whatever donald trump wants. and that is what's going on here. it is not because i think and at least some of these cases, they have truly internalized the belief that they think rfk jr. would be good. as the health and human services secretary and you hear them saying it between the lines of what they're saying publicly and some of them and what they're saying privately. >> joe does does trump get what he wants on his spending package? as we approach negotiations there? >> no, i actually think that's where there's going to be a battle. i think, on the budget stuff, freedom caucus, some of the more conservative members are going to really. >> push back. and we've seen there's there's precedent for that. we've seen that before with the freedom caucus holding, holding their line. joe, megan, isaac, good to have you. thanks so much. i'll buy you a cup of coffee. thanks to all of you for joining us as well. i'm jim sciutto, cnn news central starts right now.

>> breaking overnight. first paid leave, then buyouts. now firings. a new strike from elon musk. we will tell you who went to sleep with a job and woke up unemployed. >> nobody really knows what's going on. u.s. officials are scrambling to expand guantanamo bay to house thousands of migrants. multiple federal agencies, however, are fighting for control. >> and a massive explosion rocks a shopping mall. four people are dead. dozens are injured after the blast. after the blast on the 12th floor. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner and john berman. this is cnn news central. >> all right. happening now. the firings have begun. many people

who worked at the department of education and small business administration last night. they are now waking up unemployed. the scope of this is unclear, but it is a shift for the most part. up until this point. billionaire elon musk's team has directed federal employees be placed on paid leave. this is getting fired. moments ago, musk commented on the buyouts. a separate thing, which have now been cleared by a federal judge. he says those who accepted it can, quote, take a vacation, get a second job, do whatever they want, save for the job that they were just moved out of. let's get right to cnn's alayna treene live at the white house for the very latest on this attrition forced an otherwise. >> exactly. look, as. >> you. >> put it, john, the widespread. layoffs have begun. scores of federal employees who had been placed on. >> probationary status. >> recently at the. >> department of education, as well as the small business administration, were notified overnight that they are being fired, essentially. now, this

is, as you mentioned, the first time, really, that we are seeing kind of these widespread layoffs, these firings since trump has been in office and since doge has really gotten to work on trying to reduce the size of the federal workforce before they had been placing employees on paid administrative leave. they were also offering the buyout program, but they had always warned that even if you don't accept this, you could still or if you accept this, you could still be fired. and that's what we're beginning to see now. now, we did break the news actually last week that these layoffs were coming, that they were going to be sweeping, that they were going to be widespread. but we were told that they were initially slated to begin very immediately after that initial deadline on february 6th, that federal employees were given for that so-called buyout program that would allow them to work until, or, excuse me, put themselves on paid administrative leave, but get paid through the end of september. that got delayed, got caught up in the courts. but then yesterday we did see a judge rule that it could move forward. and that's when we

really began to see these layoffs begin. i want to read for you just one of the emails that cnn has obtained alerting employees at the department of education that they were being fired. this is what it said. it said, quote, uh, the agency finds, based on your performance that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in public interest. now, i want to be clear as well, that we have heard from sources both at the department of education, but also the small business administration that dozens of employees have been fired. and part of these probationary layoffs. but the complete scope of actually the number of firings is still unclear. i'm told that we should expect to see some of these layoffs also happening at other agencies. now, this does come as well as we heard from elon musk talking about how he wants to delete agencies altogether. why don't you take a listen to how he put it? john. i'm wondering if we don't have that stop. but essentially this is what he.

>> we do need to. um, delete entire agencies as opposed to leave part of them behind. because if you leave part of them behind, it's easy. it's kind of like if leaving a weed, if you don't remove the roots of the weed, then it's easy for the weed to grow back. but if you remove the roots of the weed, it doesn't stop weeds from ever growing back. but it makes it harder. so we have to really delete entire agencies. many of them. >> so there you have musk saying delete entire agencies. you can't leave any part of these agencies behind, or they grow back like a weed. i mean, he's essentially saying there are full government entities, institutions that they want to wipe off the board. of course, it comes as we've really seen him be at the head of this effort to reshape the federal workforce in donald trump's eyes, lessen the size of the amount of workers they have, and try to root out what he is calling fraud and abuse. john.

>> elon musk seems to be an encyclopedia of botanical metaphors. alayna treene at the white house. thank you very much for that, sarah. >> new. this morning, nato's secretary general says european nations are stepping up to support ukraine as president trump says he's meeting with russian president putin to end the war in ukraine. defense secretary pete hegseth also meeting with his european counterparts in brussels this morning after denying suggestions that the u.s. had betrayed ukraine. there is no. betrayal there. >> there is a recognition that the whole world and the united states is invested and interested in peace, a negotiated peace. >> as president trump has said, stopping the killing. cnn's natasha bertrand is in brussels. for us this morning. um, give us some sense of what the big takeaways were from this meeting. and it seems that the relationship between the united states and and the european and

european union and europe as a whole is forever changed. >> that's definitely the sense that we're getting here when. >> we hear from these. >> nato defense ministers. >> who have. >> been responding pretty. >> much all. >> morning to the. >> comments that secretary hegseth. >> made yesterday. >> about the fact that the u.s. does not believe that ukraine. >> should be in nato, that the u.s. is stepping back from being a leader on helping europe secure itself, as well as providing this military aid to ukraine. and we also heard secretary hegseth this morning say that he believes that president trump is the only person in the world who can convene these parties, ukraine and russia, to find a durable and lasting peace. now, members of nato, nato allies here, particularly those eastern, flank nato allies, including lithuania and estonia. they are extremely skeptical of that, to say the least. and they are very concerned that by trump having these conversations with putin directly, it leaves ukraine and europe out of the picture when

it comes to finding some kind of negotiated settlement here. here's a little bit of what the uk defense secretary said about this earlier today. again, kind of pushing back on this notion that ukraine cannot be directly involved in these conversations. >> that there can be no negotiation about ukraine without ukraine. and ukraine's voice must be at the heart of any talks is that okay? >> now, we also heard some pretty stark comments from germany's defense minister responding to henk smith comments that the u.s. does not believe that ukraine's ultimate membership in nato is a realistic solution. boris pistorius, who is germany's defense secretary, said that that should not have been taken off the table before these kinds of peace negotiations even begin. he said that the concessions to putin on nato that henk smith made are, quote, regrettable. and he said that it's better to not take this kind of thing off the table before these talks even begin.

>> all right. natasha bertrand, thank you so much for your reporting there from brussels. kate. >> here's a quote for you. nobody really knows what's going on. tens of thousands of migrants are expected to be sent to guantanamo bay as part of the trump administration's immigration crackdown. but sources are saying the plans. familiar with the plans say there's more confusion than clarity right now. plus, a new disaster may be brewing off the coast, off brewing, off the over in the west coast. evacuation warnings have been issued in southern california, where mudslides could be hitting the same areas devastated by those wildfires already. and travis kelce, he's speaking out about his future plans after his super bowl loss. >> the boeing 747 has crashed in the lockerbie area. >> trying to find out the. why of it became everything. >> nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie story. >> lockerbie, the bombing of pan am flight 103. >> sunday at nine on cnn.

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stamps.com. cooked books, corporate fat cats. swindling socialites. >> doped up. >> cyclists and. >> yes. >> more crooked politicians. >> i have a feeling we won't be running out of. >> those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper. march 9th on cnn. >> there's more confusion than clarity right now, it seems, as the trump administration's plans to move migrants to guantanamo bay is running full speed ahead. officials there are racing to prepare the cuban detention camp for tens of thousands of migrants, but there's still real questions about the reality of what will happen when they arrive and who's even in charge of the entire operation. cnn's priscilla alvarez has this new reporting, and she's joining us now. priscilla, what are you learning? >> well. >> the unprecedented. >> nature of all. >> of this is. >> raising questions. >> it began with. >> legal questions about. >> whether they could. take people on u.s. soil to guantanamo bay. and now there. >> are so many. >> questions circulating. >> around the logistics. >> of all of this. >> the reason, kate. is because

there are multiple federal agencies. >> involved, each. >> with their own set of expertise and experience when it comes to housing migrants. and a lot of this kicked off as soon as president donald trump announced at the white house that he was going to use guantanamo bay to house 30,000 migrants as one source put it, the execution was called for before the planning had really even begun. and so now they're backing into that planning. this is how another source described it. they said, quote, no, really, nobody really knows what's going on between dod, ice and cbp. we've got everyone pointing fingers, pointing fingers, saying they're in charge. they're paying for this. they're providing security. no one actually knows. here's what we do know. there are currently 700 military personnel supporting the efforts there. there is an emerging tent facility that is coming up near where there was the migrant operation center. remember, there have been migrants sent to guantanamo bay, but they were interdicted at sea and were kept there for a very short amount of time. now there's a tent facility that is going up. it's

about multiple tents lined up. about 100 people could fit in each of those. now there are also daily flights on military aircraft that are being sent from the united states to guantanamo bay. i am told that there are at least seven flights that have gone out, and there are just under 100 migrants who have currently been transferred. now, all of this has raised questions, too, about who is being sent. we know it's been men, all venezuelan, and that their criminality ranges. what does that mean? well, some of them are members of the notorious gang jenin darrell issa, while others violated immigration law by crossing into the united states illegally. here's how a senior homeland security official put it, quote, every single alien at guantanamo bay has a final deportation order. that means they can be removed. all of these individuals committed a crime by entering the united states illegally. now, kate, of course, there are still so many more people that they are hoping to take to guantanamo, even as there's so much confusion and confusion about the logistics and the administration is already contending with two

lawsuits, one of which a federal judge blocked three men from being transferred to guantanamo bay. they weren't set to go, but they fit the profile, according to the attorneys that are representing them. and then another lawsuit filed just yesterday about lack of access, legal access to these detainees. so aclu and other immigrant rights groups requesting that they have access to those who have already been transferred, all of these still ongoing. >> all right, priscilla, thank you so much for your reporting. sara. >> all right. breaking overnight, a car plows into a crowd of demonstrators in munich, injuring at least 20. this is just hours before vice president vance arrives in that city for a security conference. and another potential benefit to one of the popular drugs used for weight loss. could it also cut down cravings for alcohol? that story ahead. >> aveeno introduces new daily moisturizing cream. it's clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 48 hours and

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>> taylor swift's. >> boyfriend we're talking. >> about here, but. >> could. >> the chiefs team dynasty be losing one of its centerpieces? that's what folks want to know. kelce spent 12 seasons in the nfl, all with the chiefs. and yesterday, he did not rule out retirement. now, kelce did break jerry rice's record for most career super bowl receptions on sunday, but he was a non-factor against philly, finishing with just four catches, 39 yards. and on his new heights podcast with his brother jason, the ten time pro bowler admitted to hanging up the cleats is a possibility. listen, i know everybody wants to know whether or not i'm playing next year, and right now i'm just kicking everything down the road. i'm kicking every can i can down the road, and i'm not making any crazy decisions. i think i'm going to take some time to figure it out, and i think i owe it to my teammates that if i do come back, uh, that it's going to be something that, um, it's a whole hearted decision. all right. to the nba for the second game of the lakers luka lebron era and

luka showing some razzle dazzle against the jazz. look at this pass to rui hachimura. that's sorcery. rui led the lakers with 19. how about this dish. luka driving to the rack behind the back to austin reeves who hits the 316 points for luka in just 23 minutes. lebron had 18 but it was not enough. utah steamrolling l.a. 131 119, snapping a six game win streak. the jazz's markkanen led the way with a game high 32 and a big payday for all star infielder alex bregman, according to multiple reports. the free agent agreeing to join john berman boston red sox on a three year, $120 million deal. the 30 year old spent his entire nine year career with the astros, helping them win two world series. bregman expected to move to second base with the sox. if berman is in the building, i would love to hear him, extoll our boy bregman without losing himself, tried to contain himself with his excitement. look at him why do. >> you do it, coy? i mean, i was

just going to compliment you on how sharp you look and like you look rested after, you know, your nights out in new orleans. and then you had to you had to jazz him on, bring him on. >> i know people don't want to hear from me. they want to hear from berman and his and his boston red sox. oh, yes. every time. >> it's great. ted berman, say what you got to say. >> do you know how hard it is to do, like a morning news show when you wake up to the news of a giant deal like this? i got to talk to jim clyburn in an hour, but all i want to do is read about alex bregman and process the deal. coy, thank you for that report. helping bring me up to speed on. >> coy. thank thank you, john. >> all right. does president trump understand money? the answer would appear to be no. that quote is from the wall street journal editorial board. and it claims the president might not be clear on how inflation and interest rates actually work. and this morning, at least five people are dead, many more injured after a deadly gas explosion at a shopping mall.

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>> anything can change the world. >> of work. >> from hr to payroll. adp designs for the next. anything. cnn business update is brought to you by adp. always designing for people. >> so new this morning word that efforts to build cases against institutions accused of scamming americans that those efforts are being kneecapped with the trump administration moves to dismantle the consumer financial protection bureau. let's get right to cnn. matt egan, for the latest on this. >> well. >> john. >> look. >> this is what it looks like when. >> a federal. >> regulator gets. >> paralyzed. we're learning that. multiple expert. >> witnesses that. >> had been hired by the consumer financial protection bureau, the cfpb, have had their contracts. terminated in recent days. >> these are. >> professors, researchers. >> and others that had been. hired by the cfpb to bring. cases against companies that have been accused of ripping. off consumers. now, one of. >> these experts.

>> told me that they were shocked because they had been working on this case for literally years. another one said, the richest man in the world is coming in to shut down a case where a lender is cheating working people. it's utterly outrageous. now that is, of course, a reference to elon musk, who has presided over this effort to sideline the consumer watchdog, the cfpb. remember, it was just a week ago or so that musk posted that message on his social media platform x, saying. r.i.p., cfpb with a tombstone emoji. nothing subtle about that. and really, that set off a whole series of actions at the cfpb. the staff were told to stop doing virtually all work, including fighting financial crime, effectively removing the cop from the beat. expert witnesses, probationary workers have been terminated. the headquarters has been shut down. workers were told not just to stay home and work at home, but not to do any work at all. and i've got to tell you, everyone

i talked to related to this cfpb situation, they're nervous, right? one expert witness told me they didn't want their name in print. this person said they're scared. they're don't know if someone's going to try to sue them. or perhaps send an fbi agent. and john, there's just this sense that there's more shoes that are going to drop on this front. >> just explain in general terms for people who may not have been around after the financial crash, why the cfpb is so important. >> yeah, i know there's this alphabet soup of regulators, but the cfpb is really the one that is supposed to be fighting for consumers when they get scammed by banks or mortgage lenders or credit card companies. it's a brainchild of elizabeth warren. it did come out after the great financial crisis. and it's gone after a number of companies that it has accused of doing bad things right, really ripping off consumers. most famously wells fargo, but also student lenders. it's accused bank of america of

opening fake accounts. essentially, it's gone after a number of different companies. now the problem, though, is that it's been so aggressive that it's become a target of the big banks. the white house argues that it's become weaponized. i talked to isaac boltansky, a policy analyst. he said, look, the trump administration, they can't delete the cfpb, but they can hollow it out. and he said, that's what we're seeing in real time. >> all right, matt egan, thanks for explaining it. >> thanks, john. >> all right sarah. >> all right. breaking news. a driver has been arrested now after plowing his car into a crowd of protesters in munich. at least 20 people have been injured there. and it all happened just hours before vice president jd vance arrives in the city for a major security conference there. cnn producer sebastian szukala joins us now with the very latest on this. what are you hearing this morning? i know there is still a very active scene behind you. >> yeah, the scene behind me, sarah, as you can see, is of one still of chaos and detritus left all over the floor. what we do know now is that a 24 year old

asylum seeker, originally from afghanistan, has now been arrested and is the perpetrator. he drove that white car, that white mini that you can see there and left this chaos behind him. you can even see a pushchair there. and it is believed that one of the injured, very heavily and very badly injured is a is a child and just after the attack happened, we had a senior bavarian politician come down here, marcus doe. and he said that he suspected that this was also an attack without offering any other evidence. but the issue of attacks here in germany is becoming one that is a very, very serious one and ever more prominent as we get closer to an election here with immigration, in particular illegal immigration becoming a main political issue. but as you mentioned, sarah, and as you can probably see, this is a busy junction or what would be a busy junction, and it is crawling with police officers. and in fact, the entire city is crawling with police officers from outside restaurants, into

the pedestrian areas, into the old city, around the hotels. because we have a major international conference going on here. like you said, vice president jd vance is coming. the secretary of state, marco rubio, will also be here, along with other delegations and other heads of state from around the world for the munich security conference. so, as expected, you would you would expect to see an increased police presence. so the one of the questions that will be asked now is how did this attack happen with so many police officers here? >> sarah said, i know that you will be staying on this. there are a lot of questions as to what the motive was of this person who rammed into all those 20 people, including, as you said, there was a pram there. it looks like a child also caught up in this horrific attack or accident. we just don't know yet. i know you'll stay on it. we appreciate your time there. from munich, germany. kate. >> also this morning, russia's foreign minister is now speaking out about the future of the war with ukraine after president

trump said negotiations to end it will start immediately. now donald trump and vladimir putin, they spoke on the phone for 90 minutes yesterday. trump described it as a highly productive phone call, and also said that he could soon meet with vladimir putin in saudi arabia. cnn's fred pleitgen is in moscow for us. he's joining us now. and, fred, as i mentioned, now, russia's foreign minister is speaking out. what is he saying? >> yeah. kate, i was just at. >> a press conference with the russian foreign minister a couple minutes. >> ago, and i. >> asked him whether or not he believes that now there will be a. >> true improvement. >> in u.s. russian relations. >> and he used that to launch into a tirade against. >> the biden administration. >> against the u.s .'s european allies, before then making a turn and. >> praising president trump for. >> this phone call. >> saying that both. >> president trump and the russian president. >> were polite and well mannered. >> individuals having a conversation. >> about the future. >> of the relations. so obviously, for the russians, this is all very important. but kate, one. >> of. the things. >> that we need to point out is just. >> the vibe. >> here on the ground in moscow.

>> since that phone. >> conversation happened. the russians now very much in the. >> mode where they want. >> things to happen very quickly. >> they want talks very. very quickly. they want. >> improvements with the u.s. very quickly. the kremlin. >> came out earlier today in a conference. >> call with journalists. >> and said that they were very impressed. >> by president trump's positions on the ukraine conflict and also generally. towards russia. the russians are already saying that they're putting. together teams to. >> try. >> and lead those negotiations with the trump administration. >> obviously. >> right now. >> the vibe that they're. >> getting here. >> is. that they believe. >> they now have a president in the white house. >> who understands. >> russia, who backs russia's positions in many ways. and they also feel that. >> the u.s .'s. >> european allies. >> have been weakened in all of this. and. >> of course. >> ukraine has been weakened as well. >> fred pleitgen, always great to have you. thank you so much for being there and for your reporting, fred. sarah. >> all right. joining me now, democratic congressman from new york, gregory meeks. he is the top ranking democrat on the house foreign affairs committee. i want to read you a headline. our stephen collinson has put

out. our political analyst. he says u.s. relations with europe will never be the same. after trump's call with putin. do you agree? yeah. >> look. >> if you. >> listen to donald trump. you would think that russia was america's ally. >> and our nato friends were our enemies. >> donald trump. >> is with russia. >> we knew. all along. because russia's been punished. ukraine has been. >> winning this war. the only thing. >> that putin. >> has been trying. >> to do is to hold. >> on and. >> pray for. >> and that's. >> what's taking place. so it's upside down. >> and i would hope. >> my republican allies, my. >> republican colleagues. >> i should say in congress who. >> were allies. >> with nato and. >> ukraine. >> their voices now need to. >> be heard. >> you know, we. >> traveled to ukraine. >> together. >> collectively talking. >> about russia and their illegal. >> invasion and. >> the. killing of.

>> innocent ukrainians. >> and that invasion, we were there. the first caudell i led. >> to you, ukraine. >> and to. poland right after the invasion. >> and we saw. >> all. >> of the ukrainians. >> running for their lives. and we were locked in step. democrats and republicans. we need those republican voices now in congress to stand up. >> to go. back at. >> donald trump, because. >> he is utilizing. and looks like taking. putin as our ally. and when they're not, as opposed to. our real allies. >> nato and our european allies. >> i was in ukraine myself. i saw some of the horrific destruction and the families that were literally blown apart from, but from what you are seeing now, is the united states going to abandon ukraine look. >> from. >> what i'm seeing and hearing, i mean, it's. >> the same. >> thing that. >> we heard in the first trump administration. >> he sided. >> with russia, then. almost on everything. remember, he was even giving russia a national.

security and confidential information in the white house. so he wants to abandon, apparently, ukraine. >> and that's. >> why i call on my republican colleagues to stand up and to fight. >> back on this. this is our. >> job as members of the legislature. >> i talked. >> to a number of ukrainian legislators who was visiting. here in the capitol. >> just this. >> week, and they. >> were asking in a by for. >> bipartisan support to continue. >> to support ukraine, because we see. >> that when we do support ukraine, they win their fighting there. you know, you look at the number of. individuals on the russian side who have been killed, and you look at their economy, they're on the verge of losing the only way that they don't. >> lose is. >> if we don't support ukraine. >> and so. >> we're at a i don't know how the president of the united states could say, this war is going to go over and do negotiations with russia without ukraine. it would seem to me.

>> it. >> would be the opposite. the pressure should be put on russia to not take territory. but the truth of the matter is, i guess trump and putin talk the same language because as putin is invading european allies and moving forward, we know he's not going to just stop at ukraine. we hear this crazy conversations that our own president is talking about taking greenland to go and taking panama, you know, going taking over gaza. so they seem to be talking the same language. and that's my concern. we are the united states of america. we are not russia. >> let me ask you about that, because you just mentioned some of the places that the president said that the u.s. is going to to take greenland gaza and the panama canal, or take back when he talked about the panama canal. but americans voted for donald trump, who told them what he was going to do pretty much when it came to wars that he was going to pull out of any war, that he didn't want american tax

dollars being spent to help any foreign wars or what he called lifelong foreign wars. so isn't this what the public voted for? >> well, no. i think that what the public voted for, they wanted that they wanted the price of groceries to go down. they wanted inflation to go down. they were talking about their average everyday lives. they wanted the cost of gas to go down. and we see that the president is not delivering on any of that. they never thought that, you know, their focus were on their domestic issues. and this president has not looked at any of that. they never thought that he would take over greenland or do some of the crazy things that he's talking about right now. gaza. uh, but project 2025, when you looked at the foreign aspect of it and we urged individuals to to make sure that they read it and looked at it and digested it, then you could see who he is and

what he would move forward. and i think that it is important that congress, in a bipartisan way, we need our republican colleagues. they did not intend for him to do or go in the direction that he's going in right now. they should stand up. i mean, there were so many of them that were united. we locked arms and arms meeting with president biden, talking about making sure that ukraine had all of the ammunition and everything that it needed. it still does. and i would hope that those individuals that advocated for it, including the secretary of state, advocates for it. right now, it is their moral, but not only moral. i believe it is their responsibility, their legislative responsibility to stand up to this president because we are a body that's supposed to oversee what the president is and his policies are moving forward on foreign policy as well as domestic policy. >> as you have seen, they have

capitulated on just about everything when it comes to what donald trump wants so far. we will see what happens in the future. representative gregory meeks, thank you so much for coming on this morning. appreciate your time. kate. >> coming up for us, new evidence that popular weight loss drugs like ozempic may have other important benefits that come with it. when it comes to alcohol, what is it about that drug? we'll get to it. and elon musk brings his son for his oval office press conference. and now that child's mother is speaking out, quote, he should not be in public like this.

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the bad. the news is newsy. even more than ever. >> what's the good news? >> we're doing another season of have i got news for you. >> have i got news for you. returns saturday at nine on cnn. >> on rafael romo at. >> the georgia state capitol in atlanta. this is. >> cnn. >> so there's new research out about the wildly popular new category of weight loss drugs. and the research showing medicines like ozempic could have another benefit curbing cravings for alcohol. cnn's meg tirrell has more. >> well, we've heard. >> from. >> people who are. >> taking. >> ozempic and similar. >> medicines that. >> they not only. >> reduce the amount of. >> food that they want. >> to. >> eat. >> but also for. >> some people. >> they can reduce the amount. >> of. >> alcohol that. >> they feel. >> like drinking. >> but this really hadn't. >> been studied in an organized way until now. so in this new clinical trial, they looked at 48 people who reported having signs of sort of moderate alcohol use disorder, and they put half of the people on

ozempic low doses of ozempic and half on a placebo. and over nine weeks they monitored how much alcohol they drank and also their cravings for alcohol. and what they found is a significant effect on both the amount of alcohol they drank and how much they craved it. in fact, at the end of the nine weeks, people on semaglutide or ozempic drank about 40% less alcohol than those on placebo. and now they think that this might be working in this way, because we know that these medicines work not just in the gut, but also in the brain. and there might be an effect on sort of the reward system around things like alcohol. interestingly, they also looked at cigarette use in the trial among about 13 people who reported also smoking. now that's a very small sample size, but what they saw is that over the course of the nine weeks, people on ozempic reported smoking fewer cigarettes per day as well. now, this needs to be borne out in larger and longer clinical trials before these drugs could be prescribed widely for things like alcohol use disorder or

smoking cessation. and additional trials are underway. but this is really sort of the first study that we've seen in this really organized way to show this effect. and so there is hope that these medicines could add to an arsenal of addiction treatment, which unfortunately, has been fairly lacking. >> all right. this morning, severe weather warnings across the country, evacuation alerts have been issued in california over the threat of mudslides. let's get right to cnn meteorologist allison chinchar. you got a lot on your plate this morning, allison. >> yes we do. yeah. we take a look at this big system. >> here that you can see sliding into the west coast, not just for california. other states will see the impact here as well. but flooding is going to be the biggest concern and certainly most widespread. you've got all of these flood watches in effect for this area and even a few flash flood warnings. you can see just south of san francisco here near the santa clara and santa cruz area, just heavy rain constantly coming into that area. but they're not alone. look at this. the entire swath of the state of california is getting some type of precipitation up

and down the coast. it's also spreading into oregon as well as nevada. other states here, too. it's also the snow component. we've talked about the rain, but the snow is also going to be quite significant. you've got all of these winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings. some of these spots could have snowfall up to eight feet, not inches, feet of snow. by the time this system is all said and done, wind is also going to be a component. so take a lot of that snow that's coming down and it's being blown around. that's going to reduce visibility down to pretty much zero in some spots. because you're looking at some of those wind gusts up around 60 to 80mph. now when we look at this system as a whole, it's going to last pretty much throughout the entire day today with very few breaks for a lot of these spots. so it's just that constant moisture that's trailing into a lot of these areas even through most of the day friday, you still have a lot of that moisture that lingers. so it's the nonstop nature of this over the next 24 to 36 hours, you've also got that potential for all of the flooding, not just in northern california, but even stretching

down into southern california, even around the los angeles area. here you have that moderate risk, that level three out of four for the excessive rainfall. and one of the big concerns here, again, is from those fires, you have those burn scar areas that could lead to landslides and even some mudslides around those particular regions. so that's going to be another concern, especially the volume of rain that we're talking about here. widespread totals of 3 to 5in, but some spots not out of the question to pick up half a foot of rain. >> just the wild weather extremes we've seen out west. allison chinchar, thank you very much for that. sarah. >> thank you john. this is terrifying. a gas explosion at a shopping mall in taiwan. the view from the traffic outside as the walls blast open. it killed at least five people. officials say it happened in a food court that was under construction on the 12th floor. you see it blowing out there and you can hear it. terrifying. about 20 more people were hurt and hundreds had to be evacuated from the area. all right. this

is crazy. stuart o'leary is minding his business and doing his job as a bus driver in washington state. when he's shuttling around the school's basketball team. and suddenly a piece of metal flies through his windshield. oh, good god. but he didn't freak out. he gently guided the bus to safety. i mean, you hear that? he's like, oh, that hurt. he even managed to take a picture of the damage as he was being loaded into the ambulance. and get this, by the way, this man, superman, he's already back on the job driving that bus again. no complaints. wow. all right. multiple sources are telling cnn that elon musk's social media company, x, has settled a lawsuit brought by president trump over being deplatformed over the january 6th insurrection. the lawsuit dismissed monday, according to court filings. and each side will cover its own legal fees. trump sued in 2021, when the company was called twitter, arguing that his speech was being unfairly censored.

surprise, surprise, it's all over now. trump settled a similar lawsuit, by the way, with meta for about 25 million bucks. john. >> i want to talk about the bus driver. i was one cool cat. i want him on my side. nothing fazes that guy. >> he's like, oh, and then he just kept driving and got everybody's safety. he's amazing. >> and very impressive. all right. for the first time, the ex-girlfriend of elon musk is speaking out after their four year old son made an appearance with his father in the oval office. cnn's sunlen serfaty has the details. >> x, are you okay? >> from the oval. >> office. >> this is x, and he's a great guy. high iq. >> to rally. >> stages. >> i'm sorry. >> little x just followed me on the stage here. he's he's a very enthusiastic supporter. >> as you can see. >> woo. >> exclusive events at mar-a-lago. and even. >> in the halls of congress. >> mr. musk, what is doge. >> one of elon musk's sons, x has made quite the political debut with his father.

>> yeah. >> we're going to do great things here. thank you. >> eager to promenade him before cameras into some of the most powerful and high level centers of washington. >> and his son's name, who's cute as a button. his son's name is x. he's the only guy who could get away with the name x. >> musk's latest move bringing x into the oval office for an executive order signing this week, creating moments of levity. >> is to restore democracy. >> in musk. all too happy to engage with his son for the cameras? >> well, if you don't have a feedback loop for. >> x. >> we'd have to. if you it's all right, i'll tell you. gravitas can be difficult sometimes. >> but x's mother, canadian singer grimes, making it clear she does not approve of how her former boyfriend is using their son, calling it, quote, a personal tragedy, and directly

responded to x's oval office appearance, saying on x that she was only made aware of it after seeing it on social media. he should not be in the public like this, she said. but i'm glad he was polite. sigh. even as musk continues to elevate the high profile moment, retweeting picture after picture, even one, making the comparison to the famous photo of jfk and his son around the resolute desk. >> its states. >> of america. >> musk shares two other children with grimes and 12 in all, with two other women. some of his other kids joining him in the spotlight, to. >> punish him with the agency heads. and. and i checked previously with the president to make sure that, you know. >> for musk, these moments, while endearing, could also be seen as calculated. >> i'm sorry for this. i thought my son might enjoy this, but he's sticking his fingers in my ears and stuff. it's been hard to hear sometimes. hey, stop that! >> distractions from the realities of his political wake. >> the people voted for major government reform. and that's

what the people are going to get. >> and to that point, elon musk has called his son x, his cuteness prop and his emotional support human. musk, of course, is known for being a man that's very intentional with his image, very controlling of every aspect of that image. and so certainly there is an awareness of how he is coming across with this. meantime, x's mom has also picked up on this pattern of musk bringing their son into a lot of these public, powerful moments. she said she believes that musk sees him as his protege. sunlen serfaty, cnn, washington. >> all right. our thanks to sunlen. new this morning, hamas says it will release israeli hostages as planned after positive talks with mediators. it says earlier this week, hamas accused israel of violating the fragile gaza ceasefire deal and said it would delay saturday's hostage release. cnn's jeremy diamond is in tel aviv. this does come after donald trump, you know, threatened to to rain

hell down on them or all hell is going to break loose there if they do not return all of the hostages by saturday. what do you know? >> well. >> it certainly. >> seems like things are getting back on track for this ceasefire to continue. hamas now saying that they will indeed release three hostages. >> as scheduled. >> this saturday. >> less than. >> 48 hours after they said that they would not. citing a series of israeli ceasefire violations. we also saw the israeli prime minister, of course, saying that israel would abandon this cease fire, return to the fight in gaza if indeed hamas did not release hostages this coming saturday. but what has happened over the course of the last 48 hours have been intense discussions involving the mediators egypt, qatar as well as hamas and israel. the mediators have been working to resolve this dispute on hamas's side in terms of the amount of aid that has been going into gaza, in particular, this issue about mobile homes that were supposed to go into the gaza

strip to provide better shelter for displaced palestinians inside of gaza and on the israeli side, of course, ensuring that hamas will indeed release hostages this coming saturday. i've been pinging a number of israeli sources right now, and they are declining to say whether israel will actually abide by the terms of the ceasefire. if hamas releases three hostages. but one israeli official telling me that there is no appetite inside the leadership of the israeli government to abandon this cease fire at the moment, and that it seems like everything is heading in the direction of a resolution here and of israel sticking to the terms of the ceasefire. as long as hamas releases those three israeli hostages. keep in mind that even as the israeli prime minister made that ultimatum, he did not go as far as trump in terms of saying all hostages must be released this saturday for this ceasefire agreement to continue. he kept that vague just talking about our hostages. an israeli source had previously told us that israel was seeking nine hostages to be released by saturday, but it does seem at this point that