Start your week smart: Winter storm, Musk’s DOGE, Israeli hostages, consumer watchdog, Alaska plane crash

(CNN) — It’s Super Bowl Sunday — the most important day of the year for NFL fans and big-name brands. Advertisers have shelled out upwards of $8 million for a 30-second spot during the game in the hopes of making an impression on an estimated 120 million viewers. All of which raises the question: Is it worth it?

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

The weekend that was

• Parts of the Northeast are waking up to more than a foot of snow Sunday morning, as a fast-moving winter storm, packing snow, sleet and ice, leaves more than 15 million people from the Midwest to the Northeast under winter alerts. The storm is already causing flight delays, and officials are warning people to watch out for snow-covered, slippery roads.
• A federal judge, citing a risk of “irreparable harm,” has temporarily restricted Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing a critical Treasury Department payment system. The judge’s order, issued early Saturday, temporarily halts access to a sensitive payment system that distributes Americans’ tax returns, Social Security benefits, disability payments and federal employees’ salaries. The White House called Saturday’s order “judicial overreach.”
• Three male Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners were freed in the fifth round of exchanges between Israel and Hamas Saturday, but the gaunt, frail appearance of the released hostages was condemned as “shocking” by Israel. A group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza said it was “horrified by the visible physical and mental condition” of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy.
• Russell Vought, the newly installed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sent an email Saturday night ordering all employees at the consumer watchdog to stop virtually all work — including fighting financial abuse. In practice, this means that the nation’s top consumer financial watchdog has effectively been pulled off the street, prevented from providing oversight over big banks, payday lenders and other financial institutions that could be hurting consumers.
• All 10 people killed when a regional airline flight crashed off the coast of western Alaska have been recovered and identified, authorities said Saturday. The small commuter aircraft carrying nine passengers and one pilot took off from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon before disappearing. The plane was later found on Friday about 34 miles southeast of the flight’s intended destination, according to the US Coast Guard.

The week ahead

Monday
Vice President JD Vance will attend a global artificial intelligence summit in Paris — his first scheduled trip abroad since taking office. The meeting of world leaders, tech CEOs and experts in the field comes just weeks after Chinese startup Deepseek rocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street with the introduction of its AI model called R1, which has all the familiar abilities of popular AI models like ChatGPT, but operates at a fraction of the cost. Later in the week, Vance will attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Tuesday
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will deliver his semiannual report on monetary policy to Congress. The two days of hearings before House committees come on the heels of the central bank’s recent decision to hold interest rates steady — a decision that did not sit well with President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has his own plan to bring down historically high interest rates, and it’s got nothing to do with the Fed.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to hold a hearing into the policies of sanctuary cities and has invited the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City to testify. The hearing comes after President Trump kicked off his second term in office with an ambitious immigration agenda, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and seal off the US southern border. More than 8,000 people have been arrested by federal immigration authorities since Trump’s inauguration, but senior officials have expressed frustration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in tense calls for not meeting its marks, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

Wednesday
Inflation returns to the forefront with the release of the Consumer Price Index for January and all of 2024. In the previous reading for December, the CPI slowed for the first time in months, after stripping out volatile gas and food prices.

Thursday
If you’re a fan of “Parks and Recreation,” you know it’s Galentine’s Day.

Friday
Happy Valentine’s Day! Or not … as some of you out there may be wondering, “Is it wrong to break up with someone on (or close to) a holiday all about love?” We’ve asked the experts.

Listen in

One Thing: 🎧 Foreign aid fallout
In this episode of the “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s David Rind speaks to two Africans who are feeling the impacts of the US foreign aid freeze. 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
Season 2 of CNN’s “Have I Got News For You” premieres Saturday at 9 p.m. and streams the next day on Max. The American version of the long-running UK comedy series is hosted by Roy Wood Jr. along with team captains Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black.

In theaters
Marvel smashes its way back onto the big screen Friday with the premiere of “Captain America: Brave New World,” starring Anthony Mackie. Joining the fray is newcomer Harrison Ford (new to the MCU that is) as Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, aka President Ross, aka Red Hulk.

For those looking for something of a more gentle nature, there’s “Paddington in Peru.” For those who are perhaps unfamiliar with Paddington’s origin story, he’s an Andean bear — the only bear species found in South America.

What’s happening in sports

At a glance …
Later today, the Kansas City Chiefs hope to become the first team to win three Super Bowl titles in a row when they again face the Philadelphia Eagles. Kickoff for Super Bowl LIX is set for 6:30 p.m. ET on Fox, with pre-game coverage beginning many, many hours before either team takes the field. Here are five things to watch in the final game of the 2024-25 NFL season.

On a related (and utterly adorable) note, Puppy Bowl XXI airs at 2 p.m. ET and will be simulcast across Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, Max and discovery+. The must-see event will feature 142 rescue puppies from 80 shelters across 40 states — and two countries. Click here to meet the game’s newest stars. (Animal Planet and the other five networks above are part of Warner Bros. Discovery — as is CNN.)

For more of your favorite sports, head on 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 weekly news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 67% of fellow quiz fans have gotten eight or more questions right. How will you fare?

Play me off …

‘Friday I’m In Love’
By way of a serendipitous coincidence, Friday is Valentine’s Day. (Click here to view) Editor’s note: no need to write in to point out the redundancy of our word choice — it was deliberately intentional …

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