >> it is about freedom. >> reporter: as they lost out on the bridge, the protesters took their fight underneath. they are many, but maduro's police are mightier. they have only whatever they could make. none of this chaos get any aid across here, but it showed the uncompromising ferocity of the government and led the way to soldiers giving themselves up. one here carried out, the mob both cursing and cheering. the opposition promised amnesty. this will only get uglier. seeing the mobbing of pro-maduro militia here, battered by the crowd and spared only by colombian police.

and if the symbolic bid to get aid in peacefully failed, then these scenes are what venezuela is left with. nick paton walsh, colombia. now to the vatican where pope francis is presiding over the final day of the extraordinary summit on clergy sex abuse. these live images in vatican city now where the pope will be speaking. the catholic church openly addressing the problem of priests sexually exploiting children at the four-day event marked the first time the church acknowledged it destroyed evidence of sex abuse, a practice that went back many decades. delia gallagher is following the story live in rome. what are some of the main points to come out of the final day? >> well, george, the final day is the mass, which you are seeing right now. and then after the mass we will hear from pope francis. and, you know, going into this,

the pope was saying he wants concrete steps to come out of this summit. so now the pressure is on them to actually produce those steps. we don't yet know what they will be, but based on the way the discussions have been going, one point might be lifting the pontifical secret on these cases, that is something that victims have been pushing for because it means making the process more transparent from the vatican when they are looking at an investigation and judging an accuser. often victims are not told about what's going on that process can take quite a long time. so victims are kind of in the dark about it. that might be one concrete step that could come out of this meeting, george. one important revelation that has already come out from german cardinal marks about some files being destroyed in germany, he says, that came out in a report which the german bishops asked for last year, now the cardinal

says he doesn't have names of who destroyed those files, but he says he doesn't think germany is an isolated case. so that revelation is going to raise some red flags around the world, particularly in the united states, where you already have federal and state investigations going on into the catholic church and in pennsylvania, the catholic church there was told by the u.s. attorney not to destroy files. so that revelation coming out of this conference will certainly raise some red flags. as for the rest of it, it will really be a case, george, of seeing what the vatican does next. what are they going to say, and what are they going to do in terms of four days that they had here discussing this issue. george? >> delia, so we have to wait and watch to see again what those concrete steps might be, but really all of this comes down to what survivors think about the path ahead, given the past few days, do you get a sense that they are optimistic from what they have seen, what they have

heard or are they cynical, demanding more concrete steps? >> well, george, i would characterize them as fed up. i mean remember that we are 17 years on from the 2002 boston allegations and when john paul ii had u.s. cardinals over here. so this is deja vu for a lot of the americans. we have seen cardinals over at the vatican, a pope apologizing for sex abuse. a number of the survivors we're talking to, a, say, they can come up with whatever steps they want, we want civil authorities to take over from here. bishops cannot police bishops. and so on. so we have heard certainly a sense of just being tired and a sense that there is hypocrisy in the catholic church. on the other hand, i have spoken to survivors, many gave testimony at this four-day event, in front of the bishops about their stories, and they say, look, it is important going

forward that there are protections in place around the world. that was the point of this meeting, bringing bishops from around the world who maybe haven't yet really dealt with this problem or who even thought that it wasn't a problem in their country. so at least the awareness of the issue for those places in the world that going forward can now really take it seriously and establish some guidelines so that the children can be protected in the future. >> delia gallagher following the story in rome. we'll stay in touch with you. thank you. in chicago, a judge set a $1 million bond for singer r. kelly who turned himself in on friday. this after being charged with ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, despite being one of the most successful r&b artists in history, accusations like these have followed him for many decades. sara sidner has this story. >> reporter: a judge set r. kelly's bond for $1 million,

$250,000 in each of the four alleged victims' cases. now, r. kelly only has to pay $100,000 of that after he's been charged of ten counts of criminal sexual abuse. the prosecution laying out some very sexually explicit details in this case to the judge, including sexual physical abuse of several of the women that are now alleged victims in this particular case. there was an indictment from a grand jury first and then the prosecution filed charges against r. kelly. the details include physical and sexual abuse against women who are now of age, but were minors at the time. under the age of 17, but older than 13 is how the prosecution put it. we also heard from r. kelly's attorney, steve greenburg, he came out, he said initially when r. kelly was arrested and we saw him go into be booked last night, he said that all the women are liars and called them

liars very starkly and clearly. today he backed down a little bit from that, but said, you know, you can't believe everything you hear. that he should be given, like any other defendant, a presumption of innocence. he also mentioned the 2008 trial where r. kelly was put on trial for 14 counts of pornography, child pornography and he was acquitted in that trial. he says people should give him the same kind of presumption of innocence as other defendants. he did recognize that there is a lot of media attention here. he recognized that there were some women who were in the courtroom here today listening and emotional. we can tell you that one of the victims, the alleged victims in this case was inside the courtroom, she was emotional herself. this has been a very difficult time for the women who have come out and accused r. kelly of sexually abusing them when they were minors. where do we go from here? well, steve greenburg, r. kelly's attorney, says he does not think that r. kelly has

$100,000 just hanging around, so the question is will he be able to get that money and get out of jail before his next hearing, which will be monday. sara sidner, cnn, chicago. >> sara, thank you. as she mentioned, r. kelly's lawyer called into question the credibility of the singer's accusers and brought up the me too movement as well. >> there is a whole hash tag movement just because someone says something now and it is 2019, it doesn't make them credible. and just because they said something now and they haven't said something in a long time, it doesn't necessarily make them incredible. >> greenburg adds since kelly was acquitted in 2008 of child pornography involving one of the current accusers, the sexual assault charges are basically double jeopardy. he said the lawyer for some of the alleged victims, michael avenatti, disputes that. >> mr. greenburg's personal attacks on me and my clients,

he's called all of the women victims, liars, are outrageous and completely unprofessional. mr. greenburg also seems to not recognize what double jeopardy really is. none of the counts that have been alleged against mr. kelly involve double jeopardy. >> the string of allegations over the years led to a television documentary series called survivoring r. kelly. one of the alleged victims who participated in the series spoke with cnn. >> he pretty much right away tells you what he's into, what he likes, what he doesn't like. he also during sexual acts, the whole time, he's telling you exactly what to do, what not to do, what he likes, what he doesn't like. so, yeah. >> it was interesting because at that time you said i didn't assume that he liked younger girls. i thought he just liked me.

>> yes. >> at what point did you realize something was very off here? >> there wasn't just one time. it would be recurring things where, you know, i was getting older, you know, i'm 19, the girls are still 18, 19, i'm turning 20, you're still 18, 19, you get what i mean, like? it is just -- it was, like, eventually it was, like, okay, he likes young girls. >> the owner of the beloved u.s. football team here in the united states is facing charges of soliciting prostitution. and the fans have something to say about it. we'll have that story ahead here on "newsroom." i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half.

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. a massive effort to bring humanitarian aid to venezuela turned into a day of deadly violence on saturday. you see here in these images as they play out, officials say five people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in clashes with security forces near venezuela's borders. let's talk more about this now with esa cusack, esa with the london school of economics latin american and caribbean center

joining us from london. good to have you with us. >> my pleasure. >> esa, two trucks carried in aid from brazil. what does that mean for juan guaido what does it mean for nicolas maduro? >> i think the defections are significant, but perhaps not in the way that you might think immediately. you have to think about the fact that these are 60 fairly low ranked members of the armed forces and the armed forces are made up of hundreds of thousands of people. really if anything it shows how close the military remains to maduro. and so that creates a new problem for guaido, since this is really the second time he's essentially rolled the dice on some kind of side switching by the military and in neither case have we seen any major defections. you need some much higher ranking officials to do that, but at the moment, it is not

necessarily in their interests to do that and there has been no real indication that's about to happen. so it does leave guaido with a problem for what he's going to do next. >> despite the violence seen on saturday, the images seen of burning trucks, guaido urged people to continue trying to get aid into venezuela. how long do you see this continuing? >> well, at the moment there is no clear way without any change in that military support, there is no clear route out of this. my worry really at the moment just from the statements that guaido has made and that marco rubio has also made is that there is a move towards considering military intervention, which i think would be a disaster really both for venezuela and the wider region. there are all kinds of different armed groups that are active in venezuela, you could have military split, some people supporting maduro, some supporting guaido. there is just a really toxic combination at the moment. it could be a kind of serial or

libya type situation if it began and escalated and spiraled out of hand, you could have a really disastrous situation. so really i think the best thing would be to try and push forward and negotiate a solution as the international contact group of european union countries and some latin american countries has tried to do. >> you touched on this, but throughout the region, watching how relations change, given that nicolas maduro broke diplomatic relations with colombia saturday, what effect will that have on all of this. >> well, the relations with colombia have been incredibly fraught, really, throughout the past two decades. chavez had very, very bad relations with iribe and the two countries almost came to war really around 2010. and president duke is seen as really uribe's candidate.

there is no real surprise there. i think the real problem is that it closes down another kind of possible channel to speak rather than going down a more violent route. so, again, i think negotiated option is the best one and there is a way to kind of do that, particularly with the economic sanctions, there were negotiations a year ago that almost managed to reach agreement on conditions for free elections. they fell apart at the last minute. but in that situation, maduro did give ground based on sanctions being relaxed. so from my point of view, that's what i would like to see attempted again. >> clearly the pressure is ratcheting up. u.s. vice president mike pence plans to meet with juan guaido in colombia in support of the opposition, keeping in mind mr. maduro has also threatened military action against the united states. both sides pushing hard here. ho things playing out in the days and weeks ahead?

>> i think for a while the idea of military intervention from the u.s. seemed slightly far fetched, but i don't really see that it is anymore. if you look at some of the statements from trump, we saw in the recently leased book of mccabe, the former deputy director of the fbi that trump was saying basically why are we not going to war with venezuela, it has all this oil and it is on our doorstep and then the people involved in this on the u.s. side, extreme hawks like john bolton and mike pence, and especially maybe elliott abrams who was involved in some of the worse atrocities in central america in the 1990s, these people will be pushing for that option and i really hope that the opposition doesn't play along with that. >> esa cusack from our london bureau, thank you for the insight. in just a few weeks time, robert kraft went from super bowl-winning high to a

scandalous low. kraft is the owner of the new england patriot and one of the most successful teams in professional sports. the patriots won the super bowl earlier in february. but now kraft could be facing charges of solicitation of prostitution. paulo sandoval has this story. >> reporter: since the news broke on friday, we have seen a steady flow of people stopping by jupiter, florida. an unusual scene here. authorities saying robert kraft on two occasions in recent months actually visited this location, seeking what authorities are describing as paid sexual acts. this -- these are allegations that kraft through a spokesperson categorically continues to deny here. authorities saying that kraft is not alone. he's one of about at least 190 so-called johns who face some serious charges as part of this ongoing and large scale crackdown of human trafficking

crackdown, investigators saying this salon and others were actually targeted as part of the investigation. key question that remains here about kraft, will he actually end up in custody at some point as he faces these misdemeanor solicitation charges? we are told that authorities with the palm beach county state attorney's office are going over all of the evidence, which we're told includes videos of kraft inside of this location. according to investigators, after this he do that on monday, they will proceed with a decision here and the possible issuing of warrants for many of those individuals including kraft. so this is certainly going to be a story to watch the next 24 to 48 hours as we could potentially find out not necessarily just if but also when robert kraft could potentially end up in custody. polo sandoval, cnn, jupiter, florida. in massachusetts where the new england patriots are based, fans are speaking out about this scandal. here's what they have to say

about it. >> very surprised. a guy that is worth billions of dollars goeses to a strip mall to purchase prostitution seems a little odd to me. >> i don't think it is great, but at the same time he's not married, so -- it is none of my business. >> he's such a class guy. such a great job for new england patriot. all of new england. so i'm sad. i'm sad. i hope it works out that maybe they were wrong and it was a mistake. but i support the man. i support what he's done for new england. >> all right, still ahead, a busy political week and there may be some surprises this week as three crucial events to the trump administration play out. we'll tell you what to look for in the next few days. plus, brexit on the beach. why the british prime minister is headed to an egyptian resort town, also looking for a deal there. stay with us. could switching to geico really save you fifteen percent or more

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simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, you are watching "cnn newsroom" live from atlanta. i'm george howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour. the white house says the u.s. vice president mike pence will meet with the venezuelan opposition leader, juan guaido, in colombia on monday. the announcement comes after violence erupted near venezuela's borders on saturday. officials say five people were killed saturday in clashes over attempted aid deliveries. a judge in chicago has set bail for singer r. kelly totalling $1 million. kelly has been ordered to surrender his passport and not have contact with anyone under the age of 18.

he's been charged with ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and is due back in court on monday. pope francis is wrapping up the vatican's extraordinary summit on clergy sex abuse. the four-day event marked the first time the church acknowledged it destroyed evidence to protect predatory priests, a practice that went back many decades. north korean leader kim jong-un is traveling through china right now this hour, in fact. he's headed to a second historic summit with the u.s. president donald trump. kim is riding aboard his private train, preferred mode of long distance travel. the train ride across china to vietnam is 2500 kilometers and will take a couple of days. he'll make the final 178 kilometer trip by car to hanoi. the two leaders are set to meet wednesday and thursday. few other details are known about the summit. it comes after eight months after their first meeting in

singapore. that much anticipated sentencing memo against paul manafort was unsealed on saturday. many people hoped that it would reveal crucial missing details about the russia investigation, but that didn't happen. the memo, the 800 page mim yes did lay out what prosecutors call bold crimes committed by the former trump campaign chairman. he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the united states and conspiracy to obstruct justice. our evan perez has this story. >> reporter: special counsel prosecutors outline what they say were paul manafort's years of bold criminal behavior, which they said continued during the time that paul manafort served as the chairman of the trump campaign and after he pleaded guilty to federal charges. a sentencing memo made public this weekend asked the judge to structure his punishment so that manafort spends the rest of his life in prison. manafort pleaded guilty last year to two federal crimes in court here in washington, also

awaiting sentencing after being convicted on a separate federal case in alexandria, virginia. prosecutors say that manafort's conduct, quote, reflects a hardened adherence to committing crimes and lack of remorse. they note that his pattern of deceit stretches from his own bookkeepers and his lawyers to the special counsel and the grand jury and even to members of the trump administration. what we don't see in this memo is any new information shedding light on the alleged conspiracy connecting the russian interference into 2016 election and the trump campaign. we're expecting to see a sentencing memo from manafort's lawyers on monday. evidence p evan perez, cnn, washington. what happens next week could have a very big impact on the rest of the u.s. president's time in office. on tuesday, the house of representatives led by speaker nancy pelosi is expected to vote on a resolution that would block mr. trump's use of emergency powers to build a border wall. the president has promised to

veto that measure. then on wednesday, president trump's former attorney michael cohen is set to testify publicly before congress. democrats on the house oversight committee say the hearing will cover a long list of topics about cohen's former boss. while that's going on in washington, mr. trump will be in hanoi on wednesday as we mentioned for this second summit with the north korean leader kim jong-un. let's talk more about all of this now with natasha lynnstat, a professor of government at the universityjoining us this hour. this promises to be quite a week. the house of representatives set to vote on this emergency declaration and it is sure to pass the house, but all eyes will be on what happens in the senate, regardless mr. trump has already said that he will veto that. so what impact do you think it will have on republicans who will have to make a big choice in the senate? >> i think there is only going to be a handful of republicans

that will side with the democrats on this. mitch mcconnell tends to have good control over the republicans in the senate and they tend to vote along party lines. and they seem to be very fearful of going against trump because they're worried that that's going to offend the base and could affect them in the 2020 elections. but, you know, we'll see what happens and then naturally trump says he's going to be veto it anyway. but that is going on with the -- with congress and this vote is nowhere near as dangerous to the president as what is coming up with the michael cohen hearings. >> mr. trump will be leaving all of that behind in preparation to meet with the leader of north korea, kim jong-un. the last time it was more about optics than substance an concrete agreements. what are your expectations for this meeting? >> the last meeting had so much hype into this, just the fact they were even meeting and the

photo-opes looked like they were getting along really well. and trump himself seems to be completely captivated by kim jong-un and seems to think they have great chemistry and said they had even fallen in love, quote/unquote, joking about that. in spite of all of the things, the hype that happened with the last meeting, this next meeting doesn't have very high expectations and there is great concerns that president trump is trying to distract from all of the different things going on. eyeing some sort of nobel peace prize nomination and will offer way too many concessions to the north korean government which could come in the form of promising to possibly alleviate the sanctions, to remove the troops from the peninsula, and this really worries trump's team that he's going to offer too much and not get anything in return. >> natasha, you touched on this a moment ago, the president's former attorney michael cohen testifying on capitol hill this week, we know he can't talk about russia, but may offer some insight into other

investigations where he has spoken with prosecutors, the president said he is not worried about what cohen has to say, but given these other investigations, some of which may be more of a threat than robert mueller's, what is the real threat in your view to mr. trump? >> he should really be worried about michael cohen. we have to remember cohen was convicted of a felony. and he was sentenced to three years in prison. and you have to remember cohen is the underling of his boss donald trump. and so that's how they treat the underling, what is going to happen to the boss? and so these are sort of questions, but it is pretty clear that the state of new york is going to go after trump if he's not re-elected in 2020 for a series of crimes, most of them financial crimes and possibly crimes connected to campaign finance, and, you know, he won't be immune to this, and this is going to be something very serious that he has to face, probably even more dangerous to him than the mueller

investigation. >> natasha lynnstat with context and perspective, thank you. >> thank you for having me. so forget brussels and forget downing street. the brexit spotlight is on egypt in the next few days. that country hosting a summit for eu and arab leaders in sharm el sheikh. the british prime minister will be there and she might be looking for a way to push brexit forward with the eu leaders, a much needed deal in the desert you could call it. nic robertson following the story. a change in location, sure, but can the british prime minister really expect a change in position with the eu, these leaders who have been very clear this deal is the only deal. >> yeah, you might be asking that sort of question, can theresa may turn on the charm in sharm, sharm el sheikh here, to charm the person she would need to charm here of course donald tusk, the eu council president,

that's the reason she was coming here. she wasn't expected to come to the summit. this is a big deal, 49 different nations, 21 from the arab league, 28 from the european union. so it is a big thing. but she wasn't planning to come until, you know, her deal, her effort to try to get the european union to open up the withdraw agreement to give the guarantees, legally binding guarantees she wants on the back stop are now downgraded if you will to alternative arrangements might come in a separate legally binding but separate document. her effort to pull that off, if you will, looked at the beginning of last week as if it had some traction and that's when she decided to come here and have this bilateral meet, she's expected to have over the next 24, 48 hours with donald tusk. and can she turn on the charm with him to make a difference.

it was a couple of weeks ago that donald tusk said there was a special place in hell for those who called for brexit without having a proper plan in place. and at the moment, the mood music seems to be that the traction that theresa may had earlier in the week is perhaps slipping away from her. but, of course, it is all to play for when she gets back to london, back to europe next week. there was a possibility she was going to call for a meaningful vote to head off her challengers. but those challenges could well come next week and those challenges would be to prevent her going from no deal brexit, could include as well a call for a second referendum or interlocking that with whatever else she is able to get. so, yes, all eyes on here for theresa may in sharm el sheikh, big summit with a lot of other important issues to be

discussed. >> theresa may focusing on turning on as you say the charm in sharm. we'll see. nic robertson, thank you. still ahead, a powerful blizzard racing across the united states and while it is blanketing the north, the same system causing flooding in the south. details on this story ahead.

a saudi princess is said to be the kingdom's first ever female ambassador to the united states. she was officially named to the post on saturday. the move comes as saudi arabia faces backlash over the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. it comes after renewed focus on the kingdom for its poor record on women's rights. women can't marry, they can't travel or get a job without a male guardian's permission. she gained global attention after fleeing saudi arabia in january, she said she faced abuse and even death if sent back. she was granted asylum in canada. a lebanese filmmaker is

hoping to make history at this year's academy awards. she's also doing that. the first female arab director is nominated for best foreign film for her movie copernum. becky anderson has more. >> reporter: it is the breakout middle eastern film of the awards season. fending for himself on the streets of beirut, played by real life syrian refugee zain al fafia. he takes his parents to court, suing them for the crime of giving him life.

the characters are played by nonprofessional actors, many of them street children and refugees. the film's director says much of the plot is based on events that cast members experienced in their own lives. >> when i started to write the film, i was thinking about the fact that you need to have a -- to exist in life. modern slavery, children's rights, all these subjects were just things that i wanted to talk about. >> reporter: a biting social commentary that earned the film a 15 minute standing ovation when it premiered at the cannes film festival. since then, it has garnered nominations for best foreign feature at the golden globes, the baftas and now the oscars. >> it is a huge victory for us to be nominated for an oscar. huge victory for each one of the

actors who are putting their own struggle out there through the film, being the voice of the voiceless. each one here with his own story and own struggle. >> reporter: a victory not only for the actors, but herself. she's the first female arab director to be nominated in any major foreign language category. and the only female director nominated for a nonenglish film this year. >> needs to be on the map, needs to be on the map for different reasons than the war or the economic crisis or the refugee crisis or whatever crisis the country is going through. we also deserve to be on the map for different reasons. >> becky anderson, thank you. we are just hours away from the oscars here in the united states. and people have been taking bets on who will win big. according to multiple betting

markets, "roma" is a clear favorite for best picture. followed by "green book" forram starred in "bohemian rap so i did rhapsody" and we'll bring you all highlights here on cnn. parts of the united states are bracing for a major snowstorm. that same storm is causing flooding in the south. derek van dam is here next. stay with us.

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here in the united states, when there is snow in las vegas, you know it's bad. our meteorologist derek van dam is here. snow and a lot more too. >> people were getting those iconic photos in front of the welcome to las vegas sign earlier this week, snow falling in the backdrop, that hadn't happened in over a decade since 2008. so quite a scene. the same storm system moved a little further east and it is now located across the northern plains and the midwest, my home state of michigan. it is causing quite a bit of trouble. let's bring into nashville first, the southern portion of the storm. this created flooding into the nashville area, they have officially cracked their wettest

february on record. records going back to the 1800s by the way. unfortunately some of the rain is turning roadways into rivers. and if you're anything like me, you live in the south, and you know just how wet it's been. unfortunately water finds its own locations, right? it finds its own level because it seeps into everything including basements, including my basement. i know i'm not alone when i say this, it is frustrating when we have this extremely wet pattern that continues to move over the same regions. in nashville, it is no different. you're talking about record-breaking februarys, coming off of a very wet january, and december, you can imagine there are several flooded basements out there. so the flood threat is ongoing across the area from the mississippi to the north and east, over 15 million americans and some sort of flash flood advisory or warning as we speak. this is the radar estimated rainfall totals. you can see how it is centered

over nashville. wasn't only a flooding that was a concern from the storm, it was the severe storms, we had tornadoes, we had wind damage, we had hail across the south from mississippi to alabama. now we go to the northern part of the storm and we have got a major wind event center on the great lakes and the upper midwest at the moment, wind gusts, windy city, easily over 50 miles an hour today. cleveland to buffalo, you're expecting 50 to 60-mile-per-hour gusts. that is going to shift to the east coast on monday and you bet on monday morning, travel delays for some of the major international airports, laguardia, jfk, philadelphia, reagan. look out for that. be prepared for power outages as well. we have a full on blizzard taking place on the back side of the storm as it ushers in the cold air from the north. that is shading in red, that's a blizzard warning, parts of minnesota, iowa, western wisconsin, northern michigan, that means business. it is reducing visibilities under a quarter mile thanks to the drifting of that snowfall as

it falls from the sky. additional snow heaviest into the up of michigan, rain across the east coast. high elevation snows from upstate new york could experience a little bit of snowfall throughout the course of the day today. it is the reduced visibility that is making it so dangerous to drive on the roadways. take this video we're about to show you out of nebraska. you see what people are dealing with there. whiteout conditions, travel not recommended. the travel is very dangerous as you can see. roads completely covered. you can hardly tell the difference between the horizon and the roadway. not a good day to get on the road. >> looks bad there. thank you. thank you for being with us for this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell at the cnn center in atlanta. let's do it again. another hour of news right after the break. stay with us. welcome to the place where people go

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simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. aid trucks set on fire as violent clashes break out at the colombian border. opposition facing a huge setback in delivering much needed humanitarian aid. we head to rome where pope francis is addressing clergy members at the vatican's summit for sexual abuse calling abusers the, quote, tools of satan. also ahead this hour, sparking conversations of diversity at the oscars. "roma's lead actress" the first indigenous mexican woman to be nominated for a top award. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george