us this hour. i'm going to turn the helm over to my colleague wolf blitzer. his program starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. new satellite images are once again raising hopes of finding malaysian airlines flight 370. here's the latest information, japan's kyoto news agency says japanese intelligence satellites spotted about ten square shaped objects in the southern indian ocean. the report says the photos were taken between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time yesterday. the japanese sighting follows news that a thai satellite captured images of about 300 objects that range in size from six feet to 50 feet. weather once again hindering the search for the objects and anything related to the missing jetliner. search planes had to return to base today because of very rough

conditions. and the -- plane's pilot is speaking out with a newspaper objecting information his father may be responsible in the disappearance. he says, quote, i know my father better. we're getting more reports of objects spotted in the indian ocean. so far search crews have been unable to find any of the objects, certainly they have not been able to recover any wreckage from the plane. let's bring in our cnn correspondent will ripley joining us from the base. planes have been grounded on this day. give us the breakdown, will, of the latest satellite reports starting with the newest one we just received from japan. >> yeah. those pictures as you mentioned were taken yesterday. cnn has now confirmed that the largest of these objects is actually rectangular, about 26 feet by 13 feet, the other square objects ten of them in total, and then of course we had just hours before that report the thai satellite images, 300

objects still not really confirmed what these are. but japanese officials told the kyoto news agency they believe there's a high probability, and this is remarkable, this is the first time we're hearing this reported by kyoto, a high probability these objects could be jetliner debris. cnn hasn't been able to confirm that yet. we are reaching out to japanese officials, but obviously it's the middle of the night. it's something we'll be checking on tomorrow. this is on top of the three other countries, china, australia and france who all have satellite images focusing in on this one particular area 1700 miles southwest of perth, australia, the southern indian ocean very remote and we're having a hard time getting planes out there to get a visual on these. as of now it's satellite images. we need something more concrete and we're hoping that will happen later this morning when the planes take off. >> are there any indications, will, that the planes will in fact take off with sunlight in a few hours? you're only four or five hours away from the early morning

hours. >> yeah, first planes taking off around 5:00 a.m. the plan is now that they will be taking off. the local weather reports are saying there should be a good window of opportunity in the morning before weather conditions start to get worse again. we were expecting better weather than what we saw yesterday. there were actually eight planes in the air over the search area when all the sudden in a matter of moments the conditions turned so ugly and so dangerous that they had to turn back. we're hoping that doesn't happen again today. >> all right. will, thanks very much. will ripley reporting from perth, australia. the fbi's expected to finish examining the hard drives of the pilot's home flight simulator and personal computer today or tomorrow, but a senior u.s. government official is telling cnn so far they've found no smoking gun, nothing yet to indicate the pilot was involved in the plane's disappearance. and now the captain's son and a former malaysia airline executive who knew the pilot for decades, they are both speaking out in defense of his character. cnn's jim clancy has that. >> in a vacuum of evidence,

media reports persistently point to the pilots as those likely responsible for the disappearance of flight 370. they had the skill, they were the last ones in control. government officials refuse to comment, but the former head and founder of malaysia airlines said he personally knew senior captain from the time he was a cadet 30 years ago. you knew captain shau. some people point a finger at him. >> he's an excellent pilot. and i think also an excellent gentleman. i think they're going the wrong way pointing finger at him. >> you also knew the co-pilot. what can you say about him? >> his father learned the quran by heart. he also learn the quran by heart. he's a good muslim.

i know good muslim. >> he was a lifelong supporter of the opposition political party and its leader anwar ibrahim. >> some people in the government saw this as an opportunity to link anwar ibrahim to the pilot. >> it was reported the captain was in the courtroom hours before the flight when ibrahim was sentenced to five years on sodomy charges. charges the opposition insists to were designed to eliminate him from politics. >> wasn't there friday afternoon right at the point the sentencing took place. >> as a multinational search effort closes in on the suspected resting site of flight 370, dr. aziz hopes the flight data recorder will be located and with it the evidence to clear the pilots. >> once we get the black box, we can have the answers.

if we can't find all those, then we will start pointing fingers and say all sorts of things and it's very difficult for us to defend. >> the captain's family has gone into seclusion after voluntarily talking with investigators. but his son, seth, talked with local media telling them whatever i have read has not changed my heart. i have ignored these speculations. i know who my father is. we understood each other. jim clancy, cnn, kuala lumpur. >> so continued speculation about the pilot's role is taking an emotional toll clearly on the families. joining us now mark weiss, an aviation analyst, former pilot, 777 pilot for american airlines. peter goelz, former ntsb manager and tom fuentes, former assistant director of the fbi. what are you hearing, tom? i want to make sure we give the pilot in this particular case captain shau, the appropriate

consideration understandably he's been a source of investigation. but so far there's been no smoking gun, if you will. >> that's right, wolf. i'm hearing the same thing today that i heard yesterday, that the police did not zero-in on him. that those reports were false. i've heard more information about that that i'd rather not go into, but they're saying they know the source within the police department where that came out and that the information was false. >> the malaysian police source quoted by usa today. >> that's right. >> and they're discounting that report. >> exactly. >> this is what you're hearing? >> yes. >> but the investigation is continuing clearly and if there's no hard evidence found on the computer drives or flight simulator taken from his home or other computer drives from the pilot's computer or co-pilot's computer, where do they go from there? what are the other leads? >> the only other leads are which is to continue the investigation, which is ongoing, and to further look at additional people that may have known both pilots. again, the rest of the

investigation continues intensively on passengers, cargo, ground crew, anybody that had access to that airplane. so they haven't ruled all of the other possibilities out in terms of somebody doing bad things on that aircraft, or to the aircraft. >> criminal activity or mechanical failure, those are still obviously the two areas where they're investigating. peter, these latest satellite images that we're seeing seem to suggest more and more potential debris, wreckage from the plane, floating around there some place. >> you're right, wolf. these are some of the first images that i've felt are somewhat optimistic about the image of the 300-plus, you know, pieces of wreckage floating on the surface. boy, if that can be traced back, that looks like a debris field that i'm familiar with. >> and is it because of the waves, the currents, the horrible weather that it's so hard for a ship to get anywhere near? this is now the fourth or fifth sighting of various debris, but nothing has been picked up yet.

>> sure. they're estimating that the wreckage is moving perhaps 100 miles each day depending on the wind. when you've got 30-foot seas, that really disburses a debris field. so they've got to get some luck, they've got to get a boat on the scene where they've got a picture. and i hope it's going to happen soon. >> and they desperately want to get the flight data recorder and voice recorder. still supposedly we are hoping pinging a little bit, but there may be only ten or 11 or 12 days left, mark, as you well know. >> yeah, i mean, we've heard various times that the pingers may have already stopped. hopefully they're still going. if this is a debris field, maybe we can really narrow that down and move that back to where the actual crash site may have been. those pingers are critical to this point. but listening to the information, getting that information from those black boxes is really going to help determine what caused this aircraft to come out of the sky. >> what happens if they never retrieve either of those two black boxes?

>> well, that's certainly going to make this a longer investigation. but if they're able to get the fuselage and -- i hate to say body parts, but that's what we're going to be looking at, they're going to be able to tell a lot of information from that alone. >> peter, have there been crashes, investigations, where you haven't uncovered the flight data voice recorders but still able to conclude what happened? >> they have been rare where we've missed one or the other, but where we've missed both, not recently. >> this raises a question we'll discuss later, in this day and age you would think there would be live streaming all that information from those flight data and voice recorders so there would be a copy some place if the plane were to go down. we're going to discuss that because the technology is out there, but for some reason the airlines, the pilots, they haven't incorporated that technology. all right. guys, standby. we'll have much more on the hunt for flight 370 in just a moment. a couple other stories we're

following, a development in two scandals that have rocked the administration of the new jersey governor chris christie. a law firm hired by the governor's office to conduct a review of the controversial lane closures of the george washington bridge now released its report. convinced the governor had nothing to do with the closures. also neglected allegations by the hoboken mayor who threatened -- if she didn't back a real estate project. it found no evidence of wrongdoing in this case either by the governor. president obama said today the national security agency will no longer be allowed to collect and keep bulk phone records. in announcing the decision, the president said, and i'm quoting now, i have decided that the best path forward is the government should not collect or hold this data in bulk. instead, the data should remain at the telephone companies for the left it currently does today. the action requires

congressional approval. the administration will seek a 90-day extension of the program while congress writes legislation to ensure intelligence agencies can access the phone records with a court order. we'll stay on top of that story as well. still ahead this hour, your questions about flight 370, using #370qs. we'll get answers from our panel of experts and politicians come face-to-face in the vatican today. president obama's historic meeting with pope francis. we'll discuss the one topic they both agreed on of global importance. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪

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questions are continuing to pour in from our viewers about the fate of flight 370. our aviation analysts mark weiss, peter goelz. this is first for you. why can't satellites be viewed live in realtime? >> well, because the technology is the satellite views it, then transfers it to a ground station, which then transfers it to a station -- >> sometimes it takes three or four days for the image. it's like sending your kodak film to the drugstore to get it developed in a few days. there's got to be a faster way to do it. >> well, there probably is. but somebody described it as looking at the earth through a straw and that that's what you get. so you got to look at the hundreds of images individually. and most of them show nothing. >> here's one for tom. i can see my car in my driveway on google maps, why are the debris photos so poor? >> good question.

i don't know. >> i think a lot of times they deliberately blur them a little bit. >> they may not be so poor. >> for example, the u.s. -- have we seen a lot of u.s. satellite images of the debris or anything? >> no. >> we have the best satellites in the world flying around and the u.s. doesn't release those i assume for national security reasons, right? >> well, the first day the pictures put out by the australians were from a u.s. satellite from a company in denver. >> but there's better ones than that. i'm sure the u.s. is sending satellites around, but they don't want to necessarily -- maybe they're making the information available to investigators confidentially but don't want to release photos publicly. >> and i don't know what the national security secret would be that the paparazzi has better resolution in their lenses than a u.s. satellite spy in the sky. >> they can take pictures from up in space of some car in the driveway with a license plate number. >> but your idea is right, we might need a drugstore in space. >> develop those pictures. all right. here's one for mark. why still the reliance on the black box? surely modern technology can be

used to remotely record flight data in realtime. there are companies out there developing a capability where the information from the flight data recorder and from the voice recorder are streamed live to somebody on the ground in case they lose those black boxes. >> there are companies that can do that right now. and let's hope that this accident will help push that forward so that this is going to be mandated. >> but you're a 777 pilot, a lot of pilots don't like the idea of having everything they're saying in the cockpit recorded for people down at ground stations to hear. >> well, you know, i think there have been protocols put in place now that would prevent use in legal actions against them. that's been the story before. so i think this, again, this accident is now going to put a lot of emphasis on saying, look, as the commercial you can be the driver or the passenger, we can now help create the legislation that will prevent any possible leaks going to media or in legal

affairs. >> and there's a lot of people who would like video cameras, peter, in those cockpits as well, live video cameras if you will, streaming back to ground control. but pilots unions don't like that idea very much. >> no. the ntsb has made recommendations to have live streaming inside cockpits, but it has been opposed. but you've got three technologies. you've got the streaming technology, you've got deployable recorders. and each of those technologies have some drawbacks, but they can be overcome quickly. >> yeah. here's another question, this is for mark. could electrical failure blackout cockpit instruments resulting in pilots becoming disoriented and losing their way? >> i think in the past we've seen some pilots becoming disoriented. you certainly saw something like that with -- it was a training issue actually, in the air france flight, the 447 flight.

the 777 has many, many redundant backup electrical systems. it's going to take an awful lot to get them to all go out at one time. >> here's another question, jolly writes, has anyone even thought that ping in last location intentional to cover up the place really going? a lot of conspiracy theories out there as you well know it's not a surprise. >> i don't know who would be controlling the ping and how they would control that. >> yeah. just people are always suspicious. >> right. >> something much bigger is going on than meets the eye. peter, at what point is it safe to say that time is lapsed and the flight recorder will not be found? >> i don't think you can say that for a number of almost years. i mean, this search is going to go on, they're going to track that thing down. it may take a year or more, but they're not going to give up. and i think the pinger may go out in the next two weeks. that's not going to stop the search. >> and the information on the flight data recorder and the

voice recorder will still be available. let's say it takes two or three years to find it. >> these are digital recorders. if there's good information on the voice recorder, that will be preserved. and the same thing with the flight data recorder. it will be good. >> all right. good information. good questions, most of them. thanks very much. one critical question remains unanswered, what are these mystery objects, hundreds of them spotted by satellite in the search area? we're taking an up close look at the search for the debris. that's just ahead. ♪ ♪ so you can get out of your element. so you can explore a new frontier and a different discipline. get two times the points on travel and dining at restaurants from chase sapphire preferred. so you can be inspired by great food once again. chase sapphire preferred.

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new potentially promising leads in the effort to find

flight 370. hundreds of objects have now been spotted on satellite images floating in the southern indian ocean. tom forman is joining us now. tom, so where exactly were these objects found, what do they look like? >> well, they're out in the middle of the ocean to put it simply. what they look like is the wreckage of a plane. and when you say where are they? they're in relation to each other. that matters. but what we've been looking at here a lot is the comparison between this and the air france crash. this does look like the kind of debris you'd expect from a plane crashing that way. but look at the bigger map here. if you look at perth is over here, you have to travel out some 1600 miles to get to this area. and all of the finds are in this general sort of tight area here. that could be encouraging. we're talking about well over 400 items right now. but i do want to point out something here, when the air france plane went down, in that case there were about 600 items found in an area that was the

size of about three miles initially. so you're talking about more objects in a much more compact area. now, maybe that speaks to how the plane went down or how quickly it was found. because in air france they found it very quickly. in this case we're talking about 20 some days down the line. when you consider all the currents that are going on in this part of the world, if we bring in a map here from noaa on the globe with some animation of time lapse of currents, you can see we move off australia down here to the search area. and you can see that these items are all in an area that is very, very turbulent and there's all sorts of competing currents. that can move things around. but, wolf, that's really going to complicate things as well. if you think about it, let's say for some reason the reason they're so spread out on the surface compared to air france would be because these currents have moved things. and they've had time to move things. but that also complicates further the job of finding where they came from. because in the case of air france, i want you to bear in

mind, that even that circle of debris would be enormous because when they finally found after two years $45 million worth of searches they finally found the air france debris on the bottom of the ocean. and it really was only enough to cover a few football fields, wolf. it was not spread out over hundreds of miles. so if you're going to reverse engineer from anywhere in this circle, which is about 240 miles apart, even if you can go back through these currents and construct where the plane would have actually hit the water, you're trying to go to a very small target under the water. and that could take a very long time even if this proves to be the right stuff. wolf. >> tom forman, good analysis as usual. thank you. every new satellite photo raising new hopes of finding the missing plane, but aviation experts are skeptical about some of the images. we're going to talk with some of them to get their take when we come back. it's the little things in life that make me smile.

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base today because of rough conditions. and the son of the plane's pilot is speaking out in an interview with a malaysian newspaper. he's rejecting the speculation his father may have been involved in the plane's disappearance. all of these latest satellite images are located in the same general area of the southern indian ocean. so does this mean searchers may be getting closer to finding the proverbial haystack as they say? or could this just be some random objects caught up in shifting ocean currents? clive irving is a contributor of the daily beast, consulting editor for condenast traveler. clive, you say you're more intrigued by the more than 122 objects spotted by the french satellite than the 300 objects captured by the thai satellite. tell us why. >> well, because the 300 objects are said to be scattered over a much larger area, i think the number was 1600 miles altogether, which is more than halfway across the atlantic in its equivalence.

if you have that number of objects disbursed over that distance, it's not a familiar debris field cluster. that's why i would go back to the earlier number, the fewer objects in the smaller space because that's more credible. you have to bear in mind though that we're talking about more than two weeks after the event a key thing we need to be able to get back to, the debris is the starting point. the point to where the major parts of the aircraft went down to the bottom of the ocean. so it's important to distinguish that kind of information you can get from one and from the other. and with the seas being as they are, these kind of fierce oceans with wave heights up to 50 feet and regular storms and it's coming up to winter now, i don't understand how this larger field could be of any real significance because it's spread over too wide an area. >> interesting point.

based on what you know about the way planes break up in a situation like this, clive, what are your thoughts on the size of the objects the satellites are actually picking up? >> well, i would be looking for most importantly i think i would be looking for two things, i would be looking for parts of the tail system, the vertical stabilizer, and the horizontal stabilizer, buzz they do break up. and normally they float. and i would hope to see also because we keep talking about this 70-foot-plus piece of debris, that's come up several times. that would match the one-half of the wing, left or right wing. and that would be a very significant find. >> as you know, crews are racing against the clock only a few days left if those pingers are working on the so-called black boxes, the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, you compared the reliance on these black boxes to using a vcr in the age of netflix and streaming video. so what kind of video should

they be using right now to track planes? >> well, we have the technology. if it had been installed in this plane, it would have been live streaming of data from the plane which would have given us immediately the same amount in quality of information about the nervous system of the plane in other words what was going on in the plane right up to the time it went into the ocean. then we wouldn't have to mount this vast search. by the way, wolf, i think another factor here is the attrition, the fierce attrition of the search on equipment and on people. and so i think the planes can do very, very little in the short time they're over the ocean. i think we need to get ships into this field so that they can actually get close to it and you can see from these satellite images that satellites themselves are rather blinded by the amount of cloud there. >> good point. clive irving, we'll check back with you. thank you very much for your insight. exhausted, angry and unable to grieve without closure, the families of those aboard malaysia airline 370 are waiting

day after day waiting definitive word on the fate of their loved one. we introduce you to the man emerging their voice and why the families can't bear to give up hope. >> reporter: the trauma of waiting. for weeks hundreds of family members of those on board flight 370 have been stuck in a hotel in beijing. the pressure cooker of grief and emotion. when they were told the plane went down, some via text message, it was overwhelming. then grief boiled over into anger. these families have banded together, and leaders like steve wong have emerged. without physical evidence he believes his mother could still be alive. but the wait is weighing on them

all. >> well, it is a hard time and all of us are exhausted, both mental and physical. so it is really hard time. >> reporter: retired u.s. air force colonel gordon peters has deep experience helping families deal with trauma. he calls the situation terrible. >> they have no closure. they're not able to say let's deal with this, let's discuss it. they still have confliction. a sense of loss keeps perpetu e perpetuating. >> family members are stuck inside this conference room for hours each day. many tell me they still believe their family members are still alive, even if logically the chances seem quite remote. >> they go to bed at night and they probably logically know it's happening, but they don't

want to give up. they want to have the good moments with their life. they want to continue to hope for the best. >> reporter: and in a culture where family is everything, they are refusing to give up because the consequences are just too great. >> well, my mom used to say that where there are people there are family. but one is lost so -- >> reporter: david mckenzie, cnn, beijing. >> and our hearts go out to those families. we'll have more on the mystery of flight 370 coming up. also coming up, president obama met today with pope francis. later we'll reveal what they discuss, not every day the president of the united states meets with the pontiff. we're going to play for you what went on. here's a word you should keep in mind "unbiased". some brokerage firms are but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't that a conflict?

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this morning in rome after meeting with pope francis at the vatican, our senior white house correspondent jim acosta is traveling with the president. jim asked president obama about his meeting with the pope and about the ongoing crisis in ukraine. >> reporter: in your meeting with his holiness, pope francis, did he register any objections with you about the contraception coverage mandate in the affordable care act or your efforts to advance the rights of gays and lesbians in the united states that worry so many catholics? and what were his concerns? and on russia with the reports of troops building on the ukrainian border, by taking the military option off the table, are you sending a signal to vladimir putin that other parts of ukraine are his for the taking? and why not send multinational peace keepers to the ukrainian border as a deterrent? and to you, mr. prime minister, the president said yesterday that the u.s. would defend any nato ally, are you making that same commitment when it comes to

russia? >> that's a lot of questions there, jim. did the italian journalists do this, the sort of five-part questions? same thing. all right. let me try to remember this. in terms of the meeting with his holiness, pope francis, we had a wide ranging discussion. i would say that the largest bulk of the time was discussing two central concerns of his. one is the issues of the poor, the marginalized, those without opportunity and growing inequality. and, you know, those of us as politicians have the task of

trying to come up with policies to address issues. but his holiness has the capacity to open people's eyes and make sure they're seeing that this is an issue. and he's discussed in the past, i think, the dangers of indifference or cynicism when it comes to our ability to reach out to those less fortunate or those locked out of opportunity. and then we spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of conflict and how illusive peace is around the world. there was some specific focus on the middle east where his holiness has a deep interest in the israeli-palestinian issue, but also what's happening in syria, lebanon, and to the

potential persecution of christia christians. and i reaffirmed it is central to u.s. foreign policy that we protect the interests of religious minorities around the world. but we also touched on regions like latin america where there's been tremendous progress in many countries, but there's been less progress in others. i think the theme that stitched our conversation together was a belief that in politics and in life the quality of empathy, the ability to stand in somebody else's shoes and to care for someone even if they don't look like you or talk like you or share your philosophy, that

that's critical. it's the lack of empathy that makes it very easy for us to plunge into wars. it's the lack of empathy that allows us to ignore the homeless on the streets. and obviously central to my christian faith is a belief in treating others as they -- as i'd have them treat me. and what i think has created so much love and excitement for his holiness has been that he seems to live this and shows that joy continuously. in terms of domestic issues, the two issues we touched on, other than the fact i invited and urged him to come visit the united states telling him that people would be overjoyed to see him was immigration reform. and as someone who came from

latin america, i think he was very mindful of the plight of so many immigrants who are wond wonderful people working hard making contributions, many of their children are u.s. citizens and yet they still live in the shadows in many cases have been deported and are separated from families. you know, i described to him how i felt that there was still an opportunity for us to make this right and get a law passed. and he actually did not touch in detail on the affordable care act. in my meeting with secretary of state, cardinal pentellium, we discussed briefly the issue of making sure that conscience and religious freedom was observed in the context of applying the

law. and i explained to him that most religious organizations are entirely exempt religiously affiliated hospitals, universities or ngos simply have to attest that they have a religious objection in which case they are not required to provide contraception. although employees of theirs who choose are able to obtain it through the insurance company. i pledge to continue dialogue with the u.s. conference of bishops to make sure that we can strike the right balance making sure that not only everybody has health care but families and women in particular are able to enjoy the kind of health care coverage it offers but religious freedom is observed. there was a third question? okay, that's right, russia. okay.

i remember. yeah, i think that i've been very clear in saying that we are going to do everything we can to support ukraine and the ukrainian people. but i think that it's also important for us not to promise and then not be able to deliver. there are ways for us to hopefully influence russian decision making and one of the most important things we can do on that front is ensure that the ukrainian government is stable, that it's finances are stable and that elections go forward as currently scheduled so that we have a legitimate, strong, representative, inclusive government with an economic program that it is implementing and carrying out. and all those things are in

place, but we're going to have to put a lot of resources and a lot of effort. not just the united states, but europe as well. and, you know, i've been very impressed with prime minister and his current efforts. the decision to go forward with an imf program with a lot of resources is going to require a lot of courage. but keep in mind that part of what prompted the original protests that led to the previous president leaving same corrupt practices and economy that was completely inefficient and led to a situation in which poll ant's gdp skyrocketed and the ukraine's had plummeted when they started off in the same place just several years ago.

i think the prime minister understands that. i think the ukrainian people understand that. it will require tough decisions, but the prime minister is also making tough decisions. we had to make tough decisions. that's the nature of political leadership and i think that's what the ukrainian people are seeking is a better future even if it requires some short-term changes to business as usual. >> any questions? >> the president giving a lengthy answer to jim acosta on his meeting with the pope and also on the situation in ukraine in relation to russia. the president's meeting with pope francis has drawn worldwide attention. i will ask someone who knows a lot about popes and presidents. the pulitzer prize winning author who has written about the vatican and is standing by to join us live. ♪

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let's talk about this with someone who discovered presidents and written an important book and karl, give us context here. as i have been pointing out, it's historic and not every day that the president goes to the vatican and sits down with a pope. >> it's historic for two reasons. they share a sensibility and a view of the world problems, particularly that of poverty and those who are n marginalized economically and socially. they share a world view just as ronald reagan and the pope john paul ii shared a geopolitical world view. here we have a social world view and two leaders dealing with culture wars within their institutions. the pope probably much more successfully in bridging some of those culture wars than

president obama has been. i'm sure president obama kind of envies the success of this pope in the way he has been accoladed by catholics and non-catholics alike in bridging the culture wars. >> 1.2 billion catholics worldwide. they agree on helping poor people on the problems of income, inequality and those areas, but when it am cans to same-sex marriage, birth control and abortion, they clearly disagree. how do they finesse that in a one-hour meeting? >> i don't think it's about finesse. the most important key to understanding this pope is the remarkable interview he did early in his papacy with the jesuit magazines with italy and the united states in which he said and with great nuance, the priorities of the institutional catholic church need to be changed to move towards

prioritizing the social issues and these cutting edge, these divicive theological questions about abortion, same-sex marriage, contraception, etc. he made quite clear he thinks they need to be reduced in the intensity with which they are discussed as a priority of the church and the faithful. he is not moving away from his belief in the theology of the catholic church, but an emphasis that goes back to social teaching. pope john paul ii was a great exponent and one of the great contributions to mankind and obama had great experience as a community organizer in chicago. he had an office in a catholic church and he understands teachings coming from the gospels and particularly from the words of jesus christ that has to do with the poor and the

impoverished and serving them. that is the real mission i think that unites the world vision of both of these leaders as well as they also talked about questions of peace and the catholic church is concerned about the use of drones. and hurting civilians. that's an area of some disagreement. i'm going to presume that the president tried to explain his position in terms of he believes it saves lives to use drones and avoid a larger conflict. i think that the areas of agreement and sensibility, you can hear in the president's words real appreciation. you use the word joy as the pope's message. i think this is an important meeting and think we are going to see more about the two of them referring to each other and their missions. >> history in rome at the vatican on this important day. thanks very much. thanks for sharing thoughts.

that's it for me. i will be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern. another special edition of a two-hour situation room. the mystery surrounding the malaysia airlines flight. newsroom with brooke baldwin starts right now. >> lots of things to show you today. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you so much for being with us. we will begin in the search for flight 370. japan is saying the satellites have found precisely ten objects floating in the courage indian ocean. these are big objects as well. one is reportedly 26 feet long and 13 feet wide. this news hours after the release of these pictures. new satellite images showing objects 300 of them. this is the biggest number we have toward. this is a thai satellite nd