♪ we're following several developing stories this morning. japan says it will not give up on efforts to rescue two hostages kidnapped by isis even though the deadline to save has passed. plus, nearly a month after the crash, divers are trying to pull airasia flight 8501 out of the sean. the latest live. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. but first, we're following breaking news. just moments ago cnn confirmed that president obama is cutting

his trip to india authority to visit saudi arabia. good morning, i'm victor blackwell. >> and i'm christi paul. so grateful for you as always. president obama is planning on visiting saudi arabia. >> the change comes after the king abdalla died, of course. getting ready to leave for new delhi first. michelle kosinski live from new delhi. michelle we knew that vice president biden was scheduled to go on the trip, why the sudden change? >> hi, christi and victor, the first question after the king died was would president obama be going, would he have to cancel entirely his trip to india. but the white house came up with the plan that vice president bind would lead the delegation. the president would continue on with things as scheduled but suddenly today the change.

first, the news came out at indiana from officials there saying that president obama would be cutting his trip there short albeit by a matter of hours. and then the white house confirmed it in a statement. saying when they looked at the schedules and they realized what time the vice president would get to saudi arabia, it was almost the same time that the president would be leaving india. they then decided to change the schedule. and have the president go on to saudi arabia to pay his respects, offer condolences and now vice president biden will be remaining at home. i mean, it's a testament to the strength of the u.s. and saudi relationship. the president obviously wants to go there because he can now. the relationship between the u.s. and india is also very important. that's why the president originally was going to continue on here. but you see how world events have changed things. now, it turns out the white house has decided that the president can do both. really, only a matter of hours' difference in the time that he would have been leaving india

anyway. the question that we had was why decide that now. and we don't have the answer to that, really. but they decided that, i guess, schedules worked out. and that's the new plan. >> michele, we've got live pictures, i believe, of other officials and dignitaries arriving there. we'll take those live. you see them on the screen. i wonder if there -- if you can tell us who you know will be attending, but if there is a bit of the rally in france, and the decision not to send a high-level official to that event, and that show of solidarity playing in the decision to elevate this to president obama? >> it's a possibility. i think that's a great question. there was talk about that incident painting other areas of the president's schedule as well. such as, you know, would that figure into the state of the union address a few nights ago. you know, questioning how the president does things from that. not wanting to look like he

wasn't really fully participating in it. so i think that's an interesting point. that may have been part of it. or it might just have been nuances in the schedule that remains uncertain up until this point. for example, the time that the vice president would be able to travel and make it there. you know, they generally stop for refueling. so it might have been just the vice president was going to arrive later than originally thought. and that's when they decided, you know what, it's going to be close enough. let's just have president obama go. >> all right. michelle kosinski there in new delhi, india. as the white house decided to cut his visit to india short so he can go to saudi arabia. >> i want to bring in eddie hussein who is an adjunct senior fellow. ed, so grateful to have you with us. with all the chaos in that region, i lot of people looking at this saying this could be a dangerous trip for the president. what do you say to that?

>> i don't think it's a dangerous trip for the president. i think it's an important trip to make for the american president because it shows that deep level of solidarity and cultural understanding and the expectation of nuance from the saudi royal family. i think it's also an important trip to make in order to underscore the deep relationship that exists between the americans and the saudis. but also to start a new chapter with the king solomon on a new footing. don't forget, we're totally dependent on saudi arabia for counterterrorism across the region. isis is a terror agent both for the saudis and for us. with the iran, isis, syria, yemen, turkey, all the region is engulfed in instability. and saudi arabia is a key ally. it's absolutely right that the american president is doing both things, keeping on track with the largest democracy in the world, i.e., india, but as

working very closely with a nation that's important to western interests. and expect to be posted by the u.s. and its allies at this very difficult moment. >> he's obviously going to honor king abdallah who just died at the age of 90. what about his new meeting with the new king salmon. what do you think the new things on the agenda are that they need to discuss? >> great issue. i think the first issue of concern on the king's mind would be the osaudi population and th inflow of foreign fighters who have gone out and come back. don't forget, king salmon was at the helm of supporting the afghan jihad disfrom the 1980s. he's well aware of what's happening. and then we saw the creation of osama bin laden. so he would be aware of the consequences of 4,000 to 5,000 people going to saudi arabia. so that would be item number one. item number two i think would be

iran. there's a real concern inside arabia, across the gulf region about the ire rainian soft power, if you like, arguably, hard power with lebanon, syria and iraq. that would be a second consideration. the third, if i may, would be issues around egypt and relations around the broader gulf ddc. and the infighting that's taking place. i think overall the thursday of the conversations will be to continue to maintain better, deeper intelligence and military and other relationships between the u.s. and saudi arabia. and by extension, the wider region. >> you know, the new king is 79 years old. and there's been questions about his mental abocuity. how confident are you in his ability to lead? >> again, a great question what we've seen when he was the crown prince he was doing much of the meeting and greetings. for example over the last four days before he became king, he met with senator mccain and he

met with the u.s. current ambassador to saudi arabia. again, an indication of deep saudi/u.s. relations. also interesting to note that he was able to hold those meetings despite allegations of dementia. and judging by the way the previous king governed -- this role is so much a symbolic role. he will represent his chief of staff and those who represent him. and it might fall on the current crown prince to do that. rightly, we have concerns about the ahead of state in any of these countries because i think we reflect our own expectation of our own prime ministers and presidents and monarchs. the saudi system is different. that's the way they operate for the last 70 years. and that model has held them in good stead. so he will have his crown prince heading up his diplomatic

efforts. >> ed, thank you for being with us. i want to show you live pictures that we have of the president as he is getting ready to depart to go to germany first, will be his stop so they can refuel and on to new delhi. but the president leaving at 6:09 here in the morning. this will be his trip as he go to india and from there to saudi arabia. we've learned this morning. >> a map here on the screen to show you the president's trip to washington, to ramstein, tout new delhi, and to riyadh to pay tribute and respects to the late king. let's go to another story we're watching very closely. the fate of those two japanese hostages. >> on tuesday, isis demanded that japan pay $200 million or they would kill both men within 72 hours. as you know that deadline has come and gone. >> cnn's pamela brown is anchoring the coverage of the terror development in paris. but we want to start with will

ripley in tokyo. will, as christi said, that deadline has passed. what's the latest on the hostages this morning. >> reporter: the unfortunate reality is that we have no new information on the hostages. and really, the japanese government has not even been able to confirm any information with isis since tuesday. we got an update that prime minister shinzo abe just got off the phone a short time with the king of jordan. it's the second phone call with the king of jordan. they've reached out to officials in turkey, hoping that those sources on the ground can put them in touch with isis. but the only word we've got from the terror group is an e-mail sent to one of the japanese networks saying that a statement was coming very soon. that was more than 24 hours ago which means with each passing hour, the families of these two men have no choice but to wait and wonder what is going to happen. >> reporter: just hours before the deadline, his mother made an

emotional plea for his life. >> translator: i would like to say to all the members of islamic state den ji is not a member of islamic state. >> she said her son left his wife and 2 week old child to search for yukawa. >> translator: my son left his young baby and wife to search for this man. i asked why, my son's wife said he had to do everything in his power to rescue his friend. goto andia kawa made for unlikely friends. cnn has learned yukawa attempted suicide and lost his wife to cancer and lost his home and business to bankruptcy. after changing his first name to his feminine form he believed he was the reincarnation of a

chinese princess who speed on the japanese in world war ii. he said i look normal on the outside but inside, i'm mentally ill. but his travel to syria appeared to be an attempt to rebuild his life. yukawa met goto last summer. he son portrayed himself as a soldier of for tune. and the head of a private military company, a security company that reuters said existed only online. now, these two unlikely friends are in the hands of isis. with the very real fear that with the fate of five hostages before them they will soon meet the same horrific end. it's so heartbreaking we spoke with a family friend of kenji goto's wife, even though she's surrounded by people right now, she feels isolated and alone left to care for her newborn son with no answers about the fate of her husband. pam. >> will ripley, thank you so much for that reporting.

still ahead, right here on "new day," japan and the u.s. both say they do not negotiate with terrorists. but some nations still do. do negotiations with them in only encourage more threats? and the u.s. have been battling the terrorists in iraq with drones and air strikes but is it time to send in ground troops. a top military official says yes. our experts weigh in. music: melodic, calm music. hi, this is jennifer... ... i will be out of the office until monday... ... and won't be checking voicemail during this time. i'll reply just as soon as i get back to work. sail with the number one cruise line in alaska. save up to $500 during our 50th anniversary sale. call your travel consultant or 1-800-princess.

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td ameritrade. you got this. and welcome back. i'm pamela brown in paris with the latest terror developments. as cnn's will ripley justrodded japan said it won't give up until the very end to sab tve t of its citizens. a deadline expired yesterday. cnn analyst lieutenant general mark hartley joins. i'm curious, if japan does not

negotiate with isis, in your view, what other channels can isis pursue here? >> there's other channels, pamela. where it glues the ransom. i think gist like the hostage negotiation with a police department, trying to talk someone out of doing something, the same thing occurs in the national arena but when it gets to the payment of ransom, that it's where we have difficulties. >> so let's talk about the u.s. policy. as you know, the u.s. says it will not negotiate with terrorists because in its view that will encourage more kidnappings and more death threats against merges abroad, what is your view on that? do you think the families of hostages perhaps should have more latitude to try to get their loved one out of harm's way? >> well, we've seen that in the past, certainly. there have been some news organizations in the past that have paid ransom. and have negotiated with terrorist organizations to get their reporters back. and it has worked. unfortunately, what you see on a large scale, you not only

embarrass the nation that might be paying ransom, but it causes the extreme exponential taking of more hostages. you're in paris right now. part of implications of the paris attack is that those individuals were paid a significant sum of money by isis or al qaeda in the arab peninsula. that money has probably come from either oil resources or hostage taking, which is prevalent throughout the middle east. that's a form of dealing with enemies, is taking their sons and daughters as hostages. but when you get that money, and you pay for more terrorist attacks, it just becomes an exponential circle that never stops. >> you just think about those families, i remember in the case of james foley. and just seeing the heartache that the family must go through during this time, we know isis has taken hostages. we know al qaeda has taken hostages. is there any difference between

the way that they're treated by each terrorist group? >> i think isis is actually using the hostage taking for their had social media campaign, as we've seen, especially in this indication. i would contend that part of the reason they've missed the deadline, or the continuing to do what they're doing, is their stretching out the media campaign to get more people to -- more of their potential jihadists to see what they're doing. but truthfully, pamela, i've seen situations with al qaeda, when i was in iraq, that would do exactly the same thing that isis was doing. they would come into a town. behead a couple of local imams as an attempt to terrorize and intimidate. and the same kind of procedures goes on in any terrorist organization that is attempting to intimidate others who don't believe in their particular approach to doing business, pamela. >> but couldn't it also have the opposite effect where it just

turns people off so much and there could be sort of a backlash. >> yeah, absolutely. >> isis right now is trying to recruit people to join its ranks, and i would think that could have a deterrent effect at the same time? >> absolutely. in fact if i can use the example again of al qaeda and iraq, that's exactly what happened to them. the local sunni tribes, in the awakening, a lot of people give credit to the u.s. for forming the awakening councils. but that was a tribal thing for al qaeda and iraq. they got sick of the torture. they got sick of the beheadings. they got sick of the application of sharia law in some of their societies and they said, finally enough, we're not going to allow this to happen anymore. i think you're seeing the early stages of that in iraq or in some case where is isis can be pushed back. it is so horrific the things they're doing and the majority of the people they're treating this way just do not want any

part of these organizations. they're very intimidating at first. but as the people they attempt to govern become more and more familiar with their methods. they begin to counter their methods and push back on it, pamela. >> and they need those people that they govern in toward succeed as an organization. really interesting to hear your thought, general mark hertling, we thank you. and we will continue following the latest terror developments including how authorities in europe are cracking down on potential terror suspects. and we're also going to head over to yemen where rebels have left their counterterrorism program there in jeopardy. that's coming up in the next half hour. victor and christi, back to you in atlanta. >> thank you so much, pamela. we're also going to continue to follow this change in plan for the president this morning. he is on his way right now to germany which will take him to india for meetings. and his last-minute change it seems, he will be from there, heading to riyadh, saudi arabia,

to meet with new king salman. also coming up nearly a month after the crash, divers are trying to pu ing ting t ini 8501 of the of the java sea. and we have details about the final moments inside the crock-pot before the plane crash into the java sea. stay with us. go! go! go! he's challenging the very fabric of society. in a post cannonball world! was it grilled cheese? guilty! the aquatic delinquency is a larger issue to this ♪ you did it again, didn't you? yup. ♪ it's working for new york state. already 55 companies are investing over $98 million dollars,

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welcome back. divers are hoping to raise the main wreckage of airasia flight 8501, of course, out from the bottom of the java sea. he hit a snag overnight, though. >> yeah, bad weather is partly to blame here. >> yeah, they're trying to use lifting balloons to float the fuselage to the surpass of the ocean. that's the same technique they used to recover the tail of the plane. >> officials believe the doomed flight climbed rapidly and then stalled shortly before it crashed killing all 162 people on board. let's get right now to saima who is live isn't jakarta. >> well, good morning, victor, you know, the bottom line is that this is a huge piece of the plane that they're trying to lift up. and the priority initially

wasn't to lift it at all. they wanted to try and get the victims out first. they're trying to get people back to their families to bury them. but they simply haven't been able to do that. the divers have been hampered along the way. and then they got to the fuselage in the java sea there were wires and all sorts of debris stopping them. so they decided to try and lift this fuselage in its entirety to the top of the java sea by using what is a giant balloon. that weighs ten tons. you can imagine what kind of an operation this. they started at 6:00 a.m. local time. it took them to 0k a.m. so four hours to take it down to attach it with cross-ropes and then to blow it up to make it float. and we thought they were really close to bringing it up. but at 10:00 a.m., four hours later, one of those belts snapped and it's gone back down. it's an incredibly unfortunate situation. and then the divers couldn't get

back into the water. because as you say, they're incredibly choppy waters, they're dealing with high winds and huge wave, victor, christi. >> saima, is there any indication as to when they're going to try again. >> reporter: yeah, well, they told us they have stopped for the night. you can see it's nightfall here. they are going to go back down at first light. today, they used six dive teams between three to one diver at a time. they say they're going down again. they're confident they can do this. >> saima mohsin, we appreciate it. we're going to show you live pictures here as we await president obama as he's leaving on his way to joint base andrews, he's cutting his trip short to india here. they'll be getting ready to ramstein air force base and then to new delhi. and the bring change to riyadh, saudi arabia. >> and we'll take you to france

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headed to india, the white house announced this morning that he will be cutting the trip to india short to go on to saudi arabia, as part of a statement this morning, they say that the president and the first lady will travel to riyadh to pay respects to king salman bin abdul aziz. after king abdullah's keith earlier this week. we'll talk more about the implications of this change at the last minute, and what that means for the relationship between the u.s. and saudi arabia. let's go to europe now, where officials are cracking down on terror suspects. >> yeah, pamela brown has all the latest details from paris. pamela, i understand you've been doing some digging on this? >> well, that's absolutely right. the hunt continues christi and victor for the terror suspects in europe, still after the recent attempt in paris, authorities are also looking for a possible accomplice of the gunman charged with killing four people last night.

>> reporter: belgian authorities are trying to hunt down the man seen here reportedly walking behind suspected french algerian isis fighter maggie mamous. now the prosecutor in brussels says this man may have been one of mamush's accomplices. this is after belgian continues to track down about ddelhamid abaaoud. >> we have intel, and we have the lone wolves. and we have those returning from the conflict zones proposing threats from the countries they come from. >> reporter: and at least half a

dozen countries cracked down on terror cells, as well as those believed to be planning separate attacks. >> it's very difficult to detect plans, identify plans before terrorists can take action against innocent people. >> reporter: the fbi is assisting authorities with their investigation, analyzing forensics, laptops, fingerprints and running names through databases as they look for other suspects of amedy coulibaly and others. sources say others are hidinging out including his wife last seen in turkey. a prime minister spoke to cnn's richard quest. >> we discovered it. we informed france. we were not informed in advance. we were not informed in advance.

you can blame spain because she went to spain? if you cannot blame france and spain, you cannot blame turkey. >> let's bring in cnn foreign analyst tom fuentes to discuss this more. tom, we know there are terror cells in the east, and all since the belgian attacks. what do you make about that. is that part of that authorities are being hyperreactive since 9/11? >> pamela, this has been going on since pre9/11 in europe. you may recall the plot to blow up the embassy in 1991. that investigation involved 17 european countries including the fbi, and foiled the plot in belgium, netherlands and in france the same week of our 9/11 attack.

these al qaeda cells in europe have been there pour more than a decade. >> right, but what i'm asking, tom, is that you have all of these arrests in all different kuvts-smem they're related to paris. some of them involving other plots. do you think that authorities are saying, look, we can't sit on these people anymore, because what we saw in paris. this is too much of a liability to sit on these people we're monitoring? >> well, it's true, but they have a little bit of a dilemma here because if they arrest people where they just don't have enough evidence, they're not going to be able to keep them in in custody forever. they don't have a gitmo-type situation in the european country where is they can send somebody off and say we think you're going to do something terribly and we're not going to hold you and bring to you trial. really, they have pretty firm evidence that they were involved in a plot which they will be able to prosecute. going back to that plot, nobody

received a sentence longer than ten years. one of the ringleaders of that, amal jammal of france received a four-year sense, and he's one of the coordinators of the attack a couple weeks ago in paris. so, that's the problem with that, you can pick people up, but you can't hold them, if you don't have a strong enough case with enough evidence that they were going to commit a terrorist act. >> as you point out, tom, terrorism has been an issue in europe for a while. but now we're entering this new age of highly franchised terrorism. this is compounded, in fact, by the fact that we've seen foreign fighters return from syria, and basically directed to launch attacks in their hometown. it's such a staggering problem. i've been speaking to officials here in paris, i get the sense that they're just overwhelmed. what is your take? do you think that european authorities are equipped and prepared to handle this huge problem that's taking place right before our eyes? >> no they're not equipped, and i don't believe they could have

been equipped. because they have so many. and the more they dig, the more people they're finding in this giant spider web of connections all over europe that connect to yemen and syria and iraq. and to think, you know, as france has said, they believe they have 3,000 potential jihadis. they don't have enough people to follow 3,000 people 24/7. and especially where they use tactics like in this case where they hide in plane sight, you had boumeddiene walking around paris scantily clad. she's not looking like a devout muslim. those videos make her look like the average smurm tourist on a paris street. when he do that, it makes it difficult for authorities to say, wait a minute, are these the dangerous terrorists we're following or a couple lovers walking down a french street. >> well, we saw in the u.s., we've seen everything suspects arrested in terrorism charges

that maybe didn't fit that prototype. sometimes in the u.s., tom, you see different, perhaps more aggressive terrorism strategies. we saw a man in ohio arrested recently because an under cover informant was working with him. that's also an argument, should authorities be more proactive and give them something to buy in on? >> that's the tip of the iceberg. currently senior officials at fbi tell me there's more than 1,000 fbi counterterrorism cases going on right now. you don't see arrests happening right away on all 1,000 cases. again, they don't know what they're going to do with them. the media will jump all over them and say, why are picking up people when you don't have evidence. it's entrapment. you're being unfair or unjust. really, we have the same dilemma here in the u.s. we don't have quite as many people that have returned from the battlefield to threaten us.

but it's still a challenge to keep an eye on as many people that you're aware of. >> tom fuentes, thank you for sharing your perspective. >> thank you, pamela. a political coup in yemen could leave the u.s. without political counterterrorism and intelligence. coming up, we're going to take a look at how the u.s. is racing to keep its counterterrorism program alive. and we're keeping a close on on joint base andrews this morning. president obama is leaving for india at any moment. and we just learned he's cutting that visit short to visit saudi arabia. he'll be meeting with the new king and pay his respects with the deceased king abdullah. we'll be right back. meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one

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good morning to you. welcome back to "new day." i'm pamela brown live from paris covering the latest on the terror front and to yemen now. rentals and demonstrators took to the streets of the capital city sanaa, celebrating the coup that stripped power from the american-backed government there and has left the u.s. counterterrorism program in jeopardy. pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more on this. good morning, barbara. >> reporter: pamela, the uncertainty about what happens next in yemen is only growing. yemen, a country in crisis.

with the government and dozens of u.s. diplomats heading home. at least publicly, the white house insists it still can go after al qaeda's most dangerous branch. >> we continue to have a strong counterterrorism partnership with the national security infrastructure of yemen. and we continue to be very vigilant about the ongoing effort to counter aqap in yemen. >> reporter: cnn has learned, behind the scenes, u.s. intelligence and military officials are urgently reaching out to crucial counterparts in yemen, trying to keep alive counterterrorism operations to track and target al qaeda in that country. the group that claimed it was behind the paris attacks. -the-u.s. continues collecting eavesdropping satellite and other intelligence on potential locations. for aqap's top operatives,

including leader nasr al heche she. >> if they have the shot they will take it. >> reporter: taking the shot means more drone strikes deeply resented. there hasn't been strikes since last december. there is a covert u.s. military operations commando team perched and ready to carry out on the ground if ordinaried. the u.s. is still struggling to keep up to the advances made by the houthi rebels this week. >> i wouldn't say that it comes as a complete shock but, yes, it did happen abruptly. >> reporter: it may reject the resignation of president hadi, making the next step by the houthi rebels uncertain. >> the houthis, have been very consistent for years that

they're dead set against any foreign presence in yemen. regardless of the mission, and that would certainly include the united states. >> and there could even be more trouble ahead. there are reports of fighting between al qaeda and houthi rebels in yemen's oil-rich areas. it's the last thing this very fragile country needs. pamela. >> barbara starr, thank you very much. victor and christi, back to you in atlanta. >> pamela, thank you. we want to give our viewers an image we just saw moments ago of president obama there at joint base andrews, arriving at air force one. the breaking news this morning is that the president is cutting had his trip to india short to go on to saudi arabia, to pay respects to king salman, the new king salman, and the family of the late king abdullah. initially, this was a trip that was scheduled to have been made by vice president biden. the v.p.'s office announced that the vice president would be leading out this delegation. but you see now, the president

and first lady boarding air force one. this was changed according to press secretary josh earnest at the white house, after they looked at the schedules that the president, his schedule in india would have allowed him to be there, instead of sending the vice president. the vice president would have been on the ground in riyadh, the president could have made the trip, he is unable to visit and going on to saudi arabia, of course, this has implications on the relationship with saudi arabia. obviously, the u.s. relies on saudi arabia heavily for its fight against isis and terror in the middle east. and there's of course that entire oil thing that we discussed lately as oil prices have continued to drop. but we'll talk more about this change in the president's schedule throughout the morning. >> and the significance of it, yes. also, the nfl, they are talking now about deflate-gate. hear what the league has to say about the ongoing investigation

into the new england patriots.

round of 16 at the australia open is set. if you watched it it was certainly on at my place. >> serena williams lost the

first set before rallying to georgii. and then serena survived. >> let's go to the men's side. stan whawrinka has made it to te round of 16 but he's not able to consider himself in the round of other players in the top 16. this story is in this morning's "open court." the big four of roger federer, rafael nadal, novak djokovic and andy murray have dominated winning 48 of the last 52 grand slams. stan whawrinka won against them. >> what do you think of the big

four? do you regard yourself as one of the big four? >> no. >> why not. >> because i'm not there. it's been one amazing year for me. i was rated player top 20 for four or five years. top ten one year. now top five for one year. but the top four if you look now, especially the three first guys, novak, rafa and roger, they've been winning for more or less ten years. so it's a different level.

alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are ya? good. aleve. proven better on pain. all right, nine minutes to the top of the hour. we're coming up on the biggest game of the year. at least in football, maybe in all of sports. the super bowl, it's rapidly approaching. but there's another story overshadowing the big game. of course that is deflate-gate.

>> did you ever think you'd be saying "deflate-gate"? >> i don't know if it's a gate, but we'll use it. >> nfl has finally responded to an espn report that 11 of the 12 afc championship game balls were indeed underinflate. >> over the past days nearly 40 interviews have been conducted including patriots personnel, game officials and third parties with information and expertise. we've obtained additional information. we take seriously the claims that those rules have been violated and will fully investigate this matter without compromise or delay. >> let's bring in nfl analyst cloy williams. >> chances are slim to none when they made this investigation a couple days ago. the guy conducting this information, ted wells, that may

sound familiar, this is the same guy that did the investigation for the miami dolphins bullying scandal. guys, i think this is going to be quite some time before we hear what they find and what the punishments may be. >> let's have the barbershop conversation. you're not there that often, neither am i, but let's have the conversation that guys are going to have this morning as they go and get their hair cut. belichick and brady spoke this week. let's listen to some of the sound. then we'll talk about it. >>coaching career, i have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. that is not a subject ever brought up. i have no knowledge of anything -- i have no nothing of any wrongdoing of -- yeah, i'm very comfortable saying that. i'm very comfortable saying that nobody did it, as far as i know.

>> as far as i know. >> coy, in that news conference, bread said he likes 12.5 psi, that's ideal for him. very specific. but minutes later, he said, i can't tell the difference. how can both be true? >> i don't know that they can, right. i don't know that he's telling us the truth here. i don't know if they've given us the benefit of doubt given they had been caught cheating in the spygate scandal in 2007. i talked to the head equipment manager in the nfl for 20 years, he said he really thought tom brady was going to take the fall for this because those equipment guys and the quarterbacks have an intimate relationship when it comes to the specifics of how that quarterback likes the football. you heard had hall of fame quarterback troy aikman came out and said there's no way tom brady didn't know that his equipment manager or the football guy isn't going to make the footballs just like he

wanted them. this is an afc championship game. >> and the wording is so, i had no knowledge of. not saying absolutely didn't happen. but i had no knowledge of it. >> if it matters enough to go and check the ball before the game, it matters how the ball, the condition of the ball at halftime. just saying. coy wire, thank you so much. >> thank you, coy. >> we'll be back. ♪

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a brutal nor'easter is hitting much of the northeast today. >> ivan cabrera is live in the cnn weather center with the forecast. all right. who is getting hit the hard evidence? >> boston right now. snowfall rates, 1 to 2 inches an hour. that is a mess out there. you shouldn't be out on the roads. unless you have a plow in front of you or you're in an emergency vehicle. it's really kind of a mess here. we have to be careful. now, new york has already picked up a couple inches here. but the issue is we have warm air aloft that has changed things over to a little bit of freezing rain. that's going to be an issue with icing. the biggest snow to north and east. connecticut river valley, boston getting hit with very heavy snowfall at this hour. we're talking about the snow that's going to continue to accumulate here.

some places picking up as much as 4 to 8 inches. here's our nor'easter, something we haven't talked nabt last several weeks. here we are in late january, we're finally getting a big snowstorm here where the accumulations will be an issue as the low continues to track to the northeast. by tonight, we'll be done with the storm. benefit on the back side of it, just cold air. watch this, one storm at a time, as i like to say. but this one is going to come in. i think this will be worse because it will be coming in on monday which is, of course, the monday commute. and that's going to be a problem here. but this was the storm system that was impacting texas where we we had shovels of snow down there. and now we're talking winter weather advisories that extend from tennessee all the way up through new england, through pennsylvania, new york, into boston where the bull's-eye there will be anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of snowfall. i think a little more north and west through the merrimack valley, you may be picking up as much as 10, as much as a foot of

snowfall as the accumulation is a pretty big swath. so far, the totals, pennsylvania, 7 inches, still snowing there. look at new york city, upwards of 3 inches. we may get 4 to 5 inches, pretty good snow up there. it's a weekend, so that's a good thing. >> that's true. >> i think a lot of people are still in bed, stay there if that's the case. otherwise, you're going to have to deal with a big mess on the roads. >> appreciate it. next hour of "new day" starts right now. breaking this morning. president obama planning to cut short his trip to india so he can travel to saudi arabia to pay respect to king about dlaul. and why the sudden change and questions about the safety of the visit. japan says it will not give up on efforts to rescue two hostages kidnapped by isis, even that the deadline to save them has now passed as of this

morning. plus, divers attempt to pull the fuselage of airasia flight 8501 out of the water. what this means for the investigation and the victims' families. and the nfl says deflate-gate is not just a bunch of hot air. they want to know why the patriots' footballs were not properly inflated. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. so grateful for your company. we want to begin with that breaking news regarding president obama and his modification of plans this morning. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. as you mentioned, president obama will be cutting his visit to india short to travel to saudi arabia. this comes after great unrest in the region. >> the change in the plan comes after king abdallah died this week at the age of 90. the president left for new delhi to visit india's prime minister. we mant to begin with michelle kosinski live from new delhi.

michelle, we know that vice president biden was originally scheduled to go to saudi arabia, why do you think the sudden change? are you get anything word? >> reporter: what the white house is saying, when they looked at the schedules of when vice president biden would land in saudi arabia, versus when president obama was scheduled to leave india, they found that it was such a tight window of time, that they decided to just say, let's have president obama go to saudi arabia, vice president biden will remain at home in the u.s. and this surprised us, too. we just landed in india, a short time ago, we got the news when we landed. it just seemed like it came late in the game. we asked the white house, well, isn't this something you would have known from the beginning when schedules were being organized. and we haven't gotten an answer back on that yet. so, we didn't know if it had to do with something in the schedules that might not have been nailed down until now. and they decided it was just a tight window of time anyway.

the president only needs to cut his visit to india short by less than a day. why that wasn't decided ahead of time, again, we just don't know. now, the president will be able to do both. were there possibly other influences at play. did the white house decide this would be a better idea to have president obama appear as other world leaders are going to be there as well. they're not explaining. just saying that schedules allowed it. and now the president and first lady will be going to saudi arabia to pay their condolences. >> all right, michelle. thank you so much. i want to go to jimana live there. i wonder if there's it anything to it? >> well, victor, what we've seen in the last 24 hours in the

first address by king salman, and what experts are saying about what is expected. really not expecting much change. what we saw with the policies of king abdallah to continue our king salman. the same thing that we've seen pretty much over the last decade or so to continue. when it comes to u.s. relations, of course, a visit by president obama at this time is very important with saudi arabia, a key ally, in this very turbulent region right now. a top ally in the fight against the rise in radical islam, in extremism in the region. of course, saudi arabia, last year, at the forefront of that u.s.-led coalition, fighting isis, joining those air strikes. so, of course, it's a very important time. but also some would say there has been some strained relations between the united states and saudi arabia, recently over a number of issues, disagreements about regional issues, including

syria, saudi arabia, really wanted to see more done to try and topple the assad regime there. no secret with that. they wanted to see ground forces there. but the united states' approach was different to syria. and also then there is iran. saudi arabia really is concerned about the nuclear talks. they're concerned about a nuclear iran. and that the u.s. is willing to concede more to iran than what saudi arabia would see. so this is a very important visit. really important for saudi arabia to get this reassurance that the united states is still standing by its side. especially at a time where it's surrounded by so much unrest. victor. >> jomana karadsheh, thank you so much. we appreciate it. let's dig deeper with mark western, he's the author of

"prophets and princes." what kind of message does this send, especially the last-minute change from vice president biden to president obama? >> i think it's a very good idea. saudi arabia has been an ally of the west since 1915, for 100 years. so president obama is absolutely right to nurture this alliance and keep it going. i suspect that the president also wants to develop a personal relationship with the new crown prince and deputy crown prince. king salman is 79 and has had a stroke. the day-to-day running of saudi arabia will be by the crown prince muqrin. and the deputy crown prince a graduate of lewis & clark college in portland. so we have the most well educated saudi princes in a long time. mohammed at 55 is the youngest crown prince in saudi arabia in 50 years. and more than anyone else in saudi arabia, he is responsible

for driving al qaeda out of saudi arabia. the saudi police that he was in charge of arrested thousands of militants and killed hundreds of them. and that is why al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is in yemen, not in saudi arabia. and yemen has always been a place of difficulty. it has more guns per person than any other country in the world -- it's the only country besides the united states that has more guns per person than we do. and it's also always been ungovernable. in the 1930s, the saudis had a chance to conquer yemen. and the father of the king abdul aziz said you fool. >> there has to be part of the exchange, there is this flogging, sentences to a thousand lashes, he got the first 50. and the next 50 have been postponed several times.

the administration has criticized the conviction and the sentencing. what do you think, do you think the president will discuss that on this visit? >> briefly, he probably will. i had predicted a couple weeks ago that the king would pardon the blogger after the first set of lashes. and of course, the king has died, so i don't think a royal pardon is possible. but the saudis less often are less interested in punishing people than in keeping dissidents. so i think they've sent a message. there's only so much dissent they're going to tolerate. i'll be surprised if he receives more lashes. there was a time when saudi arabia was making great progress on human rights, and they've allowed organizations like human rights lots to come in and make inspections. the progress on human rights has slowed. >> he was known as a reformer, no doubt. but pushing slowly, slowly over the years.

mark western, we're going to expand this conversation throughout the morning. thanks for being part of it. > >> thank you. a mother pleads with isis to spare her son's life. but will isis listen? the fate of two japanese hostages unknown. their country is scrambling to save them. plus the nfl is finally talking about deflate-gate. did they shed any light on the scandal, though? female vo: i actually have a whole lot of unused vacation days, but where am i gonna go? i just don't have the money to travel right now. i usually just go back home to see my parents, so i can't exactly go globe-trotting. if i had friends to go with i'd go, but i don't want to travel by myself. someday. male vo: there are no more excuses. find the hotel you want, and the flight you want, and we'll find the savings to get you there.

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welcome back to "new day." i'm pamela brown in paris covering breaking terror developments. right now, the fate of two japanese men being held hostage by isis handling in the balance. there is no word on the men's fate, hours after a ransom deadline expired. let's go straight to cnn's will ripley in tokyo. will, were know japan is pursuing various channels to try and save these two men. what options does japan have at this point? >> well, they're taking several approaches, pam, as you mentioned diplomatic channels. prime minister abe spoke with jordan, it reached out to officials in turkey. they're also dealing with back

channels, as far as intelligence sources on the ground, contacts who may be able to connect them with isis. and of course, monitoring social media account, any twitter feeds connected to jihadi groups. and, of course, also looking for potential isis videos at the site where is they would tend to surface, pam. >> so, let's look a little bit deeper into that, will. you know japan is saying its doing its best to communicate with isis. do we know more about the extent of that, what that involves exactly. >> well, it's tricky, because on one hand, the public broadcaster here, nhk, was able to connect with an isis pr person and exchange e-mails. they didn't get a whole lot of information. didn't get many answers to their questions, but they were able to make a connection. jet in the japanese government cases, they have not been able to make a direct connection with isis. they have perhaps possibly communicated through

intermediaries, but they still haven't confirmed the status of those two hostages. and they've been trying since tuesday. so there's not a whole lot more they can do, unless isis decides they want to talk with the japanese government. and you and i both know there could be a lot of reasons why they're choosing not to at this point. >> absolutely. isis is saying it's going to release a statement about the hostages. so far, it appears we have not seen that statement. will ripley, thank you so much for your reporting. and now, as japan tries to save those two hostages from death at the hands of isis. the hunt is continuing. we have heard that president obama will head to saudi arabia tuesday as another key ally yemen faces political turmoil. a lot going on joining me now to discuss this cnn and global affairs james reese, also joining us private security consultant dominique nasway.

dominique, i'm going to start with, i've been in france here for more than a week now, since i've been here, i've deny a dragnet across europe, belgium and greece and elsewhere since the paris attacks. in your view, what do you see playing out here? >> first, i would like to say we should not overreact too much. based on this investigation, those people were organized, but not that much. the two questions, the attacks on the "charlie hebdo" newspaper and ameddy coulibaly in the kosher grocery store, they were friends for a long time. although the kouachi brothers we fear to be part of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and coulibaly referred to isis which are quite weird. we haven't so far been able to

prove that -- they were both linked to any jihadi group. years ago, a group would have a mastermind in the country. they haven't got a mastermind in france. the members of the red brigade, they have to be in the country to have a safe housing, communications, weapons network. it's not the case here. so we shouldn't fantasize too much about how professional those people are, you know. >> right. that's the sense i'm getting is it it's more slipshod than highly organized than sort of under the direction of command and control. colonel reese, i'm going to go to to you. there's a lot of chaos in yemen. what is the implication as far as the u.s. as far as what we're seeing in yemen? why should americans care so

much about this? >> well, pam, good morning. the first thing americans need to be concerned about, can we continue to conduct counters terrorism operations against aqap, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. without the current government being stepped down. and there's really no government involved as a sovereign nation of yemen, we have to take a pause in our counterterrorism operations, which again allows aqap continue work and knows without looking at them. so it's a concern for all of us that we have to try to get these political diversions back on again. >> how concerning is that to you, dominique, given your experience in counterterrorism that al qaeda might be able to seize on this opportunity and just gain in strength? >> i think al qaeda, as well as isis are taking any opportunity. what they do basically, the leader of those jihadi groups, they're both looking for chaos

in the poorest countries in the world. the leaders are not able to travel anymore. so the only thing they can do is try to, through radical imams in europe, to instill fear in people's minds. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula claimed the attacks in paris. there is no proof in that. they only took the opportunity, the two brothers claim, they went to yemen to study there. there is absolutely so far no proof that they were connecting to a proper network, you know. so i wouldn't say to my expertise, i wouldn't say that there is a cell in france, belgium. face radical muslims, radical imams in prison, mainly, spreading the word. and some loft and weak people,

the kouachi brothers, they are just looking for a code. they are not religious muslims. they want to fight whoever. they're angry. they're not happy in their own country and they could say isis or al qaeda, depending on their mood. so we shouldn't just pay too much attention. there is no, at this stage of the investigation, a link between those jihadi terrorism groups and the so-called sleeping cells in france, belgium or in europe. >> okay. all right thank you so much lieutenant general james reese and dominic gesqua, we appreciate you coming on. back to you. it's been dubbed deflate-gate. >> okay, it's a gate. >> yes. >> is the nfl any closer,

though, to figuring out how the patriots ended up using deflated footballs in the afc championship? we're also covering the winter storm hitting a good chunk of you who are making up in the northeast. live pictures for you here. that's our roving camera chasing the storm. and photographer tom jeras, he's live. thank you, tom. we're go to be calling on him all morning as he heads north. f. an even bigger deal? everything you miss out on... family pizza night. the big game. or date night. why lose out to the flu any longer than you have to? prescription tamiflu can help you get better 1.3 days faster. that's 30% sooner. call your doctor right away. and attack the flu virus at its source with prescription tamiflu. tamiflu is fda approved to treat the flu in people 2 weeks and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu

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22 minutes after the hour. now, the nfl is trying to figure out if there was any intentional wrongdoing in what has been dubbed by some "deflate-gate." the league said the super bowl-bound new england patriots used footballs that did not meet specifications in the first half of the afc championship game last sunday. let's bring in sarah gannon, she is comfy, cozy, outside of gillette stadium. in the patriots hometown. sorry you had to be in the snow for this. sarah, has the nfl gotten closer to figuring out what happened and who is responsible? >> reporter: good morning, victor, very cozy here. and the nfl finally breaking its silence on the so-called deflate-gate. saying that there is evidence that the patriots used underinflated footballs in their afc championship game.

but now the question is, how did that happen and was it intentional. >> i have no knowledge of anything. i have no knowledge of any wrongdoing. >> i have no knowledge whatsoever of this situation. >> reporter: their head coach and biggest star quarterback tom brady have both denied any knowledge or involvement. but deflate-gate continues to dog the new england patriots on their way to the super bowl. yesterday, the nfl released a statement saying evidence suggests the patriots didn't use underinflated footballs during the first half of the afc championship game. the league says it's investigating the matter, quote, to determine the explanation for why footballs used in the game were not in compliance and specifically whether any noncompliance was the result of deliberate action. the patriots are cooperating with the investigation, according to both the nfl and to patriots' owner robert kraft. the controversy began last weekend during the game against the indianapolis colts.

reports surfaced that 11 of the 12 footballs provided by the patriots were underinflated by about two pounds per square inch each. an under inflated ball is easier to grip, giving the passer and his receivers an advantage. >> once i approved the ball, like i said, that's the ball that i expect out there on the field. >> reporter: according to nfl rules, a referee inspects each football about two hours before kickoff. and again at halftime. the league says the footballs were properly inflated for the second half of the game. as the investigation continues, patriots players are downplaying the controversy and looking ahead to the super bowl. >> my focus is seattle. >> reporter: now, the nfl says that they've done more than 40 interviews. interestingly this week, tom brady, the quarterback said he hadn't been interviewed yet. but the nfl's investigation is still ongoing. they're still conducting

interviews. still conducting interviews. and they have no time line on this investigation, victor, which leads many people to be believe, it may not be done. we may not have answers before the super bowl. >> probably in the off season. sara ganim, thanks. christi. the deadline has come and it has gone. and still no word on the fate of two hostages being held by isis in syria. what will japan do now? plus, possibly two candidates hitting the campaign trails in iowa. it is the no-shows that has everybody talking. we are talking about it with a political panel and you know they're fired up about this. plus, we're covering a winter storm hitting so much of you in the northeast. these are live pictures of our roving camera chasing the storm. photographer tom jerich is on the roads. do be careful in new jersey we're going throughout the

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welcome back. i'm pamela brown in paris. covering breaking terror developments. the world is waiting to find out the fate of two japanese hostages in isis' hands. isis has demanded that japan $200 million. or isis says it will kill both men. plus, protests in yemen as the u.s. pulls out some of its staff at its embassy there in yemen. shiite rebels apparently control the capital of sanaa. and we're also hearing u.s. military advisers may be headed to iraq, near the front lines in mosul. a lot of developments. and now pentagon officials now tell cnn the u.s. is prepared to recommend a small number of troops to the front lines in iraq. cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has more. >> reporter: this is the front line in the war against isis. kurdish militia battling the

terror group on the outskirts of the northern iraqi city of mosul. 679 the pentagon tells cnn is now prepared to recommend a small number of u.s. military advisers join this fight on the front lines if necessary. accompanying iraqi ground forces when they launch an assault to retake the city this spring. this despite repeated promises by the president that he will not place u.s. troops in combat. today white house spokesman josh earn earnest says that mr. obama stands fwha pledge. >> he does not believe it would be in our best interests for a large-scale deployment could be executed in iraq. that committing ground troops in a combat role in iraq is not in our best interests. >> reporter: the u.s. and iraq have markedly different

timetables for an assault in mosul. iraqis insist they're ready now. u.s. commanders disagree. a difference that is testing the patience of iraqi prime minister higher al abadi. >> everyone expects this this is important. everyone matches the iraqi timetable. >> reporter: the fight against isis also has two different realities on different sides of the iraq/syria border. in iraq, the terror group has seen the momentum stop, the pentagon says. but in syria, it is still gaining. >> it hasn't had any effect really on isis' growth in syria. now, we have to think of this as a one of theater operation. not two theaters. one joint theater. that's how isis sees it. and if they're being hurt in iraq they can move to syria and vice versa.

>> jim sciutto, thank you very much for that report. now, i want to bring in cnn global affairs analyst lieutenant colonel james reese, good to see you again. as we just heard, the white house has repeatedly vowed no u.s. troops in combat. that doesn't exactly square, though, with what the pentagon is saying now, right? >> pam, you're right. but let's keep in mind, we have known for several months now that the pentagon, admiral kirby, has been make something announcement. there's always been plans by the joint chair, you know, general dempsey, that if need be and the conditions are set correctly, they would look at putting certain bodies on the ground to assist and mentor the iraqis, if needs, if those conditions were set. >> so, do you think that's the answer? >> pam, i do. i mean, one of the things is, and again, this will become a very political and a lot of people throwing barbs back and

forth. but at the same time, the iraqis have the people, but they do not have what we would all the enablers or the effecting aspects to help the iraqis. the artillery, the close air support, the folks on the ground that can do that for them, the logistics. and this is where our special operators do the best. very small numbers. they go out there and embed with the iraqis and they literally, coach, and mentor. it's like being a coach on the field. making sure they're over there. making sure they're over here. they're doing what they accomplish what they need to do. and get back the land that they need to do. so it is say smart move. but again, i think general dempsey will continue to watch this and will not commit to it until he thinks they're ready to go. >> because critics of this, lieutenant colonel, are going to say, look, this is just going to open up a can of worms, and we're just going to find ourselves where we were with iraq.

what do you say to those critics? >> yeah, i disagree. we have precedence, throughout history in our special operations, doing this exact type of mission and being very successful. where it gets off track, the politicians start putting their fingers in there and start going back and forth and looking to get a wick win, per se. i'll give you an example. in yemen, right now, we have special operations and what to do with the minute with counterterrorism. again, coaching, teaching, mentoring them to help us, you know, do the counterterrorism aspects. during vietnam with the mountain yards, we had the green berets to that. we've done it with the iraqis, with the jordanians. we've done it with the pakistanis. we've just had to have patience and let this work out. what we really want to do is have the iraqis have the lead, have the iraqis fight this fight.

>> lieutenant colonel james reese, thank you very much. christie and victor back to you in atlanta. >> pamela, thanks. we've been covering breaking news this morning, president obama cutting his trip to india short and he'll go to saudi arabia. the president taking off about 30 minutes ago. we've got video here of the president and first lady boarding a jet. they'll head first for a stop in ramstein for refueling. they'll head to india and on to saudi arabia on tuesday. we'll have more on the story at the top of the hour. also, some of the republican hopefuls in 2016 stumping in ohio. it's starting people. some of the biggest names, though, aren't there. we'll talk about what that means. k. over the last 10 years we've helped over one million business owners get started. visit us today for legal help you can count on, to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here. [contain♪r door opening]

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check your calendar. just to make sure, it does says 2015, right? all right, mine, does, too. but we're getting into the 2016 cycle. they're starting. scott walker, new jersey governor chris christie.

senator ted cruz of texas and former pennsylvania senator rick santorum, all hitting the podium today in iowa at the iowa freedom summit. but the summit is not just as notable for who is there you but also for who is not going to be there. jeb bush, mitt romney, senator marco rubio and senator rand paul. let's discuss with david tallian. and chris moody. david, i want to start with you, what can we glean from the list of people who will be there and those who will not? >> good morning, victor. yeah, basically, i'm standing at what is unofficially the starting line for the presidential race in 2016. what you're going to have here today are basically 1200 core activists. they are mostly social conservatives. they had dominate the process in the iowa caucuses next year.

this is the key of the core. what you're going to see is the beginning of the poking and prodding. this is the cattle cal. iowans love to poke their candidates. they see that as first in the nation. 1200 activists during the day. and they're going to get to hear from all folks across the spectrum of the parties. you were saying you got conservative candidates like rick santorum and mike huckabee. two former past winners of the iowa caucuses, but all eyes are on chris christie. this is not his normal blue state. everyone is going to watch how he's conceived by this conservative iowa crowd. >> chris, the poking and prodding that david brought up is part of the iowa caucus. but according to the website, this event will not have an opportunity to interact with the featured speakers. who who is the real audience here? >> the audience, first of all,

there's national media watching this thing. so people all over the country. but david is right, a core group of constituency participating. casual observers of politics don't wake up early on a saturday morning in the middle of winter and go see a speech of candidates. these people are involved in this. a lot of time, the candidates will come down and talk with people after their talks and this is going to give a chance for iowa's steve king to ask questions. it's not a place to talk about whatever they want. king is going to set the agenda and ask them the questions he wants to ask. >> representative steve king is sponsoring this along with citizens united. david, who really needs his support? who does he need to tap on the shoulder after this? >> well, i think every one of them would like his support. some may court it more actively than others. but clearly, in his district in the state which is sort of a

bastion of a lot of caucus-going votes. i mean, that's where a lot of republicans live. a lot of activists in the party are in steve king's district. so clearly, any candidate seeking the nomination would love his support. democrats, of course, are going to try to make hay of it because of steve king's position on immigration. they're going to try to tap everyone on the stage with steve king's controversial stances. that is something that will be watched with the candidates. i can't imagine a candidate would turn down a steve king endorsement. >> you talked about the controversial statements. let's put up on the screen a tweet that steve king sent out. obama aper vert prosecutorial description by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor of the first lady. >> in the case of rand paul, had has campaigned with steve

king. he's spoken at fund-raisers for him. i think he's very comfortable with him. and this could be part of the reason why guys like jeb bush and mitt romney aren't there. but i think the real reason is, there are really two campaigns going on in this primary right now. there's the people primary which is what's going on in iowa where david is. and there's also the money primary where is where jeb bush and mitt romney are. those two gentlemen are working towards the same pots of gold here. and they are competing for it right now. and trying to reach donors as fast as they can, to say, look, i'm going to be your guy in 2016. keep your powder dry. and here's why. so that's what they're busy doing right now. particularly jeb bush, and also marco rubio is holding his own event down in florida, this weekend, speaking to donors as well. so that's really where their interest is at this point in the process. >> yeah, we talked a lot about steve king, also sponsored in part by citizens united which of course led to that landmark ruling that allows so much unlimited amounts of money to be

involved in the political process now. david, chris, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thanks. christi. there are new problems this morning for the divers trying to pull the main wreckage of airasia flight 8501 from the bottom of the java sea. we're talking about their latest struggle and how close they are to getting this job done. meet the world's newest energy

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again tomorrow to lift the main wreckage of airasia flight 8501 from the bottom of the java sea. earlier today, crews were forced to call off that operation because of bad weather. the teams are using lift balloons to try and float the fuselage to the surface. that's the same technique they used in fact to raise the tail of this plane. we want to talk to cnn's aviation specialist mary schiavo. mary, we heard earlier one of the straps broke as they were trying to lift this thing up. so they're going to have to try again. is this the best option to try to get the fuselage out to the surface? >> well, it's the best option they have particularly on the bad weather on twa 100, for example, they used grappling ships, ships that are used to bring up sunken subs. and they've used those in other

places but those ships aren't on the scene. as far as i know, they haven't asked for the ships to be there. those buoyancy balloons, those floats are basically bringing it up. it's complicated by the fact that it's filled with so many human remains. a very tough job. >> right. that was my next question, if this option fails does the priority then move to recovering those bodies? >> yes. >> and, you know, it's -- you know, it's a toss-up. it's a choice that they have to make, to go in there and try to get them out or bring them up in the fuselage. it's very dangerous for the divers, of course. in many cases what they try to do remove the remains first. but here, with them strapped in they'll probably bring it up in in one piece but they do risk things coming free in the

removal. at this point, dealing with what they're dealing with over there, i'm going to have to say this is the best option they have. >> we learned things about the final moments in the plane's cockpit. we know it took a matter of minutes for this plane, you know, the pilot, who requested permission to turn around. to minutes before it was taking off and then it was back off of radar completely. knowing that there was that little time, what do you expect we might actually learn from those black boxes? >> well, see who we're going to find from the black boxes is whatever precipitated i think it was a terribly forceful storm cell because the rise, the climb in altitude is more rapid than what the plane would have done and more rapid than what the pilots would have put it into because it's three times the climb rate on that airbus. they shouldn't have been ascending that fast so we know it's weather. there is an interesting thing on the tracings now that they have, it looks like for a moment the plane was actually commanded in

a turn after the stall, it reached the very high altitude, then stalled which means the air flow wasn't going over the wings and the plane started falling out of the air. it looks like for a few seconds they had momentary control. then it made the dive which meant they had no control at that point. i think they will be focusing on what happened there and might have been airbus controls. they might have not put the right inputs in or responded properly to the warning. >> well, we know that black box analysis is 90% complete. hopefully we'll have more answers soon for the families. we always appreciate your perspective. thank you. >> thank you. >> victor. >> thank you, christi. we're covering breaking news, president obama is cutting his trip to india short to go on to saudi arabia. the president took off in air force one about 30 minutes ago. you see the fist lady with him. we're also chasing the winter storm hitting the northeast.

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take a look at the conditions in new jersey right now as we're looking at a brutal nor'easter that is slamming the east coast. we have our photographer, tom, out in this mess. you can see driving, it's not always the snow either. it's the ice. i'm from ohio, my husband is from chicago. you're from baltimore. we know how it goes. but it is never easy. tom, are the roads as slick as they look? >> um, i would say so. i did see one car spin out on the side of the road and there was police car there. there's not a lot of traffic. maybe because it's early saturday morning. obviously it's more rain than ice or snow at this point. you can see from the camera lens it's just raindrops and not

snowflakes. >> but there's no salt trucks or need for that at this point as far as you can tell? >> i think salt trucks are out protectively. my temperature reads right around the freezing point, so at any point this rain could turn to ice and i think trucks and plows are out just protectively at this point. >> tom, do take good care out there. thank you so much for giving us a good live look at what's happening. so all the folks in new jersey and new york can take a look and make their own determination whether they want to venture out into this. so thank you, tom. we'll be talking to you later. >> you're welcome. i'll be here. >> thanks, tom. to the weather center. people can drive in snow. >> yes. >> ice and this wintry mix, that's what's unsafe. >> that's going to be the problem. it's better to see raindrops on his windshield than snowflakes. here's the deal where he is, new

jersey here. so we switched over to rainfall here. the rain/snow line is right across 95 here. i don't think it's going to push much further to the north here, so places like connecticut, rhode island and boston, it's going to remain a snow event and it is coming down heavy. so what that means you get snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour, the snow plows are out there but it's difficult for them to keep up. so, they plow the highways and then more snow falls and they have to keep going all over the place. that's why we like to have people stay off the roads so they can do their jobs. on the back side of the storm light snow as it continues moving through charleston there, the accumulation will not be as big of a deal as we talk about here in the northeast where upwards of 8 to 9 inches have fallen. i think boston has the potential here for another 3 to 5 inches and perhaps a little more further to the north and west up toward the merrimac valley. what you're seeing is monday

morning, another storm that is an alberta clipper. doesn't matter what we call them. it's going to produce the same thing, snow, 3 to 6 inches and that will happen for monday. so that is not going to be good. here are the remainder of the winter storm warnings, pennsylvania up into new england. so we'll keep track of the storm and keep you posted on the accumulations which are still occurring in boston. >> we'll check back with tom throughout the morning as well. thank you. >> here is a look at other developments. the u.s. supreme court will review oklahoma's lethal injection procedures after a botched execution that left an inmate to die slowly and gasping for air. the case was brought by inmates who say the current system violates the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. oklahoma's attorney general defends the practice saying the state's process has been affirmed by two federal courts. >> the measles outbreak linked

to disneyland in california seems to get worse, the number of cases now 68 and spread across several western states you see there. this is from 59 cases that were reported just three days ago. about 48 of those cases have a confirmed disneyland connection. the cd krrk says people vaccinated you have no reason to worry. next hour we're talking to a pediatrician to talk about why this is happening and what can be done. >> the tsa says it set a record last year. the agency confiscated more guns in 2014 than any other time. that's an average of six guns per day. dallas-ft. worth airport had the most and atlanta's hartsfield jackson in second. >> the chicago cubs mourn the loss of hall of famer ernie banks, he died last night. he was the cubs's first african-american player known as the greatest cub in franchise history having played for the

team for all 19 seasons of his major league career. that earned him the nickname mr. cub. officials at wrigley field paid tribute to the two-time mvp. ernly banks was 83 years old. thoughts to his family and friends. >> busy morning of news. next hour of your "new day" starts right now. we're following several developing stories this morning, first, president obama planning to cut short his trip to india to travel to saudi arabia to pay respects to king abdullah. why the sudden change and how safe is this visit? >> getting into cnn, spanish authorities arrest four men suspected of being part of a terror cell with, quote, a strong determination to attack targets. >> plus, nearly a month after the crash divers are trying to pull airasia flight 8501 out of the java sea. teams are using a complex system

of lifting balloons to raise the wreck but they are having problems. the latest live from indonesia. >> boy, a busy morning, we're glad you're along for the ride with us. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. 8:00 on the east coast. we mentioned president obama he is cutting his visit to india short to travel on to saudi arabia. this is coming at a time when there is a lot of unrest in that region. the change in plans comes after saudi king abdullah died at the age of 90. the president left this morning for new delhi to visit india's prime minister. we'll get to jomana in a moment. first, let's go to erin mcpike at the white house. vice president biden was supposed to go on this visit to riyadh. why this change? >> reporter: well, the white house said overnight, basically, that they looked a it the schedule more closely and saw that vice president biden would be landing in saudi arabia

shortly before president obama was scheduled to take off from india so they saw this schedule opening and decided vice president biden doesn't need to go and president obama can go instead. they also realized they had to cancel something in president obama's schedule in india which is that he will not be going to the taj mahal. let's also point out here that just a couple weeks ago the white house came under a lot of scrutiny for not sending a high profile u.s. official either president obama or vice president biden to paris for that big rally, so it could be that the white house decided that this was very important to send president obama. i would also point out, christi and victor, saudi arabia is maybe the biggest ally to the u.s. in the middle east and has been instrumental in helping to fight isis, you may remember in september it was major breaking news when staud saud agreed to host u.s. and coalition efforts to train syrian opposition

fighters in the fight against isis and very big when saudi arabia agreed to join in air strikes against isis targets. >> and one of the u.s. strong parters in the world. any indication of other world leaders traveling to saudi arabia as well? >> reporter: we do know that british prime minister david cameron as well as the french president hollande. >> thank you so much. >> i want to bring in jomana. we know that the president himself is going to meet with the new ruler of saudi arabia. do we know what exactly will be on the agenda other than honoring king abdullah? >> reporter: well, this is pretty much as we are seeing heads of state here, world leaders going to saudi arabia, really the main purpose of this is to pay respects to the late

king abdullah to the people of saudi arabia and also to have face time and neat new king, king salman. and it's also really reassuring message that the united states is continuing its friendship with saudi arabia, those historic ties between the two countries over recent years. there have been some tensions, a bit of strain when it comes to dealing with a number of regional issues that the united states dealt with differently than what saudi arabia would have liked to see when it comes to the nuclear negotiations with saudi arabia's main rival in the region, iran. and also when it comes to dealing with syria, saudi arabia wanted to see the assad regime toppled, more done by the united states and the international community to topple the assad regime. of course very important for saudi arabia right now to have u.s. support. it's a very tense time in this

region, saudi arabia surrounded by so much unrest that no king in the history of modern saudi arabia has inherited the kingdom surrounded by so much unrest, whether it's yemen or to the north with isis and its control of territory in iraq and syria. >> thank you so much as well as erin mcpike. >> let's get to another breaking story now. at least 15 people including children have been killed after a shelling in eastern ukraine. this comes days after intense fighting between rebels and government forces. we have new video showing the aftermath. you see the flames on the left of your screen, some of the devastati devastation. we have on the phone with us from the capitol of kiev, victoria, tell us where this is happening and what you're hearing on the ground. >> well, we have to understand how the kiev has 450,000 people,

strategic for the pro-russian separate ipss. it's one of the options, it was close to keeping russian order. what happens this morning there were shots at the circle, multiple launches so far as viewers to understand. each launch in the area -- area of the outskirts. >> victoria -- we're having a little bit of difficulty

understanding you, but we've gotten some -- i thank you for your report but we have a couple of details. one of the victims, a 12-year-old girl that we're learning, one of the dead here. and we have a tweet from u.s. ambassador to ukraine which he says today's indiscriminate shelling is part of a russian backed general offensive in complete violation of mince agreements. we have u.s. response. 46 other people we understand have also received some shrapnel wounds. 15 people dead in that incident. we'll stay on top of it. more later this morning. >> also talking about a mother who is desperately pleading with isis to spare her son. japan is vowing it's not giving up on efforts to rescue that man as well as his friend who is also being held captive. we're taking you live to tokyo for the latest. >> plus, snow falling on central park this morning.

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breaking news that we have coming in from spain. we toss it out to pamela brown in paris this morning. good morning, pam. >> reporter: good morning to you. more terrorism related arrests here in europe this morning, we are learning that spanish authorities have arrested four men in spain's north african territory. officials say they are two pairs of brothers who were strongly radicalized and prepared to carry out an attack and possibly blow themselves up. spannish officials say there are, quote, many similarities with the two brothers who carried out the recent attacks in paris killing 12 people and a third suspect is believed to

have killed a police man in paris. here is what we know right now. the fbi is assisting with analyzing data on lap tops and finger prints and trying to track down other accomplices. they are trying to find out more details on the four suspects in custody who are accused of providing support to amedi coulibaly who carried out the attack on a kosher market. and at least five western hostages including american journalists met a gruesome fate at isis hands and now japan is trying to save two of its citizens who are being held by the militants. we're following the story out of tokyo. will, a ransom deadline has come and gone. what's the latest? >> reporter: the latest is that the japanese government insfit of their best efforts, intelligence efforts, monitoring social media accounts still has not been able to confirm any

information about the status of these two japanese hostages. it's horrendous time for their families. they had to wait 72 hours, leading up to this deadline. the deadline passed and now in some ways the anxiety is almost worse because they don't have any moment that they are looking forward to now, but there are all of these social media reports and unverified claims that isis is doing this or doing that that a video could pop up at any time. there are no answers. don't know. and that's probably what's the most difficult part now. certainly when we were speaking with friends of one of the hostages' wife. kenji goto's wife. he said that she said that even show she was surrounded by people she felt completely alone and isolated because she's there with their newborn baby and no idea if her husband is going to come home. >> so heart wrenching. you know they are aware of what

happened to the other five western hostages that were beheaded by isis. i can't imagine what the families are going through. what has japan been doing to try to free these hostages? >> reporter: well, you know, trying to make every effort through public means, through private faction, also try to get contact with isis. the public broadcaster here exchanged e-mails with a person claiming to be a spokes man for the group, claiming there was a statement coming at any moment but it's now more than 24 hours since that statement was promised and there still has been none. for a lot of people in japan, a country that doesn't engage in military activity they watched from afar, the islamic militant groups like isis and others and felt like something very far away from this island nation. but this case is really bringing it home for a lot of people, pam, and people are personally quite concerned for these two men, hoping they come home safely and torn about what the

japanese government should do to try to resolve the situation. a lot of people say that even though they want the men home they don't think japan should consider paying a ransom, potentially putting more money into the hands of isis allowing them to do more damage. >> will, i know you'll continue to follow the developments of this. thank you very much. i'm going to talk more about will brought up, paying ransom, what should countries do in these situations, to speak about that we have cnn political commentator buck sexton, a former counter terrorism analyst. buck, you heard i was talking to will about there, in your view what are the options for japan right now? what should japan be doing? >> the options are very limited at this point. give than the deadline has passed, they are essentially trying to back channel and find ways to get in touch with either intermediaries or people in the islamic state and beg for more

time to come up with an agreement. part of the problem is the demand for $200 million is completely outrageous. in previous cases where there have been agreements met, where there have been hostages released it's for a few million dollars. the $200 million figure, the one that has been now put out there, is directly in response to the japanese government $200 million in aid. so this is about the propaganda of saying look, if you're going to help in the region, if the japanese government is going to donate $200 million to humanitarian efforts the islamic state is going to call them out and say anything that you do that helps the coalition in any capacity, means you are now a target. so this is really about the messaging from the islamic state more than the money because they are not going to get $200 million. >> right. so it makes you think they have no intention whatsoever from the git-go to release these hostages. i want to switch gears and talk to you about breaking news we're learning that the spanish authorities have arrested four

men suspected of being part of a terrorist cell. you are a former cia counterterrorism analyst. tell us more about what goes into a hunt for terror suspects especially in this context of what we've been seeing across europe with all of these arrests in the wake of the paris attacks. >> in the aftermath of the paris attacks, security services, intelligence services all across europe, including the spanish services, are going to be moving more quickly because a lot of the time they have groups or individuals under surveillance, they are suspected jihadists, they want to see who their connections are, build more of a case. once you see something happen like "charlie hebdo" and some of the other strikes across europe you realize that the timeline may be condensed. some of these jihadists who have been under surveillance might decide to accelerate planning. so that means in the case of for example spain, i know we're just getting the details about this cell, what you may have is a situation where they decided to -- the authorities decided to act more quickly. once the initial arrest is made,

there is then the secondary arrests they can expect. facilitators, people who may have put them in contact with the islamic state if that is in fact a group they are in contact with. so there's never one arrest usually. there is the follow on investigation of people that may have helped them, people that may have been in contact with them and of course the possibility of other operational cells who realize their time is limited so the authorities have to find them before they can strike. >> you know, it's interesting i was talking to a law enforcement official here in paris yesterday, and the sense i get, buck, is that they are still trying to wrap their head around sort of the scope of this problem and trying to keep their heads above water. you wonder if we're doing everything we should be doing to combat this sort of new age of terrorism. >> the threat of returning radicalized terrorists from the islamic theater or those going

to strike in solidarity with the islamic state or with al qaeda more broadly, that's been around and the security services have been looking at that and trying to gauge that threat and deal with it for years as we know. of course because of "charlie hebdo" now there is a sense that people are paying closer attention to the actions of the security services and are expecting them to take action. so, there's no such thing as a perfect posture for these kinds of things, you have to be right 100% of the time where the terrorists only have to be right once. i think the preparations they are taking and certainly the cooperation between services, whether here at home or with our european counterparts is going to be very strong. you'll have robust information sharing. but even that is not necessarily enough if you have a hardened cell that has pretty good operational security and decides they are going to move to the attack phase. >> right. it's not an exact science and comes down to a judgment call. thank you so much for coming on sharing your thoughts with us.

>> thank you. >> christi, back to you in atlanta. >> pamela, thank you. we're covering a winter storm hitting the northeast, take a look at the snow falling in central park, new york. pretty. >> it is nice. >> don't know if you want to venture out in it but that storm is moving north so people in boston, buckle up and get ready. >> our photo journalist is chasing it. he is in new jersey. this is a shot through his wind shield. raining now. the roads are slick but not as bad as they could be. we'll have more coming up. [contain♪r door opening] what makes it an suv is what you can get into it. ♪ [container door closing] what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. ♪ introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid.

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my nai'm a lineman for pg&e out of the concord service center. i have lived here pretty much my whole life. i have been married for twelve years. i have 3 kids. i love living here and i love working in my hometown. at pg&e we are always working to upgrade reliability to meet the demands of the customers. i'm there to do the safest job possible - not only for them, but everybody, myself included that lives in the community. i'm very proud to do the work that i do

and say that i am a lineman for pg&e because it's my hometown. it's a rewarding feeling. 23 minutes after the hour. just before the break we talked about new york and new jersey watching out for this storm. they are not the only ones waiting for this snow, ice, wintry mix, whatever is on the way. >> which is dangerous at the end of the day. ivan is joining us with your forecast. we know our friends in boston, they are going to be feeling it. >> absolutely. i lived there 10 years. only safe for a weatherman or woman to do it of course. emergency vehicles and then the snow plows that are out there and trying to keep up. this is going to be an issue. the snowfall rates are so heavy. here is the rain/snow line. you see the pink beginning to mix in with a little sleet.

as far as new york, you're done. so that is excellent news. all of this now continuing to move off to the northeast so i think boston you have several more inches before this is all said and done and that will be later on tonight. then we'll get ready for the second storm. on the back side a little snowfall across well, the appalachians at this point here. and even across the northern part of georgia, the blue ridge mountains good keting a little bit of snow. that will be melting in a short time. here goes our nor'easter continuing to push to the northeast. windy conditions continue, on the back side of it a few lake-effect snow showers continue with the big story after this one will be the next clipper that will be moving in. once this begins to tap into atlantic moisture we get in on snowfall. there is the clock monday, 8:00 a.m. that's a mess. people trying to get into work, so the earlier you can do that the better. airport delays will continue there. and additional accumulation. so for this event that we're covering right now, winter weather advisories from asheville up to washington,

d.c., but at this point again, that area i think you're pretty much done. it's pennsylvania heading up to new york and connecticut especially and into massachusetts, of course new england, with typical nor'easters, the last to see the snowfall emd. that's the case. additional accumulations i think another two to four inches possible so the totals will range from 6 to as much as a foot of snowfall. we've seen that happening. look at pennsylvania picking up 7 inches, new jersey 5 inches, i've seen some upwards of 6 inches. this will continue especially across new england. new york and points south and west i think we're done. that's good news there. >> my girls would be happy with sledding. nice. >> head to the blue ridge immediately. >> or texas. it's been snowing there. the same storm. can you imagine. they are making snowmen in texas. >> it is something. thank you so much, ivan. keeping us safe here and aware. listen, possible republican candidates are making their presence known in iowa.

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other potential. >> because it was we were not informed in advance. we were not informed in advance. can you blame spain because she went through spain, if you cannot blame france and spain you cannot blame turkey. >> an official i spoke with involved in the investigation here in paris as they are waiting for the results of the latest forensics analysis. the official says they are still very much in the thick of it with this investigation. christi and victor. >> we know you have been there

about a week. do you get an underlying sense that there is still some uneasiness there because this is an ongoing investigation? >> absolutely. they are still looking for a lot of answers to questions. officials are especially whether there are other potential accomplices living here in france or across europe. what's interesting here is there is a bit of a dichotomy. you see soldiers, more cops patrolling the streets,izationed outside of sites and land marks. the people that they seem to not be sort of deterred by what's happened here. we saw a man reading the latest "charlie hebdo" magazine with the prophet muhammad on the cover in daylight. the magazine has been sold out across the city. so it's clear that while on one hand there is stepped up security and officials are sort of on edge trying to investigate to see if there are other as part of the terror cell, the suspect terror cell, the people very much are moving forward

with their lives. >> pamela, the breaking news this morning the arrest by spanish authorities of two pairs of brothers that at least they believe were planning attack, i wonder if you can extrapolate from that and tell me if this is in your opinion a new normal, short-term, long term for western europe? zbll i think it's going to be long term. i was speaking to a law enforcement official here in paris and he said the european theater is going to be one to watch for a long time. i was talking to him about heading back to the states, and i said i feel like when i head back something's going to happen. he said well, you will see a lot of arrests moving forward. this is just the beginning. especially you know, with the sense is here is that we knew there was this problem of you're 350e7bs going over to fight with isis and now what we're seeing is sort of their worst fears coming to reality here with people coming back and actually wanting to launch attacks in

their hometowns or drengted by isis. so, i can tell you the counter terrorism officials i've been speaking with are very billsy and this is going to be something we see most likely for a long time to come from the officials i've been speaking to who are on the front lines of this problem. >> pamela live in paris, thank you so much. >> and remember the attack that began this at least this recent chapter, the shooting outside the offices of "charlie hebdo" and the tributes continue for the 12 victims there. for ways to support and to pay tribute go to cnn.com/impact. >> talking domestic politics. chris christie, rick cruz, rick perry, some of the potential presidential candidates expected to take the stage in iowa. will they be able to win over the conservative vote? >> you know, a measles outbreak linked to disneyland has officials on alert. the outbreak is expanding.

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republicans in the country, they are taking part in an event in iowa today. it's the iowa freedom summit. wisconsin governor scott walker, new jersey governor chris christ christie, let's talk about the event and also those who will not be attending. we've got democratic strategist maria cardona and buck sexton. ly is also a former cia counterterrorism analyst. buck, i want to start with you. what does the list of attendees tell you about what they need potentially going into 2016, and what they may want to actually stay away from? >> they are certainly hoping to gather momentum with the conservative base. you have some in the case of ted cruz who really has the base with him already and i think he just wants to show everybody that. this is an opportunity to show how much support he actually has among conservatives, grass roots

as well. i think the absentees tell you as much as anything else. you don't have mitt romney or jeb bush going, because they have the infrastructure, the funding, the donor base. it's a question of the decision. they don't have to worry whether they can get the money together and get the ground game together to do all this stuff. i think it will be interesting to see chris christie how he plays outside of new jersey. i wonder how he's going to do with the conservative base out there. he's good on some issues obviously of dealing with unions and things that will appeal to them but also vulnerable on others. it depends on what's said. with christie, walker, even with perry to some degree this is an opportunity to get a little ahead of the game and build steam before we get beyond sort of the first leg of what's obviously going to be a long race. >> maria, do you agree that mitt romney and jeb bush are staying away because they are confident or because they don't want to be so close to steve king? >> i think the latter. what is so interesting about

this freedom summit gathering is that i agree with buck, you are seeing a lot of republicans who think that they have to wave the flag and get the all important conservative vote going into 2016, but therein lies the problem with the whole gop in terms of trying to elect a nominee that can get through the primary as well as be a real contender for the presidential election, the general election. so i think what you're seeing is people like mitt romney who understands how awful -- what he went through during the gop primary when he talked about self deportation, he needs to make sure that doesn't happen again. the candidates who are wrapping themselves around the steve king rhetoric and policies which is what is happening at the iowa freedom summit today, are going to have a very tough time to make it to the general election

because as we all very well know, the gop will never see the inside of -- if they don't do a better job of trying to reach out to latina voters. >> thank you for the spanish there. we bring up steve king because he is one of the sponsors along with representative of iowa, steve king, along with citizens united. we talk about this tweet. i want to bring this up. obama prefers prosecutorial discretion by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor at state of the union with first lady. how does the gop gain a greater percentage of latino voters in america if republicans, some of them, are rushing to be so close to someone who would tweet that? >> well, the idea is that you can actually -- if you're serious about immigration reform, honest about immigration reform that you can appeal to hispanic voters and also appeal

more importantly to the broad swath of americans who believe that the law should be enforced as it is and they recognize that this is essentially a bait and switch, the idea you have a border security bill and then all of a sudden you'll start letting people move down the process of legalization. they are not going to tie themselves to what somebody else said when it comes to all of their policies going forward. but i do think that the point about prosecutorial discretion is an obvious one, it's not just a correct one. the president of the united states himself said on previous occasions that he did not have the authority to do this, he recognized that, as we all know he is a constitutional professor, he understands the differences between legislative branch and the executive branch except when it comes to politic. he thought he had a moment to go it alone and do what he wants to do, and unfortunately, that really shreds at the distinctions, at the separations of our powers, and i think if people recognize that the executive shouldn't be doing that, that president obama knows he shouldn't and it was power politics and it's unfortunate that he's gone down that path

and i think the republicans have an opportunity to show law and order matters, the constitution matters and that they are not just going to do things like for example decide that they are going to ignore the law. >> that would be true if republicans actually had an honest conversation about immigration reform, and stop passing bills that essentially say that all 12 million should be deported. they had a chance, they had a year and a half to pass the sensible bipartisan senate bill but they didn't do it. and so right now what we're seeing is in polls, poll after poll the american people support what this president has done because they know that republicans -- they know that -- yes, that's right. and gels what. >> hold on. >> the bill, the bill that the senate passed included incredible border security measurements. so again, the american people are sensible, they think this president has done what he needed to do in the face of complete republican obstructionism. >> it's a question of the

timeline. didn't pass a border security bill you add more funding and then the border is secure, this is laughable. and people know this the moment they read the bill. they recognize it. >> why do american support it then. >> you have to show a metric -- >> you have to show metrics of the more secure border and then decide what to do with the population that is here legally. otherwise people can go across il will little and there is no change. you have vas ter ways of am nelsty. >> we have to wrap it up. >> i'll say republicans have at it. continue the talking pointings. >> we've got to close it there. maria and buck, fun. we've got to wrap this up before you fall off the screen. you didn't see it but there was a camera issue. i thank you so much. thank you both. >> thank you. >> always a lively discussion. the disneyland linked pleaseles, that outbreak is getting worse. and it's not just about disneyland. we're asking a pediatrician why the disease is making a comeback

and what can be done about it. also ahead is the new england patriots head to the super bowl former tight end aaron hernandez heads to trial for murder. what's going on with his case. it's just a few more weeks max! what are you doing up? it's late. i just wanted to have breakast wih you.

47 minutes past the hour. look at this map. these are the states where people, many children, have the

measles right now. total of 68 people. about 30 of them are kids, nearly all of those who are sick visited disneyland in southern california. 48 linked to the park. that leaves 20 who are not. the 68 confirmed cases we have here. so let's bring in dr. thompson, a pediatrician joining us from nashville. thank you for being here. what do you attribute this outbreak to? why is it making a comeback? >> what we know about measles it's a vaccine preventible illness so we've been giving the measles vaccine in this country almost 50 years, because of that measles has become extremely rare. what we know about the vaccines is that it's extremely safe, so millions upon millions received this over decades and it's effective, at least 99% effective preventing measles. we also know that it requires people to take it. measles is extremely contagious

virus, one of the most contaj owls skri russes we know of. because it's contagious it requires 90 to 95% coverage of the vaccine in a population. the percentage of people that are vaccinated drops below that that becomes a vulnerable population. you can have outbreaks like we're seeing. >> talking about being part of the park. with 20 of these 68 not affiliated with the park, i'm wondering what do you suggest we do to try to contain it? >> you know, the most important thing is any one that has not been vaccinated, it's time to become vaccinated. unfortunately sometimes what it takes, many generations now have not seen these illnesses and they don't have an appreciation and understanding even a fear of these serious infections and many think it's a theoretical thing. outbreaks drive home this is a real threat to our society. you know, i think it's

especially important to remember that there are some who can't receive the vaccine, children and adults who have issues with their immune system, serious illnesses, and they rely on us in society to do our part to protect them by a concept called hurt protection, if enough of the population is vaccinated these stop. 90 to 95% and we can halt outbreaks. >> doctor, great point you make about the fact if we have not experienced it we forget how dangerous it is. we appreciate your insight. >> former patriots tight end aaron hernandez is set to stand trial for murder. up next, the road blocks the prosecution is running into and why hernandez' fiancee could be the star witness. who cares how tight it can turn, if it can't turn heads? who cares how capable it is, if it's incapable of creating a reaction?

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from the gridiron to the courtroom, the high profile case of former new england patriots player aaron hernandez may begin tuesday. >> opening statements expected in the case of hernandez who pled not guilty to murdering semiprofessional player odin lloyd. >> susan candiotti shows us how the prosecution is facing a much tougher case than previously

thought. >> reporter: the last time the new england patriots played in the super bowl in 2012, aaron hernandez was on the field. this time he's sidelined. on trial for murder pleading not guilty. no longer getting plays from his old bosses, coach bill belichick and owner tom kraft. they are on the prosecution's witness list. the patriots fired their star tight end the day he was led out of his home arrested for the murder of semipro football player odin lloyd, shot seven times. at first, it seems there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence against the star tight end who's pleaded not guilty. 18 months later the case isn't the same. >> the universe of damming evidence has shrunk. >> thanks to a defense team scoring some victories.

arguably the biggest, a text message from lloyd to his sister, september minutes before lloyd was killed. lloyd writes, nfl just so you know. a judge ruling it's inadmissible, not enough proof lloyd thought he was going to die. >> if the jury believes that aaron hernandez was with odin lloyd before he was killed, it's not a big leap to conclude aaron hernandez was involved in the murder of odin lloyd. >> reporter: prosecutors say they have surveillance videos of the victim getting into a car with hernandez and co-defendants who have also pleaded not guilty to murder. video of that same car driving into an industrial park, and later, hernandez back home less than a mile away, holding what prosecutors say is the alleged murder weapon. but, it was never found. >> there is no murder weapon. or, a witness that is credible

would testify that aaron hernandez did it. there is no such witness. >> reporter: the judge also blocking any mention hernandez' indicted for two more murders in boston. prosecution witness alexander bradley captain say he is suing hernandez for allegedly shooting him in the face a few months before lloyd's murder. will the state overcome any weaknesses? >> there still is a good amount of circumstantial evidence against aaron hernandez. it just isn't the slam dunk case it seemed to be. >> reporter: susan candiotti, cnn, fall river, massachusetts. >> mel, good to see you. what do you think the prosecution is going to come up with out of the gate? >> hey, christi, victor. i literally am shocked at how badly this case has unravelled. out of the gate what the prosecutors are going to have to say because they cannot refer to the other two murders, they captain refer to the text messages from the victim right

before, and they also can mot refer to one of the witnesses who said he was shot in the face by hernandez. they are going to have to lean very heavily on two things. all this surveillance tape, they have surveillance tape from all around boston showing the four of them driving around in this nissan ultima. you're going to see tape of them in his house. and you're going to see surveillance tape of aaron hernandez coming back in his house. and the second major piece of evidence is hernandez' fiance. this gets interesting. it's interesting because they are not married. in the state of massachusetts, there is spousal immunity but you have to be married. you can not be a common-law spouse together a number of years, you captain be a fiance so she can be compelled to testify and prosecutors are pretty convinced or they at least suspect that she's the one that got rid of the weapon

because remember, in this case we don't have a gun, we don't have a witness to this murder and we also don't have any one of the three defendants turning on each other. this is a very, very difficult case to win. but not necessarily impossible. >> so you mentioned witnesses potentially, defense witnesses, but i want to talk about the prosecution's witnesses. on the witness list coach bill belichick and patriots owner bob kraft. why? >> victor, i'm not sure why. they have 305 witnesses listed on the list. they may be bringing them in simply to ask in terms of the timelines because the owner, kraft, and belichick, when this caught wind in boston they weren't fooling around. the second he was under investigation and he was let out of his house he was off the team. unlike many other, you know, teams in the league where their

players get arrested, they are alleged to have done pretty terrible things and they stay on the roster, he was out. and so they might bring them in simply because of the star power of those witnesses. and the fact that both kraft and belichick will testify to the fact that these allegations were serious, serious enough that they were wanting to kick him off the team even though he hadn't been convicted of anything. >> 30 seconds quickly, hernandez we know also facing murder charges in another incident that left two men dead in 2012. where does that stand? >> well, that case has been separated from this one. typically when you're prosecuting cases or a defendant that has multiple cases you go with your strongest case first. there are no witnesses in that case, it's only surveillance tape, again they don't have a gun. so basically, you've got a guy here who fell from grace so profoundly, he is facing not one murder, two murder cases, he's also facing a third criminal

trial that stems from an assault in jail and he's facing civil allegations. this will be a very interesting case to watch. >> glad you're on it. thank you, mel robins. >> see you at 10:00 eastern. "smerconish" starts right now. this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to the program. i'm michael smerconish from washington, d.c. with breaking news. an abrupt change of plans by the president of the united states. mr. obama and the first lady left india this morning but that plan has changed. the president will cut short his trip to india, and go to saudi arabia to pace respects following the death of saudi king abdullah. the plan had been for vice president joe biden to go, now he will stay home. so, the real question of course, is why? the president seldom travels for the death of a head of