fredricka? >> and then, ed, is there any way of knowing who is making up the marchers, the protesters today? >> reporter: you know, it's interesting. it is spearheaded by the national office of the naacp. we spoke with some folks this morning who had come in from michigan and from texas to participate in this march. you have a lot of, you know, people here locally. what i witnessed so far in the church service this morning, a lot of older people. but a good number of younger people as well, which i found to be pretty interesting. and one of the things that some of the folks talked to us about is they hoped over the the course of the next seven days all of this builds momentum. we talked in the last hour about how this is done deliberately to kind of be reminiscent of the 1960s civil rights marchs. that's the reason why they are doing this. and the head of the naacp from the marches from selma to montgomery grew exponentially as the days go on and they hope to see that in this march today. >> tha

jeremiah, explain that for me. >> good afternoon, fredricka. the video is approximately 16 minutes long, and only one minute of the video is the beheading of the american. the other 15 minutes is talking about the allegiance or alliance, i should say, that has been created with other jihadists in sinai. what is not in it is the same alliance that was created in lebanon this past week. it talks about north africa. and then what's fascinating is the map. they show rome falling. they show the spread of isis throughout europe. they show it to the you states. they show it spreading into china. the reason why there was no conclusion 0 to it, it's more of a declaration of international war and unlike the other vides s before this one focuses on christianity. >> the spread of its message of its intent, clear hi designed to spread fear but how seriously should western countries, or even china as you mentioned, be taking this kind of message in terms of it being taken to be a real threat or is this just kind of fear mongering? >> listen, we've seen this

>>> hello again, everyone, i'm fredricka whitfield. here are the top stories we're following in the cnn newsroom. a marine reservist held for months in mexico is free. andrew tahmooressi is free for the first time in seven months. how he's doing. >>> plus in california a spaceship breaks up in the sky, the pieces plummeting to the ground. the new details we learned in the last hour straight ahead. >>> and in hawaii a volcano has turned into a huge nightmare. we'll talk to a homeowner about what he's doing to stay safe coming up. >>> new details on that failed virgin dpa lactic space flight fp just moments ago the founder of the group richard branson spoke to reporters about yesterday's tragedy. he left one pilot dead and another injured. listen to what he said. >> we are determined to find out what went wrong, and we're working with the authorities to get that information. it is too early for me to add any details of the investigation at this stage. we've always known that commercial space travel is an incredibly hard project. we've be

fredricka?a freshman at west virginia university has now prompted the suspension of all greek life activities. wvu officials say 18-year-old nolan michael birch died yesterday. he was found unresponsive yesterday at the kappa sigma fraternity house. students held a vigil last night. kappa sigma's national organization says the chapter at wva had been suspended last month on unrelated violations. police are now investigating birch's death. >>> straight ahead, comedy legend bill cosby confronted about rape allegations. again, this time the comedian's reaction, next hour. the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. hurry in and get zero due at signi

. >>> hello again, everyone, i'm fredricka whitfield. developing news on the virgin galactic spaceship disaster. the ntsb about to release an update about spaceship 2 coming down. this as we understand that virgin ceo richard branson could arrive at any moment at the crash site in california. the shasship 2 plane fell apart just two minutes after friday's launch over the mojave desert. one pilot was killed, the other hospitalized. cnn's stephanie elam is near the launch site. the second private space disaster this week. what are we learning about what happened? any commonalities here? >> reporter: yeah, it's very disturbing, obviously, it's a very rough week for space exploration and these private endeavors as well, fred. what you're seeing here are the challenges of actually trying to get up to space. the plan was to take people up 62 miles above earth so that they could feel maybe for five or six minutes what it's like to be weightless in the lower regions of space before coming back to earth. this whole endeavor now going through a se

em fredricka.r with confirmation of the death of hostage peter kassig at the hands of isis extremists. apparently beheaded by the terrorist group. tell us more about what the president a's remarks were all about. >> reporter: well, fredricka, the president did confirm that peter kassig is the one in the end of this brutal 15-minute isis video, has confirmed that he was, indeed, beheaded. in a new statement president obama offered on air force one today, he offers his condolences to the kassig family. i'm going to read part of that statement to you. the president goes on to say abdul-rahman was taken in an act of pure evil from a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity. like those before him, his life indeed stands in stark contrast to everything isil represents. while isil revels in the slaughter of innocence including muslims and is bent only on sewing death and destruction, abdul-rahman worked to save those injured. isil's actions represent no faith, least of all the mus

i'm fredricka whitfield.ice reporter, evan perez. he has brand-new information about the grand jury in ferguson, missouri. evan? >> reporter: hey, good morning, fred. we know from sources that the grand jury that was here considering whether to indict officer darren wilson left the justice center here in st. louis county without reaching a decision last night. we don't know, at this point, whether they are coming back today, monday, or some other day next week, perhaps. we do know that the prosecutors here had a plan, which was that if the grand jury did not reach a decision last night, that they would come back today. what we don't know is whether that plan remains the case. whether they're sticking with that plan. you know, our entire cnn team, karen brown, my colleague in washington, we're all working our sources, trying to figure out what exactly is going to happen next. but we do know that the original plan, with the expectation that the grand jury would reach a decision last night, that did not happen.

>> well, fredricka, i thought this was one seat they would be able to save, but it doesn't look that way now. for several weeks my sight, the crystal ball had that race leaning to republican joni ernst. i'm not sure she's ahead seven points. i think it's probably closer than that, a couple points perhaps, but she does have the edge and it would certainly hurt democratic prospects of holding on to the senate. >> and ron? >> yeah, well, i agree with larry. this is the widest lead we have seen in polling consistent with polling showing her consistently ahead. look, this is one of the states where president obama's weakness has allowed republicans to expand the playing field. with or without a deterioration in his approval rating. democrats will have a hard time in the red states on the ballot this year, but the low approval ratings for the president have allowed the republicans to expand the playing field into iowa, colorado, new hampshire and the democrats did not initially expect and have to defend to make the task of holding the senate much more complex. >> then we asked both of you

eastern when the officer and this now famous photograph talks with our fredricka whitfield about what that hug was all about, how it happened, and the feelings and conversation in that moment. again that's 3:00 p.m. eastern today. >> boy, that little boy's face certainly said a lot. >> absolutely. >>> let's get you caught up with some other stories making news with your morning read. >> the u.s.-led coalition battling isis launched at least 30 air strikes overnight in the northern syrian city of raqa. it marks a sharp increase in coalition activity there. recent attacks on isis in syria focuseded on the city of kobani. >>> new hope for an ebola vaccine. scientists say 20 healthy adults received an experimental ebola rack seen, just an experimental one, it's in the first phase of human trials. all of them produced antibodies to the disease. the national institutes of health is fast-tracking more trials. >>> ruth bader ginsburg expected to head back to work tomorrow. she had a strept placed in her right coronary artery last week after experiencing discomfort while exercising. she's also

i'm pamela brown in for fredricka whitfield. and we begin this hour with breaking news.kenneth bea and matthew todd miller just released by the north korean government. they're on their way home right now and president obama as well has officially named loretta lynch as his nominee for attorney general. first, global affairs correspondent elise labott is in washington along with cnn's eric mcpike. erin, to you first. we've heard from the president this morning about their release. tell me what you're learning. >> reporter: pamela, we did hear from a little bit from the president as he was leaving that nominating ceremony for loretta lynch. he was asked about the release. here's what he said. >> i think it's a wonderful day for them and their families and obviously very grateful for their safe return and appreciate doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission. >> reporter: now, obviously, you would expect that the president would be brought in to approve something that's this high stakes. we did just learn, though, that he was, of course, briefed on and t