- [announcer] pray.com's bedtime bible stories calm your mind and ease your spirit. download pray.com to get the #1 app for prayer and sleep. hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom," and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, the rules of engagement for donald trump's second impeachment trial are finally decided. what we can expect when proceedings begin later today. then, tracking the variants. the u.s. is stepping up the covid genome sequence being to give the vaccines a fighting

chance. thousands of people take to the streets despite a curfew . good to have you with us. former president donald trump is about to enter the history books again. in just hours from now he will become the first u.s. president ever to face an impeachment trial twice. all the action takes place in this building today. first up, senators will debate whether the proceedings shall constitutional. trump faces a charge of incitement to insurrection for his role on capitol hill on january 6th. senate leaders say they are ready to go. >> the second impeachment trial of donald j. trump will commence. only the fourth trial of a

president or former president in american history. the first trial for any public official that has been impeached twice. for the information of the senate, the republican leader and i in consultation with both the house managers and former president trump's lawyers have agreed to a bipartisan resolution to govern the structure and timing of the impending trial. >> this structure has been approved by both former president trump's legal team and the house managers because it preserves due process and the rights of both sides. >> in the coming days, democrats will get to make their case first. then the former president's defense team will take to the floor. cnn's manu raju has more on the looming legal showdown. >> reporter: house democrats making their final case

detailing the deadly insurrection at the capitol and accuse donald trump of intentionally inciting it. it will rely heavily on video. and court records from charge the insurrectionists. >> donald trump asked everybody to go home. he said it without a tweet. he asked everybody to go home. >> reporter: trump's team provided the most detailed report from the january 6th rally before his supporters stormed the capitol seeking to stop certification of joe biden's victory. >> and we fight. we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore. >> his attorney downplaying those remarks writing of the over 10,000 words spoken, mr. trump used the word fight a little more than a handful of time. it has long been accepted in public discourse.

democrats responding in their own brief writing this is not a case of protected speech. they did not impeach president trump because he stated an opinion. while it still hasn't been decided whether there will be witnesses, democratic sources tell cnn that is unlikely. the two sides will argue whether the trial is constitutional before the full senate votes on that question. democrats got a boost when charles cooper wrote in the wall street journal that the constitution doesn't block trump's impeachment trial. >> that's no liberal, that's chuck cooper, a lawyer who represented house republicans in a lawsuit against speaker pelosi. a former advisor to president cruz's presidential campaign driving a stake into the central argument we're going to hear from the former president's counsel. >> reporter: already five gop senators have indicated they

believe the constitution gives the senate the authority to try the president. >> the president lied to you. he lied about the election results for 60 days. >> reporter: but to convict trump, there needs to be 17 republicans, something incredibly unlikely. congresswoman liz cheney, one of 10 house republicans who voted to impeach trump, censured by the gop in wyoming. >> we have never seen that kind of assault by the president of the united states on another branch of government that. can never happen again. >> reporter: congresswoman liz cheney warned the party not to embrace donald trump, the former president. there are some republican senators who agree with that, including senator john thune, the number two 2 republican senators. they should be raising ideas and

lisa murkowski who is one of five republican senators who might vote to convict donald trump said she's looking for the republican party, not the party of trump. manu raju, cnn, capitol hill. cnn legal analyst ellie hoening joins me to talk about this. >> reporter: thanks, rosemary. >> we are hours away from donald trump's historic second impeachment trial, and trump's legal team argues he didn't incite riots by using the word fight, instead he used it figuratively. central to this is this is unconstitutional. this received a direct hit by charles cooper who wrote in the wall street journal that the constitution does not bar trump's impeachment trial. where will that argument go? and of course the rest of their case. >> reporter: ultimately the argument that you cannot try a former official will lose. it could give cover to enough

republicans who want a reason to justify why they might end up voting not guilty. we don't have a specific definitive answer to the extent the supreme court has never addressed it, it's not specifically stated in the constitution. the great wave of legal authority and common sevnse say you can do this. it was done in 1874. it can't be the case that a president can essentially abuse his power however he pleases in his final weeks and days in office with no consequence. by the way, the constitution gives us a specific remedy. it tells us even if someone has been removed, they can be disqualified from running in the future. there's no way that makes sense if you can't disqualify them. i think the motion will fail but it could give republicans an easy way to vote not guilty in

the end. >> yeah. absolutely. of course, the task of the democrats is to convince at least 17 republican senators that trump willfully incited a violent insurrection and they will use video and the words of the mob to prove their argument. how overwhelming will that evidence be? >> i think it will be really compelling if this were an ordinary courtroom scenario. the jury here is very different, of course. it's 100 senators, all of whom who are already assigned to a team, so to speak, a political party. the video will be compelling evidence. you have the video of not just what president trump said at the rally but what he said for the months or weeks leading up to that where he was pushing the big lie, sort of moving his people to come down to d.c. on january 6th by the way. he didn't pick that day randomly. that was the last day that the election results will be certified.

finally, you'll have the video of all of the violence and carnage that happened inside the capitol. that's going to strike home. it's going to remind us all how dangerous that situation was directly to the people in there and more broadly to our democracy. >> nice to chat with you. >> thanks. thanks very much. and as donald trump gets ready for his second impeachment trial, president joe biden will be focusing on his covid relief proposal. kaitlyn collins reports. >> reporter: returning to washington, president biden faced questions about his predecessor's looming impeachment trial. >> he's got an offer to come and testify. he's decided not to. we'll let the senate work that out. >> reporter: for weeks he's gone out of his way of weighing in. >> i think it's clear from his schedule and from his intention he will not spend too much time watching the proceedings if any

time over the course of the week. >> reporter: biden is sent to counter program trump's trial as he attempts to keep the focus on his legislative debut. a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. >> we've already announced his plans to go visit the nih, to go visit the department of defense. >> reporter: biden has moved on from courting republican support and is now focusing on fast tracking the bill with only democrats on his side. >> obviously it's the most likely path at this point is through a reconciliation process. >> reporter: now democrats must battle it out over the bill and whether to include biden's $15 minimum wage proposal which he hinted in an interview friday wouldn't make the final cut. >> apparently that's not going to occur because of the rules in the united states senate. >> you're saying the minimum wage won't be in. >> my guess is it won't be. >> reporter: that was before the senate parliamentarian had ruled whether it could be included. >> who told him it wasn't going to make it through likely?

>> the president was in congress for -- in the senate for 36 years. again, it still has not worked its way through the process and that can take a bit of time and we certainly defer to the parliamentarian. >> while biden seemed ready to move on without the minimum wage included, for now other progressives are still pushing for it. >> i can tell you as chairman of the budget committee, we have a room full of lawyers working as hard as we can to make the case to the parliamentarian that, in fact, raising the minimum wage will have significant budget implications. >> reporter: and on top of that, democrats are now talking about extending the child tax credit, putting that as part of this coronavirus relief proposal. that would grant up to $3600 per child under the age of 6. it would be about $3,000 up to the age of 17. of course, that would depend on how much money the parent made, whether it's $75,000 or $150,000

for those joint filers. of course, that is far from certain of what is going to end up in the end of this. it does show the efforts that democrats are taking following the steps of senator mitt romney proposing something similar last week. we'll wait to see what is in the final text. we know the house is passing that right now. kaitlyn collins, cnn, the white house. >> and while president biden considers the economy, the virus is still a huge health risk across the country. now the u.s. is ramping up the covid genome sequence being in an effort to keep a closer eye on variants. the cdc director said it has increased the sequencing ten fold in the last three weeks. although we've seen a decline in covid cases across the u.s., health experts are urging americans not to let their guard down. some good news on the

vaccine front, pfizer says it's increased the production and doubled the output of the covid vaccine in the last month. the company expects to deliver 200 million doses in the u.s. by the end of may. cnn's erica hill has more. >> reporter: fewer new cases. few jericho individual patients in the hospital. more shots in arms. >> things were better but, baby, it ain't over yet. not by a long shot. >> reporter: swift moving variants identified in more than 30 states. >> the continued proliferation of variants is a concern and it's a threat that can reverse the positive trends we're seeing. >> reporter: the cdc is stepping up tracking efforts. >> what we need to do as quickly as possible is obviously vaccinate the american people. >> reporter: so far current vaccines appear to be effective against the variant first identified in the u.k. >> less so against the south african, the 351, but hopefully

we will get the virus under much better control by the time there's any indication that might become dominant. >> reporter: the overall pace of vaccinations is improving. >> saturday was a remarkable day. we had 1.8 million vaccines administered in the united states. if we can do that every single day, we'll stay ahead of this. >> reporter: 72% of distributed doses now in arms. more than 9.5 million people fully vaccinated. new york's citi field set to open as another mass vaccination site wednesday morning. the focus on taxi drivers, food service and delivery workers. >> these are folks who we all depend on. >> reporter: average daily reported deaths stuck above 3,000 rising in nine states. >> what we're really seeing is still the aftermath of the winter holidays, of christmas and new year's. six to eight weeks later people are dying from the disease. >> reporter: texas representative ron wright, the first sitting member of congress

to die after being diagnosed with the virus passed away on sunday. wright was 67. more states easing restrict shunsz. no more mask mandates in iowa despite top experts urging otherwise. >> we really need to keep all of the mitigation measures at play here for everyone to get control of this pandemic. >> reporter: in tampa super bowl fans partying like it's 2019. the cdc promising new guidelines for schools this week, and after a week's long standoff, a tentative agreement to get teachers and kids back to the classroom. >> i am confident, confident that the measures that we have and will put in place will make our schools even safer than they already are and will be a model for other systems in illinois and throughout the country. >> reporter: new questions today about domestic travel after transportation secretary pete buttigieg says that there is an active conversation with the cdc

about possibly requiring a negative test for domestic air travel. in response, cdc director dr. roichelle walensky said that will be another mitigation tool. however, she is stressing now is not the time to travel. in new york, i'm erica hill, cnn. and you just heard it there in erika's report. the travel industry bracing for a potential shakeup as the biden administration considers covid tests for air travel within the u.s. we'll have reaction on the other side of the break. stay with us. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. we sold an ipad worth $505 for less than $24. a stand mixer for less than

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welcome back, everyone. the biden administration is considering a role that would shake up the travel industry. officials may soon require a negative covid-19 test for domestic air travel. transportation secretary pete buttigieg says the cdc will help drive the decision, and he spoke earlier to cnn. >> there's got to be common sense, medicine, science really driving this. what we know is it's the appropriate measure for

international travel. people traveling into the u.s. giving some of those considerations. i'd say the domestic picture is very different. the cdc is always evaluating what can best be done to keep americans safe. >> a major travel industry group opposes the move. the u.s. travel association group calls it impractical. two senior officials and airplane giant boeing went a step further. in a letter to the white house they say this, and i'm quoting them, imposing such a burden on the already financially beleaguered airline industry has the potential for consequences that will ripple across the entire economy. while the u.s. travel industry worries about its future, the energy sector is enjoying some positive news. on monday oil prices hit their highest level in more than a year. cnn's john defterios joins us live from abu dhabi to talk

about this. good to see you again, john. oil prices returning to normal after an extreme slump during the pandemic. talk to us about the latest on that and just how sustainable it might be. >> reporter: we came out a full blown recovery in 2020. we're now in the stage of rebuilding demand going forward. there's a real concern in the market to your question to me and that is is it really about the restoration of economic growth and demand for road transport and airline transport or is it the hedge funds driving this rally, banking on a rebalancing in the oil market at the tail end of this year? if you look at the latest crisis, we did cross $61 a barrel which is a new 12-month high. recovery for the international benchmark, if you roll back the clock a year ago, we started at $54 a barrel in february. slightly higher before that. it quickly unraveled. i'll tell you why. it was unclear about how much demand was going to be eroded by the pandemic. then we had an opec plus meeting

that had saudi arabia say how much should we cut. they had a price war. five weeks later, the first time in history, prices went negative below zero for 24 hours and below $20 a barrel on the international benchmark. a lot of work took place thereafter. global economy stepped up with $10 trillion of stimulus. that helped. the opec plus players settled their differences and cut nearly 10 million barrels a day. that's why we see demand recovering with the vaccine distribution. the key question right here right now, rosemary, can you get global distribution with the vaccines and the variants. the developing world has to heal at the same time to restore the demand. by the way, we usually use 100 million barlts a day. it got down to 90. we're at 95. 5 million barrels can make a difference between $40 oil and

$60 oil. we'll have to see it restored in the soaked half of 2021. >> john defterios joining us there. many thanks. we'll take a short break. we'll be back in just a moment. stay with us.

all right. we are following a developing story out of myanmar right now. police have reportedly arrested at least 27 people in protests against a last week's military coup. police have used water cannon to try to disperse the crowds as authorities crack down on the demonstrations imposing a curfew and restrictions on public

gatherings. thousands of people are defying those bands and turned out for a fourth straight day in cities across myanmar. cnn's paula hancocks joins me live from seoul. paula, arrests have now been made at these protests. what more are you learning about that? >> reporter: rosemary, what we're hearing as well now from reuters news agency is in the capitol of myanmar, we're hearing police fired gunshots into the air to try and disperse protestors now. the reports said they were walking towards protesters. they had been using the water cannons to disperse the protesters. they weren't going home. now they have started to fire into the air. now this is really a show that things are escalating somewhat. there isn't lethal force being used by police as we understand it up until this point, but the water cannon has been used a lot

more today than yesterday, on monday, and certainly firing into the air is a step further as well. so of course the concern is as there were still thousands of people out on the streets in myanmar protesting that military coup and many of them not wanting to go home. they're calling for the members of the nld, national league for democracy who won power back in november of last year, to be released, to be reinstated as protesters are not going home and staying on the streets. we do see this incremental step in the way police and military are handling them. >> paula hancocks, i know you'll continue to monitor this developing story. many thanks. here in the united states the biden administration is facing a major challenge following the coup in myanmar. most notably how can the u.s. speak with authority on democracy when people around the world saw the capitol attacked last month. wolf blitzer posed that question

to secretary of state anthony blinken. >> there's no doubt that our ability to speak with that strong voice for democracy and human rights took a hit with what happened on january 6th at the capitol, but i've got to tell you, i actually see the glass is half full because we had a peaceful transition of power pursuant to our constitution. the grievous assault on congress, what happened, members of congress came back. they came back to the senate. they came back to the house. they came back to the halls of congress and they did their job pursuant to the constitution to ensure that we had a peaceful transition of power. you know this so well throughout our history, we've had incredible challenging moments. sometimes we've taken our own step backwards, but what's made us different is our willingness, our ability to confront these challenges with full transparency.

>> blinken spoke about the biden administration's approach when it comes to the middle east. here's what he had to say. >> look, the hard truth is we are a long way i think from seeing peace break out and final resolutions between the problems with israel and the palestinians and the creation of a palestinian state. in the first instance, it's do no harm. we're looking to make sure neither side takes unilateral action towards moving towards piece and resolution even more challenging than they are. even though, hopefully we'll see both sides take steps to create an environment where piece can take place. >> the change in washington gives them hope that the u.n. and the e.u. are pushing back against israel's recent rush to authorize thousands of new housing units in the west bank. cnn international correspondent sam kylie has more.

>> reporter: a convoy of u.s. ambassadors driving out to the west bank to complain about the forced removals of farmers. the moment grand gesture meets grim reality. the day before israel had destroyed a bedouin camp declaring the farming area a closed military zone. how many times has your shelter been confiscated this month? >> translator: three times. every month three times. >> reporter: do you have any hope that there is now a new president in america that he can maybe whep this sort of problem? >> translator: we think the situation will get better with a new president, maybe. >> reporter: these bedouin farmers show little enthusiasm seeing them as empty gestures while israel continues to build on the west bank.

this year ahead of joe biden's presidential inauguration israel rushed to announce the construction of 3,352 new homes effectively for jews only on the east bank. they said that jewish west bank settlements were not inconsistent with international law. palestinians hoped biden would reverse this but he didn't mention the palestinians or israel in his first foreign policy speech as president. >> do you think you are a priority? doesn't look like it to be honest. >> i said the moment we are a priority. we know washington has so many problems, corona, the economy, all these sort of things which we understand. >> reporter: things like this for the agricultural communities of bedouin are all too familiar on the west bank. there's growing anger among the palestinians against the israelis, their own leadership

and against the international community. >> reporter: the europeans spend $18 million a year on the palestinians. it's almost entirely reliant on foreign donor money to run about 40% of the west bank but u.s.-led peace talks with israel are in a deep coma. some people would say you're simply renting peace off the palestinians. >> how do you allow hope to continue to exist? >> reporter: meanwhile, a top israeli official say the bedouin are pawns in a political stunt orchestrated by the israeli government. >> the israelis are ready to go the extra mile. we offered to build them housing. for political reasons the residents weren't allowed to accept the proposals. >> reporter: trump support for israel was hot. israel may see a little cooling from biden. there's no change in the diplomatic weather for the palestinians. sam kiley on the west bank.

a new u.n. report is accusing north korean hackers of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars last year to fund the country's missile programs. the confidential documents shared with cnn says the hackers stole more than $300 million in virtual assets over the last two years alone. it's thought it was used to help 345i69 for nuclear weapons. let's get more from this from cnn's will ripfully who has visited north korea 19 times. he joins us live from hong kong. good morning, will. how might this shape the way president biden deals with north korea going forward? >> reporter: hi, rosemary. this is a report that the united nations puts together every year. there are interesting details this year that show just how far north korea is believed to have come in terms of their nuclear

ballistic missile program. we've already seen in military parades late last year and already earlier this year new short range, medium range and long range ballistic missiles. this report says that it is believed that north korea has the technological capability to put miniaturized warheads on many of those weapons. what is unknown is whether north korea has perfected the technology to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile into space and have it launch intact. that would mean north korea would need to undergo further testing, further launches, something many analysts may feel it's a distinct possibility with the biden administration deeming it more predictable with the patience of the obama administration under which the president was the vice president under president obama. now it also shows despite those

diplomacy three face-to-face meetings, north korea has toind grow its nuclear arsenal in a way that has some analysts nervous. north korea has resumed cooperation with iran exchanging information and perhaps more importantly critical missile components allowing them to by pass the international sanctions. >> many thanks to will ripley live from hong kong. a lawyer for the so-called qanon shaman is speaking with cnn. that interview next. plus, we are keeping an eye on a live w.h.o. news conference. this as investigators wrap up their investigation into the origins of the coronavirus in wuhan. we'll have a live report in just a moment. into rock stars. (diana strums guitar) maya swears by grammarly business because it keeps her work on brand and error-free. fast and easy. - [announcer] learn more at grammarly.com/business.

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in wuhan, china, where a world health organization team has wrapped up a field study into the origins of covid-19. the team has been in wuhan for the past few weeks visiting hospitals, research facilities and the wet market where the outbreak was first identified. for more, let's bring in cnn's nick peyton walsh. nick, the w.h.o. team was late in starting this. what's been said so far. >> reporter: we're currently airing from the top chinese expert on this joint mission of chinese experts and w.h.o. experts who have been on the ground half quarantine, half visiting sites around wuhan and are now giving through the voice of mr. lian the preliminary report. this is him speaking now playing an incredibly detailed, complex set of theories. initially they say that the sars

cov 2 virus could have originated from zoonotic transfer but the hosts have yet to be identified. that's something, frankly, we already knew. much science so far is pointed towards the likelihood of sars cov 2, the virus that causes covid-19, the new coronavirus possibly originating in bats, possibly in a virus known as rats g 13. about 90% plus similar. it's how do you get from the bat virus through that which is tearing its way through the human population. we've yet to hear precisely anymore details as to what they've discovered during this particular mission, but at the same time too they went on as you came to me to talk about how there was continued evolution during the spread amongst humans

and he pointed the possibility there may not have been one moment when the virus jumped from animals into humans but possibly many if there were continued contacts. i should give you the broader context though of what we're seeing here. this is china laying out these preliminary findings. sat next to mr. liang is the head of w.h.o. mission peter baranak speaking. this is very much beijing saying what it thinks the findings are. they are still in the middle of laying those out. they have suggested and obviously there may be errors in translation here possibly the china part of this particular episode is now finished but we're still listening what the entirety of the statement is, rosemary. >> hopefully we'll learn a whole lot more in the minutes ahead. many thanks to nick peyton walsh for bringing us that moment. a lawyer for one of the rioters at the u.s. capitol is now speaking out and says former

president donald trump shares some of the blame. jacob chancely is one of the rioters made infamous for his role in the attack when these photos of him wearing fur and horns inside the capitol building went viral. chancely is known as the qanon shaman. his lawyer told cnn's chris cuomo his client now regrets storming the capitol and he's deeply disappointed in the former president. take a listen. >> trump's tweets, his social media exploitation, what he said day in, day out that we all permitted included untruths, misrepresentations, out-and-out lies, not every now and then, every day. not once a day, multiple times daily. you couple that with a protracted period with covid, social distancing, the absence of humanity around a lot of

people who get their news from ticktock and from social media and from this internet coffee cl clatch. it was a mess. it was a mess that created the environment on january 6th. it was not one month in the making for people like jake, for millions of americans, they truly did hang on every word of their president, our president, the person that we permitted day in, day out to speak to us in ways and in fashions that simply weren't true. >> and the shaman's fellow qanon followers are gearing up for their latest baseless conspiracy theory. they believe former president trump will actually be sworn back into office in the coming weeks. cnn's doany o-- done o'sullivan

has the details. >> i don't believe joe biden is going to be sworn in as president. >> reporter: some trump supporters were convinced biden would not be inaugurated on january 20th. >> raise your right hand and repeat after me. >> reporter: after he was inaugurated a new conspiracy theory took hold. >> trump will take office as the 19th president of the united states on march 4th under the restored republic. >> reporter: hey, hey, hey, it's your favorite truth seeker holding the light for everyone out there who's given up hope that trump is not the president of the united states of america. when, in fact, he is. >> when you think about it, know, biden's not in the white house and they have proof that he's out in california and it's all staged. >> reporter: executions will be happening on march 5th. that's a big statement and i'm really looking forward to it. >> trump will return as

president in march they falsely claim. the conspiracy theory is apparently rooted in the belief that an 1871 law turned the country into a corporation and any president-elected after that is illegitimate. ulysses s. grant was president in 1869. it is the latest conspiracy theory trump would be president in martha made former qanon believer ashley vanderbilt realize the whole thing is a fraud. >> it doesn't make sense that all of this is happening and all of a sudden trump's going to come back march 4th and it's going to change. i was like, it doesn't seem right so that's i guess what started -- i just had that little bit of doubt. >> reporter: while ashley was able to get out, others are still clinging on q. aanon.

a qanon account on gab has more than 200,000 members and in it believers continue to look for signs that qanon is a real thing. a photo purportedly of the white house at night posted with the message q did say something about if the lights go out, please know we are in control. echoing the false conspiracy about executions on march 5th, a person posted a picture of the media risers with the message it's beginning to look a lot like gallows. and ahead of the impeachment trial a plea for qanon believers to call their senators. it's not q, it's you that makes the difference. and qanon followers will be watching closely the impeachment trial of former president trump this week. for them trump is a hero. he is the hero of the whole qanon conspiracy theory.

that's perhaps the reason why he has praised qanon followers. you saw ashley vanderbilt in that report, the former qanon believer who's a mom in south carolina. she said one way she could have gotten out of the qanon conspiracy theory sooner was if president trump came out and said it wasn't false. we've not seen him do that. we've seen him embrace a qanon believer like marjorie taylor greene. back to you. >> thanks for that. be sure to watch cnn's special live coverage of donald trump's second impeachment trial. that begins at 5 p.m. in london and 9 p.m. in abu dhabi and we'll be right back.

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it's just endless. to start your free 30-day trial, j- [announcer] pray.com's00. bedtime bible stories calm your mind and ease your spirit. download pray.com to get the #1 app for prayer and sleep. last week was the deadliest week of u.s. avalanches on record. this horrifying video was shot in utah. luckily several people got out alive, but 14 have died in avalanches across the u.s. since february 1st. that is the highest number of avalanche deaths ever recorded in a seven-day stretch. our pedram javaheri takes a closer look. pedram.

>> good morning, rosemary. when you see the conditions play out across the western u.s. some of the footage speaks to how scary of a sight this must be across this region. we know on average every single year some 150 people lose their lives to avalanches. unfortunately in the u.s. the last seven days have set the record for the most number of fatalities. some 14 fatalities around the u.s., 10 of which have happened in the western u.s. we know what kind of weather pattern leads to avalanche frequency. we know in november, december around the western u.s. snowstorms were few and far between. that was part of the problem. we have a lot of periods where ice accumulates on top of the snow. the base layer doesn't have a very good bond on the snow itself. when you get patterns of january and february pattern we've seen in recent weeks where you have plenty of snow come down, a weak layer at the base here really allows avalanches to become prevalent. that is exactly what's taking

place and some of the contributing factors, strong winds, warmth, rain, snow, vibrations. all of this can initiate an avalanche. 90% of the time avalanches are initiated by a victim themselves or a member in the victim's party. it's a dangerous scenario when you have this sort of weather pattern leading up to it. speaking of dangerous, look what's happening. wind chill as cold as 25 to 50 below zero. we know the arctic air will gradually shift farther and farther to the south. as it does, the elements in place produce an ice storm across portions of the u.s. ice secretions could be 1/4 of an inch to 1/2 an inch. any time you get to the numbers you're talking about tree limbs coming down, power outages being extensive and dangerous travel scenario across the regions of

the u.s. as well. back to you. >> many thanks to you, pedram. appreciate it. before we go, the music world says good-bye to an icon of the motown era. ♪ stop in the name of love ♪ >> mary wilson, a founding member of the legendary supremes has died. according to her publicist, wilson passed away suddenly at her home in henderson, nevada, on monday. no cause of death has been given. the supremes were one of the premiere groups of the 1960s with a string of number one hits. wilson was 76 years old. may she rest in peace. and thank you so much for your company. i'm rosemary church. "early start" is up next. you're watching cnn. enjoy your day. ♪ stop in the name of love ♪ ♪ before you break my heart ♪

welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. it's tuesday, february 9th. it's 5 a.m. here in new york, and in just a few hours the historic second impeachment trial of former president donald trump begins in the u.s. senate. unlike his first trial, this time the jurors are also the victims. 100 senators will confront the violent and deadly riot at their workplace and decide whether trump must answer for inciting the mob. unwilling to