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Terror Attacks Change Policing Large-Scale Events; Obama Plans Executive Action on Gun Control; China 1-Child Policy Ends with New Year; Flooding in U.S., U.K.; Technology Changing How We Party. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired January 01, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:13] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers around the world and a happy New Year wherever you might be watching this hour. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Becky Anderson, and a happy New Year from Dubai.
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[02:07:39] HOWELL: In the United States, police are using new tactics to keep people safe during major events and big celebrations.
Our Sara Sidner has this report.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The terror attacks that shocked the world from Paris to San Bernardino have had a ripple effect on how police in America deal with large-scale events such as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day parades.
PHILLIP SANCHEZ, CHIEF, PASADENA POLICE DEPARTMENT: We are always prepared for these kinds of situations.
SIDNER: For the Pasadena police chief and his department, all eyes are now on the Rose Bowl Parade and game. It's a tradition that brings some 700,000 people. Now what used to be looked at as good, clean fun is scrutinized as potential soft targets for terrorists since the recent attacks.
SANCHEZ: We have lessons learned from San Bernardino. We've looked at Paris, at Mali.
SIDNER: Here, just as the flower-covered floats are choreographed seamlessly, police are trying to do the same with dozens of other law enforcement agencies, which this year includes Homeland Security.
SANCHEZ: We have rapid response teams and they are highly skilled, highly specialized with a specific mission. And that mission is, if there is an unusual occurrence or emergency those teams will be immediately deployed.
SIDNER: And citizens will notice differences in what they can bring with them. Everything has to be in clear plastic bags at the game, and everyone should be expected to be on surveillance camera more times than they can count.
For other cities, New Year's Eve was the big test for American security.
(CHEERING)
SIDNER: New York City deployed 6,000 police officers in Times Square alone, bomb-sniffing dogs and even nuclear and chemical agent detectors, all in an effort to assure the public their safety is top priority.
WILLIAM BRATTON, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: We monitor threat information and intelligence information through our partners with the FBI and all the other government agencies, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, et cetera.
SIDNER: The result, a safe celebration in New York. Now the attention turns west. As thousands gather for the Rose Parade, they can be sure police here are watching more than the floats.
Sara Sidner, CNN.
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[02:09:53] HOWELL: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, rare wintertime floods are causing real problems in parts of the United States, and now there's word levees are threatening to fail in one state. More on that story ahead.
Plus, the U.S. President Barack Obama is hitting the links in Hawaii, but he has serious plans when he returns back to Washington, D.C.
Stay with us.
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HOWELL: The U.S. President Barack Obama is on vacation right now in Hawaii but is preparing to announce new executive action on gun control.
Senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, has this report.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For President Obama, the final round is about to begin.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In 2016, I'm going to leave it out, all on the field.
ACOSTA: A first on the president's eighth and last year in office, Mr. Obama's long-promised response to mass shootings in the U.S. Sources say it will be a package of executive actions on gun control.
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Expected before the January 12th State of the Union and aimed at this gun show loophole, which allows some firearms sellers to avoid conducting background chicks on their customers.
(on camera): And so the beginning of this year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that would be fair, yeah.
ACOSTA: OK.
(voice-over): The White House argues the president's actions will be within his executive authority and in line with polls that show broad support for tightening background checks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, Congress hasn't shown the courage to do so. That's why the president asked his team to look at what we can do administratively.
ACOSTA: Vowing to fight the move, the nation's biggest gun lobby, the NRA, says the president is doing what he always does when he doesn't get his way, define the will of the people and using executive action.
Another controversial proposal coming in the New Year, the president will ask Congress to shut down the terror detention center at Guantanamo, a facility Mr. Obama may be closed on his own if lawmakers balk at the White House plan.
OBAMA: It will be an uphill battle.
[02:15:00] ACOSTA: The president plans to travel to Cuba and perhaps a dozen other countries in what's shaping up to be a global farewell tour.
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ACOSTA: But the president's plans could be upended by setbacks in the war on ISIS.
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ACOSTA: A foreign policy crisis that could complicate White House plans to have the president campaign heavily with the 2016 Democratic nominee, a prospect that may put him and Hillary Clinton on the trail together again.
OBAMA: I think we will have a strong Democratic nominee. I think that Democratic nominee will win. I think I will have a Democratic successor.
ACOSTA (on camera): But first, the president will lay out his plans at the fast-approaching State of the Union address which is less than two weeks away. White House official say don't expect a long laundry list of proposals, in part, because the president is almost out of time.
Jim Acosta, CNN, traveling with the president in Honolulu.
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HOWELL: The start of the New Year in China brings with it a new policy for families there. That nation's one-child restriction is now over, as couples can now have two children legally, without any fines.
CNN's Matt Rivers has this report.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Maternity wards like this one could be filled with more little bundles of joy soon. Starting January 1st, Chinese couples can have two children each, after final approval of a momentous change to the country's one-child policy that's been in place for more than 30 years.
(on camera): A Chinese demography expert told CNN this new policy could affect 100 million couples and result in a baby boom in 2017 and 2018 as more and more people grow accustomed to the idea of having two children.
Some facilities, like Oasis International Hospital, are preparing for it.
UNIDENTIFIED PHYSICIAN, OASIS INTERNATIONAL HOSPITAL (through translation): As a doctor, I'll try my best to get prepared for the challenge. We have recruited many new doctors and nurses in the past few months.
RIVERS: But there is some debate over just how many children will be added to the mix. Demography experts think the fertility rate won't rise that much in the long term. And the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau thinks the most likely scenario would see total births rise by about 23 million over the next several decades.
The one-child policy was extremely unpopular among many every day Chinese. The system led to a bureaucracy employing hundreds of thousands to enforce the law. Couples were forced to pay heavy fines for having a second child, but many could not afford it. So forced abortions and sterilizations became a regular occurrence, according to many human rights groups.
Advocates for changing the law have said curbing the population growth has been unnecessary for many years, and now China faces a rapidly aging population, a shrinking workforce, and many more boys than girls. There aren't enough young people to take care of the old. (on camera): It is unclear if this will be enough to offset China's
aging population, but officials know that something has to be done. The government says its population could be the oldest in the world within the next 15 years, with more than 400 million people older than age 60. With the one-child policy ending, the government is hoping that maternity wards like this one are busier than ever before.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Beijing.
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ANDERSON: An Iraqi orchestra conductor is fighting terror with music. He visits parts of Baghdad that have been bombed. And he comes armed with only his cello.
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IRAQI ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR: I'm helping people, empowering their self- confidence, empowering their commitment to life, not to death.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
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[02:20:01] IRAQI ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR: It is my choice to feel human, to feel alive. But they were thinking freer somehow, they were less aggressive, less malicious against each other or I guess the situation.
(MUSIC)
IRAQI ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR: I will not stop at this age. We have a certain obligation when things are abnormal. Our obligation is to turn life normal and worth living for.
(MUSIC)
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HOWELL: Simply beautiful and powerful.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, New Year's celebrations. It means some people are texting. Some are making calls. Some are taking selfies, if you're into that. Up ahead, how technology is changing how we party. Stay with us.
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ANDERSON: Welcome back. People in parts of the United Kingdom are battling severe flooding. The rising water levels are taking over highways and bridges. The U.K. Environment Agency says more than 700,000 homes have been flooded in the last week. Residents were forced to evacuate the storm-affected towns. What would normally be a month's worth of rain fell in just one day in some areas. Prime Minister David Cameron has called the flooding unprecedented.
HOWELL: And, Becky, flooding the story in the United States as well where levees are threatening to break just north of the city of St. Louis, Missouri, due to flooding rains.
Our Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is standing by, tracking this -- Karen.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We have watched after acre after acre, hectare after hectare and miles and miles of highways and buildings that have been submerged. Already 17 states still under flood warning, they extend from Illinois and Indiana to the Gulf States. This was a period of about two days, from December 26th to the 28th. In St. Louis in particular, where you see the red-shaded area. That's where they saw nearly 10 inches of rainfall in two days or around 250 millimeters. But for the entire year, more than 60 inches of rainfall, well above their average, or about 1550 millimeters of rainfall, but not just in St. Louis, extending all the way down into Oklahoma. Well, a number of rivers still at or above their flooding level, 328 rivers have reported some minor to major flooding. And for St. Louis, it is at historic levels, at least for the Merrimack River. But over the next several days, seven days, it looks like St. Louis does remain dry. That is the good news. But further to the West, we'll see a little bit more in the way of wet weather. At least fortunately for St. Louis, the weather remains dry. But those temperatures are going to be running a little bit below normal for this time of year, running right around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius. Along the Merrimack River, we saw St. Louis. And for Valley Park, historic flooding. There were pictures of homes that were being floated down the river. Take a look at these images out of the St. Louis area, farmland, businesses, cars, homes, peoples' livelihoods affected just in a two-day period. But the results will linger for some time. Some areas were an island, but portions of interstates were sunk, making it very difficult to get help to some of these areas. They had to do it by small boats. And people and dogs and everything had to be rescued.
Becky, back to you.
[02:25:26] ANDERSON: All right. Thank you for that.
No matter where you celebrated New Year's Eve, it is pretty likely you had your Smartphone close by, right?
CNN's Tom Foreman looks at the influence of iPhone technology on what is our every day lives and our celebrations.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the ball comes down, the phones will go off as millions take pictures to welcome the New Year. And in many ways, each click is testament to the earth-shaking impact of one product.
To understand, you have to go back to 2007 when the cell phone industry was exploding.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
ANNOUNCER: Everybody loves chocolate.
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FOREMAN: And everybody thought it might be a big mistake for computer giant Apple to get in on it. But when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, it was different.
STEVE JOBS, FORMER APPLE CEO: An iPod, a phone --
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JOBS: -- and an Internet communicator.
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FOREMAN: Despite early growing pains, it was a game changer. As a music player, the iPhone took all the best elements of the iPod. As an Internet link, it was elegant. As a phone, it was fine. And as a camera, it had everyone snapping. And soon, the release of each new generation was spurring another long line of eager fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to keep up with the latest technology.
FOREMAN (on camera): Certainly the rise of social media platforms have helped the iPhone prosper, and undeniably many other phones do many of the same things.
(voice-over): But the iPhone remains iconic, one of the most popular ways for us to capture and share popes, presidents, puppies, preschoolers, private moments and public amazements, whatever is at hand or foot, no matter what the New Year brings.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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ANDERSON: Wherever and however you are watching CNN NEWSROOM, thank you for doing so. I'm Becky Anderson.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell.
Happy New Year to you, Becky.
And to our viewers around the world, I'll be back after the break with your world headlines, next. You're watching CNN, the world's news leader.
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