buried. the problem is this village and region haven t changed very much since mandela lived here. there hasn t been improvement in infrastructure. there aren t roads, there aren t toilets. toil toilets. they have told dignitaries to avoid coming. they are telling general south africans also not to get in their cars and come here because the infrastructure simply can t handle it. there are expected to be 4,000, maybe 6,000 people who will come. this is an approved list. there s a small tent. you can barely make it out behind me. many of them will be filed into that tent and that is where the funeral will take place. it s a much smaller fare for a small number of v.i.p.s and family. there was security problems, from u.s. officials and other
supplies. they really couldn t find their way out. it was an issue of where to go. and that is the case for a lot of new yorkers. many people don t have the capacity to leave the city or don t have a place to go inland. so they don t have hurricane plans. they re die-hard new yorkers. they re going to stay where they are and hope for the best. fredricka, it s all yours. you have a long day of coverage here as well. i ll see you tomorrow morning. this is like one long psych zbll it is. we want to welcome our international viewers this hour. 65 million people could be in harm s way this weekend in north america as hurricane irene sweeps up the east coast of the u.s. parts of the region haven t seen a storm like this in two decades. from north carolina into new england, bracing for irene. right now, irene is battering north carolina after making landfall a few hours ago near cape lookout. the winds, rain and surf were brutal as irene slammed ashore. and right now, mo
carolina coast. as many as 65 million people all along the eastern seaboard are going to be impacted in some way, shape or form by irene. and many people are already trying to find shelter where they can. take a look at the size of this storm. eight states from north carolina to massachusetts are under states of emergency. and right now, this first hurricane of the season that is impacting so much of the east coast is pummeling north carolina. it barreled ashore on the outer banks of north carolina just after dawn this morning, about five miles northeast of cape lookout. it is now down to a category 1 hurricane with maximum winds of 85 miles per hour. still very significant. make no mistake, it is a very powerful storm. and it is still very dangerous. there have been two storm-related deaths in north carolina reported so far. and we re seeing a lot of fierce winds and drenching rains there. parts of the region haven t seen a storm like this in decades. we re talking about alo
go. slr slapping unilegal sanctions. american sanction won t of any rel impact on syria. it s a very big stretch between that and doing something effectively against assad. he and the saudis and the others in the region haven t figured out whether they want assad in or out. the saudis and certainly the other arab leaders do not want to see him go and why you ve seen this extraordinary ambivalence with the way the u.s. has approached syria. the president s speech, bob, is being characterized as major speech on the middle east. what can he accomplish on this speech, the timing? i don t know whether whether anyone has it yet. you have to ask the question, what s going on in the middle east that s really important? its a the arab spring. as andrea was saying off-camera, it s stalled, no question about it. but the ferment in all these
leaders when it comes to responding to that let s go a little closer, to that decision. the arab league did have an emergency meeting last night in cairo. basically taking that opportunity to condemn president trump s decision. but beyond that, very little in the way of concrete action. the kind of concrete action many people here would like to see arab leaders and muslim leaders to take. natalie? especially since the u.s. is kind of stepping back diplomatically. vice president pence headed to the region. mahmoud abbas saying he will not meet with him. want to talk with you about that embassy there. some of the embassies in the region haven t been staffed by the current administration. what do we know about the embassy there and who is protecting it? reporter: well, here is somebody who seems to have been affected by the tear gas.