north korea has a sharp message for the united states. ease up on sanctions or risk losing any progress toward lasting peace on the korean peninsula. also, when it comes to the russia investigation, the u.s. president's attorney says donald trump will never sit down for an interview with robert mueller. plus this. russia cracking down on rap. i'll tell you why the russian president vladimir putin doesn't seem to be quite a fan of rap music. 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. newsroom starts now. snoet snoet -- ♪ ♪ >> it's 3:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. thank you for being with us this day. new sanctions on north korea have prompted a very harsh response against the united states, putting the relationship between the two countries into question. pyongyang saying the sanctions could block the path to denuclearization. they warn the two sides could return to, quote, exchanges of fire. u.s. sanctions were placed on three north korean officials for alleged human rights abuses. let's get the latest live from hong kong. cnn's will ripley on this story. will, how serious are these sanctions against north korea? >> in and of themselves, the sanctions are not particularly serious, george. there are three high-level individuals name who all are very close who interact regularly with the north korean leader kim jong-un, the head of his state security department, organization and guidance department and the department of

propaganda and agitation. which by the way his sister kim yo-jong works for. sanctioning these individuals doesn't have that big of an impact overall since there are so many sanctions already in place against north korea. it's not going to hurt much more. it's much more of a symbolic measure than anything else. but the fact that the u.s. continues to add sanctions and they bring up the issue of human rights, you know, in addition to the nuclear program, it's certainly infuriating to the north koreans and adding to their perception of an atmosphere of hostility from the united states despite the fact that there continues to be a very warm rapport between the north korean leader kim jong-un and the u.s. president donald trump. and you'll notice even in all of their criticism of the sanctions over the weekend, they never criticize president trump directly. in fact, they say that the sanctions are going against the will of the white house. let me read you a portion of what north korea's state media put out over the weekend regarding the sanctions. it says, quote, added sanctions pressure will block the path to denuclearization to the korean

peninsula forever. a result desired by no one. so, they are still expressing a desire to work things out with the united states, but also stating the fact that this is an unprecedented opportunity to have this high level of discussions between the north korean and american leaders, and they say it might not happen again. and that could frankly very well be true because president trump made a decision that probably no other u.s. president would have made, which is to meet with kim jong-un at the beginning of this process, which is now turning out to be an extraordinarily difficult process, which should also be surprising to no one given the fact that the singapore statement was so vague, both sides, u.s. and north korea, could walk away from it and have totally different interpretations of what was supposed to happen next. the u.s. thought they would be transparent or the weapons they have. they thought they would get sanctions relief. neither side is getting what they want, george. >> will ripley live in hong kong. thank you. we'll keep in touch with you on this. now to saudi arabia,

denouncing the u.s. senate after they voted to end u.s. military support for the war in yemen. they volt today condemn the crown prince in the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. that move from the senate also a rebuke of the u.s. president donald trump, who continues to support the saudi kingdom. saudi arabia's foreign affairs ministry issued this statement. i'll read here. the recent position of the united states senate, which has been built on baseless allegations and accusations, includes blatant interference in its internal affairs and the role of the kingdom at the regional and international level. moving on now to the united kingdom, the issue of brexit and the british prime minister monday set to warn against the second referendum in the house of commons. this comes after theresa may slammed her predecessor on this issue. she is accusing tony blair of undermining her negotiations on the divorce deal from the e.u. over his comments supporting the idea of a second vote.

blair says it isn't irresponsible or insulting to look for an alternative way forward. miss may's chief of staff was forced to deny that he was planning for a new referendum himself. the report came from the sunday times. it says, some of the prime minister's senior allies are getting ready for a second vote. let's go live to london. cnn's erin mclauchlin following the story. there has been more discussion about the possibility of a second vote being put to the people, but with the prime minister's reaction to her predecessor's remarks, does she have the political capital here to stop this from becoming a reality? >> reporter: well, one thing is clear, george. it doesn't seem that she has the political capital at this point to get her deal through westminster. now, the meaningful vote is expected to happen sometime in january, although the opposition is trying to bring that forward to force the vote this month. but as things stand now, it does

not look like she is going to be able to pass that legislation, which leaves really a limited number of options. there is then the hard brexit option, the so-called cliff-edge no deal which is seen as catastrophic to both sides of the channel. gdp expected to plummet some 7%, according to projections here in the u.k., if that no-deal possibility happens. the other possibility is that the unilateral revoking of article 50, which triggered brexit in the first place earlier this month, the european court of justice ruled that that was possible, that the u.k. has the ability to do that. it seems very unlikely at this point given the fact that theresa may is so against the possibility of another referendum, arguing that another referendum would be undemocratic. so that seems to be ruled out. so that leaves the possibility, then, of course, of another

referendum, and that does seem to be gaining support here in the united kingdom. but at this point there's no majority in parliament for any eventuality, which is part of the problem here. >> okay. so, erin, the british parliament clearly opposed to this brexit deal for the most part. the e.u. promising no new renegotiations here. so what do you see basically moving forward for the prime minister who seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place here? where does she go from here? >> reporter: well, i think it's interesting that in the released excerpts of her statement to parliament, she focuses solely on the possibility of another referendum, arguing against that. she's clearly trying to put the attention there rather to the fact that she is stuck between a rock and a hard place. when she was in brussels, she insisted that talks between the e.u. and the u.k. are still happening.

she's hoping that her chief brexit negotiator ollie robbins who we understand is in brussels over the christmas period, will continue to talk with the european council to come up with some sort of mechanism. renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement itself has been ruled out time and time again by e.u. leaders. what may and her government are hoping for the possibility of some sort of additional mechanism, something legally binding which would, essentially, get them out of the customs union, something that would be politically palatable to help her be able to push this through westminster. but at this point that's looking very unlikely. >> erin mclauchlin live for us in our london bureau. erin, thank you for the reporting. let's bring in steven ehrlinger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for "the new york times" in europe live this hour from brussels belgium. steven, a pleasure. >> thanks, george. >> look, there's been this growing chorus of people just getting a bit louder about this

possibility of a second referendum, all brought do a head by theresa may's predecessor tony blair who went to brussels to suggest that a second referendum is more likely now. theresa may accusing blair of undermining the negotiations. what do you make of this idea, though, of the second referendum? does it seem that she has the political capital to stop it? >> well, she's certainly trying to. i mean, her whole strategy is my deal or no deal. my way or the highway. the problem is there is no majority in parliament for her deal. unfortunately, there's no majority in parliament for any deal, but there does seem to be a majority in parliament not to crash out of the you're poon union on march 29. so, some people like blair -- it could happen -- would want parliament to take over control of the process and vote despite

the government's desires for a second referendum. now, there are lots of reasons why that would be complicated, why it would require delay, what kind of questions would you ask, would it be fair, who would get to vote, et cetera, et cetera. but if parliament can't decide, the whole idea of punting it back to the people to let them decide again is getting more traction, but it is not what mrs. may want. >> steven, we were talking about this in the newsroom, just the different options around brexit. and the question here, as we get closer to march and the day the u.k. exits the e.u., is this a matter of theresa may effectively running down the clock? the closer we get to that date, does it put more pressure on mfrmt p.s to either make their peace with this deal or make it possible for possibly leading to a hard brexit with no deal? >> that seems to be her strategy. this has been terribly mismanaged, i have to say.

but at this point her, her argument is, you know, it's a very complicated deal. i've done my best with the red lines that i've had. it's not going to get any better. so either, you know, let's accept it and work on what really matters is true, is negotiating a future relationship with the e.u. over the next 20 months, because, after all, even after march 29th, nothing will change for 20 months. there is a stand still deal. so, to some degree, her strategy is a bit like muhammad ali's used to be, which is like rope-a-dope. you lie back against the ropes and protect yourself and let people exhaust themselves by swinging at you, but you don't fall down. >> steven, that's theresa may. i don't mean to laugh. rope-a-dope -- i've never heard that analogy brought into brexit. i guess it makes sense here.

>> it all makes sense. sure. >> one other question i'd like to ask you about. jeremy corbin seeming to stay out of the fray lately, but feeling the pressure to back a vote of no confidencest, or even putting a second referendum to the people for a vote. >> well, jeremy corbin is in a strange position because he's actually a brexiter. he didn't campaign much more may. his whole desire is to pull down the gofrmt. it's a very weak government. it's a government completely divided against itself. that's what you're hearing. you have every cabinet minister moving now to maneuver to succeed theresa may, who has already promised to step down before the next election. and then you have jeremy corbin who is very popular with the young, but doesn't have enough support to really yet win an election. he should be, but the labor opposition, given the mess in the tory party, should be way ahead and it isn't. so he's being pushed to ask for a vote of no confidence.

the problem is it's unlikely that he would win it because the torys don't want a new election. and if there is a new election, he may not win that either. so he's a bit stuck. he's trying to say no to everything to undermine the government, and at the same time, i think in his heart of hearts he knows the timing isn't right for the labor party. >> steven ehrlinger, always appreciate your time and perspective. >> thanks, george. >> you could say this would make a great courtroom drama. the u.s. president's current lawyer takes on donald trump' former attorney. why rudy giuliani insists michael cohen can't be trusted. plus, no social media platform was ever safe from russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. election. what we are learning from a stunning new report as cnn newsroom continues. so this christmas,

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cancel anytime and your books are yours to keep forever. audible. the most inspiring minds. the most compelling stories. text "listen9" to 500500 to start your free trial today. welcome back to cnn newsroom. i'm george howell. a chaotic year in washington wientding do wien winding down with another tweet storm by the president donald

trump. the special counsel robert mueller, the russia investigation, democrats, the media as he likes to do, and his former fixer michael cohen. mr. trump angrily called his one-time personal attorney a rat for cooperating with prosecutors. and he got some back up from his current attorney as our boris sanchez explains. >> reporter: rudy giuliani, the president's attorney in clean-up mode, after the president's former attorney michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on friday, and made some disparaging comments about the president over the weekend. giuliani trying to put some distance between cohen and the white house, suggesting that he could not be believed. aiming to discredit him, suggesting, for example, that those hush money payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal alleging affairs with the president, were not campaign contributions. keep in mind that some of the charges that michael cohen pled guilty to in the southern district of new york were

related to those hush money payments, campaign finance violations that he made to those women. further, giuliani suggested the only way to believe cohen's claims are to take his word for it. that's simply not the case. the southern district of new york has presented a corroborating evidence to suggest that michael cohen is telling the truth. we also know that a.m.i., the company that owns the "national enquirer" which helped to bury those negative stories about the president, has corroborated what cohen has said as well. so there is what rudy giuliani is saying and there's what's actually happened in court. now, one thing that's dle ir is we haven't heard the last from michael cohen. elijah cummings told jake tapper over the weekend in state of the union that he would like to see michael cohen testify before congress yet again. listen to this. >> i'm hoping that mr. cohen will come before the congress where he can tell the american public exactly what he has been

saying to mueller and others, without interfering with the mueller investigation. i think the american people just voted for transparency and integrity in our hearings. they want to hear from him. and i certainly would like to see him come in the month of january to -- before the congress, and so the people's representatives will have an opportunity to ask him questions. >> reporter: the other question that's out there following reporting from cnn last week that robert mueller was still interested in securing an interview with president trump and having him answer questions in person, despite those written answers to questions from the special counsel that were submitted last month, is whether the president would actually sit down for an interview. rudy giuliani was asked about that on sunday and he sort of joked about it. listen to this. >> special counsel doesn't want to interviw the president? >> good luck. good luck. after what they did to flynn, the way they trapped him into perjury and no sentence for him? 14 days for papadopoulos. i did better on traffic violations than they did with

papadopoulos. >> when you say good luck, you're saying no way, no interview? >> they're a joke. over my dead body, but i could be dead. >> reporter: giuliani struck a more serious tone saying he wouldn't comment on the cnn reporting. though he did say that there is an agreement out there between the president's attorneys and the special counsel that allows for more time and discussion over whether the president will answer more questions that may come from the special counsel. boris sanchez, cnn, at the white house. >> boris, thanks. michael cohen is set to start his three-year prison term this coming march. my colleague jake tapper talked with republican senator susan collins about cohen's conviction and the accusation he acted on the president's orders. listen. >> i understand that's michael cohen and he has a history of saying things that are not necessarily true, but it's not just him making that assertion. the federal prosecutors in the southern district of new york said in their filing the president direct these payments

and directed in coordination with him. does it bother you the president of the united states is ordering felony crimes in order to help him win the election? >> well, let me point out that there are a lot of unanswered ethical, legal and factual questions. but clearly this was not a good week for president trump, nor for his campaign organization, and these allegations are concerning. but we need to wait until we have the entire picture. and that's why it's so critical that the special counsel be allowed to complete his investigation unimpeded so that we can have the full picture. >> i get that when it comes to the russia investigation, because we're still waiting to hear the whole picture there. but when it comes to michael cohen, we kind of do have the whole picture. the southern district of new york said that these payments were illegal, they were campaign contributions, and the prosecutors from the u.s. attorney's office there say they were done in direction of and

coordination with president trump. i mean, and now michael cohen is going to jail as a result of that and other crimes. don't we have the whole picture there? >> i don't think we do. for one thing, the u.s. attorney's office described michael cohen as being deceitful, as being motivated by greed, and pointed out that he was not a cooperating witness on the special counsel side, the special counsel praised him for his cooperation in the russian investigation. so we have two different pictures of michael cohen. and many of the crimes for which he is going to prison have nothing to do with donald trump, such as tax evasion. that benefited him. lying to the intelligence committee is another crime for which he was punished. so, the picture there is still murky, in my view. >> i mean, there is an audiotape of michael cohen talking about

these payments with president trump. i'm sure you've heard the audiotape. do you not believe, you haven't seen enough evidence to convince you that donald trump told michael cohen, directed him to make these payments to get stormy daniels and karen mcguggenheimeral to kem mcdougal to keep their stories quiet? >> i'm not going to engage in speculation because i don't feel i have the entire picture yet. i have charges and counter charges. certainly this is concerning. i don't mean to imply otherwise. but i'm going to wait until i have the full picture. >> there is -- i mean, he is going to jail, but it's not just for that charge. >> correct. >> the washington post has obtained a draft of a report prepared for the u.s. senate about russia's interference in the 2016 u.s. election. it describes it as the most sweeping analysis yet of russia's disinformation campaign. this report studied millions of social media posts provided by

technology firms and here's what it found. that russia used every major social media platform to help elect mr. trump. that all of moscow's messaging was intended to benefit the republican party. and on that alone, facebook alone, russia campaigned -- russia's campaign, i should say, reached 126 million people. washington post reporter craig timberg worked on that report, and he chatted about it earlier with my colleague brian stelter and anika brera. >> this is the report we've been waiting for. it's sweeping, it's comprehensive, it uses the fullest data set we've seen from the companies who turned over lots of information from the government that they didn't turnover to anybody else. and so this is a -- this doesn't exactly tell us things we didn't suspect or haven't heard, but it puts it together in a new way. it's very comprehensive and compelling. it's like they reverse engineered the entire russia campaign in this report. >> that was washington post

craig timberg and anika brera. now to the the's pick of the white house chief of staff. his words come back to haunt him whether he actually likes the u.s. president. here's what mick mulvaney said in this video obtained by "the daily beast." listen. >> yes, i'm supporting donald trump. i'm doing so as enthusiastically as i can. in fact, i think he's a terrible human being, the choice on the other side is just as bad. >> ouch. mulvaney currently heads up the office of management and budget. a spokeswoman for that office released this statement that does provide important context. says, this is old news. these comments were made in 2016 when he was a congressman and had not -- had yet to meet the president. live here in the united states, and around the world, you are watching newsroom. and still ahead, rap music, rap artists in russia, and fans are not staying quiet amid a government crackdown.

♪ ♪ why the russian president vladimir putin says that needs to be controlled. plus, cnn goes underground with the israeli military, uncovering cross-border tunnels. the israelis fear could be used to attack civilians. happening right now at t-mobile. when you buy one of the latest sumsung phones you get a free 50" samsung 4k tv. seriously, no! [announcer]seriously! t-mobile is giving you a free 50" tv. you gotta be kidding me. this deal won't last long. so get your free samsung tv at t-mobile store today. woooo!! pop pop pop!!

♪ there's no place likargh!e ♪ i'm trying... ♪ yippiekiyay. ♪ mom. ♪ welcome back to viewers here in the united states and all over the world. you are watching cnn newsroom live from atlanta, and we thank you for it. i'm george howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour. north korea says new sanctions imposed by the united

states could block the path to denuclearization. the u.s. treasury sanctioned three senior north korean officials last week for alleged human rights abuses. pyongyang warned the measures could return both sides to, quote, exchanges of fire. in brussels, a protest against the united nations migration pact turned violent on sunday. police say about 5,000 people marched, demonstrations organized by the phlegmish right wing party. some clashed with police. they used tear gas and water canons to disperse the crowds. this the scene in the hungarian capital. thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets for a fourth straight night sunday. some of them clashing with police, riot police, who fired tear gas. demonstrators are angry over what they call a slave law which would let employers ask workers to do 400 hours of overtime a year, up from 250. in russia, a rap battle is

brewing. in one corner, the president of russia, vladimir putin, and in the other, the nation's hip-hop artists. listen. ♪ ♪ >> the russian president is weighing in on official efforts to crackdown on rap music. he said saturday, it is an important part of pop culture, but he also said it needed to be guided by the state. the comments come after the detention of husky, a popular russian rapper you see here. let's go live to the russian capital, cnn's fret plotkin following the story. rap guided by the state, fred? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, it seems like a bit of a contradiction, doesn't it? it certainly has been a big problem here in russia. i would say it's been brewing the past couple of months. that rapper that we just saw there, husky, he's been at the center of the scandal that's

been going on here in russia. he had a couple of concerts that were canceled, concerts that were stopped because obviously some of the local officials didn't like some of the lyrics that he has in his songs. and the reason why he was arrested is, i think we're seeing it now, after one of his concerts was canceled due to the fact that local officials didn't like what he was saying, he tried to put on a performance on the roof of a car and then he was arrested and he was in jail for 12 days. and i think he is out by now, but, of course, there is a lot of problem for him and for other rappers as well to actually be able to put on these shows. it was interesting that vladimir putin is weighing in all this because he said that he spoke to a language expert about all this and the language expert told him that rap is just simply right now for young people a part of popular culture, and that's where vladimir putin came up with the fact that he believes that it cannot be banned, but he does believe that the state needs to guide it. of course, the state here in russia guides a lot of things in

multiple ways. so now they're trying to come up with a strategy to do it now. i want to read to you one quote. he said, it's impossible to stop and it is necessary to navigate and guide accordingly, but how to do so depends on us. so it looks like they're going to have to come up with some sort of strategy how they want to do this. meanwhile all this keeps brewing. one of the big issues vladimir putin said he has with the rap music is he believes that three things are important in a lot of the lyrics. that is drugs, sex and, of course, also protests. of course, protest is a hot ticket issue here. vladimir putin said to him the biggest problem is rapping about drugs and glorifying drugs. that's the reason he believes the state needs to find some sort of way to guide rap music and to guide young people, george. >> interesting, fred. one other question to you. is there a greater threat? you bring up the issue of protest, as you laid out the other issues. protests certainly one that comes to the fore.

is that the bigger issue here? >> reporter: well, on the face of it, vladimir putin says no. he says, look, for him drugs are the big issue. he said -- he said he believes that people rap also, as far as the sex issue is concerned, a lot of their body parts is not something he wants to necessarily hear, but it's not necessarily something he says that he wants to restrict. but, of course, here in russia there is a track record of trying to rein in protests and trying to stop at least public protests. certainly there are a lot of people, husky probably being one of them, this rapper, who believes that the protest part of it is the actual real problem. and if you look at some other popular culture acts like, for instance, the band of pussy riot who have very much been restricted, members are in jail, they accuse the russian government of poisoning a band member. they deny they have. there have been a problem with bands in the past that have lyrics contradictory to some of the things the state wants to

hear here. it is a delicate issue and you can tell vladimir putin knows it's a delicate issue here. trying to completely rein this in is something that could cause a lot of problems, especially with young people here in russia. at the same time, they do want to influence it somehow and make it -- i think they would think less dangerous for what they see as the stability of the government, the stability of the state. and they don't on the face of it say the protest is the bigger problem, but it does seem to be a problem, at least for a lot of these local officials who canceled some of the concerts here in russia, george. >> maybe if he were to hear some old school atlanta rap like out cast it could change his mind. i'm dating myself. fred plotkin in moscow. >> maybe we'll send him some. >> thank you. it has been two weeks since the israeli army started operation shield on the border with lebanon. the army said the aim is to uncover and disable tunnels built by the hezbollah militant group. cnn is the first broadcaster to get permission to bring a camera inside one of these tunnels.

let's bring in our correspondent ian lee live from jerusalem. ian, what more can you tell us about what you saw with regards to these tunnel s? >> reporter: well, george, israel takes these tunnels very seriously. even though we are about two weeks into this operation, they say that it could take weeks, if not months longer to search the entire border. but take a look at our exclusive look at one of their tunnels. there is a secret in this hole. those responsible prefer you not to know. we drop a camera down, past tens of meters of hard limestone to reveal a sophisticated tunnel, complete with ventilation, lights. it's large enough for an mba player to stand in. israel says it's the work of hezbollah, the lebanese militant group with ties to iran. it was important for the israeli military to drill as

close to this wall as possible. and that's because on the other side of this wall is lebanon. what they wanted to show is how hezbollah's tunnel began in lebanon and entered israel. finding this tunnel, though, wasn't so much on what they saw, but rather on what they heard. vibrations from drilling exposed the digging. this video shows when the lebanese militants first discovered their tunnels were no longer a secret. in that video, we see an explosion. what can you tell me about that? >> the explosion, we decided not to kill those people walking in the tunnel. it was a warning for the other side to stay out of the tunnels. and we have the tunnels boobie trapped. >> reporter: four tunnels have been uncovered so far. the army expects to find more. israel says they violate a 12-year-old cease-fire. u.n. peace keepers who monitor

the border are investigating. secret sophisticated technology provides a location. then they start to drill. there is little margin for error. >> if a drill is half a meter to the right or to the left, that's t you're out. you're not in the tunnel and you didn't achieve your goal. >> reporter: kind of like finding a needle in the hey stack. >> more complicate the that not that. >> reporter: the army said finding the tunnels early has limited the threat. but they had the potential to do israel great harm. thousands of civilians living near the border at risk of kidnapping or worse. a senior hezbollah official previously told cnn the group was surprised by israel's operation, but neither confirmed nor denied they were digging tunnels. meanwhile, israel continues to dig down to buildup security. and, george, israel says that these tunnels are a clear example of hezbollah violating

u.n. security council resolution 1701. this brought an end to that 2006 war. i spoke with the u.n. observer mission that monitors that border. they say they are aware of the tunnels. they have investigated the tunnels. they are going to continue their investigation and give those findings to the security council. it's up to them to decide, then, if it has been violated or not. in the meantime, though, israel does continue to look for these tunnels that are crossing their northern border, george. >> an insightful report. ian lee live for us there at 10:40 in the morning in jerusalem. ian, thank you for the report. still ahead on newsroom, china's arrest ever 100 christians has many wondering, is religious freedom in danger there? cnn has a live report from hong kong ahead. plus, the u.s. congress is getting involved. this after a 7-year-old migrant girl loses her life in u.s. custody. what they are looking for. right after the break. stay with us. today is the day you're going to get motivated...

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in japan, authorities are investigating the cause of a massive explosion near a pub in sapporo. at least 42 people were injured there. one person critically. the blast on sunday night was so strong, so powerful, it shattered windows across the street. a fire that followed caused the building to collapse. witnesses said they smelled gas after that explosion, but a gas leak has not been confirmed. a prominent pastor is calling china's moves against christians a wicked, unlawful action. wong yee is one of 100 christians who were taken into custody last week. western governments and civil rights advocates are condemning beijing for its mass arrests of a religious community. it is just the latest move in china's stepped up crackdown on independent religious practice. let's go live to hong kong. cnn's alexandra field following

this story. alexandra, what more can you tell us about what compelled the chinese government to take this action on this group? >> reporter: well, wong yee is a 45-year-old pastor, george, of an underground church, but he's got hundreds of congregants. and he's very outspoken. and his writing is speaking is very public in china despite the fact this is an underground church. he's been a vocal critic of the communist party, of the government, of president xi jinping in china himself, and increasingly of the strengthening regulations against religion in china. all of that has put him in the crosshairs of authorities before, and it seems to have put him on the radar of authorities again. this is a pastor who presumed he could, in fact, one day be arrested. he had even written that manifesto to be published in the event of his arrest which talked about what he perceives to be the persecution of the church in china. recently we've seen, of course, china cracking down on unregistered churches, demolition of those churches, demolition of crosses, the banning of the online sale of

bibles. all of this is seen as part of the communist party's wider goal of establishing and asserting and maintaining more control. their view toward organized religion as being something that could be a threat in terms of its very ability to organize people and to invite in foreign influence. so we have seen these measures to curtail religion. certainly, it is legal to practice religion in china, but houses of worship are, of course, subject to surveillance by the communist party. wong yee was the pastor of, again, an unregistered church which is something that would have put him on the radar of authorities. not to mention the fact he was certainly fiery and outspoken in his criticism. he is facing a very serious crime now, george. if convicted he could face up to 15 years in prison. so, this is the kind of arrest that is absolutely raising alarm among activists in china and internationally as well as some western governments that have been keeping a careful eye on what's going on inside china. >> all right, alexandra field with the report. thank you. now to a story that has

sparked outrage here in the united states, and now the grieving family of a child who died while in the custody of the u.s. wants answers. 7-year-old jacqueline of guatemala died in a hospital in el paso, texas. it happened on december 8th. she had been detained by customs and border patrol. the cause of death has not yet been determined, but her family wants to know exactly what happened. >> reporter: the family of jacqueline is still coping with their profound loss. the death of a child is the most painful experience that a parent or family can endure. the family is seeking an objective and thorough investigation and are asking that investigators will assist this incident with a nationally recognized standards for the arrest and custody of children. >> as i said, it has sparked outrage, and now u.s. lawmakers are getting involved. some will be headed to the state of texas on a fact-finding

mission. our ed las vegvendera has that report. >> reporter: on tuesday a congressional dell gaithersburg will travel to texas to tour the border patrol station where the 7-year-old was taken just hours after she started showing signs of distress and vomiting. it was from that border patrol station that she was flown to an el paso hospital and where she later died. so there have been a number of calls for investigation as to how all of this unfolded and why this young girl became sick hours after being taken into border patrol custody. department of homeland security officials say the agency did everything it could to save this young girl's life, and over the weekend we heard from the father of the young girl for the first time who also echoed those statements, that he felt that the agents on that bus and the medical professionals did everything they could to save his daughter's life. however, the father did dispute some of the initial accounts that came from the department of

homeland security. d.h.s. officials initially said the young girl had gone days without food and water. the father of the young girl said that's not true, that she had been properly fed and hydrated throughout their journey to the border. so all of this continues to unfold here. the father remains in el paso, texas, as calls for the investigation and criticism of the trump administration's immigration policy continues here along the border. ed lavendera, cnn, el paso, texas. >> ed, thank you. still ahead on newsroom, she is only 15 years old, but a young activist says world leaders who aren't mature enough to deal with global warming, they should be called out, and she's doing just that, and it's going viral on social media. also, who better to offer words of comfort about losing an election than hillary clinton? we'll have that story next. [speaking in italian]

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you are not mature enough to tell it like it is. even that burden you leave to us children. but i don't care about being

popular. i care about climate justice and the living planets. our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. >> the powerful, frank, important words of a 15-year-old activist, greta thunberg who got quite a bit of attention at the u.n. climate conference that took place in poland this past week. she accused negotiators of stealing young people's future because leaders haven't done enough to curb global warming. and those comments quickly went viral. u.s. senator bernie sanders said she called out world leaders for their inaction. earlier this year, the young activist went on a strike from school, protesting outside the swedish parliament for weeks over climate change. an 8-year-old girl in maryland is enjoying a huge morale boost after losing an

election for class president. martha kennedy morales lost the election to a boy by just one vote. she received a letter of encouragement from, of all people, the former presidential candidate hillary clinton. clinton sent this letter in early december and wrote, in part, as i know too well, it's not easy to stand up and put yourself in contention for a role that's only been sought by boys. she adds, the most important thing is that you fought for what you believe in and that's always worth it. martha shared her reaction on cnn. listen. >> i thought, like, i didn't really -- i was just really surprised. >> are you a fan of hillary clinton's? >> yeah. >> did you play close attention to the race in dwikt? >> uh-huh. >> you were sad when she lost? >> yeah. i was pretty sad because, i mean, it was disappointing. i mean, like, we knew that the runner up was going to get

vice-president, but still it's disappointing to figure out that you lost something that you fought for really hard and you put a lot of effort into it. >> i think we can all understand that. are you going to run again for president next semester? >> yeah. i mean, if we do this -- if we do this unit again. >> does this mean that you think you have a future in politics? >> yeah, i guess. >> somehow i don't think we've heard the last from her. thank you for being with us this hour for cnn newsroom. i'm george howell at the cnn center in atlanta. early start is next for viewers a in the united states. my colleague max foster kicks it off in london. you are watching cnn, the news leader.

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text "listen5" to 500500 to start your free trial today. we're going to do whatever is necessary to build a border wall. he is not going to get the wall in any form. >> five days until the government shutdown. no closer to the deal on the border wall. now questions about whether republicans will show up for a vote. $130,000 to stormy whatever and $100,000 to the other one is not a crime. >> michael cohen may disagree. rudy giulia rudy giuliani at odds with prosecutors. now where the russia probe may be hampered. and