implicated in two federal crimes, now u.s. lawmakers from both sides have a blunt message for president trump. no one is above the law. >> plus, it is a critical week for theresa may in the united kingdom. the prime minister prepares for a final vote on her brexit deal. we have a live report from london ahead. >> also, the chairman who saved nissan from collapse has just been indicted. why his company is also being prosecuted. >> we are live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, and we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. >> and i'm rosemary church. this is cnn newsroom. ♪ ♪

>> thanks for staying with us. well, michael cohen endeared himself to donald trump with his ability to fix things. now mr. trump's former attorney could go to jail for doing his job as a fixer too well. >> here's what we've learned so far. with the government court filings related to michael cohen's sentencing, they show mr. trump directed him to payoff two women to keep quiet about alleged affairs. the filings also show cohen had more contact with russia than he acknowledged in earlier statements. all that happened during the 2016 election. >> now, it remains to be seen how this will affect the special counsel's investigation into russian election interference. even so, lawmakers are speaking about their next steps should it be proved mr. trump did something illegal. >> if it's proven, are those impeachable offenses? >> well, they would be impeachable offenses. whether they are important

enough to justify an impeachment is a different question, but certainly they would be impeachable offenses because even though they were committed before the president became president, they were committed in the service of fraudulently obtaining the office. that would be the, the -- that would be an impeachable offense. >> if someone has violated the law, the application of the law should be applied to them like it would any other citizen in this country. obviously if you're in a position of great authority like the presidency, that would be the case. i don't know if it's going to reach that point or not. we have to wait and see. but my decision on that or my position on that will not be a political decision. it will be the fact that we are a nation of laws and no one in this country, no matter who you are, is above it. >> the justice department basically say that the president of the united states not only coordinated, but directed an illegal campaign scheme that may have had an election-altering impact is pretty breath taking. thasz one of the things we learned from michael cohen this past week. >> in the meantime, the revolving door at the trump white house, the u.s. president busy narrowing down his list of

candidates for a new white house chief of staff, and trying to turn attention away from all that we've learned from the cohen revelations. >> yes, cnn's sarah westwood is following developments from the white house. >> reporter: president trump spent this weekend railing against the paris climate accord, going after his former fbi director, calling for an end to the russia investigation, and basically talking about anything other than prosecutors linking him directly in court filings submitted friday to illegal payments his former attorney michael cohen made during the presidential race. now, trump had attempted to tout these latest documents as vindication because they didn't contain evidence of russian collusion, but they did tie the president directly to illegal payments that he had initially denied knowledge of. now, all of this comes against the backdrop of a major staff shake up at the white house. the president told reporters on saturday that his chief of staff, john kelly, would be leaving the white house, ending months of speculation about

kelly's future. and the president's top choice for that job, nick ayers, chief of staff to vice-president mike pence, will also be leaving the administration. after discussing seriously with trump the prospect of replacing kelly. now, ayers and trump disagreed on the time frame for ayers holding that job. our colleague caitlyn collins reports that ayers wanted to shoeld t hold the job on a temporary basis till the spring till the president could find a replacement for kelly, and the trump wanted a two-year commitment from ayers. the president is considering four different names to become his new chief of staff. one of them may be congressman mark meadows. he's a particularly close ally of the president's on capitol hill. and cnn is also told the president aims to make this decision by the end of the year. sarah westwood, cnn, the white house. >> sarah, thanks for the reporting. let's get insight now with leslie, the head of the u.s. and americas program at chatham house. joining us this hour from our london bureau. always a pleasure, leslie, to have you on our show. >> thank you, george.

>> i'd like to start with the changing of the guard in the chief of staff. general john kelly on his way out the door, nick ayers says he'll pass on the job. now we're hearing representative mark meadows is reportedly being floated as a possible replacement. but the question here, how difficult will it be for this administration to find anyone to step into a role that, as short history suggests, is a dead end job from the start? >> reporter: well, clearly there will be someone. the question is who, with what credibility will they have externally because it's proven to be a very difficult role to fill successfully. one needs the loyalty of a president whose whims cal, who is very emotional, but also needs to be able to, to have the loyalty, to have the support of kushner, of ivanka, of a number of people who come first for the president, and to manage what's been a very chaotic white house.

so you can see why for a lot of very serious people it's not tremendously appealing, but it is an important role. and the turnover in this i think is deeply disturbing. >> the other big story that we're following, the president starting this week under the shadow cast by these court filings from friday on mr. trump's former attorney michael cohen and his former campaign chairman paul manafort. it shows that there is a lot of smoke, and even goes as far as implicating individual number one who we believe individual number one, donald trump, the u.s. president, in two felonies. but the question here, is there a smoking gun, in your opinion, from these court filings? >> well, certainly it seems to link the president to directing the payments, the hush money. but i think this question of whether -- first of all, who is cohen cooperating with? he seems to be cooperating very much with mueller, which leads us to think that there is likely much more to come from mueller's

investigations. but it's not yet clear what the link is on the question of russia. it's very clear that, that many russians have tried -- that tried to communicate with members of trump's team during the elections, during the campaigns. but what they received back from trump and those around him is certainly lack of clarity on that so far. i think the big question here is how is this being read by the american public. and if you are watching the commentary and listening to people it's still being read very much through partisan lens. the president is directing a lot of that partisanship. so, until there is more that comes out of the mueller investigation in particular, i think it is very difficult to know which way this will go. because, of course, one of the questions a lot of people want to talk about, which is impeachment, is ultimately a very political question. >> okay. on that point, we saw what the fired fbi director james comey had to say to lawmakers through the transcript that was recently released by lawmakers, but

republicans. but we also got to hear from him in front of a live audience at new york city's 92nd street y. let's listen to this. we can talk about it on the other side, leslie. >> i hope donald trump is not removed from office by impeachment because it would let the country off the hook, and it would drive into the fabric of our nation a third of the people believing there was a coups. that said, if the facts are there and the legislative -- two houses of congress think it's appropriate, that's fine. >> leslie, a statement in contradiction, but i'd like to get your thoughts. what do you make of the message there from comey? >> well, i think comey is making a very important point. when you have an electorate which is deeply divided, which is very polarized in a very partisan contech, txt, the idea a president and the decision of

his fate by people is potentially divisive. that's what comey is saying. take this to the next round of elections and let the people decide. it's not dissimilar to a lot of arguments being made in the u.k. about brexit. the fear that when a public is so close on a very significant and highly consequential issue, the means through which you choose are just tremendously important. >> leslie, live for us in london. leslie, we always appreciate it. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> outrage is growing in the united states congress about the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. both the white house and riyadh deny that saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman is behind khashoggi's killing. but lawmakers are not buying it. >> that's right. we're hearing another senate republican breaking ranks with the trump administration and slamming saudi arabia. it's marco rubio appearing to push back -- appearing to back, rather, the c.i.a.'s take of who is responsible for khashoggi's

death at the consulate in istanbul. here's what he told cnn's state of the union. listen. >> we don't need, you know, direct evidence that he ordered the code red on this thing. the bottom line is that there is no way that 17 people close to him got on a charter plane, flew to a third country, went into a consulate, killed and chopped up a man, and flew back and he didn't know about it, much less order it. >> key u.s. senators were briefed by the c.i.a. on their assessment of khashoggi's killing. they were horrified and said so publicly, and now a source has given cnn a briefing on a transcript of an audio recording of khashoggi's final moments, and we do warn you, it is disturbing. >> it is. and cnn's nick robinson was provided details of the transcript reproduced in this report. it correlates with the c.i.a. finding that the saudi team sent to istanbul came with the intent to kill. >> reporter: cnn can now reveal jamal khashoggi's last words.

"i can't breathe. i can't breathe." these previously undisclosed details of what happened that afternoon in october come from a source who has been briefed on the investigation. the source has read a full transcript of an audio recording of khashoggi's horrific final moments. within moments of his fateful steps into the consulate, khashoggi recognizes someone, asks why they are there. the answer, "you are coming back." according to cnn's source, the turkish transcript identifies that person as abdul aziz matreb, a former saudi diplomat and intelligence official working for crown prince mohammed bin salman, whom khashoggi knew. khashoggi is clearly alarmed and replies, "you can't do that.

people are waiting outside for me." according to the source, the conversation ends right there. the transcript indicates noises as people set upon khashoggi. very quickly khashoggi can be heard saying, "i can't breathe." he repeats it again. "i can't breathe. i can't breathe." what happens belies initial saudi claims. his death was a grave mistake. cnn's source says it's clear from his reading of the transcript khashoggi's murder was no botched rendition attempt, but the execution of a premeditated plan to murder the journalist. but it is what happens next that is really horrific. the transcript records many voices and noises. then says, scream from jamal. again, scream. then gasping.

noises are identified as saw and cutting. then a voice turkish authorities identify as dr. mamd al tuba ke, the head of forensic medicine at saudi arabia's interior ministry. he says, "if you don't like the noise, put your earphones in, or listen to music like me. ." according to the source, the leader of the team makes at least three phone calls during the murder to a number turkish officials identify as being in the saudi royal court. only metreb's side of the conversation can be heard, but there is no sense of panic or of an operation gone wrong. metreb tells the person in riyadh, tell yours, that the source takes to mean your boss or your senior, "the thing is

done. it's done." cnn reached out to saudi officials to get a response from those named in this report and were told saudi security officials have reviewed the transcript and tape and nowhere in them is there any reference or indication of a call being made. a saudi source close to the saudi investigation says both metreb and tabeke deny making phone calls. while the transcript provides no smoking gun directly tying crown prince mohammed bin salman to the killing, it seems to echo senator linde i graham's sentiments after hearing the c.i.a.'s assessment of khashoggi's killing. there is not a smoking gun, there's a smoking saw. nick robinson, cnn, london. >> cnn shared our source's detailed description with the office of the senator who was briefed by the c.i.a. last week, and we were told that the cnn report of the transcript was consistent with the briefing the senator received.

>> well, britain is headed toward a critical vote. coming up, theresa may's warning to lawmakers if they reject her brexit deal. >> and the question is coming up with italy following britain out of the e.u. deputy prime ministers say it's not out of the question. so this christmas,

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welcome back. this just in to cnn as of the last few minutes. the european court of justice ruling that britain is free to unilaterally revoke its withdrawal from the european union if it chooses. that information, again, coming right now. it comes as the british prime minister faces a critical test this week. >> and despite calls for a delayed parliament vote on the brexit deal, all indications are it will be rejected. she faces opposition within her own conservative party and from labor, the liberal democrats, the scottish national party, and northern ireland's democratic nationalist party. >> the vote is going ahead.

that's because it is a good deal. it's the only deal. and it's important that we don't let the -- be the enemy of the good. the principle for the party like me, we campaigned in the referendum to take back control of our immigration policy, to have a say on things like not sending sums of money to the e.u. this is a deal that does that. but does it, andrew, in a way that balances the need to protect jobs, to keep the supply of goods flowing. >> as it was from the start, there are protesters on both sides of the issue. brexit supporters say this deal doesn't do enough to free the u.k. from the e.u. and remainors don't want brexit at all. >> >> let's get more on this. nina dose santos is on abbington green. nina, let's go to you first. we are learning the european union's top court the british union may unilaterally decide to

leave the block without consulting the other member states. what impact will this have on the vote skpnt whole concept of brexit going forward? >> reporter: well, rosemary, this is quite significant because what it does, essentially, is enables those who would like to see the u.k. cancel the brexit process or perhaps have a second referendum. it gives them the choice to voice that voice when, of course, we have the votes in a day's time. and more forcefully. so it could give cover, if you like, to those who would like to see the brexit process canceled, the idea being that a no-deal scenario is not necessarily the scenario that the u.k. is facing at the moment if they vote down -- if m.p.'s vote down theresa may's deal. if you like, they don't have a buyer nehr i choice just between her deal and no deal, they could actually just put brexit on hold or cancel it altogether. from the government's point of view, the government obviously fiercely fought this case. this case was put forward by a number of anti-brexit

campaigners as well as cross party members of some of those parties you mentioned in your introduction who are going to vote down the deal, including the scottish national party members. and essentially, the government has said that this is largely hypothetical because the u.k. will not be planning on cancelling the brexit process. that is the status quo at the moment when it comes to the likelihood of a second referendum. again, theresa may has consistently said she does not want to call a second referendum. she said the british people have had their largest exercise in democracy in the best part of the generation and their voice should be heard after they voted for brexit 2 1/2 years ago. so where does that leave us now? as you pointed out before, it is looking as though she will likely lose that vote. the question is over the next 24 hours is how much she will lose it by. if she can try and limit some of the losses to, say, 50 votes, less than 100 votes certainly, then that might give her a chance to stay in her position at least for now and go back to

the e.u. to try and get them to soften their stance on the most contentious of issues. the thing many m.p.s are against is the structuring of the irish backstop arrangement for the border between ireland and northern ireland. >> let's go to anna nauer at 10 downing street. i know you have some headlines. this news has just come through about the court and the european you're i don't kn union, so that won't be read into this. let's look at how this vote is being received and how it's being reported on. >> reporter: rosemary, increasingly it looks like the vote will happen. downing street has been adamant about that. over the weekend, the reports were that surely theresa may would delay this vote because she's almost certainly going to lose it. and the focus is now on the fact that she's likely to lose it, what will happen to the prime minister next. i can show you some headlines we have from the times, may to face leadership battle over brexit deal. here we have the daily mirror. end of may's rein agn.

and underneath, they ditch her as humiliation looms. the question is how big a defeat are we talking? are we talking as nina suggested, potentially 100 seats, something really significant? which case you could see as these headlines suggest, her own party trying to oust her, it only takes 28 to trigger a leadership vote. the house of commons could also -- the opposition parties could launch a vote of confidence against the government itself, in which case a new government would have to form all. we could see a snap election. so many different scenarios. if theresa may is still prime minister by the end of it, and she has been steadfast, she's really committed to staying through this brexit deal, staying through to the next election, but if she does stay, yes, she's going to have a really tough job on her hands because parliament are likely to send her back to brussels, and she's always said that she cannot get a better deal. she's got the best deal she can. and she's briefly said it's this deal or no deal. rosemary? >> critical time for britain

and, of course, for theresa may. many thanks to anna stewart and nina dose santos for reporting on that story. we appreciate it. >> we'll continue to monitor what happens with the united kingdom. as britain approaches its critical vote, italy's new populist coalition government is dead loktd with the e.u. over its proposed budget. >> the dispute is raising questions about whether italy could eventually follow britain out of the e.u. atika shubert explains. >> reporter: a grand entrance for matteo, leader of la lege and italy's interior minister. the soaring score to italy's elections suggest bigger ambitions for the man who has made italians first his rallying cry. this is a show of force by the league and the leader matteo. they only won 17% in the national election. they are actually in a coalition with the five-star movement.

however, since then, under his leadership, they have surged in popularity. recent polls place them at 34%. and this rally is a way of consolidating that power. salvini has made a name for himself attacking the e.u. immigration and defending the budget. italian nationalism, he says, will bring europe back to its, quote, civilized christian roots. in his speech he said someone has betrayed the european dream. we will give blood and strength to the veins of a new europe, founded on respect, work, economic and social progress, he said. after brexit, britain's imminent departure from the e.u., could we see an ital exit? not yet one of the leaders told me. the immediate goal is to gain more seats at european's parliament to constrain the e.u. first. >> we are a very good seat in

the society, very good read on the society. and we understand there is a neutral challenge. it is not only local against the state bureaucracy, but it's the local against the globalism. it's a local against globalization and against the european super state that they want to build. >> reporter: not far away, the volunteers at europe now, a tiny grassroots movement, are trying to convince roman residents that italy needs more europe, not less. alarmed at the precedent set by brexit every weekend, they set up their stall and give out e.u. flags. >> it's a nationalist threats are real. you know, for instance, we say, oh, it's just rhetoric. it's not. brexit is a real effect. >> reporter: for some of salvini's supporters, leaving the e.u. is no longer unthinkable. >> we could, it depends.

it depends what happens in the future. but maybe it could. i don't know. i'm not against it anyway. i'm not against an exit. i'm not against it. >> reporter: yeah? >> yes. i was very happy about brexit as well. >> reporter: the nationalism that triggered brexit is similar to the populist way that salvini is now steering. but while his power is growing, ital exit is not yet. atika shubert, cnn, rome. >> still ahead, we continue to follow the russia investigation and the man who once ran donald trump's presidential campaign is now in hot water over his ties to a mysterious russian figure. the question, will the trail that leads to russia lead back to mr. trump?

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and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. very warm welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and of course all around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm george howell with the headlines we're following this hour. another top u.s. republican is breaking with the white house, slamming saudi arabia for the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. on cnn's state of the union, senator marco rubio said there's no way the saudi crown prince wasn't aware of the killing, and that he very likely ordered it. >> the european union's top court has ruled that britain can unilaterally halt the brexit process if it chooses. that news comes a day ahead of the critical vote in parliament on theresa may's brexit agreement with the e.u. as it stands, it appears

lawmakers will reject that deal, although the prime minister warns that could leave the country in uncharted waters. >> can china has summoned the u.s. and canadian ambassadors over the detention of meng. she is accused of attempting to circumvent sanctions against saudi arabia. >> a drive by shooting on the west bank on sunday left seven people wounded including a pregnant woman. officials said the shots were fired at people standing at a bus stop near the entrance to an israeli settlement. nearby soldiers fired at the vehicle, but it got away. special counsel robert mueller is giving us new insight into the alleged lies of president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort. >> that includes manafort's

contacts with a shadowy figure who mueller says has ties to the russians accused of hacking democrats before the 2016 presidential election. our senior international correspondent fredr plotkin has more now from the russian capital. >> the mueller investigation, where the mueller team claims that paul manafort lied in at least five points, one of the main points is regarding a ukrainian russian individual named clem nick. he was a associate of manafort. he referred to him as his russian brain because he helped manafort do a lot of business in eastern europe, specifically in ukraine and also in russia as well. so, an extremely important individual to paul manafort and his business dealings. he did business with the government of victor yanakovich which was the pro russian ukrainian government that was in office until 2014, and also with

the russian oligarch named deripaska who is close to vladimir putin. clem nick remained important to manafort after the two stopped doing business with one another. the mueller team alleges there were meetings between manafort and constantine clem nick in 2016 cliwhile manafort was the chairman of the campaign. the mueller investigation said manafort lied about those meetings, even after paul manafort was put in jail, the ties apparently continued. the mueller investigation said clem nick tried to tamper with witnesses that could have testified against paul manafort. so an extremely important individual for him. but also someone who the mueller investigation would like to question as well. it seems as though that is pretty unlikely because while constan stein clem nick was living in ukraine a very long time, he has since moved to the outskirts of moscow and with that out of the reach of u.s.

investigators. an extremely secretive individual. in fact, of constantine clem nicker there are only a few public individuals to see what the man even looks like. fred plotkin, cnn, moscow. >> fred, thank you. back here in the united states, president trump says he will pick a new chief of staff very soon. in a tweet, the president says he is in the process of interviewing people for the position. sources tell cnn four people are being considered. >> now, one of those out of the running is nick ayers, the chief of staff of vice-president mike pence. he had been considered a front runner for the job, but he ultimately turned it down. president trump's current chief of staff, john kelly, is leaving the post at the end of the year. >> former nissan chairman carlos ghosn has been indicted in tokyo for allegedly under reporting his income. >> prosecutors say nissan has also been indicted as a corporation along with another former top executive, greg kelly. both were arrested three weeks

ago after an internal investigation by nissan revealed acts of misconduct. cnn's will ripley has been following the latest developments, and he joins us now live from hong kong. good to see you, will. so, what more are you learning about this? >> reporter: well, this is certainly bad news on many fronts for carlos ghosn and greg kelly because in japan, if prosecutors feel that they have enough evidence to indict, statistics show in more than 99% of cases, that will lead to a conviction. and, so, a conviction seems almost certain for a man who, up until recently, was considered one of the most charismatic and influential leaders in the auto industry. this is a man whose idea to basically create an auto alliance between then faltering nissan and french car maker renault, pulled nissan back from the brink of bankruptcy and created, instead, a relatively successful run over the years. but because of his corporate success and also because of the

structure within japanese corporations where it is strictly taboo to even question hierarchy, and of course, with ghosn being at the top of not only nissan, but also renault and more recently mitsubishi motors, he was pretty much untouchable. and he also set his own pay, which in japan where ceo pay is normally considerably lower than you will find in western countries. to have a ceo who was reportedly earning exorbitant amounts of money, you're talking about over a five-year period, prosecutors say nearly $90 million. in fact, prosecutors are now adding charges for an additional two-year period where they say that ghosn was under reporting his income in security statements by about half. so during the five-year period, he earned $88 million, but reported only $44 million. a serious crime that japanese prosecutors say he was colluding with greg kelly, one of his top executives at that time. nissan has been trying to shift this narrative away from any company responsibility, saying

that it was ghosn, and by extension kelly who acted with impunity, who felt that they could do whatever they wanted. but, in fact, japanese prosecutors are saying that nissan is also culpable here, and so this is guaranteed to be hefty fines and certainly a large blow to nissan's reputation. to that front, the company actually has issued a statement in response. i'll read you a portion of the statement here. it says that nissan takes this situation extremely seriously. making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of nissan's public in the securities markets and they expressed their regret. they will strengthen compliance and governance, but clearly this is bad news for nissan and even worse news for ghosn who, after living a lavish life-style with homes all over the world, has now been confined to a tiny cell in a detention facility in tokyo where he is allowed outside 30 minutes a day for exercise. and by the likes of today's

developments, looks like that will be the conditions that he continues to live in for quite sometime. rosemary? >> we'll be watching this story very closely. cnn's will ripley reporting there live from hong kong. many thanks to you as always. >> all right. still ahead this hour, a winter storm that is causing all sorts of problems for the southern part of the united states and that storm also turning deadly. we have the forecast ahead. stay with us. 4-w-p is more than a store.

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do the work yourself. or get it done by a pro. all roads lead to 4-w-p. do your rig right. shop online or find your store at 4-w-p.com. welcome back. a massive winter storm is hitting parts of the southern u.s. right now. it's dumping more than a foot of snow in several places. more than 25 million people right now are under a winter weather alert. >> north carolina has been hit especially hard. one person was killed there by a tree that fell on their car. officials are warning people to stay off the roads, especially as more extreme weather is on the way. cnn's paula sandoval has more. >> reporter: a statewide emergency being declared in north carolina where residents are hunkering down.

on sunday morning, governor roy cooper described the incoming storm as mammoth in size. it's packing a punch, with snow, sleet and eventually rain making for a flooding threat. cooper warning residents to stay home sunday. >> don't put your life and the lives of first responders at risk by getting out on roads covered with snow and ice. instead, stay put if you can. wrap a few presents. decorate the tree. watch some foot ball. >> reporter: as much as 6 inches of snow might fall on the city of charlotte, warn experts. ice accumulations could also make it to an inch and a half. the storm made its presence known in the lone star state saturday. lubbock, texas, received 10 inches of snow, 2 inches more than the city usually gets in a whole year. officials there took to twitter warning people about black ice and freezing fog. the north carolina state highway patrol has responded to at least 500 vehicle collisions and over a thousand weather-related calls

for service. american airlines reports it canceled 1100 flights scheduled for sunday and hundreds more on monday. this december dose of winter weather is likely to make travel treacherous for the workweek ahead. paul sandoval, cnn. >> now pedram javaheri at the weather center. pedram, this storm not over yet. >> not yet. the next couple hours we'll see conditions begin to gradually improve. snow showers will begin to taper off. the system itself responsible for over 2 feet of snow in the past couple of days. finally pushing away from the carolinas and back behind it enough cold air here to support not only snow showers, but also some rain across some of the lower elevations. winter advisory, win at the storm warning impacting portions of virginia. extend to about 18 million people now, raleigh into charlotte, the city itself picked up 2.7 inches of snowfall. may not seem like much, but it had not -- snow had not accumulated in the month of december since 1997. so first go around in the couple

of decades, again, you tarke a look at this hour, mixing taking place, the blue and the rain and white the snow across the higher elevations, in particular around portions of the appalachians there. we had high amounts, 24 inches come down in the past couple of days. records set in richmond, roanoke, virginia, were among the highest snowfall totals in the month of december we're seeing in the past 24 hours. of course all of this spells major, major disruptions at the airports. almost 1800 flights canceled. much of which came out of the charlotte airport. a thousand in charlotte. upwards of 3,000 of flights delayed because of the rough weather that's in place. still a quarter million customers without power to the carolinas extending up into virginia at this hour. temperatures running a few degrees above the freezing mark, even around the panhandle of

florida there. you cross into florida, 45 degrees what it is currently in panama city. these are some 10, 15, some cases 15 degrees below what is average this time of year. as far as high temps are concerned, a high of 38 degrees. that, of course, is above freezing. that allows anything that did fall to begin to melt and that's the concern because as we go on into the overnight hours of tonight and eventually into tuesday morning, going to begin to see some of those want to refreeze again. high temps running just above freezing. going to be a little bit of a concern, so we think the disruptions even after the storm leaves there, guys, is going to be felt at least through tuesday morning with some ice left on a lot of the streets there. >> that's the thing. a lot of states are not prepared for the ice that sticks around. so we'll have to stay in touch with you. thank you for your report. >> well, for years he has treated thousands of sexual violence survivors in the democratic republic of congo. now the circle of angel are

being recognized by the nobel committee. we'll have the details for you when we come back. missed out on this. don't worry, the biggest deal is happening right now at t-mobile. when you buy one of the latest sumsung phones

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ladies and gentlemen, the

2018 cnn hero of the year is -- >> together: dr. ricardo pun-chong. >> that is in new york sunday night. dr. ricardo punish zhong was chosen from among ten cnn finalists. extraordinary people doing extraordinary things to change the world. during pun-chong's training in peru, once they arrived they couldn't afford hotels, so many families slept on the hospital floors. >> ten years ago he founded a shelter at a nonprofit to provide free housing, meals, and to support sick children and their parents. he'll now receive $100,000 for his cause. >> thank you for my volunteers

that help this ten years at our shelter. thank you for all the people that knocked a door and give us rice or beans or some money. that's why, because we are here tonight, because people believe in us. >> we always have so many stories that are so hard, sometimes bad to see. but it's always good to see these people who are so good. >> yes. >> absolutely. another awards ceremony will take place in the coming hours as the nobel peace prize is awarded to two people who are fighting sexual violence. one is nadia murad, a survivor of rape and captivity by isis. >> the other is dr. denis mukwege. he treats women affected by rape in the democratic republic of congo. cnn's david mackenzie spoke with the man san antonio as the angel of bukabu.

>> reporter: at the clinic, the joy for their surgeon was immediate. hello, is this denis mukwege? >> yes. >> reporter: first of all, many congratulations on the award of the nobel peace prize. >> it was so touching when i was operating and i hear people start to cry and it was so, so, so touching. >> reporter: i hear. you were operating when you heard the news. >> yes. >> reporter: how very appropriate. when we met him in the hospital nearly a decade ago, he was already called the angel of bukabu, confronting the horrors of war. with the hands of a skilled surgeon and the heart of a tireless advocate. >> translator: i can help them heal fizz scli aphysically and important to help them heal and

tell them they won't be destroyed. >> reporter: sometimes without electricity and often without water, he tried to repair the victims of rape and sexual violence. conducting at least 40,000 delicate surgeries in his career. in the eastern congo, the conflict continues to ebb and flow. rape always a favored weapon. women and young girls always a target. left with brutal, often life-threatening injuries, yet he has never become numb to their pain. >> translator: to see these atrocities, you have a feeling you don't understand anything. you are completely perplexed by what you're seeing, but afterwards you have to react and the reaction is to give life and dignity that has been lost and try to repair what has been damaged. my personal joy is found in the strength of these women. >> reporter: he always said that

silence prolongs suffering. he helped his patients fight the stigma of rape, to not accept victim hood, but to demand change. he took their message to the global stage, calling for justice. never shying from the horrifying reality that rape is a weapon of war. his brave stand made him enemies. he survived an assassination attempt in october 2012, and had to flee the country. but soon after, he returned to the hospital to his life's work, now recognized with the highest of honors. >> translator: you can't just imagine how a smile, a simple handshake, to just tell them to be encouraged, to feel that they are loved. >> reporter: david mackenzie, cnn, johannesburg. >> courageous people. >> remarkable. >> absolutely. thank you for being with us. i'm george howell. >> and i'm rosemary church. for our u.s. viewers, early start is next. for everyone else, max foster in london is coming up next.

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the most compelling stories. text "listen5" to 500500 to start your free trial today. he may be the first president in quite some time to face the prospect of real jail time. >> president trump dipping into the playbook of distraction and denial as the mueller investigation ramps up. president trump looking for a new chief of staff to replace john kelly. i can't breathe. the final words of jamal khashoggi. what else transcripts reveal of the washington