Luke Vargas

Large swaths of the U.S.

remain covered in snow and ice this morning after a winter storm wreaked havoc from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England.

More than 800,000 Americans are currently without power, according to PowerOutage.us, with Tennessee and Mississippi hit especially hard.

The Northeast, Great Lakes and Central Plains are all expected to get more snow today, adding to pressure on power grids.

The harsh weather has also forced major oil and natural gas-producing regions to shut up shop, further stressing grids.

According to analysts at JPMorgan, about 250,000 barrels of daily crude production has been lost due to closures in Oklahoma and parts of Texas.

Travelers are also bearing the brunt of the storm, with tens of thousands of flights canceled yesterday and more than 4,000 canceled so far today.

Pediatricians are pushing back against the CDC's new and slimmed-down childhood vaccine schedule.

In its guidance out today, the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to recommend that children be vaccinated against 18 diseases, including hepatitis A and B, COVID-19, influenza, rotavirus, and the disease that causes meningitis and other infections.

Those six immunizations were dropped from the CDC's schedule for children earlier this month,

with the agency now recommending children get vaccinated against 11 diseases.

Hitting out at the CDC's pared-back vaccination schedule, the AAP's Dr. Sean O'Leary said the recommendations aren't grounded in science, but rather in ideology.

A purge of the Chinese military has now reached the country's senior-most general, and we can exclusively report that he's being accused of leaking information about China's nuclear weapons program to the U.S.

and accepting bribes for official acts.

General Jian Youxia was once considered Xi Jinping's most trusted military ally,

and is a descendant of revolutionary elders who helped Mao Zedong's communist forces seize power in 1949.

Analysts say the opacity of China's political system makes it hard to ascertain Xi's motivations for targeting John.

A spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Washington said the party's decision to investigate John underscores that China's leadership maintains, quote, a full-coverage, zero-tolerance approach to combating corruption.

We've left a link to our reporting in our show notes.

And gold has surged past $5,000 for the first time ever, adding to its historic rally.