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U.S. Weighing Direct Action Against ISIS; Hasakah Province Free of ISIS But Still Vulnerable; Showdown in the South China Sea; Refugees Seek Safety Via Arctic Route; Climate Change Threatens Middle East; China Calls US Warships Sailing Off Manmade Island 'Provocation'; Trying to Reach Earthquake Survivors in Afghanistan, Pakistan; Macau Gets New Casino, Despite Falling Gambling Revenues; Apple Profits Up 31 Percent, Mostly Due to iPhone Sales. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 28, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:10] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM. Live from Los Angeles.

Taking the fight to ISIS. The Pentagon opens the door to American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Kurdish troops say they need the help as fear and distrust remain. CNN is on the frontlines tonight.

Arctic refugees. Syrians braving the cold, the snow, and brutal conditions and deeply emotional journeys in search of hope.

And a crackdown on corruption in China. Ripples through the economy. We'll take you live to Macau where the odds may be stacked against a flashy new casino.

Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I am Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

We'll get to those stories in a moment. But first the U.S. is considering upping its campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Defense Secretary Ash Carter testified before U.S. lawmakers Tuesday proposing more airstrikes or, quote, "direct action on the ground." Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will hold another round of talks in Vienna this week to discuss ending Syria's civil war.

The meeting follows talks last week with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Iran is invited to this week's talks but has not yet agreed to attend.

With the U.S. weighing tougher action against ISIS, several Republican senators are blasting the idea of U.S. boots on the ground.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ISIS fighting for control of Syrian army checkpoints near Aleppo. Just one moment on the complex battlefield of Syria and Iraq that Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he now has a plan to change.

ASHTON CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We won't hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.

STARR: Direct action means U.S. Special Operations Forces conducting high-risk ground raids like the one inside Syria against Abu Sayyaf, a senior ISIS leader, and again last week's daring hostage rescue mission in northern Iraq, where Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler was killed in action.

The Pentagon also focusing directly on the self-declared capital of ISIS, Raqqa, in Syria, as well as Ramadi in Iraq, another key ISIS stronghold. The top U.S. general laying out his own call for U.S. boots on the ground.

GEN. JOSEPH DUNFORD, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: If it had operational or strategic impact and reinforce success that would be the basic framework within which I'd make a recommendation for additional forces to be co-located with Iraqi units.

STARR: President Obama has to approve any new plans, but the Pentagon still resistant to establishing a no-fly zone to protect civilians and rebels on the ground. An idea backed by key Republicans and Hillary Clinton.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Anyone we send in and train, we're going to protect from Russian air attacks.

CARTER: We have an obligation to do that.

MCCAIN: We haven't done it, Secretary Carter.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's killed 250,000 of them.

STARR: One Republican senator and presidential candidate pressing for direct U.S. action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

GRAHAM: When Russia is going to fight for him, Iran's going to fight for him, Hezbollah's fighting for him, and we're not going to do a damn thing to help people take him down. Do you see any credible military threat to take him down, General Dunford?

DUNFORD: I think the balance of forces right now are in Assad's advantage.

GRAHAM: Not his advantage. He is secure as the day is long.

STARR (on camera): But the question of course is when does all of this turn into U.S. forces on the ground in combat?

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SESAY: Well, the U.S. is relying heavily on Kurdish fighters to carry the fight against ISIS and those fighters are gradually gaining gain in northern Syria -- excuse me, but in the newly liberated Hasakah Province, there's plenty of evidence that the terror group is not far away.

Senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward spent several days in the region and found a landscape scarred by battle and haunted by fear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Weeks ago, these dusty planes were held by ISIS. This is what's left of its presence now. The charred remains of a training camp hidden in a pine forest. It's where ISIS trained an elite unit of suicide bombers that attacked Kurdish positions with devastating effect.

[00:05:05] Kurdish fighters known as the YPG took this entire area from ISIS in August, but holding it, along a front line more than 400 miles long, is a huge challenge.

In the shadow of Mt. Abdulazeez, Commander Zinar told us that he had lost 30 of his fighters in a recent battle when ISIS came down from the mountain.

CHIEF ZINAR, YPG COMMANDER (Through Translator): The enemy attacked us with a large number of fighters, using heavy weapons. They took control of three villages and after that, the clashes lasted for hours until we were in control again.

WARD: Zinar is a battalion commander, but this is the size of his battalion, a handful of poorly equipped men. The nearest friendly forces are miles away.

The cost of pushing ISIS out has been enormous. Streets here are draped with the flags of fighters killed in battle. Along desolate roads, through abandoned villages, we saw scene upon scene of devastation. The wreckage of months of fierce fighting and relentless coalition airstrikes.

(On camera): Dozens of villages like this one that were liberated from ISIS months ago are now still completely deserted. Now that's partly because the ISIS militants before they retreated planted landmines and booby traps all across this area, but it's also because many people here aren't convinced that ISIS won't be coming back.

(Voice-over): In the tiny village of Mekhlouja, we met a Wadha, who's lived her all her life. She told us she was too afraid to leave home when ISIS was in control, that they beat and killed people and brought misery upon the community.

"There were no airstrikes before they arrived and then the strikes started. There was one next to me. We were scared of everything. Not just ISIS."

Are you still afraid, I ask. She says not, but glances warily at the Kurdish YPG fighters with us.

The Kurds question the loyalty of many of these villages, claiming they harbor ISIS sympathizers. The killing may have stopped, but there is no peace here.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Mt. Abdulazeez, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, Russia is denying accusations that its airstrikes hit hospitals in Syria. The denial is response to a claim by the Syrian American Medical Society. Russia's Defense Ministry says that group has made false assertions before. The Syrian American Medical Society stands by its accusations that Russian planes hit their hospitals.

Now China is angry about what it calls a serious provocation by the U.S. in the South China Sea. A U.S. Navy warship sailed within 20 kilometers of one of China's manmade islands on Tuesday causing fresh diplomatic tensions. China claims the area is its sovereign territory and says the warship entered illegally. The U.S. says it was navigating in international waters.

For more on this developing story, let's turn now to CNN's Will Ripley at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan.

Will, what's the Japanese government's view of this U.S. mission in the South China Sea?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been talking with various government officials here in Japan, Isha, who say that while they're not going to comment specifically on the day today naval operations of the United States, which of course has a very strong presence here, this base and others throughout this country. This is a major military hub for the U.S. and their Asia Pacific activities both in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

But what the Japanese government is saying is that they are concerned like many in this region are concerned that an increasingly assertive China is pushing its boundaries further and further beyond the shores of mainland China. Now of course the Chinese government will say they have a right to claim this land because they say it has been their country's land for a long time, for decades, centuries. However, the United States does not agree. And so that's the real -- that's the real disagreement here.

That's why you have China following, monitoring and sending a very strong warning message to the ship that is based here. The USS Lassen that passed within 12 nautical miles of that manmade island in the Spratly Islands. And yet you have the U.S. saying that they are absolutely abiding by international law with these what they call freedom of navigation controls. And they say, Isha, they will continue to do these patrols.

SESAY: So let me ask you this, Will. Japan and China, as you pointed out, themselves had logger heads over claims in the East China Sea. What does this U.S. action mean for that dispute? RIPLEY: Yes. We've reported extensively about the Senkaku-Diaoyu

islands in the East China Sea. That has been a real flash point of tension between Japan and China, and of course because the U.S. is bound by treaty to protect Japan as it has since the end of World War II, the United States of course getting involved in this in the East China Sea. Now you see the efforts focusing -- the United States' efforts focusing on the South China Sea where the Chinese government has built up these coral reefs and turned them into essentially what some have unsinkable aircraft carriers.

[00:10:09] You have landing strips, you have docking ports. And even though China says they're not going to militarize these manmade islands there's a lot of concern. Vital trade routes at stake. Trillions of dollars in commerce and questions about the whole geopolitical landscape here, how it would change if China were -- assert more control over these areas. So, you know, the question now since Japan just reinterpreted its constitution, will Japan take a more active role? Will Japan get more involved either in the South China Sea or the East China Sea. That's the answer that we don't have right now but something we certainly need to watch very closely.

SESAY: Yes. Very closely indeed. Will Ripley joining us there from the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, let's turn now to Peter Navarro. He's a business professor at the University of California Irvine and has written extensively about China.

Peter, thank you again for coming in. We talked a little bit about this a couple of weeks ago.

PETER NAVARRO, ECONOMIST AND BUSINESS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE: Indeed.

SESAY: When we heard --

NAVARRO: It's going to go on for a long time.

SESAY: So let me ask you this, though. The U.S. sends the ship into what China considers to be its territorial waters but nobody really seems to think that it's going to cause a change in China's actions. So why do it or is this purely for optics?

NAVARRO: Wait. So let's talk about what international law says. International law says that any real land has a 12-mile territorial limit. OK. China is trying to do two things here. One it's trying to do claim a 12-mile territorial limit for an artificial island. Artificial. And so when you see what the U.S. is doing with its freedom of navigation patrols, it's going inside that 12-mile limit to challenge China on it.

Now the other thing that China is doing is they're trying to use also the U.N. law of the sea treaty to also claim a 200-mile circumference around any of these islands as the waves stretching from the mainland. And if China is successful at that, as your correspondent said, that would threaten freedom of navigation in the South China Sea which is one-third of all global trade. So this is -- this is a game between China trying to push the international limits and the U.S. pushing back. And it's very dangerous because things can happen.

SESAY: What do you make of the timing of this? Or this move. The fact that it comes after President Xi's U.S. state visit to China, it also comes a week before the Pacific Command -- the U.S. Naval Pacific commander goes out to Beijing for meetings with senior Chinese military officials. How do you read the timing?

NAVARRO: I don't read this timing as being anything significant right now. This has been going on, actually, since 2001 when we had the Hainan Island incident and China challenged the "Freedom of Overflight" in the South China Sea. What China is trying to do with its military muscle is basically extend the boundaries of its territory 12 miles around artificial islands, totally unacceptable, and then 200 miles around things that it already owns. And so this is big stakes.

And the reason why the U.S. is -- it's actually talking softly now which is good. But it's walking with a bigger stick. And so we're going to see these challenges. And the problem, everybody in the region, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, everybody fears that as China gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and the U.S. fleet shrinks and shrinks and shrinks, that this kind of confrontation won't happen anymore and China will just take over. That's the fear.

SESAY: Having said that, the stage is set for a major collision here between China and the U.S. because as you said --

NAVARRO: No doubt.

SESAY: These patrols are going to keep going. What might that look like?

NAVARRO: Well, we to focus on the Senkaku Islands in Japan, right? We focus on like the Spratly Islands in the Philippines. We focus on Vietnam having China oil rigs. But to me, the biggest potential flash point is this notion of "Flight Over Freedom of Navigation and Overflight" in what is a critical, critical international trade route for the world. The U.S. could not afford to give in.

Now how does this happen? It happens very simple. You have some POA commanders, some stupid pilot out there making a unilateral decision that the central government in Beijing doesn't know about. Shots get fired or they light up a U.S. ship with the radar --

SESAY: And you really this could happen?

NAVARRO: Absolutely. I mean, they've already lit up Japanese ships. And the only thing that's holding that back is rationality on the other side. So it's a dangerous situation. I think the best thing to do is to show China strength and maybe they'll back off. But more and more the People's Liberation Army and the Navy are becoming more and more independent. And that's where things get really tough.

SESAY: It's a very scary proposition out there. NAVARRO: It is. It is. The biggest trading partner, think about

that.

SESAY: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. There's a lot at stake.

NAVARRO: They're U.S. biggest trading partner.

[00:15:01] SESAY: There's a lot at stake.

Peter Navarro from the University of California-Irvine. Always good to have you with us. Thank you for sharing your insights. Thank you.

Now thousands of refugees are making their way towards Europe. But some are choosing bicycles over boats on their journeys. You'll hear from some who have made it all the way to Norway.

Plus a new climate change study says one part of the world may soon be too hot for humans. We will tell you where.

And Apple releases earnings from last quarter defying expectations once again. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: A growing number of refugees are choosing an arctic route to Europe. Instead of rickety boats in the Mediterranean Sea, they're riding bicycles into Norway.

CNN's Arwa Damon has their stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Struggling to pedal on the fresh snow. The first asylum seekers to arrive on this day braved the bitter cold, cycling the last few hundred meters, though some don't even bother to try.

[00:20:09] Russia only allows vehicles which includes bicycles to cross at this border into Norway.

(On camera): We can easily see the Russian border crossing from here, but we've been asked not to film it because of sensitivities on the Russian side. The group of asylum seekers we just saw crossing are being processed, but Norwegian authorities do not allow the media to interview them at this stage in the procedures.

(Voice-over): The first to attempt this arctic route were Syrians back in February, then only a handful at a time.

STEIN HANSEN, POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: The number has increased a lot since August this year. We went from 420 through all of August until now we are about 500 a week in October.

DAMON: The discarded bicycles still partially covered in plastic will be recycled, sold in Russia to the asylum seekers at about $200. They are of such poor quality they don't live up to Norway safety standards. Most of those coming through here are Syrians and Afghans. They come to Russia on a visa or have residency. Eventually make their way to this remote crossing and into northern Norway, temporarily housed in a recreation center dug into the side of a mountain. The skies darken by mid-afternoon. Just one of the many novelties.

Heba's (ph) husband is already in Germany. He risked the sea journey from Turkey to Greece. But that was not an option for their children. With a three-year visa to Russia when word spread about this route, Heba knew it was their best and most importantly safest option.

The image of Aylan Kurdi who washed up on Turkey's shore over the summer is etched into every parent's mind. It gave Ahmed nightmares. His son is roughly the same age. But he, a civil engineer, was lucky enough to have the arctic option.

AHMED, SYRIAN ASYLUM SEEKER: It's not available to all people, that makes you feel bad. I have a kid.

DAMON: It's a deeply emotional time for the majority of those here. Many don't want to talk about the past. Don't want to be defined in that way, choosing instead to hope for a better future.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Kirkenes, Norway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, if you want to help make a difference, head to our "Impact Your World" Web page. You'll find information, charities and a list of resources so you can get involved. That's at CNN.com/impact.

Parts of the Middle East could soon be too hot for humans to live and it's all due to climate change. That's according to a new study published in "Nature Climate Change." The report says the extreme heat could set in within a century. A companion study claims temperatures could reach up to 60 degrees Celsius.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us with more on the study.

Pedram, these are some staggering claims with potentially huge implications.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, Isha, and what's interesting about this study, too, is that often when we talk about climate change, we look at glacial melt, how it impacts sea level rise, we look at extreme storms. The frequency of such storms.

This particular study out of universities from both the state of California and also the state of Massachusetts in the U.S., they analyzed and ran computer models on how the green house gas emissions and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions would impact the single hottest area on our planet across the Arabian Peninsula where of course it is already tremendously hot. And they analyzed it up to the year 2100, running the models on the rate that receive the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. And the temperature is remarkable.

And I just want to lay down the map here and talk about just why it's so hot across the Arabian Peninsula in general as it is right now. You typically have an area of high pressure, a massive dome of high pressure with this. You have subsidence or air that likes to sink. You're surrounded by bodies of the water, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, out towards the Persian Gulf. Very humid environment and the sinking are really suppresses and keeps the moisture locked in at the surface on those coastal cities. So Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, even around Kuwait City.

Now moisture can get in where on an average summer day we're talking the mid-40s. It could feel as hot as 60, sometimes 55 degrees. In fact go back to this just July, a city on Iran on the Gulf coast, the Bandar Mahshahr, made it up to 46 Celsius, which is about 115 Fahrenheit, but the wet-bulb of temperature, which is a measure that takes the air temperature, the humidity, when you put it together it made the air feel as hot as 74 Celsius. That is 162 Fahrenheit. That's among the hottest temperatures we've ever observed when it comes to heat indices.

[00:25:12] And this particular study analyzed this and actually found out that when you factor in the temperature with the wet-bulb temperature, of course we know a human body does a fantastic job, Isha, sweating causes evaporation off your skin, you're able to cool yourself very efficiently, but once the wet-bulb temp gets to 35 Celsius, within six hours these temperatures can be fatal. And the consensus with this study is that by the year 2100, the average wet- bulb temperature that's in the 30s right now will be at 35 degrees across this portion of the Middle East. The population rises of course every single year in that part of the world and makes the air temperature now feel consistently in the 50s and 60s as opposed to the 40s that we see summers that have been happening in recent years -- Isha.

SESAY: Huge, huge implications. Pedram Javaheri joining us there from the CNN International Weather Center, appreciate it. Thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

SESAY: Well, the fires raging across Indonesia are an environmental crisis. They're also making people sick. The Malaysian authorities say more than half a million people are now suffering from respiratory infections. The fires have been burning for more than two months creating a thick layer of haze in the air. Disaster management teams are setting up evacuation shelters equipped with beds and oxygen equipment.

And in the Netherlands, a house fire turned into an unbelievable site for some local residents. Three people were injured when the home caught fire and the fireworks stored inside went off. Onlookers enjoyed the unexpected show, but the house was destroyed. Oh, dear.

Well, the economy is slowing and this industry has been hard hit. Why a multibillion dollar casino just opened anyway. We'll have a live report from Macau straight ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00]

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: You are watching CNN Newsroom, Live For Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour: the U.S. is considering upping its campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Defense Secretary, Ashe Carter, testified before U.S. lawmakers Tuesday, proposing more air strikes or, "direct action on the ground." The White House has yet to make a decision on the options.

China says a U.S. warship made a very serious provocation when it sailed near a manmade island in the South China Sea Tuesday. China called the move "illegal" and says the area is it's sovereign territory. The U.S. says it sailed within international waters.

Afghan and Pakistani officials are struggling to reach many survivors of Monday's magnitude 7.5 earthquake, especially those in remote mountainous regions. At least 345 people have been killed and more than 1800 injured in the quake.

Now, despite a sharp slumber in gaming revenues, a new $3.2 billion casino is open in Macau. Instead of high rollers, the Hollywood- themed Studio City is targeting casual gamblers. Matt River's is in Macau and joins u s now with the details. Matt, Macau's magnates doing all they can to keep the good times rolling in this Chinese territory?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Isha, and the big way to do that, according to most experts, is to get people who aren't VIP's, the mass market, people who aren't necessarily interested in gambling, they just want to go on vacation, and so the one big way to do that is to give people who don't want to gamble something to do, like this Ferris Wheel, for example.

Take a look at our view right now. We're actually riding in a Ferris Wheel that sits about 40 stories off the ground, on top of this hotel, complete with, yes, that is a glass floor, and yes, I am a bit nervous at the moment. We'll ignore that. But, moving onto a more serious topic here, it's important that Ferris Wheels like this, get filled with people for the future of Macau, and that's the big question, the big problem facing casino owners right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The rattle of the roulette wheel is not as loud as it once was, here in Asia's very own Sin City. High rollers who once spent big on the VIP tables, just aren't filling the seats the way they used to. Gaming revenues think money from slot machines or baccarat tables are down 36-percent in 2015; and in a place like Macau, as go the casinos, so goes the local economy. It shrank more than 26-percent in just the last quarter alone. That's good enough to make it the worst performing economy in the world. A big reason that, the ongoing anti- corruption campaign in Mainland China. President Xi Jinping, has made a big push to curb lavish spending, money that's helped make gaming revenues in Macau today, five times larger than Las Vegas. But the government wants the resorts to offer more.

LAWRENCE HO, STUDIO CITY, MACAU: We've invested $3.2 billion, U.S. 95-percent of the space is for nongaming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Studio City, Macau.

RIVERS: Lawrence Ho is the man behind the newest kid on the black, Studio City, Macau. It offers rides, shows, even a Ferris Wheel. Ho says that's the way to tap into a growing Chinese middle class but admits there's no long term future in Macau without gambling.

HO: The truth is, gaming is really the financial engine. Without the gaming component, we wouldn't be able to build these fantastic properties.

RIVERS: But backing its pledge to diversify, the government has put strict limits on the number of tables each new casino can have. Casino magnate, Steve Wynn, slammed the policy on an earnings call earlier this month. "Preposterous", he fumed, "in my 45 years of experience, I've never seen anything like this." His anger came as Wynn's Macau division reported a revenue decline of nearly 40-percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Now whether this rebranding works, that remains to be seen. Most experts that we talked to say it can take at least ten years to figure out if this move away from gambling and towards the mass market will actually work. Isha?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Matt Rivers, thank you. You are a very, very brave man. You would never catch me in that Ferris Wheel. Appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

Now, Apple made some impressive leaps in sales last quarter, but the most significant jump might have been where they where selling. We'll tell you all about it, next. Plus, fans of Jimi Hendrix will soon get a brand new look at his life and career. We'll show you what has so many rockers excited; that's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:35:00]

SESAY: Hello, everyone. Apple released its earnings from the last quarter and surpassed expectations. The company reported a 31-percent jump in profits, thanks in no small part to the sustained success of its top product, the Iphone. One of the biggest improvements was in China, Apple's second largest market behind North America, where sales nearly doubled. Investors,

however, seemed less impressed by the numbers. Apple shares rose under 1-percent after hours. Well, for more on the state of Apple and the tech industry at large, let's bring in Donna Howell, Senior Tech Reporter with "Investors Business Daily." Thank you so much for joining us.

DONNA HOWELL, SENIOR TECH REPORTER, "INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY": Glad to be here.

SESAY: So I was surprised that China held onto the sales for Iphones, that actually, they still did so well, given the slowing economy. Were you surprised when you dug into the numbers?

HOWELL: Well, it almost doubled to about 12.5 billion. It was down a little bit, sequentially, from the last quarter. So there's still a little bit of concern about where the China economy is going, but with smartphones being saturated in a lot of markets around the world, including in China, now the question is what will people switch up to. The Iphone success is seen as one of the prize things that you switch up to if you can afford a better phone than the rudimentary one that you happen to have. I can say I was recently at a wedding in Mainland China this month, and when everyone hold up their phones to take pictures, there were a lot of Iphones there.

SESAY: Interesting, and Tim Cook, himself, made the point that this quarter they saw the highest ever rate of users switching from android devices. That really does speak to the power of the brand.

HOWELL: Very much so, and a lot of people have made the comment that Chinese users want to have a very high-end phone because it's bling.

[00:40:00]

But I think a lot of it probably goes back to the engineering and the ease of use and the cameras. The cameras on an Iphone, even while there are a lot of android phones that have exceeded them in certain specs, you hear a lot of users saying that they take better pictures with the Iphone. Some of that may be happening.

SESAY: Very, very interesting. Apple aside, I also want to talk about the Android market in some more detail because LG's just released a new phone, the V10. Talk to me about this phone and what sets it apart from all the phones that are out there.

HOWELL: Well, LG is not a huge maker, in terms of market share. You see Samsung and then Apple and then some of the other Android powered phone makers, but LG is trying some new things with this V10 that's been out just in the last few days. One of the things is it's got three cameras, two front facing cameras for selfies -

SESAY: Three cameras?

HOWELL: Yes, and then a very high resolution one that's a back camera. It calls it a dual-selfie camera. I've been digging into this trying to figure out exactly what they mean by a dual-selfie. I think you can take a wide angle and a narrow angle one; but one of the things they're also saying is that instead of having to go get a selfie stick you can actually use their wide angle feature to take a group selfie, which would be very appealing to a lot of phone users. They've thrown a lot of things into it that people have called, sort of, experimental. So maybe LG is going to see what people are going to like.

SESAY: You made the point, LG, small maker, small player in this Android Smartphone market. I think they're about sixth in the market. How much of a gamble are those kind of oddities or quirks, as some people are calling this, you know, dual screen and selfie camera?

HOWELL: Well, Apple took a lot of gambles early on, when it was developing products. In terms of differentiating yourself from other smartphones, I think that it will be interesting to see how it plays out for LG. If they have some features that catch on, then it could help them get ahead, in terms of smart phone sales. But, right now, with so many markets saturated with phone sales, a lot of the makers have to find out how to appeal to a user to get them to switch. So they need those really interesting features.

SESAY: We'll see how it does. Donna Howell, we appreciate the insight, thank you.

HOWELL: Thank you.

SESAY: Thank you very much. Now, the London home of rock icon Jimi Hendrix is set to open as a public museum next year. Hendrix bought the flat in 1968 and released his third album, "Electric Lady Land", that summer. In case you don't remember, here's a taste of the most famous song off that record, "All Along The Watch Tower".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Music plays

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, the flat has undergone a restoration process costing almost $4 million. The museum's grand opening is set for February. It's going to be exciting. Lots of fans.

Well, thanks for watching "CNN Newsroom." I'm Isha Sesay. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news. Meantime, World Sport is up next with Kate Riley, and Kate, a big, big night for baseball and basketball fans.

KATE RILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're not joking. It's been a really busy one. We've got baseball's World Series action to bring you. It's also the start of the new NBA season, as well. We've got the highlights and reaction. That's all next, here on CNN.

(WORLD SPORTS AIRED)