churchill won in 1953. if you guessed israeli, by the way, he was, indeed, a novelist but lived before the prize was established so he couldn't have won it. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. hello, everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield. a firestorm of controversy surrounds racist remarks allegedly made by the long-time owner of the l.a. clippers. now donald sterling is the focus of an nba investigation. so what punishment could he face? we've got that and the latest reaction from the sports world coming up. angry, frustrated, and demanding answers, the families of passengers on board missing malaysia airline flight 370 have a new target. what response have they received from boeing so far? we'll take a look. and a ceremony unprecedented in the history of the catholic church. two former popes become saints

in one day and nearly a million people gather in vatican city to witness history in the making. we begin today with stunning recorded comments rattling the nba. the long-time owner of the los angeles clippers donald sterling is under fire for making racist remarks. it's sterling fighting with his girlfriend seen here with him in this photo. he allegedly says he doesn't want her associating with african-american players while at the games. listen. >> i saw someone i admire. i admire magic johnson. >> okay. good. >> i'm sorry. he's helped a lot of people.

>> i'm finished talking to you. i have nothing more to say. >> and i took a picture with someone i admire. >> good. >> and he happens to be black and i'm sorry. >> i think it's nice that you know him. i know him well and he should be admired. it's just too bad that you can't admire privately and during your entire [ bleep ] life, your whole life admired him, feed him, i don't care. you can do anything. but don't put him on this event so the world has to see and they have to call me and don't bring him to my games. okay? >> in today, a sports blog got access to an extended recording. listen to what was in that clip. >> if you don't feel like it, don't come to my games. don't bring black people. don't come. >> do you know that you have a whole team that is black that

plays for you? >> do i know? i've supported them. i've given them food and clothes and cars and houses. who gives it to them? does someone else give it to them? do i know that i have -- who makes the game? do i make the game or do they make the game? is there 30 owners that -- >> we can't confirm the authenticity of the recordings and then there is another twist in this story. sterling's wife filed a lawsuit against his girlfriend last month, according to kcbs. this controversy has spread around the world very quickly, even president barack obama was asked about it while traveling in malaysia. >> when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything. you just have to let them talk. that's what happened here. >> and that calls for the nba to take action is pouring in from fans, players, and former players. i'm joined now by host of cnn's

"unguarded," rachel nichols. let's start with magic johnson who was personally named in these reported audios. he first tweeted yesterday and then today on a clippers' pregame show he had more to say. this is really personal, isn't it? >> yeah. magic has expressed outrage. he and donald sterling have a history together. they've known each other for more than 30 years. they've even gone out to lunch together, just to two of them with donald sterling solae soliciting magic's advice. by the time he went on the air, he was very clear about what he wanted to say. take a listen. >> i had a friendship with him. so for him to then make these comments or alleged comments about myself as well as other

african-americans and minorities, there's no place in our society for it. there's no place in our league because we all get along. we all play with different races of people when you're in sports. that's what makes sports so beautiful. and then he's put his own team in a tough situation. >> now, magic also said he thinks donald sterling should sell the team and that's a point of view that's been expressed in a lot of corners around the nba in one way or another. we've heard a lot of players saying that between this allegation and a lot of the other allegations in the past, they just don't want ronald sterling around anymore. lebron james may have been the strongest of anyone. take a listen to what he said yesterday. >> there's no room for that in our game. we found a way to make this the greatest game in the world and for comments like that, it taints our game and we can't have that from a player, from an

own owner, a fan, so on and so on. it doesn't matter if you're black, hispanic, white, whatever the case may be. the commissioner will take care of it, we're sure of that, and we'll continue to build this game the best way that we can because it's been an unbelievable to 14 playoffs and we don't want donald sterling's comments to overshadow what this means to everyone, including the fans. >> he said he doesn't believe that donald sterling should be in the league anymore and his words mean a lot because of where he stands in the league. we also started hearing from sterling's fellow owners. he called the recording offensive, appalling and very sad. and michael jordan who owns the bobcats, he said, i'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views.

that strong talk is important because there was a time when sports teams were so old guard, they would close ranks around their own, no matter what. but it's a different era now and, frankly, it's pretty refreshing to see other owners to speak for themselves, give strong opinions, even if it means taking down a fellow member of the club, which is what they are starting to do. >> rachel, we're going to talk to you again later and then also coming up we've got a number of people who are going to weigh in on this, including a live report from one of our reporters from the l.a. clippers and golden state warriors. i'll get a chance to talk to nba legend kareem abdul. reporter terrance moore will be wayi weighing in as well as former

george zimmerman's attorney mark o'mara. that's all ahead here on "cnn newsroom." president obama says the world must unite to show its disapproval of russia's actions in ukraine. speaking from malaysia today, the president said an international coalition is needed to avoid the perception that this is strictly a u.s. versus russia issue. >> it's 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 the south ukraine have to stop. >> moscow has refused to pull back thousands of troops at the ukrainian border and have denied flying military aircraft into ukraine's air space. all right. here in the u.s., residents in several states are bracing for a possible outbreak of severe weather today. this could include tornadoes. we've already seen warnings and watches in several states.

jennifer gray is in the cnn weather center. jennifer, we're starting to see activity percolate, right? >> yes. we're already watching this line continuing to push to the north and east. these are moving to the north and east at about 55 miles per hour. these are very fast moving storms. lexington, hardin, get into your safe spot in your house, low, interior room. these also have the capability of producing golf ball-size hail. a tornado warning for the next ten minutes or so. this is part of a larger system. you can see the showers and storms stretching as far south as springfield and it's going to continue to push towards the east. look at this, memphis, omaha, you're in it, too. we have a lot of upper level support and moisture coming in

from the south, from the gulf of mexico that is going to fuel these storms over the next couple of hours. this is going to go into the late evening hours and into the overnight. the main bullseye is over little rock. we could see large hail, damaging winds and also tornados. like we have mentioned, this threat is going to push to the east as we go through tomorrow and then, fred, we're going to look at tuesday, a severe threat as well. this is also going to be a very slow moving system so you're going to have the rain component. we could see anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain across places like atlanta and even into alabama, 4 to 8. fred? >> severe stuff and potentially dangerous. jennifer, thank you so much. we'll check back with you later on. all right. the vatican made history today. two popes were canonized on the same day. and frustrated families of

the missing have found a new target for their questions. quiet! mom has a headache! had a headache! but now, i& don't. excedrin is fast. in fact for some, relief starts in just 15 minutes. excedrin. headache. gone. captain: when i'm looking for a hotel with a wet pool, i go to hotels.com. you can get up to 50% off with their private sales. that man's privates are no longer private.

of malaysian flight 370. malaysia has been widely criticized over how it's dealt with getting information out but today president obama had words of praise during his visit there. >> i can say that the united states and other partners have found the malaysian government eager for assistance, had been fully forthcoming with us in terms of the information that they have. >> today's planned air and sea search was suspended due to weather but the underwater search with the bluefin-21

autonomous underwater vehicle went ahead as planned. frustration among the families of the missing has been growing due to lack of answers and now they are taking it out on boeing which built the plane, the engine, and who shareholders actually meet tomorrow in chicago. here now is alexander field. >> reporter: more desperate, more frustrated. the family members of the passengers aboard malaysia airlines flight 370 turned their attention toward boeing. >> and if we're not getting information directly from malaysian airlines and from the malaysian government, we might as well try to go directly to the source. >> reporter: the manufacturer of the missing 777 has issued a statement that says, "in accordance with international proet pretty kols, boeing is serving as a technical adviser." >> they would have all of the

data and tape recordings and the inmarsat images and whatever information the government has shared with them. >> i've advocated that inmarsat and perhaps together with boeing is a participant, release some of this information, technical data information so that the families can at least get a handle on how they came about to calculate the area, this coalesce area that they are looking at right now. >> they are under no obligation to disclose any of that information. >> boeing will say that they are prohibited from talking to the families under annex 13 of the international civilization organization but that only applies to information gathered in the course of the investigation. >> reporter: potentially a lawsuit against boeing could force the manufacturer to turn over information about its aircraft. but with the plane still missing, some aviation attorneys say the families don't have a

case, at least against the boeing company. >> you're not going to be able to bring a claim against boeing, in my view, without the black boxes. it's just not possible. >> alexander is joining me live now. alexander, we know that there is going to be a meeting tomorrow but what do we expect will really happen? >> fred, at this point the families say they have written out their questions and they have delivered it to a representative. a source says that mh-370 and these are formal proceedings. it's possible that mh-370 could be brought up by somebody or it could be raised during a question and answer period but will the families be satisfied? will they get the kind of in fgs th information that they are asking for? they predict -- and it's a prediction -- no. >> potentially they could get even more frustrated. alexander, thanks so much. overseas the vatican has never seen a day like this in

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welcome back. people around the world saw history made at the vatican today. two living popes canonized, two

former popes as new saints, while nearly a million people crowded into and around st. peters square just to be a part of it. here is cnn's delia gallagher. >> reporter: it was a canonized of two popes at the beginning of this morning's ceremony. two of the most important at attendees at this ceremony, those that the vatican says received the miracle from john paul ii, a french nun who is suffering from parkinson's. she brought up the relic of john paul ii, which was the vial of blood and she was accompany bied

by john xxiii who brought his relic to the altar. john xxiii was an example of the holy spirit and john paul ii was an example of families, a pope who loved the youth and we remember those world youth days and now the crowds camped out overnight to witness this morning's historic event. they were from all over the world waving their flags. by far the largest contingency from poland here to cheer on their native saint. their weight was well rewarded when pope francis at the end of the ceremony got into his popemobile, left st. peters square that leads straight down from the vatican in a gesture of thanks to them for joining him

for this historic day. delia gallagher, cnn, rome. >> thank you, delia. carl bernstein is a political commentator and journalist and author of "his holiness, john paul ii and the history of our time." thank you for joining me, carl. >> good to be here. >> not everyone was happy that john paul ii was canonized. some feel he didn't do enough to address the catholic scandal over the years. why do you think the vatican, pope francis, decided to do this in this manner. >> two things. i'm told that people talked to the pope about these matters. he sees the church as accommodating these two great figures. john xxiii and pope john paul ii who represent different aspects

of the church. pope john ii put the church into the modern world, help defeat communism as perhaps no other individual did, was responsible because of poland and what he did there for cracking the wall and in the soviet system and, you know, the pope wants this recognized, it had already been set in motion by benedict and doing the two together demonstrates a kind of unity that he wants to show the world this new pope. >> and then pope -- john paul xxiii, what was his distinction because these are two very different popes. >> first of all of, these are both radical figures in the history of the church who accomplished amazed things both within the church and within the secular world. and one of the things that john

xxiii did, he convened the vatican council which did away with a lot of latin mass, among other things. but moved to make the church more accessible to catholics who saw it as hide bound in many ways in its traditions, in aspects of its theology and, of course, john paul ii saw some of what happened at the vatican council, that he attended, as going too far and tried to pull the church back away from some of the things that pope john the second did. again, francis wants to show that all of this can be accommodated in the church and as for the controversy, that has to do with pope john ii which is about him over the papacy during

this horrible time of pedophile priests, that is part of the record and at the same time this pope wants to say this was a holy man, yes, there was this failing on john paul ii's watch but look at this for humanity. i wouldn't exaggerate within the church the degree of controversy over this cannon nye zags of pope john paul ii. on the argument against, i don't think that there's a huge constituency in the church that holds that view. >> and what do you suppose this says about pope francis, that he would have this pairing of john xxii and john paul in this way. >> that he's very astute and he

recognizes that the church now is a huge presence in media, in the world in a way that it never was before. partly because of john paul ii and francis is also becoming amazingly adept at getting his message out there and this calms the church. it calms the internal divisions within the church by saying, look at these two great figures in our history, great figures in the history of the 20th century of our church, let us canonize them in our lifetimes while people who remember these two popes can see what we are doing here and see them as examples of what the perennial theology, among other things, of the catholic church is about. >> pope francis from the very start has been kind of doing it it his own way and continues to do so as shaking things up. kw what do you see as the next potential hurdle that he'll be

crossing or maybe a tradition that he will be reshaping? >> i really can't tell you. he is obviously trying to be a different kind of pope in his humility. what he becomes known for in terms of his flock, a kind -- a different kind of humility of pope john paul ii and at the same time, he's clearly opened to ideas that john paul ii is not. he wants to see the church not caught up in these controversies over the role of women, over contraception, over gay rights. he wants to stress other aspects of the church and this would be a huge step, much more like john xxiii in some ways if he were to go forward as he seems to be. and also, remember, he has

captured the attention and admiration of noncatholics in a way that both of these popes who were canonized today also did. >> all right. carl bernstein, always good to see you. >> nice to be here. the nba is in the middle of the playoffs and the only thing anyone can talk about, can feel consumed about these days is the allegations of racist comments from a long-time team owner. we have reaction from legend nba, legend kareem abdul jabbar. it's a cnn exclusive right after this.

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today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. the nba is promising swift action and due process investigating racist comments allegedly made by l.a. clippers' owner donald sterling.

tmz first posted the recording allegedly between sterling and his girlfriend. they are allegedly arguing about his girlfriend's association with african-americans. >> people call you and tell you that i have black people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it bothers me a lot if you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. >> so i'm joined now on the phone by basketball legend six-time most valuable player, kareem abdul jabbar. good to see you, or for you to be with us, ckareem. how shocking are these statements to you? what is your reaction? >> i'm kind of reminded about what happened with president candidate romney when he was taped in a way that he wasn't aware that he was being taped so his comments were a lot more

candid than they would have been if he had known that the media was listening. so i think that is what happened to mr. sterling. he has a bad reputation, as far as i'm concerned. you know, the cases that he lost about discriminating against blacks and hispanics and people with children that wanted to rent some of his properties. you know, that was kind of like a milestone and then we hear these comments. i used to work for mr. sterling. i coached the clippers for about three months in the year 2000. i know him. i know his voice. i'm not surprised by this very much and that's really i think the most important part about this. >> wait a minute. you say you're not surprised. you know him. you know the man, the voice as someone who used to work for him. but along the three monthsthat

did you ever hear about the sentiment that was recorded, that these recordings seem to display. >> none whatsoever. he was, for the most part, congenial. he invited many he to my daughter's wedding. it wasn't like i fell shunned. but given what i heard him saying to -- on this recording, if if it works out that it's an actual recording and it hasn't been doctored or anything and it seems that it hasn't, if it hasn't, this is -- we can't have this. you know, we -- it's a very offensive and repugnant attitude for someone to have and for him to be an employer of so many people of color, it's kind of -- kind of blows your mind. >> magic johnson has said that

sterling should not be the owner anymore. what do you think that the nba should or can do at this juncture? >> you know, i don't know what the guidelines are here. he owns the team. he was talking about his personal attitudes and it's very much ownership and people with regard to their businesses, their attitudes and what they do as business people sometimes are two different things. so i think that's a very -- it's a difficult thing for someone in my position to really talk about because who knows what is possible. but, you know, maybe so many of the mayers get fined for things that they shouldn't say. you've had players that have said things that were anti-gay

or, you know, racial slurs or just things that when they mouth off and say something that they shouldn't say and they get fined by the league. but something has to be done. you can't have a situation like this. it's crazy. i mean, it's an indication that -- i think one of the players who plays for the indianapolis pacers said it best. david west. he said it's an indication that the plantation mentality is still alive and well in many of the people who own businesses here in the united states. >> and before i let you go, kareem, you know what it's like to be in the playoffs. you've got six titles yourself. for these l.a. clippers, for these players, for the coach, how do you suppose they are feeling? do they want to continue

playing? do they feel like they have to continue playing? how do they not be distracted by these reported comments from their owner and the attention that the team and the owner are receiving? >> well, you know, they can't help but to be conflicted and districted by all of this. here they are playing in the playoffs. they have a very good team. they have a chance to do very well. this is something that they dreamed about all of their lives since they were kids and they started playing basketball and imagining themselves winning an nba title. and now to have -- to find out that their owners is a bigot, that's kind of really disconcerting. and i really will see in them how professional they are, if they can ignore that and do their jobs to the best of their ability, which is what they are paid to do. but that can be an additional

burden on them to try to be at their best under these circumstances. >> kareem abdul jabbar, thank you so much for joining us. thanks for calling in. always appreciate your perspective on all things in sports and american culture. this is one of those things that combines all of it. also coming up, we're going to get more responses and reactions on this story. we're also going to be joined by criminal defense attorney mark o'mara because there could be potentially be a legal road in all of this. he's going to help explain right after this.

all right. welcome back. the owner of the nba los angeles clippers is under investigation by the league for racist comments he allegedly made on a phone recording. if don sterling really did say the things that he's accused of saying, he could face disciplinary action from the league but an nba spokesman stressed sterling must, quote, be afforded due process. let's bring in cnn analyst mark o'mara. brief us on the law first in california with this recording. one party, two party state as it pertains to audio. >> california is a two-party state which means that both parties have to agree to a recording for it to be admissible in court. if this was a lawsuit against him by the girlfriend, i don't think it would be admitted into evidence. in a court of law, you can't without permission. now, can the nba use it, the

commission use it, i think they can. >> or potentially, say someone who was a player or a manager or an executive working under don sterling and said now upon hearing this i can reflect now, promotions passed, pay raises not received, i want to pursue a discriminatory case against him. would i be privy to that kind of material? it's recorded if you're talking about the one-party, two-party. >> the purpose is to not allow the party who is recording it to gain credit. i think in most cases it may be admissible certainly in the pretrial stages, in the threat of investigation stages. while it may not make it into a courtroom, certainly it's going to be available for those purposes. >> this is not going to be a legal matter. if the nba were to take discipline action and say there was a violation in an agreement that we have with owners of the team, could that potentially

become a legal case? or is that strictly, you know, a business agreement? >> there's a contract between the nba and their owners and i'm sure within that contract there's certainly morality clauses within what you can and cannot do. if in fact it's his voice and it's interesting he has not denied that it's his voice, they have to say, can we possibly still have an owner in our league. i think they are going to recover from the herd as quickly as they can because if those facts are true, how can you have someone like that owning a team? >> he hasn't commented. he's not going to attend the game today. silence speaks volumes. we have another legal case involving his wife who is suing the girlfriend, this girlfriend who got the recording. but this is separate from the content of the recording.

what's going on here? >> back on march 7th of this year, wife filed a lawsuit against girlfriend saying in this community property state, girlfriend stole some of my property, the community state property by talking my husband into it, by cajoling him, convincing him, deceiving him, extorting him got this information. so there's now a lawsuit pending saying wife wants that back. girlfriend has now responded saying, no, no, no, that's a gift. he gave it to me. he's a very sharp businessman, a real estate mogul. he knows what is he doing and gave it all to me. that's going to play out in the courts no matter what happens with the tape. >> that case filed versus when these alleged recordings took place, might it also lead into a potential extortion matter or accusation of, okay, if you're going to do that to me, i'm going to do this to you in. >> if we were a fly on the wall, it certainly seems like the conversation between girlfriend and him, she was suggesting things to say -- again, he said

them, but she seemed to be maybe setting him up, maybe knew that she was recording the call, thought that that would get her leverage in either the lawsuit or the settlement. >> it's just the beginning. >> just the first day. >> mark o'mara, thank you. appreciate that. >> great to see you. president obama becoming the first lea first american president in decades to visit malaysia. he talks about flight 370's disappearance and he's got other comments as it relates to the case that we just discussed. that's right after this. my guests are always asking me, "nathan, which dish is better?". now i say you can have it all with our new seafood trios! red lobster's new seafood trios is three times delicious! choose one option from the wood-fire grill, one signature shrimp dish, and a pasta like new lobster mac and cheese. three choices all on one plate. just $15.99. for a limited time only! you can build it any way that you like, pick your three favorite things.

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president obama is offering some words of encouragement for the malaysian government and

during the third leg of his malaysian trip, he says that malaysia has worked tirelessly to find flight 370 and has been forthcoming with information to the u.s. about the search. bad weather suspended the search today. i'm joined by safety analyst david soucie and mary schiavo. good to see both of you. all right. the president's remarks, pretty interesting. might come as a surprise to some, especially the family members who say we're not getting enough information but president obama says that malaysia has been forthcoming with comments to the u.s. what does he mean about that? how detailed could this information be? >> well, some of it is very detailed. remember, the malaysians gave to the fbi the pilot and co-pilot's home computers, the pilot's home

computer and flight simulator and are probably calling on the fbi to deal with the cell phone issue and cell phone tower issue as well. and then supplying the bluefin-21 and other assets, the navy supply ship, there had to be a fair amount of communications to get those assets from the u.s. and so i think that the compliment and exchange was genuine. >> david, speaking of the bluefin, its mission is nearly complete in terms of that particular search area before authorities say it's going to move further north. how encouraging is that to you, that i guess reassessing the space that it needs to scan, extending it a little further north. do you feel like that gives it a better chance of finding something? >> well, not necessarily the bluefin. as they move further north they are going to have to bring in additional tools and expertise and fresh eyes.

but could i mention back to the president real quickly -- >> sure. >> -- i support what mary was saying exactly but one thing i am surprised is that he didn't push the gop to push through a confirmation of the ambassador to the u.n. for icao. that sort of information as it passes back and forth i feel like we're kind of jumping a link here by having them coordinate directly to our military and it misses a level of coordination, particularly as we move forward with coming up with laws and regulations. the cards are being dealt and we don't have a seat at the table. >> and that's the political pol persuasion here. mare mary, what other technology could be introduced here. we have heard about the remus

6000. what could compliment the bluefin or even perhaps replace it? >> well, there are many different kinds of underwater autonomous vehicles. the remus is one. some are manned, some are unmanned. each one is going to require a ship to accompany it. you're going to have a lot of on-water assets and ship assets. but also the u.s. could be very functional because the prime minister in his interview with richard quest mentioned that they still consider it both criminal and civil. we could help them on that front as well with those assets and i still think that one of the most important things to do is to examine what the realities are of the performance of that pinger and the search under water and they could use this opportunity to really experiment, see what happens over time. >> mary, david, thank you so much. we'll talk again. more on this and what else to

look forward to with the ongoing search for malaysian flight 370. all right. racist remarks allegedly from an nba team owner sending shock waves through the sports world. one player who was specifically mentioned in those comments is speaking out. we have the reaction from magic johnson, next. mea sharapova launched sugar pova. >> i'm an athlete and being healthy is a part of my life. living a healthy lifestyle, understanding what foods are important to eat and what is good for my body. but at the end of the day, whether you're an athlete or working in an office, everyone loves a treat and everyone loves candy and when i was young and finish a practice, what would i

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