hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. ahead here on "cnn newsroom," a growing divide in the republican party after former president trump's acquittal with the gap now widening between his loyalists and those who want nothing to do with him. plus, cnn exclusively speaks with the lead investigator for the world health organization's wuhan mission. we will tell you what they've discovered about the pandemic's origin. and half of all-americans

under some sort of winter storm warning as much of the u.s. braces for another round of brutal temperatures, snow and ice. good to have you with us. well, the fallout from donald trump's second impeachment trial is only beginning, and its impact on u.s. politics will likely be felt for some time. democrats control the presidency and congress, but the acquittal, despite an abundance of video evidence, shows the republican party remains largely the party of trump. still, for some there is bipartisan agreement, specifically on the need to know more about the deadly january 6th riot. >> but there's still more evidence that the american people need and deserve to hear and a 9/11 commission is a way

to make sure that we secure the capitol going forward and that we lay bear the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violative of his constitutional oath president trump really was. >> i think, you know, there was yesterday's vote, but there's definitely a number of court -- potential court cases, and i think he's still going to face, you know, criminal courts and the court of public opinion. this is not over and we're going to decide over the next couple of years what the fate of donald trump and the republican party is. >> well, no one seriously expected 17 republican senators to side with democrats, but certainly no other impeachment in u.s. history had that kind of bipartisan support. but it's still short of the 2/3 majority needed for conviction, and one of the impeachment managers insists that calling witnesses wouldn't have made any difference. >> just so the american public is aware, witnesses in a senate

hearing do not come and stand before the senators and make any statements. it's a deposition, it's videotaped and brought before the senate. i know people are feeling angst and believe maybe if we had this the senators would have done what we wanted but, listen, we didn't need more witnesses, we needed more senators with spines. >> republicans like senator lindsey graham remain in trump's corner. boris sanchez has more on that and the former president's future in politics. >> reporter: donald trump and his legal team expressing relief over the weekend after his acquittal in the senate impeachment trial. the former president putting out a statement making clear that he is not done with politics, specifically citing the 74 million plus voters who cast ballots for him in the 2020 election and promising he has more to share with his supporters. allies of the former president

believe he is going to go after republicans who he feels betrayed him, those who voted for impeachment, those who voted to convict him or simply those who did not defend him strongly enough. one republican senator who remains on trump's side is south carolina senator lindsey graham. he says he spoke with trump after his acquittal and wants to stick with the former president because he believes it is a formula for winning for the republican party. listen to more now from lindsey graham. >> yeah, i spoke to him last night. he was grateful to his lawyers. he appreciated the help all of us provided. you know, he's ready to move on and rebuild the republican party. he's excited about 2022 and so to the republican party, if you want to win and stop a socialist agenda, we need to work with president trump. we can't do it without him and to you, president trump, you need to build a republican party so long.

i'm into winning. >> graham also making clear that trump is still openly mad at several lawmakers, but on that point about winning, there are a lot of prominent republicans that would disagree with graham and want to move the party away from trump. people like senator ben sasse and congress people liz cheney and adam kinzinger who would point out republicans lost the white house, the senate and could not win a majority in the house of representatives. before any talk of 2022 or 2024 gets serious though, trump has a number of legal hurdles that he would have to potentially overcome. keep in mind sources close to trump reveal that he is concerned about potentially facing charges, not only for his role in inciting the violence we saw on capitol hill on january 6th but on a litany of other issues. boris sanchez, cnn, west palm beach, florida. >> so let's talk about this with cnn's senior analyst senior

gergen. he is a former presidential advisor to nixon, ford, ragan and clinton. always good to have you with us. >> thank you, good to see you. >> you, too. 43 republican senators still voted to acquit donald trump, including senator mitch mcconnell who then went on to say trump's conduct was a disgraceful dereliction of duty and holding him practically and morally responsible for pro provoking the violence but he wasn't courageous enough to hold him responsible, was he? he was leaving it up to the judiciary. what was your reaction? >> it's been a distasteful several weeks, the worst transition we've ever had in american history. one we're glad that's over and maybe we can talk about the future instead of the past. i think senator mcconnell, who's very clever as you well know, you know, first he held up the

paperwork so that this trial could have started when donald trump was president. by holding things up, donald trump, you know, left the presidency. he was replaced and then senator mcconnell, who had held things up says, well, we can no longer convict him because he's no longer president and that means it's unconstitutional. it would be unconstitutional to do that. mcconnell is trying to have it both ways. he's got his conviction. he held his party together for the most part. held his party together. but he also got in some very strong blows against trump saying, you know -- basically his message is i would have convicted him if it were constitutionally appropriate. even as evil as he has been, we're not going to hold him responsible. >> it is extraordinary, even when they voted to say it was constitutional to go forward with this. so senator lyndsey graham and other republicans who lined up

behind trump think he is the man to lead them and yet trump lost his own election and was the reason why red states turned blue and why tens of thousands of republicans are leaving the party. so why do they still think trump is the man to lead the republican party? because a lot of polls are indicating that's not the case. >> they don't think he should be leading the party. they're too darn zierd say so. cowardess is contagious. he's the dominant player in the republican party. he has been battered. his reputation inside the party, especially outside the party has hurt him badly. even so, he remains the most powerful person and who can mobilize his base and the off year election's in two years. he can get involved in the election in 2024 if he's still around, if he's healthy, he can

run for president again. but i think this episode has tarnished the republican party. we know now donald trump will go down in history as one of the worst if not the worst american president we've ever had. the republican party will go down in history as the most radicalized party since the 19th century, and all of that is going to mean that our politics is -- no longer sets an example for the world and our democracy is under heavy, heavy pressure. we may suffer further blows to our democracy and come to regret this episode really badly. >> and when those 43 republican senators voted to acquit donald trump, did they at the same time signal the end of the republican party as we all know it? >> no, i don't think they did that. i think there's going to be a fight in the republican party. my bet is that trump and his followers will remain the

dominant force for two or three years. he's not likely to command the public bully pulpit the way he did as president. we're not going to be seeing him on television every night and so forth, but nonetheless, i think he's going to exercise power within the party until somebody actually takes it away from him. that may have to wait until 2024, but it's going to happen. the republican party, best way to convince a party to come back more towards the center and to be a governing party whether you're coming from the right or to the left, is for your party to lose two or three in a row. as we know in the british politics, if you lose two or three in a row, people come back. this period for the republican party is going to be seen as just one of the worst in american history and we are going to -- we're seeing now an alliance with far right parties all across europe, with the

american president, and i think there are going to be a lot of smart people who are going to say there's such a thing as going too far. being conservative is one thing but being a radical is quite a different. that's what's happened to the republican party. they've been radicalized and they need to get it out of their bloodstream. >> we'll watch it carefully and watch it all play out. david gergen, thank you so much for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you. good to see you. >> you, too. as for the other legal hurdles trump's facing, the list is growing. federal prosecutors are conducting their inquiry into the january 6th riot signaling no one is above the law, including trump. georgia officials have opened investigations into the former president's efforts to overturn that state's election and in new york the manhattan district attorney is looking into potential insurance fraud, tax fraud and other schemes.

now to an increasingly tense situation in myanmar where the military chief has just amended the country's penal code. appearing to target protestors, journalists and critics of the coup. the country is on edge since the military seized power two weeks ago. protests continue for a tenth straight day despite a heavy military presence. internet services have now been restored after an eight-hour blackout. the tension was on full display sunday night. that video shared on social media reporting to xiaomi an march security forces firing several rounds to disperse protestors in the state. paula hancocks is following the protests. she joins us now from seoul. so, paula, what is the military's likely next move?

as they watch and worn the generals they will be held accountable for their actions? >> reporter: rosemary, the greatest concern now is that there could be more of a crackdown from the military, and you showed that video where you see and can hear rounds of we don't know if it was live fire or rubber bullets being used to disperse the crowd. you can see protesters fleeing the area. water cannon also being used. we're starting to see an increase really in the amount of force the military is willing to use to disperse protestors. that's clearly the biggest concern at this point. at the same time as that you are seeing the military shutting down the internet for eight hours overnight from sunday into monday. the internet was almost completely shut down. obviously the concern is the people won't be able to communicate with each other. they won't be able to show the outside world what is happening

and then also you have the government and general changing the penal code, which does appear to be targeting protesters and journalists saying that you can get up to a 20-year prison term for inciting hatred against the government or the military. anything the military doesn't like they then can prosecute for. so there is definitely a concern that the crackdown is starting to be a lot more forceful than it had been. rosemary? >> that is a real concern of course. aung san suu kyi is to stay in dete detention until tuesday. what more are you hearing about her situation? >> reporter: we've heard from her lawyer saying she's expected to be having her first day in court on wednesday. it will be through video conferencing, so we're not expecting necessarily to see aung san suu kyi and it's not

clear what sort of access any journalist would have or what the military would even want to show people of this court case. now the lawyer has said that he has not been able to see aung san suu kyi at this point and that is against the law and he is pushing to be able to have access to her and also calling on the judge to allow him to defend her. but within the country itself, aung san suu kyi is still extremely popular so really to be seeing aung san suu kyi in a court, although it will be video conferencing, could well spark some more protests on the streets as people see her once again behind bars. >> paula hancocks keeping a very close eye on all of this from her vantage point there in seoul. many thanks. coming up on "cnn newsroom," new mutations are discovered in the u.s. and scientists say they are home grown. we will explain when we return.

plus, the u.k. reaches a significant milestone in its battle against covid-19. what can the rest of the world learn from this? a live report from london. that's next. amin c. it's a unique crafted blend of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. take on your day with airborne.

covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are steadily declining across the united states, but a new forecast now projects another 130,000 americans could die from coronavirus over the next 3 1/2 months. that's why health experts say people shouldn't let their guard down. >> whether or not we have a fourth surge is up to us, and the stakes couldn't be higher. not only in the number of people who could die in a fourth surge but also in the risk that even more dangerous variants will emerge if there's more uncontrolled spread. >> despite that dire prediction, some states are seeing their covid numbers head in the right direction. california is seeing its lowest numbers of confirmed and suspected covid-19 hospitalizations since december 1st.

and as numbers come down, many parents are wondering when their kids can go back to school. cdc director explains what mitigation efforts need to be in place to make that happen. >> we really need to do the hard work to make sure that there's universal masking. there is restriction of disease if it were to be transmitted. you know, all of the contact tracing and whatnot that needs to be done. all of that is really hard to put together. >> and researchers say they have made a troubling discovery. there's a batch of troubling mutations in the u.s. and they appear to make the virus more transmissible. joining me now from omaha, nebraska, is dr. ali khan. he is the dean of university of

nebraska's college of public health. good to have you with us, doctor. >> always a pleasure, rosemary. >> so we have just learned that researchers have identified new u.s. covid mutations that appear to make the coronavirus more transmissible, which is what all the other variants appear to do as well. so how concerned are you that as the cases, hospitalizations and deaths start to trend down, these various mutations will derail the various trends if we can't speed up vaccinations? nkts a >> absolutely. we see 37 declining cases in the last two weeks in the united states. so these viruses are very sloppy when they copied themselves so there's thousands of variants, however, and most of the variants usually are detrimental to the virus. a handful of these variants are detrimental to us as humans. this is completely expected in

countries that fail to get their disease under control, the virus had lots of time to mutate and become the variants of concern. >> yeah. that's the frustrating part of this, isn't it? especially when we had the vaccine there. but dr. anthony fauci says sobering data on the south africa variant reveals that current vaccines are less effective against it than the u.k. variant whampt will need to be done to ensure all of the available vaccines are able to fight the south african variant and any other stronger one that comes along? >> the first thing to remember is that these variants are still susceptible to good public health practices. masking, hand washing, social distancing, contact tracing, those measures still work. yes, we believe getting vaccinated decreases the chance of variants spreading. over time there is likelihood

that just like influenza we may need to have a yearly vaccine booster with whatever new variant is out there in the community. >> right. of course, the good news in the midst of all of this is word from the cdc that 53 million covid doses have been administered so far, 2 million in just one day. that is exactly the direction we need this to be going. how much faith does that give you, that all those americans who want a vaccine will get one in the next few months? >> so the vaccination news is absolutely excellent. so vaccinating over 1.65 million people a day, the goal was 1.5 currently so we're beating that goal. states are vaccinating approximately 75% of the doses they have are being administered. so good efficiency going on at the local and state health department and it looks like come april there will be more than enough vaccine for everybody, even by the end of march we're expecting to have

about 200 million doses of vaccine available. >> this is all great news. the johnson & johnson vaccine, what's your feeling about that? >> so the johnson & johnson vaccine is another piece of lovely news. so that's currently being reviewed by the fda. if approved by the fda, there's potentially several million to 12 million doses available by the end of february and 10 to 20 million doses available at the end of march. to remind people, you only need one dose of the j&j vaccine as opposed to two doses of the current mrna vaccine. that's another piece of good news for americans. a good reminder, please, stay masked, social distance, health and hygiene and we'll get this under control in the united states. >> great. we're going to end on a positive note. dr. ali khan, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. mask on, american. >> good message. thank you. >> thank you.

beginning today, travelers to the u.k. from a so-called red list of countries are now required to quarantine. it's trying to stop the spread from 33 countries considered at prime risk. boris johnson says the u.k. has reached a significant milestone in its battle against the coronavirus. the country has now administered 15 mlg first doses of covid-19 vaccines, and cnn's scott mcclain joins us now from london with more on this. good to see you, scott. what is the latest on this high risk travelers, them being guaranteed? of course, on this significant milestone reached for administering vaccines? >> reporter: sure, rosemary. first on the hotels, there are 33 countries on the so-called red list that will have to quarantine inside the hotel for

ten days. it costs almost 2,000 pounds in order for people to do that. the other thing is what you mentioned, that's this huge milestone. 15 million first doses of the vaccines which have been dolled out and the government says that it has also reached its goal of offering the vaccine to everyone, staff and residents of care homes, front line health care workers and everybody over the age of 70. the health secretary says the uptake, meaning the number of people actually a greg to get vaccinated when they're offered, is more than 90%. how is it that the u.k. has been able to achieve this given all of the criticism it's had over its early handling of the pandemic? this country was slow to close the borders, lockdown, reluctant to follow its own rules and reluctant to tracking and tracing the virus. two parts of the success. first is getting the vaccine supply. last year they formed a vaccine task force, an odd mixture of

public and private people in order to secure doses. this is the key part, securing them as quickly as possible. the u.k. bet big on its own vaccine agreeing to front most of astrazeneca's manufacturing costs to actually make the oxford vaccine here in the u.k. and it did that in exchange for a place at the front of the line. remember, this was at a time when no one knew for sure whether or not this vaccine or any vaccines would actually be safe or effective. that decision, along with the choice to go it alone rather than join europe, seems to have really been key. case in point, the u.k. has vaccinated more people or given more doses of the vaccine than germany, france, italy, spain, poland and belgium combined. the second part has been the rollout of the vaccine. a centralized, nationalized rollout of the vaccine done by the national health service along with an army of volunteers, soldiers, in some cases firefighters. the prime minister says the government is not taking the foot off the gas yet.

listen. >> no one is resting on their laurels. in fact, the first million or so letters offering appointments to the over 65s are already landing on door steps. we've still got a long way to go and there will undoubt tetdly be bumps in the road. after all we've achieved, i know we can go forward with great confidence. >> reporter: rosemary, given the success of this vaccination program, the health secretary said the government would be looking this week at how and when it can start to lift lockdown restrictions safely. >> very promising news there. scott mcclain joining us live from london. now that donald trump's impeachment trial is over, president biden's agenda takes center stage. up first, his covid relief package. the latest on his efforts, that's next. investigating the origins of

the coronavirus. a team of scientists has returned from wuhan, china, and they're revealing their findings in an exclusive interview with cnn.

welcome back, everyone. there is a renewed push to pass u.s. president joe biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. mr. biden is focused on getting more cabinet nominees confirmed by the senate now that donald trump's impeachment trial is over. cnn's arlitt saenz has more. >> reporter: with the senate impeachment trial in the

rear-view mirror, president biden can push his agenda up on capitol hill with their full attention. that includes trying to get his nominees confirmed as well as passing the $1.9 trillion covid relief package. the house is expected to continue its markup of that legislation later this week and the president will also be holding meetings here at the white house on that covid relief package. president biden will also be taking his sales pitch on the road. he is participating in a cnn town hall in milwaukee, wisconsin, on tuesday and thursday traveling to a pfizer facility in the state of michigan. all of this as the president is trying to promote that covid relief package. there are still some details relating to that measure that need to be hammered out in the coming weeks. the president says he is willing to negotiate on who will receive the $1400 stimulus checks as democrats and republicans have talked about the need for them to be more targeted. but right now that key priority is getting that $1.9 trillion

package passed. arlitt saenz, cnn, the white house. >> as arlitt mentioned, cnn is hosting a town hall with u.s. president joe biden. it will be moderated by our anderson cooper tuesday night, 8 a.m. eastern time and 5 a.m. wednesday morning in europe and asia. the u.k. is joining the biden administration to release more data on the origins of the coronavirus. the british prime minister says the world needs to see all of the data, all of the evidence to know how the pandemic happened. that's what a team of investigators from the world health organization was seeking to find out in wuhan, china. a spokesman for the group says their report will outline where further data should be shared and where additional studies are needed. cnn's nick peyton walsh joins me now from london. good to see you, nick. you spoke with the lead investigator for the research

mission to wuhan. what all did you learn? >> reporter: it's important to point out they did after that press conference receive some criticism for joining the general narrative from the chinese state media. it's clear that they found out quite a lot that they had not known during that particular mission. key, that during december of 2019 when the outbreak first blossomed or grew at a fast rate inside of china, it was wider spread within wuhan and hubei than had previously been acknowledged. important to work out where the virus originated from so the world could stop this from happening again. here are some of the details that were shared with me. the leader of the w.h.o. mission to china investigating the origins of the coronavirus has told cnn the virus was likely much wider spread in china in

december 2019 than was thought. peter revealed the 174 positive cases found that first december meant there could have actually been an estimated,000 plus total cases in and around the city of wuhan. >> the virus was in wuhan in december is a new finding and the 100 that were confirmed -- >> that 174 suggest there were more? >> yes, probably. pretty likely because that's, again, a good bit of those tested. >> reporter: the team also established that in that first december there were as many as 13 slight variations of the virus from samples of all or

bits of its genetic code circulating in and around wuhan where this seafood market is thought to have played a role. >> we have strains covering individuals in december. some are from the market, some are related to the markets. this is something we found as part of our mission. >> reporter: that many variations early on could suggest the virus had been circulating for some time although precise time is still unclear. their work heavily scrutinized. tense and frustrating conditions. >> we had the entire pandemic on our shoulders for months which doesn't make the work easier here.

between scientists you'll get heated discussions. >> reporter: the hope to return to access biological samples they say china has yet to share, especially hundreds of thousands of blood banks across wuhan dating back two years. china's pledged transparency with the investigation. >> there is about 200,000 samples in available data that has been secured. >> you want to look at that urgently? >> yeah. that will be fantastic. >> is it not amazing that they haven't already looked through those samples? >> we understand that these samples are extremely small samples and only used for sufficient purposes. >> reporter: so many questions still to answer, first in china would let us back in. china's embassy in the united states has pointed the finger

towards the former trump administration for undermining trust in the w.h.o. they pulled out of it. president biden has jumped back in. you have to ask yourself, china with its extraordinary hunger for knowledge, for power, its extraordinary disease surveillance system and medical expertise, how is it possible that for a year they did not look at many of these biological samples, that they did not do some of the testing that it seems the w.h.o. had to ask them to do. these are fundamental questions about china's transparency that will of course impact whether or not the w.h.o. get to go back in and continue their investigation. but important to see here despite all the talk about china covering up or the w.h.o. mission being too close to chinese sentiments on this and the government level, they are still there as you can hear finding out things they did not know before that may eventually lead to further elucidation of quite how this virus began. rosemary? >> critical questions there.

nick peyton walsh joining us live. thank you. australia is now making anyone travel in from new zealand quarantine in a hotel for 14 days. that's in response to new zealand locking down its largest city, aukland. three people there, a mother, father, daughter all contracted the coronavirus. two of them have the covid variant first found in the u.k. the lockdown order lasts until the end of wednesday. new zealand's prime minister acted immediately to stop the spread. let's turn to cnn correspondent will ripley joins me from hong kong. this is what we've seen from the leader of new zealand. she does move very swiftly. what more are you learning about the situation? >> reporter: hey, rosemary. she has just confirmed that in fact all three cases are that more contagious u.k. variant. she told that to public broadcaster rnz as proof that

this strategy of even with just a handful of cases, disrupting a large number of people for hopefully a shorter period of time, in this case it's 72 hours while they conduct contact tracing, try to figure out how this mother, father, teenage gaut ter contracted this u.k. variant given that none of them had any recent travel history. they're looking at the mother's job for an airline catering hospitality company. she is telling people until they figure this out, the safest thing to do and the formula that has worked well for new zealand thus far is to hunker down. >> now just keep in mind, we don't necessarily have to get to the bottom of the precise issue in order for us to lift restrictions. what we'd like to do though is really put a ring around things, make sure we're testing all of those places of interest, getting those contacts to give us a level of confidence that what has happened, we feel confident we have a bit of a

ring around it. >> new zealand has had extraordinary success. just 25 deaths during this entire pandemic, just over 2300 cases nationwide in a country of almost 5 million people. so, rosemary, this strategy has worked so far and the prime minister says they're going to continue to do this. you mentioned that travel bubble with australia is suspended for 72 hours. obviously that is inconvenient, but keep in mind, most people won't be able to fly into new zealand for perhaps much of this year. >> new zealand has been a model for the rest of the world. she has done an extraordinary job. will ripfully joining us live from hong kong. many thanks. investors are taking note the value of bit cohn has soared to nearly $50,000. how high can it go and why is this digital currency so hot right now? we'll have a live report next.

here in the united states stock markets are closed for the president's day holiday. all three major indices reported all-time highs on friday. you can see here the futures are extending last week's optimism all in positive territory there. for more on this, cnn's john defterios joins us from abu dhabi. good to see you, john. despite gains, stock market investors are picking up where they left off. what are the key drivers of this rally? >> reporter: you know, stock investors like lots of liquidity and low interest rates. both are in abundance. joe biden's administration looking for another $1.9 trillion. this is fueling the rally on wall street. not limited to that market. let's take a look at the nikkei index hitting a threshold of 30,000.

something we haven't seen since 1990. there's a couple of public drivers with growth in the fourth quarter. rebounding 12.7%. going to start rolling out the vaccines in the country this week so that should boost growth and help the exporters move commerce forward at the same time. we've had $58 billion. that's the record, rosemary, move from cash into stock markets. we wanted to take a look back over the last year. despite the massive selloff from march and april in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, look at the returns. tech rally of 46% for the nasdaq. s&p 500 well into the double digits. then you look at the ftse aim index, smaller companies, technology companies, tokyo we talked about, 26, 27%. the same for shanghai. i can pick even bigger ones like taiwan and seoul which have enjoyed the recovery and the

stability in asia against the pandemic, but there are concerns. we haven't been at these valuations since the year 2000 and the tech bubble and we know what happened then when the nasdaq sold off by 80%. even jpmorgan was saying we can't discount the idea that corrections are on the way. they didn't say a bear market of 20%. correction represents 10%. valuations are pretty lofty right now, rosemary. >> bitcoin nearly hit a new milestone over the weekend of $50,000. are cryptocurrency investors showing some fear of heights? >> reporter: i like the way you put that. yes, we got to 49,714 in the asian trade today. that is a new peak for bitcoin. it could not get to 50,000. as a result, we see some retrenchment or some people taking some profits. we're down 4% from that peak around 47,000. it's been a heck of a weak for bitcoin because we had the move

by elon musk and tesla buying $1.5 billion worth. the bank of new york melon said it will start offering it to its clients here as a trade and asset to hold. master card can bring it into the global system for credit cards as well. now the sec is suggesting we need to regulate this quickly because it's becoming so pervasive. rosemary? >> john defterios joining us live from abu dhabi. many thanks. just ahead, wlee e will hav live weather report on a storm battering the u.s. and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. we will be back with that in just a moment.

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- [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. more than half a million customers across the u.s. are without power as brutal winter weather blasts the country from coast to coast. nearly half of all-americans are under a winter weather advisory and president joe biden has even declared a federal emergency in texas. let's turn to our meteorologist. tell us how bad this is looking and just how long everyone will be experiencing the impact of this.

>> we're going to be experiencing impacts for at least the next three days. more than likely all the way into this upcoming weekend. we have wind chill warnings in effect for canada all the way down to mexico. the first time ever that houston, texas, has ever been under a wind chill warning. you can see why. temperatures are going to be nearly 50 degrees below normal across much of the plains, especially down in texas where this cold is driving record electricity demand and the grid operator in texas is requiring forced power outages because the demand is high. temperatures well below average through this upcoming weekend. that's the case for much of the plains. over the next two days we could see more than 250 temperatures to be broken. it's not all about the

temperatures, it's also the precipitation that we're seeing come with this arctic air, too. you're seeing snowfall across much of the country. thunder snow and ice, too, and that ice is going to build up once we get into mississippi, alabama, portions of tennessee. this is where we're going to have major to extreme impacts of this winter storm as it pushes to the northeast. we have winter storm warnings for everyone from texas all the way to new england. more than half the country is under some sort of winter weather alert at this very second. we could see a swath of up to a foot of snow in the ohio river valley. we could see half an inch of ice in portions of the south, too. >> thanks for that update. and thank you for joining us. i'm rosemary church. i'll be back with more news in just a moment.

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joining us for karaoke later? ah, i'd love to, but people get really emotional when i sing. help from a team that will exceed your expectations. ♪♪ hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom." i'm rosemary church. just ahead, free to focus on the future after wrapping up donald trump's second impeachment trial. he still faces major legal issues. america's vaccination program is picking up with nearly 53 million doses in arms, but is it fast enough to stay ahead of the variants? we'll take a look. prince harry and his wife meagan