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Turkey Versus Russia on Downed Russian Warplane; Terror Investigations Continue in Belgium; North and South Korea in First Talks Since August; Pope Francis's First Visit to Africa; Rescued Russian Co-Pilot Claims No Warnings from Turkey; MSF Calls U.S. Forces Grossly Negligent After Hospital Attack; Chicago Protests Over Shooting Death of Black Teen; Hollande Travels to Moscow. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 26, 2015 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[00:00:00] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Was the downing of a Russian fighter jet in Syria premeditated? The Kremlin thinks so, but Turkey says it has proof that the pilot was warned to flyaway.

As a terror hunt continues throughout Europe, French President Hollande trekking the globe, pushing for a broader coalition to destroy ISIS; and Pope Francis promoting peace as he links terror to poverty on the first stop of his African tour.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Isha Sesay; "Newsroom L.A." starts right now.

We begin with escalating tensions between Turkey and Russia, with the two exchanging charged rhetoric over the downing of a Russian jet. Russia suggested the incident was a planned provocation, and announced it was deploying anti-aircraft missiles to Syria to protect jets. Turkey's President accused Moscow of deceit, saying Russian planes weren't flying over ISIS targets, but over areas were ethnic Turkmen are. Turkey backed its claims of repeated warnings to the warplane, while the rescued Russian co-pilot gave his version of events. Barbara Starr has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The shoot-down of the jet by Turkey sparking tension from Moscow to Washington. One pilot shot dead by Turkish supported rebels as he parachuted to the ground. The other, rescued, by only after a first failed attempt when a helicopter was hit by a U.S.-made TOW missile, fired by rebels on the ground.

Turkey insisting the shoot-down was justified. Today, the Turkish government releasing audio of what the Turks say were ten warnings to the Russian pilot. Russia disputed any warnings were given, broadcasting an interview with the rescued pilot, his back to the camera, presumably to protect his identity.

KONSTANTIN MURAKHTIN, COPILOT, RUSSIA, via translator: Not via the radio, not visually. There was no contact whatsoever. STARR: According to the Turks, the Russian jet flew just over a mile into its airspace and was there for just 17 seconds before they shot it down; raising questions about the Turks' very quick action.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Was it an attack posture? Was it really threatening or was it simply violating the airspace of Turkey?

STARR: The U.S. pressing for calm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most important of things is for a de- escalation of tensions.

STARR: Publicly Russia appears to agree.

SERGEI LAVROV, FOREIGN MINISTER, RUSSIA, via translator: We do not intend to wage war on Turkey.

STARR: Moscow far from backing off. In recent days, Russian long- range bombers flew two extraordinary attack missions, leaving northern Russia to fly around Europe, into the Mediterranean and another set of bombers flying into Iranian air space, both launching cruise missiles into Syria. Additional surface-to-air missiles will be placed at the Lattakia, its main Syrian airbase.

And tonight, the U.S. looking at allegations at what appears to be an air strike against a humanitarian aid convoy just six miles south of the Turkish border inside Syria; not clear yet who may have been responsible.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, Ian Lee joins us now from Istanbul with more on all of this. Ian, Russia and Turkey still very much at odds over the downing of that jet and neither President Putin or Erdogan is known for backing down, which is of great concern to many.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right, and that's why you're hearing the United States/NATO urging for calm and to de-escalate the situation. Turkey also has been a lot more conciliatory in their rhetoric, as well, saying it wasn't their intention -- or they don't have any animosity towards Russia, and that while they're defending their own national integrity, they say that they hope this sort of

incident can be avoided in the future.

Now we're hearing very fiery rhetoric from the Russians. Putin calling it a stab in the back. We had the Foreign Minister of Russia saying he believed this could have been premeditated. So there is talks between the two countries; their foreign ministers were able to talk; their militaries are also talking right now. But when you look at Russia, Russia is also putting more weapons inside Syria to make sure this doesn't happen again, to support their planes.

[00:05:00] SESAY: And, Ian, to that point, with Russia moving more weapons into

Syria, have we seen any change in Russian military operations, there in Syria, since the downing of this fighter jet?

LEE: So Russia is moving in new surface-to-air missiles, the S-400, which is one of their most sophisticated surface-to-air missiles. They're also going to have fighter escorts go along with their bombers to provide some sort of security. If an incident like this happens again, this would be a dangerous escalation if there was another air incident. There have been calls for dialogue, but as we heard from Barbara Starr there, there was an attack, just south of the Turkish boarder, about five miles in the Northwestern Aleppo (inaudible) Anatolian news agency saying a Russian airplane attacked a convoy; but looking further down a line into the future, I talked to an analyst and he told me that he believes Russia will go after Turkish interests inside Syria as punishment for shooting down their plane.

SESAY: The situation still very tense. Ian Lee joining us there with more analysis from Istanbul; thank you, Ian.

And now we turn to Paris, where Francois Hollande is working to firm up a multi-national coalition against ISIS. He met with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Wednesday. He also laid flowers at a memorial to the Paris attack victims. Mr. Hollande will host the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, in the coming hours, before traveling to Moscow for talks with Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

For more on the diplomatic front we turn now to max foster, who is live for us in Paris. Max, good morning to you. President Hollande's diplomatic dash continues. How much progress is he actually making?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well I was with him yesterday when he was meeting Angela Merkel and he was just essentially asking her for her support, more resources in the fight against ISIS in Syria.

She didn't directly commit to that, but she did say she had the intention of doing more. So that part of the diplomatic dash, as you describe it, did work, and they also talked more about coordinating intelligence efforts across Europe. Again, Angela Merkel saying she supports that, but we're waiting to see some actual progress there, and whether or not there will be changes to that information sharing and whether or not, indeed, there will be more military resources going into the French effort to tackle ISIS. She did suggest that there's a lot of pressure on French military so perhaps Germany military can help in that battle against ISIS on the ground there. Germany, of course, never on the front foot on any military engagements since the second World War.

Today, Francois Hollande does goes to Moscow. He will be trying to bring Moscow closer to the international alliance led by President Obama in Syria. We'll see what progress they make there. Of course it's all been horribly complicated of the shooting down of the Russian jet by a NATO member, Turkey, over Syria. So that will come up as well, and perhaps President Hollande will have a role to calm tensions between Turkey and Moscow on this one. In terms of the latest on the investigation, Salah Abdeslam on the run still. Still no one knows where he is. It's a continental search now for him. Not just Belgium. Not just France. Germany is also involved there. Also, a driver who was suspected of driving attackers around Paris and dropping them off at their targets is also on the run, they believe. So they're also searching for him. So two people on the run. Here's the latest though from Martin Savidge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, with an international manhunt still underway, there are new details emerging about a second suspect on the run. Mohamed Abrini, last seen here at a gas station in France with Salah Abdeslam, shortly before the November 13th attacks, traveled to Syria in 2014; and like Abdeslam was maybe to make his way back into Europe undetected, a major concern for investigators.

Also tonight, new fears radicalized Islamic workers are infiltrating the French transportation system, a report revealing concerns about airport employees with access to commercial airlines at France's two main airports. Officials say since January 50 employees at Charles de Gauld International Airport have been denied access to secure locations due to suspicions they may have been radicalized. French transportation unions have complained that some bus drivers refuse to acknowledge women and have been found praying inside their bus when they were supposed to be driving their routes. One of the Bataclan Theatre

[00:10:00]

attackers was a bus driver, as recently as 2012. Meanwhile, French jets are stepping up the battle against ISIS, pounding targets inside of Syria and Iraq.

MANUEL VALLS, PRIME MINISTER, FRANCE, via translator: there is no alternative. we have to destroy ISIS.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: And President Hollande has been talking about a war against ISIS. We have the memorial tomorrow, Isha, the National memorial for all of those that died in those Paris attacks. I spoke to the deputy mayor yesterday and he said it's going to be very formal. It's going to be at a military location, and that really shows the change in tone from the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks, where we saw a big outpouring of grief after that. This feels different, it's much more formal and it's effectively giving those victims of the Paris attacks a military sendoff.

SESAY: It's going to be a very, very emotional day, as so many have been since these terror attacks on November 13th. Max Foster joining us there from Paris. Max, we appreciate it. We'll join you again soon; thank you. Now ISIS says it is responsible for an attack on a bus that killed members of Tunisia's Presidential Guard. Tuesday's explosion in Tunis killed 12 people, along with the suspected suicide bomber. The country is now under a state of emergency for the next month, and a nightly curfew is in effect in the capital. ISIS targeted the nation two other times this year, attacking a museum and a hotel. Most of the victims killed in those assaults were tourists.

Now Doctors Without Borders says it has "more questions than answers" after the findings of an investigation into last month's deadly airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan. The U.S. says human and technical airs contributed to a strike. A top U.S. commander revealed an aircraft mistakenly targeted the hospital in Kunduz instead of the suspected Taliban site. 30 people died in the October 3rd attack. In a statement the group says, "The frightening catalog of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of U.S. forces and violations of the rules of war."

A State Regional Secretary in Venezuela was killed at a rally on Wednesday, less than two weeks before Parliamentary elections. According to the country's Democratic Action Party, armed assailants in a vehicle shot and killed the Luis Manuel Diaz. In a statement the party said it condemns the assassination and is calling for an independent investigation immediately.

South Korea has agreed to meet with North Korea on Thursday. Representatives from the two countries will meet in the truce village of Panmunjeom. These will be the first talks since August, when the two sides met to try and ease tensions. As part of that agreement families from both Koreas were allowed to reunite last month. South Korea says Thursday's talks will be a preliminary meeting for higher level discussions at a later date. Our own Paula Hancocks joins me now, live, from Seoul.

Paula, good to have you with us. Rare talks aimed at paving the way for more talks; what do we know about the agenda and the potential sticking points?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isha, we're almost four hours into those talks now. We haven't heard anything from either side, but what they are trying for is to make sure these working talks go somewhere; to make sure that they step up a level the next time around; to hopefully ministerial level, according to South Korea. They want their Unification Minister to be a part of the next talks. So what they're trying to get is a date, a time, a venue and an agenda. Of course it's that agenda that can always be the sticking point.

We know that South Korea, for its part, wants to have more of these family reunions, these very emotional reunions of families that have been separated since 1953, since the Korean War ended. There's millions of families that were separated in that way and that's a real priority for tens of thousands of people here in South Korea who have applied to be part of these reunions, which only a handful are ever part of. From the North Korean side, they probably want to reintroduce and reopen a joint tourism venture in Mt. Kumgang, which has been shut for about seven years now. They want the money from that joint venture. So both sides have their priorities and what they want to see come out of this meeting, but at this point we haven't heard what is going to come out of the meeting. But they hope it will be another meeting, a higher level meeting. Isha?

SESAY: Yes, and Paula, this is the first intergovernmental interaction since August. I guess some people are wondering why they are coming together now, the timing of all this?

HANCOCKS: At the beginning of the month there was an incident on the DMZ, the demilitarized zone, between North and South Korea. Two South Korean soldiers were maimed in a land mine incident. Now the South blames the North for laying those mines there; the North says that they were not responsible. The tensions ratcheted up after that, and

[00:15:00]

then towards the end of the month there was an agreement that they had to try and calm things down. This is really part of that agreement. They agreed to meet more, the both sides agreed to talk more. So this is really a follow-on from that.

SESAY: All right, Paula Hancocks joining us there from Seoul, South Korea. Paula, appreciate it; thank you.

Pope Francis in Kenya. Up next, details on his meeting with African religious leaders and live insight on why it's important. Plus, an Irish nun in Nairobi has made it her life's work to help the city's poorest residents. Her inspiring story is coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Hello, everyone. Pope Francis is in Kenya right now on a six day trip to Africa. This is his first full day in the country; he arrived Wednesday. The Pope is holding an interreligious meeting an ecumenical meeting in Nairobi with the Anglican Church and Muslim leaders. He's also advocating peace forgiveness, despite a rise in Islamic extremism. Experts say Africa's Catholic population is growing

[00:20:00]

faster than anywhere else in the world. For more on the Pope's first- ever visit to Africa, I want to bring in CNN's Senior Vatican Analyst, John Allen. He's also the Associate Editor of the Boston Globe Media's Catholic News site, and author of "The Francis Miracle." John joins us live via Skype in Denver, Colorado. Always good to have you with us.

This is a pope, John, who, as you know, truly understands the power of images, taking to the streets of Nairobi, after he landed, in a modest gray Honda, and in so doing providing an important lesson in humility.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: That's right, Isha. Of course his commitment to personal humility and simplicity, and trying to set a tone for other Church leaders in that regard has been one of the hallmarks of his papacy from the very beginning. I'm sure you remember those images of Pope Francis when he came to the United States, riding around in that very modest Fiat 500. By the way, the Fiat company in this country has begun running television commercials, picking up on that, describing the vehicle as a heavenly choice at a divine price. So, it remains to be seen if Honda will do something similar to that across Africa, but in any event, this is part of course of what captures hearts and minds of Pope Francis wherever he goes.

SESAY: Yes, no doubt about that. You know, the Pope took on the issue of corruption in remarks he made on Wednesday, but in a veiled manner, calling on leaders to work with integrity and transparency. Should we be surprised that he handled this issue, which is of such importance to many Kenyans, with such a light touch?

ALLEN: Well, I mean, look, popes always walk a fine line when they make these foreign trips. On one hand they don't want to embarrass their hosts. They don't want point fingers and pronounce an (inaudible). On the other hand, they don't want to disappoint the people, who are expecting the Pope to be a voice of conscience and to address issues that are of deep relevance in their daily lives, obviously not just in Kenya but across much of Africa the issue of corruption would be at the very top of the to-do list for most advocates of good government and reform.

Frankly, I think most Kenyans heard what Pope Francis said, quite clearly, and also understood why he didn't want to directly call out the government of President Kenyatta or any other specific political formation.

SESAY: He's having this meeting with this interfaith delegation. Give us your take on the importance of this gathering, and some really seeing it as a test of Pope Francis' ability to bridge religious fault lines, if you will, between Christians and Muslims.

ALLEN: Well, I mean, Pope Francis has said on multiple occasions that he believes that a third world war is being fought today, in piecemeal fashion, that is, in various parts of the globe; and he understands that one of the major drivers in conflict in the early 21st Century is interreligious tensions, particularly quite often Christian-Muslim tensions. He knows that there is a growing form of Islamic militancy in eastern Kenya, related to the El Shabab movement, often fueled by support from Somalian Sudan.

And of course, he is also looking ahead, Isha, to next Sunday and Monday when he will be in the Central African Republic, marking the first time the Pope has visited an active war zone, and, once again, where the conflict breaks along Christian-Muslim lines. So I think that is clearly one of the important bits of subtexts of this trip, to try to show that religion is not only sometimes part of the problem, when it comes to violence, but it can be part of the solution and try to mobilize religious leaders, beginning, of course, with his own flock, to be change agents in that regard.

SESAY: John Allen, always great to have you on the program, great insight and perspective. John Allen joining us there from Denver, Colorado; thank you so much.

ALLEN: Sure.

SESAY: Now, an Irish born nun has spent 40 years working in Nairobi slums, helping the poorest residents. Her programs have gotten tens of thousands of children through school and now she will meet with the Pope. Robyn Kriel has more on the woman called the Mother Teresa of Kenya and the people she's inspiring.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The commute to school is a little different for these Kenyan children. Deep in a Nairobi slum, a transport mama arrives early to collect this Zane Moritzi (ps), who is disabled. His real mother, desperate to look after him and his siblings, for years had to leave him at home, alone, while she went to work, but not anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I always feel so happy when transporting these children" she says. I don't feel bad because I transport disabled kids. I am happy with it as my job of carrying these children and I have so much love for them."

[00:25:00] Zane attends school at Tsonga Imbele, or moving forward. It caters to Kenya's most vulnerable, children who are disabled, mentally or physically, or others who, for whatever reason, simply cannot function in regular schools. it was the brainchild of Sister Mary Killeen, an Irish nun who moved here nearly 40 years ago. In that time she's started schools and programs that have educated more than 300,000 of Nairobi's poorest children.

CHILDREN: One. Two. Three.

(APPLAUSE)

KRIEL: She's one of the lucky few that will speak to Pope Francis during his visit to a local slum.

MARY KILLEEN, CATHOLIC NUN, KENYA: So on the very first day he became pope he's been emphasizing about the poor. That hasn't had much effect here, in Kenya, yet, but we're hoping by his coming that it will have an inspirational effect on people and that more people will come and help in this kind of work.

KRIEL: Killeen says she likes religion in action and here it is. A month ago, 6-year-old Juangetshi (ps) took her first steps.

How was her mother's reaction to this?

KILLEEN: They can't believe that she can walk.

KRIEL: Here, blind and mentally disabled children discover they too can read and write.

KILLEEN: So it's like the gospel, you see the lame walk, the blind see and the dumb speak. So it's really wonderful to be part of that and to enable it, now we're not doing as much as we should. It's like a drop in the ocean. "Like a diamond in the sky" ...

KRIEL: But a drop can often be just enough.

KILLEEN: "Twinkle, Twinkle, little star".

KRIEL: Here, it's a helping hand that makes all the difference.

Robyn Kriel, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: What an inspiration. Belgium is working hard to fight radicalization. When we come back, we'll meet an Imam in Antwerp who's teaching children about the true meaning of Islam.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00] SESAY: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour: the rescued co-pilot of the Russian warplane that was shot down says there were no warnings from Turkey. Turkey insists the plane ignored repeated alerts about violating Turkey's air space. Russia announced it will deploy defense missiles to destroy future threats.

Doctors Without Boarders calls U.S. forces grossly negligent after the U.S. military findings into last month's deadly hospital attack in Afghanistan. The U.S. says the air strikes were meant to hit a suspected Taliban site in Kunduz. 30 people were killed. MSF has called for an independent investigation.

People in Chicago are out on the streets for a second night of protests over the shooting death of a black teen, as a response to the release of dash cam video showing a white police officer shooting him 16 times; that officer has been charged with first-degree murder.

French President Francois Hollande travels to Moscow Thursday for talks with Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Mr. Hollande met with his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, in Paris Wednesday in an effort to bring together a global coalition against ISIS.

Well, Max Foster is following the investigation into the Paris attacks. He joins us now, live, from the French capital; good morning, Max.

It has been over a week since those terrible attacks shook Paris. Where does the investigation stand now?

FOSTER: Well still one of the attackers, alleged attackers, Salah Abdeslam, is still on the run. Also, Mohammed Abrini, who was seen with Salah Abdeslam two days before the attacks, in a car with him, at a fuel station, also an international arrest warrant out for him. They must be being hidden by someone, that's the assumption by the police, because you couldn't have survived this long under the radar of security services unless you had some sort of help. So still the public being asked to look out for these two men. They're obviously seen as a danger, but they may not necessarily be in Brussels, which was the initial assumption. That's still on lock down. They could be in any country within driving distance really. So we are looking at those West European countries mainly, and those security services are working together on that.

Whilst France and Belgium crack down on Jihadist, meanwhile, an Imam in Antwerp is working very hard to keep children from becoming radicalized. That's' one of the great challenges now. We know that the transport system now is under surveillance because many of the staff have been radicalized. It's a general issue that countries are having to look at in light of these attacks.

Here's Nima Elbagir with more on that story from Belgium.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some people, he's saying, do bad things and think they're doing good, and when those people arrive before their god, they will say Allah I did this for you.

Imam Suleyman Van Ael is teaching his usual after-school class. Today he's asking the children whether what happened in Paris was an Islamic act. This little boy refers to a verse from the Quran. He says, "if you murder one person, it's as if you killed all humanity."

Imam Van Ael runs a Muslims value after-school program for Muslim children in Antwerp. Since the attacks in Paris, and the prominent role Belgium Jihadis were discovered to have played, these programs have taken on a new urgency.

SULEYMAN VAN AEL, IMAM, BELGIUM: Most of the children out there are exposed through many means, like, especially through social media, like; there is no child that doesn't have internet at home.

ELBAGIR: Van Ael converted to Islam 20 years ago. In the intervening two decades, Belgium has emerged as ground zero for radical Islamic force in Europe, providing, per capita, the highest number of Jihadi fighters joining the ranks of ISIS.

Children as young as nine and ten are being exposed to Jihadist thoughts and the ISIS worldviews.

Some of the children you are working with, they will have older brothers who have gone to Syria?

VAN AEL: Yes, mm-huh.

[00:35:00] ELBAGIR: How do you combat that? How do you stop a child following in their older brother's footsteps?

VAN AEL: Okay, I think what we try to do, in general, is to make a difference between this is your brother as a brother, and these are the deeds of your brother.

ELBAGIR: Van Ael setup these after-school classes to provide an alternative he says to the radical message the children are being exposed to. Next month he's moving to a new facility, where he can accommodate 300

students, but it's come at a price.

ELBAGIR: You have been threatened repeatedly by ISIS?

VAN AEL: In the beginning I stopped teaching because it was -- it got to me, you know? It's not something that is easy, but at the end you say, you know, if your goal is good then it's worth going for it and whatever happens, happens. So it's too important. It's not just about my life.

ELBAGIR: The classes will continue in spite of the risks. The need here is greater than ever.

VAN AEL: If I am erased, there will be somebody else that thinks like me and will keep on going.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Antwerp

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: This is one of the great challenges, Isha, for security services, identifying people in communities who are on the road towards radicalization and then working with those communities to try to get some sort of early intervention, to stop people going down that track. That's what is going to prevent future attacks.

SESAY: Certainly; Max Foster joining us there from Paris. Thank you, Max; appreciate it.

The latest major hurricane is growing in the Eastern Pacific; where forecasters say it's headed is just ahead.

Plus, how fast can you solve a Rubix cube? A teenager just set a new World Record; you have got to see this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:00] Hurricane Sandra is intensifying in the eastern Pacific. It's now the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the region this late in the season. Sandra could come close to Mexico in the coming days. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking the Sandra from CNN Center. Derek, where is she right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, well, she's currently off the West Coast of Mexico, and, Isha, I guarantee you some of the vacationers planning their late Thanksgiving holiday to Puerto Vallarta did not anticipate a hurricane in their plans. This is the latest.

195 kilometer-per-hour -- Hurricane Sandra, this makes it the 30th Category 3 or higher named storm in the Northern Hemisphere this year, astounding statistic, but what I want you to notice is how this storm is set to decrease in speed and intensity going forward, very quickly. This is all thanks to the upper-level jet stream. The jet stream is a strong level of winds and that is responsible for taking this storm and basically sheering it apart, allowing for this storm system to just break apart.

This jet stream is also going to be responsible for setting the stage for the potential of an ice storm for the central parts of the U.S. Take a look at this. Here is all of our warm air, overriding a very cold layer of air. In a typical season we would see that frozen precipitation falling from a cloud deck and falling through a temperature layer that is below freezing, so it would be snowfall no water what. But, with this particular transition in our seasons,

we're allowing for that warm air to melt that frozen particle, eventually allowing for it to freeze and leave in the potential of an ice storm across the central parts of the U.S.

I've got to show you this, quickly, Isha. We have the potential of upwards of one centimeter of ice, anywhere from the Texas panhandle to Oklahoma; something we're going to monitor for the end of the Thanksgiving holiday.

SESAY: We appreciate that, Derek; thank you so much for the update.

VANDAM: Thanks, Isha.

SESAY: Now, a 14-year-old has set a new world record for the fastest time to solve a Rubix Cube, and solving it in under five seconds, for the first time ever. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Oh, my goodness. You saw the time there, that's 4.9 seconds. Lucas Etter (ps) bested the previous record of 5.09 seconds, which, believe it or not, had been set earlier that day; and this is part of a trend, this shot, take a look at this with me. This shot shows how the solve times have gotten faster over the years. The first record was set in 1982 at just under 23 seconds. I was never able to finish it. It is making me feel vastly inadequate. It just doesn't make any sense. Well, congratulations to him.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay. "WORLD SPOrt" is next; then I'll be back, with more news from around the world, in about 15 minutes. You're watching CNN.

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