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Ben Carson Cries Media Bias; University of Missouri Officials Resign; Israel Says Likely Bomb Took Down Russian Plane; Sharm el- Sheikh Airport Under Scrutiny After Metrojet Crash; Aung San Suu Kyi Claims Victory in Myanmar; Kenya's "Garissa 5" Trial Set to Begin Tuesday; SeaWorld to End Killer Whale Show in San Diego Park; Record Smog Levels Grip Northeastern China. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired November 10, 2015 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:31] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, as Republican candidates prepare to face off in their next debate, Ben Carson faces increasing scrutiny of his past.

SESAY: Plus student protests boiled over in the aftermath of several racial incidents at the University of Missouri. And now two top campus officials are out of their jobs.

VAUSE: And Russia could be banned from next year's Summer Olympics after investigators find evidence of state-sponsored doping.

SESAY: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. begins now.

Our top story this hour, while U.S. Republican presidential candidates prepare for their fourth debate on Tuesday, one of them is spending time firing back at allegations he fabricated parts of his life story.

SESAY: As CNN's Dana Bash reports, Ben Carson blames unfair media bias for his issues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ben Carson is surging in South Carolina, now running neck and neck with Donald Trump.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not particularly getting under my skin.

BASH: Carson is on the rise even as questions persist about his life story defined by tales of personal struggle and redemption. Central to his appeal. CARSON: You're asking me about something that occurred 50 years ago.

And you expect me to have the details on that? Forget about it. It's not going to happen.

BASH: Whether it's the fact that CNN could not find anyone who would corroborate his story of stabbing a boy as a young man, a boy only saved by his belt buckle, or "The Wall Street Journal" questioning his anecdote about taking a test at Yale, designed to paint him as ethical, Carson says he's a victim of unfair media bias.

CARSON: I mean, this is just stupid, and I mean, if our media is no better than investigating than that, it's sick.

BASH: Carson declines to identify individuals involved in his violent outburst but today he did point to a 1997 story featuring his mother, Sonya, who told "Parade" magazine about the attempted stabbing and said, oh, that really happened.

Carson's top adviser sounds a different note from the candidate telling CNN the questions are fair game.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, BEN CARSON BUSINESS MANAGER: I think it's a very good thing that Dr. Carson is being vetted. That Dr. Carson is being tested.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Is he kidding?

BASH: And other candidates listening to Carson complain say, welcome to the big leagues.

CHRISTIE: I don't have a whole lot of sympathy. He should answer the questions forthrightly and directly.

BASH: Marco Rubio is also facing scrutiny for his past -- using a Florida Republican Party credit card for personal expenses. But his campaign is confronting it with a different tactic releasing the statements this weekend insisting there's no there, there.

Donald Trump, a fellow outsider virtually tied with Carson in key early states has the most to gain by the controversy and stoked it on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ben wrote a book. And the book is a tough book because, you know, he talked about he has pathological disease. It's a serious statement when you say you have pathological disease because as I understand it, you can't really cure it. But he said he had pathological disease.

BASH: Carson did call his temper as a child pathological but not a disease. And Carson isn't the only first-time politician prone to embellishing in the past. Here's what Donald Trump told us this summer.

TRUMP: Everybody exaggerates. I mean, I guess I do a little bit. I want to say good things. BASH (on camera): Whether or not all of these issues come up during

the debate here in Wisconsin that is to be determined. The moderators and the theme of the debate is supposed to be about the economy and jobs. But when you have candidates on stage who are determined to go after one another, point out their weaknesses, you never know what's going to happen.

Dana Bash, CNN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, for more on the U.S. presidential campaign, Ben Carson's problems and the latest polling numbers, earlier I spoke to CNN's senior media and political reporter Dylan Byers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: OK, Dylan. Let's talk about these complaints that Dr. Carson has about this level of media scrutiny which he's under right now. Some critics may say, welcome to the big leagues. You know, this is what you get when you're at the front of the pack. But does he actually have a point? Is he receiving more scrutiny than other candidates who have been in a similar position?

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, he's receiving more scrutiny than he was, say, a month ago but that's because he's, you know, the frontrunner. In many polls he's even beating Donald Trump. So with that comes scrutiny.

[01:05:08] What's happening here is they're going after moments from his past. Right? We've got a CNN report looking into his behavior as a child and whether or not his claims about that are true. We have a "Politico" report looking into whether or not he actually had a scholarship offer from West Point.

These are things that are so long ago that he's able to sort of dismiss them as, you know, like character assassination, hit jobs, things like that. So look, he deserves more media scrutiny, without question. Is he able to sort of use the things that are being taken out against him as a way to sort of push back and deflect against media scrutiny? Absolutely. And he's also doing so at a time when the conservative base especially is sort of primed to be suspicious of anything the media does.

VAUSE: He's also raising a lot of money off it. I think $3.5 million last week.

BYERS: Yes.

VAUSE: Donald Trump has stepped up his jabs, suddenly attacks, my poor friend, Ben. I hope he's OK. That kind of stuff. A few hours ago during a campaign rally he had some comments, he poked a little fun on what's going on in the campaign. Let's listen to some of what Donald Trump had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: If you try and hit your mother over the head with a hammer, your poll numbers go up. I never saw anything like it. Now I haven't seen that yet, but, you know, probably that's going to happen. It's a lot of weird things. This is a strange election, isn't it? Man. You stab somebody and the newspapers say, you didn't do it. And you said, yes, I did. I did it. No, you didn't. Yes, I did. I stabbed him and it hit the belt. And they said you didn't do it. If they said I didn't do it, I'd be so happy.

This is the only election in history where you are better off if you stabbed somebody. What are we coming to?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: This is the thing I really like about Donald Trump. I mean, he does put things into perspective. He's got a good point there. This is weird.

BYERS: It's very weird. But here's -- this is such a great moment for Donald Trump because he made this campaign weird.

VAUSE: Right.

BYERS: He made this campaign sort of unprecedentedly ridiculous and now he has this opportunity to say, hey, look, I'm not the crazy one. I'm not ridiculous. I mean, look how ridiculous this campaign has become.

VAUSE: Yes.

BYERS: Of course, so much about what is ridiculous in this campaign has been a matter of catching up to what Trump established. But really now we're at a place where he's sort of like, look, I'm not the crazy guy.

VAUSE: Very quickly, we've got another debate coming up on Tuesday. Ben Carson not very good at debates. So does this debate now have a special importance for him? Does he need to do something in this campaign because he's -- in this debate, rather, because he's done nothing in the others so far.

BYERS: Right. Absolutely. Again, it goes back to this now that he's the frontrunner, the scrutiny is at an all-time high and he has to perform in a way that he, you know, didn't have to perform in previous debates because the expectations were so low. Now the expectations are high. All eyes are on Ben Carson, all eyes are on Donald Trump. Sure we're sort of worried about some of the other candidates. Everyone wants to see how Marco Rubio does.

But no, for the most part this is a contest between Carson and Trump. And it's going to be very interesting to see if Carson can play for a full two hours, right, with the spotlight on him. Also going to be interesting to see how Trump responds in a debate where he's not actually the uncontested frontrunner.

VAUSE: OK. Dylan, good to speak with you. Thank you. BYERS: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And a reminder, you can always follow the very latest on the U.S. presidential campaign heading to our Web site. You'll find everything at CNNpolitics.com.

SESAY: Now racial tensions at a university in the U.S. have forced two top officials to resign.

VAUSE: The president and chancellor of the University of Missouri stepped down amid protests from African-American students over how they handled racism. Details from Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move on.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: We're not going to move on. I'm sorry, you're just going to have to deal with it.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're watching a protest at the University of Missouri's homecoming parade. In the red car is university president, Tim Wolfe.

These students are protesting what they say is a pattern of racism on campus and an ineffective response by the university's leaders. Eventually, counter protesters get in between them and President Wolfe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not engage. Do not engage. Do not engage.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Engage, what the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) are you talking about?

LAH: Wolfe apparently does nothing to address the protesters and the police break it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Don't get them (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move. Get out of the road.

LAH: The incident a result of what students say was inaction by the administration to address racial incidents on campus.

Tensions started to boil over on campus in mid-September, when this man, student body president Peyton Head reported on Facebook that, "some guys riding in the back of a pickup truck decided it would be OK to continuously scream the N word at me." The post went viral.

[01:10:09] A few weeks after that, a report of another racially charged incident. An African-American student organization was rehearsing a play at this outdoor amphitheater on campus when they say a white male jumped on stage and called them the N word. University police were called. And a few days later, the student was identified and, quote, "moved from campus pending an investigation."

(On camera): October 24th, another incident of hate in this residence hall. At 2:00 in the morning, someone entered a bathroom and drew a swastika with feces. It was actually the second time in less than a year that someone had vandalized a university dorm with a Nazi symbol. And this most recent incident, the guilty party was never found.

(Voice-over): On November 2nd, a week ago, graduate student, Jonathan Butler, vowed he'd starve himself until Tim Wolfe was gone. Writing in a letter to university officials that he'd continue, "until either Tim Wolfe is removed from office or my internal organs fail and my life is lost."

This past Friday, this video was posted to Twitter of Wolfe being confronted by students a second time. This time, he responds.

TIM WOLFE, FORMER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI: Systemic oppression is because you don't believe that you have the equal opportunity for success --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Money. Money. Money. That's all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) -- did you just blame us for systematic oppression, Tim Wolfe?

LAH: On Saturday, university football player, Anthony Cheryls, tweeted, that "Athletes of color on the football team wouldn't play until President Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students' experiences."

On Sunday, as protests grow on campus, local station KSEK films a truck driving by them flying a Confederate flag. That same day, the football coach tweets out this picture of the team, writing, "We are united. We are behind our players." And then this morning, a month after that first confrontation with protesters --

WOLFE: I'm resigning as president of the University of Missouri System. Why did we get to this very difficult situation? It is my belief we stopped listening to each other.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Columbia, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: An independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency has accused Russia of running a state-sponsored doping program. The report says without corrective action, Russia should be banned from future competition. That includes next year's Olympics.

VAUSE: Russia's national anti-doping agency responded calling the report, quote, "unprofessional and illogical."

Our Don Riddell has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DICK POUND, FORMER WADA PRESIDENT: Our recommendation is that -- is that the Russian federation be suspended.

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR (voice-over): The World Anti- Doping Agency's independent commission says it found a deep culture of cheating in Russian athletics, claiming doped athletes sabotaged the 2012 Olympic Games in London. On Monday, in Geneva, the commission called for lifetime bans for five Russian athletes, including gold medalist Maria Savinova, stripping Moscow's anti-doping laboratory of its accreditation and firing the lab's director.

POUND: We found cover-ups, we found destruction of samples in the laboratories, we found payments of money in order to conceal doping tests, among others.

RIDDELL: The commission also says Russian doping, quote, "could not have happened without government consent," even accusing President Vladimir Putin.

POUND: The extent of what was going on was -- it was so prevalent that in our conclusion it was not possible for him to be unaware of it. And if he was aware of it, then he is complicit in it.

RIDDELL: What happens now is up to the IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federation, and could mean Russia would be banished from future Olympic competition.

POUND: The outcome may be that there are no Russian track and field athletes in Rio.

RIDDELL: And with less than a year before the next summer games get under way, Interpol says it's now launching its own criminal investigation.

Don Riddell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: A short break here. When we come back, the investigation of the Metrojet crash is focused on the airport where the plane took off. Ahead, we'll show you why some authorities believe there was a security breach.

SESAY: Plus, SeaWorld San Diego is scrubbing one of its most controversial attractions. But critics say ending the killer whale show does not mean an end to animal cruelty.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS HEADLINES)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:18:42] SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Egypt says security forces have killed a leader of an ISIS group in the Sinai peninsula. It's the same group that claimed responsibility for downing Metrojet Flight 9268.

VAUSE: Egyptian authorities have not said if the leader was involved in the crash. They still insist it's too soon to know if a terror attack brought the plane down. The U.S. and Britain are all but certain that a bomb blew the plane apart killing all 224 people on board.

SESAY: Well, for more let's go to our own Ian Lee. He joins us now live from Sharm el-Sheikh.

And Ian, comments made by the British Foreign secretary of giving further weight to this theory that a bomb brought down this plane.

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Isha. And he said that it is very likely that a bomb did, which the interesting thing we're seeing here is slowly more senior officials in both the UK and the U.S. government are saying that they are getting -- that they do believe that a bomb took down this flight. And we have seen a bit of a shift from the Egyptians and the Russians as well. The Egyptians now saying they're not ruling out anything, but they say that it could still be an engine explosion or a battery exploding.

The real question is, what is that loud bang that we heard in the final moments of that voice recorder? That's what investigators are looking at. The FBI could be brought in that was offered by the U.S. to analyze that sound to see what exactly it is.

[01:20:12] But Egyptian officials are still very cautious at saying what the cause of this crash is. They say this investigation could still take some time. And also that wreckage that's over the -- about seven miles, it's still being analyzed. They still don't have every piece. So it could be a while before we find out definitively what happened.

SESAY: Ian, another interesting details emerge in all of this. According to a U.S. official, at least some of the intelligence intercepts being used to assess what happened came from Israel. How closely does Israel monitor the Sinai Peninsula?

LEE: Well, Israel monitors the Sinai extremely closely. And this is why the belief is why the U.S. and the UK didn't share this intelligence with the Egyptians initially is that because this intelligence came from Israel and the relations between Israel and Egypt, while it has gotten better under the presidency of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, there still is suspicion between the two countries but Israel does very much monitor the Sinai. There have been attacks from the Sinai into Israel. And so Israeli intelligence monitors the movements there as well.

In fact, ISIS in the northern part of Sinai has actually executed people they claim -- they accuse of being spies for Israel. So it is something that Israel does take very seriously is what is happening on its long border with Sinai and with Egypt.

SESAY: Ian Lee reporting there with the very latest from Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt. Ian, appreciate it. Thank you.

VAUSE: And the airport at Sharm el-Sheikh is considered a gateway to one of Egypt's most popular resort towns. But now that airport is under intense scrutiny.

SESAY: There are questions swirling about security at the airport. CNN's Erin McLaughlin to get some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wheels down at Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, the latest flight in a wave of evacuations, ordered by British and Russian governments to bring their citizens safely home. This as questions swirl around the airport's security, allegations key scanners are sometimes not functioning and employees accept bribes. Allegations the Egyptians deny.

(On camera): For now, this is as close as our cameras can get to the airport after the military took over and kicked the media out.

(Voice-over): But it wasn't always this way. Six days after the plane crash, Egyptian officials were eager to show us around. They took us on a tour to see the airport's inner workings. They showed us the luggage screening process, a process the British government says may have been manipulated, leading to the possible bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268.

BBC reports British intelligence believes a bomb was placed in the lower half of the plane's fuselage, the place where luggage is stored during the flight.

(On camera): All bags are first x-rayed. If they see something they think is suspicious, that's when they send it to this machine for more tests.

(Voice-over): It's called a C-Tech (PH) machine and it's used to test for explosives. When we were there, everything seemed to run smoothly. But the Associated Press reports that's not always the case. An unnamed airport official says the machine often breaks down and the breakdowns have more to do with, quote, "human stupidity" rather than technical faults.

Another official told A.P. the policemen at the scanning machines are poorly paid and sometimes take bribes to allow drugs and weapons through.

One policeman told CNN, unlike other airport employees, he and his colleagues are not searched before entering the airport. Instead, they're vetted and managed by Egypt's top security agencies. He said their work is watched through the airport's camera system.

We were shown one of the rooms used to monitor that system. We're told they have footage of Flight 9268. They say it's part of the ongoing investigation.

During our tour, we weren't allowed to see everything we wanted, didn't say why. We asked to get on the tarmac. This is as close as we were allowed to go. We filmed through an open door, and we were denied access to the main room used to monitor the airport.

Egyptian authorities are hitting back in allegations of security lapses. The Civil Aviation Ministry spokesman told CNN, "I'm not saying we are 100 percent mistake-free. It is possible, but not in the way it was portrayed. These allegations are generalizations. They are baseless and false." They insist the airport is safe.

YASSER JANUI, DEPUTY DIRECTOR: International Civil Aviation Authority and we are complying with all of the standard and regulation of this authority, which means it's completely safe to fly and fly from and to Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

[01:25:14] MCLAUGHLIN: But British and Russian officials are skeptical. They've sent their own teams to evaluate the airport and shepherd their citizens home.

Whether or not ISIS brought down Metrojet 9268, security at this and other airports in the region will remain under scrutiny.

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Sharm el-Sheikh.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, the results are far from final but they are enough for these voters to celebrate in Myanmar. Coming up the election that could significantly change the country.

VAUSE: Also ahead, the latest on record levels of smog gagging parts of China and the dangers it might pose for others. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Just coming up to 10:30 on a Monday night. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour.

Two top officials at the University of Missouri have resigned amid complaints they didn't do enough to address racism. Both the president and chancellor stepped down after weeks of protests from students and faculty. Over the weekend players on the school's football team threatened to boycott games until the president left.

VAUSE: An independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency has accused Russian athletes of doping. The report was especially critical of Russia's anti-doping agency which it says allowed what amounted to state-sponsored drug use.

[01:30:05] The Russian Agency called the report unprofessional and illogical. SESAY: The FBI has offered to help with the MetroJet crash

investigation. So far, no plans for any agents to head to Egypt. Investigators are looking at whether there was a security breach at Sharm el Sheikh Airport where the flight took off last month.

VAUSE: We head to Myanmar where opposition supporters are celebrating what looks to be a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.

SESAY: Only a fraction of the results have been announced. The spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy predicted the party won 80 percent of the votes nationwide. The leader of the military backed ruling party effectively conceded.

VAUSE: Ivan Watson is in Yangon and joins us on the line with the latest.

Ivan, this vote counting is taking longer than expected. How long before official results are in?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It could take days, John. And we do have to keep in mind this is the first openly contested election, national election this country has seen in 25 years. So that may explain part of why it's taking so long.

The official result we have right now, out of an estimated more than 400 parliamentary seats up for grabs, the main opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi, National League of Democracy, has won 78 seats. The ruling political party, which enjoys the backing of the military, USDP, has won five, and then other parties have also won five seats. Now Aung San Suu Kyi's party is claiming a landslide victory, even though official results may be days away. However, that ruling political party has also announced that it really lost this election. It got battered at the polls on Sunday -- John?

VAUSE: I guess, Ivan, as we look at the scenes of celebration there as the supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi celebrate this moment, is there any question at all that maybe once all the votes are in, everything is counted, that the military may say we're not accepting this. We'll not give up power in any way?

WATSON: It's important to note that the president of the country, Thein Sein (ph), who is a former military commander, has said that whatever the results of the election are, they will be respected. And so have top officials in the ruling political party. So if you take them at their word, then this should move forward. But election observers who have been making statements. The European Union Election Observer mission chief has taken care to point out that this election is not yet over. The vote counting, the final results, it's continuing. It's important to watch very closely how this unfolds and how everybody will react as the final results continue to come trickling in.

And part of the concern about the military, of course, is because in the last elections that were deemed to be fairly democratic. In 1990, it was the military that crushed the election results and then threw Aung San Suu Kyi and many of her compatriots under arrest for years. Many are concerned about what the military could do in the coming days.

VAUSE: It's not over until it's over.

Ivan Watson on the line from Yangon.

Ivan, thank you.

WATSON: Thanks.

VAUSE: For the first time in more than a year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Barack Obama.

SESAY: Monday's meeting at the White House was their first face-to- face discussion since the Iran nuclear deal, which caused tensions between their two countries. With just one year remaining in their official relationship, the pair are seeking common ground as they try to put the ties between their nations on a more stable footing.

VAUSE: Five suspects accused of orchestrating the massacre of over 140 students at Kenya's Garissa University in April are set to go on trial in a few hours in Nairobi. The assault was the first militant attack in Kenya in nearly two decades.

SESAY: The suspects have been called the Garissa Five and were linked to al Shabaab when the terrorist group took responsibility for the attack. They've been charged with acts of terrorism and aiding attackers.

Robyn Kriel joins us now from Nairobi with the latest on the trial.

Robyn, good to have you with us.

There have been a number of delays to the start of these proceedings. What's the reason for the latest one?

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, proceedings were due to start yesterday, Isha. They were delayed because a Somali/English translator could not be found in time. However, there are a number of cases in the high court here in Nairobi that were heard yesterday. 10 witnesses were presented. They're due to make their statements today. Around 30 to be called in total, from everyone ranging from students to professors to police on the ground during that day of the attack. The five suspects, one Tanzanian national and four Somali or Kenyan nationals. Those are being disputed at the moment. Prosecution says the case will go ahead as planned today, and that they will start around 11:00 a.m. local time with the witness testimonies.

[01:35:17] SESAY: Let me ask you this, Robyn. Is this terror trial being seen as a big deal there in Kenya?

KRIEL: Certainly, the Garissa attack was a big deal but you've seen the luster of this case wearing out as the months have gone by. It happened in very early April, the 1st day of April, 2nd day of April and really when it happened it shook the country. Second worst attack in Kenya after the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings here in Nairobi. And certainly, it was a number of students and teachers. It was a big deal at the time but this case doesn't seem to be drawing all that much attention. Perhaps once the witness testimonies get under way it will pick up more momentum on the ground in Nairobi. The masterminds, attackers, people that planned this, that's the thinking of Kenyans that's they're not participating in this trial, they've not been caught. Certainly, very disappointing. In the international arena, too, the Garissa attack was huge. The pope spoke out about the attack and that's one of the major reasons he's visiting Kenya at the end of this month.

SESAY: Robyn Kriel with the very latest there.

Robyn, appreciate it.

VAUSE: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, SeaWorld has been under fire for its killer whale distraction. Up next, the decision to end that show at least at one park.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:39:51] VAUSE: Good news for killer whales everywhere. SeaWorld has decided to phase out the famous killer whale show at its San Diego park. That will happen by the end of next year.

SESAY: A new orca experience will replace the show, which has been at the center of allegations of animal cruelty for years.

Paul Vercammen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Isha, the CEO of SeaWorld came out in an investors conference today and said that the orca show as we know it now, that live show, will be phased out in 2016. He said they were listening not to activists but to guests, and the guests had said they wanted the orcas in a much more natural environment. They didn't like them doing things that looked like trained tricks but something that seemed much more in the wild. So in 2017, the new show is supposed to be in a more natural environment, heavy on information and conservation.

Perhaps the single biggest critic on Capitol Hill of SeaWorld is Adam Schiff. He said he's somewhat skeptical of this decision by SeaWorld. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP ADAM SCHIFF, (D), CALIFORNIA: I'm skeptical. I guess we'll see how far SeaWorld is really willing to go. But I think it's a positive step. It's still not going to be adequate if they'll maintain these orcas in captivity. I'd love to see them partner with others in the creation of ocean sanctuaries for those currently in captivity and put an end to the program.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VERCAMMEN: Schiff introduced legislation that would prohibit breeding the orcas in captivity or capturing them for these orca shows.

The CEO of SeaWorld did say this is not an across the universe move in terms of this new show. That means it would not translate to similar parks in Orlando and San Antonio.

After the documentary "Blackfish," huge backlash against SeaWorld.

But we also saw something else firsthand, whale watching, especially here in southern California, it was way up this year, a banner year. Orcas were far enough south on some trips people did see them. The captain of one ship telling us that you could hear children screaming and saying, "They are free, they are free. They are out in the wild."

We also noticed that type of excitement so whale watching way up after "Blackfish."

Back to you, John and Isha.

VAUSE: Thanks to Paul Vercammen for that report.

Now to northeastern China where people are struggling with record levels of smog.

SESAY: Just on Monday, pollution in some parts more than 50 times the world health organization's recommendations. And now there are concerns such huge or high levels may have an impact on other parts of the world.

VAUSE: Let's bring in Kevin Bowman in our Los Angeles bureau. He's an investigator for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

Welcome.

KEVIN BOWMAN, INVESTIGATOR, NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Thank you.

SESAY: Thank you very much for joining us.

Let me ask you this. How much of the smog, how much of the pollutants created by China will end up over Korea, Tokyo, California?

BOWMAN: So the actual amounts that we've really looked at, some of the changes that we've got from the air right above us, and that air above us we've seen really offset some of the changes in the decreases that we've gotten from reductions of pollution from California. That ozone or in the particular case we're seeing, pollution, makes its way down into the U.S. And that can affect background concentrations.

VAUSE: The efforts under way here in California and elsewhere are being negated by the pollution coming in from China? Is that what you're measuring?

BOWMAN: Our measurements show in that atmosphere right above us, between 10,000 and 30,000 feet, that's about the air we're looking at, we expected about a 2 percent decrease in ozone from the emissions per year. 2 percent over five years. It will be expected to happen. And that didn't happen. And when we went through and looked at it in more detail, we found there were two major causes that made this happen. One was this ozone from above. The ozone layer that protects us from ultra violet radiation, that came higher than expected. We saw a 20 percent increase in emissions from China using NASA satellite observations, and that amount went up in the troposphere and it goes from China across by the winds and over the United States and particularly over the Western U.S. We found that amount was about 7 percent over that period over China. But that led to a reduction or offsetting the reductions we were expecting to see.

SESAY: Chinese authorities watching this conversation, if they were to, hang on. You're painting us out at the culprits but we are victims of pollutants coming from places like India.

BOWMAN: So the pollution and air quality is not a local problem. It's a global problem. When you have pollutants in one place they can move by the winds from one location to the next. Our study specifically looked at the role of China using these global satellite observations. We can pin point more toward China than other regions but certainly pollution can move from one place to the next.

[01:45:21] VAUSE: Does this give you a lot of concern as we head into the climate change summit in December when everyone is going to put their best offers on the table about what we'll be doing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially when you hear that China's emissions are a lot more than they originally thought they were?

BOWMAN: One of the challenges China has is they are really growing at such a rapid rate that their pollutants have gone up. Going into the same time they have to think about reducing their carbon. They have choices they have to make. And those choices could improve air quality at the expense of climate, or it could improve both climate and air quality at the same time. And the decisions they make will be critical over the next five years in how that trajectory works.

VAUSE: The world is getting smaller and smaller and we're so dependent upon everybody else.

Thank you.

BOWMAN: Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin, for coming in.

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: A real pleasure.

OK, the winter months tend to create ideal conditions for the dangerous air in China.

Let's go to Pedram Javaheri who has more on this at the International Weather Center.

Pedram, this is a lot to do with the coal and burning, and essentially the inversion that you get at this time of year?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. That's right. That's exactly what's happening. The surrounding terrain around China, mountainous terrain, it traps the pollutants. You work toward Indian. Showing you what we're dealing with. Cool conditions. A lot of people begin turning up the coal burning heating systems in their properties on the order of millions of people. And you talk about a scenario that becomes something like where visibility becomes nonexistent or down to a few meters. The heavy haze in the forecast continues over that region of Beijing. Points to the south that we expect to remain extremely dangerous. Officials warning people of keeping that in mind over the next couple of days. From 1950 to 1980, the Chinese government actually distributed free coal for people that lived north of that line where the temperature on average drops below the freezing mark. Populations living in that area were experiencing pollution that was from 55 percent higher than what was going on down to the south. On that northern tier, populations begin to see life expectancy drop by about five or so years per person. Kind of shows you how the particulates and pollution can play a role in one's life. And 360 million tons of coal was burned over this part of the world, higher than the rest of the world.

The World Health Organization says seven million people every year lose their lives due to air quality issues. That equates to 19,000 people on a daily basis. Take a commercial jet and about four would fall out of the sky every single hour. That's how many lose their lives. That's seven million per year. We know several countries, Colombia and Denmark, have taken steps and seen dramatic improvements. Energy efficient housing, public transit has become a major thing in place across these two countries. And you work your way to pedestrian and cyclist quarters in Copenhagen and Denmark, some of things that people in this part of the world have done to see an improvement. Again, you need far larger areas especially across parts of Asia to get in on some of these changes and make the improvements we need to see on a global scale -- guys?

SESAY: Pedram Javaheri, appreciate the insight. Very, very interesting.

VAUSE: Pedram, thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thanks, guys.

SESAY: There are new plans for one of the most iconic airport terminals. We'll take you behind the scenes of the TWA terminal in New York to see what it in store.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:50:40] JAVAHERI: Good day to you. Pedram Javaheri, for CNN "Weather Watch." (WEATHER REPORT)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: This programming note. Coming up at the top of the hour for U.S. viewers, Christiane Amanpour has an exclusive interview with Turkey's prime minister, his first since the controversial elections.

SESAY: The wide-ranging interview and we're told he offered his views on the Syrian refugee crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: We cannot impose a solution, but we can facilitate a solution. What is solution? Solution is very clear answer. It ran one day morning, millions of Syrian refugees decided to go back to Syria, assuming there is peace in Syria. And if Assad stays in power in Damascus, I don't think any refugee will go back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: U.S. viewers can see the entire view on "Amanpour" coming up in about 10 minutes. That's 11:00 p.m., Los Angeles time.

VAUSE: The famed TWA terminal at New York's JFK Airport will serve new set f customers in a few years as the airport's first on-site luxury hotel.

SESAY: It's considered a landmark of jet-age travel as CNN's Richard Roth shows us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Walking into the TWA terminal at JFK Airport is like a voyage back in a time capsule. The terminal opened in 1962. The man who designed it never lived to see it, a famed Scandinavian designer created it. His builder said, well, how do we do this? He said I don't know, here are the plans, just do it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: TWA, the Trans World Flight Center at New York International Airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: It was a glamorous jet-age time and TWA represented the center of all of that excitement in the '60s.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's such a sexy, curvy building. It's like a woman's body. It's beautiful. It's amazing, and I really hope that they preserve the original integrity of this building.

ROTH: Only one day a year is the public allowed inside this terminal. No matter where you walk you hear stories about the famed path.

ELLEN BARONE, FORMER TWA FLIGHT ATTENDANT: It was like walking down the red carpet and walking into a different world because it was so into the space age. It was very glamorous era in the '60s. Elizabeth Taylor, we were on a first-name basis.

[01:55:23] ROTH: You never know who you'd run into at the famed TWA terminal.

Hey, that guy's not a real pilot.

The terminal has been open for movie productions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. Are you dead heading?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

ROTH (voice-over): Excuse me. You know this terminal has been closed since 2001 when TWA went bankrupt.

(LAUGHTER)

ROTH: While the building has been closed for over 14 years, it's been landmarked so it could not be destroyed. And now in a major deal, it will be a hotel, but it will keep the shell of the TWA building as a lobby.

BARONE: All those stories you imagined were true, and then some.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: That is great.

VAUSE: Isn't that great?

Richard Roth.

SESAY: The one and only.

VAUSE: That's great.

SESAY: That's CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

For our viewers in the United States, "Amanpour" is up next.

Everyone else, stay with us. Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett will have all the day's news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)