hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the

united states, canada, and all around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. ahead on "cnn newsroom" -- >> i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. >> spy balloon down. a recovery effort now underway after fighter jets launched a precision strike. cnn has reporters across the globe on the latest developments. plus -- parts of the u.s. finally warming up, this after record-breaking freezing temperatures, the coldest in decades in some areas. we'll look at when people can see relief. and basketball superstar lebron james continues to chip away at the nba's all-time scoring record. we'll break down his latest game with cnn sports' coy wire. you're about to see and hear

the dramatic moment a u.s. missile took out the suspected chinese spy balloon that caused such havoc in the u.s. last week. have a look. it happened saturday off the coast of south carolina near myrtle beach. the balloon was so high up that it took a few seconds of the sound of the blast to reach the ground. china issued a stern protest afterward accusing the u.s. of overreacting to a civilian research balloon that was blown off course, and the defense ministry has warned it now reserves the right to do something similar, but the pentagon officials say they're confident the balloon was conducting surveillance. salvage efforts are now underway to retrieve the debris from a relatively shallow area of the atlantic. anything recovered will be sent to fbi for analysis. tom foreman is in washington with a look at the recovery

efforts. ivan watson is in hong kong with reaction. but we begin with the pentagon with what comes next. >> reporter: what has been an effort to track this chinese surveillance balloon for days as it made its way is now a recovery effort to bring up the wreckage of the chinese wreckage and the payload it was carrying. the wreckage landed in 47 feet of water, so relatively shallow there, and there were navy and coastal assets on site with a vels on the way to start to bring up the wreckage here. it may be difficult to see what's left of the wreck and. it did fall from a height of 60,000 feet, so nearly 12 miles where it impacted the water that may have done serious damage to the technology on board. that's what the pentagon and u.s. government will figure out. what condition is it in and what

is salvage and what can you learn from it and what can you glean from the state of the chinese technology and what they put in that balloon. it didn't just start now. over the past several days the pentagon made every effort to make sure the chinese couldn't gather as much information as they were looking for, although, they wouldn't detail what they were looking for. they flipped the script, trying to learn what they could about it as it traversed the united states. in terms of what went into it before hand, there were days of planning to figure out the best possible time to shoot it down. it was planned not at to shoot it down over the united states because of the risk to people and property. instead that decision was made out over the water. the pentagon and langley air force base worked together. it was a single f-22 that fired

a single aim 9 e-9x sidewinder, shot bringing down one balloon. that is the military side. the diplomatic side as well. the u.s. making it very clear they found it unacceptable and a violation of u.s. airspace and we now have seen the military's response. oren lieberman, cnn, the pentagon. >> president biden authorized the downing of the chinese balloon on wednesday, but military officials warned him it could endanger lives on the ground. cnn's arlette saenz has details from the white house. >> reporter: president biden told his top military leaders in a meeting on wednesday to shoot down the spy balloon transiting over the u.s. as soon as possible. the president heard advice from military leaders who warned that shooting anything down over land, over ground could pose a

risk to american lives, so ultimately the president heeded their advice and waited to have this balloon shot down until it was over the waters on saturday afternoon. president biden was briefed on those final plans friday evening and ultimately defense secretary lloyd austin gave that final go-ahead shortly after noon on saturday. now, the president was flying on air force one from syracuse, new york, to maryland, and was on the phone with his top officials as this operation was underway. here's what he had to tell reporters about the considerations given to the decision. >> on wednesday when i was briefed on the balloon, i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. they decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground. they decided the best time to do that is when it got over water, within a 12-mile limit. they successfully took it down, and i want to compliment our aviators who did it, and we'll have more to report on this

alitta a little later. >> what's your message to china? >> you say your recommendation was from your national security. >> i told them to shoot it down. >> on wednesday. >> on wednesday. they said to me, let's wait for the safest place to do it. >> reporter: rchs criticized president biden for not taking steps to take down the balloon signer. they say this is a sign of weakness in the white house's approach toward china, but the white house push backed saying this was a spottable action for the commander in chief to take. they were arguing what the president was trying to do was prioritize saving american lives. there are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle calling for briefings, and this so-called gang of eight will receive a briefing from the bind officials next week as there are still so many outstanding questions about how this incident unfolded. arlette saenz, cnn, the white house.

and cnn's ivan watson is standing by in hong kong. so, ivan, china says the u.s. is overreacting. takes through the action from beijing. >> sure. the most recent statement is basically the warning that ee sejt chally if the u.s. flies a balloon over chinese airspace, the chinese military will shoot it down. look at the statement from the chinese defense ministry. they say the u.s. used force to attack an unmanned airship which is an obvious overreaction. we protest the use by the u.s. side and will use similar steps in similar situations. this was, in fact, as they put it, a weather balloon, an airship, it said, that had been blown off course over u.s. airspace. it regretted that this had taken place and sate it was keeping open channels of communication with u.s. counterparts to help

resolve this issue. on sunday now the chinese government protesting at the shoot-down of the balloon. what we're not hearing from the chinese government is more details about the, as they put it, the airship itself. what company or what branch of the chinese government does it come from? why would it be flying something as the u.s. government has put it that is the length of three buses hanging under a giant helium balloon, such long distances? why couldn't the chinese perhaps bring it down in conjunction with the u.s. government? those are all big questions that have yet to be answered. kim? >> another question to be answered, and we haven't mentioned this yet, news of potentially a second balloon. what more are we learning about that one? >> sure. another object has been cited starting thursday by authorities in costa rica who said it flew

through their airspace and the head of civil aviation told cnn, quote, it's not a balloon that originated from costa rica. then the next day t columbian air force reported seeing an object flying at an altitude of more than 55,000 feet. this's roughly the same altitude as the balloon that was identified over the u.s. and that it entered columbian airspace and then eventually flew through it. it was not perceived to be a threat. people were taking pictures of it on the ground and guess what? it looks an awful lot like the chinese balloon flying over the u.s. we have reached out to the chinese government to get some explanation for this. meanwhile a senior u.s. official has claimed that this is also as that official put it a chinese surveillance balloon, which raises some big questions, kim. why if this does turn out to be true, why would china be flying these kinds of balloons so far

from its own airspace and p potentially over other countries. recall the balloon that flew over the u.s. flew through canadian airspace before it came to the u.s. airspace. this is creating diplomatic ripples far beyond the u.s., although it's already done diplomatic damage to beijing and washington t two largest economies. >> ivan watson will stay on this in hong kong. thank you so much. john delury is a professor at chinese studies of yonsei university and the author of "agents of subversion: the fate of john t. downie and the cia's covert war in china." what do you make of their response? >> well, on the face of it with the facts we have so far, it

strings belief to buy the chinese story. as you mentioned now, there's other balloons popping up. and the whole question of why china has another been forth coming with canada, with the united states, with other governments in the americas is about what these balloons are doing really casts a lot of doubt on their claim that it's for weather. hopefully something will come out of the search for the debris and that would allow the u.s. government provide, you know, kind of smoking-gun evidence. i would expect the chinese government to stick with their story no matter what is dredged up from the outer banks, you know, and to insist to the bitter end that this is innocent. so i think we're going to be stuck with two narratives, which is often a problem in u.s./china relations. >> absolutely. how damaging is this to china's reputation and maybe more

specifically president xi as this is the start of his third term? >> well, i think it's no question it's an embarrassment, particularly with the timing where secretary blinken obviously was on his way to beijing. that's not a trip that the americans were dying to ha have. i mean there was agreement on both sides that xi jinping and joe biden wanted to make that happen, and this has really blown up that trip. so it does not look good for xi. if we zoom out a little bit, he's having a very, very rough start too his third term, right? he's started five more years as lead over his country and he had the protests in november, he had the covid policy reversal and the spike in cases and a lot of discontent, and now he's got this diplomatic fiasco. i think at a minimum we can say it's a fiasco and embarrassing for china. >> we heard some sort of not-so-veiled threats from china. what kind of response do you expect concretely?

do you expect them to take any action against american assets? >> you know, the other hint in that statement had to do with the companies involved because they're maintaining this as a civilian airship. that could be interesting to see if china claims they want compensation from the united states based on the company. i mean it would be great to get full disclosure on those companies and maybe we can learn more from them. i don't know how much they want to actually divulge about this program, but i read that statement as a hint of potential next steps. as far as doing the same thing, i mean, of course. i mean we would assume that china would, you know, blow up a u.s. spy balloon that was floating over its country, whether it did it over the land or overseas. so i don't really see that as a new threat. it's not really surprising the united states responded this way. i would expect the prc to do the same.

>> tlet's put this in context then. this is isn't the fit time a high-profile spying has threatened the u.s. and china. where does this rank? >> for students of the relationship, i think the most recent incident that comes to mind about 20 years ago already now already in 2001 there because spy plane incident. this involved a u.s. naval surveillance aircraft that was flying along china's coast, was intercepted by chinese jets, forced down one of the -- one of the chinese jets crashed, and so there was loss of life in that case about and it had to do with an emergency landing on the island. the roles were reversed. it was a u.s. spy plane. they had to negotiate an apology and release of the crew itself. that incident, if you think about that, it actually

underscores the way the u.s./chinese relationship has changed in the 21st century. now it's americans who have to sort of deal with chinese capabilities, spying capabilities, technological capabilities some of that's probably the historical marker that i would go back to. there are many more, but you can read my book, you know, for the cold war history of covert relations. >> all right. listen. i really appreciate your insights on this, john delury, thanks so much. >> thanks, kim. all right. just ahead, much more on the downing of the suspected spy balloon. how the u.s. plans to retrieve the payload and what officials want to do with the equipment. plus, the texas governor declares a disaster after a severe ice storm leaves several people dead and knocks out hundreds of thousands in his state. we'll have the details after the break. please stay with us. which makes waking up at 5 a.m. to m milk the cows a little easasier. (moo) mabel says for you, it's momore like 5:15.

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newsroom." a quick recap. the u.s. has shot down a spy balloon by china. it was struck from a single

missile by a fighter jet. debris landed in 47 feet of water, but it should make it fairly easy to recover the parts. and once the equipment is retrieved, it will be taken to the fbi lab in quantico virginia for analysis. earlier josh campbell explained the significance of having the fbi review the balloon's payload. here it is. >> there's an entire division, the technical wizards that are responsible for assistance with offensive intelligence collection. they authorize surveillance that the fbi does. that makes sense to me. secondly, there's no better agency in the world that is better at actually looking back and reconstructing something and determining what happened in a particular incident. the third thing that's important to remember is this won't just be the fbi. there will be the defense department and other agencies as

well. there's also a very public component to this as well. there will be a public accountability component. we've heard a number of politicians criticizing the white house, why wasn't something done sooner. there'll be a report, what did the fbi find, what was on this balloon, and that's why the fbi would lead it rather than the cia agencies don't like to be out there in the realm. meanwhile the pentagon said another balloon was flying over latin america. this video was filmed in san jose, costa rica, on thursday. cnn spoke with a witness who filmed it, though, he thought he was seeing a ufo at first. he said the balloon was visible all day in the costa rican sky. the director general of costa rica's civil aviation authority confirmed the sightings and told

cnn the balloon didn't originate in costa rica and then disappeared. there was another report of a sighting this time in columbia. the air force said it was an altitude of above 55,000 feet and is working with other countries to determine the balloon's origin. et the balloon has since left columbian airspace. the northeastern u.s. is thawing out from a deep freeze that brought bone-chilling and life-threatening temperatures. the windchill alerts have died down. we should be 5 to 10 degrees above normal in the coming hours. the coldest place was at the mount washington observatory in new hampshire. they reported a new u.s. national windchill record of minus 108 degrees fahrenheit. that's almost negative 80 die grease celsius. the cold weather wasn't just in new england. to the southwest, an ice storm has left at least eight people

dead. texas governor greg abbott issued a disaster declaration for several counties on saturday. more than 80,000 are still without power across texas and arkansas according to poweroutage.u.s. as cnn's gloria pazmino reports, it's forcing many to stay home and off the streets. >> reporter: record-low temperatures across the region, but here in new york city right outside of central park, people have been doing what they do best here in new york. they have been braving the elements all day. i have been speaking with tourists and new yorkers who have been unfazed by the temperatures. all day i have been watching my friend gamal running this hot dog cart here. he had a hard time this morning trying to get it set up because his generator had actually frozen. the oil and the gas inside, he

had a hard time getting it set up. he's told mes by is a little bit slow today, right? not so good? not many people out here in these cold temperatures. just take a look. this bottle of water, frozen solid. it has been frozen all day. that should give you an idea of just how cold it is here. but as i said, new yorkers, those who are visiting, for the most part, taking it in stride, out for a jog, walking the dog, and just enjoying the weather. >> just ran around the park. >> just ran around the park. >> yeah. >> it's 12 degrees. >> it's not bad when the wind's not blowing. >> okay. >> it feels good. >> okay. >> it feels really refreshing. >> a lot of people see her and they're like, oh, my god, she's so fashionable. but it's also function to make sure her head stays warm and the shoes because it's like new york. there's glass and all this other stuff, so, yeah. >> reporter: i also spoke to a man who was visiting new york city from chicago.

he told me this was nothing. he was perfectly comfortable because he was dressed for the elements. that's one of the most important things. if you're going to go outside in these very cold temperatures, dress appropriately, and wear your lairs. and if you don't need to, it's probably best to stay home. i'm gloria pazmino in new york, cnn. more to come as people watched the fighter jet shoot down a spy balloon. and the u.s. navy looks for debris from the downed spy balloon. the challenges they face when we come back. please stay with us. this valentitine's day, give the gift of shine. at zaleses, the diamond store.

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welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. this is "cnn newsroom." i want to get back to our top story. the u.s. on saturday shot down a suspected chinese spy balloon over the atlantic ocean after it drifted across america for several days. onlookers near the coast captured the moment it was hit by a single missile from a fighter jet. one official said the debris landed in a relatively shallow water off south carolina and recovery operations are underway. anything that is salvaged will be sent to the fbi lab for an all sis. the pentagon waited until the balloon was safely over water and away from civilians. with us now from boulder, colorado, is the director for national security initiatives at the university of colorado speaking to us on the phone. how hard do you think it will be to retrieve usable intelligence from the balloon, and what do

you think they'll be able to get from it, best-case scenario? >> i think that the navy, you know, is out there, ready for the debris to come down. they have a lot of experience removing debris and objects from the ocean. obviously there's a lot of eye strain on the remains of the balloon coming down, so i think there's a very good chance to retrieve, you know, something there. until they get their eyes on it and look at it, you know, it's going to be difficult to predict what state, you know, all the equipment is going to be in. >> yeah. we've been told this wasn't the first suspected chinese spy balloon that's flown over the u.s. in recent years is. that a surprise that these aren't actually will i that -- aren't that uncommon? >> you know, part of the

surprise, i suppose, is a sophisticated country like china is using what at first sight looks like relatively low technology. i think part of this could be that china's experimenting with this way of conducting surveillance, but, yeah, at the end of the day, it is surprising. >> why would that be because satellites are so amazing at getting detailed piers of things. so what kind of information could you get from a balloon that you couldn't get or would be harder to get using a sate satellite? >> the first thing is the distance. the closer you are, the more easily you can see it. a balloon is much, much closer to the ground than satellites are. satellites fly in different orbits. some of them fly closer to the encht it's called low earth orbit, and so, again, you know, relatively speaking, they're

closer, but they don't have persistence. persistence is when you're in the same area for a long period of time. satellites close to the ground don't have persistence, but they have good imaging. their satellites are much further away in what's called a geo synchronous orbit. they stay on the ground the whole time. they're always looking at the same part of the earth, but they're very, very far away. in some ways the balloon has the best of both of those things. it's much, much closer to the ground, so it can see things much more clearly. it has some persistence. it's moving slowly. so there are some advantages. i think, again, you know, advantages nations are going to continually re-evaluate things they've done in the past. maybe there are technologies now that make it more useful to try

and conduct espionage from a balloon platform and, again, perhaps this is what china's doing here. >> we might see more of these in the future. i appreciate your expertise on this, iain boyd. divers from the u.s. navy are working to recover the balloon and its payload from the atlantic ocean. it will be taken to the fbi lab to quantico, virginia, for analysis. cnn's tom foreman has challenges ahead. >> reporter: this is the portion of the balloon they want to get their ands on, the payload. when the balloon was destroyed, you could clearly seeing it falling away below. if this had the mass of a human like a skydiver, it might be falling at 100 1rks 50 miles an hour. if it had a mass of a couple of cars, its velocity might have been 500 miles an hour.

what that means is when it got to this area just off myrtle beach, the water would essentially be like concrete. it would hit it with tremendous force and absolutely be miss shapen, torn apart, brokenen up by the impact. what does that mean for recovery? what it means is they have to get divers out there. 47 feet down, that's a good workable depth. that i have to look at this, figure it out, how many pieces are it in, where they are, assess if some is buried down in the muck below and come up with a list of priorities. what do they want to bring up first? how much do they want to protect? these operations are typically longer than most people expect even though they believe this one could be pretty fast. think of it this way. this is like an underwater crime scene now and they have to protect the evidence as best they can if they want to learn all they can about this balloon.

>> and many people witnessed the drama in the sky near the popular tourist destination myrtle beach, south carolina. earlier cnn's jim acosta spoke to a man who watched the fighter jet shoot the balloon out of the sky. listen to this. >> i've seen a lot of crazy stuff at myrtle beach in the last few years, but this was by far the craziest. we were at lunch joking around what if we see it, what if it's right here, and them shooting it down was ima continental. we went outside and saw the fighter jets circling around. there were four of them. after that we heard a bang and the balloon was gone. >> about how long did all of this take? like a couple of minutes? how much time went by as you watched this? >> about 15 minutes from when we walked out of the restaurant to when the balloon was gone. >> people across the carolinas were carefully tracking the

balloon as it may its way overhead. another witness described it as a show for the beachgoers. here's what he had to say. >> people were outside. they were in the parking lots, pulling over on the side of the road. all the beach accesses, it almost looked like it was summertime the way the beach access was packed with people. i actually went to one of the local condominiums and went up to the 15th floor on it because i knew i would have a better vantage point to be able to see it at a higher point in the sky. it was pretty wild. it was definitely a show for everybody here at myrtle beach. >> and about how long did it take for the balloon to come down after it was shot out of the sky? >> man, i don't know. it floated for a while. i would say it took -- i never seen it actually hit the water because i lost track of it once it got down so far. >> the head of russia's vladimir

adversaries gives a grim view of fighting in eastern ukraine. why reports of a ukrainian retreat are wrong. plus, one of pakistan's most controversial leaders passed away. we'll take you to islamabad with a look at how people there are reacting. stay with us. so betty can be the... barcode beat conductor. ♪ gogo betty! ♪ let's be more than our allergigies! zeize the day. with zyrtec. ♪ prizefighter... ...meetsrailblazer. ♪ ♪ classic meets modern. ♪ at morgan stanley, we may seem like a contradiction...and we are. ♪ ♪

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former pakistani president general perez musharraf has died at the age of 79. his death came after a prolonged illness. he was in dubai where he lived in self-imposed exile. it was at the height of america's declared war on terror after 9/11. cnn's sophia saifi joins us now from islamabad with more. he had a complex relationship with the u.s. how is he being remembered?

>> reporter: he came to power in 1999. an entire generation came of age post-9/11 and during musharraf's time when he was in power for nine long years. he said in a memoir that he wrote after resigning from office that the united states had threatened to bomb pakistan into the stone age, according to musharraf, if pakistan didn't ally with them in the war against terror and assist them in their hunt for al qaeda operatives, for osama bin laden. that, as we know, played out in a very different kind of way. the increase in terror attacks within the country, all links back to musharraf going after them, allowing drone strikes to

take place within the country. he had a complicated relationship with political leaders. he put a very popular leader into jail. and an iconic female politician of pakistan was assassinated during musharraf's time in 2007. her son still blames musharraf for his mother's death. yes, we're seeing reactions here in pakistan, but it's been a somewhat muted sunday here. he had died in dubai. he's been out of pakistan since 2016. he had treason charges that have been leveled against him. he's largely been forgotten. there's nostalgia and people look back at the peaceful years in his early years as lead over pakistan. there was political stability somewhat in the beginning. the media thrived. but there are many questions about the bloody legacy that musharraf leaves behind and when and where will he be buried.

those answers we're going to find out in the next couple of hours, kim? >> thank you so much. sophia saifi in islamabad. the chief of russia's wagner mercenary group is denying media reports that ukrainian troops are with drawing from parts of bakhmut. in a telegraph post, they say there are no signs the ukrainians are retreating anywhere and fierce battles are underway for every street, house, and stairwell. missiles hit multiple sites in the donetsk region, killing four people and leaving 11 others wounded. earlier ukraine said a search-and-rescue operation was underway in the city of kharkiv. missiles hit the streets liev manager wounded. a leaving many wounded.

meanwhile britain and the european union are hoping to inflict more economic pain on russia with new sanctions going into effect today. their target, russia's diesel exports. scott mclean has more from london. lots to get to, but first the battlefront in bakhmut. >> reporter: that's right. the fighting continuing. frankly, kim,ite benz continuing for months and months. russia has thrown many resources and man power to attack this town, but so far no luck. this town, bakhmut, you likely would have never heard of it before the role, but it's place and outside important to the war. it's been well fortified by ukrainians as well. that's why the russians have had no luck coming at it directly from the west where they're starting to have some success over the past few weeks is trying to go around it, trying

to surround it from the north and from the south. but've as you mentioned the head of the wagner private military contractor says, look, ukrainians are showing no signs of any kind of withdrawal. from the northern part of the city, not anywhere. as you said, the fighting continues for every street, every house, every stairwell there. and president zelenskyy said a few days ocean as well, look, bakhmut is a ukrainian fortress and his troops have no plans to go anywhere. they will hold on as long as they can. to give you a bit more context, prigozhin said they had no problem capturing people. so it give use a sense of perhaps how fierce the fighting is there. >> interesting. and then, scott, as we mentioned earlier, there were more strikes in donetsk and kharkiv. what's the latest? >> not just bakhmut.

all up and down the front line there's battles. one place is ten miles from the front line and yet it had two missile strikes. it damaged four apartment buildings. it took an effort to free some people from the rubble. there were some four people killed, about a dozen injured. there were also missile strikes in kharkiv to the north. two of them ukrainians say hit in a residential area, injuring at least four people. president zelenskyy in his nightly address yesterday said things are not easy up and down the front line. listen. >> translator: in the course of 346 days of this war, i often had too say that the situation at the front was tough and that the situation was becoming tougher. it is once again that time, the time when the invader is putting more and more of his forces into breaking down our defechblts it

is very difficult now in bakhmut, vod door, limon, and other directions. >> reporter: ukrainians have been gearing up for an expected spring offensive and trying to move the front lines west. there's a buildup of troops in the city of mariupol. one ukrainian official said just a few days ago that he expects the most consequential, some of the most defining battles of this war will be fought in the next two to three months. kim? >> we'll be tracking it. scott mclean in london, thanks so much. just ahead, basketball star lebron james continues to chip away at a record. he's within striking distance. we'll have the latest coming up. stay with us. showed that centrur supports cognitive health in older adults. it's one more step towards taking charge of your healalth. so every day, you can say... ♪ youuu did it! ♪ with centrum silver.

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lakers legend kareem abdul-jabbar for at least a couple more days. for now, cnn sports' coy wire. he hasn't made a secret of how much this record means to him. >> yeah, it was just a few days ago he considers this one of the greatest records in all of p home sports. it's been kareem's for 39 years. that's longer than lebron has been alive, but now lebron is one good game away from breaking that rohr. every time lebron made a bucket saturday on the road now in new orleans, the crowd cheered. that's how badly fans from any team want to see history. 20 years in the nba and he's still doing stuff like that. just like you, right? >> yeah. >> this is the type of effort and passion that makes lebron the greatest. fans getting their money's worth. he flew into the stands chasing that loose ball. despite his effort, the lakers

lose, 131-126. he was asked how he was feeling after the game. >> i just want to win. with'll see what happens. i'm tired as hell, but i'll be ready to go on tuesday. >> 36 points to go. could he do it? lebron is averaging 30 points a game per season. he's scored at a least 36 nine times this season including three of the last seven games. if not tuesday, it could be at home against the bucks. >> his teammates are going to be feeding him the ball hoping they're going to to be the ones to give him the assist for those points. >> moving on to the gridiron, we're exactly one weeng away from super bowl 5lvii. it's the first time two black quarterbacks will ever play each other on this stage, but what other big lines will you be

watching from the game? >> well, they're calling this the kelce bowl. they'll be the first brothers to play against each other as players in the super bowl. can you imagine that? they're from cleveland, ohio. they went to the same university, drafted to the nfl and they're headed to the nfl hall of fame. travis one of the greatest tight ends, jason, one of the greatest offensive linemen. this may be the toughest game their parents may ever have to watch. the coaches are each coaching against their former team. chiefs coach andy reid, head coach, he came in philadelphia. when he first arrived in kansas city, kim, one of his first moves was to fire then coach nick sirianni because he brought in his own guys. sirianni is doing just fine in the super bowl in his second season as head coach.

finally, one story tough to miss, jordan mailata from australia, his dream was to play in the pro rugby league down there, but he was too big. so he flew to the u.s., 10,000 miles from home, got a spot with the eagles, and now he's one of the highest paid and best linemen. >> doing already for himself. >> doing all right. >> we'll have plenty of time to preview the game coming up. we have to leave it there. coy wire, thanks so much. we appreciate it. before we go, we have a feeling whatever happens tonight in the grammy awards, beyonce is going to be just fine. in other words, win or lose, it won't break her soul. ♪ you won't break my soul you won't break my soul you won't break my soul sn♪ she leads with nine.

also there's abba, brandi carlile and harry styles also made the list. that wraps up this hour. i'm kim brunhuber. cnn world is next. for the rest of the world, it's "connecting afrte africa."

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♪ good morning. welcome to "cnn this morning." i'm boris sanchez. >> i'm amara walker. we are