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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Locked in Campaign Fight; Ted Cruz's Likability Problem; Iraq Battling to Retake Ramadi from ISIS; Driver Formally Charged in Deadly Hit-and-Run; Film Battles NFL Over Brain Injuries; Bodies Recovered Following Shenzhen Landslide; One Million Migrants Reach Europe in 2015; Above-Average Snowpack in California, East Coast Unusually Warm; Korean War Veteran Returns to Demilitarized Zone; Holy Land Wine Made from Grapes Dating from 2000 Years Ago. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired December 23, 2015 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[01:00:09] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour, Donald Trump is back on the defensive after attacking Hillary Clinton using a word many consider vulgar.

Plus, a bloody battle with ISIS. Iraqi forces fight back against the terror group in the strategic city of Ramadi.

And it's the movie the NFL doesn't want you to see, but concerns about player safety don't seem to be slowing the growth of America's most popular sport.

Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and right around the world. I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is defending his use of a word widely considered to be vulgar to attack his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. He says he used it to say she was, quote, "badly beaten," by Barack Obama in the run-up to the 2008 election. Now Clinton is firing back.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are looking at somebody who has had a lot of terrible things said about me. Luckily I'm old enough that it doesn't particularly bother me.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A not- so-subtle dig at Donald Trump. Today after a young girl asked Hillary Clinton about bullying.

CLINTON: We shouldn't let anybody bully his way into the presidency.

ZELENY: Just when you thought politics couldn't sink any lower, Trump went there, talking about Clinton's 2008 defeat to Barack Obama. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How does it get worse? But

she was going to beat, she was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost.

ZELENY: Yes, he said "schlonged". A Yiddish word that means -- well, you guessed it. And he didn't stop there.

TRUMP: Where did she go? I know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about.

ZELENY: He's talking about this moment when Clinton went missing for a few moments at the Democratic debate. When she returned she only had one word to say.

CLINTON: Sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you respond to Donald Trump's comments?

ZELENY: While Clinton refused to answer questions today about Trump's remarks, her campaign seized on his comments as a rallying cry for women.

"We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should," Clinton's communications director Jennifer Palmieri twitted. But for Trump it's just the latest volley in a campaign filled with vulgarities. None of which has tarnished his popularity.

First she went after FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly.

TRUMP: She starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. And you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.

ZELENY: Then republican rival Carly Fiorina. In a "Rolling Stone" story Trump said, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"

But Clinton is Trump's favorite target.

TRUMP: And she's playing the woman card up. That's all she has. Honestly, outside of the woman's card, she's got nothing going. Believe me.

ZELENY: A sentiment his opponent, Jeb Bush, took even further today.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's great at being the victim, you know, this will enhance her victimology status. This is what -- this is what she loves doing.

ZELENY (on camera): The bottom line it's good politics for Republican to say anything negative about Hillary Clinton. And Jeb Bush is clearly trying to get into the game here. But you can bet that word victim also fires up Democrats.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, joining me now to discuss the U.S. presidential election is Christina Bellantoni. She covers politics for the "L.A. Times."

Christina, welcome to the show. So as you look at the things that have been coming from Donald Trump in recent days, his use of this vulgar term, even going so far as to reference Hillary Clinton's bathroom break during the Democratic debate recently.

CHRISTINA BELLANTONI, L.A. TIMES ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, POLITICS: Right.

SESAY: I have to ask you, is there a strategy at play here or is this just some speaking, shooting from the hip? What's going on here? Make sense of it for me.

BELLANTONI: I would like to try, but this entire thing, it sort of feels like a strange dream. If you had asked me six months ago, would we be in this place where Donald Trump holds a commanding lead nationally, and may even hold a larger lead than that.

We had a story on the front page of the "Los Angeles Times" today, saying that it's possible his lead is even bigger because when you get a phone call asking you who you support, maybe you're going to be embarrassed to say you support Donald Trump but you might actually be supporting him.

So this is a pretty surprising turn of events. But it speaks to the country's anger right now and frustration for what is currently in place. And that's not a party thing. It's sort of the typical politician thing. In general, you can predict what a politician is going to say in most circumstances, and particularly if you've been covering it for a long time.

[01:05:00] I can't tell you what Donald Trump is going to do next. And I think he understands that and he understands that he will get coverage when he does things that are off script or off tradition.

SESAY: I want to put up on screen what Donald Trump tweeted a short time ago in response to the widespread criticism of the use of that term in relation to Hillary Clinton. To paraphrase, he says he was not, in fact, you know, being derogatory to her that, in fact, it's the mainstream media here that's basically trying to blow this all up. It's up on the screens for our viewers to read for themselves. An old ploy again, you know, familiar tactic. The mainstream media.

BELLANTONI: Twisting the words around, right? You know, he understands this. This is a creature of television, one of the reasons everyone watching this show tonight knows who Donald Trump is because he understands how to use the medium of television. And so, you know, his Twitter audience, for example, he has millions of followers who he can speak to. He doesn't need press in the way a traditional candidate does.

You know, women, what do women voters think of this? There are a lot of them that are not happy with this and the Democrats like that because they feel like women are to their advantage. Generally unmarried women tend to vote Democratic. The older married women with children tend to vote Republican. It just depends. You know, they tend to be some of the swing voters in the general election.

So this is an area where the Democrats see this and they like it. And whether Trump is able to become the Republican nominee, the Democrats will attempt to paint any Republican who is the nominee, why didn't you condemn Trump? Did you agree with Trump? He was the frontrunner of your party.

SESAY: And to that point, to double down on that point, the Hillary Clinton campaign, rather than addressing this directly making it about Hillary, they actually made it about all women in saying this kind of language is degrading to all women.

BELLANTONI: Sure. And you're going to hear her say that more and more. You heard that a little bit in 2008 during her first run for the presidency. But she has stepped that up, reminding people she's a grandmother. In fact her campaign did an abuelita campaign.

SESAY: Yes.

BELLANTONI: Saying, you know, she's like everybody's grandmother. And she got a little pushback on that today but, you know, she likes to remind people that she is a woman, that she takes more time in the restroom than everybody else.

These are things that I think will continue to play out over the course of the campaign between Donald Trump and any candidate because there's a certain language you use when you speak to women and there's a certain language that perhaps you shouldn't use when you speak about women, and I think Donald Trump has found that multiple times in this campaign.

SESAY: Let me ask you this, though. Does Hillary Clinton find herself in something of a bind in the sense that these comments are offensive, yet for her to even directly engage them would make it seem as though she was somewhat thin skinned and it kind of plays into this whole Jeb Bush thing, oh, you know, he was -- she should stop being a victim. You know, it's that kind of bind that women seems to find themselves in.

BELLANTONI: I mean, flashback to 2008, this was exactly the conversation we were having. Obviously the rhetoric was a little different, but, you know, New Hampshire, she showed a bit of emotion when answering a question about what it's like to campaign. There were people that were calling her a cry baby. There were other people who said, I identify with her. She is someone that's willing to show her emotion.

And she would sometimes do that and then sometimes not. She played a very tough candidate. You know, she is an aggressor as a candidate and always has been. So to be able to remind people there is a softer side, and say, hey, you know what, maybe this is how you speak to women. I wouldn't want you to speak about my daughter this way, for example.

You can point to many instances where she did this and many times with others said, oh, tough up. I mean, you need to have thicker skin. But women are put in that position all of the time.

SESAY: All the time. All the time. Christina Bellantoni, it's wonderful to have you on the show to get your insights. Thank you.

BELLANTONI: Appreciate it.

SESAY: All right. Staying on the political track, while Donald Trump has focused his fire on Hillary Clinton, his lead has shrunk in the new national survey. The Quinnipiac poll shows Trump ahead of Ted Cruz by just four points.

Well, while Cruz might be gaining support around the country, there isn't much love for him in Washington.

CNN's Dana Bash reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ted Cruz has a new prediction that's making establishment Republicans shutter.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that it could easily end up being a two-man race between Donald Trump and me.

BASH: It's no secret that many mainstream Republicans recoil at the thought of Trump at the top of the ticket. But some Republicans also can't stand the idea of Cruz as their nominee, mostly because they can't stand Cruz in general.

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: To me, he's just a guy with a big mouth and no results.

BASH: Many of Cruz's own Republican congressional colleagues still haven't forgiven him for leading an unwinnable fight to defund Obamacare two years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It won't work.

BASH: Which led to a government shutdown.

Former House Speaker John Boehner called him a jackass. He got pummeled by colleagues in private meetings, but Cruz didn't seem to care.

(On camera): You are a human being. And you are sitting with people around you who I would think that you have some respect for. They are fellow senators in your own party.

[01:10:04] For them to get so mad at you, so mad at you, what's that like?

CRUZ: Listen. You know, what I try to keep an eye on is that I don't work for the party bosses in Washington.

God bless you.

BASH (voice-over): Cruz may just be used to it. Multiple sources who worked with Cruz for George W. Bush's 2000 campaign say he was profoundly disliked there, too. Bush himself said at a fundraiser this year he can't stand the guy.

CRUZ: Why am I so optimistic?

BASH: Even now Cruz jokes about needing a food tester while lunching with colleagues. Alienating people is such a big issue for Cruz. It is a regular topic in our interviews over the years.

(On camera): When you are president of the United States, you have to have at least some measure or level of likability in order to reach out and get things done. How will you overcome that?

CRUZ: Well, you know, I'll point out that there's an almost inverse relationship between being liked and appreciated in Washington, D.C. and reviled back home and being reviled in Washington and appreciated back home.

BASH (voice-over): It is true that in his home state of Texas in the 2013 government shutdown, Cruz was greeted like a hero. Republican women at a convention there were thrilled he stood up to Washington like he said he would.

On the presidential trail now, Cruz does connect with Republican voters, both with fiery rhetoric, and fun moments, like his love for the movie "Princess Bride."

CRUZ: Do not say that name. What? I can't hear you.

BASH: And tries to endear himself with humor. When Trump called him a maniac, the senator himself responded on Twitter with this.

Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, for all the latest developments on the U.S. presidential race, just go to our Web site, CNN.com/politics.

And this just into us here at CNN, health officials in Cardenas, Mexico say at least 30 people are injured after a gas pipeline exploded. Some of the images from the scene are difficult to watch. Health officials say several people are hospitalized with severe burns but the gas company Pemex denies the pipeline itself exploded. It says the blast happened after an accident with a stolen fuel tank. The company says no employees were wounded.

Now this all took place in a residential area about 60 kilometers or 37 miles from the capital of Tobasco State.

Iraqi soldiers are fighting their way into the center of Ramadi. They're trying to take control of the city from ISIS. The terrorists have held the provincial capital since May. It sits just 110 kilometers or about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

CNN's Barbara Starr reports it's a vital strategic city for both ISIS and government forces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gunfire and battles now reaching across the grim city of Ramadi. Iraqi forces on the move to take back the city center from ISIS seven months after they ran away from the fight.

Back in May, when Iraqi forces fled, top U.S. officials thought it was a bump in the road.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: It is possible to have the kind of attack we've seen in Ramadi. But I am absolutely confident in the days ahead that will be reversed.

STARR: But it's taken months of American-backed training and advice, and careful choking off of ISIS supply lines to get Iraqi forces to the point where they finally made their move.

A new Iraqi assault began by unfolding a bridge like this one across a branch of the Euphrates River. The U.S. military provided the training for the operation. The Iraqis then pushed into the center of the city with help from U.S. airstrikes to begin confronting an estimated 350 ISIS fighters.

Optimism from the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

STEVE WARREN, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN, BAGHDAD: I think the fall of Ramadi is inevitable. You know, the end is coming.

STARR: The fighting is brutal. The U.S. believes ISIS is using civilians as human shields. The Iraqis tried to get many of them out, dropping these leaflets with instructions on leaving. But ISIS fighters are dug in.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: ISIS has probably laid mines in buildings and laid explosive devices throughout the streets and inside the houses that are going to cause a lot more casualties.

STARR: Just getting control of Ramadi back will not be enough.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Taking back and holding territory is a very difficult operation. It's one thing to clear that area initially. But the problem that you have is actually coming back and making sure that nobody else goes into an area when you move to the next building or the next objective.

[01:15:09] STARR (on camera): Getting Ramadi back and holding it, a vital win for the Iraqi forces, but also a must-win for the Obama administration trying to prove its anti-ISIS strategy is going to work. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Time for a quick break. A woman who was honored for turning her life around is now facing felony charges in a deadly hit and run crash on the Las Vegas Strip. We will have the details for you ahead on NEWSROOM L.A.

Plus, a new film challenges the NFL over brain injuries. A sneak peek when CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. The woman accused of a deadly hit- and-run accident on the Las Vegas Strip has now been formally charged. Prosecutors say Lakeisha Holloway could face more charges as investigation continues.

Stephanie Elam reports Holloway was honored a few years ago for turning her life around.

[01:20:02] STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Isha, the woman that plowed her car into pedestrians multiple times on Sunday evening is now facing three felony charges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to need a lot more cops to shut pretty much this whole place down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have multiple people that are not breathing.

ELAM (voice-over): Police say when Lakeisha Holloway plowed her car into a crowd of pedestrians on a busy Las Vegas Strip Sunday evening, she killed 32-year-old Jessica Valenzuela and injured more than 30 people. Now she is being charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon, one count of child abuse, neglect or endangerment, and one count of leaving the scene of an accident.

STEVEN WOLFSON, CLARK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: But we will also be filing additional charges as the information flows to our office.

ELAM: Three people are still in critical condition with life- threatening head injuries. According to the police report, Holloway would not explain why she drove onto the sidewalk, but remembered a body bouncing off of her windshield, breaking it.

We're also learning more about the 24-year-old mother. Holloway legally changed her name to Paris Paradise Morton in October, according to a court judgment in Oregon. She also was part of the program at the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center for at- risk youth. In 2012, she was honored for her achievements and even spoke about overcoming the odds.

LAKEISHA HOLLOWAY, SUSPECT: Today I'm not the same scared girl I used to be. I'm a mature young woman who has broken many generational cycle that those before me hadn't. Being homeless and on my own taught me how to stand on my own two feet.

ELAM: But police believe Holloway and her 3-year-old daughter were living out of her car since arriving in Las Vegas about a week before the hit and run. A test for alcohol came back negative, but police say she may have been on a stimulant.

MICHEL JACKSON, WITNESS: At first we were like she's probably drunk, because she was just likely slowly on the curb. But then when she accelerated, it seemed like there was a purpose to her actions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: And she will make her first court appearance on Wednesday morning at 8:00 a.m. local time -- Isha.

SESAY: Our thanks to Stephanie Elam for that report.

Now the U.S. sports network ESPN reports the National Football League has backed away from a major study of the relationship between football and brain trauma. Sources tell ESPN the NFL left the $30 million project after learning that Robert Stern of Boston University had been selected to lead the research. The source said the league was concerned about Stern's objectivity. In response, an NFL spokesperson tweeted that the ESPN story is not accurate and the NFL did not pull any funding.

Well, by now, most casual fans of American football are aware that head injuries are a serious cause for concern in the sport. But on Christmas Day, the big Hollywood movie "Concussion" starring Will Smith is set to spread that message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL SMITH, ACTOR, "CONCUSSION": I found a disease that no one has ever seen. Repetitive head trauma.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NFL does not want to talk to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've turned on the lights and gave their biggest boogeyman a name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to war with a corporation that owns the day of the week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No proof was presented today because there simply isn't any.

SMITH: They have to listen to us. It's as big as they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, in response to the movie, the NFL told CNN, quote, "We welcome any conversation about player health and safety."

Joining me now by Skype from Beverly, California, is Steve Fainaru. Steve is an ESPN investigative reporter, he's also the co-author of "League of Denial," a book about traumatic brain injuries in the NFL.

Steve, thank you so much for joining us. Let me start by asking you about this movie, the movie "Concussion." How much of a nightmare is this for the NFL?

STEVE FAINARU, ESPN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, I think it's certainly not good when you have Will Smith playing a neuropathologist, an obscure neuropathologist, who was taken on by the league and essentially marginalized and attacked for discovering the first case of brain damage in an NFL player, a deceased NFL player. Now we know there are some 87 players who have been diagnosed.

And of course this is a true story. This is part of the story that's covered in our book. And I think one of the things that's interesting that's happened it's the story that we had today on ESPN. I think there are parallels with that, and I think it's something that the league is going to have to contend with.

SESAY: But you say that the movie doesn't get everything right about the story?

FAINARU: Yes. I think it's very much a Hollywood movie. I think one of the -- one of the odd things about the movie is that it takes the -- what is a very real story and -- and embellishes it considerably and blames the NFL for a lot of things that it was not involved in. The spine of the story is accurate. Bennet Omalu was marginalized and attacked by the NFL. But he was not threatened with deportation by the NFL. He wasn't followed by the NFL. His boss was not indicted or was -- his indictment was not behind the NFL. So it's hard to know exactly what they're talking about.

[01:25:08] SESAY: And, Steve, let me ask you this, though. From the time Dr. Omalu discovered CTE until now, how has the NFL's level of cooperation, how has that changed when it comes to scientists researching this issue?

FAINARU: Well, I think it's a really interesting question because what we're seeing now is that the league is pouring a lot of money into concussion research. They're one of the main drivers -- one of the main funders of concussion research in this country now. But I think it's the story that we had this morning points out that there seem to be limits to where the NFL will go and where they put their money.

And, of course, it's a very difficult line that they're walking. On the one hand, they say they're trying to make the game safer. At the same time, NFL-style football is a huge product in this country. And the NFL is selling that product and so it's something -- so scientific evidence that shows that the very product is dangerous to your health and sends that message to parents and kids and players is a difficult one for the NFL. And they're trying to sort of walk both line -- both sides of the line. SESAY: As you talk about parents, Will Smith who plays Dr. Omalu says

taking on this role was as much about him feeling a sense of responsibility as a parent with a son.

I want to play a little bit of what he had to say and then get you to kind of respond on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: As a parent, I started to feel impelled to tell the story because I didn't know. Why my son was playing, I didn't know. And I knew that if I didn't know, other parents didn't know. So it became important to me to be a part of the delivery of the information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: You hear Will Smith there, Steve, talking about, you know, the lack of knowledge on the parts of the parents when it comes to the dangers of the game. Do you think this film will change that? Do you think that the vehicle for the message being that it's a Hollywood movie will have the impact in that regard when it comes to parents and their young sons that their children playing this game?

FAINARU: Yes. I think you can't help but raise awareness, not only about how we've arrived to where we are now where there is no more information about this but it causes people to think about how much risk they really wanted to expose their kids to and players, how much they want to expose themselves to. And I think that's a really, really healthy thing and I also think that someone like Bennet Omalu who has been marginalized not only by the NFL but by many of his colleagues, for him to be recognized for his contribution to the science and awareness, I think that's an excellent thing.

SESAY: Yes. Steve Fainaru, joining us there by Skype from Berkeley, California. We really appreciate you making time to speak to us tonight. Thank you.

FAINARU: Thank you.

SESAY: Time for a quick break. Rescued from the rubble, we're live in Shenzhen, China where workers are searching for more survivors of a landslide after one man was found alive.

Plus, a milestone in the migrant crisis, the details are just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:41] SESAY: Hello, everyone. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

The headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES)

SESAY: Rescuers in China found a 19-year-old man alive more than two days after he was buried in a landslide in Shenzhen. Bodies were recovered and about 73 more people are still missing.

CNN's Matt Rivers joins us now live from Shenzhen with more on the rescue efforts.

Matt, bring us up to speed with how the rescue efforts are going.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This morning's rescue was the best news that we've had here in 24 to 48 hours basically since this happened. Right after it happened, there were a handful of rescues made, but then we went through a stretch here in southern China where no one was rescued from this rubble. So this rescue this morning, some 67 hours or so after this landslide happened was as improbable as it was joyful. People on the scene here, rescue workers extremely happy that this 19-year-old man was able to survive as long as he did and, remarkably, he is in stable condition at a local hospital at this point. But he just -- you know, he was rescued. There are so many other people that still remain missing, and the family members and the friends and the coworkers of those people that remain missing, many of them are right here behind me. This is a shelter that has been set up by the local people to congregate for information, although not a lot of information has been given out. That is the chief concern amongst people that we've spoken to, that the government is not providing the kind of updates that you would hope your loved one is in this situation.

We spoke to one man who came here as soon as he heard the news because his father is among those missing, as a man in his 60s. And while he is hopeful after this morning's rescue that his father must be found, he told us he's not happy with his government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): I have not received any updates. No one has called me to tell me anything. The authorities have given us no information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: But he did tell us that he remains hopeful. He's not giving us. And that is a sentiment here at the shelter. Almost more than now three days after this landslide happened, people still not giving up hope -- Isha?

SESAY: Yeah. People still desperate for many answers to many questions. Has there been any progress made in the investigation into all of this, Matt?

RIVERS: There has. There's been a little bit of new news this morning. We were reading state media reports in several different outlets here in China that said one of the senior executives of the company that is in charge of the site where the collapse happened has been detained by police. We don't exactly know what that means. We don't know if any charges have been leveled, if he's going in to be a cooperating witness. Maybe he's just going in to provide information, we're not sure. But the fact that he has been detained by police, certainly, the first real concrete step that we've seen in this investigation here in southern China. We do expect the Chinese government, as they are in other past industrial accidents, to move rather quickly in finding out, at least according to them, who is to blame.

[01:35:50] SESAY: Matt Rivers there joining us there from Shenzhen, China. Matt, appreciate it. Thank you.

As the battle against ISIS forces more people from their homes, the number of migrants and refugees reaching Europe has reached a significant milestone, one million desperate people and counting.

CNN's Diana Magnay explains what's at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Each day, in their thousands, they flee on tiny overcrowded boats on wintry seas. The young, the old, their money in their hands of smugglers, their fate tied to a piece of floating rubber desperate for Europe's shores.

The International Organization for Migration says it's one million this year, the highest migration flow since World War II. Half from Syria, but plenty from elsewhere, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, into an increasingly unwelcoming Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going into a population area of 550 million and if there were not a crisis of solidarity and leadership within the European Union, whereby others would follow the very important, the courageous and visionary leadership of Chancellor Merkel and had opened their doors, disbursed among 28 countries it would have been much more manageable.

MAGNAY: The debris of their crossings let to rot on the Greek island of Lesbos. Almost 3,000 landed on Tuesday alone. The life jackets they've left grown into a mountain as the months pass. And that's for those who make it, so many have not, 4,000 lost or missing to the waters of the Mediterranean this year, most on the crossing from North Africa to Italy, the longest stretch, the deadliest route on earth.

Greece feels overwhelmed, the point of entry for 800,000. But the rest of Europe does, too. Hungary has built walls and raised a wire to keep migrants out. Some of the Balkans will let only Syrians, Afghanis and Iraqis through.

The policy of E.U. leaders now, to regain control of the block's external borders. Countries conflicted between humanitarian values and the defense of their own interests. Europe's edifice showing deep cracks.

Yet, it is just one million. Turkey must play hoist to more than twice that. Lebanon has 100,000 Syrian refugees itself. Jordan, 600,000. These countries along the Syria fault line bare the heaviest burdens in a year where the UNHCR says it will be more than 60 million displaced.

Diana Magnay, CNN, London. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: A staggering milestone.

Now, an 80-year-old U.S. military veteran has decided to relive his past. He's visiting the Korean Demilitarized Zone and bringing up memories that are difficult to erase. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:42:02] SESAY: Wintry storms in California are creating snow pack levels not seen in years. And that could be good news for the state's drought. California gets much of its water from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Still, experts say this doesn't mean the historic drought is over. It is a very different story on the U.S. east coast, very different, indeed. Many areas like New York City are having unseasonably warm weather. And Christmas Eve will likely be the warmest ever in some places. Washington could see a high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit or 24 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us with more on this, plus an unusual sight in the night sky.

What's going on?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Let's start off with the heat here, the incredible weather pattern that's been taking place across the eastern U.S. Over 20 states with the potential for record temperatures the day before Christmas Eve scattered as far north as the U.P. of Michigan, as far south as central Florida. Take a look at the abnormalities, the temperatures, talking about temperatures, 31 to 32 degrees above what is considered normal for this time of year. Even in Chicago, 45 Fahrenheit is your average. It should be around 36 degrees in Minneapolis, 6 above the average. But this falls in line with what you expect for an El Nino pattern with December being very warm in the northern U.S., the southern tier hanging on to warmth. Historically speaking, this is what happens in January and February. The warmed stays put in the northern tier states and then the south begins to see the bottom drop out a little bit. Certainly something worth following over the next couple of months.

But another story worth following, I want to show you this video coming out of areas of areas of Las Vegas. This has been the talk of town from places like Mesquite, Nevada, as far away as Bakersfield, California, and in Las Vegas, people have seen this object in the night sky saying a meteor like object was spotted in the sky. It was around about 30 seconds across the region before it fizzled out. A lot of people looking at this. And we've seen this before. There could be a meteor or it could be space junk. With space junk, keep in mind, there are 22,000 objects surrounding and orbiting our planet. Some the sizes fragment of apples or some as large as full-scale engines.

I want to give you a global perspective when it comes to meteors. Meters that comes in at much faster speeds, as they come in, sometimes they come in at 160 miles per hour. They come in at an oblique angle with space junk, which, again, we have hundreds of thousands of small ones circling our planet. They come in at more of a flat angle and they drop in and they are going at a slower rate, sometimes as slow as 15 to 20 miles per hour. Sometimes you can see this extent for a long period of time. That's what we think this is with all the space out there. Satellites, routinely, being put up into space. And a lot of the smaller pieces have been hanging around. About 22,000 objects that are about 10 centimeters or larger. But, Isha, there are millions and millions more that are the size of a fleck of paint or a screw that are in this area as well circling our planet. So from time to time, gravity wins the battle, they fall back down to earth, and that's what you see.

SESAY: Javaheri, I have to say, your weather graphics are getting fancier and fancier by the day.

JAVAHERI: We have one of the best producers, Jetson Jones (ph), he's doing all these cool things.

[01:45:15] SESAY: It's very, very cool.

Much appreciated. Although I am still slightly annoyed with you that the weather will be cold on Christmas day.

(LAUGHTER)

JAVAHERI: I'll get to work on that.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: Pedram Javaheri at the CNN Weather Center, appreciate it. Thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thanks.

SESAY: Now, an 80-year-old U.S. military veteran has returned to the border between North and South Korea five decades after he served there during the Cold War.

He told our own Paula Hancocks about the attacks he faced and the things he will never forget. It's a story you will only see right here on CNN.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last time David Richmond saw North Korea was half a century ago. Stationed with the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea close to the DMZ, the most heavily fortified border on earth. It was 1967, the height of the Cold War. Richmond was in his early 20s. He admits his greatest fear.

DAVID RICHMOND, KOREAN WAR VETERAN: Not going home. Yeah. That was always in the back of your mind.

HANCOCKS: Richmond was in country just one year, but during that time, North Korean soldiers infiltrated the South and tried to assassinate the then president. They failed. And North Korea attacked and captured a U.S. war ship, the "USS Pueblo," which they hold to this day.

But there's one thing he says he will never forget, the North's propaganda loud speaker. In particular, messages broadcast from this famous anchor woman.

PYONGYANG PATTI, NORTH KOREAN ANCHOR WOMAN: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

HANCOCKS: She was nicknamed Pyongyang Patti.

RICHMOND: She would speak in Korean, sing songs in Korean. The idea was to mess with your mind in terms of what you are there for. And it got real old, especially when you're on an ambush patrol at night, set up and you were freezing to death.

HANCOCKS: Richmond and his fellow soldiers are back in South Korea as tourists, invited by the regional mayor to thank them for their service.

Visiting the area where the armistice was signed after the Korean War in 1952, seeing visitors from the other side of the border taking their own photos, and coming face-to-face with North Korean soldiers.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

HANCOCKS: A seemingly farcical encounter that belied the ever-present tensions on this border.

RICHMOND: Looking back on it and thinking about it over the years, I never dreamed of going on this long.

HANCOCKS: A sentiment shared by many of the veterans saddened that their return to Korea is a return to a country still divided.

Paula Hancock's, CNN, near the border between North and South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Thanks to Paula Hancocks for that great report.

A winery that sits between Jerusalem and the West Bank says its wine is pure enough for Jesus to drink. Details on the ancient secret behind the Holy Land vintage.

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[01:52:06] SESAY: Hello, everyone. Question for you. What would Jesus drink? You see, that's the question some wine-making monks are asking. They are marketing wines made from grape varieties that go back nearly 2,000 years.

We have more from Oren Liebermann in Bethlehem.

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(BELLS TOLL)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christmas in Bethlehem, a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the beginning of the New Testament. At a monastery nearby, they craft a key component of many on a Biblical story. Wine as made in the time of Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED MONK: We are concentrating on making the wine and the --

(CROSSTALK)

LIEBERMANN (on camera): The history comes with it?

UNIDENTIFIED MONK: The history comes with it, of course. And hopefully, God is happy with our wine.

(LAUGHTER)

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The wine-making process has come a long way since Biblical times with stainless steel fermenting tanks and oak barrels, which I would describe as epic.

(on camera): I've never sat on 4,000 barrels of wine before.

(LAUGHTER)

(voice-over): Tradition and history a part of every bottle.

UNIDENTIFIED MONK: When you say Jesus drank from this wine, so it means it's a huge thing. So you have to -- you have to continue on making this wine better and better every year.

LIEBERMANN: Cremisan was the first winery in the region to return to making wine from only local grapes, the same used thousands of years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MONK: The book is the name of the grape that grows only here in our country.

LIEBERMANN: After an intro to local grapes, before tasting, I admit not the first or last tasting on this story, then a sniff.

(on camera): Smells good. Smells fresh, ripe.

UNIDENTIFIED MONK: Yes.

LIEBERMANN (CO): Swirl. Sip. And enjoy.

(on camera): And it has that fresh, ripe taste to match. (voice-over): At Ariel University, researchers traced the genetic

vine to uncover which grapes are native to the Holy Land, testing ancient seeds preserved in archeological digs.

ARIEL UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEE: When finding archeological finding, 99 percent of the time, the seeds are actually charred. This is the reason that they were preserved.

LIEBERMANN (on camera): You can see the right seed is the burned one. It's darker. It's more shriveled. And that's the left a modern day fresh Merlot seed.

ARIEL UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEE: Exactly.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Up the coast, Winemaker Abi Feldstien shows us his vineyards of recently harvested grapes. There were heavy restrictions on wine making in the Holy Land for hundreds of years under the Ottoman Empire.

ABI FELDSTEIN, WINEMAKER: You can still find a few edible berries.

LIEBERMANN: The grapes that survived were table grapes.

(voice-over): So the wine from this grape would be the wine that Jesus drank?

FELDSTEIN: Exactly.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Turning them into wine is still a new idea.

(on camera): It has a tremendous sweetness to it, but it's overripe now.

The French have a word which describes the place the wine is from. What does that mean here?

[01:55:17] FELDSTEIN: It actually expresses the sense of the wine.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): A sense of people, place, and crucially of history.

There is tremendous marketing potential here, a wine from Biblical times, a wine that Jesus drank, being bottled once again.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, the Holy Land.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Our own Oren Liebermann there, drinking for research. Great reporting.

Now, finally, when he's not hard at work, U.S. President Barack Obama likes to play golf, and apparently his practice is paying off. Watch as Mr. Obama drained a 40-foot chip shot about 12 meters Monday on the 18th hole at the Mid Pacific Country Club in Hawaii. It is an early Christmas present for the president. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: All right then. Mr. Obama is in Hawaii celebrating the holidays. He is on a two-week vacation and it seems it started pretty well.

Well, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

The news continues with Errol Barnett right after this.

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