Goals has been strengthening ties with the region. But some critics feel hes been more focussed on issues Like Fighting isis and ebola and asia has become a afterthought. There was a grand spectacle with leaders wearing matching outfits. President obamas focus, the economy, trade, and restarting his pivot to asia. He announced a new deal with china to extend the visas between the two Country Finance will create 440,000 new jobs and generate 85 billion by 2021. He has to walk a fine line with chinas president. They are meeting for are the first time on chinese soil. On the one hand mr. Obama needs china for fighting the spread of ebola. On the other end critics want the president to be tough with dhooin for the doesal record on human rights. And strong in his support of pro democracy protesters. One more point president putin of russia is also here. Relations frosty between the two leaders. White house Officials Say there are no plans for the two to meet at this point in time. But one white house official said it is possible they could have in impromptu conversation on the sidelines. From here president obama rounds out the trip at the g 20 economic summit in australia. All right a lot to watch. Thank you. Time to bring in our guest forbes contributor gordon change, author of two books on china, north korean and afp china correspondent in beijing. Thank you for being with us this morning. Fee leesha, lets start with you what kind of reception has been president obama getting in china . What can we expect to come out of the meetings . Well, really, francis, theres been a lot of High Expectations surrounding this visit. A lot of that is due to president obama himself. He grew up in the asiapacific grewing up in honolulu. He has made the pivot to asia a real center piece to the presidency. He said today in the speech at the summit there should be entirely no doubt that the u. S. Remains committed to asia. I think the important thing to remember is whether he like it is or not the u. S. Will have to be committed to asia. Theres been a whole slew of changes happening here. Just looking at china where she beginning this week long trip here theres been, as you mentioned, the pro democracy protests in hong kong, beijing has established an air defense zone in much of the region that has antagonized many of the neighbors. Theres been a harsh crackdown both on dissent here in chinas borders as well as on activists and whole lot of people that really a lot of Rights Groups are saying its beyond anything weve seen in recent years. When it comes to the pivot or the rebalancing however the administration wants to phrase it, there are a lot of aspects of this they need to be responding to. Another aspect north korea and north Koreas Nuclear ambitions a major topic for the president. How does the release of the two american prisoners factor into the conversation now . I would say it was unexpected, to be honest. To a lot of us china watchers here in beijing it came as much as a surprise. Theres been a number of disdse here that i know the Obama Administration has been sort of talking with beijing about quietly behind the scenes. Frajly, the release of some of those such as the scholar who was sentence to prison. Those are more the names a lot of people have been focussed on. To hear the names two of americans detained in north korea being released over the weekend was a surprise. I think thats one thing that cant be lost in the whole discussion of the asia trip is that was really quite a big win for the administration. Absolutely. Lets talk about the timing of their release. Gordon, to you. Lets talk about the coincidence here. Is it a coincidence they released the detainees and hours later the president is traveling to asa. As far as bringing in the top spy in the mission here . One of the things that could be going on is the north korea is saying to the chinese, whom they had the troubled relationship the last year. They say i dont need you as much. I have a new friend the United States. The u. S. Will probably not buy into that. Thats what peon yang might try to do. I think it was planned. The administration has been cleared in saying its not going open as far as the relationship will be. What is the significance of here sending the top spy, director james clapper, director of the National Intelligence here and not a diplomat with the letter saying im our here to secure the release not negotiate it. And his role in this. Yeah. The administration didnt want to send someone from the state department because they didnt want to give the North Koreans the impression that the u. S. Wanted to resume dialogue with this em. They sent National Security official. It important for the North Koreans to get a National Security offici. Its important. They got what they wanted. We got what we wanted by sending clapper. We have to talk about this. Wardrobe as far as what the president was wearing. Also putin here. The purple suits. What is the significance of that. You can purple or iridescent purple. This is an apex tradition where the host country picks the outfits for everybody. And, you know, when president bush hosted this, we had bomber jackets. So, you know, every country will pick a national costume. Interesting to see. We look at the video now of putin in his purple. Now the president. Thank you so much for your perspective this this morning. And now to mexico where the aftermath of a brutal discovery involving the disappearance of 43 students has the country on edge. They were allegedly burned to death by a drug gang. Protesters are demanding action about the governments inaction. Jose joins us now. Great to have you with us. Hes near ak pock koe. I have big shoes to fill guest hosting for you. Good morning, francis. A pleasure to speaking with you. I im in mexico. The reason were heading there today the parents of the 43 Young University students that have been missing for over a month now, and clearly presumed dead by all the indications. As you said, they were burned to death by cartel leaders. Acting on behalf, apparently of the mayor of the town where the students passed through on their way to mexico city. Imagine this, you know, you have a mayor of a major city telling police to arrest these young kids protesting. And you have the wife of the mayor, thats is having an event. So the mayor instructs the police to arrest these kids and then the cartel apparently have a great relationship. A very cozy relationship with the Police Department and the mayor. The next thing we know, the kids were burned to death. Some them maybe even alive. Put in garbage bags and thrown into the river after a bonfire that lasted for almost 24 hours. And then [ inaudible ] so its a very complicated situation, francis. Jose, your call is breaking up. I really wish i could ask you about the mexicos attorney general in a press conference said it was im tired. You have outraged families and people there. So hopefully we can work on your line and get you in a line there so we can speak with you later. Jo jose diazbalart. We appreciate it and well hear from you later. And as we mentioned, jose will be in mexico covering this story throughout the week. Well be checking back in with him. The United States the first major winter storm is bearing down. Heavy snow and hide winds are blasting people from montana to northern michigan. It is cold bill karins joins me in studio. I cant even. Getting an early start here. How much snow are we talking . North of minneapolis that much. Like a foot of snow. I love it. 12 inches. Thats enough and a lot of people are going its november. Its a big deal. Arent we supposed to get cold . Yes. We are supposed to get colder in november and december. Its not supposed to be with us like january temps for the months. If you suffered last winter and now its the pattern of setting up where youre going in the cold for now all the way through the end of the month were talking through thanksgiving. Januarytype cold. Not novembertype cold. Here is the weather pattern by the end of the month. What does it mean with the cold snare the windchill the arctic air invaded and moved across the border. Negative wonderfuls. As far as minneapolis you dropped below freezing last night. Your record is 15days in a row being below 32. Whatever snow or ice is out there wont melt. It will still be there 15 days from now. Its going to be a close call. No shot of getting close to 32 this week. Theres another cold blast behind this one. Chicago enjoy today. You drop off on wednesday into thursday into the low 30s. Its your high temperature. Dallas even goes from 77 beautiful shorts and tshirts today. Im sure people will be wearing their coats by thursday with highs in the mid 40s. Dallas standard its cold and chilly. New york city not too bad this week. Your temperature drops off to the mid 40s. I think the east coast gets spared. Its the Northern Plains and great lakes. Theres the snow in the bulls eye for total minneapolis, saint paul all the way through upper portions of michigan. Just the fact that the winter is here its not going to go away. Usually you get a break in fall every now and then. Thats unusual. Maybe last winter was practice for this winter. Shall we dare say . No. Im hoping for a warm december. In denial. Absolutely. Bill karins. Thank you. Well go live to dillon in the middle of it all coming up in our next half hour. Conflicts whether the leader of isis was wounded in an air strike. John, im going give you some time. If you cant get it done before the end of the year, im going have to take the steps that i can. 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Big questions this morning about the air strike on isis that may have hit the terror groups chief. Iraqi state tv and the app have been recorded that baghdadi was wounded in the strike but the pentagon has been working to confirm that. Nbcs chief pentagon correspondent jim mic chef ski joins me now. Its still a bigamist i are to u. S. Defense officials whether the leader of isis albaghdadi was in a convoy that was struck saturday night outside of mosul. It attracted the attention of the u. S. Military. It was a large convoy of at least ten heavily armed vehicles that may be indicating there was some leadership targets. There m u. S. Officials insist they have no idea whether baghdadi was in the convoy and still dont. And one other thing intelligence officials are telling us that so far theyre not hearing the kind of usual chatter amongst the various military groups that may indicate that baghdadi, perhaps, was either killed or wounded. So far nobody here is willing to say that baghdadi was even in that convoy. We have to factor in the president sending in more troops. 1500 to train and support iraqi soldiers. Do we have any more details on their deployment . Theyll be spread out into about 12 different headquarters working directly with iraqis. Many of them in the field including in the most hotly contested, the most war torn area of iraq right now in the Anbar Province. One of the strongholds for isis. The president and officials here strongly stress they are not going there to engage in combat. But as advisers for deployed. Thats always a possibility. Jim miklaszewski, thank you so much. I would like to bring in mark ginsburg, former white house middle east policy adviser. We thank you for your time and perspective this morning. Good morning. We want to ask you this. If albaghdadi is hit. What does it mean for isis as far as the leadership being wounded or taken out . Boy, that would be the best damn reward anyone can have if baghdadi was taken out. He was the instigator, the special yule leader. You throw that into one. He was the lynchpin of isis. While jonathan mic or you about that convoy. It shows that american intelligence is Getting Better on the ground. Weve been able to target some of the senior officials. At least we know more than we did a few months ago which is great. And essential certainly a few steps ahead. Were talking about a 10 million u. S. We want to ask you about president obama authorizing another 1500 troops. This is how he explained it. Our troops are not engaged in combat. Essentially, were taking four Training Centers with Coalition Members that allow us to bring in iraqi recruits. Some of the sunni tribes that are still resisting isil. Giving them proper training, proper equipment, helping them with strategy and logistics. An indication that the u. S. Strategy against isis isnt f l failing but entering a new phase. What do you make of this . In some respects, francis, it comes down whether or not the additional 1500 troops are going to provide the backbone, the backbone to the iraqi troops to fight isis far more decisively in Anbar Province and northern iraq. As you probably know, theres a great deal of conjecture whether all the intelligence support and forward american Troop Deployment is going to do the trick as compared to having what we would avoid and what the president is avoiding which is boots on the ground. Lets just say when the president says were entering a new phase of this, it suggests that the president understands that what he has done before is inadequate. What needs to be done is far more. What american troops are able to do is provide that iraqi backbone. Its going to be essential. You have former air force general here saying what has been going on as far as air power here has been just a drizzle. What is needed is a full on thunderstorms to make a difference to ultimately degrade and destroy isis. As we know thats the mission. How do you think of this as a former diplomat. How do you think the fight against isis is affecting our standing in the middle east . It depends. Were caught up in so many different aspects. We look at it from not only iraq but syria. The forces we were trying to support in syria providing logistical and military support. This is the Free Syrian Army lost ground against isis. They were badly defeated a few days ago. Its quite clear on the syrian front were way behind. We dont have the support we need from the socalled coalition of the willing. Number two, lets also be realistic. We have the support of some major arab allies such as saudi arabia and united arab em rats. As far as the fight in syria we dont have the allies we need. Number two, its quite evident until we get arab boots on the ground to fight isis on the ground we will never really achieve what we need to achieve. A total of 3,000 troops there. The president asking for an additional 5 billion in the fight. Well see. Thank you for your time. Good to be with you. Also, developing this hour the new chief of the va Just Announced plans to overhaul his em battled agency. You may remember the scandal over waiting times at va hospitals. Take a listen to what Robert Mcdonald said moments ago. This week weve begun implementing the new veterans choice and accountability act. We call it choice act for short. It provides 5 billion to hire more doctors, nurses, and other medical staff. That was one of our deficiencies. It provides another 10 million to Fund Additional purchase care while building our internal capability. And still ahead. A devastating attack on a school in nigeria. 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