2017 May be the Hottest Year on Record.
SESAY: Well a CNN team went with Turkish police on a tense and dangerous mission, raiding a suspected ISIS cell, Arwa Damon was there as hundreds of officers moved in on three dozen suspects in Istanbul. Take a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Turkish language).</s>ARWA DAMON: If we are ready, we are moving the officer radio calls to his men. It's just past midnight a few days before New Year's Eve and across Istanbul, the police force is getting ready for a massive raid. The cell they want to bust is larger than most of their previous ISIS targets. And we are briefed, is deemed (ph) to have the capacity to carry out an attack. Turks are wary and anxious this holiday season following the pain and shock of last year's New Year's Eve terror attack when a gunman opened fire on revelers at the Reina Nightclub in Istanbul and the security apparatus cannot afford to take any chances. They're trying to move in as quietly as possible. This is part of a sweeping operation that is involving around three dozen targets and hundreds of police officers. Residents peer down but stay well indoors. This is as far as we're being permitted to go at this stage. There have been instances in the past over the course of the last year where the targets have actually exploded suicide vests or attack the officers with grenades and guns. No one is authorized to go on camera and the information disclosed to us is skipped. The unit we are with is targeting a couple believed to be the head of the cell that is also responsible for moving and housing fighters, ideological training and recruitment. The search is still ongoing. The couple has been apprehended and it is believed, at this stage, that they are the ones that are the head of the entire cell. There are no casualties on this night or any clashes. Video later released by the police force shows other targets. Their homes searched and tossed for any grain of information. And all 28 people were detained and there have been regular crack downs throughout the country. Over the last year, hundreds of Isis suspects have been taken into custody but the threat level remains high and casts a looming shadow over what should be a festive time. Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.</s>SESAY: It's one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in the world. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims forced from their communities in Myanmar into squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh. Thousands of others have been killed or raped in what the United Nations and the U.S. is calling ethnic cleansing. This is just the latest wave of violence by Myanmar authorities because, sadly, the plight of the Rohingya is decades old. In fact, many have resettled far, far from home. Fifteen hundred Rohingya now live in Chicago, one of the largest populations in the United States. Even in America though, many Rohingya's say, they carry the scars and anxiety of violence with them. Nasir Bin Zakaria started the Rohingya Cultural Center in Chicago and he joins us now. Nasir, thank you for being with us. Tell me...</s>NASIR BIN ZAKARIA, DIRECTOR OF ROHINGYA CULTURAL CENTER: You're welcome.</s>SESAY: Tell me about the Rohingya community there in Chicago and critically how you are all doing at a time like this.</s>ZAKARIA: Yes, Rohingya Cultural Center is fine by confirmation(ph) of (inaudible). So we -- this is wall of the country, first one in United States. Rohingya Cultural Center of Chicago, so this is amazing for us so we can do our new life in Chicago. So, we do activities like English(ph) class or tutoring, kids homework. So other activities like teaching law about United States, about citizenship class, (inaudible) class.</s>SESAY: And how are you doing now? How is the community coping right now given everything that is happening back home in Myanmar?</s>ZAKARIA: Yes, it's -- if I can say, we can sleep all day all night. I mean it's every time people crying, send voice mail to me, send picture to me all the time. So, day night it's -- Rohingya people in Burma, when I saw picture, my heart broke.</s>SESAY: Yes, it's truly, truly very, very distressing. Nasir, I understand that you still have family in Myanmar. What can you share with us about how they're doing?</s>ZAKARIA: So, I have contact -- yesterday I contact my family, but I'm all the time concerned about my family, also other our people. Today, they are alive, tomorrow I don't know if they're alive or not because there's no guarantee, no safety, no future in Burma.</s>SESAY: What are they telling you about the situation now in Northern Rakhine State? Is the violence still happening?</s>ZAKARIA: Yes, violence still happening. Also, they're burning housing. Also, there are people -- I mean, they told me in jail people dying -- they don't know how many people dying.</s>SESAY: And your family, they're still there in Rakhine State, is there a reason they haven't tried to get to Bangladesh?</s>ZAKARIA: They can't -- they're blocked. They tried to. Security forces, they put most of Rohingya people, they can't allow to go anywhere, they stay home. Only give one hour by foot but is no one is safe.</s>SESAY: So what are they doing for food? What are they doing in terms being able to get something to eat and drink and just have some kind of normalcy? Have they been able to get any of the aid that they've been trying to get into Raqqa (ph) and state (ph)?</s>ZAKARIA: No, no. No premiere (ph) service, no food. So back (ph) they -- only they find rice only. Sometimes some family hungry, dying, so many people. They are sick, they can't go to hospital. So this kind of problem right now.</s>SESAY: It's a desperate situation. The Nasir Bin Zakaria, thank you so much for speaking to us. And our thoughts and prayers are with your family and everyone caught up in this violence in Myanmar. Thank you for speaking to us.</s>ZAKARIA: You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. So thank you so much.</s>SESAY: We're going to pause for a quick break here. And the earth is rapidly warmer. It will likely keep getting hotter. Coming up, my conversation with retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly who says the dramatic changes here on earth are even more alarming when viewed from space.