steve wynn quits his job on the republican national committee. the casino mogul faces multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. plus, the taliban deal another deadly blow in kabul. we'll bring you the very latest on saturday's ambulance bomb attack. and making history. we'll talk with the youngest men ever to row solo across the atlantic, and that is his celebration. >> live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the united states, and all around the world. i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. "newsroom" starts right now.

good day to you. 5:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. he is a casino mogul in las vegas, a political ally of the u.s. president, but now steve wynn is out as the main fund-raiser for the republican national committee. faced with multiple sexual misconduct allegations wynn resigned as the finance chair. dozens of his employees told "the wall street journal" about a pattern of misconduct going back decades. >> wynn denies all of the allegations. he has still resigned from the position that mr. trump hand picked for him. cnn's boris sanchez has more from the white house. on background, a white house official tells cnn that president trump supported the resignation of steve wynn from the republican national committee. there was some question as to how the white house would approach this situation, considering some inconsistencies in the past when responding to sexual assault allegations. you'll recall in just the past two months the white house simultaneously demanded the

resignation of former senator al franken while backing alabama senate candidate roy moore. two men that were both accused of sexual misconduct. president trump is actually supposed to see steve wynn last weekend at a fund-raiser in mar-a-lago. the president couldn't attend the fund-raiser because of the government shutdown. but wynn took the stage and gave a speech in which he defended the president, and his agenda. here's some more of what steve wynn said saturday night at mar-a-lago. >> and then all of a sudden, once again in american this try an unlikely person became president. perhaps the most unlikely of all, since abe lincoln. donald john trump became 459th president of the united states, to the chagrin, to the hysterical chagrin, of the other side. he was their worst nightmare. >> though in 2016, president trump called steve wynn a great friend, the two men have historically had some rocky moments. they were competing hotel and

casino tycoons who've known each other for 34 years. ultimately, with president trump hand picking wynn to be the finance chairman for the rnc and now on saturday, again, a white house official telling cnn that the president backs his resignation, in part to limit any kind of political damage that could hit the rnc or the white house. boris sanchez, cnn, at the white house. joining us from london is an associate professor of international relations, and a familiar face here at "newsroom." leslie, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> let's begin with steve wynn. a titan in business from vegas, d.c., now out as leader, picked by donald trump, in the republican national committee. how does this look? >> well it clearly doesn't look good for the republican party. it doesn't look good for the president to have had somebody who became so close to him, wasn't always a supporter, but was on his inaugural committee, gave a lot of money to the republicans, to the campaign, to

the president, and of course the good story here is that he has resigned. having apparently spoken to the president. so there was a decision to let him go. but we haven't heard a statement, and the optics are bad. there are calls, of course, there's a question mark about, you know, whether money should be given back. that same demand was made by the republicans, remember, because harvey weinstein had given a lot of moenny to the democrats. this is caught up in partisan politics over sexual allegations on either side. but having had somebody so senior in the rnc be subject to these sorts of allegations and not having come under better scrutiny and investigation earlier on in the process raises a lot of question marks. nonetheless, you know, he has now resigned. >> all right. and of course, he denies accusations. but his company is now investigating them. let's move on to the first state of the union that we will see

donald trump give this week. he will pitch his controversial immigration plan during his speech tuesday night. it proposes giving 1.8 million undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in exchange for $25 billion for his long promised border wall. and a number of immigration reforms. can you give us a bit of the details? >> yeah. so this is a big -- this is a significant move. the offer to give not only those who are former -- formally -- or who have dreamer status, but those who could have asked for it. that's how we get to 19.8 number. but the linkage, of course, is what's going to cause problems in terms of getting broad acceptance by this from the democrats. and the question of linking it to what the white house is referring to is chain migration. so, if those dreamers become -- get formal status, what happens to their family members, especially their adult children and of course their parents? and by tying this in, by linking this in, and by saying that there's going to be a cutdown on

those family members it makes it very difficult for the democrats to then see this as an important -- as a compromise that they can accept, and of course the funding for the border wall, and the measures for increased border security are deeply controversial. senate is now trying to work to put forward a bipartisan plan that would be more palatable. but you know we're running up against that february 8th deadline where there's got to be some movement on immigration in order to get movement on spending to keep the government open. the state of the union, now we saw the president in davos. he's already acknowledged this deal. he's made it clear, he said in davos, that he's going to take a hard-line on chain migration. i'm sure he'll stay it again in the state of the union. and we're going set up here, i think, for a very tough battle that is far from over on this question of immigration. and remember, you know, only a few weeks back there were those very difficult, a very difficult language used in the broader context of the discussion of

migration from africa, and from haiti, and so this is a -- the politics surrounding the entire question of immigration reform have just become deeply contentious. >> how is he going to get the conservatives who don't like it, how will he bring them in? >> well i think, you know, the key question here is whether there will be a proposal that emerges across the aisles from the senate, and the president has indicated that if congress can agree something then he would sign it. but, he's at the same time taking a very hard line. and the fact that the shutdown was so short, that he managed to move forward without any agreement on immigration has, i think, empowered the president, and he's clearly coming under pressure from his -- from some of his key advisers and intends to drive a very hard bargain on

immigration and border security. so we'll see what comes out of the senate independently. >> we'll be watching that speech on tuesday. thank you. >> thank you. and coming up tuesday in the u.s., donald trump will address congress and the american people in his first state of the union address. >> you can see it right here. coverage begins 8:00 p.m. tuesday in new york that's 9:00 a.m. wednesday morning in hong kong. all right now on to afghanistan. that nation declared sunday a national day of mourning after a brutal bombing that took place in the nation's capital. flags have been flown at half-staff across the country. authorities now say the saturday attack killed at least 103 people and wounded more than 230 others. >> and this is how it happened. a driver was able to get through a checkpoint and detonate explosives packed into an ambulance. pretending to be an ambulance driver. spokesman for the taliban says the group is responsible for it. >> and it is the nature of that attack, an ambulance with explosives, getting past a

checkpoint. i spoke with journalist bilal sarwary about how officials are dealing with the uptick in attacks. >> afghan counterterrorism officials are saying that's exactly what they want to find out. but what is clear, the attacker was in an ambulance, he had said he had a patient when he was stopped at the second checkpoint. that's when he detonated his explosives. a day after that attack, today kabul is a city with a broken heart and with a broken soul. i was able to go out in the city. i really didn't see the same hustle and bustle. the traffic jams, the life, all of kabul is quite chaotic as a city. so obviously, afghanistan continues to lose not only with lives but also there are economic losses and people are actually quite scared to come out and just do their daily day-to-day business. at this stage, sources within the health ministry are saying

that a number of those people wounded, some of them are in critical conditions. we know some of the victims have lost their body parts like arms, and legs. and some family members are even still trying to find out what happened to their loved ones, and there's a lot of criticism that why the afghan government still does not have a hotline given the fact that these attacks are happening. now unfortunately on a more regular basis. i spoke to the family of 29-year-old jafa, a young man who finished school, and he wanted to take admission in university. so he's among those killed. obviously there are a lot of heartbreaks. and afghanistan just continues to really have these heartbreaks which are becoming, unfortunately, the new normal and this is a city of at least 7 million people. so people are actually really asking for some sense of responsibility and security from the government. >> bilal this attack happening near an area that's known for

shopping, people coming together, government buildings there. but let's put this into context, because just a week ago, we saw another attack at the intercontinental hotel there. is there a sense among people that the taliban is picking up the pace here, and what are people saying about that? >> well, we definitelyville seen a very clear shift in strategy both on the part of taliban and islamic state in terms of moving the fighting from provinces and rural areas into the cities. we have to remember the american military, other international forces, afghan special forces, are really going after mid and high-level taliban as well as islamic state leadership. so they've lost their commanders and fighters. and i think they want to strike inside cities to create a climate of fear, but to also really send a message that we can actually hit you in some of

the most secure locations. where the attack took place, this used to be the old interior ministry and it's not very far from the swedish embassy, from the european union, from the indonesian embassy and from the country's high peace council. what the people of afghanistan are demanding is that officials responsible for the security of are kabul be held responsible, that this culture of impunity must end. and remember this is almost becoming like a disease, the security and intelligence breaches. which really also respects international diplomats and aid workers from doing their work effectively because now they are forced to work from behind glass walls, and this attack also comes after the big truck bomb that afghanistan's capital had in 2017. so we already see the impact of that truck bomb attack. whether it's investors not wanting to invest or international aid organizations that really cannot operate in a safe environment.

as we mentioned the bombing comes just a week after a deadly hotel siege in kabul. the taliban also claiming responsibility for that. but what might be behind a high profile attacks our colleague spoke earlier with cnn's military analyst lieutenant rick francona. >> much of it is retaliation for the increased coalition air strikes. that are being conducted throughout the country. normally in the winter, we see a lull in activity. because it's a very difficult ter train conduct military operati operation. so what's we're seeing this year is much higher operations tempo. the united states has just deployed a-10 aircraft to beef up that air-to-ground capability, and they're going to try to take the fight to the taliban. these aircraft were supposed to go to the middle east to fight isis, but given the success in iraq and syria, now they've moved it there. this follows president trump's stated goals of increasing operations against the taliban.

>> again that was cnn military analyst lieutenant colonel rick francona speaking earlier with our colleague. >> russia's presidential election isn't until march but police raids are under way as protests are about to begin. we'll go live to moscow after the break. >> plus massive floods in paris. but relief might finally be in sight. the forecast just ahead. a little to the left. 1, 2, 3, push! easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go! washington crossing the delaware turnpike? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sean saved by switching to geico. big man with a horn. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

a bombing in colombia shows the country still faces major security challenges, even after ending its long civil war. at least five police officers were killed saturday in a city in the north. an attacker threw a bomb at a police station as he rode by on a motorcycle. police arrested and charged the suspect they believe criminal groups are retaliating. the government is going after new gangs that now control the drug trafficking in colombia. we're also following a political crisis in honduras. the country's president was sworn in for a second term after a disputed election. outside his inauguration saturday protesters clashed with police in the streets. >> the opposition accuses president juan orlando hernandez of manipulating election results. the president denies the allegations and is calling for unity. the u.s. has recognized mr. hernandez as the winner. as anti-corruption protesters get ready to take to the streets of moscow, the man behind the demonstration gets a

visit from russian police. officer raided the offices of alexei navalny, a prominent critic of russian president vladimir putin. navalny tells cnn he called for the protest and election boycott not only because he was barred from running, but what he calls rampant corruption in the putin regime. in an exclusive interview with our matthew chance, he talks about why he believes he was barred from running for president. >> translator: he is scared of all real competition. we see in these elections that he only allowed those to run who do not even resist, do not even do any campaigning. when they saw that we are actually fighting for people's votes, they got scared. the famous putin's ratings, all these 86%, 70%, all of that the sociologists and political analysts love to talk about, they exist in only one scenario, when putin places the candidates he controls. >> but that issue of polling numbers, i think, is important,

because as you say, vladimir putin is polling more than 80% popularity in this country if you believe the opinion polls. but you're polling just 2%. how much of a political threat does your movement really pose to this kremlin juggernaut? >> translator: look, i stood for election just once in my life in 2012, i participated in the moscow mayor elections. and everyone was showing the polls when i had 2%. and without money or any media support i got almost 30%. same thing goes for the presidential elections. putin doesn't have an 80% rating. he has an 80% rating when compared to other candidates whom he has let run. let's go live to moscow. fred pleitgen following the story on both navalny and the protests. just the another day we heard from navalny that exclusive interview with our colleague matthew chance and navalny essentially saying he knows the

risks, that he won't be silenced, and now there's news of this raid. >> yeah, there certainly is the raid. it is shaping up to be quite an interesting day today here, george. we're going to see how big the turnout is going to be, especially here in moscow which is usually the largest venue for the protests that navalny tends to organize. one of the things that's happened is that raid has happened. but on the flip side of that, george, what the police haven't been able to do is actually shut down a youtube feed that navalny support verse been running since the early morning hours. the police apparently is trying to stop that. i've been giving live updates of some of the protests as they've been happening. the other thing that's been going on is on this youtube feed navalny himself also spoke. he was interviewed by the host. he says he's currently holed up somewhere with police surrounding his location. it's unclear where exactly that is or whether he's going to be able to make it to one of the venues. presumably the one here in moscow. so certainly is going to be interesting to see if he's going to actually make it to the

protests, if he might be detained before making it. certainly when that raid happened earlier this morning there were navalny staffers who were designed in that, george. >> okay so this youtube feed you talk about, certainly important to navalny, and his supporters. because again, it's about getting the word out to these protesters. the question to you, fred, how large are the protests expected to be? how widespread across the country is turnout? >> yeah, it's a very good question, and it certainly is a pivotal question, as well. navalny in many respects needs a large turnout to stay relevant in the discussion here in russia. as we've noted he's been barred from running in the upcoming election. so really protests like this, and everything outside of the troll pr electoral process, that's the way he gets his message out and keeps the pressure on authorities. some protests have already taken place in the eastern parts of russia. this is a very large country with a lot of time zones. some of those protests fairly small. but some happening in some very detrimental conditions.

some at minus 40 below zero degrees centigrade in some of the places in the north of the country. so there has been turnout so far. what the big question is going to be is what is it going to be in moscow, in st. petersburg. those certainly are the very, very large venues. george? >> fred pleitgen on the story live in moscow. thanks for the reporting. the overflowing river seine in paris has engulfed roads and walkways after days of heavy rain, and here's the thing, the water level, it's still rising. >> the river should peak in the coming hours at nearly 6 meters or about 20 feet. our jim bittermann has more on how this is impacting paris. >> reporter: stabilize is the word everybody's using this morning, because the situation is headed toward stabilization. the river levels are still rising, and there was some rain overnight. but the seine here in paris is expected to peak sometime during the day today, or overnight tonight. at about a little less than the levels of the flood of 2016.

but there are big differences between this flood and that flood. and one is that december was a very rainy month, and the month of january, according to some people, was the second wettest in almost a century. and because that -- because of that the reservoirs around paris, which can have a buffering effect on the floodwaters, in fact, are now full. and if there's any further rain it has no place else to go but here. now, as a precaution, officials in paris have evacuated some of the low lying apartments on the west side of paris, and they have taken works of art out of some of the museums, out of the basements of some museums. they have, as well, closed down a gallery in the louvre here behind me. in terms of damages, there's no way to estimate it exactly right now. but officials are saying, a former security official for paris, for example, said that he expected it to be in the hundreds of millions of euros,

especially when one considers that the river traffic, this is a major transport hub for paris, the river traffic has been cut off now for days, as well they won't be able to determine exactly the extent of the damage because they have to wait until the floodwaters go down. that could be weeks, and do a proper inspection of the underground railroads, the footings, the bridges, and other things that are presently submerged. jim bittermann, cnn, paris. all right, ate less get more on the situation now. ivan cabrera following it for us. we've been kind of saying it, but paris is even beautiful when it's flooding. i know people are inconvenienced, but we sit here like this -- >> it's a beautiful city. just unfortunate to see, you know, them dealing with so much water. >> yeah, it's been a lot of water. of course the river cruises suspended. so to your point, natalie, perhaps someone was planning on a proposal and have to wait. >> eiffel tower is still good. >> that's still a good spot.

and it's right behind me here, yes. we have plenty of water still to recede. although i think that begins in earnest for today and continues over the next several days as pretty much we have crested here. been watching the rain gauges. we've been oscillating anywhere between 5.8 to 5.81 and 5.82. steady as she goes. and then we're going to continue to see these levels drop over the next few days. of course, this began on monday when we had a deluge of rainfall here. as jim rightly pointed out, they've had just incredible amounts of rain. in fact, the likes of which they haven't seen in quite some time. this is the second wettest event for the region here with 1383 millimeters since december 1st. that would be seven inches, and well above where we should be for this time of year. the good news is not initial rainfall. a few showers from a couple of fronts but it's not going to amount to much as far as any significant addition of water to the rivers here across france. there's the front coming in, through sunday night, and into monday, as well. and then we have a couple of more systems coming in.

but all the while, i think the rivers at that point will continue to be going down. all right we're going to cross the pond here and talk about plenty of rainfall across the eastern u.s. that's from the gulf coast where we had flooding and then all the way in to the northeast, which, by the way, it is the 60th annual grammy awards. so let's talk about that. i have brought new york into the studio for you here. and we'll check the forecast. i'm not going to step on the red carpet. we'll keep away from that. but it is going to be 46. you saw that rain, i think, in time for the record carpet ceremonies. we're going to be down perhaps a couple little sprinkles left over. but i think otherwise it will be fine. i don't know about you guys, but i am going for the record of the year. >> of course you are. >> the spanish one. >> you could sing it for us in spanish. >> sorry, justin. >> you're not going to walk on that red carpet? >> i'm going to leave natalie. she should do the honors. >> thanks, ivan.

>> see you later, guys. >> the u.s. aid department is in charge of american diplomacy abroad but it may need those diplomatic skills within its own ranks. problems within the department. we'll have a report coming up. >> plus a reckoning in the u.s. state of michigan. investigators there dig in to the university that employed and enabled convicted sexual abuser larry nasser for nearly two decades. ♪

we know life can be hectic. that's why, at xfinity, we've been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. now, with instant text and email updates, you'll always be up to date. you can easily add premium channels, so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for - because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today. coast to coast across the united states and live around the world this hour you're watching cnn "newsroom." i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. u.s. casino mogul steve wynn has

resigned as finance chair of the republican national committee amid sexual misconduct allegations. president donald trump hand picked wynn for that position. officials say mr. trump supports the resignation. wynn denies the allegations. afghanistan has declared sunday a national day of mourning after saturday's bombing in kabul. police say 103 people are now confirmed dead in that blast which came from an ambulance packed with explosives. a spokesman for the taliban claims that group is responsible. a spanish court has ruled that former catalan leader puj month can only become leader again if he is physically present at parliament. he's been living in brussels since october and is wanted in spain for spear heading the catalonia independence movement. roger federer is working on what could become his 20th grand slam title. play is under way in the australian open men's final.

federer beat marin cilic in the first set 6-2. but sillic won a tiebreaker to take the second set. federer has won just the third set 6-3. just won. the pair faced off in the finals at wimbledon. now to a cnn exclusive. some employees at the u.s. state department say they're being punished for their previous work with the obama administration. >> many are in jobs that the trump administration wants to shut down and now some employees say they've hired attorneys. elise labott looks into it. >> reporter: top democratic lawmakers are now calling on the state department's watchdog to take what they call an immediate review of personnel practices there, after a growing number of employees told cnn they are being politically targeted, and put in career purgatory for their work under the last administration. representatives eliot engel and elijah cummings, ranking

members of the house foreign affairs committee and committee on oversight and government reform sent a letter to the state department's inspector general citing cnn's report on the issue. now several officials tell cnn they have retained attorneys after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to raise concerns about being assigned to freedom of information act requests. the congressman letter cites quote credibility allegations that the state department has required high level career civil servants with distinguished records serving administrations of both parties to move to performing tasks outside their area of substantive expertise. at the very least, the congressmen charge, this is a waste of taxpayer dollars. at worst it may constitute impermissible abuse and retaliation. now secretary of state rex tillerson has made clearing a backdoing of foia requests a priority. he's reassigned staff throughout the building to help as part of what he calls a foia surge. now many of those assigned

include senior employees who used to be detailed to other agencies, or offices created by president obama as pollsy priorities, which the trump administration does not support. now the state department denies political retribution is involved. spokeswoman heather nauert says it's an all hands on deck effort. in a statement to cnn nauert says, quote, it may not be a glamorous job but it's an important one. people are asked to serve there because there's a need. it is without regard to politics. and many of these employees are saying, we're happy to help, but they want to be given substantive work on these issues like handling classified information, or dealing with foreign governments named in the documents. they want to know why they are being asked to do the most menial of the tasks. they ask how could they be negotiating foreign governments or advising the national security adviser, even the president on national security matters a few months ago, now they're being asked to do data entry, and google searches

alongside interns and civil service employees ten grades below them. now several officials concede this may not be entirely about politics. they say it could also be ad hoc and what they call simple mismanagement. but it all contributes to a widespread morale problem at the state department that lawmakers are demanding be looked at. >> elise labott, thank you so much. now to the growing fallout over the sexual assault of young gymnasts here in the united states. officials in the u.s. state of michigan are opening up about an investigation into michigan state university. that's where convicted sexual abuser larry nasser practiced sports medicine for nearly two decades. >> olympic gymnast aly raisman tweeted her approval of the investigation, and urged u.s. gymnastics and the u.s. olympic committee to open up their own inquiry. jean casarez has more about michigan's investigation.

it is now official michigan state university is being investigated by the attorney general's office here in michigan. the attorney general said he didn't want to make it public until all of the women came forward with their victim impact statements. he would not say whether it was an actual criminal investigation but they are bringing someone in from the outside. his name is bill forsythe, a former prosecutor for 42 years. his title in this investigation, independent special prosecutor. also he said that this was priority one for this investigation. and he also had some words for the michigan state university board of trustees that last week issued a statement saying we think the attorney general's office should investigate our university. here's what he replied back to them. >> i don't need advice from the board of trustees at msu about how to conduct an investigation. frankly, they should be the last ones to be providing advice

given their conduct throughout this entire episode. their conduct throughout this entire episode speaks for itself. >> reporter: the special prosecutor said that they will be looking for facts which can possible lead to potential evidence. and the big question in his mind is how could larry nassar been able to sexually assault girls associated with michigan state university for over two decades? jean casarez, east lancing, michigan, cnn. coming up here, the me too movement will share the stage at the grammy awards ceremony sunday night. mega star jay-z shares his thoughts about that with our own van jones. coming up. prestige creams not living up to the hype? olay regenerist shatters the competition. big hype. big price. big deal. olay regenerist hydrates skin better than creams costing over $100, $200, and even $400 .

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if the nominations for the best album grammy awards this sunday are any indication, we could be looking at a seachange toward diversity in the music industry. for the first time since 1999 there are no white male solo artists nominated for best album. >> and hip-hop is nominating. rapper jay-z and kendrick lamar wrapped up eight and seven nods respectively. for fans and art its that's a welcome change after years of criticism that women and minorities have been snubbed at the grammys. >> members of the music industry are planning to wear white roses to support the me too movement and the fight for women's rights as a friend in rapper jay-z. he spoke with van jones on the first episode of cnn's new "the van jones show" and described how critical the fight has become for women. >> in this me too moment, in this time's up moment, does that give you hope for your

daughters? how do you make sense of this new rise in women's voices? >> it has to happen. this movement and everything that's going on and what we're finding out, it's like everything else. it's like racism, like everything -- it existed the whole time. and we just -- it's almost like we normalized it. the normalization of the things we have to do to survive. for women to go to work knowing this sort of abuse was happening every day. it's happening every day because you can look and logically you'll say why would you stay there? what's the alternative? what's the alternative? you have to survive in america. and in order to survive you have to normalize it. so this has been going on. and for it to get uncovered and the world to correct itself, this is what has to happen. >> again the grammys will be having me too on their mind. yet another awards show that

will. joining us to talk about the awards, chris richards is the pop music critic for "the washington post." he joins me via skype from washington. hi, chris. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. >> well, as we mentioned, first time since 1999 no white male solo artists nominated for the best album. how did that happen? what do you make of it? >> well, i think it's a big opportunity for the recording academy to kind of change their approach towards rap music. if we look back at the history of album of the year, which is seen to the most prestigious grammy in the lot, only one rap album has ever won it in the history of the grammys. having three nominees from the rap genre in that album of the year category this year it's a huge chance for the grammys to kind of correct what i'd say are decades of mistakes. >> we're looking at video of who will sit where while you talk. it's interesting. rihanna there, she will be performing. yeah, hip-hop, as well, could also be a winner. and a spanish song may win best

song or record of the year? what kind of breakthrough would that signal? >> i think it would be great. i mean, obviously, the grammys historically have i think reflected the problems that the we have in society in terms of gender, in terms of race, in terms of which voices get elevated. so i think the wider diversity of these categories, the better. and the song we're talking about is the desposito, the inescapable hit of the summertime. i think it has a great chance and i'm rooting for it. >> what female stars are up for a big award? >> not too many. in the album of the year category you have lord with melodrama. she's one of the nonhip-hop nominees, and actually might actually be a favorite in this category because if the three rap artists who are nominated end up splitting the hip-hop vote, there's a pretty good chance that lord could pop up with the grammy in her pocket at the end of the night. >> what about new artists? >> the new artists, you have a

great pop singer, sort of outsize personality rapper who i think is fantastic. and the r&b singer. so a little more diversity in terms of gender and genre in that category. >> as we said, there will also be, you know, support for the me too movement, and what do you expect from james corden? music is this thing, isn't it? he's the host of the show. >> yeah, yeah, should be interesting. everybody knows about his carpool karaoke sketches and he has an affection for music that's huge. in terms of me too. a lot of stars said they'll be wearing a white rose on the red carpet sort of to mark their solidarity with the movement. in terms of what shape it's going to take, i think we have to tune in and see. i have heard that kesha will be performing a song that sort of reflects her struggles with alleged abuse within the

industry. that will be interesting to look out for. in terms of what else we can expect, we have to turn on our television and check it out. >> we'll be watching. chris richards, thanks so much for joining us. >> so glad to be here. still ahead, take a look at this video, this young man holding burning flares on a tiny boat. why is he doing that? well it's because he is celebrating setting a world record. you'll hear from him and his extraordinary story. let's get started. show of hands. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online.

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more evidence that climate change is real, and it's rapidly changing the face of the earth. 2017 was the third warmest year on record. the sixth hottest years have all been since 2010. >> and some of the most dramatic evidence can be found on antarctica. that's where sea size vanishing at alarming rates. scientists say about 400,000 square kilometers disappeared just last year alone. that's 154,000 square miles. 10.6 million square kilometers or 4 million square miles of sea ice remain in antarctica. it's the lowest amount of sea ice ever recorded there. well there's another world record to talk about. it involves 19-year-old oliver crane who took a year off before college to row across the

atlantic ocean. all by himself. he left the canary islands in december and arrived in the caribbean just hours ago. i spoke with him soon after he set foot on the island of antigua. oliver crane joins us now. congratulations you just roed across the atlantic ocean by yourself and set a world record. how are you feeling right now? >> it's hard to describe. i feel amazing. sort of really overwhelmed. just being surrounded by people and on land i can barely walk. >> i can imagine. we've got video of you coming in. i think you're using your flares to celebrate as you came in there. how long were you at sea, oliver? how many miles did you row? and how long did this take? >> so i was at sea for 44 days. and i think i rowed about 2700 miles.

>> my goodness. what was the hardest part about it? you certainly were physically capable, and trained for this. was it the physical aspects or the mental? >> definitely the mental. just, you know, being out there, by myself, it was really hard you know, to keep a smile on my face. especially when things got tough. like after i capsized for the third time, had a really rough time with it. just getting back on the oars and rowing again was really hard, knowing that, you know, it could happen at any point, and i was just completely by myself. >> well it had to be kind of scary, i would think. what about -- tell people about -- where did you sleep? what did you eat? >> so i slept in a small cabin on my boat. a watertight cabin, in case i

capsized. and i ate freeze dried food. so not much of it, because i had trouble you know just eating out there in the environment, and you know, my body went through a really tough sort of transition. >> what was your motivation to do this? i know that you've rowed for many years, and that you've mentioned your mother who is an ultraendurance athlete was part of your inspiration. >> yeah. you know, my parents sort of always inspired me to test my limits, and push my body and mind to their breaking point. but i also, you know, wanted to have a positive impact on the world in some way. which is why, as a part of this

row, i've been raising awareness and money for ocean conservation. >> how was the experience being out there on the ocean when you weren't having to work so hard or weren't dealing with the challenges, did you have some moments to yourself thinking, this is just a beautiful thing where you were, and what you were experiencing? >> yeah, definitely. i had some of the happiest moments in my life out there. one of my favorite christmases of all time, you know, just lying out under the stars, or seeing the most beautiful sunsets, and sunrises, and knowing that, you know, all those moments were just mine to keep forever, and you know, completely, you know, everlasting memories. >> was it wanting to set the world record? wanting just to, you know, as you said push yourself to the limits here? what was the most important thing for you in this challenge?

>> the most important thing was actually just keeping a smile on my face. you know, and being able to laugh at myself. i made it my goal not to reach antigua, you know, not to get the record, but just no matter what happened, i was going to always be able to laugh at myself, no matter, you know, what mistakes i made, or you know, if bad stuff happened, i was just always going to be positive and i'm, you know, happy that i accomplished that. >> what advice would you give to people that want to try to do something like this? >> don't think about it. just go out and do it. you know, don't -- don't hesitate, don't listen to anyone who says you can't, or it isn't possible. just go out and start. you know, you just got to start and you'll get there. >> what's next for you? i know that you have already summited kilimanjaro and now this. pray tell are you thinking of doing something else or are you focusing on college? >> right now i'm just thinking

about having a decent meal. >> a hot meal. >> we'll see. you know, my -- i don't ever want to stop trying new things, and challenging myself. i'm sure there will be something coming. >> all right. well you can just enjoy this moment, think about that later. you're in the record books, oliver crane, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. and enjoy that nice, hot meal. >> thank you so much. >> hopefully he's sound asleep in a nice bed after sleeping in that row boat for 44 days. my goodness. good for him. >> inspiring. >> yes. you and i can get out there and work out today. >> let's do it. >> thanks for watching cnn newsroom, i'm natalie allen. >> i'm george howell. for our viewers in the united states, new day is next. for our viewers around the world, erin burnett "outfront" is ahead. >> see you later.

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♪ tuesday night will be interesting because it will be the state of the union. i wonder who is going to show up? is it going to be the goldman sachs scripted trump or is it going to be the gloom and doom trump. >> there is a path forward on this. we can do this in a bipartisan way. >> obviously, what happens in vegas is not staying in vegas. if the allegations are true, then, yes, i think you would have to be -- contributions