Start your week smart: Gaza, Texas wildfires, California blizzards, GM recall, Covid-19

By CNN Newsource

Published March 3, 2024 5:40 am

By Andrew Torgan, CNN

(CNN) — Do you feel like a million bucks? If not, maybe you should take a look at your 401(k) statement. Fidelity Investments, one of the largest providers of workplace retirement plans, says the number of 401(k) accounts with balances of at least $1 million rose by more than 40% last year.

Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart

The weekend that was

• A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo today for further talks on a ceasefire deal, a senior Hamas source told CNN. Negotiators from the US, Israel and Egypt are also expected to attend. The source refused to confirm any details about the militant group’s positions or demands, saying what is being reported in the media “is speculation and leaks.” On Saturday, a senior Biden administration official told reporters that Israel had “basically accepted” a six-week ceasefire proposal in Gaza.
• The biggest inferno in Texas history is being fueled by winds and high temperatures as it continues to rage, threatening to incinerate more buildings, cattle and livelihoods across the Texas Panhandle. Critical fire weather conditions are expected to continue today in the Panhandle, with strengthening winds gusting to 50 mph and dry conditions combining to set the stage for rapid wildfire spread, the National Weather Service warned.
• Blizzard conditions continued to slam Northern California over the weekend with damaging winds and heavy snow dumping on mountain ridges down to the valleys. Around 6.5 million people are under winter weather alerts across the Mountain West, with blizzard warnings still in effect for the Sierra Nevada.
• General Motors is recalling nearly 820,000 pickup trucks over a potential safety issue involving tailgates. The automaker says that the electronic latch mechanism used to open the gate of some 2020-2024 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra truck beds might short circuit if water gets into the tailgate. That means the gate could inadvertently open while the car is parked, leading unsecured property in the bed to fly out when unaware drivers hit the road.
• People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the CDC issued Friday. The change ends a strategy from earlier in the pandemic that experts said has been important in controlling the spread of the infection.

The week ahead

Monday
Primary season kicks into high gear this week, starting with North Dakota’s Republican presidential caucuses. Former President Donald Trump will once again be facing off against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Peace Garden State. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — who ended his own bid for the White House in December — is backing Trump.

Tuesday
March 5 is Super Tuesday, the day a large number of states hold their presidential primaries and caucuses. Super Tuesday is a make-or-break day for Nikki Haley. After losing financial backing from the influential network associated with billionaire Charles Koch following her loss in her home state’s primary, Haley may be forced to consider suspending her campaign if Trump runs the table.

Wednesday
Hawaii holds its party-run Democratic presidential caucus. The Aloha State’s Republican Party will hold its presidential caucus on March 12.

Thursday
President Joe Biden will deliver his highly anticipated State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress — his final such address before the 2024 presidential election in November.

Friday
March 8 is the latest deadline for Congress to avoid a partial government shutdown. Lawmakers kicked the can down the road last week by passing a stopgap bill to provide additional time for full-year funding bills to be finalized and passed. The short-term measure moved the deadlines for a partial shutdown and a complete shutdown from March 1 and March 8 to March 8 and March 22, respectively.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel will officially step down from her position. Her departure comes amid a period of rising tensions between Donald Trump and the RNC. The former president has endorsed North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley to succeed McDaniel and backed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair. Whatley currently serves as the committee’s counsel.

Friday marks 10 years since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew members aboard en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite extensive searches of the Indian Ocean, no crash site has been discovered, and only a few fragments of debris confirmed to be from the missing Boeing 777 were found washed ashore in eastern Africa — thousands of miles from the region where the plane vanished.

It’s also International Women’s Day.

One Thing: Portland’s fentanyl crisis
In this week’s “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s Josh Campbell explains how Oregon officials are tackling the fentanyl crisis in downtown Portland — and why outreach alone may not be sufficient. Listen here.

Photos of the week

Check out more images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.

What’s happening in entertainment

TV and streaming
Kate Winslet returns to HBO tonight at 9 p.m. ET in the political satire “The Regime.” Winslet plays Chancellor Elena Vernham, the paranoid and mercurial head of a fictional country in Central Europe, whose possession of cobalt mines forces representatives of bigger nations to take an interest in its stability and future. CNN’s Brian Lowry calls the six-episode series “weird but not very good, other than savoring Winslet’s over-the-top antics as an autocratic leader.” HBO — like CNN— is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

On the big screen
The romantic noir thriller “Love Lies Bleeding,” starring Kristen Stewart as a gym manager and Katy O’Brian as the bodybuilder she falls for, arrives in theaters Friday. Based solely on the trailer, be prepared for a lot of violence, blood, sex — and an exceptionally creepy-looking Ed Harris.

On the lighter end of the movie spectrum is “Kung Fu Panda 4.” Jack Black is back as the voice of Po in the latest installment of the popular franchise. New characters voiced by Awkwafina and Viola Davis join Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane and acting legend James Hong.

What’s happening in sports

At a glance …
The University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is highly likely to break the all-time NCAA scoring mark for men or women today when the Hawkeyes host Ohio State at 1 p.m. ET in the team’s regular-season finale. Clark needs 18 points to pass Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record of 3,667 points. She scored 33 points in the Hawkeyes 108-60 blowout win over the University of Minnesota last week, surpassing Lynette Woodard for the most points scored in major women’s college basketball history.

Also today, qualifying begins for the 2024 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The tennis tournament runs through March 17.

For more of your favorite sports, head over to CNN Sports as well as Bleacher Report, which — like CNN — is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Quiz time!

Looking for a challenge to start your week? Take CNN’s news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 51% of fellow quiz fans have gotten eight or more questions right. How will you fare?

Play me off …

‘yes, and?’
Ariana Grande’s seventh studio album, “Eternal Sunshine,” comes out on Friday. She released this single from the project back in January. Grande also stars alongside Cynthia Erivo in the upcoming two-part movie musical “Wicked,” an adaptation of the Broadway hit.

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