the second world war or new assessment of the worst pandemic since 1918 china is front and center tonight. on ukraine members of the administration spoke today and over the weekend warning beijing that arming russia would be a mistake. we are confident that the chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment that would be a very risky and unwise bet. bill burns, the cia director. on covid we learned yesterday that the department of energy has assessed in a newly updated intelligence report that it most likely originated from a laboratory leak. cnn has just learned the reason for that updated report. three sources telling cnn that the department of energy shift was based in part on information about the research that the chinese centers for disease control, the chinese cdc in wuhan, was doing around the time of the outbreak on a coronavirus variant. cnn has previously reported that the lab was studying coronaviruses m bats but it is unclear how closely
outbreak on a coronavirus variant. cnn has previously reported that the lab was studying coronaviruses in bats but it is unclear how closely related the variants were to the strain which started the pandemic. as for the energy department s new assessment, it is described as low confidence and a minority view apparently within the intelligence community. that said, it sparked new calls today from transparency from china. we would wish to see from the prc a greater degree of responsibility, a greater acknowledgment that it is in the interests of the chinese people, yes, we better understand the origins of covid-19, but it is in the or to understand the origins of covid-19. today s development also prompted to leading house republicans to send letters demanding the state department of energy and the fbi to provide testimony and documents related to the ongoing probe of the ten pandemics origin. china s foreign minister also weighed in, calling on relevant parties to quote,
covid-19 pandemic. that s according to a newly updated classified intelligence report from the u.s. energy department. according to two sources energy officials have low confidence in this latest assessment. that means the information is either not reliable enough or it s too fragmented to know for sure. it only adds to this big divide within the u.s. government over whether the pandemic began in china 2019, as a result of a lab leak, or whether it emerged naturally. president biden specifically requested that the national labs which are part of the department of energy be brought into this assessment. because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here. we need to do extensive hearings. i hope our democratic colleagues in the congress can support that. i know the republicans in the house are certainly supportive of that. but this is a country that has no problem coming out and lying to the world. steven jiang live from beijing with the
somewhere. how several states slated to receive that soil are pushing back. also this morning, the fallout keeps growing for the creator of dilbert. more newspapers dropped the comic strip after the cartoonist went on a racist tirade. all that in just moments. we begin with a destructive winter storm on the move. two houses. the storm unleashing multiple tornadoes in oklahoma and kansas. one of those tornadoes tore through norman. shredded homes and injured at least 12 people. hurricane-force winds whipped up massive blinding dust storms in texas. this is a scene in lubbock. the storm buried parts of southern california under more than six feet of snow. take a look at these snow totals near los angeles and san diego. more than 90 inches of snow recorded at mountain high, a winter resort about an hour and a half outside of l.a. warmer parts of southern california were battered by heavy rain and flooding. a helicopter crew had to rescue this driver from a jeep caught in
cities and towns, this after severe storms ripped across oklahoma and parts of the central u.s. this morning, more than 50,000 without power in the region. at least nine tornadoes touching down in oklahoma and kansas. wind gusts equivalent to a category 3 hurricane about 120 miles an hour battering texas. ahead, the latest on the storm s and what s to come. plus, at least two people are dead, three others wounded after a drone attack in ukraine. this as the u.s. is now warning that china will face penalties if beijing provides russia with drones and ammunition, as u.s. intelligence indicates, to aid russia s ongoing invasion of ukraine. we do begin this hour with the latest on those severe storms and tornadoes. cnn s senior national correspondent, ed lavendera is in norman, oklahoma. cnn meteorologist chad myers standing by with the latest forecast. we want to begin with you, ed. some pictures there, just alarming. tell us what you re seeing on the ground. reporter: wel