>> at least not yet. >> right, exactly. and so i think that it will have to come and hit them at home before they act. >> molly, what about conservative voices who are not happy with this? i'm thinking of, you know, for instance, the wall street journal editorial board, which every once in a while will say, well, he's gone too far. does that have an impact on trump's thinking? >> um, not perceptibly. uh, and i think he's, you know, consolidated his power within the republican party. look, i mean, i think the democrats are in a tough spot here because i've heard from a lot of democratic activists, members of the democratic base, even elected officials, that they like what pritzker is doing because he is stepping forward and he is, in his words, sounding the alarm. and there is a concern among a lot of democrats, uh, that they have to get ahead of what's happening and channel the angst that so many people are feeling. and there is and they look at particularly the leaders on capitol hill and feel like sort of, you know, where are they? >> where are they? and. well, we'll see. uh, it's it's early. thanks so much to all of you. i think i owe you a coffee at this

point. and thanks to all of you for joining us. i hope you get your coffee soon. i'm jim sciutto, cnn news central starts now. >> breaking this morning, kremlin leaders say they are literally. >> laughing out loud. >> at the support. >> they are getting from. >> president trump. this as a u.s. envoy, is in ukraine to meet with president zelenskyy. >> brand new cnn numbers out this morning. show president trump's approval rating slipping lower since he took office. a big part of it is what the economy is doing. >> and two teen. >> two teenagers arrested. >> accused of plotting an attack on a houston high school. how that attack was thwarted. >> i'm kate baldwin. >> with sara sidner and john berman. this is cnn news central.

>> and we are standing by for news out of ukraine, where president trump's envoy, keith kellogg, is meeting with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. it comes as president trump has made a clear rhetorical shift toward russia and toward russian talking points. false talking points president trump has now falsely called zelenskyy a dictator multiple times. he falsely accused ukraine of starting the war with russia. russia invaded ukraine a short time ago. one of putin's key deputies, dmitry medvedev, posted on elon musk's twitter quote, if you had told me three months ago that these were the words of the u.s. president, i would have laughed out loud. even the russians can't believe how much trump has swung their way. we have brand new polling showing voters might be getting wary of some of president trump's moves. his approval is now dipping below zelenskyy's, which, of course, president trump falsely attacked the other day. overnight, ukrainian forces reported a barrage of new russian drone

attacks. kyiv was struck. cnn's nick paton walsh is there. but first, let's get to alayna treene at the white house for the latest, i guess on the expectations of the. zelenskyy meeting. elena. >> yes. well, look, i'm going to start just where, you know, with this between president donald trump and zelenskyy and really, the 48. >> hours that we saw the president. >> turn on the ukrainian president. look, in my. >> conversations with white. >> house officials, trump administration. >> officials, they said that this shouldn't come as a huge surprise. one, of course, is the history they have. but also, this had been building for days now. the president has always kind of been skeptical of zelenskyy, but also ukraine and the u.s. invading ukraine. but really, we kind of saw this all kind of hit an inflection point. yesterday. i was told that one, some of the comments that zelenskyy had been making over recent days, particularly for not being included in the u.s., russia talks in saudi arabia, had really gotten under his

skin, but it hit an inflection point when zelenskyy yesterday told reporters in kyiv that he believed that the president lives in a disinformation space. i was told, actually, that trump, speaking with some of his aides around him while he was at mar-a-lago, told them that he wanted to respond directly. and that's really why you saw that truth social post come after where he described the ukrainian president as a dictator. then, of course, we saw him continue those taunts throughout the day, making a series of statements, many misleading or false, about ukraine. but look, i do want to tell you what one white house official told me about all of this, just to kind of emphasize my point here. they said, quote, it's a frustration. there is a strong and legitimate feeling that this brutal war has to stop, and that this pathway is being diminished. through zelenskyy's public statements. i'd also just point your attention to what we saw. vice president jd vance tell a series of outlets yesterday, which was essentially that this is not the way to negotiate with the president. the idea that badmouthing donald trump is going to help your negotiations, that is not really the way to

deal with this president. he's not president joe biden, something vance tried to emphasize in a couple media interviews. but look, one of the key things here as well is how the president feels like the united states shouldn't be giving as much funding to ukraine. we heard him talk about that yesterday as well. all to say, this is something that has been building for a long time. and also, if you look at his past comments, even before he was president, he has shown skepticism of zelenskyy. of course, this is a much bigger deal now because he is president and they are in the middle of trying to find an off ramp to this war. john. >> yes, so much criticism and so many attacks on zelenskyy. none, as far as we can tell on vladimir putin. alayna treene at the white house. thank you very much, sarah. >> all right, john, let's go right to kyiv now, where cnn's nick paton walsh is this morning, we saw the u.s. envoy, keith kellogg, walking around kyiv yesterday. but president trump has gone from, you know, sort of skepticism to outright

aggression when it comes to zelenskyy. what is the latest you're hearing on this meeting with zelenskyy as kellogg tries to have these talks? >> yeah, i think it's fair to say from the statement we heard from zelenskyy last night in which he didn't seek to go back over the ground the previous day with the comments about a different disinformation space and through forwards to the meeting he's due to have today with ukraine and russia envoy general keith kellogg here, that they're trying to perhaps to step over that enormous mess in u.s. ukraine relations that sprung to the surface yesterday. kellogg himself, obviously here at a very complex time. now, he was here, he said, to listen, to talk about security guarantees. this is really the first detailed contact the ukrainians are having with the trump administration about the peace deal that trump says is so utterly vital. and we have not only the president of ukraine being called a dictator falsely, he is refusing elections, but because his country is at war. that is not abnormal. they would

require a lot of months of work to make that happen here. and he's also refused the rare earth mineral deal, which was offered about two weeks ago by the u.s. treasury secretary to president trump, saying on air force one last night that as zelenskyy was asleep when bessent tried to have the deal signed and they didn't meet, well, that's not true. there was a press conference that they held here. i'm sure zelenskyy went to sleep at some point during bessent visit. that lasted over a day, but that's not abnormal to for a wartime commander. so many mistruths being used here, and i think the ultimate goal seems to be to undermine the position of vladimir zelenskyy. is the aim of that, to try and get him to sign up to a deal that is not in ukraine's favor, in the way that he would like, possibly. is it simply to undermine him and introduce a different personality who vladimir putin and donald trump would prefer to deal with? we'll see that in the months ahead. but this rare earth minerals deal increasingly coming to the surface again. we understand from sources familiar with the document. just to clarify here, this is not about future aid. this was a deal proposed to pay the u.s. back

for the aid the biden administration gave. that's already tens of billions, a startling figure. and the document, too, we understand, had a couple of pages of legalese, then laid out specific assets and resources that the u.s. had its mind on. very transactional, very different, and leaving very many ukrainians here deeply worried about their fight on the front line. look, let's not forget, hundreds are dying daily in the pitch battles on the front line where russia is winning. that is often lost in the talk here, the bickering between world leaders. but it's the fundamental thing that leaves ukrainians awake at night. >> yeah, there's truly fear for those in the midst of this war. and with this wartime president, we will see what happens with these meetings. i know you will keep on it. thank you so much for reporting there. live for us from kyiv. our nick paton walsh. all right. back here in the u.s. breaking overnight, new cnn polling showing america is still split on the job that president trump is doing one month into his second term, 47% of

americans say they approve of the job. he's doing a slight dip since november or december, and a sign that the optimism many expressed after his november victory could be dissipating. a majority of americans feel he isn't doing enough to address the high prices of everyday goods, and 52% say he's gone too far in using his presidential power. we should note that despite the low approval rating, this is still better than any number he reached at any point in his first four years in office. kate. >> coming up for us, breaking overnight a somber scene as the bodies of four hostages are returned to israel, including the two young children who have become a symbol of hamas depravity. on from october 7th. we have more on that and big cuts at the pentagon. defense secretary pete hegseth asks for more than $800 billion off the

ledgers. a week after calling for an increase in funding and dangerous cold is about to set in across the united states, more than 100 new records are expected to be set from the dakotas to the gulf coast. it is -22 degrees, i am told, in north dakota right now, -22 degrees. >> i'm kara scannell. >> outside federal. >> court in new york. >> and this. >> is. >> cnn. >> love, love will keep us together. >> now for something you can both agree on a sleep number. smart bed is perfect for couples. the climate 360 smart bed is the only bed that cools and warms on each side, and all our smart beds adjust the firmness for each of you. let's agree to agree on better sleep and now save 50% on the new sleep number. limited edition smart bed plus 0% interest for 48 months. shop now.

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just four years old at the time. their faces, their images, their photographs have become symbols of hamas's depravity and the brutality of october 7th. cnn's nick paton walsh is in jerusalem. following this now for us. hey there. nick. >> yeah, i think the image of shiri bibas clutching kefir and ariel in her arms, trying to shield them in a blanket as hamas was leading away on october 7th, 2023. that fear in her face. that image is seared into the israeli consciousness here. and the the whole country has followed this family, hoping against hope that they would come back alive. hearing hamas say that they had actually been killed in an israeli airstrike in late 2023. watching the video of as hamas used yarden bibas, the husband who was in captivity as well. separately held to to to give a propaganda video under

duress. uh, making these allegations against the israeli government, the idf, unable to say with clarity whether or not they've been killed the whole country. each time a little bit of video came out, each time a hostage was released, hoping that there would be news about the bibas family. and today, at that forensic laboratory, uh, institute where the caskets will finally arrive, uh, over the day, that's where the country will find out whether or not what hamas is saying about the bibas family being dead. will find out if it's true. it is incredibly heartbreaking for the family, but but for the country as well. and that's why we've seen so many people along the roadside today coming out as this convoy has traveled through the country, coming out waving their flags, hostages square, normally a place of celebration when live hostages are released.

today, a somber and far, far different place. we're also learning that hamas will release six living hostages on saturday, double the numbers that the previous release released. interestingly, two of those hostages to be released have been held by hamas for over ten years. they were taken long before october 7th. so some joy returning to israel over the weekend. but today, very somber day. absolutely. >> nick, thank you very much. we'll be continuing to follow how it all unfolds throughout israel today. thank you very much. john. >> just wrenching images. >> yes. >> all right. this morning elon musk could be getting his money's worth. the value of twitter is dramatically increasing as he gets closer to president trump. and new details from an internal faa memo obtained by cnn. it warns employees that elon musk and his team are on the way.

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just 30% of what he paid for it, $12.3 billion. but now bloomberg is reporting that musk is in talks to raise funding for x at a valuation of $44 billion. and i think the thing that nobody was betting on when musk took this platform over is the way that he would use it to get close to trump, to help trump get reelected, as he did over the summer. and now x has really become the place to be to follow what's happening inside of the white house. musk is using it to broadcast what he's doing inside of the government. at doge, trump is using the platform again to talk about what he cares about, and so it really is the place to be for that conversation in a way that it really hasn't been in the past few years. it had been replaced by twitter lookalike platforms. tiktok had become a really important place to follow the news. but again, x is sort of back at the center of the conversation, and i think that is really what's playing into this renewed valuation. >> anything about the business itself, the twitter business itself, this changed. >> yeah. so we are seeing some advertisers returning to the platforms, big names like apple and amazon have said they will start advertising again on x. but i think there's a question

about whether they're doing that to be close to trump's first buddy, elon musk, or whether it really is a place that lots of advertisers will return to. we are still seeing lots of hate speech and extremism on this platform, and there are many ways in which i think that x will never be what twitter was again. we've still seen users decamping to other platforms. some of the platform's core features, like its twitter spaces feature, continue to have glitches and really important moments, like when elon musk was interviewing trump around the election. there was a massive glitch and they had to shut that down. and so i do think that it's unlikely that this platform will return to its former self. and i think big questions about whether this valuation is really a reflection of the fundamentals or just of musk's position in the white house. >> access is everything. clare duffy great to see you. thank you so much, sarah. >> all right. ahead. today, president trump's envoy to ukraine will meet with president zelenskyy after president trump called him a dictator. and a massive budget cut ordered at

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your free trial today. >> 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. >> ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is meeting today with u.s. envoy to russia and ukraine keith kellogg in kyiv. all of it shrouded by a presidential rift playing out in an incredibly public way. president trump has gone on the attack against president zelenskyy now calling him a dictator. just hours after zelenskyy accused trump of living in a disinformation space. cnn anchor and chief national security analyst jim sciutto is joining me now. look, russian leadership has been very clear. they cannot believe their ears. and celebrating these words now. what are we expecting now from kellogg as he is in this precarious position in kyiv? >> well.

>> it's not clear how senior or influential kellogg's role is in all this for the trump administration. he was not central to those talks in riyadh between u.s. and russian officials. it appears that his role is purely as a conduit between the administration and ukraine specifically, as opposed to at the table for the more broad u.s. russia talks. that's one thing, and that's a sad development for ukraine, frankly, because in the trump administration, kellogg has been one of the bigger champions of defending ukraine. of course, the other thing that's happening is that if his role is dialog, that dialog is really happening in the public sphere now between zelenskyy and trump, and it's breaking into quite a public rift here. and now you even have the step, sara sidner of of jd vance, you know, saying, hey, if you talk that way to trump, you may not have, you know, first of all, not going to end well for you. second of all, you even have a veiled threat from from

trump saying you may not have a country. i mean, it's it's a breakdown in that communication channel, which raises questions about how, you know, what kellogg can accomplish there. >> yeah, it's a really good point. um, when you look at the situation and you look back to what u.s. policy has been, i mean, trump is leaning towards russia and away from some of its allies, including europe. what's happening here? >> we can't underestimate how big a shift trump and other senior trump administration officials are signaling here, not just from trump's latest comments parroting russia's description of the war that started in ukraine, but also going back to the munich security conference. because you see this administration signaling backing off, not just u.s. support for ukraine, but u.s. support for europe, saying to europe, in effect, if you're not totally on your own, you're much more on your own than you

were before in terms of your own defense. and then you step back from that. you have the administration at least exploring what looks to be a grand bargain with russia and perhaps china. that would upset u.s. bipartisan support of of a the international order going back to world war two. right. u.s. alliances standing up to dictators, et cetera.. it seems like trump is exploring, hey, maybe we can come to an agreement here where russia, you've got your sphere, china, you've got yours, i've got mine. and we're not going to bother with these pesky alliances or defense of international borders or rule of law, et cetera.. it is now whether that happens, we'll only see over time, but at least the signals now point to something quite significant. >> yeah, and imagine being a wartime president and being told by the largest superpower that you have to have elections and you're a dictator. very

precarious. and least we forget. i know you were there. i was there. when you look at what is happening in ukraine, there is a lot of fear on those people who are living with this war on the front lines and who are seeing their homes destroyed in this war and lives taken. and stepped. >> up to take those attacks. those attacks have stepped up in the last several days, right in the midst of all this. >> yeah. all right. it's unprecedented. jim sciutto, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> and joining us right now is kurt volker. he's the former u.s. ambassador to nato, former u.s. special representative for ukraine. negotiations in the first trump administration. ambassador, it's good to see you again. thank you for coming in. what is your reaction to what we have heard from between president zelenskyy and most specifically, i'm interested in your reaction to president trump's words about zelenskyy in the last 24 hours. >> yeah. >> it's really striking. >> it is. >> such a. divergence from what trump himself. >> said just on. his first full day in office. if you remember

that tweet on january 21st, he said that putin needs to stop the war, that it should never have happened, and that he's prepared to escalate with sanctions if he doesn't. and now he launches this tweet where he doesn't mention russia at all. the real dictator in the room here is vladimir putin, who has been in power for 25 years. um, not zelenskyy. and it is russia that launched this unprovoked invasion against ukraine, not the other way around. so very, very, very, very strange and divergent from where trump himself was. >> you're saying something very similar to what we saw nikki haley put out last night. the former un ambassador in the first trump administration, where she she wrote, these are classic russian talking points. exactly what putin wants. i won't ask you to get into the president's mind, but. everyone wonders why president trump is

repeating these talking points. but how does this advance american interests? >> yeah. well, first off, i think that there is probably a lot of pique at president zelenskyy because zelenskyy pushed back on some things. and, you know, trump just always wants to push for what he's trying to achieve. and when he had jd vance at munich and there was some reaction to that, he gave zelenskyy an ultimatum on minerals that was really very one sided and very poorly written. and zelenskyy rejected that and made some counter proposals. so i think and then he said that trump is living in a disinformation space. so i think all of those things created this sense of pique from trump that he wanted to lash out. but does that really advance american interests, as you're asking? uh, i think it doesn't, because ultimately, what we need to do is get to a place where we have an end of the war in ukraine, as trump has

said many, many times. we have a prevention of future war, meaning there is a deterrent effect in place again, so putin doesn't attack again and that we shift more of the burdens to our european allies so we don't have to carry as much, which they're not going to do if they're very, very unhappy. so i think this is getting us a little bit off track. and i and i hope that over the coming days, especially as the teams regather in washington, rubio and walts from saudi arabia, keith kellogg from ukraine, that this all gets in front of the president and we can start looking at how to achieve the basic with the cease fire, the deterrence and burden-sharing. >> i want to play two things the way the president himself, president trump, talked about ukraine's territory yesterday and the way he also talked about it just days earlier on sunday. listen to this. >> zelenskyy better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. got to move. got to move fast. >> i think he wants the whole of

ukraine. >> or just like. what do you think he wants? >> no, i think he wants to stop. that was my question to him. because if he's going to go on, that would have been a big problem for us. and that would have caused me a big problem because you just can't let that happen. >> this gets right to your point, ambassador sunday, it was a problem if putin went on and took more territory wednesday, it becomes zelenskyy's problem. that does really sound like a shift. i've heard some say that they fear that what we're looking at is the most significant geopolitical realignment since world war two. do you think that's what this is? >> yeah, i think it's premature to to put labels on like that. i think what you have approaching russia is a push and a pull. he's putting pressure on putin. he's telling him to stop and he's trying to attract him by dangling some carrots. like better bilateral relations. and then he's irritated with zelenskyy. so he's trying to push zelenskyy as well. uh, and i think he's hoping all of this

comes together in some kind of deal. um, but one of the things that he said, i thought what you were going to play was his comment about how ukraine is virtually destroyed. cities are on their sides and so forth. that is simply not true. uh, ukraine is very vibrant. i'm going there this weekend. uh, it is possible to go there. it's safe. the economy is booming. there are people stuck in traffic jams every day because they're going to work every day. uh, it is it is not the disaster zone that he described. >> as a diplomat, how do you deal with this today? how do you get things back on track? because this is what we're looking at. it's a real mess and it's scaring a lot of people. >> yeah. you have to focus on the substantive outcome that we need to get to and what it will take to get there. if you want to end the war in ukraine, as president trump truly does, i believe that he wants to end it. you've got to convince putin that the costs are too high.

putin doesn't want to end the war. putin wants to use the war to take over ukraine. we have to convince them that the costs of that are too high. so that means keeping the sanctions in place, driving down energy prices, threatening new sanctions, and making sure that ukraine has the arms that it needs so that putin can't advance. that's just going to drain the russian economy and the russian military, so that we try to get putin to that point. and meanwhile, then you have to work with the european allies to get the deterrence force in place. once there's a ceasefire so that putin doesn't attack. again, those are the basics. that's what we have to get back to. >> back to the basics. in the world of this is anything but basic is what we're looking at. ambassador kurt volker, it's always good to see you. thank you for coming in. >> john relli new this morning. defense secretary pete hegseth is ordering the military to draw up plans for an 8% budget cut for each of the next five years. this seems a pretty quick reversal from just a few days ago, when he seemed to urge an increase in defense spending.

>> well, i think the u.s. needs to spend more than the biden administration was willing to who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military. listen, any defense secretary would be lying if they said they didn't want more. you always want more. but we live in fiscally constrained times where we need to be responsible with taxpayer dollars, with $37 trillion in debt, that's a national security liability as well. >> all right. let's get right to cnn national correspondent natasha bertrand at the pentagon. i mean, that was a few days ago. >> it's really. >> unclear what's happened here. >> in terms. >> of this. >> shift, john, but i will note that one thing that has changed in the last week is that doge, the department of government efficiency, has showed up at the pentagon, is trying to streamline cuts not only to the workforce, but also to the pentagon budget. but this plan essentially would cut 8% every single year from the pentagon budget over the next five years. and that would amount to tens and tens of billions of dollars per year cut from the pentagon budget. now, these proposals for

where they can actually find cuts within the budget are due by february 24th, essentially giving the entire military about a week to figure out what they can cut. and that would be satisfactory to the secretary of defense and the president. but border security, notably, is exempt from this. of course, something that has been a top priority for the trump administration. now, in this memo that we obtained from secretary of defense hegseth. he said, quote, i ask that the military departments and dod components reinforce the capabilities and readiness necessary for a wartime tempo and offset those requirements with low impact items such as wasteful die and climate change programs. now, as i said, this memo comes as trump and doge are initiating a major effort to shrink the federal government that includes the pentagon. but, of course, as you mentioned, it's also a major disconnect, not only from hegseth comments just from last week, but also from a house budget plan that president trump actually endorsed recently. that would

increase defense spending by about $100 billion. and needless to say, the u.s., at the same time is asking our nato and european allies to massively increase their own defense spending. so clearly, this is going to probably get some pushback from congressional republicans, who also have pushed for increased military spending, uh, repeatedly over the last several years. >> yeah, i mean, it's a huge cognitive disconnect. i mean, it's an outright contradiction in some cases. what are you hearing from inside the pentagon itself? >> well, inside the pentagon, the concern now largely has to do with the mass firings that we are expected to see as soon as this week. firing probationary civilian employees across the federal, across the pentagon. and that could start as soon as today, we're told. but one of the main issues that we are told defense officials have been raising to their superiors is this question of whether these firings could actually run afoul of the law. this has to do with title ten, section 129 a of the u.s. code, a little known but very important, which governs civilian personnel management in

the armed forces. and it says, quote, that the secretary of defense may not reduce the civilian workforce program full time equivalent levels unless the secretary conducts an appropriate analysis of the impacts of such readiness on workload, military force structure, lethality readiness, operational effectiveness, stress on the military force, and fully burden cost. so essentially a long winded way of saying the secretary of defense has to do an analysis of how these massive cuts are going to potentially impact military readiness before they can actually move forward with that, a senior defense official told me that so far, no such analysis has actually been done. so raising a lot of questions here about whether this could run afoul of rules and impact u.s. military readiness. john. >> this bears watching. i am sure many republicans in congress are very interested as well. natasha bertrand, thank you very much, sarah. >> things could get spicy. all right. air traffic controllers are already stressed to the max and understaffed. and now doge is in the building at the faa and looking to cut costs, including meeting with air

traffic controllers. but what will that mean for them? cnn's pete muntean explains. the faa's. >> overarching goal is. keeping flying safe. so it. >> was an. >> agency considered. >> immune to possible. >> government efficiency cuts. >> but i. >> was. >> given an internal memo from the acting head of the faa. and in it, he says, so-called special government employees from elon musk's space x have been deployed to the faa to quote, engineer solutions to what he calls the agency's challenges. no doubt that they are numerous, and the faa is facing a major shortage of air traffic controllers, many of them working mandatory six day weeks of ten hour shifts. in fact, doge employees already met with some of them this week. we know from the memo that this doge team toured the faa command center in warrenton, virginia. also, potomac tracon, that's the air traffic control center responsible for the airspace around washington, d.c. it is that facility that handled american eagle flight 4005 19 just before it was handed off to the control tower at reagan national airport. that midair

collision happened three weeks ago. the faa has made changes to the helicopter flights over d.c. for the foreseeable future, but it has not announced any major regulatory shifts since that crash. the acting head of the faa, chris rocheleau, was appointed to the job in the hours after that crash. and in this new memo, he insists that faa workers who have already been fired by the trump administration are not considered critical to safety. transportation secretary sean duffy said 400 were let go on friday, but duffy says that's out of a total of 45,000 faa employees. he underscores that all were considered probationary, which means they were hired less than a year ago. but even still, the union that represents many of these workers tells me this is a huge blow to an air travel ecosystem already being stressed to the max. >> pete, thank you so much for that. so the court hearing that everyone seemed to be waiting for before they had an opinion about eric adams, the one on doj's directive to dismiss the case against the new york city

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saturday night. collision. >> from this moment on, we have the power. >> aew collision. >> saturdays at 8:00 on tnt and now. streaming on max. >> this morning we have another update on pope francis the vatican giving this health update on the pontiff saying that he spent another peaceful night in the hospital and was able to get up and eat breakfast in an armchair. the 88 year-old is being treated for double pneumonia and has been in the hospital since friday. now we also have word of the fbi saying two teenage girls have been arrested in texas for allegedly plotting an attack on a houston high school. now, according to authorities, the girls plan to place pipe bombs around the school and then shoot panicking students. neither of the girls were current students at the school, the sheriff's office said. the investigation stemmed from online threats uncovered, and that they arrested the girls within 30 minutes of learning of the plot. police say now there is no longer a threat to the school or its students. the 86

year old man, who just days ago pleaded guilty to shooting 16 year-old ralph yarl. that man has died. the case renewed the national debate about gun policies and race in the united states. andrew lester was charged in 2023 for shooting jarrell, a black student, black kid, just black young teenager who simply rang the man's doorbell by mistake. jarrell is now a freshman at texas a&m university. his family says that he is doing his best to be okay. sarah. >> all right. this morning, the pressure is on after a judge ended a high stakes hearing yesterday without an immediate decision on whether to accept the doj's decision to drop the corruption case against new york city mayor eric adams. acting deputy attorney general emil bove told the judge that dropping the corruption charges would, quote, interfere with adams ability to govern new york city and threaten president donald trump's immigration policies. joining us now for more perspective is carl

heastie, the speaker of the new york state assembly. thank you, sir, for being here this morning. do you want mayor adams to resign, or should voters decide that in november? right. >> well. >> where i am. and good morning to you, sir, and thank you for having me on where i am. i'm at a heightened sense of concern. um, and i think what's going on with mayor adams is more of a symptom of the overall issue or disease with the the justice department and the fact that they want to dismiss these charges without prejudice, which means they can kind of hold these charges over the potential of these charges over the mayor in the city's head. and that's really where this is. and in my history, i've never been one to really call on people to resign. i didn't ask, uh, governor cuomo to resign. i usually let that be a matter of their conscience and their self reflection and and what they feel with their constituents. so i would say where i am now is a very heightened sense of

concern. >> leaning towards asking him to resign. >> well, again, we want to see what the judge says. and, you know, overturning the will of the voters is something that's, you know, very serious. so i'm not there yet, um, about him being removed or resigning. >> let me ask you about this, because governor kathy hochul has indicated that she will weight herself, as you are doing, for the judge's decision before she decides whether to remove mayor adams from office, which she is empowered to do. what do you think she'll do? and are you concerned, as you just mentioned, about removing someone who the voters put in office? >> right. it's not something that's taken that should be taken lightly. it's unprecedented. um, for a governor to remove, um, a city mayor who was, you know, voted in, um, she's not taking this

lightly. she's taking it very seriously. and in my discussions with her, uh, she has the same level of concern about the potential of the city of new york being held hostage. um, by the justice department. uh, but i think she'll she'll take her time, and i believe she'll end up doing what's right. >> i want to ask you about something that donald trump posted. if we can put up what he posted about new york city, um, saying basically that he is saving new york city because he is killing the congestion pricing that was put into place to try to lower the amount of traffic in new york. and he said, long live the king. and then later, the potus posted an image of himself with a crown on his head. um, look, the congestion pricing has not been popular with with generally most drivers, including taxis and ubers. um, what do you make of this president's decision to push the d.o.t. to decide not to approve this, to go back on what

it initially approved? >> well, i'm hoping that the decision will be turned over in the courts. uh, he supposedly is a president that believes in states rights, but he is now denying the state and the city of new york, uh, the ability to have, uh, to govern its own transportation system. and and this potentially could blow a whole a $16 billion hole in the mta's capital plan. and so i said, uh, if this is to happen, i hope that him and the republican members of congress are ready to send a $16 billion check to new york. i think this was more for theater congestion pricing is working. and i think at some point people will see that we do need the money. uh, you know, for the mta. but but this is the problem, uh, of electing donald trump. he doesn't have to face the voters again. uh, whatever he says he wants. he's he's governing by executive order, and he's daring people to take him to court. that's not how the

american government, uh, you know, should be operating, but but this is what we have. >> do you think he's acting like a king? >> i think he's acting like a dictator. yes. >> carl hasty, strong words this morning. thank you so much. really appreciate you coming on, john. >> all right. this morning, almost 100 million people are under cold weather alerts as temperatures are expected to plunge more than 40 degrees below normal. let's get right to cnn meteorologist derek van dam for the latest on this. ooh, a lot of minus signs there. >> yeah, a lot of purple. >> as well. >> good morning john. >> so this. >> is a significant cold not only for the places that typically get cold in the month of february, but for unordinary areas like atlanta, places like dallas and houston, 30 to 40 degrees below where they should be this time of year at this very moment. that's why authorities are using this rule of the four p's protect your plants, your people, your pets, and your pipes. so you got to keep all those things in mind

today because this is impacting areas that are not used to this type of weather. and yes, records are falling, particularly across the northern and central parts of our country. just check out wichita, kansas city, oklahoma city and dallas all this morning very alone, setting their record low temperature for the day. so here's 100 million americans, not many people spared from these cold weather alerts. and notice they go all the way to the gulf coast as well. even the florida panhandle, for instance. so we're waking up to temperatures feeling like the single digits in nashville, cincinnati, and detroit. and i identify that area because we still have the potential for more record lows as we head into friday morning. but remember, we've had the flooding in kentucky from the first storm this past weekend, and then the temperatures are going to do a reversal, kind of a flip as we head into the early parts of next week. so the snow that fell, that fell from the sky across the ohio river valley, it piled up over a half a foot in some locations across kentucky. well, guess what? that's going to all melt and the rivers are still cresting, particularly

across the ohio river and into its tributaries and streams, so that water has got to go somewhere and it will continue to add more misery into the localized flooding that is still ongoing across the region. just look at louisville. we'll top above the freezing mark by the weekend and into the 50s by the early parts of next week. so quite the reversal. john. >> talk to me more about these cold temperatures in the four p's. derek, you had me nervous there. thankfully when you got to four it was pipes. but but but how long in some of these places that aren't expecting it in the south. like how long will it last? >> yeah. so. so i give it another two days before that reversal really actually takes place. so i think as we head into sunday, monday and tuesday, we're going to get the break from the arctic blast. notice the purples and the blues being replaced by more of the oranges and the yellows. that's representative of a milder air mass. and that's going to change the game for us here in like atlanta, places like houston as

well as dallas and even for you in new york city. >> all right. derek van dam for us. thank you very much. everyone. take care of your pipes. a new hour of cnn news central starts right now. >> are taking the temperature of the american people. there is brand new cnn polling out just this morning. president trump's approval rating is slipping. why? maybe look no further than the economy. what? he has not yet done. and a critical meeting today in kyiv between ukrainian president zelenskyy and donald trump's ukraine envoy made all the more important after trump parrots russian propaganda and measles cases still on the rise in the u.s. what you need to know now to protect your family from one of the most contagious diseases in the world. i'm kate bolduan with john berman and sara sidner. this is cnn news central.