Turkey Deploys Tank Convoy to Syrian Border; NBA Commissioner Heads to China
BRIGGS: Four-fifteen Eastern Time. As Turkey threatens a planned military incursion into northeastern Syria, Kurdish-led forces say ISIS sleeper cells are attacking Kurdish positions in Raqqa. The Kurds are calling on the U.S.-led coalition and the international community to implement a no- fly zone over northern Syria. As violence rages, President Trump tweeted that, in no way have we abandoned the Kurds who are special people and wonderful fighters. Nick Paton Walsh live for us at the Turkish Syrian border. Nick, any movement here?</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have seen intermittently the military moving around here, some unmarked SUVs driving along the border here, in fact, military moved back a few meters away from the wall. Look, there's clearly something slowly being prepared here. The broader question is how extensive it is and how quickly will it begin, and whether or not they the at times threatening signals from Washington, D.C. have changed the calculus of Turkish President Erdogan, and he very clearly I'm sure with green light during that Sunday night phone call with the White House. The White House released a statement seeming to offer a blank check. The Kurds were called great fighters by President Trump and said they weren't being threatened. Turkey has been threatened with obliteration by the United States if they did not keep within the sort of invisible lines Donald Trump has set for this potential forthcoming Turkish operation. But the broader question I think, is it going to happen? And if it does, how extensive will it be. Behind me is Tal Abyad, one of the towns that the U.S. forces withdrew from recently and expected to be one of the target towns for a target operation. It looks exceptionally quiet from where we are standing apart interest the sort of hubbub growing on this side of the border. The last time I was here, ISIS held it. Now it's held by the Syrian Kurds. Is the Turkish ambition at this point limited to taking some border populated areas, a small area, to make a point, to sort of harvest the symbolism of the conversation with the White House on Sunday? Do they intend to go all the way in? About 18 kilometers as suggested by Erdogan? It's unclear, but something appears to be brewing in the days ahead. Back to you.</s>BRIGGS: Yes, how far will they go? How far will the president allow them? Nick Paton Walsh, live for us at the border there, thank you.</s>ROMANS: All right. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is headed to China after defending Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. Friday night. Morey tweeted, then deleted support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Chinese state TV responded to the tweet by canceling broadcasts of two preseason games. Chinese businesses, state-owned businesses started cutting ties to the Rockets. Silver clarified the NBA's position yesterday.</s>SILVER: I understand that there are consequences from that exercise of, in essence, his freedom of speech and, you know, we will have to live with those consequences. We are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression.</s>ROMANS: The rockets had practice in Tokyo today. CNN's Alex Thomas is there live with the latest developments He said, they'll have to live with those consequences. Alex, most companies, they just cave. They don't want to live with the consequences. They see a huge Chinese market and they do whatever they tell them. Adam Silver is an outlier here.</s>ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: He didn't want to tread the middle ground. He tried that and failed. He was getting as much criticism from the United States as he was from China, saying, look, freedom of expression is an essential to everything it means to be an American. And he admitted here in Japan, when speaking yesterday, they are an American league, even though the NBA has a huge global presence especially in China where it's getting rather chaotic. In the last hour, we heard that the scheduled media available for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets who are due to play two preseason games there on Thursday night and on Saturday night was canceled minutes before it's due to start, no explanation from the media officials, and the press has been left bemused over it all. You talk about Chinese businesses suspending dealings with the Houston Rockets. It was the general manager Daryl Morey who posted the tweet now deleted last week. We have posters from the games starting to be taken down. Probably a real question mark as to whether these preseason games in China are going to go ahead at all even though Adam Silver is now in China trying to placate, smooth over the whole row. And it's caused all around the Hong Kong protests. Beijing officials see the protesters there separatists, trying to get Hong Kong to break away from mainland China. Whereas, actually, the protesters have many faceless leaders with different aims, none of it is independence. It's not going away any time soon.</s>ROMANS: No, it's not. All right. Alex, thank you so much for that. You know, whether it's airlines, or retailers, or hotel companies, they have all caved, caved, caved for this big market. So watching Adam Silver very closely to see how basketball --</s>BRIGGS: A $4 billion relationship with the</s>NBA. ROMANS: All right. Drivers in California paying way more at the pump than most of the country. What's happening in California? CNN Business has the details why the prices have spiked. 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