Elysse Labott News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> and, as elysse mentioned, kerry honored cnn's freedom project on the publicizing the plight of so many victims. go to cnn.com/freedom to see how many around the world are making a difference in the fight against modern-day slavery. you can watch the compete documentary and find ways that you, too, at home can help as well. go to cnn.com/freedom. when we come back. u.s. president obama gets a special meeting with one of ethiopia's oldest residents. she's not alive. she's dead. >> her name is lucy. >> been dead for a while. more details after the break. e? and now you can't connect the way ...

Quote, significant effort towards meeting minimum standards upgraded that country to the tier two watch list. thailand, on the other hand remains at tier three. >> today, we recognize your steadfast efforts. >> reporter: the u.s. state department also recognized eight champions to the cause, people who have made substantial contributions to ending modern-day slavery. among them cnn international's executive vice president and managing director tony maddox. >> what does this mean to you, tony? >> reporter: maddox spearheaded cnn's freedom project aimed at raiding raising awareness with victim s...

>> it is a little strange to say hot in the 40s but yes, it is 100s. millions of people around the world are being denied their basic human rights, and they're being used as modern-day slaves. >> the u.s. is trying to root out that injustice through its annual report on the state of global human trafficking. here's elysse labott with the details. >> reporter: there are between 20 million and 36 million slaves in the world today. right now in 2015. and human trafficking generates more than $150 billion illegal profits each year. the annual tip report rates countries on their efforts to bring ...

With washington. he says netanyahu has failed and he is now calling his bluff. cnn, jerusalem. >> many thanks to our elysse labott for that report. no agreement has been reached just yet in switzerland. jim acosta has more. >> reporter: while iranian and u.s. officials try to make progress in their nuclear negotiations the talks in switzerland hit a speed bump in the form of a letter written by senator tom cotton and signed by 46 of his republican colleagues complaining about the nuclear talks. the obama administration says iran raised the topic with u.s. officials. >> i'm embarrassed for th...