>> there are. i've seen it at many a ski mountain. but you know what i'm going to say. >> no. >> you do not get an a for effort on this one, i really can't. i was going to try. >> and you were trying to be kind. and i did not let. >> you can not. >> be disappointed. >> exactly. you want to talk about snow? we've got a lot of it over here, though. more than 100 million, 100 million people are under cold weather alerts this morning. temperatures are plunging all over the place and plunging by as much as 50 degrees below normal in parts of the u.s. at least 27 states are now expected to see record lows. cnn's derek van dam tracking all of this for us. um, and derek, conditions. they're getting particularly tough in kentucky right now, which honestly, kentucky needs no more harsh weather for quite some time. >> i didn't think it could get worse. >> but we. >> had warned. >> about this for the past couple of days. >> after this. >> past weekend's flooding. now we're seeing heavy snowfall in some of those. >> same hard. >> impacted areas. here's a look at the roads. >> across portions. of kentucky

right now as our snowstorm continues. >> it's ongoing. >> especially over the eastern. >> portions of the state. >> now moving towards portions. >> of the mid-atlantic virginia into virginia beach. >> and. norfolk could. >> see 8. >> to. >> 12in. >> of snowfall before it's all said and done, this will be one of their largest snowfalls in several seasons. now we still have our cresting rivers across the state of kentucky, specifically into the ohio river valley. and this area, again with fresh blankets of snow in the cold arctic air that is descending on the region will complicate the recovery efforts that are ongoing. we have our extreme cold alerts stretching from the border of canada all the way to mexico. and as promised, they are moving eastward. this is just incredible. these are record morning low temperatures. and when you start talking about breaking temperatures in bismarck, north dakota, -39. we mean business. this is extremely cold. dangerously cold kate. >> absolutely. derek, thank you so much. we've got a lot coming at us in the next couple of days, that's for sure. a new hour of cnn news central starts now.

>> reaching for unprecedented power. president trump seeks a near takeover of departments long considered independent. major news developing over the last few minutes, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy seems to have had enough of president trump trying to rewrite history. he says president trump, unfortunately lives in a disinformation space, and a woman now suing a fertility clinic after an ivf mixup allegedly led to her giving birth to another couple's biological child. i'm john berman with kate baldwin and sara sidner. this is cnn news central. >> the new move by the white house to further centralize federal power and set that power squarely under the direction of president trump. overnight, he signed another executive order,

but this time trying to make independent agencies blatantly less independent, allowing him to assert executive control over agencies specifically created by congress decades ago to have separation from to be separate from a president. we're talking about agencies like the sec regulating wall street, the fcc regulating radio, tv communications providers, and the ftc regulating consumer protections. bottom line, the white house is now trying to get more control over the plans, the priorities and the budgets of these agencies. cnn's alayna treene is at the white house. she has got much more of this. walk us through what the white house is trying to do and what the white house is saying about this. >> right. well, kate, this was a sweeping executive order that president donald trump signed yesterday. and as you mentioned, it is really trying to get these independent regulatory agencies, as you mentioned, ones that congress designed decades ago, to operate independently of the

white house. this order would bring them directly under white house control. now, a key thing, of course, is that this order is likely to face significant legal challenges, similar to the other orders that the president has signed. so stay tuned for that. but just to get a little bit more into this, the order suggests that the president's power has direct control over the country's major trade, communications, financial regulatory regulators, including the federal trade commission, the federal communications commission and the securities and exchange commission, among other agencies that you can see up there on the board, all of these, again, that were designed to operate separately from the white house. and just to give you a little context as well, what some of these agencies do, i mean, they were designed to protect american consumers. they regulate banks, stocks. wall street more broadly, but also have the power to impose fines on companies that don't follow suit with some of these laws. now, i do want to read for you just a line from this order that i think kind of perfectly kind

of sums up what this is trying to do. it says, quote, for all for the federal government to be truly accountable to the american people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people's elected president, essentially, kate, this this line in this order and what we know it's trying to do is just the latest example of the president, but also many of the people, many of his allies in the trump administration more broadly, trying to move to really push the boundaries of the power that the executive branch has and really centralize that power into the white house and the oval office. and just one other very quick thing i want to mention, kate, is russell vought role in all of this. he is donald trump's chief budget director, but he was also an architect of project 2025. one of the key things that he talked about for years now has been trying to expand the power of the executive branch. this order would actually give him the supervising power to oversee some of these different regulatory agencies. so another

thing to keep an eye on as well. kate. >> absolutely. elena, thank you so much. sara. >> all right. let's discuss this and more with defense attorney and former federal prosecutor shan wu. thank you so much for being here this morning. i'm curious from your perspective, is the law clear or not, about what power the executive office has over these regulatory agencies that congress established as independent? michelle king? >> yeah. >> i think the. >> law. >> is clear. as you just said, congress established. >> them as being independent. >> and it. >> was established. >> that way. >> for a reason. which is to give them the autonomy from the political winds that you don't want. these sorts of important bulwarks for the safety, for the confidentiality of the american people and things like the financial markets. you don't want that to upend itself every four years. you want continuity from it. that's why it was designed that way. so i think that is very, very clear.

there's a lot of complexities as to each individual regulatory body. so i don't even think that getting to supreme court on one fell swoop is going to solve all the questions. but i think the law is clear. i think they were meant to be independent. so this would be a violation of that. >> all right. i want to move on to the power of doge. and what we are seeing, um, in that realm, federal judge tanya chutkan declined to block musk and his team from gaining access to the data of seven government agencies, arguing, um, the democratic ag attorneys general didn't show specific examples of how doge is causing states irreparable harm. what do you make of this ruling, and what does this say about the power of that agency that has been created by the trump administration? >> uh, this, i think, is a great example of a very good judge,

uh, applying the law. and the law is coming up short on addressing this really unprecedented challenge to the system, so to speak. what her point was about whether to do this temporary freeze, which is a tro, a little bit different than a preliminary injunction, uh, but the tro is meant to be very short in duration, and it's really meant to freeze the situation where things are just happening too fast. harm might happen too quickly. that seems to me looking at from the outside is exactly the kind of situation we have. i mean, there's such unprecedented access that there's the potential for enormous harm, that you can't put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. but legally speaking, her decision can be seen as sound because she's saying, look, i get the fact that you're worried. i, as a judge, may be worried, but i need very specific instances to meet the legal standard for harm. so that's what makes it very challenging. case. common sense is, oh, my gosh, there's tons of harm going on here. and legally,

she's being very specific and saying, i need to see more. even though she was quite critical of the government for essentially not knowing what doge was doing or even, frankly, what it is. >> yeah. um, there is a transparency issue, even though they keep saying they're transparent there, there isn't a lot of information. the judge pointing that out, um, we are seeing another major resignation at the doj, the u.s. attorney's office criminal chief has resigned. why do you why is that happening? and what troubles you about this resignation? >> uh, it's troubling because first of all, that was my home office, so i'm very familiar with it. i kind of grew up there as a young prosecutor, and knowing i don't know her personally, but someone who's been there for such a long time, it really signals the grave alarm. there is among career prosecutors, not political appointees, but people have been there through many different iterations of an administration. democratic and republican, from the public reporting, it seems

as though it's something that she just found to be unconscionable that she was being asked to open up a criminal investigation as a means of perhaps harassing or furthering a political end. but as a prosecutor, she just didn't have the necessary prerequisite evidence to even commence that investigation. and that's why she was saying no. and then she had no choice but to resign if not to follow the order she felt was illegal. >> shan wu, thank you so much for talking through all of that with us. appreciate you john. >> all right. we are standing by for white house reaction after ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy accused president trump of living in a disinformation space. the numbers double in the west texas measles outbreak, now wreaking havoc across two states. and could the future of nascar be electric? a sneak peek at the first ever electric race car.

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free trial today at stamps.com. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you? news saturday on cnn. >> some tough pushback this morning from ukrainian president zelenskyy after the initial talks between the united states and russia in saudi arabia to end russia's war on ukraine. talks that did not include ukraine. zelenskyy saying this quote, where are we at this negotiation table? putin is waging this war inside ukraine. putin is killing ukrainians, not americans and not europeans. our

pain is immense and cannot be negotiated without us. the frustration from the ukrainian leader very palpable after president trump on tuesday left little distance between himself and the kremlin in falsely claiming that ukraine started the war when it was very clearly russia that invaded. >> i think i have the power to end this war, and i think it's going very well. but today i heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. well, you've been there for three years. you should have ended it three years. you should have never started it. you could have made a deal. >> joining us right now, democratic senator from delaware, chris. he sits on basically every relevant committee when it comes to what we're talking about. foreign relations, judiciary probes, all of them. let's start here, though, senator, because you have the president saying that, and then you also have president zelenskyy this morning saying this. let me play this for you. >> unfortunately, president trump, i have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that

we have great respect for the american people who always support us. unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space. >> zelenskyy saying that donald trump lives in this disinformation space. i mean, no matter the frustration here, do you think it's smart for zelenskyy in this moment to be challenging trump so publicly? >> look, president. >> zelenskyy has. >> shown he has real courage. three years ago, putin began this war of aggression by sending. >> hundreds of thousands. >> of russian troops into ukraine. they've committed atrocities. they've conquered roughly 20% of the country. and instead of rolling over zelenskyy and kyiv in the first few days, as putin expected and intended, they have fought fiercely. and for every step of the way, the united states and our european allies and partners have been there with them. in fact, the europeans have contributed more than we have in military support, economic support, humanitarian support. and so i think it's appropriate

for president zelenskyy, whose people have fought so hard and so many of whom have died for their freedom to be at the table alongside our european partners and allies as we negotiate a peace deal. it's pretty easy to imagine what that deal would look like. it would require president trump to simply show that he knows what peace through strength means, because we do have the upper hand here strengthening sanctions against russia, strengthening our military support for ukraine, standing arm in arm with ukraine and europe. we could force an end to this war on terms that are good for ukraine. instead, president trump seems poised to betray ukraine and abandon europe. that would make him the biggest loser of the 21st century. he would be picking the team that includes iran, north korea, china and russia over the team that is ukraine and our trusted and loyal allies of 75 years france, germany, the uk, italy, who served and fought

alongside us. this would be a tragic error of immense proportions. >> do you think with that, do you think ukraine is going to get a good deal in the end? do you think ukraine is going to win this war in the end? when these negotiations are finished? >> look, the only way for putin to lose would be for him to have nato expand. that's already happened. there's two new nato members for him to pay an enormous economic and human cost for this war. that's already happening. and to prevent him from restarting this war in a few short months or years. that's the key point. if trump drives a tough bargain here and secures the future for ukraine, he can still win this for ukraine. that doesn't necessarily mean they will recover all of their sovereign territory in the short term. but sidelining putin, keeping him a pariah, not letting him claim victory on the ground or on tv

is a key piece of this. and whether or not that happens is in the hands of a small group of republican senators who were with me at munich, and who say they will stand by ukraine. we'll see what they do this week. >> when you say making sure that vladimir putin remains a pariah, we also heard zelenskyy say that what donald trump is doing is bringing him back out of isolation. donald trump is. i think he can guarantee one thing is he is not going to say vladimir putin is a pariah. >> that's correct. and that's why it is so alarming. the direction that trump is already taking by reaching out to putin directly, by having private negotiations with him, by sitting down, having his national security advisor and special envoy and secretary of state sit across the table in saudi arabia with lavrov, the foreign minister of russia, without ukraine, without europe. these are alarming initial

steps. he's also tried to force on ukraine an extractive minerals deal. and so zelenskyy so far is standing firm. i think there's a real chance that both the ukrainians and russians keep fighting. while there is a lot of talk, but the initial moves that president trump is making suggest that he doesn't want peace through strength. he wants chaos through weakness. by welcoming putin back onto the world stage. >> another move that the the president is making is through another executive order that happened overnight, a sweeping executive order i want to ask you about, which is essentially pulling, trying to pull under white house control agencies that were created by congress decades ago to be separate and independent of any president. the fcc, the fcc, the ftc, all looking at these are those agencies that work towards consumer protections and

regulation. what is this going to do? >> well, this was an issue i focused on in justice kavanaugh's confirmation hearings. the unitary executive, a theory that justice kavanaugh and other conservatives had advanced for years, which suggests that the president should be much more powerful than i think the framers ever intended. if the supreme court overturns a decades old precedent called humphrey's executor, it would hand president trump even more power to shut down federal agencies, to lay off thousands of people to direct their regulatory actions in ways that have not been part of our government for decades. and i think would be a dangerous abdication of the supreme court's responsibility to keep in place some of the core guardrails of our modern democracy. >> senator chris. senator, thank you for coming in. john. >> thank you. kate. >> all right. new this morning. officials say a new round of firings could begin at any

moment after pentagon agencies now were told to submit a list of employees to elon musk, an eight people went missing after trying to hike up the world's most active volcano without a guide. >> our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives were tragically taken. the dots all start to connect together. >> somebody did. this purposely to these people. >> lockerbie. >> the bombing of. >> pan am flight 103. >> sunday at nine on. >> cnn. >> bukavu. >> and doug. >> you'll be back. >> emus can't help people customize and save hundreds on car insurance. >> with liberty mutual. >> you're just a. >> flightless bird. no, he's a dreamer, frank. >> and doug. >> well, i'll be. that bird really did it. >> only pay for what you need. >> liberty, liberty, liberty,

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>> of probationary employees all across the. dod for potential termination. and those lists were due by the end of the day yesterday. now, it's unclear at this point just how many civilian employees throughout the pentagon this is going to affect federal probationary employment, as you see, there typically lasts one year. it can be extended to 2 or 3 years, but by and large, the employees that are potentially going to be fired have been in their job for about a year, and therefore they have less protections and they have less of an ability to appeal their firing. so essentially, it is a lot easier to do away and fire these employees than other employees who have been there longer. and that is likely the point. right. and so it's unclear just how many are going to be impacted by this. the department of defense has approximately 950,000 civilian employees currently working for the dod service. members, members of the military who are currently active duty.

they are exempt from this broad attempt by the trump administration to fire a large swath of federal employees, but still civilian employees, throughout the entire department of defense. they hold extremely critical national security jobs in many instances. and so what the department has had to do and the combatant commands, which are the major military commands across the globe, are trying to do right now, is figure out which employees could potentially be exempt from this order because they carry out such crucial national security functions, including intelligence, cyber security. so that is what they're trying to do right now. but by the end of this week, we could see major swaths of people terminated across the department of defense. john. >> interesting. in some cases, we've been reading about elon musk's team firing people and then having to bring them back on after they realize they went too far. be curious to see if that happens here. natasha bertrand in washington, thank you very much, sarah. >> all right. just ahead, brazilian officials say they've uncovered evidence of a attempted coup at its center.

the brazil's former president, jair bolsonaro, and plus, his ratings have tanked with independents and democrats. but with republicans, president trump never more popular than ever. we will discuss the numbers ahead. >> the whole story with anderson cooper is a five time emmy winner for long form journalism. >> this week. >> microsoft founder. >> bill gates joins. anderson for. >> a special one on one. the whole story. >> with anderson. >> cooper sunday at eight. >> on cnn. >> you'll love this. centrum silver is clinically proven to support memory in older adults, so you can keep saying you mastered it. you fixed it, you nailed it. you did it. with centrum silver clinically proven to support memory in older adults. >> with fast signs, create factory grade visual solutions to perfect your process. fast

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reporter, harry enten is here. he needs no explanation or introduction. he's just going to give us the numbers. the normal rule of politics is if you win independents, you win the electorate. so what is happening with the numbers? >> what is. >> going on here? >> well. >> donald trump is doing his best. frank sinatra interpretation. >> or impersonation. >> going my way. >> okay. trump's net approval rating overall. look at this. he's at plus three points. he's been above water. he's been above water his entire first term or second term. excuse me. look, among independents though, he's. >> way underwater. >> he's way underwater. >> he's at. >> minus ten points. >> normally you win independents. >> therefore you win the middle. but in fact, trump is doing the exact opposite. he is winning overall, but losing among independents. and this looks an awful bit like what happened in the fall election, where of course, kamala harris won among independents. but donald trump won overall. trump is repeating this playbook, breaking history, doing poorly with independents, but doing considerably better

than he did in term number one overall. being above water. >> okay, so what is the reason for this that he's posting? basically, overall he's up. but you're seeing this. and what's the reason? >> this makes no sense you might think. but what's going on here. well first off what's going on here is remember in term one there was all that big opposition to donald trump. democrats hated him. well, right now, trump's net approval rating among democrats is underwater. way underwater at -78 points. but the trump base, the trump base is consolidated behind the republican president to an extent that we really did not necessarily see in term number one. look at this. his net approval rating is 84 points. so more republicans are behind donald trump than democrats are opposed to donald trump. and that is lifting him up and giving him that positive net approval rating, despite the fact that he's losing among democrats and losing among independents. >> so are there other groups in this that are making this, you know, different? independents? democrats? republicans? isn't

that everybody? >> yeah, that is everybody. but it's not just the margins that you post among these groups. it's what percentage of the electorate that they make up. and donald trump and the republican party has changed the electorate. what do i mean by that? well, let's take a look at party identification. democrats versus republicans. you go back to 2017, five points more of the electorate was democrats than republicans. you go to 2021 when joe biden was starting out. look at that. six points. more of the electorate was democrats than republicans. but look at what's happened in february of 2025. look at this, republicans. there are more republicans in the electorate than there are democrats. republican plus two. so donald trump and the republicans have remade the electorate. they've turned some people over from being democrats or independents to become republicans. new folks have entered the electorate who are more republican leaning. and so when you combine that with the fact that republicans are really, really behind donald trump, all of a sudden you get a winning recipe whereby you break the normal rules of politics and give donald trump that positive net approval rating when he had pretty much a consistently

negative one in term number one. as i said at the beginning, he's copying frank sinatra, doing it my way. >> um, i just want to remark on how you have meg the stallion knees, because the fact that you could go that low. >> i can go low, i can go high. that's an elon musk. >> he has no idea what i'm talking about right now with megan stallion. but we will move on and send it over to kate. >> thank you very much. let's turn to this president trump and special government employee elon musk sat down with fox news for a joint interview last night. trump touting musk's role with doge as serious questions have been raised over who is really running the thing. >> you write a beautiful executive and you sign it and you assume it's going to be done, but it's not. what he does is he takes it. and with his 100 geniuses, he's got some very brilliant young people working for him that dress much worse than him, actually. they dress in just t-shirts. you wouldn't know they have 180 iq. >> so he's he's your tech

support. >> no, no he is, but he's much more than that. >> i actually am tech support though. >> but he gets it done. he's a leader. yeah he really is. he gets it done. >> he's a leader. he gets it done. but we still don't know who's in charge of doge. joining us right now is makenna kelly. she's a senior writer with politics writer with with wired. thank you so much for being here. you guys just did a deep dive yourself on this question that's been raised through legal filings. and then from statements from the white house of who is the administrator of and who is in charge of doge. what did you find? >> yeah. so people have been asking this question ever since that executive order was signed on january 20th. even talking to legacy usps employees who were there prior to elon musk taking over, they have been asking their managers who is their boss, and every single time they are met with a i don't know, it could be somebody else. >> is this part of your your your piece? i really jumped on, which is you've spoken to the people in the office that doge took over and they don't know who is running it. >> no, they don't know who is running it. they don't know. no one signed their termination

letters, which was a question where this kind of got a lot. people were more wanting an answer. right. because they're like, who? who fired me? but ever since the department of government efficiency, the so-called department of government efficiency, opened up the doge people, the steve davis's, the stephanie m homes, everyone that musk brought in with him to doge has basically they basically set up a firewall between themselves and the legacy employees there. so they there's like zero contact. i think there's only been one meeting with their hr person where doge was actually speaking with people who have been there for years at this point. >> why the confusion and the vagaries and the muddiness around? this is a key question. kara swisher was on last night, and she said she thinks it's intentional, which is when things get messed up, then you can't say it's on elon musk. >> yeah. >> what do you think? >> yeah. look at all the lawsuits that have already been

submitted and filed on behalf of, like, uh, employee groups, unions, all kinds of things. and if elon musk was the administrator, which they're saying he's not, he could be liable for those things. and i guess making that, um, taking him and putting him within the executive office of the president rather than being at usds doge proper, shields him in one way from that liability. and also now that he's in the executive office of the president, you can't necessarily look for all the things and emails that he says because of, you know, foia rules and how they don't affect the white house. >> so this also flies goes to a broader conversation i wanted to have with you, which it also flies in the face of what we have heard from elon musk multiple times now, where he talks about how doge is being maximum transparency, i believe, is how he has described it. and this question, a very serious question on transparency, came up again in this conversation with sean hannity on fox in talking about the very real conflicts of interest that are presented with elon musk being

part of donald trump's administration. let me play this for you. >> and if it. >> comes up, how will you handle it? well. >> he won't be involved. >> yeah. i'll i'll recuse myself if it is. >> if there's a conflict, he won't be involved. i mean, i wouldn't want that and he won't want it. >> right. >> and also i'm getting. a sort of a daily proctology exam here. you know, it's not like i'm going to be getting away from something in the dead of night. >> welcome to d.c. if you want a friend, get a dog. >> well. >> yeah. >> i do have a dog, but i also have friends. >> and it's not about friends at all. it is about transparency. by definition, they are not. he is not in doge is not being transparent, providing the data or even providing the numbers of people who have been fired in one regard, or the numbers of dollars that they are freezing up. by definition, they're not being transparent. why do you think he keeps saying this? >> yeah. so, um, you can tell just by the way that doge is

even set up. they don't even want to comment on all these things. and, uh, the why the not having so much why it's why is it so opaque? i think it's so people don't ask too many questions. you know, there's a lot of things that doge is doing, and they're doing things that i think experts will say is incredibly illegal. and so if you don't have the evidence for those things and you can't go after someone. >> what do you think elon musk's definition of transparency then is? >> it's posting on x. that's exactly what it is. and that's what we've seen play out this week. uh, of course we have the doge twitter account, x account that was created and then a variety of other x accounts that were created for every federal agency. it looked like the cfpb, the ftc, et cetera., everything like that. and where they're crowdfunding, crowdsourcing all of this information from people who are just on x. >> it's because it's what you use, what people use for x is to say things or put out press releases, or to put spin on

anything that's out there, not putting out the data or the spreadsheets or the numbers, or opening up the books to show what is actually being done. when are they like, what's the next step here? what are you hearing in like where even the legacy employees are going to be able to what they're going to be able to do? >> yeah. so they had at usds their weekly staff meeting yesterday and they got no word on who the administrator would be. and they're kind of just working on similar projects that they've been working on already. it's as if everything is business as usual. at usds and doge. when it comes to opening things up and having a better idea of what doge is doing. um, in the executive order, it says that the administrator is tasked with writing some report at the end of the first month of doge and then providing an extensive report, a more extensive report, some six months from now. i think we might have some insight into who the administrator is by who signs that whenever those come out. >> tomorrow is a very 20th. so we shall see. >> we shall see. >> again, a great reporting.

thank you for coming in, john. >> people used twitter to spread sunshine and good cheer. >> i'm sorry. i meant to add that. >> developing this morning, the measles outbreak in west texas and new mexico has doubled in size since friday. and officials say more cases are almost certain. cnn health reporter jacqueline howard is with us now. last time i talked to you, the number of cases has just doubled. now they've doubled again. >> exactly. john. >> this outbreak is getting pretty big. what we know so far in west texas. we know. >> at least 58. people have gotten sick as part of. >> this. >> measles outbreak. 13 of them. >> have been hospitalized. and then in neighboring. new mexico, there have been an additional eight. cases as part of this outbreak. and most of these. >> cases. >> according to texas. >> health officials. >> have been in unvaccinated people. four cases have been in people who said that they were vaccinated. and we know the measles vaccine. it's safe and. highly effective, 97% effective, but 97 is not 100%. so when you do see the virus continuing to spread and spread, there is the

small chance of someone who may have been vaccinated getting infected. but because they have that vaccine protection, their illness will likely be much milder. now. with this outbreak, it's growing so much. health officials warn we could see more cases to come. the measles virus is so contagious, john, that if an infected person coughs or sneezes, the virus can linger in the air or on surfaces. >> for up to. >> two hours, even after the infected person has left the room. that's why when we see measles outbreaks like this, it's very concerning. >> so for decades, we didn't even have to ask this question what are the symptoms of measles? because they didn't exist? but now we have to ask again, what do parents need to look for? >> that's right. i mean, the. >> u.s. eliminated measles in the year 2000, but we do occasionally see these kind of outbreaks in unvaccinated communities. and so the signs and symptoms to look for three key warning signs. if your child has a cough, if they have a very congested nose and if they have

red watery eyes. those are three key warning signs. other symptoms a high fever that can spike above 104°f, and the classic measles rash that typically develops about 3 to 5 days after the first symptoms appear. so those are the warning signs to watch for john. >> be on the lookout, especially if your kids are not vaccinated. jacqueline howard, thank you very much, kate. >> still ahead for us. doge next target gaining access to sensitive irs taxpayer data as millions of americans are filing their taxes and start your electric engines. how nascar is planning for a future with gas free cars. >> it's the news. welcome back. but it's also kind of not the news. >> all the information on this show so terrible. >> if i got news for you, new saturday on cnn. >> tap into etsy. >> for home and style finds like custom shelving for less than $50 to make more space. or linen

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on cnn. >> doge now setting its sights on the irs smack in the middle of its busiest season of the year. yes, it's tax season. elon musk wants to access to the irs complex and interconnected data systems, and a former irs commissioner says that could pose a risk to you and your data. cnn's vanessa yurkevich is joining us now. all right. what could happen if they are able to gain access, which it looks like they will be, because a judge has said they should be able to have access at this point in time. she did not block their access. >> yeah. this is probably the worst time. >> for doge. >> employees to. >> be tinkering. >> with the irs system because. >> over 100. >> million. >> businesses and individuals are filing. >> their taxes right now. >> and essentially. >> according to some high. >> level officials. >> who used to work at the irs, just a small. >> tweak of the. >> system could compromise. >> data, but. >> could also take down the. >> entire system at this critical time. so what does this

mean for. >> all of us? well, might not get your. >> refund in. >> a timely manner. you might not be able to access your. >> own. data and also. >> maybe just. >> not even upload documents. >> to file your taxes. and why? there are a few key things that these irs officials are pointing to. one just distractions. doge employees being inside the offices will distract irs employees from doing their job. another thing is just lack of training around these complex systems. doge employees likely are not trained on these systems, and so it's easy to misinterpret the data. >> that. >> they're looking for. they're trying to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. you might look at something and say, well, wait a minute, why is this person getting a tax refund? but there are certain tax codes that go with certain people's filings that they might not understand. and then, of course, if they want to make any major system changes, that's not only hard for the people filing us to understand, but the people working at the irs to understand. you have legacy employees who have been there for so long, who know these systems in and out, and to make

changes right now could essentially bring down the entire system. >> if you look at the tax code, which the nerdy person in me has, it's like there's just so much in there and there's an argument to simplify it. but right now, the way it stands, it is complex as it gets. so what would be a better time for them to be able to access this? i mean, now doesn't seem like it. >> yeah. i mean, they're saying according to these irs officials, high level, these are, you know, people who led the agency are saying that the summer would be a better time because you'd have the bulk of the tax filings dealt with by then. but one of these former irs commissioners put it like this, and i think it kind of sums it up nicely. he said that getting involved in the system now, it runs the risk of making life very difficult for tax filers and tax preparers. filers aren't just democrats, they're republicans and independents. it makes no sense. so for the people working at the irs, this is not political. they just want to be able to get the job done

for everyone. and this timing is just not the best. the the advice is to wait till summer if you really want to get into the system and make any critical changes. >> i've also heard there is real concern about security breaches because once you start tinkering, if you're not careful, you might expose some of the data. our data. >> absolutely. a big concern just having access. but then maybe that information getting outside of the system. >> lots of things to think about, on top of the fact that we should be starting to prepare our taxes, which just irks me. but it's got to happen. >> unless you file an extension. >> there's that. vanessa yurkevich. thank you so much, john. >> do not irk sarah. this morning, former brazilian president jair bolsonaro has been charged in connection with an attempted coup to overturn the results of the 2022 election there. prosecutors allege that this plot began in 2021 with an effort to undermine public trust in electronic voting machines. the charges include armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the

democratic rule of law, coup d'etat and damage qualified by violence. cnn brazil reports that bolsonaro is attempting to negotiate a potential amnesty deal. he could face a 28 years in prison if found guilty. so this morning, a woman in georgia says she gave birth to a child that was not hers after she received the wrong embryo from a fertility clinic. the child she delivered was african-american. while she and her sperm donor both white. the clinic admitted the mistake to cnn affiliate wtoc. she ultimately had to return the baby to his biological parents after a five month custody battle. now, her attorneys say she's trying to figure out what happened to her embryo. so this morning, officials in sicily say that tourists are getting to be a problem at mount etna. thousands go to see the erupting volcano in the lava, but their cars block rescue crews from reaching people who get hurt or lost on or around the mountain. eight hikers were lost for several hours, several hours the other

day before rescuers were able to locate them. one other option to help people from getting lost would be maps. >> cape of an active volcano. >> well, i just don't know. like, why are we blaming the tourists? because people are getting lost on the mountain. there's something about this story. i don't get. but mount atlas is very pretty. >> i'm casting no blame whatsoever. except on you. let's turn to this. the electric car revolution made its nascar debut at the daytona 500 this past weekend. cnn's bill weir takes us to the place where now sustainability meets diehard race car fans. >> maria torres-springer just. >> outside the cradle of american. >> racing. >> automobile history was. made this weekend. >> when formula. >> drift. >> superstar ryan. turk swapped out his rubber burning rig. >> for a. machine with. >> twice the power. over 1300 horses. but with. >> a. >> fraction of the noise. >> and not.

>> a whiff of exhaust. behold, the first. >> electric nascar. this is. >> so surreal. >> normally. >> this event would come with. >> a thunderous. >> sound of that internal combustion. >> engine, but all you. >> hear is. >> this high. >> pitched whine and then just. >> the tires. >> being shredded by those electric engines. >> the power. >> is just out of this world. it's like nothing i've ever experienced before. >> it's like twice as much horses as as one. >> of. >> the regular nascar race that. >> beyond that, you. have the power on demand at all times. >> like a power drill. >> there isn't a power band. it's just there's just all the power at all times. >> this is one of three electric prototypes. unveiled this year. >> as nascar. >> pledges to be net zero by 2035. but while this chevy blazer was supposed to be the first electric. >> pace car. >> in daytona 500 history, it was literally cut. off by donald trump's armored plated. motorcade. a fitting metaphor for a president who was vowing to. destroy ev incentives,

charging networks. and tailpipe pollution. >> standards. as he promised. >> to fossil. >> fuel executives. >> as the politics made your job harder these days. >> we have very. >> clear corporate goals around sustainability. and so our job is to. >> focus on getting those done no matter who's in office or what's going on. so our. focus is on right now again, energy. and right now the race track you have behind you that keeps you up at night. and how do we decarbonize that within the next ten years. and so that's everything from energy. >> efficiency, led. >> lights, bringing different technologies, other partner technologies so that we can reduce our own operating footprint as a sport and then bring that to the fan and educate the fan on how can we bring some of these technologies into our communities and help support the growth of sustainability across the country. >> i guarantee. >> you, there's more. >> evs in the parking lot today. >> than there was. five years ago. >> and in another. >> five. >> years. >> there's going to be a lot more. >> david ragan is a third generation. nascar racer who now drives an electric. ford mustang in retirement, simply because

it's fast, fun, and cheaper to fuel and maintain. he believes. >> this fan base. >> is destined to make that same discovery. so the market, not the president, will decide. >> and i. >> think the manufacturers. >> really that they've. >> got their finger on the pulse. >> chevrolet. ford motor company you know toyota. >> the big partners here in nascar. >> they've all. >> got their. >> different plans. >> for how they're. >> going to attack that. >> and again, i think nascar is just. >> saying, hey. >> we want. >> to be prepared when that. evolution takes place. >> so daytona. >> they just electrified their parking lot. so there whenever their. >> employees pull up, they'll. >> be able to charge. >> their vehicle. once charging becomes more ubiquitous and it sort of gets integrated into the fabric of the everyday american. i think it will become more and more accepted, and it will be utilized more and more by everybody. >> you were. >> telling me this is a conscious effort to win hearts and minds. >> of folks who. >> pay extra. >> for the fumes and the. noise of it. we're in the energy transition right now in this country. >> and. >> the energsi