>> end of the road. ♪ >> we're just minute as way from u.s. president obama president conference with malaysian prime minister. we'll have a live report from the capitol and in the wake of this south korean ferry disaster. the country's prime minister offers his resignation. >> plus it is the first time in history that two former popes will be canonized on the same day. these are live pictures from the vatican. it happens in just a few hours. we'll have a free view of the saint hood ceremony.

>> and again, thank you for joining us. we're standing by for live news conference in malaiysia this hor hour. it is the latest stop in president barack obamobama's ton the pacific. he's just finished a working lunch with the malaysian prime minister. mr. obama is trying to strengthen ties with the country's muslim majority government. he's the first president to visit the group in nearly 50 years. this visit comes 7 weeks after malaysian air lines flight 370 disappeared en route to beijing. it will be interesting in this news conference, jim, how much is it about the economic ties that president obama is looking to continue with malaysia and

how much of the missing air liner? >> reporter: well, you're absolutely right about that natalie. i think you're going to hear both of that at this news conference coming up with the prime minister in just a few minutes. you know, as you mentioned a few moments ago, this president conference comes as presidential visit to malaysia comes as part of the third stop of president obama's asia trip. this is part of his asia pivot has its been called back in the u.s. media trying to pivot the u.s. foreign policy away from the hot spots in the middle east as to what the obama administration says a developing economic and military strategic part of the world. the president triying to sta iio that. although it's not going to happen on this trip, the so called transpacific partnership something the president has been trying to get aboved back in washington but he has got to get the details with his asian partners. there are disagreements with not

only the government here in malaysia but also tokyo so the president has been working on that throughout this trip. you heard, remember a few days ago in tokyo, natalie, the president was asked about the territorial issues down in the east china sea. down in the south china sea there's another dispute that malaysians are concern about. you mentioned this is the first presidential visit since 19 schi66. it is certainly not lost on the mind of the malaysians. they are very glowing and thankful to the president for coming to the malaysian capitol. you mention flight 370. that has very much been on the minds of the malaysians here. the president talked about that with an interview with the malaysian newspaper. not only extending his

condollences to the newspaper here but also that it might be time to look at lessons learned from that tragedy so we don't see things like that happening again. i think the president will be asked about flight 370 and i think it will be very interesting to see hear what he has to say about that if he offers any kind of soft criticism of how the government has handled that disappearance of the jetliner. it has been controversial around the world but very much so in this country. >> absolutely. and we think that the president may be stepping out of this car. these are live pictures that we are bringing you now. we're waiting to see if this is the president and the prime minister coming in for the news conference. there's president obama. so as we see him, jim, he's visiting four countries on this asia pivot tour greeting the prime minister there. the prime minister he gereeting

him as well. how important is the malaysia leg in reference to this trade agreement that they are trying to get? >> reporter: well, i think it's very important. malaysia was one of the original countries involved in that trade agreement when the president presented the idea a few years ago. there are some sticking points to work out with the malaysian government. they are concerned that this trade agreement would prevent them from going after the tobacco countries. it is a huge concern for the malaiysian countries. there are some concerns that this trade agreement would block efforts to do that. there's also another issue that could get raised at the press conference that is that the opposite leader, human rights activists could like the president to meet with him on his visit to malaysia. it's not going to happen.

he's sending his national security advisor, susan rice to meet with him instead. i think the president according to administration officials who are on this trip have said that the president is likely to bring up this topic with the malaysian prime minister. i think it's quite possible we'll hear about that as well. >> all right we will wait and see. there's a news conference expected in less than ten minutes. we will provide live coverage and talk with you again. thank you so much. well speaking of the missing airline ir. an under water drone is ending his sweet of the indian ocean. it begins his 15th mission today. it's looking for signs of the air liner. with more than 95% of the ground covered. it has found no trace. if nothing is found officials will likely expand the zone to the north. the surface searched by ships and planes has been canceled sunday because of bad weather. it is just over 50 days now

since the flight carrying. suspected pingers led searchers to the area that was scanned what about emergency beakons that have known to be on the airline. why did they not send out a stress signal. >> it's one of the most baffling questions in an under strange mystery. why didn't any of the emergency baekones on the plane send a stress signal. they are called elts, malaysian officials say there are four of them on the plane. >> they are a small radio transmitter that sends a signal that is detected by satellites in the event of an airplane crash. >> they are then relayed to monitoring stations opt ground. they are not related to the

pinger, the signal coming from the black boxes contain pg the flight recorders. these beacons are designed to be activated if they send extreme deceleration or impact. experts say there are other possible scenarios with the missing plane where the elts would not have worked. >> if the plane crashed with too much velocity into the surface so that the entire plane is disintegrated also if the plane lands gently enough for instance if the plane is set down gent ri enough that there wasn't sufficient g force to activate the elts. >> other reasons why the beacons wouldn't have worked. a crash could have broken the elt's antennas. also there's a time lag after impact. it takes 50 seconds for the first signal to be transmitted. >> even after it hits the water. it has to stay afloat for more than 50 seconds or they won't sound either. >> so either two elts placed by

the live rafts might be useful that's because elts don't work under water. >> once these things become submerged the radio signal is no longer able to reach the satellite. >> so the transmitter have been tampered with? experts say the two that are attached to the fuel ill oj probably would have been unaccessible but two onboard could have been tampered. >> the very disaster that we continue to follow is the ferry sinking from south korea. there has been some fall out from the disaster. the prime minister has recently announced his resignation. this happened a couple of hours ago. in stepping down, chung apologized to victim's families for not preventing the sichking from happening and for the slow

initial response. so far more than 187 bodies have been recovered. 118 people are still missing. bad weather has suspended the under water search for a second day. >> catholics from around the world are streaming into rome to witness a historic day at the vatican. in just a few hours, two late popes will be made saints. some two dozen heads of states are scheduled to attend. pope benedict the 16th will also be there. his predecessor john paul is being granted saint hood as is john the 23rd who is known as good pop john, a church reformer who ushered in the second counsel. >> for more on this let's go live to vatican correspondent in

rome. dilia, one million people starting to crowd the vatican there behind you. what a day. >> reporter: yes, natalie, knave been here all night. they have slept out with their sleeping bags with little food provisions under the stars. to stake their place because the streets of rome are the small windy streets. they strtry to come this to pla to get the best view. the city of rome has set up giant screens for people who couldn't make it to the mant main scene behind me. this is a huge scene two popes being canonized. john paul the second has said to be canonized. john the 23rd has been waiting since 1926 for this

canonization. he was also called the pesant pope. john the 23rd set the tone for being able to easily talk with the people and at the same time became the big reformer because he opened the second vatican counsel so pope francis's admiration for him is one of the reasons he's also being con canonized natalie. >> thanks very much. we will be bringing live coverage of the ceremony to our viewers. coming up in just a couple of hours. it will be 3:30 a.m. in the ut f in the united states here. >> we want to get some analysis on that. i'm joined by asia analysis. professor, thank you for joining us. first of all, what is your reaction to this step made by the south korean government.

was it the right step in light of this tragedy that it continues to unfold. >> well, the most important thing to realize is that this is a really -- the prime minister is a very weak position. no one in south korea thinks the prime minister is in charge. when the prime minister steps down it's almost taking responsibility without taking responsibility. i think that it shows the depth of the political crisis here. and an attempt by the government to get some control over it. but i'd be surprised if this really is able to resolve the crisis. of course the search is ongoing, and the level of lawraw emotion here is still very powerful. >> well, it shows the government trying to take some responsibility for the sinking of the ferry and the botched rescue but you say maybe not enough. so what more could we see from

this government to see how much it is taking on with just having some culpability with this tragedy. >> it is going to be hard. of course for the parents, the families and for a really broad section of the society, anything now is already too late. and that's the crux of it that there needed to be an immediate response which was lacking. there are a lot of, i guess str issues that people are talking about in terms ever regulation of the industry, the maritime, of tourism, and shipping. of the country cozy relationship between business and government that could allow something like this to happen. of course, simultaneous with that, there's a great deal of focus on the captain and crew. there's sort of two levels of responsibility. one is the kind of personal, professional, responsibility issue of the crew, but then there are much deeper issues that really cut into south

korean society and the power structure and that's what people are looking for, i think, rather than this sort of symbolic, you know, one official falling on his sword but not the person who's really in charge. >> we appreciate your analysis. certainly much more to come out in this lengthy investigation that we will see. john delury for us. thank you very much for joining us. >> again, we will bring you president obamobama's news conference with the malaysian prime minister live. this is expected to start in just a few minutes. that's coming up, right after a quick break. thank you! thank you! dedicated bankers born to go the extra mile. you've been such a big help. it's what i like to do. so you can choose a bank where helping people comes first.

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allegedly made by a teamowner. donald sterling the owner of the los angeles clipper's team has not admitted that it's his voice on a phone call recorded by his girlfriend. but the call has ignited outrage aconsiders t the nba. >> i have nothing more to say. >> he happens to be black and i'm sorry. >> i think it's nice that you admire him. i have known him well and he should be admired. i'm just saying that it's too bad you can't admire him privately and during your entire live, your whole life admire him, feed him, i don't care. even do anything but don't put him on this event so the world has to see so he has to call me and don't bring him to my games, okay. >> cnn's paul mercanam is

covering this. he short to our jonathan mann a short time ago. >> evan eryone is trying to conm whether this is indeed the owner of the clippers, donald sterling. apparently, according to tmz this is his voice. he's having a conversation with his girlfriend who is half black and half mexican. among other things he's alleging that he does not want her to be seen with black people at the clippers games. that of course being the nba team that he owns. >> the clippers have issued a statement saying that they don't know if his voice was altered o but nowhere in the statement do they say this is definitely not the voice of donald sterling, john. >> he's not a household name anywhere else accept in los angeles but he really is a household name there.

he's got a lot of money and a lot of history. tell us about him. >> well, as we said before, he's a billionaire almost two billion dollars, he owns the clippers. he's owned them since 1981. he's probably known as being a major landlord here in los angeles. his advertisents read out in the l.a. ti axa. times every sunday. he owns thousands of properties. at one time being sued by the federal government for alleged discrimination against african-american renters. what's interesting about this is that many of these properties were within korea town and in the suit that was settled for $2.7 million, it was said that sterling was favoring korean tenants. that he liked koreans over african-americans. he was also sued by his former

general manager balor who said he was racially discriminated with his title with the los angeles clippers john. >> again not confirmed that it's his voice but the investigation continues. >> well, despite a recent outbreak of storms in the north carolina it has been the latest start to a tornado season on record in the u.s. winter just wouldn't let go and let sprain alive, i guess. >> exactly we had all of that cold air one wave other after. that put it on any severe outbreaks we were seeing but we have seen an ef 3. that was with friday's outbreak. that had winds up to 218 kilometers per hour. we have many video coming out of north eastern north carolina where we saw severe outbreak.

1 funnel cloud touching down. some 17 people were injured this this outbreak. a lot of clean up going on in this part of the country. the thing is that it looks like we're getting into a more active pattern this week. we ended up seeing ten tornado reports across the northern north carolina as a result of this latest outbreak. it seems like things are really starting to set up for another receisevere pattern. into central texas and all of this shift to theast as we head monday. that's where we expect to see some severe thunder storms that could respond tornados all the way to missouri and into arkansas could also see some destructive winds as well, natalie, as this system sets up. we're warming up so we skmektexo

see more of this as we head into the next 48 hours. >> we have seen some deadly tornados the last couple of years. thank you. >> again we're waiting for the news conference to begin in malaysia. up next here on cnn newsroom, growing concerns about the safety of international obser r observers head hostage by pro-russian militants in ukraine. much more of cnn newsroom. i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there.

welcome back. again, president obama's news conference with the malaysian prime minister set to start in just a few minutes. first some other stories we're following. concerns are mounting for a group of international observers detained in eastern ukraine. the observers for the organization of security and cooperation in europe were seized friday. they are being held by pro-russia militants who have

commandeered government building there. meantime ukraine's prime minister is urging russia to stop interfering in his country's affairs. he made the comments while in rome where you met with his italian counterpart. as ai member of the g seven. italy has vowed to have sanctions on moscow. >> in eastern ukraine it is only intensifying. russian newspaper says ukraine has deployed, that's a quote from russian media. russia already has about 40,000 troops on its side of the border in ukraine. cnn's nick paton walsh has more on the situation.

>> reporter: from revolt springs grieve. they say he was shot by ukrainian forces as they tried to move in here. if they kill these children, they are scum, says natasha, who knew him as a driver. this crisis is very local but if ge geopolitics and hatred that will be hard to reverse. a mid the faith and furry, there is loathing at this funeral at a central government they say didn't listen to them before and now says it will blockade them. lightning rod of these feverish emotions, their self declared mayor. he tell me the osc military

observe ers being held here are being moved to better conditions -- but. >> there are no negotiations, he says and they are prisoners of war. they are not against an exchange for our act tivistactivists. he has appealed to putin for military helps. >> kiev's forces are advancing. purposely, determined, well equipped ministry troops. while this isn't the blockade that some kiev officials say would happen. they are moved significantly down this road toward the city. we've seen driving around the country side talking to locals, armored vooe hikles have been

moving around. >> nick paton walsh, cnn. >> seven weeks after flight 370 dispeered, u.s. president bar ak obama is visiting million asian.

welcome back to cnn newsroom. i'm natalie allen.

our stop story this is hour. we're standing by for a live news conference in malaysia with barack obama has met with the malaysian prime minister. he is seeking to strengthen ties with the government and is the first sitting u.s. president to visit the country in nearly 50 years. we will bring you live coverage as soon as it begins. south korea's prime minister has announced his resignation over the country's ferryboat disaster. he's apologizing for his preventing the deadly sink from happening and for the slow initial response. no word or who will replace him as prime minister. and in the u.s., the nba is investigating the owner of the los angeles clippers for allegedly making racist comments. the tabloid tmz posted the audio on its website. donald sterling is said to be

arguing with his girlfriend for posting pictures of her with minority players. >> more on the news conference that's about to take place in malaysia with the u.s. president and the malaysian prime minister. senior white house correspondent jim acosta is in cue althere. >> thank you. please be seated. excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we will begin this press conference today with a statement by the prime minister of malaysia, followed by a statement by the president of the united states and then the two leaders will take questions. now, the prime minister of malaysia. a very good afternoon. it is an honor to host you, mr. president and the united states delegation on behalf of the

malaysian people i extend to you our warmest greetings. normally, i would say welcome, but since grew up not far from here, you're one of the few leaders who will understand when i say that to you. 48 years ago, the first u.s. president stepped foot onto malaysian soil. back then, t.v. were black and white. >> it's a good song. >> and a sound of music movie was winning academy awards. today, mr. president, you see not rubber trees that's linden b. johnson did but soaring sky scrapers. they are a testament to the transformation that is taking place here in malaysia and here

on this journey, we're thinkfan for the united states's friendship. over the past two months the strekth of o strength of our relationship has been revealed for the world to see. u.s. has lent its expertise to the search effort for malaysian flight 370. we're grateful to you for standing by malaysia in our time of need. the u.s. and malaysia have a long-standing relationship. we established diplomatic relationship on the day of malaysia's independence in 1957. in decades that followed when ideological tensions, u.s. and malaysia remained friends and over the past few years we've been working to strengthen the

bonds between us. today, we see the fruits of this labor, on the economy, on security and on people to people relations. we are closer now than ever before. earlier this morning, the president and i talked at length with the issues in the region and in the world and we took significant steps to ask our shared objectives. first and foremost, we agreed to a great and balanced relations to comprehensive partnership. this marks new face in our relationship with greater collaboration on economy, science, technology and more. we also decided to reenvigorate for the high level discussion. together these agreements lay a firm foundation for further cooperation to come. malaysia welcomes mesh's

rebalancing towards asia and its c contribution to piece and prosperity in the region. o we share on ocean. we believe that all should share in asia's remarkable growth story provided they also share commitment to the peace upon which this depends. on global security the pre and i agreed to strengthen cooperation in peace keeping. malaysia has also decided to endorse the statement of interdiction principles of the p proliferation security initiative. and for the confidence they have expressed in malaysian chairmanship next year. as we prepare for this chairmanship, and as we bit for

a nonpermanent seat on the security counsel, we seek a greater role in promoting peace and security. with this, our friendship with the united states is immensely valued. just last month, malaysia helped security a comprehensive agreement in the southern philippines. ending a conflict which claims 150,000 lives and denying al qaeda and its affiliates a foot hold in the region. on the south china sea, president obama and i both stress earlier the importance of upholding universally recognized principles of international law including united nations convention on the law of the sea. we agreed that the full implementation of the deck lo declaration on the parties was

vital and that it would enhance mutual trust. the president and i have agreed to malaysian\english teaching program. i am happy to note that we have agreed on an agreement for partners of diplomats and i would like to thank you president obama for agreeing malaysian's participation in the visa waiver program. i'm glad the u.s. is now committed to provide technical briefing and information sharing for this purpose. for centuries our people have done business across the pacific. today we continue to do brisk trade. our trade has averaged at least $35 million annually from 2010 to 2013. last year the u.s. has malaysian's lastest source of foreign invest investing $1.9

billion in malaysia and creating over 8,000 jobs. president oe batrade deals are s complex but our countries are committed to resolving the remaining issues. i know all sites share our desire for an agreement that delivers the bet for you're citizens and our businesses. i would like to thank you president obama for his understanding of malaysia's challenging and sensitivities in the negotiations. malaysia has always been a bridge between people and cultures. a trading nation bound by vital seas. we are modern progressive muslim majority nation. a multiethnic, multireligious society. we've long known the benefit of cooperation across boarders and we've long recognized the power of prosperity. in this context, it gives us

sincere pleasure to welcome the u.s. delegation for this historic visit. our presence here, mr. president, will mark the beginning of the next phase of our partnership with deeper friendship, and a comprehensive partnership. we've found common cause on the issues that matter. those that would deliver opportunity for our people and security for our region. and we have set the stage for a new phase of our relationship one based on greater cooperation needed to equal the challenges of our time. thank you. >> thank you prime minister for your warm welcome. i am very pleased to be the first u.s. president to visit malaysia in almost 50 years. it is wonderful to be staying in

kuala lumpur one of asia's most dynamic cities. i want to thank you their imagine e majestie majesties, the king and queen and their display of the beauty and cultural diversity and want to thank the people of malaysia for such a warm welcome. today the u.s. is once again playing a leadership role in the pacific. by virtue of geography, malaysia is central to region stability, m maritime stability by virtue of economic progress that's evident and by virtue of prix najib's goal of making the economy more competitive. malaysia has the potential to

enleashe unleash a new era of growth. people from so much different groups and backgrounds holding different political beliefs and practicing different faith malaysia has the opportunity to draw on the strength of its people. the united states embracing that diversity and upholding the rights and dignity of our citizens has always made us stronger. i believe it can make malaysia stronger as well. i welcomed prime minister najib to washington four years ago and we agreed to broaden and deepen the relationship between our countries. today across a whole range of areas, security, trade regional institutions we're working together more than ever before. today i am pleased to announce we are formalizing our efforts in a very comprehensive partnership. i note that we have also seen

our cooperation in response to the disappearance of flight 370. i want to express the deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones on that flight. malaysian, american, chinese and people from many other nations. as we accepts senses the beginn this tragedy, we have been working close with our malaysian partners. and we will continue to give all the help we can. today the prime minister and myself discussed some lesson that's have been learned from this tranl hegedy and how natio including our own might continue cooperation to move forward. as the prime minister noted malaysia and the united states are already close economic partners and we're working together on the transpacific partnership to open uppal ya a asian-pacific markets. the tpp will support good jobs

in the ut anited states and malaysia and will help meet malaysia's goal to become a high income country. we agreed to work quickly to resolve those issues consistent with a final high standards comprehensive tpp agreement. tomorrow we'll have the opportunity to join some of our business leaders and they sign three commercial agreements worth more than $1 billion in new trade and investments between our nations. our comprehensive partnership will expand our security kpro cooperati cooperation. malaysia has already been a critical leader in building things that have advance security. strengthing the unit. we very much agree with their view that disputes need to be

resolved peacefully without intimdation or coercion and that all nations must abide by international rules and international norms. we welcome malaysia's recent endorsement of the principle of the initiative to track weapons of mass destruction. we are looking forward to looking closely with malaysia on all of these issues as it shares next year. finally our comprehensive partnership will continue to strengthen the strong tie between our people, especially the young people. the young women and men of malaysia are brimming with potential and we want to do more together to open the door of opportunity to everybody regardless of race, region, gender, or language. that's why the prime minister

and i will be meeting with entrepreneurs from malaysia and why i'll be engaging with promising young leaders from across south asia later this afternoon and thanks to the tremendous success of our program to bring young americans to malaysia to teach english, the prime minister and i agreed to renew that program for several more years. the time that i sent in this region as a child helped to broaden my vision and left me with a lifelong affection for the people and traditions in southeast asia. so prime minister najib, thank you for your partnership, for your vision, for what our nations can accomplish together not oath for our two peoples but for the peace and prosperity of this entire region. >> thank you, excellencies. the leaders will now take questions. we will begin with the first

question from the malaysian media. i'd like to call upon malaysia's t.v. 3 to have the first question. go ahead. you have the mic. >> good afternoon. i am from tv three malaysia. i have questions on the issue of proliferation security initiative. this is something new for malaysia. where he going to be the 103 member forks psi. what is the sop like and for mr. president, is the u.s. going to assist us in capacity building and all the other requirements? thank you. >> well, this psi is actually

not new in substance. because we've been working very closely with the united states and whenever there's request for us to do some interdiction, we've never failed to respond. >> uh-huh. >> what we're doing today is to formalize it. so that there will be a formal relationship. that relationship will just continue what we have done. it also refliects a strong will and desire on the malaysia's side to cooperate not only with the united states but the international community to stop the proliferation -- sorry. >> it's a hard one. i always screw it up. >> for the spirit, rather, of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. i will get it right. don't worry. >> well, as the prime minister

said, this is an area where we've already developed strong parred nersh partnership. i want to comment the prix najib and his national security team and law enforcement and intelligence. i think it's fair to say that when both of us came into office, this wasn't at the top of the priority list and what we were seeing, though, was that this region, was a potential area where traffickers in parts and systems that could lead to nuclear proliferation or weapons of mass destruction could operate. in our conversations and our team's consultations, we began to tighten the links and bonds between us in terms of sharing information, identifying threats, and working more closely and cooperatively together. we've done that.

what the psi does as the prime minister says is formalize it. it puts a framework around. it involves capacity building but it's not just a one way street. obviously, we have been working on these issues for a long time. i consider the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as one of the greatest threats to u.s. security as well as international peace. so we have developed a lot of capacities in this area but this is a partnership. what we seek to do is to find ways in which the strengths and the information that each side has can be enhanced and combined and pools so that we don't have the possibility of loose nuclear materials or certain component parts that are being shipped or falling into the wrong hands. we very much appreciate the cooperation that's already

there. i think what the psi signifies is that we can do even better in the future. >> next question comes from nba ne nbc news. >> thank you mr. president. mr. prime minister. mr. president, on the situation in ukraine and the russian sanctions that i know the united states and others -- i guess my question is why wait on sectoral sanctions as far as the united states is concerned. why not do that on your own now rather than sooner versus waiting for the europeans to do this because rrntdaren't you concerned that putin is using anxiety. quickly. there's a controversy surrounding some racially charged comments that an owner of the l.a. clippers made. i was wondering if you cared to

comment on that and to the prime minister. the tpp has been generating some protests including one today. the chief concern being worries of higher costs of medical supplies in particular. i was wondering if you could comment on those protests and the concerns that somehow you're being bullied into the tpp by the united states. do you feel that way on that front? thank you. >> okay. first on ukraine. in consultation with our european partners. we've determined that because russia has failed to follow through on its side of the accord that had been hammered out in geneva. it was important for us to take further steps. sending a message to russia that the kind of destabilizing activities that are taking place in the east and south of ukraine have to stop.

there was a glimmer of hope after the geneva accord so that ukraine would follow through on the commitments to enter into a dialogue around constitutional reforms that it would do everything it needed to do to disarm irregular forces and militias and offer amnesty to those who willingly laid down arms and pulled out of the building. they've been doing that. russia has not lifted a finger to help. in fact there's strong evidence that they've been encouraging the kinds of activities that have been taking place in eastern and southern ukraine. so collectively, us and the europeans have said that so long as russia continues down the path of provocation rather than trying to resolve this issue

p peacefully, there will be consequences and the consequences will continue to grow. now, the notion that for us to go forward with sectoral sanctions on our own without the europeans would be the most effective deterrent to mr. putin is factually wrong. we will be in a stronger position to defer mr. putin when he sees that the world and the united states and europe is unified versus this is just a u.s., russian conflict. in fact often fietimes they are really interested in portraying this through the cold war prism when in fact this is not what the issue is here. the issue is respecting basic international norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity. the issue is can the ukrainians

make their own decisions about how they govern their selves. it's important for us to make sure that we are part of an international coalition sending that message and that russia is isolated in its actions rather than falling into the trap of interpreting this as the u.s. is trying to pull ukraine out of russia's orbit circa 1950. because that's not what this is about. the europeans have a larger stake in this than anyone. now, as i said, i think at the last press conference, they are going to be differences even within europe in part pause of the economic relationships that they've got. we got to work through those in a systematic way. if in fact we need to move forward with sectoral sanctions, than it's going to be important

that we know exactly what we're preached to do and sustain over the long haul. our european partners know what they are willing and able to do as well. the more unified we are, the more effective it is going to be. if we for example say we're not going to allow certain arm sales to russia just take an example. but every european defense contractor back fills what we do, then it's not very effective. it's going to be more affective if everybody signs on and everybody is committed. no, i didn't say -- you know, i didn't say only, never, when, i said this is our strategy. i want to emphasize every time i address this question, there's a

diplomatic path to resolving this issue. the geneva statement pointed toward how's we could resolve this. what it asks of the russian is hardly onerous, make a public statement that those militias need to lay down their arms and exit the buildings. participate with international monitors rather than stand by while they are being bullied and in some cases detain bid these thugs. negotiate with the ukrainian government and engage in some confident building measures. these aren't heavy lifts if the russians are sincere in wanting to resolve this problem. so far we haven't seen that but we're going to keep on raising the consequences of russia rejecting that path towards diplomacy. with respect to the statements by the owner of the los angeles

clippers, for our malaysian audience, this is a sports taem, basketball team in the united states, the oewner is reported o have said some incredibly offensive, racist, statements that were published. i don't think i have to interpret those statements for you. they kind of speak for themselves. when people -- when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything. you just let them talk. that's what happened here. i have confidence that the nba commissioner, adam silver, a good man. will address this. obviously, the nba is a league that is beloved by fans all

across the country. it's got an awful lot of african-american players. it's steeped in african-american culture and i suspect the nba will be deeply concerned in resolving this. i will make just one larger comment about this. we -- the united states continues to wrestle with the legacy of race. slavery and is heing risegregatl there. we've made enormous strides. we will see this percolate up every so often. we will have to be clear in steadily denouncing it,